Happy Halloween!

Halloween can be so controversial, but for me & my house it is FUN!

We had our own little “school” party yesterday.  It just so happens that we are studying bats & spiders this week in our science curriculum.   *Tyler is totally freaked out by Vampire Bats! In the pictures below the kids were playing a bat game.  Tucker was pretending to be a bat that can’t see good at night & has to rely on his hearing (hints the blind fold).  The bottom picture is of him being a dead bat . . . his hearing wasn’t very good & he flew dead smack into the wall.  Poor poor little bat.  To end our bat-ventures we read Stellaluna for story time. 

Next they got a little creative & made jack-o-lanterns on each others backs using felt cutouts. 

 

 

Tucker decided to take the activity one step further . . .

They enjoyed this so much that they wanted to make more at the table.

Once again Tucker took it one step further . . .

He was quite done with frogs from the day before :)

My Mustangs really enjoyed some spooning/transferring activities:

 

I purchased a pumpkin ice-cube tray at the dollar store, along with the Halloweenish balls & added pumpkin seeds.  They used a spoon for transferring the balls & making patterns.  Then they used kid tweezers to transfer the seeds.  Tucker added a seed to each slot.  Example:  first slot: 1 seed, next slot 2 seeds, then 3 & so on.  So we got math & motor skills done in one activity. 

  

To end our Halloween activities I traced their footprints onto a sheet of white foam & we made a footprint ghost (from Oriental Trading Company).

What a day we had!  Next:  Trick-or-Treating!!

Pumpkin Patch

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It has become a tradition for the kids & I to visit the pumpkin patch in the town I lived in before being imported by Big Daddy to the country.  Yeah, there are great pumpkin patches closer to home, but this one is just soooo much fun . . .

 

Happy Halloween Outlaws!  Mommy Loves You!

Spooktacular Snacks

This week I pulled out all the stops & had a lot of fun putting together a wonderful lunch for our “Halloween Party”.  The boys thought this was the coolest thing ever.  I scored major brownie points (literally).

  

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Here is what was on the mummy-u:

• bat shaped grilled cheese
• mummy hot dogs (hot dogs, croissants, & mustard for eyes)
• rotten eggs (hard boiled eggs, crack *but don’t peel, soak in cold water w/ food coloring – blue & green)
• fingers (string cheese & green olive)
• spiders (Ritz crackers, peanut butter in the middle w/ 1/2 pretzels for legs, raisins dabbed in peanut butter for the eyes)
• caramel apples
• chocolate pudding w/ seasonal sprinkles
• trail mix w/ candy corn
• pumpkin seeds (inside the orange jack-o-snack)
• carved orange (cut a piece out the top, cut small hole for stem- straw or spoon, take the guts out, rinse & carve w/ sharp knife)
• spider-web brownies (brownies, white frosting)
• seasonal cookies
• orange Gatorade

Tot Tote #2

This week we learned about frogs so I decided use this as my next To Go bag . . .

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I gathered frog books we already have:

• The Icky Sticky Frog
• Little Green Frog
• The Frog Goes Ribbet
• The Tiny Tadpole
• Frog Belly Rat Bone (for Momma’s Boy)
• Frog & Toad books (for Momma’s Boy)
• Uncover A Frog – Take a 3-dimensional look inside a frog

Then I added some of our plastic toy frogs for them to play with, as well as their new frog paper sack puppets they just made.

I also included a few educational items. Such as, frog life-cycle sequencing cards & an easy to assemble frog model.

These To GO bags have been working wonders. We have used them in the car, waiting rooms, & church. It is so nice to have a ready-made activity bag for those spur-of-the-moment times.

This Girl . . .

She is AmAzInG!

She is a wonderful big sister.

A very loving child.

Tender hearted.

Fun & trendy.

Sooo sooo silly!

A beautiful reader.

God loving.

A huge helper.

A girly-girl, with enough spunk to keep up with her brothers & all the extra boys that run around here.

Her daddy's girl.

