Time Flies when.....

The week really did seem to fly by. We stayed at Grandma's an extra day so maybe that had something to do with it. It was a short week. Plus my husband was home all week. He was sick with bronchitis and the doctor told him he shouldn't go to work and spread the infection. So instead he stayed home and shared it with us. We didn't get it too bad. Just a lot of coughs and sneezes. It isn't too bad a sickness so it didn't really slow us down any.

We did try to get some school in even though Dad was home. He mostly just stayed in bed and slept anyway. So we still did most of the normal stuff. We still went out on our Nature Walk and did our Green hour Challenge. Sophie now points out any tulips she sees while we drive around.

We also still went on our hike with friends. Hopefully we didn't spread any germs since we were outside in nature.

I have been looking in our field guide to find out what these flowers are but still have yet to find them. Any ideas?

Here are some pretty blue ones as well. They aren't in my book either.

And this week at the park we brought our kite. Sophie tried really hard to fly it.
The kid took turns running it around and getting it up a little. I just don't think there was enough wind. But they really wanted to fly it since kites were first invented in China, and China is what we have been reading about this week. We have learned all about the Great Wall of China, the Terra Cotta Army and the first emperor. We really liked the booksYou wouldn't want to work on the Great Wall of China , Ms Frizzles Adventures: Imperial China, and Adventures in Ancient China. We have also read a number of Chinese tales, but I can't say the kids loved them. We also made paper lanterns. Sophie remembered us making them when we rowed The Story of Ping for FIAR. That was the first book we rowed about 2 years ago. She has a good memory. She also has never forgotten that the Yangtze and the Yellow rivers are in China either.

We also decided it was high time we got to planting a garden. The yard in our house has a big pine tree so the ground isn't really good to grow things in. We are sad since we had such a great garden in our last home. We even grew pumpkins. But we had to settle for a little tub garden and keep it to tomatoes and cucumbers.

Sophie planted some bulbs in the front two little tubs. We got the bulbs at the dollar store. After talking about bulbs earlier in this week she decided she really needed to try some. We will see if they work.

We also got a few strawberry plants.
There is only a few plants so I am not expecting very many strawberries but I just want to kids to watch them grow and then get to pick and eat some. They are going to be one of the plants we study next week.

Sorry all my pictures are of outside. Many people have commented on how beautiful the flowers are and how green it is here. There are some benefits to living in California. Weather is about the only one I can think of. We did spend a bit of time indoors doing "seat work" as Sophie now calls it. She got the term from Ramona Quimby. We started reading Ramona the Pest as our night time book.
Sophie did some math and of course her penmanship. She also did endless drawings. She is always drawing.
We have all sorts of pictures of birds, flowers, the great wall, and mythical creatures. She really is quite an artist.

We also played a few games and read a lot of books. The boys never get tired of Curious George, Berenstain Bears, or Magic School bus books. I personally wouldn't mind reading a few of the other books we have on the shelf but.....

Raisins for Sharks

I am sitting here at the computer reading blogs this morning. Henry, who just finished his breakfast, has been climbing in my lap and then starts to wiggle wanted to get down, then he wanted up and then down. I think he just wantes attention. He has been telling me that he needs medicine. I think he likes the taste of Children's Tylenol or something.
When I ask him where it hurt he says "fish... here" and points to his tummy.
I ask him what fish were doing in his tummy. He says "swimming". Then he adds "Shark".
"A shark in your tummy?" I ask. "yeah, big one" he replies.
I ask "How did a shark get in your tummy?".
He sticks his whole fist in his mouth and mumbles "mouth".
"Really... you swallowed a big shark?".
"No, little one" he replies while showing me with his hands how small the shark is.
Then he adds... "need medicine". I tell him medicine may make the shark grow bigger.
He is very insistent that he needs medicine.
I tell him a bath may be all he needs to make the shark go away. He won't hear of it at all.
Finally I ask him if he needs to feed it.
I offer him some left over breadsticks, a granola bar and finally a box of raisins.
He turned down each one until I got to the raisins and he gave a little cheer.
He walked with me to get a little box of raisins.
He ate it very quickly and then came to tell me that the shark flew away. Evidently the raisins helped.

Preschool ramblings.

