A longer version of yesterday's post

When I blog about this day, don't think that everyday goes as smoothly or as perfectly.  This was a good day.  It began well, and ended well.  I think a huge affecting factor in that is the fact that everyone in the house slept well.  Sleep is the basis of our life these days it seems.  Anyway, this is MY "perfect" school day. 

I have a box for Z and C that I keep with our school stuff.  It has a combination of learning and sensory activities that I can rotate while I am teaching the big kids.  I can put both boys at the table, and keep them contained and entertained for a while this way. 

N checked this book out at the library.  We looked through it together the other night, and it has some great recipes, and some great cooking tips for kids too.  (and adults that are cooking challenged like me!)

While I was working with N, I looked up and noticed that L had taken initiative to work with the babies.  What a blessing!  She entertained them so I could give attention to my chef.  About the time she was tired, I was able to take over.  She has been taking a lot of initiative to do extra things lately, and I am so proud of her.  She has always been my child that I had to really push to get her to do anything, so noticing when she does things without being told is such a treat!

 He really is becoming a great cook.  He made this omlet as if he'd been making omlets forever.  Great job!

 Sister thought his omlet was yummy, and even talked picky eater big sis into trying and liking it. 

 After a little schoolwork, I pulled out shaving cream for a sensory activity.  Little C wasn't sure what to think at first, but by the end, he was smearing it all over himself just like everyone else.

 This is apparently an entertaining activity for all ages!!

I loved L's heart person!

Another thing we did, was sort out all our schoolwork. R cleaned out her folder with her ps work.  She had a great time wadding up and throwing away her papers.  I may have sounded arrogant, or bashing of her teacher in my previous post.  I didn't mean to come across that way...she just wasn't a good fit for my daughter, and it really showed.  She had a really tough time, so I think it was theraputic for her to throw all that away.  She talked about how her teacher made her feel while she was doing it. 

 Then she set to work making a new cover for inside her folder.  This was her design of the farm she wants.  Her and her daddy dream of a farm with lots of different animals.  Oh, I hope we can have that some day.

My left handed boy doing his schoolwork, while he is eating his tasty eggs.  Multi tasking!  haha



Our home-made Pumpkins

 I found a really cute tutorial to make fabric pumpkins with toilet paper rolls inside.  It was Super easy, and the kids LOVED making these, and were so proud of the end result.   You just get a full toilet paper roll, wrap paper around it to give it a little more shape, and push the paper into the center.  Then you just get fabric and wrap it around, and tuck it into the hole.  I hardly had to cut my fabric, and there was no sewing

or gluing.  The instructions call for sticks from your yard for the stem, but we have zero trees, and it was late at night when we made these, so we just rolled up brown construction paper.

 

Noah wanted to make his more "boyish" so he did tape on his Jack-O-Lantern face. 

                                

 I excitedly told them how we could simply removed the fabric and ribbon, and it could still be used for something else later, and we could use our toilet paper later.  They were highly offended that I would think about taking apart their creations :)

I need to move things around, and get more fall decorations, but we just put them up there quickly, to keep them out of "little ones'" hands. 



apples, apples, and apples!

We have been reading the book "How to Make and Apple Pie and see the World"  and also The Apple Doll.  I bought a big bag of apples, and Saturday was out apple day.   I burned my fall candle for my inspiration :)

 I love caramel apples from the fair, but I have never made them.  This kit was by the apples, so I decided to try it, as the kids have never had caramel apples.  Next time, I will buy the package of already made caramel apples from the store.  This was a total disaster.

 This shows you how my brain works. The directions called for 8 oz of milk....so I used a baby bottle to measure the 8 oz :)  That was the only way my brain could think to do that.  (even though I think it is marked on my measuring cup)

 While the caramel was cooking, the kids all peeled their apples for the apple dolls.

 Then we carved faces on them,

and soaked them in a bowl of lemon juice for 30 mins.  Now they have to dry for about a week, I will show you the dolls when we finish them.

 L found this project from her library book, so she was really excited to make these.

 This is all you will see of my caramel apples!  I didn't have a candy thermometer, so I had to guess at the temp, and I am horrible at that, so the caramel got so hard, it could have broken teeth.  N loved them and licked them like suckers, and ate 2, I don't know how he did that!

 We were also going to make an apple pie, and I was going to teach the kids how to make the crust from scratch, but I decided that would have to be for another day.  After the caramel disaster, and nearly ruining my best broiler pot (I had to soak it with soda for 3 days to get it all out), I decided to quit, before there was more disasters!  haha 



Art Project/Rainforest, drawing a Toucan

We are currently working on a lapbook on the Rainforest.  It wasn't really planned.  First I found a book on the Rainforest, N read it and enjoyed it.  Then, I found this awesome art dvd at the library about drawing Rainforest animals.  N found a project book about making Rainforest animals.  Then, L came to me and said she would like to do a lapbook on Rainforests, and I decided it would be a great time with all this wealth of info coming at me, I usually pick our unit first, but this time all our resources picked the unit.  I looked it up at our free source that we use, and it goes along with the book The Great Kapok Tree.  L got really excited b/c her teacher had read it to her last year. 

So, that is what we are working on this week.  Today we did a lesson from the art DVD on how to draw a Toucan.  We did it with pastels, it was so much fun.

 My classroom/class

 We just gave him paper and crayons....and then once he started trying to tear sissy's paper and throw crayons at her head, I remember it was his naptime (it really was :)  I do like to include him though so he can begin learning how to work with us.

 Do you see that silly boy in the background...I think he thought I was taking his picture!

 So I had to get in for a closer look :)

 I even drew with them...that was so fun, and very relaxing to just draw right along with them and enjoy it.



Mixing paint, watercolor and acrylic

On this day, we did a lesson on the color wheel, and mixing paint.  We started with acrylic paints, and then went on to watercolor.  We have the watercolor crayons where you color, and then paint over it with water...I like them much better than when I used to use watercolor paints in art.  I alway enjoy sitting down and painting with them when we use those.