December Happenings

After an unintentional break from pretty much everything due to illness we have finally found our way out of the fog and are back to our usual activities.

Just in time to take a break for Christmas.

 

The boys couldn't wait to put the tree up so we did that right after Thanksgiving.  Benjamin has since made it his mission in life to remove every ornament that he can reach.

Fortunately, his big brothers have been helping me make sure that all the "dangerous" ornaments are already on the top half of the tree.  

Needless to say, our Christmas tree looks pretty interesting this year.  And we all think it's beautiful.

Once the boys were feeling better they were able to venture out and about to the different activities that they enjoy.

This week was their class at the Natural History Museum and I'm pretty sure it's one of their favorite ways to spend the day.

The museum offers classes specifically for homeschoolers and it's such a wonderful opportunity.  Once a month they have classes on Tuesday or Thursday and divide the kids up into three groups: preschool/kindergarten, ages 6-8 and ages 9-12.  Michael and Thomas are in separate classes and I attend Matthew's class with him.  

Benjamin tags along, of course. 

Each class covers one topic, presented in an age-appropriate way for each group.  In Matthew's class we have a lesson presented with a story and then do a craft and explore some hands-on stations that are related to the topic.

Matthew's class is a little shorter than the older boys' class, so we also spend time in the Discovery Zone - a hands-on room perfect for the younger crowd.

When all the boys are done with their class we spend another hour or so exploring the rest of the museum.

So far they've had classes about Forecast and Climate Change, American Indians and Space Weather. I'm sure you can guess which one was their favorite.

 

Getting to visit the Planetarium and Observatory at the museum was definitely the highlight of their week.  But one of their favorite parts of the museum is an outdoor area with live animals.  They find the River Otters to be especially interesting.

There are also deer, turkeys, eagles, falcons, owls, raccoons and foxes. During our visit this week we made a point to read and observe how each animal might adapt for the winter.  Matthew noticed right away that the rabbits had turned white!

We really enjoy spending the day at the museum learning, exploring and visiting with other homeschooling families. 

The boys also continue to enjoy their art class. Between illness in our family and their teacher being sick, they had about three weeks in a row without it and were starting to experience some withdrawal! I actually remembered to snap a picture with my phone one day recently when I picked them up. 

Recently they finished up a soccer session in gym class. Before that they learned about basketball and really enjoyed both sports.  There are usually eight or nine kids in the class - seven boys and two girls. The first half of each class is free play and the second half is with an instructor. By the time each Friday rolls around, they are usually ready for some time running around the gym!

 

Michael and Thomas also had a field trip to the Police Museum this week with the Cub Scouts, but I don't have any pictures of it, since I didn't go with them. It sounded like a fun trip, though, and they learned a lot by listening to a retired police officer during the tour. 

 

In between our regular school work and outings, the boys have stayed busy with Legos, game playing (there was a spontaneous three-day Monopoly event. I think Matthew won), and preparing for Christmas. 

We still have plenty of shopping, baking and crafting to do next week. Not to mention cleaning and laundry and traveling! 

Oh and school work, too.  

I hope that you are enjoying the holiday season!

~ Dori

Holidays and Sacraments

This was how I found Benjamin napping one day recently.  It doesn't look terribly comfortable.

Anyway. We're back! No, we didn't physically go anywhere, but we've been a bit out of touch for the last two weeks.  As most of you know, a stomach flu hit our family and it was uh-gly! But everyone is fine now!  Kevin and I were somehow spared the worst of it, but if I could have traded places with the boys I would have - they were soooooo miserable.  They've never been sick like that so it was a bit traumatic.   Poor Benjamin even had a brief visit to the hospital because he was quickly getting dehydrated. 

Fortunately, appetites were starting to return in time for Thanksgiving.  We had a nice, quiet day at home that included a scrumptious ham dinner.

Which I somehow forgot to take any pictures of. I must have been too hungry. 

Benjamin was REALLY interested in everything that was happening in the kitchen! And my talented husband can cook a delicious meal even with a baby strapped to himself. 

It seemed safer than having the baby underfoot.

 

Our only real venture out of the house recently was to support Thomas in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  

He did a great job and was so proud of himself!

We decided that ice cream was a good treat for after First Confession.  

 

That's pretty much all we've been up to around here.  Now we're working on putting up Christmas decorations and getting back to school work and other activities. 

Just to remind everyone, I also post things on my other website, so you may want to check in there from time to time. Especially if there isn't anything posted here for awhile and you just want to make sure we're still alive or something.  You can also subscribe to that site if you want to be informed when there's a new post.

 

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! 

~ Dori

Lego Happiness

The view outside our house this morning.  As I write this the boys are outside playing in the one inch of snow that's been falling since late last night. I guess winter is on its way! It almost makes all of the Christmas decorations and holiday music at all of the stores bearable. Almost. Can't we wait until after Thanksgiving?!

Last weekend we gave the boys a HUGE surprise - Lego KidsFest came to Cleveland! We bought the tickets but decided not to tell them where we were going. It was about a half hour drive to the I-X Center, which is near the airport and the boys were very patient and trusting the whole drive. As we got closer, they saw the big sign and figured out where we were taking them. As excited as they were, they still couldn't imagine all of the Lego happiness that awaited them inside!

 

The first area we came to was full of Lego statues of just about any character you could imagine. 

Yes, that one was my favorite.  The boys did not appreciate Batman as much as other characters, though.

I'm pretty sure that the Star Wars statues were their favorites. Lightning McQueen was also a big hit. 

Next up was an enormous outline of the United States (that's Florida right by Matthew's head) that was being filled in with Lego creations throughout the weekend.

 

 Of course the boys wanted to contribute with their own creations.

 

They were very proud of their finished models. 

All of them.

Benjamin was forced to watch from the safety of his stroller.

The place was HUGE! So big, in fact, that there was a Ferris Wheel inside!

 

The boys were pretty focused on all of the Lego action, though, so we didn't bother waiting in the very long line to ride the Ferris Wheel.

We did wait in line for a turn to try out the Lego Mindstorm - something Michael has been VERY interested in.  

 

Each station was set up with instructions and pieces to build a simple Mindstorm "bot" and a laptop for programming it. Michael had no trouble building the robot and once we figured out the software (wouldn't have taken as long had it been on a Mac!) we successfully got the bot to move forward and  stop several times.

It was a great opportunity to try out the Lego Mindstorm - it's a bit pricey, but I think someday it would make a great addition to the boys' Lego collection.  With their imaginations and building capabilities it would be a lot of fun! 

Moving on...

 

There were several monochromatic building areas that the boys really enjoyed. They seemed to like the challenge of creating something out of only one color.

All of them.

We also spent time in several areas with a different building theme - mostly because there were free Legos after you built something!

 The boys each spent some time creating their own version of a Lego Ninja.

 

One of the last things we did, was probably my favorite - Lego Challenge. Each family has their own Lego station and the group is given two minutes to build something fitting with the "theme." Ours was "something you'd have on vacation."

I thought this was a great idea for something you could play together at home. We had a rolling suitcase, bag and sailboard, by the way. Since I know you were wondering.

Other areas of Lego happiness were a build and race a car area, a mural, Lego Master Builder Academy, Big Lego Pile, Duplo area and Lego Store. 

After a long day full of Lego fun and junk food, we headed home.  The boys declared it, "the best place they had EVER been!"  And they had enough "freebies" to keep them happy and awake for the car ride. 

The disappointment came when they asked to go back the next day and I had to explain to them that it will be another year until they return.  (Please come back to Cleveland next year, Lego Kid Fest!)

I hope you had a great week!

~ Dori