Our world . . . it just wouldn't be the same without her.

She is sooo much work, but worth every second of it.

She just amazes me!

These Boots Were Made For Workin'!!

Having a large family & living on a farm, my outlaws have more chores than most kids probably do. There are many responsibilities that a farm entails & in order for things to run smoothly we all must pitch in. We have used several chore systems & none at all at times, but this year we decided to add a reward system to our children's chores. Big Daddy is more of what I call a "By God" dad. "By God, because I said so!" He thinks electricity & food is a big enough reward; however, it was clear that one of our children wasn't seeing the big picture. You know, the tree house, 4-wheelers, petting zoo we have going on here . . . Anyway, he reluctantly agreed to pay them, but not with REAL money.

We made a list of all the chores the kids do. We discussed how much we thought each chore should be rewarded with daily. Then we presented it to our kids & negotiated a price - a process that will help them with future jobs & also be able to defend/explain the value they bring to a job. Basically, a buckaroo buck is worth 1/2 the value of a true dollar.

I explained this system HERE, but I didn't think to share specific chores & wages.

Tyler volunteered to do the majority of the outside chores. Tyler's jobs & pay are:

• Let goats out (sun shine, rain, sleet or snow) .75 *this varies when we have a nanny with babies in a separate pin.
• Feed & water goats & chickens .75 *this varies as well when we have baby chicks in a separate pin.
• Clean goat pin (YUCK!!) 1.00
• Pick up the yard 1.00
• Make your bed .10
• Brush your teeth .10
• In bed on time .25

Taylor's jobs & pay are:

• Dishes (am, lunch, pm - depending when she is home) .50 each *I wash cookware, but she does tableware.
• Laundry - folding & puts away hers & Trevor's .75
• Trash - .10
• Clean room - .25
• Make bed - .10
• Brush teeth - .10
• In bed on time - .25

Tucker's jobs & pay are:

• Brush teeth - .25
• Make bed - .10
• Feed dogs - .25
• Gather chicken eggs - .25/.50
• Pick up poop - .50
• Clean room - 1.00
• In bed on time - .25

Trevor's jobs & pay are:

• Brush teeth - .25
• Make bed - .10
• Clean room - 1.00
• Feed cat - .25
• In bed on time - .25

Each of our kids have their own boots with the price on the back:

I also have "extra" chores such as:

• make an extra bed - .25
• wipe off the kitchen table - .25
• pick up the living room .50
• make baby wipes .25
• clean my truck out .50

& then there are those spur of the moment things, "go get me this, hold the baby, etc." that I try to reward them for. Sometimes they just do it & never even think to hit us up for money, other times they totally negotiate. They are all pretty good about being thoughtful kids, & say "mom, you don't have to pay me for that . . ."

This system really seems to be working for us. Our kids are pretty spoiled & have a lot of things most kids don't; however, our kids also have more responsibilities than a lot of other children. You can click HERE to see how they spend their buckaroo bucks at our General Store. Basically, we really aren't giving our kids anything other than privileges they already had. We are just using this system so they are able to see that their chores & responsibilities are partly why they have what they have. Shh, they don't know that though.

School on the African Savannah

The past 6 weeks we have been studying animals of the African Savannah. Last week one of the animals we studied was the giraffe. I just so happen to remember that our local zoo (Frank Buck Zoo) has a public giraffe feeding every morning. So I was a totally cool mom & despite everything that could possibly go wrong, going wrong that day, I managed to surprise my class with breakfast at IHOP & an impromptu trip to the zoo. I packed all our books & we studied about giraffes overlooking the "African Savannah" . . .

Right after we fed them that is . . .

We had a blast! Their tongues were sooo long & they were actually rather playful. Aren't they beautiful? I just love what an awesome Creator we have. Giraffe's are one of my favorite animals. They loved being fed & we loved feeding them.

Here are some of the other animals we saw . . .

Now how many kids can say they've done school on an African Savannah? Mine can!

