Friday, September 27, 2013

Family Fun Day at the Zoo

We were so excited that Mark was able to take a day off from work. We enjoyed a family fun day at the zoo! We love the zoo and have an annual pass that we use very often!  It's probably our favorite place to go in Miami! Here's some pics from our day.

Jadyn has to get a picture by this elephant every trip to the zoo! =)
Hanging out with the snake.
This girl loves to pose!
Gabey-jaguar
Jadyn and Gabe check out the alligators.
Mj and Mark looking for lizards.
Job loved the fish tank with fish from the Amazon.
The kids brought their own money to buy some souvenirs.
Job and I having fun watching the otters.
Racing leaves and getting wet - nothing better!
Jadyn - the cutest cockroach you'll ever see.
Cooling off at the splash pad.  Job loves the splash pad!
Jadyn & Mj trying to see how high the water can shoot into the sky.
Gabe takes a break.
Job making his way through the fountains.
Happy!!!
Those are some adorable cheetahs!
We got to see the new baby gibbon nursing. What a good momma gibbon!
So thankful for fun memories to make as a family!

Weekly Wrap Up - Wright Brothers, Thinking Hats, and Baby Gibbons

Hard to believe another week has come and gone.  We just finished our 5th week of school and the kids are doing great.  Here's what we did this week.
 
 
MJ - 5th Grade
 
Bible: Mj is enjoying going through the book "Who is God? And Can I Really Know Him?"  He is still on the truth chapter and it's been great cause we've been talking a lot about what he's learning in Bible in his science lessons, too.  Mj learned a magic trick in Bible.  The lesson he learned from the magic trick is you can't always believe what you see.
Trying out his magic trick on Jadyn.
Her face is priceless!!!  She was amazed!
 
English: Mj reviewed nouns - common/proper nouns, singular/plural nouns, nouns as subjects, and nouns as objects of the prepositions
 
Making nouns plural.

 
Math: Mj did lots of multiplication this week - 2-digit and 3-digit multipliers and, of course, word problems.  He also learned about factors and multiples and prime factorization.
 
Reading: Mj read some stories about puppets.
Mj had to follow directions and make an origami frog that jumped.
Science: Mj has been enjoying this chapter on dinosaurs. We talked about dinosaur fossils and what paleontologists do.  We talked about the Flood, dinosaur extinction, and about dinosaurs we know about.  It was pretty cool!
Doing some grid drawing of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. 
History: We finished our chapter on the Wright brothers.  Mj was amazed by their determination.  When everyone said they couldn't do it; they did it!  It's really amazing - go check out some books about the Wright brothers.  Very interesting.
Mj made the Wright brothers Flyer out of Legos.
An up close look at the Flyer
Orville was even flying it.
Jadyn - Kindergarten
Bible: Jadyn has been learning along with Mj about truth this week.  She also has enjoyed What's in the Bible? volume 4 - Joshua, Judges, and Ruth
Coloring some What's in the Bible? coloring pages while they watch the DVD.
Beginnings: Jadyn learned about health care workers this week.
Jadyn loved this tooth paste and tooth brush puzzle to glue together. Thank you 1+1+1=1!
Enjoying a teeth snack - apples, peanut butter, and marshmallows.
We also talked about the importance of washing our hands well.  The glitter represented germs.
Scrub, scrub, scrub...
No more germs!
We also talked about healthy food.  She enjoyed drawing a picture of her favorite food - mac-n-cheese with hot dogs.  OK, maybe it's not the healthiest thing to eat, but she loves my homemade mac-n-cheese! ;)
Phonics: Jadyn works so hard!  I'm so proud of what she accomplished this week.  This is definitely her area of struggle, and I'm learning how to best help her.
The one day she was very frustrated, so I made her wear a thinking hat.  It's amazing how that hat helped her read so much better! ;)
A little game of clue - which of these words is a bird?
Matching uppercase and lowercase buddies.
 
Extra: Jadyn loves her calendar notebook time.  Her favorite part is the daily drawing.
She loves Angry Birds.

 
 Gabe - Totschool
Gabe was not really into school this week.  So we did what he wanted to do and he enjoyed a fun week of playing - which is the best part of being a 3 year old boy! =)
 
He did actually sit down and do his calendar notebook with us one day.


Coloring a letter E paper.
This is how my living room looked most days.  The castle out and all the bad guys driving around in dump trucks, trains, and Noah's ark!
 
Job - Teeny Tot
Well, this cutie loves to find where I hide my phone.
Job's new favorite activity - sitting in the bin to play with his toys.
Interruptions: On Wednesday, we woke up to a huge puddle in our front yard and water pouring from our sidewalk. The kids enjoyed watching the birds come and take baths in all the water.
Throughout the morning, the kids would take breaks and watch the trucks and excavators and men working on the water line.

