Delaware Bridge

We finally made it to Week 12 in our My Father's World Curriculum. I think we're like in week 20 or so of school, but I'm doing 2nd and 3rd grade book with a Kindergartener and a 1st grader so we're adding a bunch and taking it slow. Week 12 in Adventures starts a study of the US states. We started Delaware first (doing it in order that they were added to the Union). I found this craft to do to go along with it. We didn't have the exact supplies she called for so we improvised. I let them use a low heat hot glue gun. That was very exciting for them. 

I showed them how to use a block as a spacer to space craft sticks evenly. 

Adding the yarn was a team effort.

Here it is completed. I was hoping the kids could just do it all themselves, but I ended up having to help a lot. 

Jack knew exactly what it was for. 

About 10 minutes later.... 

Oh well. That's life with little brothers. I don't think Delaware is going to be calling us for assistance any time soon.

Chore Charts

It seems after the holidays, I get in a mood to reorganize and decorate everything. Chore charts have been #1 on my list to redo for a while. I loved the token jar system, but the chore chart system I had been doing, they've seemed to have outgrown. I was also getting lazy and changing them out daily. I wanted something they could do, that was simple for me (no pockets to resort everyday), something fair, did I mention easy for me?  I had been mulling over ideas for a long time and  finally came up with this: I have 2 chore chart list - both have the basics like make bed, brush teeth, etc, but they differ in chores that I only need 1 person to help with like unload dishwasher, bring dirty clothes to the washer, get the mail, and stuff like that. I made them with places to "check" for an entire week. Then I laminated them, so the kids could mark them with a dry erase.

Do you like my clipboards? I'm just a craft addict. You don't need crafty boards for a chore chart. 

At the end of each day, the kids count their "dots" and get that many tokens in their token jar. We used to have a community token jar, but now the kids have individual ones. At the end of the week, I'll erase the charts and switch them, so that they have new chores. I've added a few new ones from what I did before: quiet bedtime and clean out the van. It's helping with bedtime for sure, and hello? why didn't I ever think of clean out the van before? Now, once a week, a kid will go and get all the trash and toys from the van. Woohoo!!

I have been wanting to start Ben on chores for a long time, too. But I knew I wanted to change our old system, so I just waited on adding him. It took me longer to think of one for Ben. I didn't think he could handle a week's list and of course he needs pictures instead of words, so here's what I came up with:

He moves the card over to the "done" pile when he completes it. If he doesn't do it like he's suppose to, (quiet at quiet time), he has to put the card face down in the "done" pile. At the end of the day, we only count the ones in the "done" pile that are face up. He's still losing several everyday, but he's new at the chore thing. I wanted him to have some "big boy" chores, too, but wasn't sure how to include him in the big boy chart swap list. I decided for now, he can just be their helper. Each day, he gets a card that either says "Help Caedon" or "Help Zane." He's their helper that day. They get the "Ben Pin" on their chart on the day he's suppose to help them. I swap that each day. 

Here's all three hung on the wall. They are in the hall right by their rooms. Notice the wall color? I never have painted it. That's on my "to do" list, too. Maybe 2013 will be the year.

This is their token jars. They are plastic applesauce containers. I'm wondering if they are too small. They are filling up quick! The big boys will get their choice of money or a toy from the toy box when their jar gets filled. Ben gets a toy or download a new game on his leapster. Wonder how long it'd take them to figure out if I just changed the size of the tokens? Haha.

I showed Ca the labels I was making for their jars and he pointed out that his and Z's were "the same". What?!?! He said, "that's Anakin Skywalker, right?" Me: "Yes....oh yeah, they are the same."

Snow Day!!

 First snow of the winter!! I'm always skeptical when snow is in the forecast, but this time, it actually snowed AND stuck. When we woke up this morning, it was already 33 degrees, so I knew that we had to work fast. Got them breakfast and dressed, and then we went outside.That took like an hour.

Zane was the toughest. He stayed out the longest. I think his goal was to build the biggest snowball that he could still carry.

Chris went out to play, too. He helped them build a snowman. 

This was the best picture I could get of all four... 

My niece learned a trick to get Jack to smile. Slap yourself. Yep, that's my boy - falls for the slapstick jokes.

Jack got in on the snowball building business. 

Watch out Ca!!

Everyone had to taste the snow, too 

Afterwards, we all came in and warmed up by the fire. I've learned that if I keep a fire going all day, I can keep our thermostat down really low and the house stays warm. It's nice to have good windows.