St. Patrick's Day 2015

Time for another holiday celebration!!  We are not Irish, but any excuse to have a fun party day and I will take it.  This is the first year we have done much with St. Patrick's Day.  We had so much fun and we were SOOOO close to catching a Leprechaun!

 We read this book to learn a little about the holiday. There was so much I didn't know about St. Patrick. Interesting how the holiday has been turned into such a big party day from the original meaning of the holiday. 

The boys made a leprechaun trap the day before.  Britton was very nervous about what would happen if we did catch a leprechaun.  He said he was just going to stay upstairs if we caught that "little guy". 

 Looks like we might have caught something...

 The leprechaun left lucky pennies and shamrock stickers.

 He also left a bowl of gold (Chocolate coins) , rainbows (skittles) & clouds  (marshmallows)

 The boys just woke up and ready to see what they caught

 What is it?

The Leprechaun tricked us!

 Britton did some St. Patrick's Day graphing

The boys each wrote what they would wish for if we caught a leprechaun. 

For Tea on Tuesday we read a book about Ireland.  Then we read a St. Patrick's Day Limerick and learned how to write them.  We also had a green theme snack, Shamrock shakes and mint brownies.

Here are the Limericks the boys wrote:

The Gnarly Leprechaun
There once was a leprechaun called Marley
He liked to ride his Harley
So he rode all day
And he liked to play
That Leprechaun was pretty gnarly!
                                          Greyson Roth

The Strange Wizard
I once met a wizard from Mars
He liked to watch the stars
But whenever he sneezed
He fell to his knees
That strange wizard from Mars.
                                            Lincoln Roth

 We had a green and rainbow themed lunch. Rainbow salad & goldfish and the rest was green.

And and Irish dinner: Potato Soup and Sausage Rolls

We had a great time celebrating St. Patrick's Day.  How did you celebrate?

Week in Review: Week 25 March 2-8

I took almost no pictures the entire week.  I was dealing with 3 sick boys that only seemed to get sick in the middle of the night.  I had very little sleep all week long, but thankfully by Thursday evening all 3 boys seemed much better.  We did manage to sneak in a little fun in our otherwise very boring week.  The boys had to miss every one of their after school activities and co-op this week and I had to cancel 3 of my nights tutoring.  Thankfully, our week ended on a very good note and we got to enjoy another wonderful thunderstorm this week.  We really miss the rain during the dry season!

Theme: Dr. Seuss week: Part 1

I had all of these really fun activities planned for Dr. Seuss week, but most of them got pushed aside when the boys got sick.  We did read "Bartholomew and the oobleck" and made oobleck.  This is my boys very favorite sensory activity.  They could play with this stuff forever.  After they played with the oobleck, they had to fill out a worksheet and describe oobleck.   They also had "oobleck" for a snack. We read a couple other Dr. Seuss books this week, but didn't do any of the projects I had to go along with them.  We will just be extending Dr. Seuss week to next week.

                                                                  Oobleck snack


Tea on Tuesday

Since it is Dr. Seuss week, we read "Hop on Pop" and discussed rhyming words.  We talked about how Dr. Seuss would make up words for many of his books. The boys had to write a short story about something they would like to hop on and fill it with rhyming words.  We also had hop on popcorn and truffula tree donuts for snacks.  We also made popcorn kernels dance to go along with our  book.

100 Books: Winnie-the-Pooh

My older boys were not at all excited about this book.  They were complaining that it was too babyish and that they would not like this story at all.  We first read a biography on A.A. Milne to get a little background on why this story was written.  Once the boys realized this was not the Disney version on Pooh, they were a little more willing to listen to the book. By the end of the story, all 3 boys really enjoyed this book.  It had them laughing in many places and completely kept their attention.  I am so glad they gave it a try.

Britton's Birthday Party

I am only going to give a little sneak peek of Britton's party, but I am happy to report that we were able to celebrate his party this past weekend with all of his friends.  He had a Jake and the Neverland Pirates party, so it was all things pirates and fairies.  Lots of fun, friends, food, and laughs made for a really great day for Britton.  Look for the party details in the next post!

That was our week.  Pretty uneventful and hoping we can get back into our normal routine next week.

  

Lessons from my 5 year old

Two weekends ago, we were all set up and ready for my 5 year old's Jake and the Neverland Pirate party.  He was so excited to be celebrating his birthday with his friends.  I had to actually print off a calendar at the beginning of the month for him to put stickers on every day because he would ask multiple times EVERY.DAY when his party was.  This boy was excited!!

I spent the whole day before the party getting ready.  Cleaning, making food & cupcakes and decorating the house.  I just had to frost the cupcake the next morning.

At 6 am, the morning of the party, my 7 year old woke up with a stomach bug,  I thought at first he just ate something that upset his stomach, but after being sick most of the early morning, I knew we had to call off the party. I was disappointed and really did not want to let Britton know that his party was going to have to be re-scheduled.

