Other January Activities

Car Wash

This is one Drue's requests often. It's great for an indoor activity. :)

Pizza Game Night Picnic

We have made Sunday afternoons our usual family game time. This particular night we ran behind for some reason, so had to have supper at the same time.

Lego Quiet Time

Lorelei is a big fan of Legos. Until now, she usually did them alongside Brad because it is something he enjoys. This latest kit she got for Christmas, she started working on during her quiet time and was thrilled to discover she could follow the directions on her own. I was so proud of her and loved seeing her proud of herself too.

YMCA Jump Zone

What better to do on a winter Saturday afternoon then spend 2 hours going down a bounce slide? Seriously. They even got me to go a few times. :) There was also a bounce obstacle course and regular bounce house, but the slide was definitely their favorite this time.

Indoor Pool Time

Another mom told me about an indoor pool less than 5 minutes from our house. It is in a hotel, but they let locals pay $5 per person to just swim. The kids were super-excited and had a blast. The big pool only goes down to 4ft, so Lorelei could touch (very high tiptoes) everywhere. It was so freeing for her to know she could swim all over the pool. She continues to get more confident in the water each time we go. Makin likes the security of his floaty, but had a blast, especially going down the slides. Its so nice to have this sanity break so close to home!

100th Day Of School
I mentioned this earlier in the school post, but had to share this pic from right after school. :)

Warm Spell
We were sooooo thankful for a little warm spell in January! Temps got to the low to mid 60s.
A rare treat for Nebraskans! We enjoyed every minute we could fit in getting outside. We went to the park, played in the sand, jumped rope, threw a frisbee, blew bubbles, played soccer and drew with chalk. Winter is rough on us, so I'll take any small breaks of sunshine that we can get!
(Side note: Makin is an excellent frisbee thrower. I finally noticed that he throws it left-handed! I'm now curious to see if he adds anything else to his lefty list. :) )

Lincoln Children's Museum Visit

You may remember how much I absolutely love Lincoln Children's Museum. It is definitely one of the best. It had been almost a year since we have been. We like to go in the winter as a great indoor fun activity. This visit we paired it with me dropping off Brad and the kids so I could run a few errands for a couple of hours, and then joining them for the last two hours. It worked wonderfully and we all had a great time. It wasn't even too crowded for a Saturday. :)

The grocery store. They loved getting all their items and Makin always loves the scale at our real store so it was fun to try one out as much as he wanted here. At the check out, there was a book you could scan your items with, and some items had a bar-code attached to scan. You could also put how many of that item you had. So fun and realistic for them!

This pizza place was adorable. There were menus to order, and then every topping fit together. They loved making me pizzas.

This was a little bank, and they could send up scarves in the clear tubes. There was another child on the other side and they really enjoyed talking to him through the speaker and asking him to send certain colored scarves to them.

Lorelei's favorite was the prairie dog holes. (Guessing my dad is going to get a kick out of that one!) She loved climbing in and out in different spots. She also enjoyed painting her face and putting rubber bands on the geoboard.

Makin's favorite was the "marble thing" which is kinda like a huge marble run, but the balls aren't actually marbles. I would love one of these in my house. Its completely fascinating and relaxing at the same time. :)

One of the only driving pictures I got this visit! :) Loved the realistic noises it made!

Great way to spend a Saturday.

School Update

I know I have been totally slacking when it comes to school updates. I'm not really sure why, but its not something that I feel that excited to write about!

Lorelei still absolutely loves school. She loves the social aspect and adores her classmates. I'm not a huge fan that she is now picking up a few bad habits from them as well, but I guess it comes with the territory. :)

She loves learning. She needs to work on her reading, but I also don't like pushing it. I'm not a huge fan of requiring all this reading in K. She has a reader she practices several days a week, but she usually only has the patience to read it once, (on a good day three times) each day she brings it home. She gets very frustrated and thinks she should just be able to read easily. :) She is very good at sounding out words, as well as using the pictures for word clues. I think she will get caught up (although in the "old" days she would be doing perfectly fine for her age!) eventually, but right now its a little slow-going for our taste. :) She is doing a great job trying her hardest. (Although this mom would prefer her stay a little more calm while reading! :) )

I took a couple of videos so you can get an idea of her reading. Sorry they are kinda long and not that exciting! It doesn't help that I let her have a snack while she was reading either! :) The first is the story part of her reader. We read the blue words and she read the black. They also practice this in school. She gets an m&m and sticker for each time she reads. The other part of her reader is the list of words on the back page, which is the second video.

