Sports

Our week-ends are filled with sports.  We typically attend games as a family as we enjoy watching and supporting each other.  I know this doesn't work for everyone, but it works for us.  I love watching my kids play sports.  It's especially fun when they are having success as they did this week-end.

On Sat mornings, both Joshua and Christopher have football practice and games.  It's flag football with a homeschool football league.  We drive 2 vehicles (as we still don't have one that we all fit in) and I arrived a little late with the non-football players.  I was so bummed to learn that just minutes prior to my arrival - Joshua scored a touchdown!

There is an hour to an hour and a half gap between my two boys games.  I'm thankful that a sweet friend that I haven't gotten to spend much time with in the last couple of years has a son playing at that time.  It's been fun to spend time talking and catching up with her.

Last week-end, one of the moms brought a tea set for her daughter to enjoy.  As Eliana watched 2 little girls playing tea, she walked up and sat down too.  I started to take her away and the other mom said she was welcome to join in.  She even gave her some water in her tea cup to pretend with.  I thought it was sweet for her to include Eliana and she was thrilled to be playing with the other girls.

Christopher's game this week was also a fun one to watch. 

Towards the end of the game, he intercepted the ball and ran down the field to about 10 yards from the endzone.  After several attempts, it was 4th down and Christopher ran the ball for a touchdown!  It was so exciting.  I was standing there, trying to get a photo.  Here's what I got when I was too close and things were happening too fast.

After the games, the coaches have a time of devotions with the boys.  I appreciate the character building that goes on in this league!

 We left Christopher's game to head to Rebecca's soccer game.  She also had a second game today.  I teased her that she needed to score so that each person playing would score.  She didn't score on Saturday, but made up for it on Sunday.  She scored two goals today!  (Sorry for all this shameless bragging on my kids!)

Rebecca is the only girl on her team.  I'm proud of her ability to play well and to have fun on this team.  (It is a really great team.)  She played the first half of today's game for the other team because there were short a few players.  The second half she played defense, goalie and offense.

She didn't score while playing for the other team and the coach (a friend of ours) asked afterwards why she didn't score for his team.  Roger told him it was because he had Rebecca  playing defense.  The coach said he thought she liked defense.  Roger assured him that the position she likes best is offense!

This is her scoring her first goal.  A little hard to tell, but you can see the reaction of her teamate to the left.

This is a shot of her keeping the other team from scoring.

Eliana and the boys found the sand volleyball court and had a blast playing there.  Truly, fun can be had just about anywhere.

That's all for our sports week-end. 

Blessings,

Leslie 

Field Trip - Cedarock Historical Farm

This was field trip week.  One of my favorite things is to go on field trips.  We ended up with a beautiful day though it began a bit cool and overcast.  (The first pic below is from the end of the day.)  We went to Cedarock Historical Farm.  What a great place to visit and our tour guide, Harry, was wonderful!

We had a large group so we were split into 3 groups.  I enjoyed that on this outing we were able to split by family so I was able to enjoy being with all of my children.  :-)  Often we split by age and I can't be in several groups at once.  I understand the need and benefit for this, but for this outing, I enjoyed being together.

Our group started by visiting a blacksmith.  He told of his work as he demonstrated it.  He had a good sense of humor and shared a lot of interesting things with us.  My boys especially enjoyed watching him work.

 

Next we went on a tour of the site.  We first visited the original homesite built in 1830. 

Some of the original pieces were still in the house.

Next was the newer big house built in 1835.  We learned that the Polly, the mother/wife was never comfortable cooking in this house due to the wooden floors and continued to use the first house for cooking in for the rest of her life. 

While we were touring, our guide Harry told us how impressed he was with homeschoolers.  He went on to tell of a competition on their site that had been won by homeschoolers for the last 7 years.  He praised our work and told the kids what a great benefit they were receiving.  It was really nice to hear that affirmation of what we are doing.  Did I mention that we really enjoyed him?!

 

 

Also on the site were a smoke house, post office (run by one of the sons), grain shed, barn with old farm implements and some animals.  Lots to see!

Our next stop was a hayride.  This was no ordinary hay ride!  We rode for 30 minutes and not in a circle on flat roads either.  We went off-road and up and down steep hills, through the forest and close to a river.  It was so much fun!

All of the children enjoyed it and Eliana was delighted with the ride. 

The site is in a park that is about 400 acres of beautiful land.  There is a river, disc golf, canoe/kayak, playground and lots of beautiful undeveloped land.

