September 2011

We got to spend the first part of the month in the US.  We got back to Namibia and the boys experienced severe jet lag!  We didn't get a lot done this month, but hopefully October will be better!

This was a great book to read BEFORE and AFTER our trip to the fire station.  No, I don't know why blogger insists on rotating this image this way.  It is not this way in any other viewer.  Go figure.

These were some fun fire related books as well.

Justin and Ryan made these fun little fire trucks, complete with ladders that move up and down.

How cool is it to try on a helmet? 

Evidently the helmet is not as scary as the fire pole.  Justin and Ryan both chickened out of the chance to go down the fire pole.  Justin went last year, but claimed it was scarier this year.

Getting out of the truck after a fun ride in the fire truck, complete with lights and siren!

Before the fire truck ride the boys got to spray one of the hoses.  They have some pretty good water pressure!  A fire fighter assisted them so that the water didn't get too out of control.  I don't have pictures because I was trying not to get too close.  The water sometimes strayed a bit...

Justin has become a lean, mean reading machine.  When I showed him the October book order, he chose over $100 worth of books.  I told him he could only have $23.  (I figured with $23 I could fudge a bit with the numbers if needed without him noticing.)  I put each book he wanted on a piece of paper along with the cost and a face rating to indicate how close to his reading level it was.  He was able to make his choices without whining. :)

We planted some things out back and labeled them.  We will see what grows.  (Again with the sideways picture, hmmm)

Justin and Ryan had a lot of fun with rubber stamps, scissors, and glue.  Here is one of Justin's creations.  This picture is

We did some Johnny Appleseed stuff this month.

Some of Justin's favorite books to read this month.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Today when I greeted the boys with “good morning” I was informed by Justin that you only do that at a real school and we only have a pretend school. Noted. We did the calendar/morning meeting routine. Today I have included a picture of the days of the week cards I use with the boys.

We did our letter A poem. Ryan’s finished product is pictured.

 We also made apple crisp. Yum! It took a very long time to make such a simple recipe. Justin and Ryan both LOVE to have their turns, so we measure things out in small measuring cups so each boy gets multiple chances to dump things into the bowl.


After doing his letter dot project, Justin set out making what he called his ant traps. He made dots over pieces of paper and then cut them up into various sizes. Sometimes he would cut straight lines, sometimes he would cut around the dots, and other times he would cut dots in half. He tried explaining the logic to me, but I didn’t get it.

I got out my color cards (I think this was the first thing I ever posted) and Justin sorted by color while Ryan decided that today all items were yellow. Oh well.

We had some more Halloween themed books today as well as an apple tree rhyme.

This afternoon we got to go to the fire station.  Justin got to slide down the fire pole.  Ryan begged for a turn, but I didn’t give in.  We all got to go on a ride in the fire truck with the sirens on.  Pretty cool!  Don’t think I can top that for tomorrow.