When Sophie was 4 I started doing Five in a Row with her. I was pretty good about doing a new book each week and we even did lapbooks for many of them. Ian is now 4 years old and I keep thinking I need to give him more. I have had a hard enough time keeping up with History, Science, Music, Art, Math and so forth with Sophie that it is hard to fit in FIAR too. Plus I run out of hold requests each week as it is. (The library only lets me put 10 books on hold at a time. So either I have to go to the library more then once a week or I need to get a few more library cards.) When I was really good about doing FIAR I would plan at least 2 weeks ahead and get a bunch of books from the library as go alongs. I just can't seem to do it along with trying to stay 2 weeks ahead with history and Science as well.
One of Ian's Lego creations
Ian does sit in on most of the reading I am doing with Sophie. He sits and plays legos or knights while we read aloud or listen to stories on CD. I know he is learning but it isn't stuff that is just for him. He is starting to show more interest in doing school. Which is why I am thinking more about this. Yesterday he sat down with us at the table and grabbed his PreK workbook and worked on some of the pages in it. I was helping Sophie work through some math problems. Ian decided to do a page of cutting. So I got him a pair of scissors and tore the page out of the book for him. He sat there working on his cutting for a while.
He did a great job cutting and then I gave him a glue stick so he could put the pieces together. When he was finished he proceeded to do another page where they had him color in shapes. After doing this one he said he was finished and left the table to go back to his knights which he had scattered about on the floor. He doesn't show a lot of desire to learn to read yet but he does love to do a little school like this once in awhile.
I really shouldn't worry about trying to fit FIAR in too much. (I still want to do it though, and will try to fit it in once in awhile. I know the kids have loved it when we have.) I know Ian is learning new things everyday as he listens to lots of books and stories. He goes on nature walks with us and is learning to look closely at nature. I guess the younger kids learn a lot just from following along with what the older kids are doing.
It is so mind boggling to me to think that kids Henry's age are going to be starting Preschool in the Fall. We have friends that are signing there 3 or almost 3 year olds up for programs that will start in August. That just seems so strange to me. Henry going to school? He too loves to read books and participate in things but I really don't see him doing anything formal for a long, long time. I am sure it will be sooner than I think.

Green Hour Challenge #6

“It’s a good thing to learn more about nature in order to share this knowledge with children; it’s even better if the adult and child learn about nature together. And it’s a lot more fun.” Last Child in the Woods, Richard Louv

I love this quote that Barb over at The Heart of Harmony included with the Challenge for the week. I totally feel like I am learning so much about the flowers and things that we are taking a close look at during our walks. I notice so much more about the flowers but also really enjoy watching the trees around me all pushing out their spring leaves after being bare all winter.
The Challenge for the week was about starting a collection. To be honest we didn't collect anything. My little guys are always bringing home rocks and sticks but our rule is always that they stay outside on the step. I hate to break that rule and bring them inside so our collections will have to be enjoyed out on the step as usual.

But for our study we read about Tulips. Sophie actually sat and read through the Handbook of Nature Study with me about these flowers and we looked through the different things it lists to look for and picked a few of those to remember. Then we went out to find some tulips. I knew of a patch of them that are just around the block and not in someone elses yard. We pass by it all the time as we drive about. So we headed that direction.

The Tulips are mixed in with a bunch of other flowers but we got really lucky and saw some tulips in different stages of blooming.

Here is one that is already starting to change color and grow its long stem.

Here is one just still green

And of course we looked inside some already big and beautiful ones to see the star shaped centers.
And took a good look at all the different parts of the flower. We also talked about why people plant these from bulbs rather than seeds. 5 to 7 years is long time to wait for a seed to finally grow a flower. We also talked about other flowers that are also grown from bulbs. Our Amaryllis at home is still going strong.

As we continued our walk we spotted a few in different peoples yards. We ventured into one front yard because the tulip border was just so lovely and we wouldn't disturb anything if we just went up to take a closer look.
We of course had to look for the star shapes in these and look at all the different colored tulips.
As we continued our walk around the block we couldn't help but look at all the different beautiful flowers that are all out right now.

Sophie and the boys of course had to pick a lot of dandelions. So we also took a moment to talk about why they are called dandelions and looked closely at the leaves and the puffballs of seeds with parachutes. And of course we had to do our part to spread those seeds around.

Here are a few other flowers we saw on our walk. We are going to have to study some of them next time.

Violets

Iris
Bottlebrush
Peach blossoms

Rose
Later in the day we went on our hike with some friends and guess what we saw again.These kids are getting really good at spotting Salamanders.

Sophie didn't do a drawing this time. I don't know exactly what happened but it just didn't happen when we got home. We were a bit busy and the boys were a bit cranky. Maybe that has something to do with it.