 

After our tour/hayride, we went down the park for a lunch.  The kids played some on the playground and then a few of us decided to hike to see the Old Mill Dam.  It was a lovely view and a short, easy hike to get to.

The children liked exploring, though we were trying to limit it a little bit due to an abundance of poison ivy.

The sometimes elusive photo of me with my children - and one additional friend.  :-) 

There were so many things I enjoyed about this day.  The chance to learn about history.  I've loved learning about the history of our state in a hands-on way with my children.  I enjoyed spending time with my children and learning with them.  I had fun being with friends.  It is a nice break to hang out with other moms during the week too.

Our day didn't end here though.  A friend shared about a warehouse sale.  Since we were about halfway there, we decided to drive over.  It was the semi-annual Carson Dellosa warehouse sale.  It was amazing.  I was stunned.  (I should have taken a picture.)

There were boxes and boxes of workbooks, posters, stickers, etc all over the floor of the warehouse.  Oh, and lots and lots of people.  We arrived about 1.5 hours after it had opened and I could tell that we missed getting some of the things there.  Even still, I bought a lot of neat activity books for my children for very cheap prices.  Many of the books were $1 and some were 4 for $1.  Unbelievable prices.  I had a coupon to save $10 too. 

The children watched napped some (Eliana napped the entire time!), read and watched a movie.  They also had fun rolling down a hill just before we left.  Rebecca wrapped our little boy with sensory issues in a blanket.  They all liked this idea and all began doing it this way too.  I have pics of all of them -but this was the best of the bunch.

On our way home we made a pit stop at McD's.  Eliana had her first try of french fries!  I couldn't believe she would eat them!  We also visited Sonic.  YUM!  Love a cranberry limeade slush.  We hit some traffic and ended up at home after 8pm!  It was a fun and long day. 

I used to do long field trip outings like this before Eliana was born.  It was nice to be able to do one again and have her enjoy it.  It just felt good.  In some ways it felt like a little slice of "normal" again. 

Just wanted to share some of our fun with you.

Blessings

Leslie

Dreams

A great video about people with Down syndrome and their dreams.

Dreams

 

Math center

I've been wanting to incorporate some "centers" into our day.  A place to do something fun and hands-on.  I thought it would be a fun break for the kids and also motivate me to use some of the things I've purchased and not gotten around to using.

We had a FIAR lesson last week on balance.  I thought this would be the perfect time to get out the balance scale we have.  I bought it along with a box full of math manipulatives at a consignment sale.  I haven't been good about figuring out how to use them though.

I wasn't feeling creative or inspired by this scale.  That may be obvious since I've owned it for several years.  LOL  I asked some friends on the FIAR board for ideas on how to use the scale.  Here were some of the suggestions.

*Just free play - figuring out the scale and how to balance things.  We did this the first day and they enjoyed it.  I had a bag of unifix cubes and counting bears (both were also in the math box I bought) for them to use.  I also added in some assorted other things - paper clips, small bear, beads, binder clip, etc.

*Compare the weights of items using a standard. For instance, how many centimeter cubes does an eraser weigh? How many paperclips equal the weight of a crayon, many paperclips equal a pair of scissors? How many grapes equal a banana?

* Compare weights. Looking at the objects, which do you *think* will be heavier… put them both on the balance and see if you were correct.

*Illustrate density by using a large marshmallow vs a stack of quarters for instance. They're the same "size" but clearly don't weigh the same! 

*Measure 1/2 cup (or whatever the scale would hold) of various items and compare the weight vs volume

*Play old-time store and weigh out various things and have the kids pay w "gold" (maybe spray paint some beans or rice?) Or make your own "shekels" type of thing and weigh the "coins" for payment

*Illustrate the not so nice practice of putting the thumb on the scale or "weighted" measures that are weighted against the consumer, but for the vendor.

*Addition problems.  This fun to do with the unifix cubes.  I will probably make up a sheet for them to figure out the problems and then record the answers.  You can attach the unifix cubes together.  I thought I'd put them in groups of 1, 2, 3, 4, etc already attached.  They would then work the problem.

2+3 = _____

You would then put the 2 set and the 3 set on one side of the scale.  Then add cubes to the other side to figure out the total. 

Well, this very simple center has been a big hit.  It was even fun in ways that I hadn't anticipated.  Yesterday afternoon, the boys were playing happily in our sunroom (where I'd set up the center).  At one point, my oldest tells me that I should go look.  Indeed, my boys have made the math manipulatives toys.

