Finally we’ve had a semi normal week!!  I was actually feeling a bit better and we had a few normal days. 

That ended on Wednesday though because I just am not happy with our set-up.  It’s too much “sit-down” work and not enough active.  I see pictures of all my friends kid’s preschools and they look like so much FUN.  So the rest of the week was spent revamping.  We’re starting with our new set-up on Monday and I’m crossing everything possible that this will make the difference.

As for this week…we are continuing to keep an eye on our plants.  They are growing!!

We played a lot with our toys.  We had counting doggies out and Baloo made them rain.

We made and decorated (and ate) Halloween cookies!

And we finished up our China studies with a few crafts.  We talked about what Chinese people look like, and a bit about traditional Chinese clothes.  We talked a bit about Chinese New Year, but that concept went a bit above Baloo’s head.

Our Chinese Lantern

We also talked about and unsuccessfully attempted some Origami.

We did another drawing from Kumon and put it in his story book.  This time it was an acorn and he wrote a story about a Squirrel stocking up for winter.

They spent at least 10 minutes watching the garbage truck go down our street on Thursday.  Baloo was asking millions of questions.  From what do they do with the garbage when they get home to why do they use a truck…So I think it’s time to learn a bit about the garbage man!

That was our week!  I’m really excited for next week and our new routine!!!

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I have to start with a confession.  DH and I started trying for baby #3 when he got back from Afghanistan and we got our BFP August 1st.  We’re incredibly excited…and I am incredibly sick.  This is a bit part of the reason we’ve been taking it easy.  I was not really sick either either of the boys, so this has taken me by surprise.  And now that I am just about in the 2nd trimester, I had assumed it would be gone.  Not at all…so we’ve had a few days we just completely skipped school and some days that we just managed to sneak in a few minutes.

First, our garden!!  Everything is starting to sprout now and the boys are really excited!!  Baloo and I have been talking about what is growing and when we can pick it and eat it!  He’s getting excited, although I’m not sure that he really knows what squash is.

We spent a lot of time outside again this week.  The weather is finally cooling off a bit so it’s enjoyable outside!

China Studies!!

We sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in Chinese again, although Baloo isn’t really interested anymore.  We also read a few books about Kai Lan.  In all of the Kai Lan books they try to include some Chinese words which is pretty cool!  Baloo seems to have Ni Hao down!!  One of the books was about the dragon dance.  We tried to do the moves ourselves and then colored this dragon face picture and added some orange strips to the bottom for his train!!

Looks like one more week of China studies for us.  We didn’t do nearly as much as I had planned!

Reading!  I just can’t help but take pictures every time I catch them sitting down and “reading”!

Short week for us.  We had some great toys out, but didn’t get any pictures of them! 

I won’t pretend like we had the most successful week.  It seems like we’ve had more doctors appointments in the past 2 weeks than in my entire lifetime.  But we’re slowly getting back on track!

We did our regular Calvert lessons this week.  We’re still getting into the routine of Calvert, but I’m really enjoying it.

First, our China studies.  I think I’ll have to find most of the materials for these country studies myself…and I promise to share!  For this first one I am using letteroftheweek.com’s Country Studies, and I’ll probably model other countries off the same kinds of information.

We started by talking about the globe: the oceans, the continents, where we live, etc.   Then we talked about where China is and I guess he understood because he said we couldn’t drive there, we would have to fly.

We printed out this coloring sheet which conveniently also has some Chinese symbols and the Chinese flag right on it!

We also talked about the Chinese language a bit.  We learned how to say hello (ni hao) and goodbye (zai jian) in Chinese and we sang Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.  I happen to know that in Chinese from a short language course in the 3rd grade.  It’s crazy the things that stick with us!

The lyrics to Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star in Chinese:

yi shan, yi shan, liang jing jing

man tian dou shi xiao xing xing

gua zai tian shang fang guang ming

hao xiang xu duo xiao yan jing

yi shan, yi shan, liang jing jing

man tian dou shi xiao xing xing

We’ve finally planted a garden!!  Thankfully it doesn’t get too cold in the winter here in Alabama so we’re able to have winter crops.  Both Baloo and Royal “helped” me put these earth boxes together, and with any luck we’ll have some green beans, squash, dill, spinach, and carrots before long!!  Baloo has asked to check on his plants every day so far.

We’ve actually managed to spend a lot of time in the backyard recently!!  My wonderful DH has been working all month on getting the backyard to a playable state.  When we moved in it was horrible overgrown, full of ants, HUGE spiders, and snakes.  He’s mowed it a few times, cleared out the sticks and such, and put down any killer.

So we got out the Buzz Lightyear sprinkler and let loose!!  The rocket actually shoots straight up into the air and Baloo did a few experiments with setting the water pressure to low, medium, and high, and seeing how far the rocket went.

We playing with the stacking/nesting blocks.  The boys saw how far they could get the ball to roll down the stack.

Baloo got these Automoblox for his birthday in July and he’s starting to be fascinated with them!!  He made this long car with all different color wheels!

And lastly, we finally got all the books set up on the bookshelf (in the closet on the left, can’t see it here!)  I came back to find both boys engrossed in their books.

That’s it for us this week!!  Next week we are finishing up our China studies with some cooking, a few books and songs, and hopefully some crafty type things!

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