12 Days of Christmas....12 Days on Random Act of Kindness.

Last year this time my son was shopping to fill bags in his little campaign of Isaac's Bags of Hope...check out my blog last year for that...super sweet!
This year I decided to do something a bit different which all started with their advent calendar that I made.

Yup a toilet paper roll advent house :)

One night I was trying to figure out what to put in them, what meaningful things we could do together during is already super crazy busy time.  The real reason I chose to make my own every year is a absolutely dislike the chocolate filled ones...nothing about it I like... I don't like giving my children chocolate every day, I don't want them to think of christmas and remember only a cardboard box filled with waxy chocolate to be what leads them up to a very amazing holiday..Jesus our Messiahs birth.

I want it to have meaning, they always look forward to it every morning either it's chocolate or some other surprise. So as I was making my list of things to put in the openings, I found my self quickly trying to find things we could do as a family, times that build memories, things that build character and skills. I found that I want my children to know that giving truly is a blessing and that it is better to give then receive. I want them to know what we have every day is a blessing, that we are not "better" than anyone regardless if we have a home and they do not and that we are to show love to all! So out of that our 12 Days of Random Acts of kindness begins....as we were icing our cupcakes today for us to give out to strangers and teachers and leaders at Awanas...I decided that I, myself wanted to do something every day as well... and little did I know the opportunity that awaited out front of a local dollar store to bless someone and teach my children that we need to be willing to help even if it inconveniences us a little.

Heres our Day 1...
To paint the picture ....I have two very hungry children and heavy car seat and as we were heading up to the front of the dollar store to pick up some last minute things and there is a young woman. I had noticed her when we were trying to cross the street she had a puppy a beautiful pit bull on a leash and was trying to find a spot to tie him so she could go in the store. As I approached I could see that she was trying to get him to stay untied but wouldn't have it and kept following her. We walked up and I am sure she wouldn't even have considered asking us...I have three children, my baby in a car seat, it's cold and she has a pit bull.... I offered...and she obliged.  She couldn't believed that I with my children would consider standing in the cold to watch her dog so she could run in and buy a light bulb... as we stood there we talked about it...why we help, why we can bless people, why it is important to know that we are able even when we are small or feel weak.
The boys understood that we did something nice, that it wasn't a lot just a few minutes of our time but enough to show kindness to have that woman come out thanking us over and over and wishing us a merry christmas.

Stay tuned for Day #2..

Reading...Robots....Rivers...and more.

Here is my montage of pictures and craziness from the last two weeks. Trying to blog while a baby is balancing on your lap trying to grab the computer and eat your shirt at the same time is quiet the feat. I think as long as I can get some photo's uploaded and do a description of each picture I have exceeded my expectations today for blogging....wait must put baby down for nap....Ok..baby down for a nap..now...... wait must check preschoolers attitude ...and get the big boy and the preschooler a snack. I will be back! 

Ok..3:44 and I have ten minutes to write this before I have to get them ready and we have to leave the house.... preschoolers attitude dealt with and snack prepared and baby still sleeping....I think. 

Shaving cream math. 

oh wait...forgot to give drinks...finally dispersed drinks...

"I" & "J" just playing on the outdoor apparatus...

We started doing a bit more on our country and provinces this past week. There is always so many great resources at our local library. We learned about our canadian flag and what the parts mean ( I actually couldn't remember that from school)

"I" worked on copying a map of our country, coloring the provinces, and identifying our capital city and the provincial capital cities. 

Learning about money. 

Ok.... for all of you that Homeschool at your kitchen table is this what yours looks like EVERYDAY??? I can't keep this organized no matter how hard I try. And believe me this IS actually not that bad!! It's worse most days. 

More money recognizing. 

Making snow flakes cause Christmas is actually only 2.5 weeks away....WAIT...WHAT????

"I" is loving Archery with his Dad, he is learning the rules and it's been great for him, he's learning self control and regulation with his special time with his Dad. 

Craft time...from Bible. 2 Fishes and 5 Loaves story. 

More map coloring. 

Advent calendar...making and decorating cupcakes. 

We found out that our Christmas was approx 16 years old.. we measured our tree and counted the rings, also learnt about their root systems. 

