W-week

We have been studying the letter W this week.  Our Bible story this week comes from Mark 2:1-13 where Jesus heals the paralytic man so he can WALK.  We had fun walking around the school room in different ways:  slow, fast, big steps, little steps, tippy toes, etc.  I made up a little song while we were walking around the room--I've always loved just making up random words to songs when I couldn't remember the real words, and I guess this comes in handy now!

We then painted our Ws with watercolors.  The kids especially enjoyed this activity...I think watercolors are less messy when they use their fingers instead of brushes...not sure why, but they tend not to "mix" the colors into each other as badly this way!





Our board where we brainstormed "w" words...sean wanted to put YMCA up there, and I tried to explain why we couldn't...but it's difficult explaining the complexities of the English language!  He also keeps wanting to call this a double-v instead of double-u...he has a good point, don't you think? 

um, that was supposed to be Jesus walking on the water, BTW!

We then took a "W-hunt" around the house looking for things that start with the letter W.  We found wipes, wheel-loader, watering can, water bottles, Woody, whistle, whale, wrench, washcloth, wheel, watch, and wood....I must admit I helped them out quite a bit on this task, but they still loved it!



A picture with their hunting tub...Lilly cracks me up insisting on wearing her head band around her forehead.  

After story time at the library, we came home to have a picnic lunch.  It was quite Windy (had to plug that in there!) but the weather is beautiful this week!  

Brilee with the wind-swept hair look and green bean mouth.  (Yes, I moved her highchair outside to enjoy the weather so I didn't have to keep Indy, our dog, away as she does when I try feeding Brilee while on my lap!)  Can you believe she will be 9 months old tomorrow and still has NO TEETH???  This is a new one for me as Sean had teeth at 5 1/2 mo and Lilly at 6....I'm really ready for this little girl to be able to eat more finger foods than puffs, cheerios, and things that are soft enough to melt right away...let's get those teeth in soon, baby! 

So glad Sean & Lilly are over whatever stomach bug they had this weekend and we are finally back into a normal routine.  Sean starts flag football at the YMCA this Saturday, and I'm really looking forward to watching him run around on the field!

Sick little ones...

The Youngblood Crew had a pretty eventful weekend!  Grandma & Grandpa Hardison came into town on Friday to visit for the weekend.  The kids enjoyed showing them the greenway and our new garden on Saturday...then things went downhill Saturday night with Sean & Lilly!  Jon woke me up at 11:30 and said, "Honey, Sean just threw up all in his bed."  That wasn't an exaggeration...it was ALL over everything...so thankful that Jon cleaned up the "mess" while I cleaned up Sean and got him changed and cleaned and wrapped up in a towel since he was still cold...that part is important, but even though I hadn't planned it for this purpose, he threw up all into the towel while we were still cleaning up the walls in his bedroom and changing sheets. One less pair of pjs to be added to the eventual 4 sets of sheets, 2 comforters, 6 towels, and several dishtowels that had to be washed!  He woke up again throwing up (and my wonderful husband didn't even wake me up for that round!) and Lilly woke up with wet sheets from where we forgot to put on her pull-up.  Well, she started throwing up then too, but Jon thought it was b/c she saw Sean throw up.

So, he changed both their sheets again (without me! :) then went back to bed only for her to wake up at 4:30 throwing up some more.  It was then I realized how sweet he had been not to wake me for round #2.  We just stayed up at that point and started doing laundry.  We literally did 7 loads on Sunday.  Jon took my dad to church while my mom stayed home with me and the kids.

They were so needy & whiny, I didn't get any pics with grandma & grandpa.  But, today they're mostly feeling better except Lilly is still grumpy and has no appetite.  She's still cute even sick, though!


I just can't resist those still big cheeks!

She loves the new sandals I got for her at the MUMC consignment sale SO much, that she won't take them off...I was so happy with this find, considering I have a hard time finding girl shoes that aren't pink and I'm not a fan of pink and love blue things for girls.  I think it goes well with her blond hair and blue eyes!  

Sean spent the morning linking up his new alphabet cards that I made for him.  I printed them out, laminated them, then punched holes in them.  We're going to start "building words" with them.  I got this very creative idea from a blog called Homeschool Creations.  

We are having our roof replaced today (our insurance policy is paying for it because we had hail damage!)  So, there is a lot of banging going on today.  I'm letting the kids take their naps downstairs (literally as I'm typing this!)  and Sean was super excited for me to pull out the sleeper sofa so he could use his sleeping bag he got for Christmas! 

Lilly couldn't wait for the bag, and fell asleep in the chair she's occupied for most of the past 2 days (hence the towel covering it!)  So, I just covered her up with her blanket.  Brilee is crawling around at my feet while I'm typing.  She's getting to be quite fast with her crawling, and I have to keep her away from everything that the kids' leave behind!  She's a quick one, and notices any little thing on the floor.  I'm going to have to go back to vacuuming 3 times a day!

St. Patrick's Day Fun

I added more pictures from my phone after lunch and they showed up at the beginning of this post...not going to take the time to move them to the end...here are our  shamrock cookies and green lemonade!