But is was a great outing and we are really enjoying our walks around the block to see what we can see and really enjoy our weekly hikes with friends.

Easter all Week

The past week seemed to fly. My kids have certainly had a great time. Sophie had been counting down the days until Easter. Sophie and I really enjoyed Cocoa's Easter all Week. The boys would sometiimes join us for some of the reading. Especially when we read through the New Testament Reader. They all loved trying to figure out which picture went on each day. I think they got a very good idea of what Easter is all about from doing this during the week. They were always excited to tell their Dad about what happen that day to Jesus.

Other than doing the Scripture reading I can't say we did a whole lot of school this past week. My Library books hadn't come in yet that go along with the next chapters of Story of the World so we didn't do History as usual. But after our trip to the library this week where we picked up a bunch of the books Sophie couldn't wait to jump into them.
So she is getting a head start on Ancient China.

We spent a lot of time outside this week. On Monday we did our walk around the block for our Green Hour Challenge. We are now seeing those California Poppies everywhere. We also went on our weekly hike with friends. We always enjoy getting out into nature and these weekly hikes are GREAT!
What a beautiful day!
As well as hikes we just spent time in our own yard digging in the dirt, picking flowers and of course blowing bubbles.
I love this time of year. The weather is just perfect. I am going to have to remember to start putting the sunblock on. I actually got a little red around my collar after our day at the park this week.
We did do a little bit of Math work. Sophie did a few exercises in her Singapore workbook but I tired to play a few more Math games with the kids as well. The boys always love it when I break out the Pattern blocks.
Henry is getting really good at these blocks.

Speaking of Henry.... I have always prided myself in never leaving a store with unwanted things that the kids have somehow passed through the checkout line with but Henry got me this week. At Costco this week we were looking through the DVD's and Henry loved and wanted this Veggie Tales movie. I could have sworn I put it back on the shelf before leaving the DVD's and finishing our shopping. But when I got to the car and was loading the stuff into the car there was the Veggie Tales DVD. I checked the receipt and sure enough I had paid for it. How did it get through without me noticing? So anyway... we took it home and have enjoyed it many times this week. It was actually a DVD package that also came with a Hero's of the Bibles DVD and a Very Veggie Easter CD. We have listened to the CD several times in the car as we have been driving around this week as well. The kids love it! I guess if Henry is going to pull a fast one on me at least he chose wisely!

Finally it was Easter Weekend. We loaded the car and drove to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Cousins were there also and there was all sorts of fun, egg hunts and lots of candy. Here are my kids baskets on Easter morning after the egg hunt. I think they had a great hunt!
After church on Easter morning the kids came home and dug into those eggs and found all sorts of great treasures. They all loved the ring pops and chocolates. Sophie read the funny papers while eating through a bunch of her treats.
We cleaned up lots of little piles like this all afternoon.
What a GREAT EASTER! I hope yours was great too!

Mozart the Wonder Boy by Opal Wheeler

This week Sophie and I, to go along with our study of Mozart for the month, have been reading Mozart the Wonder Boy together. Sophie does the reading. The text is easy enough for her to read herself. I can tell she loves that it is all in story form rather then the usual biography tone.

One of the things I have really enjoyed with this book are the pages of music in the book. Many of them are easy enough for me to play on the piano. But I splurged when I bought this book and bought the CD that goes with the book. So we will listen to the songs played that go along with the story.

I am glad to listen to something else besides The Magic Flute for a change.

Spring is officially here!

Sophie seem to love dates. She loves to look up dates on the calendar and then count down the days until that day arrives. She has been waiting for it to officially be Spring. Today is that date at last. And of course, since it is Spring, we had to go out in it. I feel spoiled living in a beautiful area where the flowers are blooming and the sun is shining. I read other people's blogs and they are talking about freezing cold temperatures and snow on the ground still. Sophie sat up on top of the hill and watched a butterfly flutter about.
A quiet moment for such a busy girl!
She had been tempted to chase after it and try to catch it but quickly decided to just sit back and watch it instead.
We really do live in a lovely part of the world. Since we have focused so much on flowers recently. I find myself looking at flowers a lot more. I have always loved to see wild flowers but I know I notice far more then I used to. I don't just walk by and think "oh what lovely flowers" but I now look at them and think "I wonder what it's name is". As we hiked today I would notice even the tiny purple flowers in the grass as we climbed. I was glad when Sophie too was stopping to look at each of the flowers and pointing them out to the other kids. She even gave a little lesson on poppies to a few of her friends, since we had talked about them quite a bit in the last few days.