Measuring our Giant Goliath and David with various things... pennies, paper clips...

We also did a bit of brain storming about each of us and what our needs are, what we need to be health, and safe and what helps us be strong. We figured out what each of the boys needed even little X as they are all in different stages of their little lives so they need different things. 

I said it would be a crazy mismash post...I knew it would be....I am pressed for time and have very little creativity juices working in my brain as I have three littles running around my feet (well one stuck on my hip along for the ride) 13 hours a day plus the lack of sleep...that's it for a real slice of my life. 

See ya later. 

Boy...and his friend the robot.

Well it's been forever since I wrote an entry here nonetheless things are still happening in our homeschool journey. Learning is a constant thing for me and my boys. There are so many opportunities to teach your little ones and to learn from them each day, for me finding the balance and resting in the midst of this all is hard. Our littlest boy X is growing fast, 4 months already and as for now our life feels complete.

This past week we worked on building our Robot lap book and learning more about them. We had great resources from the library that we read about all different robots, then we found some videos on youtube on the snail robot, robot wars, and we even danced like robots.
 It was enough to strike the interest.

 

We brain stormed all about robots (blue line represented what we already knew about robots and black was what we learnt).We talked about all different types of robots, if we had any in our house, and what they can do..

Our Robots prototypes that we built. 

We wrote a short story filling in the blanks about If I had a robot...

I also found this great All about me Robot templets, we filled it things like, our favorite foods, favorite animals, favorite past times, how we uniquely help others, our birthdays and so on..

Creative play..building our own robots, and then telling a story about their distinct abilities.

Creative Play

                                                                                 
Building our Lap books.

Did you know that Robot shark is 6 ft 6 inches long..

Math: Dice Games 

 Little "I" found three different types of robots he was interested in: Underwater robots, Musical robots and Into the future robots. We looked at least one or two robots under the different types and wrote down some details about them. It was a lot of printing for "I" so when he was feeling burnt out I let him draw instead.

Probably the most interesting was the nanorobots that would be so tiny they could travel through your blood vessels and destroy bacteria and viruses then clump together and exit your body a certain way they are programmed...I'm not really all that interested in having tiny robots in my body...call me old fashion, I'd rather my immune system do it's job...but I'm just one person.

Then the high light of the week was putting together his very own solar powered robot, THANK GOODNESS for husbands cause I am not good with that type of stuff.

 It was a great week all about Robots.

It was also our first real snow fall this past week here so the kids were outside every chance they got to go sledding, 

At the craft fair ten thousand villages where he learnt about fair trade. 

 We had a wonderful opportunity to made some pottery pots. The boys loved moulding the clay and shaping them into little pots. They will be fired and then we will pick them up after christmas.

 

We dropped off our boxes this week too, finished them off with praying and writing a little message for the boxes.

A little more crafty chalk snowmen. Big "I" helping his little brother :) 

Learning how to sew. 

Wow that was a busy week...

Grade 1 and beyond!

Hello and welcome back to year number 2 of homeschooling. Life has been a tad bit fuller now as we have added a beautiful little baby boy this summer to the addition of our family. Introducing little X.

So needless to say school here around our house did not start until really the first week of Oct. We are throughly enjoying him. I am very proud of the boys they are such great big brother and are adapting well to another little person sharing their mommy. 

School has been different this year, working around nursing, sleepless nights, and sicknesses. However we are still building memories and learning as we go (mom included).

Placing the human organs and bones in the body.

Drying our leaves after our nature hike for our nature journal .

Geo-caching is a favorite of ours todo.

And of course if you have hands on boys you have to smash the acorns you found on your nature hike.

Crafting the garden of eden. 

Harvesting our own sunflower seeds from the sunflowers the boys planted in the green house in the spring..they grew to over ten feet tall. 

Making homemade dirt volcanos 

Salmon Run 2013 

Learning about the fish and their cycle.

Orchard time!!! Picking fresh apples off the trees! 

Learning organ placement..yup and he is in grade 1...blows my MIND! 

Making rain sticks with Nana!! so fun!

Dominos..3d structures and a passion my little has!

Magnet time

More Magnetic experiments.

I have so much to add from the last month but I will put a end to our crazy extravaganza tonight and add more later.

Night!