Some things we have been up to and a mini book list

It seems like I have been in a little bit of a rut lately. Thankfully I seem to be coming out of it and getting my butt back in gear on getting things done. The boys have been doing really well on there school work this week so that definetly helps. I have pushed off doing any cleaning in the morning and only focusing on school work with the boys. It helped so much that the boys have been getting their school work done by lunch. No more spending all day doing it. That is really nice. Much happier people all around. Gabe spent some time playing in his bean bin for Sensory. He loves to put his whole body in the bin even though he is getting way to big to do that.

The boys sewed pumpkin mats for their sewing projects this week. Sam as usually did a fantastic job all by himself. Gabe did a wonderful job to. I helped him alot with his though because it was his first time not using a plastic needle. The was a point that tears did flow, he got himself with the needle. I had to help a lot to keep him going. All and all the projects came out great.

I had Gabe work on a puzzle for math. This was our only problem so far this week. Normally he is really good about puzzles. He loves doing them, we open the puzzle bin up and he can sit for an hour putting them together. Evidently it is different if they become the school assignment. He fought it the whole day. He ended up finishing it this morning.

For Sam's spelling class we played Hangman. Can you guess what his word was. It is only missing the first letter. It is........Hates. As in he hates having to spell. He loves the game though. LOL.

We are trying to work on his multiplication and division this year. He is having a little bit of struggle with the times tables though. We have tried to have some fun games for him to learn it. He loves any game that he can beat his father or I at, so this is one that I came up with for him. It is Multiplication war. It is played just like regular war with a couple of changes. In order to get the cards he has to multiply them together. He gets one chance. If he gets it right it goes to him, he gets it wrong it goes to us. Most cards at the end wins. He loves it and asked for it again in his lessons.

Gabe has been working on a letter book. Each week I give him a page to color (like in the picture). He colors it than cuts it out and glues it on to a piece of construction paper. Then for a second page he takes a cookie cutter of the letter and uses it as a stamper. He also gets a couple of stampers starting with the same letter. When he is finished I add the new pages to his book and he loves looking through it.

The boys also worked on weaving. They made these great placemats.

For our last Chinese art project (we start Japan next week) I was supposed to make paper with the boys. Unfortunetly I did not have the supplies ready so I asked Sam if he had any ideas to do instead. He suggested tanagrams. Great Idea, so that is what they did.

Space Station Mars by Daniel San Souci. Another recomendation from Sam. He has loved this series of books. The kids at the clubhouse have so many adventures together. This time they thinks that a flying saucer has landed in the neighbors yard and they have to make sure just what it is. Check out www.clubhousebooks.com for some fun activities about the books.

SCOOP! An Exclusive by Monty Molenski written by John Kelly and Cathy Tincknell. Sam recommended this book for the list this week. It is a really cute story about Monty Molenski trying to find a great Scoop for the newspaper. He goes on an investigation following his co-workers. He wants to see what they are up to. See what mystery he digs up on them.

The Only Boy in Ballet Class by Denise Gruska.... Ok so when I saw this book I had to get it. You see Gabe is the only boy in his ballet class. (which he loves that by the way). The book ended up being great though. It is just a wonderful book that shows the child that if you love doing something you should go for it no matter what. You never know what will end up happening if you do.