It was such a perfectly beautiful Spring day.

Here is our indoor flower garden. The kids have studied this amaryllis very well the last few days. Sophie got out a flower book the other day to look up all the different parts of the flower. And then helped me figure out which parts were which. It has been so good to have such a great example to examine up close. At the moment one of the stems three flowers are in full bloom and the other stem is just starting to open. Everyday the kids notice it's progress.

The Monday Grind

I decided yesterday to keep a detailed record of what we actually do all day. This was more for me but I thought I would share it, incase some wonder if we actually do anything. At the end of some days I wonder if I have done anything.

I don't get into all the details of all the different whining and fighting that went on but this is a pretty good look at a typical Monday for us.

6.25 a.m. Henry comes into our room and climbs into our bed
6:30 a.m. I get up and go to the computer read a few emails and blogs.
6:50 a.m. Henry and I watch Sonja's muppets 4 times

7:00 a.m. Sophie joins us and has to watch it one more time.
7:05 a.m. We all go to eat breakfast (cereal, leftover pizza, hot choco.
7:20 a.m. Sophie goes to play her Vmigo. She need to rack up a lot of points so she can buy a new dog.
Henry climbs the shelves to get the Alice in Wonderland Pop up book.
I sit down at the piano to practice for a few minutes.
7:40 a.m. Ian decided to come out of his room. He has been "hiding" which means I get to change a stinky diaper (He only wears one to bed)
7:45 a.m. Load the dishwasher, get Ian a bowl of cereal, ignore Henry's tantrum because he wanted to push the buttons on the dishwasher. Then take Henry to get dressed.

8:05 a.m. Ask Sophie to stop playing her game and to change her clothes. I change into my swimsuit and gather what I need to go to the YMCA. While also bringing all dirty clothes to the Laundry.
8:10 a.m. Start a load of whites.
8:15 a.m. Get shoes on all kids, out to the car.
8:25 a.m. drop kids off at Kids Corner and I go to my Aqua fitness class
8:30 a.m. Enjoy an hour of thinking about nothing but moving my body

9:30 a.m. Go shower and dress
9:45 a.m. pick up the kids at Kids Corner. Henry went to YKids
9:50 a.m. Teach the kids how to sing Popcorn Popping and Once there was a snowman. Watch my kids enjoy jumping around on all the crash mats and equipment.

10:00 a.m. YKids is done. Head home.
10:15 a.m. At home, Change Laundry. Put a few things away. Kids have a snack, bananas and yogurt.
10:30 a.m. Read scripture with the kids. Read about the Triumphant Entry of Jesus and about throwing Money changers out of the temple.
10:50 a.m. Trace our hands on green paper. Make a palm branch of the cut out palms

11:00 a.m. Head outside for a walk around the block and look at wildflowers. Perfect time to do our Green Hour Challenge
11:55 a.m. Return from walk. Henry pulls his wildflowers apart in the front room so I get to do some clean up.

12:05 p.m. large crash from the boys room. Henry was climbing up into the clothes closet using the bar to swing up. Henry get a spanking, (Spankings are used to punish death defying/ bodily harm highjinks, especially 2nd time offenders)
12:10 p.m. Cleaning is finished, Henry sulking on the couch. I make sandwiches for lunch. Sophie draws the wild flowers we collected.
12:15 p.m. Kids eat, Henry cries.
12:30 p.m. Sophie read to me from Detectives in Togas
12:45 p.m. Reading interupted so I can change Henry's diaper. I finish the chapter when I get back.

1:00 p.m. Read books to the boys. Berenstain Bears, "One Fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish", Magic School bus
1:20 p.m. Clip Henry's finger nails then put him down for a nap. Ian plays legos. Sophie drawing pictures
1:30 p.m. Move clothes to the dryer.
1:35 p.m. Sophie does Math. She desides to do one page from each of the three different workbooks that we have. Ian still playing legos.
1:50 p.m. Get Ian a snack - Granola bar

2:00 p.m. Sophie does 2 pages of "Penmanship" She prefers it called penmanship rather than copywork.
2:20 p.m. Sophie and Ian join me in folding the clothes. We listen to Classics for Kids about Mozart while we work.
2:40 p.m. 2 classics for kids programs over. Kids fighting too much so they are sent to do Silent reading while I finish the clothes.
2:50 p.m. Ian comes in to help sort the socks and help put away the clothes.

