G is for Goat

We are working on our 12th week of school for Isaac and moving right along! Most of his lessons take us about a week and a half to cover so we are not doing one a week. Isaac is learning how to put together sounds of vowels with different letters and sound out simple words. He is doing very well.  Right now I try and do school with him Mon. through Fri., but some weeks it ends up just being 3 or 4 days. I feel like if I get at least 3 days in I'm ok with that. This week we are learning about, "Goats" from "My Father's World- Kindergarten Curriculmn." One of the fun things we did in this unit was buy and try goats milk! We made a really yummy smoothie with goats milk, bananas, strawberries and a little honey and it was enjoyed by all! I got lots of books about goats and fun storybooks that had goats in them too from the library and we have been reading them all week. Here we are at school this week!

 Learning about time

This is how Beau stayed occupied. He kept busy and enjoyed sitting with us.

 

Isaac learned a verse this week!

L is for Leaf

This week in school we learned all about leaves. It was fun collecting different leaves from outside and learning what kind of trees they came from. In our backyard we have a maple tree and a willow tree so we talked about those kinds of trees and learned about roots and how they help get water to the tree to grow.  Our biblical concept to go with the unit was, "I will live and grow in Jesus." For each unit there is a biblical concept that ties into what we are learning and it comes from a bible verse, they just break it down to the simpilist form and then we make a "badge" for each one. Here is Isaac with his badge for this week, although you can't read it.

 

Here are some the things we did this week:)

Daddy and Isaac went for a walk at a park and collected 12 different leaves. We used these to separate from color and size and also traced them.

 

We did leaf rubbings! Which is always a cool thing to do no matter how old you are!

Isaac colored and cut different pictures of things that start with "L." He is getting pretty good with those scissors. I have seen such an improvement since we started. I used to have to hold the page in place for him while he cut across, but now he does it all on his own.

Isaac colored different patterns and practiced writing the number "3"

Isaac used "Cuisenaire rods" to build different objects. These are good for learning shapes, patterns, math and colors. He really enjoys doing these!

 Here are the books we checked out from the library to read all about leaves. It was a pretty good week although I ended up just doing 4 days last week and 2 days this week. So tomorrow we will start our new unit on, "Apples," which is perfect because my fridge is full of them!

School with Isaac!

We started doing "My Father's World K" with Isaac at the end of August and so far I am loving it! He is doing so well and getting used to doing, "school" everyday. Usually we try and do it in the morning before lunch time, but it really depends on our day. Right now Isaac has swim lessons on Mon. and Wednesdays at 10:00am and Beau is doing a gymnastics/tumbling class on Tue. so we have to work around those, but it has been going well. Everything is so well laid out with the curriculum it is very easy for me to follow and does not take too much time to prepare for. Each week we have a different theme or what they call "Units." Last week we learned all about the Sun and this week we are learning about the Moon. Here are some things we are learning in our Moon unit so far.

Since "M," is for "moon" we worked on writing and making M's. Here we used playdough to form the letter M. This was a big hit with Isaac.

We went to the library and got lots of books on the moon.

We made a M & M chart to work on our math and colors. This was after we already ate them all!

We went "fishing" for letters with our magnet fishing pole and some small letter cards with a paper clip attached to them.

 We traced the letter "M" with paint and a q-tip. We also learned about the phases of the moon: Full, New moon, half moon and crescent moon and drew pictures of each phase. We learned that the moon itself has no light. It only gets it's light from the sun. Last week we learned about the sun and how like the sun, Jesus is the light of the world. Well, it was neat this week to incorporate that idea that we only get our light from the "Son" Jesus so we too are to be lights in the world and talked about ways to shine our light for others, based off Matthew 5:14, 16..  We also did quite a few other activities, including attempting to make a cardboard space shuttle and worksheets, but these were some of the "fun" ones :) Tomorrow is the last day of our moon unit, where one of our focuses will be on classical music. It is amazing how much Isaac is already learning. Last week we had a poem of the week, "My Shadow," by Robert Louis Stevenson. I recited the poem at the start of each day and I could not believe by the end of 6 days (units are designed to last 6 days) he had most of it memorized with out me even prompting him to do so! Kids are such little sponges!

 

Happy Birthday Isaac Cole!

He was so pleased with everything! He kept saying, "thank you!" and giving us hugs and kisses! This boy really is the sweetest.

After all day of asking, it was finally time to open presents!

He has been playing with this non-stop. It is a "big boy toy!"

At Chuckie Cheese...Beau enjoying some pizza, he had fun too.

Checking himself out ov tv

He looks so big!

Happy Birthday Beau!

He was a little unsure about all this

Going for it! No more pics after this point, but he enjoyed licking all the frosting off! I decided to try and make a semi-healthy cake for him and used a recipe for Applesauce spice cake with NO sugar and cream cheese frosting. I found it at wholesomebabyfood.com. It had a much denser texture and was not super sweet, but the yummy cream cheese frosting definately made up for it :)

12 months

My sweet boy turned one year old last week! My how fast it has gone! Beau is walking everywhere and climbling whatever he can. He's like a little monkey. He learned to climb the stairs and onto the couch. He is such a stong boy. One day a few weeks ago, Andy was home with the boys while I was out running some errands and he sends me a picture message on my phone as he often does. It was a picture of Beau standing on top of our tv stand bracing himself on our flat screen tv! What a sight that was! Andy said he was in the kitchen sending a quick email and noticed it had been a little too quiet so he got up to check on Beau and he had managed to climb his way up there. Very scary and thankful he didn't fall, but we had to laugh!

Beau has such a vibrant personality! He loves to make himself known and isn't afraid to use his voice. Even if it's in the middle of the night or the middle of the mall. He still is having issues with sleep, but he is getting better. He slept through the night the last two nights, so we may be turning a corner! He recently started drinking whole milk and I am starting to wean him. It is going really well so far and he really likes his milk. We had both the boys 1 year and 3 year check ups last week as well. I am so thankful for two healthy boys. Beau is doing great, but is quite small for his age. He weighs 18.3 pounds and is 29 inches long. He is in the 3rd percentile for weight and 25th for height, which really isn't important overall, but it is nice to know. The doctor said there is no problem with his weight and that he probably just has a really high metabolism and is skinny because he is so active. He is actually a really good eater! I have been trying to give him lots of protein like avacados, scrambled eggs, yogurt etc. and he eats it all.

Isaac on the other hand is my big boy! He is in the 75 % for weight and 90% for height at 34 pounds and 39 inches tall. He is getter so big and is extremely smart! We are getting ready to celebrate his birthday tomorrow since daddy is going to be away on the actual day so we are taking him to Chuckie Cheese much to his surprise! I will post some pics of him soon!

Happy New Year!

We spent New Year's Eve at a Sesame Street amusement park called, "Sesame Place," located about an hour away from where we live in PA. It was so much fun for all of us! I think I had as much fun as the boys. Isaac wanted to ride all the rides and was so brave, even going on a little roller coaster with me. Beau did great as well, he was a little scared when the characters came right up to him, but overall he was a pretty happy camper.