MFW K: Kangaroo/I am safe in God

87th day of school: Breakthrough! All of a sudden J5's attitude toward school (& life!) switched gears  & he's all in! :)

I cut a few foam sheets up & hole punched around the sides & set them loose to "sew" their pouches,

add a lego man,

 (See?? Look at the excitement & participation!)

 (ignore the mess in the background- hey, I'm still trying to move in here! :))

 and hop around protecting their cargo :)

Next, did you know kangaroos can travel around 30 feet in just one hop?? So we measured it out on the driveway, then measured how far we could hop,

 which, of course, was waaay short of a kangaroo's ;), so we counted how many times it takes for us to jump in a kangaroo's one jump, which for J it took 17 (he's my hopper :))

Also with a foam sheet, I cut out 2 hands which I sewed together but left the top open for a pocket. The boys each decorated a foam strip  & I drew a person on another. As we read our daily Bible story,  we put the person card into God's hands recognizing God had kept them safe (think Daniel & lions den, Joseph, Paul being shipwrecked) & then J and Z would put their strip into God's hands while we talked of their fears and prayed over them.

And, of course, we had to try our hand at drawing one :)

MFW K: Penguin/Love/Valentine's Day

It might seem odd, but Valentine's Day hasn't really been celebrated in our home until this year. C & I would rather go on a quieter date than jam into a full restaurant, we're both not huge on gift giving, & if he only shows up with flowers this one day out of the year, I'm honestly not going to be happy (coerced?). 

But remembering back to my childhood & all the fun I had making valentines for classmates & card holders to hold all the ones I received from them, I decided maybe we should broaden ourselves a bit & give the boys some culture, if you may. So I emailed all the close family & asked if they would be interested in a card exchange- & all accepted :) Mind you, when I first thought of it, it didn't occur to me how many cards that would entail...

or how many hours it takes to make unique cards... (Z6's variety)

(S2's variety)

(J5's variety)(sorry, I can't get the pic to turn?)

 Yep! By the time all 3 made close to 20 each, we were pretty sick of making cards! :/ But! It really was a good lesson on sacrifice & blessing others and then reaping the rewards later when receiving all the cards in the mail :) I'd say it was a success & learning experience all in one! :)

(The guys decorating their bags)

 So once we finally finished making cards, we turned our attention on penguins- they are amazing Fathers! They love & take care of each other so well- just like our Heavenly Father does for us :)

 So after we researched them & mapped them out, we, of course, had to do some hands-on activities :) The boys were surprised how challenging it was to walk and keep the "egg" balanced on the feet

 and for some reason they chose the RockHopper as their favorite so we had to do some hopping races, too :)

 I filled a bowl with an oversized ice cube (baggie with water frozen overnight & then peeled out) & a few regular ice cubes  & we talked of ice burgs and how cold the penguin's water is. Then I filled a bag with crisco & demonstrated how similar it is to penguin's blubber & also their feathers (repel the water). I honestly wasn't optimistic about them putting their hands in the bag (texture thing), but they (as you can see) were extremely excited & fascinated about it and played with it till the ice disappeared & my counter was a small lake :)

After all the valentines we made, we just didn't have more art left in us! So we took the week off from drawing class & "cheated" with Target dollar spot foam penguins the boys cut, glued, & added a "scarf" to.

 Bible- wise, I had them focus on Jesus when they picked their daily Bible reading & we talked on how He showed the people around Him love. It's an important subject- one we'll always be learning until we reach Heaven :)

MFW K: Cow/Bible

This is Z6's favorite week so far:

As we studied cows, we played worked hard making a playdoh farm

 and then we broke out the serious fun: "milking" a cow (water in a disposable glove with a small hole poked in the fingertip). All 3 kiddos absolutely loved this! 

 Then the gloves came out & we played "cold potato" as we made ice cream in a bag. One huge necessity with this: make sure you have a good quality bag! Yep- our "storage" bag opened on a toss & salt & ice went flying! Always an adventure, I tell ya! :) After that, we used a freezer bag with much better results :)

 Z gets a crazed look in his eye as he waits to try it...

 and it's a success! 