3:00 p.m. Henry wakes up cranky. Everyone watches two episodes of Magic School Bus. I upload pictures that took on our walk and then post them on my blog.

4:15 p.m. Kids need yet another snack so we take gramcrackers outside. The kids get scooters out and ride around the driveway, break out the sidewalk chalk and draw. I get the mail and go through it.
4:30 p.m. I sit on the front stoop reading while the kids play, ride, climb.

5:15 p.m. Everyone comes inside. Sophie sits in front of the bookcase and reads books
Henry plays legos. Ian is rude so is sent to his room for a bit of time out. I head to the kitchen to start making dinner. Start peeling potatoes.
5:30 p.m. Ian comes out of his room and helps Sophie unload the dishwasher. Potatoes are boiling. I start to make muffins. We have to have dessert tonight.
5:45 p.m. Sophie goes to play Vmigo. Henry still playing legos. Ian helps Mom make dinner.

6:10 p.m. Dad walks in the door. Kids get all excited.
6:20 p.m. Dinner on the table. We all sit and eat.
6:40 p.m. Sophie helps clear the table. I do the dishes. Ian and Henry have tub time supervised by Dad.

7:00 p.m. Family Home Evening - Song, Prayer, Scripture, Lesson, then activity (Sophie picked Hide and Seek) We have our dessert with dinner)
7:50 p.m. Brush Teeth time

8:00 p.m. Family Prayer, then I go and read Sophie anohter chapter of her book. Dad tells the boys a story.
8:15 p.m. Kids are in bed. I get to watch Dancing with the Stars.
8:20 p.m. Henry joins us watches one dance routine then is escorted back to bed.
8:30 p.m. Sophie comes to inform us that she can't sleep. She is sent back to bed.
8:50 p.m. Sophie again comes to tell us she can't sleep. She is again sent to bed.

9:00 p.m. relax in front of the T.V. too long and stay up too late.

Green Hour #5 - Making a list

I have really been enjoying flipping through the Handbook of Nature Study. I love reading about all the different flowers and plants. I haven't even started looking at the animals (except the salamanders, because of last weeks fun with Salamanders). Last night I thought about our assignment for the Green Hour Challenge, which is to create a list of subjects to look at within our chosen focus. Since we are, or I am, focusing in on plants, I looked through those lists. I picked a few plants that I had either seen recently while out and about or that I knew would be coming out soon. It is a short list at the moment but I may add to it.

Daffodils
Buttercups
Dandelions
California Poppies
Clovers
Moss
Mushrooms

This morning I took the kids for a trip around the block. I brought along a water jug so that we could pick a few wild flowers. Sophie was excited about this and said "Then when we come back, I can draw them". I planned to go out in search of clovers or buttercups. We did find some clover in a few lawns and the kids counted the leaves hoping to find a four leaf clover. No luck today on that one.
Since I had read the passage on buttercups the night before I had it fresh in my head as we went out our walk. We looked at these flowers that are growing like weeds all around the neighborhood. After a closer look at the leaves of these yellow flowers, they don't quite resemble the buttercups pictured in the book. So even though many people call these buttercups I don't know if they really are. The leaves of these more resemble clover leaves.
We did pull one up from the root and Sophie got a winner. Look at how long that root was.
Even if they aren't buttercups we still enjoyed them. Here is Henry in someones front yard enjoying a whole bunch of them.
The house just down the street from us has a bunch of Birds of Paradise and usually when we walk by the kids notice how old and shrived the flowers looked but they were glad to see some new ones have finally grown and they really do look like the plumage of birds.

As we continued our walk I spotted a flower I hadn't seen yet this year and all of a sudden there is a bunch of them.

Sophie knows this flower well. She loved looking at them last year when we saw them.

They are such a cheerful, colorful flower. They look so nice mixed in with a bunch of other flowers. That orange just pops out.


It was hard to keep the kids from picking these. I remember once when I was little my Mom or Dad told me that it was illegal to pick California Poppies because they were the state flower. I don't know if it is illegal to pick them but I still don't pick them to this day. So we smelled them and petted them and Henry did pull a few petals off of one but we didn't pick any to add to our water jug of wildflowers.
We were out for only a hour and had a great time listening to birds and noticing the trees starting the grow their leaves. My kids sure love looking at flowers and Henry loves trying to climb every tree he can find.
Sophie did come back and draw the flowers in the jug.