Each month they have a family project. This month, they were supposed to make a unique snowman. Lorelei came up with the idea of a snow turtle, and then added "it would be cool if his head would go inside" so we figured out how to add that feature. :) Love her creativity.

They don't have the typical grading scale at this age, but she has mostly all S+'s, so that is great. Her teacher said she is a joy to have in class.

She was very excited last week, because their teacher brought in tea and crumpets. (I believe following a Social Studies unit on England.) She seems to really like the social studies lessons. She is also very excited she now knows how to count by 10's and the beginning steps of telling time. :)

Monday Lorelei's class celebrates the 100th day of school. She had to bring part of a trail mix they are going to make, so counted out 100 marshmellows. She grouped them by 10s and then counted by 10s to 100. They also had to bring 100 of another item that they are gluing to a poster, so she counted out 100 sequins.

Even super heros have to do their homework.

I suppose Makin is due for an update as much as his sister. :) He and Drue are great with their school work routine. However, because he learned everything so quickly with his sister, he now doesn't really want to push himself. I have given him folder games to work on that are what he should be working on next (ex. Put the numbers in order from 1-20, which he IS capable of doing) and he complains "Mom always expects me to the do the hard stuff." So we are working on his attitude. I feel like I'm slacking a bit because Drue is not on his level so its harder for me to do two totally different lessons at the same time. We are very limited to 1 hour, because we are watching a 2 year old two hours on Drue days as well, limiting our school time. He is getting much better on his name practice, so at least that's progress. :)


These are the letter booklets we do each M/W. These two are not big on writing/coloring, so we do these little song/rhyme booklets. They especially love the ones we can do with actions. :) We just finished "K" and we usually wait until Drue can ID the letter before we move onto the next...and I'm trying not to worry that we are only on K! She seems to be getting them a little faster now. They also do zoo phonics, and hopefully I'll get a video of that when they know all the letters. Makin already knows them all from last year, but its great to keep him practicing and he still enjoys it.

After our letter books we have learning games.This one is an Upper/Lower letter match. This is where Makin gets a little frustrating at times because he thinks they are too hard. Each child has different games, so I'm usually helping each one as needed.

As far as his out-of-home teachers go, he is a favorite with them. At family night I have been told "I wish I had ten of your kid in there!" :) He is also doing much better this round of Y Move Jr, and although he is nervous most Y mornings, he is less distraught going into his class and always tells me it was fun when he is done.

I'll try not to wait 100 days for the next school update. But no promises. ;)

Snow

The book "Snow" is one of our favorites. If you haven't read it, add it to your list! :)

We got more snow a while back, and it finally warmed up (not much) enough it didn't feel like parental neglect to let the kids play outside. Again, they are on such a roll playing together, they didn't even seem to mind I didn't go out with them. I cut carrots for supper and cleaned the bathroom while they played for 1 1/2 hours! They made the entire snowman themselves with the exception of me getting them the supplies. Makin came in (probably liking a chance to warm up!) asking for a carrot and raisens. We also added Nilla waifers for buttons and almonds for eyes. I also suggested the hat, scarf and mittens. :) They did such a great job building it on their own!

This is the part where "Snow" comes in...they said, "His name is Ned!"

I had to smile, it was the name of the snowman from the book. :)

A couple of days later they came in laughing with huge chunks of snow.

"We're saving it for another day!"

Another scene from the book.

I now have snow chunks in my freezer...maybe we have read the book too many times. ;)

More Fun In The Snow...

This girl just loves playing in the snow. There were many days she begged to go out and I just watched her from the window because it was too cold for my taste. This day, it finally warmed up to 40 something, so I braved it. The bottom right she said, "Look a snow guitar!" 

She has had a blast playing in the snow at school. As long as the temp/windchill is over 20 they go outside for recess. She has had so much fun building things with her classmates and teacher. From what I understand they have even had some extra-long recesses! Much deserved after weeks of not being able to go out!

When they made the snowman and I was taking pictures I asked Lorelei to give the snowman a kiss because I remembered this picture from when she was two, so had to throw it in. :)

And what does Makin love to do in the snow? Why, throw snowballs, of course! He had lots of fun throwing them at the fence, backyard, etc, and his mother of until she had enough.

And he managed to hit my camera multiple times. One of the times he just laughed and said, "Good thing it's waterproof!" :)

Hibernation Activities Thus Far

December 4th Makin said, "Mommy, when is it going to be done being cold?"

Poor guy!

And

Amen.

At least we know he is ours! ;) We have no desire to go out with these temps and have stayed inside a lot, with the exception of the snow adventures.

Here is what we have been busy with so far.

This particular day I remember being worn out and out of patience, so somehow that ended up with us coloring with colored pencils in the top of the tree. Did you know sharpening pencils is good therapy? :) Then we eventually decided we needed some hot chocolate too, and the kids each drew a cup of hot chocolate for their art project. :)

Obviously we think chocolate is a way to fight the winter blues! :)  

This is another day of hot chocolate! :)

We stay busy playing with Legos

Big...

Or small... :)

The trampoline in the basement is a great way to burn off energy, 

and adding a basketball hoop adds to the fun!

Lorelei does great during her quiet time, and I am so excited! She is finally getting more into playing with dolls! The pic on the left is when she asked to set up a tea party for her stuffed animals and dressed them up, and the one on the right is her with a baby doll. So happy she is finally enjoying these types of things. :)

Fun game time with my little man. Love Hot Hoops!

What else to do after supper but fun with shadows??? :)

My kid's kitchen breakfast of pancakes, bacon, a strawberry and coffee. :) 

They love pretending to have a restaurant.

Next week Makin starts Y Move Jr, so I realized this was a rare chance for a coffee date on Thursday.  We worked on his tic tac toe skills and looked at an "I Spy" book. Makin had a great time at storytime as well. The Thursdays following we go right from the Y to storytime. :)

Nothing like the quiet bliss of a new batch of library books. :)

Happy day - Makin finally likes Halo/Cuties/Clementine oranges! :)

The kids are on a big tent kick lately. :) 

I am so loving the 4 and 6 age combination...they are often on such a roll playing together!

Winter Zoo Visit

Our Christmas break was very mellow and low key for the most part. Since we traveled for Christmas, it seemed nice to stay home the week after. I don't even know the last time we spent so many days at home. I'm not saying it will be the new norm, but it was a good fit for this week. After working a lot around the house on extra projects like taking down Christmas, reorganizing storage areas, adding dress up hooks (thanks to Brad) and finally adding canvases to the playroom walls, we rewarded ourselves with a fun day at the zoo for Lorelei's last day off. We also wanted to make sure and take Drue along for the fun, another reason for the Monday trip. Alea met us at the zoo, and it was nice to have another adult along to help and chat as well. We joked about how long it took going in and out of each building and getting their coats on and off each time, but it was a huge help to have her to cut down the coat time!

We saw so many new things this visit.

At the Aquarium, we saw the zoo keeper feeding the penguins fish.

Nose-to-nose with sting ray and jelly fish. :) These two fish they particularly liked this visit, the top left looked like it had a mask like a super-hero, and they liked the blue and green colors of the bottom right, and requested I take both pictures. ;)

This is what it was doing outside... :)

We went to the rain forest and finally got to see a sloth, and we also saw the sloth in kingdom of the night, even eating food. He moved a little faster than I expected. Lorelei loves this part of kingdom of the night with the little pond of fish. :)

We ate lunch while watching the monkeys in the jungle.

And really big firsts...baby lion cubs and a baby orangutan. They were all born in November, so they were such a fun age to watch.