My youngest boy (4) had made his own creation.

What really made me laugh though was my boy creations.  Only a boy would turn unifix cubes ... into a cannon.  And the bears were sorted by colors ... into an army.

I had to laugh.  I hope you got a chuckle out of it too. 

Blessings,

LeslieI

We're Going on a Bear Hunt

We have been enjoying this FUN book as part of our Before Five in a Row curriculum with Daniel.  He has loved reading the story and acting it out!  Over and over and over again.  He giggles wildly when we are being chased by the bear.  He also loves when we all flop into the big bed upstairs.  Eliana likes the part in the book where we "stumble, trip ... stumble trip" through the forest. 

One of the things that I love about Before FIAR is that is has gotten me to try things that I might not have otherwise.  I think we all have things we are comfortable doing and I appreciate being stretched to get out of my comfort zone to try some new things - which sometimes also end up being things that I enjoy.  One of these things was "drama".  Rebecca LOVED the drama activities from the time she was a little girl.  I wouldn't have thought of this on my own, but am so thankful that Jane (author of the curriculum and friend) suggested doing this.  Since doing it with Rebecca (and Christopher), I've since enjoyed it with all the rest of our children and made many fun memories too.

I wish I had some pictures of us acting out the story, but, I was busy acting.  LOL

We also enjoyed some activities in a box that my sweet friend Catherine made for me.  I thought I'd share a picture of some of them.

There are pictures of the different areas in the book as well as the printed words describing the areas.  I had Daniel put these in sequential order and then match up the words with the picture.  He doesn't read so we were just working on beginning letter sounds like "sssss" for snowstorm.

Next were some sensory items.  These were a huge hit with my boy with Sensory Integration issues.  We didn't use these in a "hunt" like the label says - I should figure out how to do that.  Instead we just played with them, talked about it and had fun.  I threw the cotton balls on him and we talked about snow.  He felt the swishy grass.  He really loved the little tube he could  put his fingers into.  You just never know what is going to be a hit some days. 

Last, but definitely not least, were the felts.  He loved acting out the story - with me - using the felts.  We did this many times.  We used it first for sequencing and talking about the order of the story.  We repeated the lines and concepts in the story line as we acted it out.

This is made using a scan and transfer paper.  You then iron it onto felt.  Isn't it cute?!  Here is most of it stretched across the floor.

Here are some close-ups.

If you haven't read the book, I highly recommend it.  It is a lot of fun.  I hope these ideas are helpful to someone. 

Blessings,

Leslie

Nature Studies

We are rowing Andy and the Circus this week and I wanted to find time to go to a pond to look for tadpoles.  This was spurred on by a comment Isaiah made when he told me he had never seen a tadpole.  Huh?  Really?  I thought we needed to change that!

So today we worked on our boxes, finishing most of them before lunch despite a late start.  Then we went to Chick-fil-a for a lunch treat.  :-)  We then went to a nearby lake to have a picnic and then look for tadpoles. 

It turned out to be a really, really warm afternoon (high 80s).  I'm not ready for the heat yet!  lol  We saw geese in the pond.

We also saw some mallards - Mr and Mrs and one of their ducklings.  Some of my children were trying to figure out "which one" it was - Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, etc.  (This is from Make Way for Ducklings which we recently read too.) 

As we were walking down a path, Isaiah stepped off of the path and found a hole that intrigued him.  He wanted us to look and we asked if there was anything in the hole.

To my surprise, there was something in that hole.  A tiny, little turtle.  He was about 1-1.5 inches in length. 

I had brought along clipboards and paper in case we found something we wanted to draw for our nature journals.  I really need to get/make some nature journals for the younger boys.  Thankfully the pencils were still tied on from our Moonjellies dinner because I did forget pencils.  LOL

After drawing and writing a bit about the turtle, we walked a little further down the path.  We found several spots that looked perfect for tadpoles, but only saw lots of small fish.   The kids tried to catch some with the cups from our lunch - but no luck.

Daniel was able to use his happy meal toy - a monocular  - for taking a closer look at things.  It worked really well too.  Chick-fil-a has the best toys!

We also saw some turtles.  You can see the one sunning himself on the log.  Can you also see two more with their heads popping up out of the water?

It was a nice afternoon.  We all agreed that we need to return again soon.  We left when the heat was too much and Eliana was more than ready for a nap.  I'm glad we are able to do things like this.  I love seeing God's handiwork all around us. 

Thanks for sharing our day.

Blessings,

Leslie