Sophie's mouth

At Grandma and Auntie's request here is a picture of Sophies big gummy grin. There is a bit of permanent tooth peeking through in one of the spots so maybe she won't be totally toothless for too long.

And this morning Sophie was disappointed in the what the Tooth Fairy left for her. She was upset that she only had a lousy dollar bill. For the other teeth she had gotten 4 quarters. I guess the Tooth Fairy didn't have any change for a dollar.

Tooth Fairy is going Broke!

Alright this is almost crazy but Sophie lost yet another tooth tonight. While I was polishing up her tooth brushing tonight she gave a little yelp and then spit out the tooth that she has been wiggling the last few days. The gap in her mouth is HUGE. All four upper front teeth are missing. Alright so she has only lost 3 in the last month (the fourth never existed since it is where her cleft is). I don't know what she is going to do. They don't seem be growing in yet but I guess we will see. I am sure we will see some soon.

This is actually a great thing. The last time we meet with our Cranial Facial Team they told us they couldn't do anything else until she lost more teeth. So I guess she took that to heart and started to wiggle those teeth. When we see them again at the end of Summer maybe we will be able to proceed with the orthodontics and such that Sophie needs to correct some of her Cleft/bite/teeth problems.

Weekly Report again

I am so glad this week is over. I can't say it has been the easiest week for us. It should have been a very normal week but for some reason, time change, colds or something really threw us for a loop and things around here were a bit dramatic most of the time. Maybe that is why we have spent so much time outside this week. We just needed it. I know I needed it. My kids got along much better when out on walks or at the park then if we were home trying to read books or play. They couldn't even seem to watch a movie together this week without a bunch of fighting and wrestling going on.
A big part of the problem was this little guy.
He is a lot of work. I can't even truely explain how difficult this little guy makes life some times. He is SUPER TWO going on 16. I just felt like every time I turned around he was either into something he shouldn't be, destroying something, or fighting with Ian or Sophie. And when he wasn't doing one of those things he was crying and whining because I stopped him from doing one of those things.

We did actually do some school work this week but I can't say we did a whole lot. We read through the next two chapters of Story of the World which are about India. We learned about Hinduism and Buddhism.
Sophie actually really like the stories of Buddha. Here is a drawing she did of the Buddha which she drew while I read to her about Siddhartha and his quest to find peace. We really enjoyed the Books by Demi about Buddha.We will probably spend a little more time next week talking about India and the Jataka tales. All my holds at the library haven't come in yet.

We have been listening to the Magic Flute a lot lately. I found this book at the library and it came with a CD to listen to. Sophie loved it. We also found the Classical Kid's CD, Mozart's Magical Fantasy. We have listened to it a few times already. Sophie now sings the Queen of the night's songs on and off all day long.
Here is a drawing she did of Papagueno and Papaguena.


planted an Amaryllis in January and we have been watching it slowly grow taller and taller. Finally this week one of the buds started to open.

Here is Sophie, earler this week, showing off the plant and how tall it has grown.
Today the 3 blooms that emerged from the bud started to open. Sorry I didn't get a picture of it. But Sophie drew a picture of it today.She looked up in a book all the different parts of the bloom and labeled it on her drawing.

We also broke out the markers and tried our hand at doing a picture in pointallism. I had orginially planned to paint but thought better of it and stuck to just markers. Here is our finished products. Mine of course is on top. Sophie's is on the bottom. She had a hard time slowing down and working just with dots. It frustrated her a bit.
While doing this project we discussed color and how by putting two colors next to each other your eye combines them into a different color. I used my flower to demonstrate this. I started with yellow marker and filled in the flower with yellow then used pink dots all over to make the flower peach colored.
I think Sophie understood the idea. She tried the technique a bit on her tree and easter egg that she drew.
This project was fun for me. I always love to draw and try new techniques. It really did take a lot of patience to sit and just tap out the dots of color but the effect really is beautiful.


Grandpa will be happy to know that the kids love to watch Muzzy. I don't know how much spanish they are actually learning yet but they are enjoying watching the tapes. I only show them the spanish now and they don't seem to mind. I know Sophie is picking up a few Spanish phrases just from watching the tapes. They even have enjoyed listening to the audio tapes too. I need to start making more of an effort to teach them Spanish. But at least watching the tapes for now is at least exposure to the language.

That is about all we did. I know we read books other than school books too. We have read Berenstain Bears books over and over this week. And Magic School Bus books have also gotten read through too. And my kids have been requesting Poppleton books lately as well. Thank goodness for the public library!