 You  could even call it "plate lickin' good" :)

Aren't their cows the cutest?? We have found some great "teachers" on youtube & even I am surprisingly really enjoying the "art lessons" each week :)

Every afternoon, we all lay down for a quiet time & read separately then we come together & I read to the boys a story they each pick from their Bible. On specific weeks I will also have a special Bible story picked out to read to them & tie it to the point of the week, but this week, as the Bible is our soul's nourishment, any story they picked worked :)

MFW: Vegetables/The Prophet Daniel

While I was planning this week, I really thought it would be boring. We eat a lot of veggies, we love to garden, what more should we do? But it turned out to be pretty fun :) The boys had a lot of energy Monday morning so we started with an experiment: put 1 old sock on and run- everywhere & for a long time

 They loved having permission to do this (maybe I should do it more often?? :)) and finally when they were tuckered, we put the 1 sock in it's own bag, moistened, & placed in the window for observation. The wondering is whether anything will grow (weed, flower, mold, ?). We'll see!

Every week we get groceries & the boys always pick a veggie for us to eat that week. This week I had them grab their favorite & then we came home & they drew it: J5's is yellow squash & Z6's is cauliflower :)

 We also kept a log of all the fruits & veggies we ate. I know fruits weren't technically part of the curriculum but I got tired of wikipedia-ing everything to see which category it was in :) We also started with good intentions by wikipedia-ing everything to see how it was benefitting our bodies (I'd still like to finish this someday!) but as you can see, the days very quickly got away from us! 23 in 5 days- I think that's pretty darn good :) 

Through the whole week, we also read each day of Daniel's life  & decided that for Thursday we'd do the same diet he did when he was first taken as slave to Babylon, also known as the Daniel's Fast. Oy. We ate & ate & ate that day- all fruits, veggies, nuts, & select grains. It was a great eye-opener for the boys as we are so blessed & used to eating meat, dairy, & bread whenever we feel like it. Spoiled, we are! Even though they told me Friday that they did not like the fast, they did amazingly great :)

So I close out this post with a pic of my front window- the only one in the house that lets in a steady stream of sun :/ Our butterflies are still hanging in there from last week, an attempt at a snowflake from December, & something J cut out for me & I haven't had the heart to take down yet... but also our 3 baggies of socks (still nothing as of Friday), plus a soaked bean experiment: a baggie of beans sealed (no air), a baggie of beans taken apart (no food), & J5's baggie of beans with the necessities (air, sun, water, food). Z6's baggie of beans were put in a drawer to see if it'll grow without light. Oh the things we do for our kiddos! :)

MFW: Butterfly unit/Apostle Paul

We are 61 days into our curriculum: My Father's World Kindergarten, & loving it! Sooo fun! I did find myself getting lazy for a piece of it & the boys were getting crazy annoying (sorry, it's true!) as a result. I recently read a great kick-in-the-pants post & it reminded me I'm slacking. So. No more of that. 

Anyway, the curriculum calls for doing a subject for 6 days. My brain can't handle it (end 1 & start another in the middle of the week?? What??) so we do Mon- Fri & call it good :) We also don't follow the book in order (surprised??); this week the monarchs are in town so we scheduled a field trip & skipped to the butterfly chapter :)

S2 absolutely loves to paint. So this week we tried a new thing: painting with balloons :) Butterflies begin as caterpillars so we ballooned them- the boys looked at me funny when I showed them what to do but soon discovered it was super fun...

 So fun, in fact, that we had to get a new paper & freely create :) Then I shooed them outside and they played with their balloons till they popped- it really was a win win ;)

So at the field trip, the boys might not have fully learned anything, but! they did get to look through telescopes for the first time & see the butterflies up close- so they were pretty excited about that :)

But they were REALLY excited to venture onto the sand dunes & climb tree limbs & run on the sand- I tell ya, they smile the biggest when exploring God's creation (specifically climbing trees!) :)

 On the way back to the van, the sun was getting warmer & the butterflies were becoming more active & I was finally able to catch a few on camera

 Here's a bigger picture so you can see them covering the trees. So beautiful.

We also glitter glued coffee filters into colorful butterflies, read Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar & did a few projects off of which I {somehow} forgot to take pics...

 And every week we youtube how to draw something and make a poster of that week's subject/theme/spanish word. Yes, that is my lovely shadow showing. I already put it on the wall & there was really no other way of showing you my guys' artwork. They are always so uniquely different :)

We also tied in Apostle Paul- he started out mean & vengeful (caterpillar), but was struck blind (crysallis), & then became an amazing soul & worker for Jesus (butterfly). Unfortunately, we didn't do any activities per se, just read about him & chatted. One of these weeks I'll have my ducks in a row :)