June Happenings

June is the middle of winter here.  It is weird not to be doing "summer" stuff.  I don't like that the days are shorter, but I do appreciate the warm, bright sun.

Justin looking at the frosting on his knife.  We decorated star cookies with yellow frosting and sprinkles to celebrate him being able to read 100 words from the Dolch Word List.

Ryan couldn't read the words, but he got to decorate a cookie too.  He knows his alphabet, so I guess that should count.

We made Flubber.

The verdict was that Flubber wasn't as much fun as play-doh.

Our chain to count down the days until we go to the US to visit family.  Justin helped me staple the chain pattern. Ryan was excited that the chain made an "M" for Mommy.

Ryan with a rabbit at the petting zoo.

One of our favorite playgrounds here.  Now you see why we are so excited to go to the US to visit.  I wouldn't let them play on something like this there.  Here, despite missing bolts, broken boards, etc., it is a real gem.

The boys are using monkey finger puppets to play Angry Monkeys.  Very similar to the Angry Birds game, but they do much better with their version than they do on the ipod.

An obstacle course for the monkeys.  It includes sballs with spikes, giant spiders, fence with spikes, and several other challenges.  Justin loves to take ideas from videos or games and make them his own.

The boys made this for Rob for Father's Day.  Wooden box from JoAnns plus tissue paper and glue equals a box for Daddy to put his keys in at work.  Ryan did the lid and Justin did the rest of the box.

Since it is winter here, we read the book The Mitten by Jan Brett.  We laced a paper mitten and put the animals inside it to retell the story.

Here are Justin's animals and part of his mitten.  He chose a pink mitten since pink is still his favorite color.

I laid out clothes for the boys to wear, but they got the wrong piles.  Two years apart and they still get their clothes confused.

Fathers Day 2011

Justin playing on the wii with Nickelodeon wii fit game.

Ryan LOVES typing on the computer.  He likes hearing each letter name as he hits it on the keyboard.  He also really enjoys the alphabet part of starfall.com.

Justin uses a picture dictionary I made with my kindergarten class.  It saves me from having to spell the same words for him over and over as he types them in.

Justin wanted to pretend it was winter and have some hot chocolate.  I told him that it was winter. Just because it isn't snowing and we aren't wearing coats doesn't mean it isn't winter.

Justin likes his hot chocolate to 'warm down' a little bit so it is cold.

We played a game with instruments.  We laid several out on the floor.  Two of us would cover our heads with a blanket while the third person would play one of the instruments.  The blanket would come off and they would have to guess which instrument they heard.

I made an overlay for the intellikeys so Ryan and Justin could retell the story of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by typing simple sentences on the computer and hearing them read back.

We missed a couple of weeks of swimming lessons because the heat pump was broken and they had trouble getting it fixed and back up to temp. Once that problem was solved, we started making up lessons, meaning three times a week instead of only two!

Justin is getting better about getting out of the pool on his own.  It took him a long time to learn.

Week of November 1 through 5

Wasn't feeling well this week, so we had really flexible school.  We did calendar activities, read some books, and did a lot of coloring instead of more involved projects.  In addition to Thanksgiving books we have been doing some books that are songs familiar to Ryan and variations on those songs.  We also got a few more Halloween books in the mail, so even though it is November, we read them.  Justin thought Goodnight, Goon! was very funny.  Ryan enjoyed The Seals on the Bus and The Spooky Wheels on the Bus.  How can you go wrong with that song, no matter what you put into it?



No, I have NO idea why this picture is sideways.  It isn't on my picture viewer or my camera.  Sigh.



Justin made a thank you letter saying what he liked best about the Halloween party.  He made his J backwards, but when I asked him about it, he told me that I still knew it was a J even if it was backwards. 

This week we celebrated 100 consecutive days without a day or night toileting accident.  Here is Justin's take on a 100 chart.  We talked about the number 100 and made party hats and special cupcakes. :)

Justin was excited to show me that he can write just like I can.  He showed me the two words he wrote outside using sidewalk chalk.

We also made a "Where Am I?" farm book.  Mostly coloring, but Justin enjoyed reading it too.

We have started a chain of things we are thankful for.  Each day we write something we are thankful for on a link and add it to the chain.  I saw a really cute project of someone adding feathers to a turkey.  That would be fun, but our chain is started and easier. 

I think next week might be a bit slow too.  I am still miserable with this cold and if I can keep the kids occupied doing something besides school, I think I will take advantage of it.  We do need to visit the petting zoo turkeys though!

Paper Chain Countdown!

Since Rob was going to be gone for two weeks, I thought it might be a nice idea to make a paper chain and use it as a visual countdown.  Ryan is too young to understand, but I thought Justin would like it and it might help me see that time was indeed passing as well.  We cut the paper and made a pattern with the links.   There were some extra pieces, so I made Ryan a little chain so he would leave the real one alone.  Justin told me that he wanted another one too.  I took the remainder of the pieces and made him a short chain. 
We counted the days that Daddy would be gone.  Justin, always thinking, had an idea.  He wanted to use HIS chain instead of the long one.  That way Daddy could come home sooner.  Maybe we should have just stuck with marking it on the calendar.  We have been using calendars with Justin for some time now.  He seems to get that concept and views it as the authority as to what will happen and when.  Oh well.  I am enjoying watching the chain get shorter and shorter, though it is not happening fast enough!
This isn't the best picture, but here is the chain hanging along side of Justin's current reading chart.  We color in every 5th book a different color so we can practice counting by 5s.  He got 10s down easily, but 5s are a bit harder.  We have a song that goes with it and that seems to help make it easier.  I like the visual on the bookchart as a subtle reinforcer.  It is his reading chart, with an extra little teaching moment snuck in there.  My poor child.