Today we went to Playmobil Fun Park which is about 30 miles from the house. This was the first time we’ve been. It’s $1 to get in but then you are tempted by the store on the way out. I let the kids get one thing and they wanted take a long kits. We met up with some friends there and stayed for more than 2 hours. It was a perfect escape from the S. Florida sun and time to have fun with friends.
A couple of weeks ago, while on our evening walk, we noticed woodpecker holes in a dead palm tree. As we approached, we saw an adult woodpecker leaving the tree and I told the kids to go up to the tree and see if they hear babies. Sure enough! We could really hear them chirping away. We hung around for a while looking and listening carefully. A couple nights ago we stopped back by to check on them and my husband put his camera in the hole and took a quick photo. Looks like there are 2 live babies and one that didn’t make it. We’ll keep an eye on the tree/nest. I love seeing wild life and nature right in the middle our neighbor here in South Florida.
We are fortune enough to have and extra room in our house that we call the school room. We do lots of our activities in there. I have the room set up so the kids can find lots of hands on things to keep them busy. They have buckets of blocks, legos, coloring books, markers, crayons, colored pencils, scissors, hole punchers, and stencils. J has magnet Dolls. There are puzzles and marbles, books…. you get the idea. A couple weeks ago, I just happened to walk into a thrift store and saw a wood table and 6 chairs for $39. The table has 2 leaves and was perfect for our needs. I bought it, and love it! We have been using a large folding table but it’s just too big. Now, I just need to figure out where the kids can put their personal stuff. I keep thinking it needs to be at arms length but that might not happen. Don’t look too closely at the mess. Hehe, the kids just left the room. 🙂
We only have 2 more weeks of swim lessons left and we’ll be missing one of those to go to our local homeschool convention next weekend. We have loved learning water safety and the basics of swimming but it’s a 12 mile drive each week that I’d like to avoid. I wanted J to be comfortable in the pool before we stopped that we’ve accomplished that goal. Very exciting!!! We have a pool in our back yard so we’ll be swimming most afternoons this summer. We’ll probably do some school work in the morning then swim and relax in the afternoon if we aren’t out and about or with friends.
We’ve been sick a lot this year. Probably more than any other year. Yesterday B had a 103 fever before bed and he’s had it on and off this morning as well. We’ll be taking it easy around here for a couple day. Hopefully no one else gets it.
Today we had a class with some homeschool friends at the local nature center. First, we went out and collected 5 flowers we would later press into a book we were making. It’s a great book we can add pages to in the future. Also in the class today we learned about spring showers and how the water cycle works. We have been going over this at home so it was a perfect time for this class. The kids seemed to really enjoy it. This is right up Beluga’s alley. At 3 1/2 that’s all she wants to do. Every time we go outside she’s looking for flowers to pick and bring home. I have a little bud vase she put them in. We keep it on the kitchen table a lot. Many mornings we have woken up to a dandelion seed explosion all over the table. 🙂
Each set of cards completed earns the child a ticket that allows them to do a privilege like watch a TV show or do something on the computer (anything that works for your family).
We only have them do simple daily chores that they should do anyway; make they beds, clean their rooms, clothes into hampers, get dress, brush teeth (with our help). The tickets can also be taken away for discipline for not listen, name calling etc. It’s really worked out well. We don’t expect perfectly made beds but sometimes they do extra well and over time, we hope, it will stick with them and realize that it’s nice to have a tidy area to play and live. Over time we can start to pay them for extra chores completed like taking the trash out. a reward for 10 days without loosing a ticket your child can get a date with whoever they choose. Here, J went for ice cream with Mama
Our Easter was rainy but we made the best of it. We had dinner at GG’s (grandma’s) and had an indoor egg hunt because it was really raining at the time of the hung. We are fortunate enough to be in south Florida so the kids and hubby even got in a little swim….. as it sprinkled.
I haven’t been keeping up. Not even close. Every time I think of doing this I think it will be too much work at that moment and then I never get back to it. I’d love to have a nice history of our days so I’m going really try harder and carve our a little time to do it, MUCH more often. 🙂