My Oldest & My Youngest

I am the luckiest mommy in the whole wide world!

Motor Skills With Carrots

While stocking my montessori center this summer I came across this carrot pealer at Target & knew immediately I had to add it to my collection for my monkeys mustangs. Tucker has been begging to use it. Since he was very good about reminding me to buy "big" carrots at the grocery store they got to use it this week. I was very impressed with how easy this was for them to use & how much fun they had in the process. They both pealed their carrots perfectly.

This is an inexpensive, quick, easy, & healthy way to entertain your little ones while you are in the kitchen - it doesn't get any better than that!

Frontier Village Field Trip

I took my outlaws to Frontier Village a couple weeks ago (the pictures have been stored on my cell phone ever since *can you believe I left without my camera?! ) These pictures aren't the best quality, but the memories were made despite the lack of pictures.

The boys really were excited about this field trip, but they dressed the cowboy part & had to have the cowboy look to go with it :)

We toured several old homes & other buildings (schoolhouse, church, courthouse, barbershop, general store, and dentist office). The houses were so homey. If only walls could talk. I'd love to hear the stories of the families that once lived in them. Many of them were very similar to our house (in its original state). I had never seen an original frig before. I just loved it! It doesn't even look like a refrigerator. Too cool! One of the houses we went in was about the size of my bedroom & we were told a couple raised 14 children in that home. OMGoodness!! Life then was a different kind of simple than today's living. I wish I could impart some of that simplicity in my own life & family. My favorite was the school house. It was so small with the coolest old desks. I'm always fascinated by old school houses. The courthouse was unbelievably little. I knew Big Daddy would get a kick out of that. I'll have to tell you about our local court house sometime. Anyway, Trevor really like the jail on the go. I asked Big Daddy if he could make me one to pull behind my suburban for our outlaws, but he said something about CPS & child abuse . . .

We have been going on several field trips lately. I can't wait to share more of our journeys! I'll try not to trap the pictures inside my phone again.

Candle Makin' With Momma's Boy

Momma's Boy is learning all about American history in our Tapestry of Grace studies this year. We are studying Year 2 units 3 & 4 (taking 2 calendar weeks per 1 TOG scheduled week). As one of our colonial projects we decided to make candles. We had a great time!

I purchased 1 pound of wax from Hobby Lobby, chopped it up & placed it in a metal soup can 2/3 full of water. Then we submerged the can in a sauce pan of boiling water. We melted the wax completely & added a green crayon for color. *I could have added scented oils, but opted not to. Once everything was melted we just dipped & dipped & dipped & dipped the wick into the wax & rotating from the hot wax into another jar of cold water. When we got tired of dipping we decided to pour the remaining wax/water mixture into a glass (spaghetti sauce) jar to make one big candle & we placed a long wick in the center. This weekend we are going to have a candle-lit dinner :)

We had a wonderful time & made some pretty interesting candles . . . And we did not decide to play in the warm wax or make finger moldings at all. I would never let my kid stick his finger in hot wax!

M: Mmm Mm Mmm

Last week my mustangs were introduce to "Mmm Mm Mmm" M.

We are have a great time with our letters this year. The boys are much more interested in learning them this time around. Last year they had very little interest. I was worried Trevor wouldn't be able to keep up with Tucker, but he is doing wonderfully. I will have to post a video of them & their letter sounds soon.

This week for the letter M we had some fun with Marshmallows. I gave the boys small & large marshmallows in a bowl with 2 different colored pails. I told them to separate them. Next they painted their large M's & glued marshmallows on them. Their M's are "camo" can you tell?

We also read If you give a moose a muffin. And if you read If you give a moose a muffin to mustangs, they are going to want to make muffins. :) And if you make muffins, they are going to want to eat the muffins. Eating the muffins with make them thirsty, so they will want a glass of milk to go with them . . .

What better manipulative for M week to use for some sorting, counting, & adding activities than M&M's?!

We had a great week with the letter M . . . E is next. Stay tuned it will be exciting!