House Full of Munchkins

Max’s favorite part of the parade was the planes

Reid’s favorite part of the parade

This summer was brutal, but the fall was lovely. We took advantage of the gorgeous weather and went to a local play village with structures just the right size for the 6 and under crowd.

Eleanor was so excited

Max explores

Reid wasn’t happy about the group photo, he wanted to move right along to the candy.

A trip down Halloween memory lane

Chris in 2002

Lucas 2003

Evelyn & brand new Reid in 2007

Reid in 2008 (we got good use out of this ninja costume!)

Evelyn 2008

2009

2010

One of the ideas that I loved from our time using Oak Meadow was the seasonal table. The buffet in our kitchen is usually a catchall for paperwork and quickly becomes cluttered. We decided to have the kids make some art projects and see if it helped keep the space clear of clutter. It worked! As a bonus, the kids loved moving the decorations around each day for a new look.

Before

After

Art in progress. This was Max’s first time with paint.

Reid kept all his colors separate

Eleanor preferred to mix hers

Evelyn’s pumpkin

Eleanor was not happy when art time was over

Max was very excited about his first trip to the pumpkin patch

Chris wasn’t overly impressed by the pumpkins and spent his time drawing Minecraft worlds

Hardly my baby girl anymore, she’s grown so much this past year

This fall we visited both the Heard Museum and Dinosaur Valley State Park. There is something so magical about dinosaurs, especially to the younger set of our kids.

I get asked this question a lot. It’s definitely a work in process, but we’ve developed a pretty good routine over the past year. Aubrey and I look through the week’s lessons and determine which ones need to be done one on one with Evelyn because the material is complex or wouldn’t be interesting to the younger kids. The other lessons we plan to do with all the kids. At Evelyn’s level many of the activities have coloring or writing that can easily be adapted for the younger kids as well. If we can do it as a group I sit them down after dinner and they do school while I clean up the kitchen. Evelyn can do most of her work independently, but I am close by if she has questions. She typically does math in the afternoon when the younger kids are napping and we do spelling lessons on Sunday mornings. We save any longer lessons or things that require her to have a long stretch of parental assistance for the weekends when both parents are home.  I documented tonight’s activity because it was a good example of how they can work together but on very different levels.

****

The instructions were to color leaves in the order they fell off the tree. There was a numbered list on the left that explained that the first leaf was red, second was orange, etc. Then, after all the leaves were colored the student was to cut it out and place it on an accompanying graph.

****

Eleanor’s take (age 2) :

She wasted no time in snatching a box of crayons and coloring all over her paper.

When she finished coloring she crumpled her paper into a ball and gave it to Max to play with.

****

Reid (age almost 4):

He colored all his leaves and attempted to cut them out. He hasn’t held a pair of scissors since the time he cut his hair to the scalp. I was nervous but he did very well.

Halfway through cutting he got mad at his scissors, threw his paper to the ground and walked off to play Legos with Max.

****

Evelyn (5 1/2):

She read the instructions herself. Clarified which way she was supposed to count the leaves and got to work.

It never fails. Even with three identical boxes of crayons someone insists that someone else has better colors than they do. Every time.

The completed project

****

So there you have it, three different takes on the same subject. Now, don’t get me wrong, we have our fair share of younger children running off with art supplies (especially the dry erase markers) and not every evening goes as smoothly as this. Sometimes the little kids watch Martha Speaks or Electric Company while Evelyn works on school. It’s not perfect, but it’s worth the hard work. Watching them learn from each other is wonderful. Right now they truly enjoy spending time with each other and I know it may not always be that way so I am glad they will have these memories and photos to look back on in the years to come.

4 days, 7 performances, 3 children to dress and keep clean. Phew! It was a blast. We joined the Alpine Dancers group in January and have practiced weekly since then. I have to say, it was so much fun to spend 4 days with the kids and parents of this group. Despite the heat and well needed rain the kids danced their hearts out and remembered their stage smiles. We are looking forward to McKinney Oktoberfest next weekend.

****

Eleanor surprised all of us. As soon as the music started she grabbed Reid’s hand and marched right out there to dance in front of hundreds of people in the main tent.

****

****

Authentic costumes from head to toe

****

Water break

****

At the last performance I asked Eleanor if she was going to dance. She smiled sweetly and said, “Nope. Ella will sit”. She deserved the break!

Reid started pre-school in early September. We are so excited to be going back for the third year in a row. I did some calculations and realized that we will have a pre-schooler from 2009 through 2017. Our poor teacher will need a long vacation after the Power Legacy ends. He goes two days a week for two and a half hours and so far loves his class. It’s a great opportunity to work on some of the more complex topics with Evelyn at home without Reid “helping” .  Plus, they can do all kinds of messy crafts that I don’t have to clean up