We've been having a fun day so far doing St. Patrick's Day activities.  We started off the morning with green waffles (they were a pale green, and Sean was expecting bright green, but he got over the disappointment quickly!) Here's Brilee enjoying her green waffles...

Lilly did not want her picture taken.  Sean ate his so quickly, I couldn't get a picture of him!

They have been playing this Shamrock pattern matching game all this week.  I have found my new favorite is making folder games---they are easy to organize and the kids love them just as much as the board games they got for Christmas!  Sean's favorite shamrock is the polka-dot one, and he is learning a lesson in being happy for Lilly when she gets that one instead of him.



I remembered this idea from when I was in elementary school--potato stamps!  I cut the shape of a shamrock into the potato, and you have an instant stamp!  The kids enjoyed these and we reinforced the concept that the three leaves represent the trinity.





Showing off his stamp



I took these pictures a couple of days ago when we first made our green treasure hunting sensory tub.  I dyed rice green, added split peas and hid pennies inside.  The kids could play with this for hours except for the fact that I cringe when I see rice and peas accidentally fly out of the tub with their "penny pinchers"....it has been limited to 15 min at a time so that all the rice and peas last for longer than this year!



The kids are watching the Veggietales video right now about the history of St. Patrick's Day, then we're going to have green jello, and shamrock shaped sandwiches and shamrock cookies...I think I'll try to enjoy this stage of homeschooling when everything is fun and art/activity based...it takes much less preparation and thinking on my part!

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone!

p.s.--a quick history on our last name, Youngblood.  Jon's family has a whole book tracing their ancestors back to a Scotch-Irish decent with the last name Jonbloedt (had to go look up the spelling quickly there!)  so I feel somewhat of a desire to  have that heritage known to our kids even if this holiday can be skewed away from the spread of the gospel to Ireland!
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V- Victory & Vehicles

We are studying the letter V this week.  The main themes are Victory in Jesus and Vehicles.  The old hymn "Victory in Jesus" was the first song that popped into my head with this word, so I sung it with the kids.  It took me back to the days of visiting my grandma's church where everyone sung it off key and with a very thick southern accent, so it sounded much like, "Ohhh, VIC-tor-EEE in JEE-SUS"....ok, ok, you just had to be there to know what I'm talking about, but it still has some good theology in it.  "He sought me and bought me with His redeeming love..."  That is why I love hymns and am trying to teach them to my children.  

After tracing their own Vs (which I forgot to take a picture of) I made duct tape V's and the kids enjoyed driving their vehicles on the Vs

I am convinced they could have done this for hours...these just might stay down permanently...or maybe not

We made some vehicle snacks...I could have gone the healthier route and made the wheels out of carrot slices, but Lilly always spits out carrots after chewing them up just a few times because she doesn't like the texture in her mouth...and I didn't want to deal with regurgitated carrots this afternoon!









Then the kids enjoyed making vehicle prints with some of Sean's old trucks he plays with in the sandbox...I think they're quite beautiful art, actually!







 

Brilee's Army Crawl

I finally got Brilee crawling on camera--she's been doing this army crawl for a little more than a week now, but she usually stops when the camera is on her!  I enticed her with her little puff snacks this time (yes, I just vacuumed!) which kept her motivated enough to ignore me!  We really need to watch out now that she's mobile to keep little things that Sean & Lilly have (like rocks from outside!) away from her reach!

Shamrocks and the Trinity

We started learning about shamrocks today and how they represent the Trinity.  They practiced their counting using shamrock counting mats (which I need to go get laminated along with some other games I've printed lately) and we have a pot of gold bingo game to play later this week (I know--it doesn't match the real story of the history behind St. Patrick's Day, but it still helps them practice their letters!    We sung the Trinity song (to the tune of Come, Christians Join to Sing) that the kids loved

God the Father, God the Son, God the Sprit 3 in 1.  God the Father loves me so, gave His word so I would know

Three in one and one in three, God the Son, He died for me.  For my sins His blood He gave, then He rose up from the grave. Three in one and one in three, God the Son He died for me.

Three in one and one in three, God the Spirit (can*) live/s in me.  Day/s by day and hour by hour- helps me witness by His power.  Three in one and one in three,  God the Spirit (can*) live/s in me.

*I add this when we sing so the kids' don't think I'm telling them He lives in them when they haven't asked Him to be their savior yet--I do this with MANY Bible songs I grew up with!  I never realized how many of the lyrics could possibly make kids' assume He will live in them just because they've grown up singing those songs!









When it was time for lunch, Sean asked if we could make Triangle pizzas because of the Trinity!  I thought he was very creative to think of that!  I did draw a triangle on the chalkboard to talk about it, so that's where he got the triangle idea, but I was still impressed!  Here are our pizzas:





Yummy!  Good start to our week!

We started learning about shamrocks today and how they represent the Trinity.

Under/Over Day

The kids drew under the table today (on butcher paper, of course!) I think kids really enjoy small spaces, so they really had a blast just playing under the table!  Then, I made an "Under/over Obstacle Course" which they thoroughly enjoyed.  Brilee just watched them, but was eager to try to make her way to them.  She's army crawling a little bit and getting to things, but I haven't been able to catch it on video yet--she always stops and just starts "talking" to me with the camera on her, so I need to catch her unawares at some point!  Here's our pics from today: