The Hardest Afternoon of Freddie's Life

Everyone should know by now the boys get paid to work. Mostly it's little things like trash and cleaning their room, picking up toys, etc. Sometimes, we have harder labor for them. Yesterday, Jordan took out the edgers from the front yard (hooray!) and the boys hauled them back to the back patio. We had to keep reminding ourselves that Freddie is a year younger than Cedrik, and his muscles are too. BUT he worked so hard. It was the most effort he has exerted in his life. On top of the physical exertion, he was traumatized by the bugs. Potato bugs don't bother him. But, ants and worms do.  I think his eyes started playing tricks on him and he started getting even more concerned about the mud on the edgers. They worked together and thankfully, no one was hurt.

 Cedrik yelled a lot trying to get Freddie to help, pay attention and do things his way. Freddie whined and cried the whole time. But when they were done, they were both beaming at how hard they had worked. Cedrik earned enough money to pay for his new scripture bag that he begged for and he took it to church today. Freddie earned enough to buy some more gum. :) 

Space continues

We continued our space study into this week-a lot more relaxed too.

They made comets with glitter and I think they would use glitter every day if they were allowed. 

On Monday we got totally side-tracked (or maybe were put on the right track) with YouTube videos about the International Space Station.  The boys loved seeing inside and obviously the floating of everything and flying around was amazing to them.  Then suddenly Cedrik disappeared and returned with his helmet and jacket. He was ready to be an astronaut.  Freddie followed suit and we converted their room into a rocket (the closet) and made the bunk beds the ISS. The rest of the morning they ran around the house turning lights on and off-beeping when the electric had gone out and running back to the ISS to fix it.

We studied the moon and learned that it doesn't make its own light. They used oreos to make the different moon shapes. This has had them turning all of their food into moons. 

On Friday they went to the planetarium with Jordan. They had a "man-date," Cedrik called it.  There were a couple of other kids but according to Jordan, Cedrik answered most questions that the lady asked and got most of them right! Jordan was surprised that he remembered so much-even after she rotated the sky. I am surprised he spoke up. A boy at the beginning proudly told the lady which school he went to. Cedrik asked throughout the show if he could tell her that he did school at home-Jordan told him he could when it was over. So, when it ended, he went up to her and proudly told her he learned everything in his school at home. :) This is one of those moments I will remember and I hope he continues to be happy to do school at home. He said he was happy he knew what she was talking about. :) 

I took Jordan's advice and stated doing their "core" things after Eloise was in bed-and one at a time. Freddie thrives with one on one attention. His colors finally came together this week-I did relate it to food and I think that helped.  Cedrik is doing so well writing and he can identify almost all of the alphabet phonetically-most of the rest of the letters coming together this week. Freddie surprised me by drawing a triangle, without promting, and it was so good! He definitely got the artistic talent Jordan has. 

Cedrik in a rocket

Freddie's polar express, with the light shining on top, the track to the side. 

A Dad Who Works From Home...

... Plays from home.

Jordan said that last week at church the men were discussing how life can be difficult working and then coming home and juggling the different parts of their day. He said that he couldn't relate at all and was happy for that.

He gets to be with the kids almost every morning (and lately he's been making us a smoothie every day too).  The kids get to run out to share with him exciting things they're learning... Or to have a break from me. We break up his day with random stories and sometimes he comes inside just to hang with us and see if we're doing anything fun. On Friday he took a little bit of time in the morning and ripped out another juniper -yay- And the kids played outside. Then he asked us to ride with him to Caldwell, which isn't a scenic drive by any means but on the road Freddie said "mom, this is a really nice drive." And it was.

Our days are so interconnected with his. I love that we basically get 3 meals a day together and still can't seem to see each other enough. He is such a good Dad and husband. I'm so happy with his profession. :)

Space is Cool

Space week was awesome. We'll be continuing it this next week and especially focusing on the moon and earth and gravity. But, we need to revisit some concepts from last week and we never found time for our comet art. 

We also started back up with our artist and musician. This month we're studying Bach and Jacque Louis David. 

We started the week with meteors comets and stars. We only slightly touched on the planets because they were so fascinated with the other three. We learned some constellations and made a constellation book that they can use with a flashlight.  We did talk about an orbit and made our own orbit paths with yarn. Cedrik also asked-un prompted- "when we go around the sun, it gets dark?" He thought the sun moved away from us and then came back. So, we made a paper earth, put a dot for us in Boise and used a flashlight so he could see how we rotate. I think he's figured out the sun doesn't move, but we'll be reviewing that next week. I love that he's starting to ask questions because he's thinking about things on his own. Last year he loved the facts. This year has been different because he's picking which facts are important to him and expanding them. 

When we studied comets I made a comet quickly and we used the hair dryer to signify the sun and what happens as the comet passes by. Freddie volunteered to be the sun while Cedrik orbited around him. Then he suddenly leapt up, went into the kitchen and grabbed two straws. Then he announced that he was a "sabertooth sun" while he was sticking the straws into his mouth. Obviously, sabertooth tigers are still big around here. 

We made "star" muffins with white chocolate chips and talked about the different colors of stars. They basically made the whole thing themselves and were so proud. Freddie still guesses most of the colors. Maybe food is the key to making knowing colors important enough for him to remember. 

This entire week our house has been lived in-aka-a total mess. This included discovering red crayon all over the dryer and stained jeans and pants. I have learned how to get crayon out of clothing, though. Also, Eloise made it to the potty and pulled off her diaper to poop. She couldn't quite get herself onto the potty (she was trying to get onto the big one) and ended up pooping next to it. No one noticed, until Freddie did because he stepped in it. We had a really good laugh. We've had a lot of fun and the weather has been amazing. 

We met new friends down the street who we met at the library and then played with after naps. And the boy next door, Atticus has become a new friend too. 

 

We got the first How to Train Your Dragon book. We read the first two chapters yesterday and Freddie declared that how to train your dragon 2 is his favorite movie. It's his first favorite anything. :)  I also found Cedrik reading a book to Freddie and it was so sweet. We started reading lessons again. He really does have the ability, and I think he almost wants to read for himself...almost. 

A Kickstand

Best day ever. The FedEx delivery man even gave him the package. Then Freddie was overheard telling the mail man to bring him a kickstand. :)