Week 3

 Week 3 - 

We have had a busy week! To start, Norah transitioned smoothly to her big girl bed. There has been a whole lot of bickering and fighting amongst the boys. I have to think that some of it may be because the kids are together all the time. All The Time. They even all shared a room. I decided, much to Patrick's dismay, that it was time to move rooms around. We moved Emmett into the room that had been our makeshift office and then switched Norah and Micah's spaces. Patrick informed me that if he was moving the rooms and had to take the crib apart he was not putting it back together ever again. HA. So, ready or not, time for a big bed for the littlest Collins. She has taken to it with no problems. I imagine it might be more comfortable than her crib and crib mattress. Jonah tells everyone that he has "a new roommate". 

She spent her first night in her bed on Saturday and on Monday she turned 2! Yep, another birthday at our house. She had a sweet butterfly birthday and the boys were her biggest fans. 

A homemade vegan, vanilla cake.

Yay for frosting!

Micah studied the Autumnal Equinox and the changing seasons for science this week. We read loads of books and did leaf rubbings! He also managed to get stung by a yellow jacket on Saturday. He stepped on that little sucker with bare feet. Needless to say, the insect did not like that and Micah had a very sore foot for the rest of the day. 

Leaf rubbings

Dinosaur slippers were the least painful footwear after the wasp sting.

Jonah's unit is currently all about apples. These stained glass apples were a fun project that (miracle of miracles) all 4 of them seemed to enjoy! Ah, the fun of contact paper. 

Jonah also continues to work on his letter sounds, identification and formation. 

Emmett wrote all of his vocabulary sentences as they related to Pokemon this week. He needed something to make this more interesting and it took him about 5 minutes to come up with them! I was impressed! His physics wonder this week was related to energy and his engineering wonder was all about levers. I tasked him with making a lever to lift something heavy. Here is the video of him showing me how the lever and fulcrum work. 

One pinkie!?

He also had the pleasure of hanging out with our friends' dog Sunday morning! A huge thank you to Danny, Rory, and Bonnie for making his day. Emmett took wonderful care of Clover. He's petitioning hard for a dog. Oy. 

And Norah girl, she is learning through osmosis I think. She wants to do everything the brothers are doing and I had a moment on Thursday that blew my mind. Emmett and I were sitting at the table working together and Norah brought me the bag of Bananagram tiles. I unzipped the bag and gave it back to her. She went over to the far side of the room and dumped them out. I was not paying any attention to her, other than to make sure she didn't put anything in her mouth that she shouldn't. About 10 minutes later she came over and placed a pile of tiles on the table at my elbow. I flipped all of the tiles over and realized that she had gone through the entire bag and plucked out all of the Rs. I looked at her with amazement and she looked right back at me and said "R" as if I should already know that. Ha. She had been 2 years old for 3 days. Osmosis I tell you. 

The letter R

Norah also has this church thing figured out. 

Our friend Andrea dropped off two honest to goodness fireman's helmets for the boys. 

They are in love.

Thanks Andrea!!

And, just because Norah is excited about the last day of the regular season...

Baseball for life. 

Week 2

 Week 2 - a quick overview of the highlights. 

We completed week two of homeschool with fewer tears and more confidence. Tuesday was Emmett's birthday and he declared it a homeschool holiday so we spent the afternoon at the beach and the evening enjoying Pokemon cupcakes.

10!

A quiet September afternoon at the beach. 

10 candles on one cupcake?!

Pokemon is a favorite. 

Melmetal all the way. 

One of the really cool things that Micah did this week was his 2nd Science Wonder. He studied the layers of the Earth. We made a play-doh model of the Earth with the inner and outer core, mantle and crust and then cut it in half with dental floss so he could see the layers. So cool!

Emmett also had a fun science week. His Wonder number 2 involved working on the physics topics of molecules, atoms, and protons, electrons and neutrons as well as mass and the states of matter. He also dipped his toe into the engineering world with definitions of what an engineer does and the way that engineers see the world in order to solve problems. He designed a ramp (using the principles of wedges and inclines) for his remote control cars and built them out of multiple materials. 

Version number one

Version number 1+2

We are reading "Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH" out loud and both boys seem to be enjoying that. 

One of the things that he has been nervous about in the past is math. He and Micah are following the Eureka Math (Engage NY) curriculum. He has been working hard to learn the place value charts used to do math into the millions place. I am so proud of how hard he works. 

I have been starting Jonah with the Fundations curriculum used in the local school district. We started with A and B this week. He thinks it is very cool that he can write letters! Jonah's most exciting project this week is his countdown to Christmas chart. I will eventually make this into a hundreds chart for him but for now I just created some of our own. If you know this kid, you know he LOVES winter and Christmas. He has been singing Christmas carols since last November and we have had the Christmas books out since May I think. 

Fa la la la la!

Norah is enjoying joining us at the table and will play on the floor, draw and color and sharpen all of our pencils for hours. It's challenging keeping everyone happy and busy on their own things but we are slowly finding a rhythm. More next week!

Always with a guy (binkie)

A brand new journey - Week 1

 It's been a while since I have written here. Life has changed and we are busy! We have embarked on a new journey at our house. In the wake of Covid-19 ravaging the country and our community, we have opted to homeschool for the 2020-2021 school year. We realize that we are in a position of extreme luxury. I am home and not working as a physical therapist and Patrick continues to be employed full time as the senior pastor of a church in New England. Our school district gave two options, we could send the kids full time in person or we could keep them home and they could learn remotely full time. The later option would include zoom lessons and class meetings on and off all day from 8:45a to 3:15p. We knew that we would not be sending them in person as Patrick's job and the vibrancy of the church depends on him staying healthy. I knew in my heart that the zoom option would not be feasible with a toddler and a preschooler. 

So, homeschool it was.

Truth be told, I had been thinking about homeschool and and off since Emmett was in first grade. Patrick has said over and over that the pandemic has accelerated many things. This was not only the best option for our family, but it was a great reason to give it a try.

I did a boat load of research and settled on the Blossom and Root curriculum. I love the secular, gentle nature of it. I love that much of it is done outdoors. I felt like the math component was lacking for us so after talking to Emmett's third grade teacher from last year, I decided on Eureka math or EngageNY. It is what they have been used to and it would help them be able to drop back in to their respective grades next year if that is what we decide. 

Week one was a little rough. The first day (Tuesday) I was sitting at the table and I jumped up to go help Jonah in the bathroom and smacked my head on the slant of the dormer ceiling. I hit it so hard, I knocked myself off my feet. I am fairly certain that I probably had a mild concussion. Oops. That resulted in tears on my part, mostly of frustration, but also of pain and built up anxiety. Day two resulted in tears from Emmett and Micah and then myself after a miscommunication with Patrick. We were on a roll, am I right? Day three and four were better. We still didn't have much of a rhythm down but we will get there. 

Attic School

A few highlights...

Micah lost his first tooth the night before school started! He begged his dad to pull it out. He's 7 and has been waiting and waiting for that first loose tooth. The tooth fairy came with blueberries and quarters. 

The first day of school pictures were taken. One great thing about homeschool... no shoes! For those of you who know my children, you know that this is their normal state most of the year. 8 bare feet, 40 bare toes. That's a lot of toes. Ha. 

4th Grade!

1st Grade!

Preschool!

There is some ongoing discussion in the Collins household as to which year Emmett will be taller than me. It won't be long. 

Micah's science Wonder this week was all about Stardust and the Earth. He made a mobile out of all sorts of things he found and pictures of people he loves. Each of these things are made of stardust, including him! We also took an Earth life walk. I drew out the life of the planet on the sidewalk in chalk. It was the length of a football field and then I drew in events. Each inch of the 100 yards was 1.3 million years. Whait, wait?! Yep, it's true. Then we walked and talked about each of the events on the timeline. Humans arrived 1/8th of an inch from today. The kids were amazed. It helped that I labeled T-Rex. 

Micah's Stardust Mobile

Earth Life Walk

Making words

Norah and Jonah have enjoyed helping me in the kitchen. They love to chop and measure and pour. It's a mess and most of the time I don't mind a bit. I have child knives that are designed to be sharp enough to cut most food things but won't cut their fingers if they slip. A worthy investment. 

We also went for a hike. Emmett and I were looking for physics topics and Micah was tasked with thinking about the Earth. We found this cool hut that someone had built. The kids had a great time exploring.  

Jonah's counting work. 

Collecting acorns in a dumptruck makes things WAY more fun for sure. 

Have a lovely week!