I pulled Britton on my lap and explained to him that we were going to have to cancel his party fully expecting disappointment and possibly tears.  Britton chose to surprise by responding, "That's ok. Maybe all my friends can come now."  What?! I was shocked. Britton knew that  a few of his friends were not able to come to his party due to commitments and also being sick and he was excited that they all might be able to come.   And you know what? Every friend ended up coming to his re-scheduled party!

I love how Britton decided to look at the positive instead of letting his whole day or week being ruined by something that was completely out of his control.  He told me many times during the following week that he was glad his party had to be changed because he was so happy all of his friends could be there with him.  

I wish I could be more like Britton and realize many things are just out of my control and I can choose to make them ruin my day or I can choose find the positive in the situation.  This little guy of mine is full of surprises and has taught me some really great life lessons. So, I am going to follow Britton's lead and stop letting things out of my control alter my attitude and just try to look for the positive.   And he did end up having a really great party with his friends.

Week In Review: week 24 February 23-March 1

Theme: Three Names, Tornadoes, and Ground Water

                                               

We worked on finishing up our unit on prairie life and our FIAR story of the week, Three Names.  In the story, it mentioned that the kids have to use a hand pump to get the water from the well.  So, we read a story about ground water and discussed how we should take care of the ground water.  Each of the boys made a poster about keeping the water clean.  (I forgot to take a picture.  I did a terrible job this week.)

Then, we used our water filtration kit to see how really dirty water can be cleaned.  It is pretty amazing to think that the water we drink starts off pretty dirty.  The boys loved this activity and we were all surprised at how clean the water was in the end.

Our story also takes place in tornado alley and mentions tornadoes in the book.  We looked up where tornado alley is in America.  I always thought tornado alley was right in the center of the country, but tornado alley actually extends all the way over the northwest Ohio, where we are originally from! Maybe they have updated the map with all the crazy weather that has happened in the last couple of years.  We read a book on tornadoes and also pulled out our tornado bottle connector and made a tornado in a bottle.  The boys also made a fun tornado art project.  I loved how Greyson's turned out. The other two are still working on theirs.

100 Books: Henry Huggins

Can you believe that I have never read this story? The boys actually really liked this story.  They have been say "golly" and "swell" quite a bit this week and it has made us all laugh.  We had very mixed feelings on the ending of this book.  We were happy, but also sad.  Have you read this book?  What did you think?

                                                

We decided we have had enough of the Unfortunate Events books for now.  We started the 5th book and just couldn't get into it.  It felt like a chore to read, so we thought we should take a break for a while or maybe forever.  I am happy to just be focusing on our 100 books now.

Tea on Tuesday

We hit the jackpot this week with letters in the mail.  We got four letters in the mail and two postcards.  I love how mail has gotten my boys excited about poetry.  Before we joined this group, I could not get the boys interested in poetry at all.  The would complain and drag their feet, but now they cannot wait to see what has been sent to them.  They also get excited about writing simple poems and sending them out to the families back in the States.  This week, because it was Britton's birthday week, we sent out a Dr. Seuss birthday poem and our favorite chocolate cake recipe.  Hopefully our recipients like it!

We were also very excited that some of our tea came from the Boston Tea Company, home of the Boston Tea party.

What we are learning this week:

Greyson is still plugging away at his 4th grade Horizons Math and really doing a great job.  He is very excited that he is finally "getting" long division!

The boys have been learning about the Celts this week and we read some Celtic fairy tales.  We also watched Modern Marvels on Netflix, ep. 11 about the Barbarians.  This fit in perfectly with our lesson.

                                   

I also had the boys start a Minecraft writing page and they were so excited.  I think that was the first time they actually jumped at doing some writing.  I need to do more writings like this to get them more interested in it.

Here is a cute picture of Britton asleep in the taxi after our Co-op this week.  Anything look strange to you in this picture?

Britton's 5th Birthday!

How is my baby already 5 years old?  It just doesn't seem possible and I told him he has to stay 5 forever now!  So, we make a huge deal of birthdays in our house.  Britton started out his birthday with cake batter pancakes.  They were a huge hit and have already been requested by the other boys for their birthdays.

We headed to the mall to go ice skating with some friends.

Then had lunch at his favorite place, Carl's Jr. We also stopped to get some ice cream for dessert.

 Britton had some birthday money to spend, so he went and chose a couple gifts.

Once we got home, Britton had a couple friends over for more ice cream and an awesome dance party!

Then it was present time.

And we finished his night off with a birthday brownie.  He doesn't really like cake.  Crazy, I know!

 Britton was supposed to have a friend birthday party on Saturday, but Lincoln woke up early in the morning and was sick, so we had to cancel.  He handled it without any complaints and was pretty happy that all of his friend will be able to come to his re-scheduled party.  He is a glass-half full kid for sure.

Now, to prepare for next week.  It is that time of year that I am starting to get a little burnt out with teaching.  Time to push through.  In a few weeks we will be at the beach for a much needed holiday! Have a great week!

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