Gymnastics and Baseball

Gymnastics class is coming to a close soon. Cait has had a really great time doing it!

Jayden has about a month left of baseball clinics. We've had a couple of rough weeks with the coaches, but things went really well last weekend.

 Remember that  sign that said I couldn't go beyond a certain point? Well screw that. I went.

 Then I ran back to the other side and snapped a few more pictures.

A little bit of everything...

We recently started using Math in Focus 1Afor Caitlin. She really loves it, even though it is first grade math. We are following her pace, but the beginning concepts are pretty easy so far.

Last week she was learning vocabulary terms such as fewer, greater than, and less than.

 Using our Unifix Cubes, she practiced making sets to describe her vocabulary terms.

This week she worked on number patterns, counting shapes and numbers to figure out what comes next in the sequence. 

Jayden is doing amazing in school as well.He completed the first half of his math textbook and is almost finished with his Language Arts books. We found a Star Wars Mad Libs book which I intended to use as a fun supplement for Grammar, but he finished the entire book in one day!

After being sick and missing a class, then having class cancelled due to a snow storm, Jayden finally got to return to guitar class! I snuck around the front and took pictures from the side window, sans flash so I wouldn't get caught. Horrible quality, but he looks so cute!

Whole he was in class Caitlin made Juan a Valentine.

And finally, we went to a gym class after having lunch at a friend's house. The kids played various games, including dodge ball, duck duck goose, and some form of organized, yet chaotic, tag.

Picking up where we left off!

It's been over 3 weeks since my last post. We have been super busy. We took a week off of school in the beginning of February because both kids were sick. Jayden had a double ear infection and Caitlin had pneumonia!

After they were both better, Cait and I took a mommy/daughter trip to Florida, while Jayden and Juan had a daddy/son weekend.

She was sad when we were leaving because she was going to miss Juan & Jayden. 

But she was also sad when it was time to come back home. 

I got a picture from Juan and Jayden with fake sad faces.  They spent an enormous amount of time playing video games. Except for when they went a winter festival at a camp. They spent the day sledding, playing floor hockey (on ice... with NO skates... don't get me started!), making bird feeders, and having s'mores with hot cocoa.

Finally, when the weekend was over, we returned back to our regularly scheduled programming. The kids had karate the next day, and they FINALLY got to break boards! They both broke their boards on the first try!

Science & History

We recently started our unit on the Animal Kingdom. The first order of business was to read about cnidarians. (Why the eff is there a silent "c" here?!)

We read about the characteristics of cnidarians and studied the life cycle of a jellyfish, which is a type of cnidarian.

After coloring in their picture from the textbook and another one from here, we watched a video on youtube about jellyfish reproduction.

We also took a trip to the library and borrowed two books on cnidarians, Jellyfish Underwater World and Sea Anemones.

 

Later on we moved on to history, reading about the Phoenicians. The kids both colored a Phoenician ship, which we learned the Phoenicians used to travel the Mediterranean Sea in order to trade. The Phoenicians were great sailors, we also learned. 

Jayden also did his map work, shading in the Mediterranean Sea as well as the areas where Phoenicians settled. 

Music Class & Art Class

Last week Jayden started taking guitar lessons. He is beyond thrilled! I didn't get any pictures because he requested that I leave him alone. I didn't want him to be the only one with his mom popping in to take pictures. Imagine me saying "Hey, don't mind me. I just need some pictures for my blog, ok?"

I think Jayden would die of embarrassment.

One of the other moms told me that I can go around and peek through the window though. Maybe I can get pictures this week!

Anyway, we got there a couple of minutes early and caught the tail end of a music and movement class that his friends were in. He was super happy to see them there and was even happier when I told him they would be in the guitar class with him.

Once he went in, Caitlin and I headed to an adjoining room. She got to do a craft and play with her friends.

Afterward we rushed home for lunch and headed out to an art class. In my haste I forgot my camera, so all I got were crappy cell phone pictures.

Miss Shirley read the kids a story called Cezanne and the Apple Boy. The book was about a famous artist and his son. The story had several reproductions of Cezanne's paintings. It was an interesting story with great illustrations.

Miss Shirley discussed different types of painting styles, blending water colors, and various artists, including Picasso. Then they had to paint a self portrait to be placed on display in their art show this spring.

 They also had to paint at least one apple in their portrait.