School Days

I just thought that I would post some random pictures of the boys doing some school!  I don't really have anything to say, so  . . . 

Drew and Dalton are doing their math lessons.  We are still loving Saxon for Dalton and Teaching Textbooks for Drew!  The one change has seriously changed our homeschooling days for the better.

Dalton was practicing making a tessellation in math.  I remember doing this in school and I did not find it an enjoyable activity.  He liked it more than I did when I was in school.  Of course, I think he really enjoyed the break from long division!  :-)

Hayden was working on making a tapestry.

We got the scale out in math.  He loved estimating weights and then actually seeing how many tiles the objects weighed.  I seriously think he could have done this forever.

Little Bit of This. . . Little Bit of That

So, obviously we have been super busy over the last few weeks.  Hence, the no posting.  I am not even going to attempt to catch up!  Ha!  I am just going to post some pictures of what we have been up to and then hopefully I can get back to a more regular schedule.  Not making any promises though!  

Our homeschool group took a fieldtrip to our neighborhood Publix.  My boys weren't exactly excited about going.  I mean, they don't love our trips to the grocery store.  However, they were so glad that we went.  They had a lot of fun going behind the scenes (and especially in the big refrigerator)!  Here they are getting to touch the lobster.

Watching the machine mash down all of the boxes.

Celebrate!  Celebrate!  Hayden lost his first tooth last month!  He had been wanting to have loose tooth for FOREVER!  Finally, it was his turn to lose a tooth.  He was beyond thrilled! 

We started reading a book called Science in Colonial America.  The boys are really enjoying it.  We discussed how there was very little soap or warm water in colonial days.  We did a fun little experiment with glitter.  (Oh, how I normally hate glitter but this was great because you immediately wash it off!)  We put lotion on our hands and then added our germs (glitter).  We tried wiping the germs off with a dry paper towel, plain cold water, and finally soap and warm water.   Silly Hayden . . . 

Here is another answer to the always famous "What do your kids do when they aren't doing school?" question.  Why, they build forts, of course.

We were so excited when we got our special visitor in the mail one Friday afternoon.  One of Hayden's friends from back in Alabama sent us Flat Stanley.

 We took Flat Stanley snorkeling in the ocean.  He actually went all the way to the bottom.  About 3 minutes after this picture was taken a huge manatee went swimming by.  Wow!  Couldn't get my camera out.  Geez!

Drew and Daddy

MiMi came to visit us for the weekend and we had so much fun!

MiMi brought the boys' cousin, Matt, with her for the weekend.  These boys had a lot of fun playing together!

It is impossible to get a good picture of four boys!  Ha!  I think this was their mean face picture. 

Weekly Wrap Up: Finally. . .

I didn't think that I was ever going to get this post done!  Last week, well, I don't even remember why I didn't get around to it, but I didn't.  Geez.  This past Friday, I was looking through pictures and getting ready to write my blog post when the power went out.  By the time it came back on, I had aborted blogging and moved on to pinterest inspired ideas! :-)

Here are some more pictures of my big boys playing football.  They just look so grown. And after a game, they smell so grown (that is not a good thing).  Who knew that nine year old boys could smell so incredibly bad!  I don't even want to imagine what it will be like in the years to come.  I am going to have to have Scentsy stuff all over this house!

This, my non football loving friends, is how you wrap somebody up and bring them down!

This is one serious looking defensive line.  I would get out of their way!

 Try all you want, but it looks like Dalton is busting through!

You can tell Drew is working hard to protect his quarterback from this big ole boy!

The boys started their homeschool PE class.  It is called Saints and the boys ABSOLUTELY love it!  We go every Wednesday from 1:00 to 4:00.  They have been playing kickball, archery, frisbee, and some other game that I remember playing in p.e. but I can't remember what it is called.  Ha!  This mama also loves it because I get a nice little break.  I have gone to Michaels (um, more pinterest), Costco, and Whole Foods - all with no kids in the middle of the day!  Oh, happy joy!  I also ran around the park last week (side note - I got bit on the wrist by a German Shepard while running last Monday evening.  It broke the skin in a few places but mostly just bruised it up real good.  It is still purple and blue.) Sooooo. . . .You can imagine why I enjoyed running around a dog free park.  Although, it was awfully hot in South Florida at 1:00 in the afternoon!  I have met some really sweet moms here that I enjoy sitting around with and socializing.  This program is a great thing for boys and mom!

We did school this week, but I didn't take many pictures.  Not sure why.  We are still really enjoying Heart of Dakota.  I am loving the boys doing dictation.  Why oh why have we not been doing this before?  You live and learn, I guess.

These pictures were a little experiment on what causes the seashore to change over time.  Dalton is being the wind.  (I was a little worried that we might have hurricane force winds and end up with sugar all over the kitchen, but he kept it under control.)

