Lentil and Other Fun Things

We read the book Lentil-a book I'd never even heard of. Most of the books we'll be reading I've never heard of/read. 

It was a cute book about a boy who wants to sing, can't even whistle and becomes an expert harmonica player. He becomes the hero when the town grouch sucks on a lemon, which makes the band players pucker up and unable to play their instruments. 

We learned: what a piccolo, trumpet, cornet and tuba are; the pledge of allegiance; Star Spangled Banner; how to whittle; what expert and whittle, and pucker actually mean; which parts of our tongues taste salty/sweet/bitter things; what things are necessary to keep a town functional (grocery store, water treatment plants, casa mexico). 

We had so much fun with this book. On Monday Spence and Bethany were in town and did school with us. The boys thought it was awesome to have someone else attend school with us. We love them! 

She loves shoes. 

I got her hair stuck in the comb-it was dumb. 

His imagination is really funny. 

Ivory soap. It smells.

Our town of cans. 

China

Following our study of Ping, I thought we would do a week in China. I now have a desire to see the Yangtze river-and that is the only part of China, so far, that I'd like to see.

We learned about tai chi, kung fu, dragons, Chinese new year and their parades, the great wall, some animals that live in China, Chinese instruments (including this weirdly awesome dance) and our Chinese animals (Cedrik is a tiger [which is so insanely fitting for him], Freddie and me are rabbits, Eloise is a snake, Marie is a sheep, and Jordan the ox). We watched kung fu panda a couple of times, which resulted in all out kung fu tickle wars. The boys helped me make a stir fry, which also included trader joes plant chicken-so good. Best stir fry sauce this house has ever had.

It was a pretty productive week. I put their first lap books together and they put them in their binder. They are so proud.

Spirit of Boise

"Hot air balloons, hot air balloons, they float up in the sky. Bghhhhh, bghhhhh."

This is one of a few songs Jordan has made up that he sings to the kids each night, mainly in the summertime (in a high falsetto voice).

We love the hot air balloon festival. Afterwards, we get bagels for breakfast. This has become one of my favorite traditions and I'm glad the kids enjoy it so much. Each year it seems we get some cold weather and always have to bundle up. There were quite a few new balloons this year which made it even more fun!

School Has Begun: Ping

We started off the week by picking flowers and taking school pictures. 

We read The Story of Ping. It was a great book about a little duck who runs away from a problem and has to deal with the consequences.  Very practical for the boys lives right now. 

We learned a tiny bit about China (we'll learn more next week). Practiced writing and math. We studied water reflections, which the boys picked out on their own when we went to the reserve. We also watched ripples in the water and even saw what we thought was a beaver. 

The boys spent some hard earned money at target and Freddie finally bought his bubble machine (which happened to be on clearance!). 

 We are all so happy to have our routine back. This week has been much calmer. 

Week Before School

She loves to copy them.

Elder Henstrom