A Whale of a Birthday--Squashi is Four!

Isn't he handsome!  Our Squashi boy is four.  I want to say that I can't believe he is already four, but honestly I feel like this boy has been four for ages.  He acts much older and his is a big boy.  So it is more accurate to say "he is four at last!"

 Long before we new we were moving to Oregon, our boy wanted to have a whale birthday party...odd for Nebraska but okay.  So when we found out we were moving close to the ocean that was just icing on the cake.  As part of his birthday we are taking him whale watching...that will be a part two as it has not happened yet.

We had a Joy School party where we did lots of random projects and games that had nothing to do with whales but the kids didn't care and I didn't draw their attention to the lack of theme-ness

Recognize the angry bird game from Halloween?...I had to get more than one use out of all my hard work ;)

After school we had the neighbor kiddos come up for cupcakes and play time as well.  Our Porky was in heaven.  It was a great day...exhausting, but great :)

Our big boy is learning to read!!!

Evus went to visit his brother last week and they gave him these great little books that their kids love to read.  Willard has been inhaling them!  They go perfectly with the reading lessons he has been doing with mommy. (Englemann's "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons")

We are so proud :)

Columbus Day--Spice of Life

Columbus Day...what an interesting holiday.  Columbus was not the nicest man...nor was he the first to "discover" the Americas.  However he was the first European explorer to stay and because of that many came and so his journeys are significant.
 

So we celebrated by learning about three ships that made the first journey (Pinta, Nina, and Santa Maria) and we made Spiced Cider because of the Spice Trade.

The boys didn't dig the cider much...more for me :)

The Falling Leaves

The fall colors are in beautiful display here in Oregon.  The boys each made a beautiful artistic tribute to the season this week.

In the end I had to join in too :)  Happy Autumn!!!

Wizard of Oz--revisited

A few weeks ago we read "The Wizard of Oz" and had a lot of fun with preschool activities that were tied to the story.  In all of this, we anticipated the upcoming release of the 75th Anniversary DVD that would be sold at Walmart starting October 1st.  So this week I ran to the store to buy "The Wizard of Oz" and we had ourselves a little party.  The boys brought out all their stuffed dogs to act as "Toto".  We drank "Liquid Courage"--which is not in the movie, but in the book...either way water is significant in the story as it melts the witch.  And because the water melted the witch...we ate her hat.  We also had Emerald City candy and Oreo because the Winkies like them (at least that is what great advertising has led me to believe).  It was simple and fun.  The boys actually really liked the movie, I would recommend it to anyone.  Its an oldie but a goodie :) and a great way to kick off October.  Any guesses what we are going to be for Halloween?

Celebrate "The Dot" and F is for fog

Happy International Dot Day!...what is this, you may ask?  On September 15th they have International Celebrate "The Dot" day.  "The Dot" is a book by Peter H. Reynold that we first discovered at the Public Library in Nebraska and its so cool it even has its own holiday, really.  It really is the coolest thing ever...even astronauts in space celebrate "The Dot", how cool is that! So we celebrated "The Dot" all week long.
The book is all about encouraging creativity and making your own mark.  So I gave the boys a small piece of paper, told them they had 5 seconds to make their mark on the page.  I counted to five and they made their marks.  Big brother's mark didn't surprise me at all, when he was 18 months old he was already drawing circles all over his art work.  It just fit.  (Next time I won't let little brother see older brother's mark before he does his own as he just copied him...lesson learned)
We then took their marks and did a few other projects expanding on their original idea.  We used crayons, markers and paint and set up this little art display for dad to see when he got back from his business trip.

This past week we also focused on the letters F, L and T (Fall, Leaf and Tree).  We went on a nature walk and collected leaves with different colors and shapes.  We came home and examined them, traced over them and did comparisons (putting them in different groups based on size, then color and then shape)
We made the shape of our letters and associated Leaves Falling from Trees with some art.  One morning there was fog outside and I mentioned that fog started with the letter F...strangely they remembered that better than anything else this week.  When I would ask "what letter starts with F" (wanting them to say "fall") they would proudly declare "FOG!"  Oh well, that is correct.  We ended the week with a science experiment dealing with Paper Chromatography.  We collected leaves and the boys cut them up into little pieces with some plastic knives.  We put them in alcohol and placed a strip of coffee filter paper in the water and attempted to pull the separate pigments from the leaves.  This was the website that I used for the lab:

http://www.education.com/activity/article/Leaves_Change_fifth/?cid=50.200

We were only able to pull chlorophyll a and b from the leaves we didn't see Xanthophyll or Carotene...next time we try I will blend up the leaves to get a better pulp.  It was a fun project though.

Our First week of Preschool at Home: Poppies...Poppies will make them sleep.

Yesterday we began Preschool.  We started reading "The Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum.  (FYI the book is different from the Movie...who knew :)  We decided to study Poppies after reading the first seven chapters.  We ate Poppyseed Chicken for dinner last night and learned that Poppy's seeds are edible...the boys also decided they were sleepy after eating them :)

Today we learned about Poppies on the Internet and studied pictures.  The boys painted their own poppies.  Because today is September 11th we talked about Red Poppies as a symbol of remembrance for those who fight/fought to keep our country free.  We read "In Flanders Field" together.  Here are some pictures of our art project today and I also wanted to post "In Flanders Field", a poem I have loved ever since I did a scholarship program with the VFW:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Flanders_Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
      Between the crosses, row on row,
   That mark our place; and in the sky
   The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
   Loved and were loved, and now we lie
         In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
   The torch; be yours to hold it high.
   If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
         In Flanders fields.