Drew is being the rain. 

 I don't have a picture, but little man was the waves.  We put water in the opposite end of the pan and made waves.  You can imagine why my oversight was more than needed and I wasn't able to take pictures.  Let's just say that we might not have had hurricane force winds, but we definitely had waves associated with a hurricane. :-)

We also got to visit Playmobil for a birthday party this past weekend.  The boys had a lot of fun! (And I didn't have to pick up any pieces! LOVE!)

Hopefully, I will have a Weekly Wrap Up this week, but I am not making any promises!  Haha!

Weekly Wrap Up: The One that Almost Didn't Happen

You might be wondering what in the world could keep me from doing my Weekly Wrap Up post?!?!?!?!  Well, let me just tell you - Pinterest.  That is what.  I have a problem.  I will admit it.  I am truly addicted.  There I said it.  However, I was able to pull myself away long enough to prove that we did actually did school this week!  WooHoo!  Go us!

Anyway. . . In History, the older boys finished up Columbus and moved on to John Cabot.  We added his two voyages from England to North America onto our map that we started last week.  Little Man covered Adam and Eve, the fall, the flood, and the tower of Babel.  I mean, he covered quite a bit of time! 

Dalton and Drew are still reading their biography of choice.  Both of them chose a book about Michael Jordan.  They are loving it and so is their dad.  He was a huge Michael Jordan fan when he was younger and so the kids enjoy telling him things that they have learned from their book.  It may not be George Washington or Louis Braille but at least they are reading a biography (that was the assignment) and (gasp) enjoying it!

We had a few moments of peacefulness with everyone working at the table together and not throwing punches  minding their own business.  Here's the proof:

 The bigger boys enjoyed experimenting with different types of bird "beaks."  They quickly discovered that each beak is designed to do specific things.  It really is not that easy to pick up a piece of oatmeal or a frosted flake with regular pliers.  Really it's not.  And, I realized that we could really use some new tweezers, but that is beside the point.

Little man worked on an art project that had us coloring our entire sheet of paper with bright colors.  (Yes, us!  Who said adults can't join in on the art fun?!) Then we colored over it with a black crayon.  We were supposed to be able to scrape the black crayon off to leave a brightly colored design showing through.  "Supposed to" being very key words here.  It didn't exactly work out as planned, but fun nonetheless.  

Don't ask me why, but this kid loves doing his sight words.  He hates phonics.  He would much rather just learn to read with the whole language approach.  I make him do phonics anyway.  Mean, mean mommy.

 I mentioned in this post that I was going to be switching one of the big boys to Teaching Textbooks.  Well, we started this week and we are so, so, so, so much happier.  He is - I am - We all are!  I hope it stays that way!  Dalton is doing his Saxon and Drew has his Teaching Textbooks!

We ended our week with another fun science experiment.  The boys had to guess hypothesize about whether or not salt in the water had an effect on flotation.  One said things float better in fresh water, one said salt water, and little man said it didn't matter.  So, we filled a cup with fresh water.  Filled another cup with fresh water and added 4 tbsp of salt.  (There was salt everywhere!)

 Then we put our egg in the fresh water . . . 

 It sank (sunk?  We aren't there yet in grammar - haha!).  So we put our egg in the salt water. . . 

It floated!  WooHoo!  Conclusion:  Seawater contains salt, which makes it more dense.  This helps animals float better.

Another highlight for this week was getting together with our Boys Only playgroup!  My kids had a great time and mama enjoyed the adult conversation! 

Don't forget to head on over to Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers to see what everyone else has been doing lately.  Also let me know what y'all have been up to this week!? 

Football is in the Air

Fall is my absolute favorite time of year for many many reasons.  

One of which being FOOTBALL!!!!  I love it and so do my boys!!  My older boys are playing for the Acreage Athletic League and are both on the Washington Redskins.  They had their first game last Saturday and did a great job!  They had so much fun even though it was hot as all get out!  We were winning (6-0), but we had to stop playing because of some lightning.  Drew plays on the offensive line and Dalton plays on both offense and defense.  

I took some pictures of their first game.  Not many though because I somehow ended up being a "water girl." Let me tell you something. . . .that was a hot job.  Running on and off the field, refilling water bottles - Geez, I can only imagine how it felt in all those pads!  By the second half, the older brothers had taken over the water duties - Thank you, Jesus!  They didn't get their uniforms in for the first game so the boys had to wear their practice uniforms.  Hopefully, I will get some pictures of them in their new uniforms soon!

 Cheering on the older Redskins team before our game starts.  

Two really good looking Redskins fans!  :-)

 Getting ready to line up.  They better be scared of those Strickland boys coming after them!

Dalton is looking pretty determined!

Man, I love fall!  Now, just waiting for some Alabama football!!!  Roll Tide Roll!!