Monday, April 9, 2018

Picture Catch Up! Jan.-March

January:
We did a lot of study about snowflakes in school during the month of January. This was our puff paint project!

Somebody fell asleep "reading."

And somebody else fell asleep wrapped up in his blankies!

Too cute not to snap a picture of! ;)

Who is this silly boy playing his "can-tar"? 

February:

We play with a lot of shaving cream around here!

Great sensory input!

Adding some color...

Then, we laid cardstock on the colored shaving cream to make a marbled design. After the cardstock dried, we cut out hearts and made a garland to decorate with! Always a fun February activity. :)

Cleaning out the chicken coop on an unusually warm day in February!

Clothespin math.

And tweezers for fine motor practice. ;)


Valentine's sensory sink.


Dressing up in Mom's clothes is so fun! Addy and Jo are sporting my shoes while Isaac transformed himself into an astronaut using my snow suit.

Quite the style, don't you think?

March:
In March, we implemented a new laundry system which has been working out beautifully! I have always been in the habit of doing all our laundry on ONE day of the week, with the exception of a load or two of rags or muddy clothes. (I have tried breaking up the laundry into several days, but always forget to keep it moving. Plus, I'm kind of an all or nothing person, so doing it all on one day is still my preference.)

Trying to get the boys to help me sort all the clean clothes into piles/baskets and fold and put away was becoming a stressful experience. So when I saw these small, round baskets at Aldi for $3.50, I bought one for each boy. Now, they throw their dirty clothes into their OWN basket in the closet. On laundry day, they bring their basket to the washing machine and do their own laundry from start to finish (with help from me). Adoniah and Josiah take their clean clothes and put them right into their drawers - no folding at all. I know....gasp! But we were finding that all my hard work to fold their clothes would get undone as soon as they went to put them away anyway and they would cry in frustration over clothes coming undone. Now, no more tears! 

Isaac folds his pants, takes care of his underwear, matches his socks up, and helps me with towels and rags. I fold his shirts and then he puts all his clothes away in his cabinet. This basically leaves me just our grown-up clothes and Silas' clothes to wash, fold, and put away myself. Laundry day has gotten a lot more peaceful! :) I am loving the independence this has fostered in the boys and how excited they are to do all their own laundry every Tuesday!

The month of March was all about rainbows and weather in our preschool curriculum. Here the boys are making a rain storm.

Always a fun experiment!

Painting rainbow puzzles.



Next, we cut them into pieces. (Although we learned this year that we should have painted on the other side of the plates. Oops!)

Josiah worked on this design for at least 45 minutes!

Sorting rainbow colors.

Making play-dough rainbows.



And a rocket!

Going on an alphabet hunt in the rice and beans bucket.


March also brought us into the new adventure of owning dairy goats! Meet Daisy, our Nigerian Dwarf goat.

And Lily, our Nigerian Dwarf/Alpine cross along with her two kids.

We named the boy Tommy (which means "twin") and the girl, Tulip (to continue the flower theme). Tommy is nursing in this picture.

Daisy is looking out at Isaac, our little "goat whisperer."

Tulip and Tommy.

Our little herd.

The milking stand Nathan built for me. Daisy and Lily are both in milk currently!

These boys LOVE the mud!

"Look at us, Mom! We are pigs!" they said.

Painting with a comb.

Somebody found the cream cheese packet I threw away in the trash can!

He kept saying, "Mmm....mmmm" while he licked his fingers.

Our attempt at a family photo on Resurrection Sunday. You can tell Nathan is real excited! ;)
This one turned out better except for my camera's blemishes showing up. 

Cozying up with blankets and books on a cold spring morning.

The boys wanted to make boats out of straws after reading about the character in their Cubbies book who made a boat.

Adoniah made a necklace out of the scrap straw pieces.

Rainbow rice was a BIG hit! Takes ordinary rice sensory buckets to a whole new level!

Isaac played with this for HOURS the other afternoon!

Want some ice cream?

Test tubes make fun toys too! (Thank you, Dollar Tree!) :)