Weekly Wrap-Up

Wrappin' up the week - well, actually I'm catching up from the past few weeks...

here are some of our activities from

our daily lives, homeschool and "preschool corner."

Our BIG fun news is that we took a family ice skating lesson. It was fun. Difficult! The instructor was very nice and patient, very good with the kids. First, they were in really excited moods, which turned into a whiny "I can't do it!" moods as soon as their skates touched the ice, but they loosened up after awhile and started feeling proud of their improvements. (We also roller skated for a bit since it's included in the price. This was their first time roller skating, as well.) We're going to continue taking lessons. Just for fun. And to prepare for our upcoming vacation.

After ice skating that day, we went to visit my sister Tracy who was moving into her new apartment.

Ryan took the kids and the dogs hiking one day at Woolly Hollow State Park. Our week seems to go much smoother if I can have a few uninterrupted hours over the weekend to get caught up.

lots of computer playing going on, as usual

There is always a puzzle in progress lately, too. Tornado has moved on to 550-1,000 piece puzzles. It has been a nice, relaxing activity for the two of us to do together. (He also really enjoyed working on his puzzle when Grandpa and Nona were here visiting.)

And here are some of their workbox activities:

Hot Dots Jr. - this one is for Beginning Phonics. When the pen touches the right answer, the light turns green, and there is a congratulatory response like "Good job!" If it is incorrect, it says something like "No, try again."

They painted with the sponges that came out of their bug sponge capsules (the kind you soak in water). It's a fun use for the sponges before you throw them away. I got this idea from someone else at Tot School or Preschool Corner (can't remember who!). Sissy wanted to change her dress immediately because she'd gotten a little paint on it.

workbooks

from our Cutting Activities book

lacing animals

Ryan has been sitting the kids on the barstools and leading them in bible story lessons/activities before bedtime.

Sissy was working on putting together her puzzles. (Big improvement this week: she didn't get frustrated and insist she couldn't do it. Yay!) Dash is working on making a gel cling. You squirt these paints on nonstick material (We used parchment paper because we misplaced the sheet that came with it.), and then peel it off when it dries.

Though he started out making a "face," this was the finished product, clinging to the window. He has also had great fun the past few days putting it on the floor, then suddenly declaring, "Look! Throw up!" He only fooled me the first time because you know, it's not out of the question that there could be throw up on the floor in the home of 3 kids and 2 dogs. I appreciated the humor in his follow-up attempts to fool us, though.

Dash started writing in a journal this week. He told me what to write, then he copied it below. After watching Zooboomafoo, he wrote about what he learned. It was all about how high cougars can jump.

Last night, Midnight Madness was streaming live on the computer. He took the t.v. off the wall and hooked it up to the netbook. He let the boys stay up late (It started at 10:00.) to watch it with him.

This is how excited Dash was to do this: We had been grocery shopping at Whole Foods earlier, and for some reason, my kids get super excited there. (There and The Container Store - there's something about big, brightly lit places; they go nuts.) Finally, I warned him that if he didn't stop and just hold onto the shopping cart, he wasn't going to watch Midnight Madness with Daddy. He grabbed onto it and did not let go.

Eating popcorn and cheerin' on the Illini boys...they both had a lot of fun (Dash immediately wanted to know when I could sign him up on a basketball team.), snuggling with Daddy. In related news: we discovered that one of the families from Dash's soccer team are big Illini fans, too; what a fun coincidence (to my non-regular readers, we live in Arkansas!). We like it that Dash has a sweet little Illini friend.

Also linking up to Tot School!