GPa and another wild ride

One thing's for sure: When we're with GPa, it's going to be a wild ride!

 

On a Monday morn, we met GMa at the hospital while GPa had a bronch to get biopsies of his lungs ... we brought our school books, packed breakfast and lunch and planned for a day (we had an inkling) ... good thing too, because a few hours later he was admitted to the hospital ... and stayed there all week.

We visited almost daily, doing school in the waiting room between doc/nurse visits. Plus, GPa's room wasn't very large (GMa even brought her lawn chair from home so she'd have a place to sit!) - so we only lasted within the white walls for a few minutes at a time ... but no problem, we just did puzzles or assignments or ran the halls. :)

Since this was the week before Easter, the children filled plastic eggs with cheerful messages and treats.
We had fun checking on those eggs from time to time.
We sure worried about GPa's health and the insurance fiasco (long story),
but the oft quoted saying rang true, 

"Every Thing will be all rite." ;)

 

Bottom line is:
We love the wild ride,
because we love GPA!

And we're screaming with joy that he's home, healthier and happy! WHOO HOO!

Daddy/daughter dance 2014

Big Sis had her first Daddy/Daughter Dance with the Activity Girls group from our church. It was a 50s theme - they hoola hooped, did the twist and joined in a bubble blowing contest. Most of all, they made a fun memory. So cute!

Princesses ... and prince

Looking through my phone and found this gem. Many a princess for our pink prince pirate to pick from. Ha. They look simply divine.

Homeschool History: Ancient China

 

We're studying ancient China right now - and I was seriously floored by how much these girls loved the ancient calligraphy characters. We learned the seven main strokes, and then about 5 or 6 characters - and they could spot them and write them without a second thought. Learning comes so naturally to them - I love it! I wish I knew more so I could teach them more!

 

Towards the end of Big Sis' writings, she did her best to tell the birth story of Jesus. She wrote the characters for woman, man, horse (we don't know donkey) then house. :) Can you see it? 

 

 

Next up: The Great Wall of China. 

I had no idea that they stomped on dirt until it was so compact it became as hard as concrete! Four feet of dirt to four inches of wall. Wow!

 

After the wall was constructed {and mom wasn't feeling well that day, so she fell asleep sitting up on the couch while the kids got it set up}, they added characters to represent the Mongols attacking the Chinese. 

 

And had a photo shoot .... soooo many pictures like this on my camera! ha.

Homeschool Art: paint that

 

E! picked out a treasure box to paint from the craft store ... 

he really concentrated on this project  {just look at that solemn face}.

 

Big and Lil both selected bird houses. 

 

Ta-da! 

 

A great place to store loot. 

 

Home sweet home for the birds. 

A little of this & a little of that

 

Absorption experiment .... we colored on paper towels and let the water do the walking. 

 

Big Sis got 100 percent on her spelling list this week. 

 

E! is starting to want his own projects in school. Here he is counting pirate jewels and putting the right number in the cups. He's a whiz at counting, but doesn't know his numbers written down yet - so that's what we'll work on for now. 

Homeschool History: Ancient Rome

After studying ancient Greece, we moved onto ancient Rome.
We learned about the gladiators and the armor of God, we dreamed of walking on the Appian Way, and compared their political system to Athens and Sparta, and we got hands on with a few projects. 

This is our aqueduct .. but ours carried marbles instead of water.
It stayed in our living room for several days, until the wrapping paper rolls and tape weren't working well together anymore. I thought it was interesting to learn about the gradual grade used, the arches and just how far the Romans could get their water to travel.

 

This is our standard. When the Roman armies would come into a new land, they'd raise their standard high to announce their forthcoming. We did some research and made our own standard - topped with a Poe Gnome holding a CTR shield and the sword of truth. The three decorated golden plates represent the three kiddos. We also read scriptures about raising a standard - and they made much more sense! :) 

Tree art

 

Modge podge, tissue paper, water colors and a cold day outside ...
makes great indoor art.

 

First we took a paper and modge podged a collage of tissue paper.
While that dried, we used watercolors to paint the backgound. 
The next day we cut out triangles from the modge podged paper, and pasted them onto our background.

 

They added hearts or suns in the skies 

- and E wanted to build a snowman on his. 

 

On the third day, we outlined the trees and shapes with a gold paint Sharpie. And finally, we added snowflakes by dipping the bottom of a paintbrush in white paint and dotting away.

 

Beautiful!

 

Mom does art projects alongside the kiddos,
but this time Lil Sis wanted to snap a photo to prove it. :)

Random photos ...

 

I've gotten so behind on blogging!
Here are some random photos I found on my camera ...
like the two centaur drawings from our Greek studies.

 

E! playing with different loose parts to create his own catapult. 

 

Making sweet messes ... I mean cookies. 

 

Our Valentine's scripture study puzzle. 

Each day we read a scripture about the heart ... (thankful to re-use YW projects!). 

Poe Penguins

 

There are 17 species of penguins, and my trio each selected one to study more in-depth.
Big picked Emperor, Lil picked Little and E! chose Macaroni ...

 They recorded information after reading about each kind ... and then brought out the tape measurer to make life-sized penguins.

 Aren't they cute? 

Our walls are all morphing into bulletin boards ... ha!

Little things

The littlest moments are often my favorite. 

On this morning we pulled up our chairs and cereal bowls to the window sills and had breakfast with the birds. A wide variety chirped in our yard, and we practiced identifying them with our bird watching app. We've identified golden finches, chickadees, swallows, juncos, robins, woodpeckers, starlings and bluejays all around our birdfeeders, and we have two swallows nesting in the birdhouse Joe Joe made.

 

The birds were busy eating that day because they knew something we didn't - the weather was changing. Snow! In Oregon, that's pretty rare. The kids were in heaven.  We went to GMa's and GPa's to get snowed in for a few days, then came home to more fresh snow to play in.

 

 

 

Alex is in the middle of tax season, so playing with Daddy is especially awesome right now.
He knows how to "check in" at home and really play with the munchkins.
Here he is playing a Minute to Win It game - blowing air out of the balloon to knock over the cups.

 

E! thought it was hilarious to let the balloon fly all over the room. :)