Family Fun: Mark was able to take today off so we enjoyed some learning at the zoo!
 
The kids love having their dad along for field trips!
A little lesson on how to make plastic animal souvenirs. My dad used to make plastic molding parts for a living so I know lots about it from working for him.
Cooling off at the splash pad.
We got to see this mommy gibbon nursing her sweet new baby.  The kids were so excited to see the baby.

 
I enjoy blogging about my week to help me just see how God has helped us through the week and to see what we have actually accomplished!  It's a great way to encourage myself and let me know that I am doing alright! =)



Saturday, September 21, 2013

Weekly Wrap Up - Dinosaurs, Fossils & Post Office

Not gonna lie, it was a rough week.  The "funness" of school has worn off, my patience was thin, and my toddler and teeny tot were not as cooperative when I needed to work with the older ones, but we still managed to learn some new things, have some fun, and keep our sanity! ;)  Here's our week.

MJ - 5th Grade

Bible: I think the day the kids all loved the best in Bible was the day I laid out ingredients to make brownies.  I said we would check back in the afternoon to see if the brownies had made themselves.  Of course, they hadn't so we had to make the brownies.  We talked about how crazy that is to think that brownies could make themselves and how silly it is to think the world just had a big bang and was made.  We talked about the truth the God has told us about creation. And we enjoyed some yummy brownies!
Making an assembly line to put in our ingredients for our brownies (we combined our history lesson with our Bible lesson- gotta love when those things happen).
Brownies and milk - a yummy Bible lesson.
Mj has been enjoying his missionary biography about Nate Saint.
English: Mj wrote a comparison-contrast essay about Legos and Mega Bloks.

Math: Mj reviewed multiplication of larger numbers and we discussed the distributive property.

History: Mj learned about the beginnings of aeronautics.  He learned about the Wright brothers and I was glad that he remembered our trip to Kitty Hawk 2 years ago.
Throwing a little science in there about how an airplane can fly.

Science: We started our chapter on fossils.  Mj loves it!
Doing some research on evolution vs creation.
Making a mold
Making a cast with the help of his brother and sister.
Extra:
Working on his calendar notebook - state of the day page.
Jadyn - Kindergarten

Beginnings: We studied the post office this week. Jadyn could not believe that mail is put on a plane and sent to people.
We sent a package to a soldier over seas.
 Phonics: I am so proud of Jadyn.  Reading and phonics are a real struggle for her, but she has worked very hard this week and has gotten faster at reading her review word families and service words.
Jadyn loves to have Hopper splash into the pond after she says all her service words.
Which letter begins the words I say?  She loves this game.
The Ipad is a great help for phonics practice, too.
Math: Jadyn reviewed numbers 1-5 and learned ordinal numbers.
Working hard on her math paper with the help of Mr. Elephant.
Working on ordinal numbers with the help of Farmer Brown and his chicks.
Using dominoes for dot pattern practice.
Extra:
I caught this cuteness one day.  Jadyn loves to "read" to her baby brother.
Jadyn was proud of the picture she made with our Blokus game.
Practicing piano and singing along.
We took a break from school on Thursday to get some free Krispy Kreme donuts on Talk like a Pirate Day.
I love Jadyn's creativity.  She used a couple happy meal boxes to make a castle. A great way to recycle, too! =)
I got a late start one morning this week, but was pleasantly surprised to find Mj helping Jadyn work on her calendar notebook.  Sometimes they surprise me!
Tower Building is great learning fun, too!
Gabe - Totschool
D is for Dinosaur!
Sorting dinosaurs by size.
Jadyn and Gabe loved the D is for Dinosaur craft.
Gabe liked my choice of books in his quiet bin this week.
The letter magnets were a hit in his quiet bin.
We also talked about the number 4.  He loved the frog paper with the 4 phases of a frogs life on it.
Gabe took a break from his castle this week and played with the construction set.
Gabe is not a big puzzle fan so I was pretty excited when he actually pulled out the transportation puzzle and did it.
Job - Teeny Tot
Balls are always a great way to have fun while mommy works with the older kids.
 
Shape sorting in a bin - the only cool way to play!
I noticed Job pulled all the zebras out of the ark. I was so impressed!
 
Playing with alphabet links.
Such cuteness  - melts my heart!
He thinks it's hilarious to steal the markers from the kids' cubbies.
He isn't perfect all days. Some days he just wants my undivided attention.

 
Fun Together: We had fun doing an art project together.
 
Stamping with black paint and toilet paper tubes.



After the black paint dried, they painted in the circles.


Gabe's finished project.
Jadyn's beautiful artwork.
Mj's artwork!
 

 
It always helps me to blog about my week.  I thought it was an awful week, but looking back it really wasn't as bad as I thought it was.=)
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