Happy February! Yes, I realize we're already eight days in as I write this. Maybe it's a good thing that 2021 seems to be moving along at a brisk pace. I think we're all a bit anxious to resume some semblance of "normal" activities - at the very least more time outdoors.
Except that my youngest "baby" turned seven last week and my oldest "baby" turns nineteen (19!!!) next week.
So never mind - time definitely needs to slow down.
We have three family birthdays in February - which I suppose helps alleviate some of the gray, cold, depression of winter in Indiana. Given the Pandemic Situation and the Wintry Weather, we had an at-home celebration for the seven-year-old, while still preserving a few of our family traditions - namely a Breakfast Outing with Daddy and a Treasure Hunt for the presents. This year, big brother designed the Treasure Hunt and the Birthday Boy LOVED it.
He worked very hard on it, and we had a fun afternoon playing carnival games in the living room. He hid the presents in three different rooms of the house and created cards with letters on them that spelled out the locations. The Birthday Boy could get a card by earning points playing various games - target shooting (nerf), bean bag toss (his favorite) and balloon popping (he could have done that all day, but one of our dogs wouldn't have tolerated it well). He also had a bucket of candy that he could use to "pay" older brothers to help him out.
I thought it was a great idea - and perfect for a seven-year-old. Big brothers didn't seem to mind spending time shooting nerf guns and eating candy - not to mention a bonus day playing video games.
Older Brother also made the birthday cake - all vanilla since my seven-year-old does not like chocolate.
Yes, I'm sure he's mine, but still can't comprehend not liking chocolate. Chocolate.
He doesn't like chocolate.
We have more celebrating to do when Nana and Papa return from their anniversary trip. In the meantime, my desk has been taken over by all of the new Lego building. The Birthday Boy requested several Lego sets for his birthday, along with some new Baby Yoda bedding. While we have enough Legos in this house to open our own store, the youngest boy didn't really have any sets of his own.
So the cycle continues.
Between the birthday celebrating and my physical therapy appointments, we ended up taking two weeks to complete Week 13 of our Catholic Schoolhouse curriculum. As I've mentioned before, one silver lining to the Pandemic Situation is the flexibility to move at our own pace while still following what our local chapter is doing this year. We've appreciated the opportunities to spend more time on things of interest or that lend themselves to more reading and discussion.
Our timeline included the Transcontinental Railroad, Susan B. Anthony, Alexander Graham Bell, the National Baseball League and Thomas Edison. We'll also be learning about Saint Damien, John Philip Sousa and Winslow Homer for the next few weeks. We added the Great Lakes States to our Geography notebooks as well as their main geographical features (i.e. the Great Lakes!). The boys have seen three out of five of the Great Lakes (some of them probably caught glimpses of Lake Superior when they were very little as well).
Each boy has his own Language Arts program, but sometimes we play games or review things together. This week I broke out some Mad Libs - they make excellent Parts of Speech practice. I used to do them with my older boys, but hadn't really used them with the youngest two - they found it very entertaining! And older boys ended up joining in the fun, too.
Our Science Adventures in Zoology took us back to China, where we learned about Monkeys and Mice. We did a science demonstration to help us understand how different eye positions give animals the field of vision they need to carry out their daily tasks. The boys wouldn't let me take a picture, though, so you'll just have to use your imagination on that one.
Meanwhile, we enjoyed our own animal viewing right in our own backyard. We've had a number of fox sightings in the few years we've lived in this house, but he was particularly active and hanging out in our yard last week. I'm sure we have enough rabbits, mice, moles and other small critters to keep him well-fed.
That sums up our time over the last couple weeks. I hope you're staying safe and warm wherever you are.
No comments:
Post a Comment