Balloons, Batcaves, & Bills

This week was an "off" week for our CC homeschool group which is always nice.  We always need extra time to catch up on our memory work.  This week, Josiah learned the "-at" family in his phonics/beginning reading lessons.  He learned how to read: bat, cat, hat, mat, pat, rat, & sat.  This boosted his confidence a lot about reading and has since tried to read more in books.  We are doing the "-ap" family next.  He now asks to do his Alphabet Island (our curriculum) lessons first thing which is encouraging.  As part of his CC work, they learn how to skip count from 1s to 14s (basically multiplication tables).  So, Todd introduced Josiah to his Schoolhouse Rocks DVDs and they became a daily request.  In addition to the different "numbers" songs, we listened to "I'm just a bill" song a lot.  It's catchy and educational and Josiah asked more about how bills become laws, so that's a win.

"I'm Just a Bill"

Josiah has also been practicing his tin whistle and has gotten quite good at playing Mary Had a Little Lamb.  It surprised me how quickly he picked it up.  He seems to really enjoy it.  Another stepping stone to get to the beloved tuba.  With it, we are teaching him about the different notes (whole, half, quarter, etc.) so it's a math lesson all tied into one.

He has also perfected a new trick when climbing the walls.  He can now turn around!  

Of course, Caroline watches everything he does and now tries it herself.  

This week she has also tried to climb out of her crib.  She hasn't made it yet, but she's awfully close.  It will not be good when she's able to do this because I anticipate she'll head straight for top bunk.  

She has also taken to throwing the boys' lego creations.  She picks them up and hurls them so they crash into a bunch of pieces.  It is not good.  The boys have come up with one way to try and protect their batmobile, batwings, etc. in their newly dubbed batcave:

The Batcave

She is turning into the little artist herself.  She is often drawing lines and dots.  Short lines, long lines, and many dots.  After making some marks on a paper, she holds it up for us all to admire it.  (And you must admire it or she will yell at you until you do.)

Speaking of artwork, Henry had a prolific week of drawing.  He did superheroes, balloons, and ninja turtles.  He did very well!  Every time he shows his Superman picture he is always humming the Superman tune thing (da-da-da-daaaaaa).  Something like that...

Superman

Batman

The Flash

The Joker

Caroline especially loves the balloon pictures.  She is obsessed with balloons right now and can pick them out in books in an instant.  Henry was nice enough to draw a balloon picture for her which we hung near her crib.  On Thursday, we did a balloon release as a celebration of life for our friend's baby.  It would have been her second birthday that day.  The kids were excited to do it, but then showed a bit of reluctance to release their balloons.  Josiah let go when I said to, but Henry held on for a while and Caroline only let go by mistake.  

J letting go; H holding on.

We also played "teacher" to each other earlier in the week.  I drew a picture upside down and the boys had to follow my directions step by step and then turn it over to see what the picture was.  They had a good time and then each took a turn giving directions and creating a picture.  (I had them do a queen, Josiah drew a king, and Henry had us draw a robot.)  They both did really well at giving directions.  We then tried it a second time and things fell apart.  

The kids each got $5 in their Halloween cards from Grandma & Grandpa so we went to Five Below to spend it.  Josiah got a transformer and Henry got a skateboard.  They were super excited.  When we got home, Caroline quickly claimed the skateboard as her own and fortunately understood me when I said to sit on it and move around that way.  I always have a fear now that she's going to knock out the other front teeth.  They seem so vulnerable!

She's a cutie!

Speaking of Halloween, we did not go trick-or-treating (we did the fall festival at church last week).  At the last minute, Josiah decided he wanted to dress in costume, so he dressed as Captain America and knocked on our bedroom door.  I'd answer it in funny voices and give him candy.  We did this quite a few times.  Henry was talking to Todd about trick-or-treating and said, "If we can't go trick-or-treating, can we just go to people's houses to visit?"  He's a funny one. 

On Saturday it finally got cold.  For the first time we wore long sleeve shirts and jackets.  The boys were very excited to get their blankets back on their beds and even slept a long time that night.  (Yeah!)

And just a few more things:

Josiah made a marshmallow bridge.  It was not exactly steady as it was made out of mini-marshmallows and toothpicks, but it was fun for him to make.

Caroline ate cold refried beans tonight.  It was our intention to give them to her warm, but she got a taste of the cold ones when I spilled a drop on the counter top.  She ate 3 bowls of it.  I hate to see what awaits me tomorrow in the diaper department.

Todd reading the kids a bedtime book.  Caroline is always right there with the boys.