October School

Here is a quick review of the rest of our school month that was not fall related!

Puzzles, puzzles and more puzzles. I wish there was a library for puzzles, our children devour them and are ready for some new ones, but we don't have the room or money to quench their puzzle drives.


I never learned to really love poetry. I am now growing to love it along with my children. Occasionally for a treat we have what we call "Popcorn and poems". We snuggle up with a snack and read poems together. Our favorite collections so far are A.A Milne "When We Were Very Young", and Robert Louis Stevenson's "A Child's Garden of Verses." In the previous post I shared that we worked on some patterns with candy corns and marshmallow creme pumpkins. Well, occasionally the kids ask if we can have "pumpkins, patterns, and poems" time as well. I have found it to be a great way to introduce poetry and really make it special and fun.


When my Mom sent us the box last month of home school items, she sent several items to study bugs. Well one set has some pretty real life-like bugs. The boys have a blast studying them! (I make sure they count all twelve every time the finish with this activity. I don't want it to be late at night when Daddy is at work when I find a stray bug.....!)


More mixing colors with paint.



We have been practicing a lot of soccer around here as well for PE. In fact Luke scored his first goal at a game recently!




I have discovered that of all our ways to practice writing, a simple whiteboard is the all time favorite method. In fact, it is also a fantastic way to keep Gracie busy during school time. She just doodles away like crazy!




A little home-ec, playing a game matching socks. Despite the look on Luke's face the socks are indeed clean.



The boys have also both learned to help me feed Jacob this month.




As bedtime stories we have been reading the original Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy stories by John Gruelle. The boys love these stories. They asked Gracie if they could pull out the Raggedy Ann and Andy that she got for her birthday last year. Every morning they come downstairs to see if the dolls have changed the position they left them in! :)



Some strength training at home :)




Gracie LOVES when her big brothers pick her up, it is her favorite activity lately, and they willingly oblige her.



Luke has just taken off with his reading. He is plowing through the Bob books. At the back of each book we put a sticker and the date he first read it by himself. He has found another willing ear to listen to him read in Jacob.



This month reading has also taken off for Ben!!! He is picking out words everywhere we go and sounding out and writing words on all his coloring books. Prior to this he has read parts of the Bob books, but he has done a great job reading them on his own this month! I had hesitated starting school with both boys, but Ben is thriving learning alongside Luke. We are calling it Kindergarten for Luke and PreK for Ben, but on almost all accounts Ben is doing everything right alongside Luke.

Here is our proud reader #2!



It is such a joy to be able to tailor our studies and learning to Luke and Ben's individual talents and needs. I LOVE being their teacher and getting to share the joy of learning with them. Despite the often difficult moments of being overwhelmed with the immensity of it all, I wouldn't share this with a public teacher for anything!