December 21 - January 8

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston's favorite thing the past few weeks was finishing "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince."  He loved it!  He said it is his second favorite book so far.  He just started "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" and is excited to finish the series.  The cool part about finishing book 6 is it put him over his 50 chapter book mark.  We had an agreement that he would earn a Lego set after he read 50 chapter books.  We later amended it to define a chapter book as 200 pages for the larger books he was reading.  He finished his "50th book" at the end of December meaning he read approximately 10,000 pages this past year, which was a HUGE accomplishment for him.  He earned a Ninjago Lego set and put it together in no time at all.  It came with an exclusive mini-figure "Pink Zane"  that is now one of his favorites.  

MARISSA

Marissa did a review for language arts.  The unit reviewed the concepts of the letter "a" saying "ah" and "uh", the letters "wr" and "wh" and words with open syllable vowels.  It was a fun review with games.  She loved cutting out the pieces and doing all the activities to practice words she has been learning for a fun review.  

CALEB

Caleb is working on reviewing reading with "I See Sam" books and "Bob" books to make sure his fluency is good and to practice easier books than the level he has learned.  We have been adding in spelling words using words found in the books to practice handwriting since that is something he needs to practice more while he is learning to read.  He did really well.  I have to remind him how to form letters and writing is definitely a difficult skill for him still, but he figured it out and his spelling was great without help from mom.  

OTHER

BUILDING AND ENGINEERING

I can safely say building and engineering got A LOT of practice the past few weeks.  Presents mostly fit into this category.  The kids got magnetic shapes and dominos from Grandma and Grandpa and spent lots of time building with those.  Preston and Caleb got Lego sets from everyone imaginable (including each other).  Let's just say, we will be building a new, bigger display shelf for all the Legos to have a spot in the toy room in the next few weeks.  Caleb got an awesome Mine Craft Lego set and put it together all by himself.  Preston got the Razor Crest Star Wars set (which was huge and super awesome and he put it together in a few hours - he is an incredible Lego builder).  We had a great time celebrating the Christmas holiday and learning at the same time.  

Building his Mine Craft set

Caleb's Mine Craft set - COMPLETED!

Building with magnetic tiles

Marissa built a big house for her new doll with magnetic tiles.  Later, Batman rescued her when she started playing with Preston.  ;)

Preston's "Wu's Battle Drago" set that Caleb bought him for Christmas with his own money :)

Another structure built with magnetic tiles

Preston's favorite Christmas present!

Preston's Razor Crest set (so AWESOME)

Caleb's Mars Research Shuttle Lego set he got from his Abuela (grandma) for Christmas

Preston building with dominos 

Preston and Marissa building with dominos

More dominos

Caleb's Spiderman Mech that Preston bought him with his own money for Christmas

December 14 - 18

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

The highlight for both Preston and Marissa was the same today.  They got to perform in a virtual piano recital that was recorded for grandparents to watch at home.  Preston has been working so hard and did such a great job playing "We Three Kings."  

MARISSA

Marissa loved getting dressed up for her Christmas recital in her Christmas sweater and Santa hat.  She performed "Little Drummer Boy" but also worked on a separate song since she learned her first piece so well.  The other song she learned for Christmas is "Ding Dong Merrily On High."  I will have to try to get a recording of her playing that one as well.  

CALEB

The highlight of Caleb's week was another game of Monopoly that lasted two days.  He loves practicing his math using games.  We put in new flooring in two bathrooms this past weekend so Caleb and Marissa were excited to have a box to create a fort and get their game going.  

OTHER

SNOW

The kids got to play at grandma and grandpa's house while we finished the bathroom remodel.  They were so lucky to have some snow and be able to sled while they were there.  

They also put together puzzles, played Uno and did their reading and math.  Preston is working on the 6th Harry Potter book and Marissa is really enjoying "The Critter Club" series.  She was so excited to find a Christmas one in the series to read this week.  

December 7 - 11

November 23 - December 4

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston's been working really hard on his math this week. He's learning how to add, subtract, multiply and divide negative numbers. When he gets confused, he waits for help and then gets right back to his learning. 

MARISSA

Marissa's been working on her cursive writing the past several weeks. To practice her letters and very faster, she decided to copy a poem from our poetry book this week. 

CALEB

Caleb finished his "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons " book this week. He was so excited and earned a Lego set he's been waiting to get for months! 

OTHER

ART

Marissa made several art projects this week.  She loves it! 

November 23 - December 4

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston's favorite thing this week was finishing "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire."  He informed me this is his least favorite of the Harry Potter books so far, but he is still super excited to have finished.  He had a goal to read 50 chapter books (which I finally decided was an average of 200 pages per book so we are counting the bigger books as more than one book).  He's on the last one that will put him over his goal and earn him a fun Lego set that's been waiting for him in my closet for several months.  It's so much fun that he set such a big goal and worked for so long to achieve it!  

MARISSA

Marissa's favorite things always include building and creating.  We read a fun poem called "A Good Play" that reminded the kids of building forts so Marissa and Caleb built a fort outside and later built one in the house as well.  Gotta love it!  

CALEB

My favorite thing was putting his building and engineering skills to good use to make a Gingerbread House.  He loved every second of it and used every spare candy we had available.  The other kids had a great time as well!  

OTHER

THANKSGIVING

We read a couple of fun books last week for Thanksgiving.  Our two favorite books were "The Plymouth Thanksgiving" and "Squanto's Journey."  Another really fun book we read was "Outlaw Thanksgiving." 

It was a really weird year for our family this year.  Our extended family decided not to get together for Thanksgiving due to Covid and especially thing to protect grandparents and great grandma so our family of six had our very own Thanksgiving.  It was fun and delicious...and a little sad.  But we made the most of it and played some gratitude games, ate lots of delicious food and read more books.  Oh and of course we watched "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" to complete our celebration.  ;) 

It was a really weird year for our family this year.  Our extended family decided not to get together for Thanksgiving due to Covid and especially thing to protect grandparents and great grandma so our family of six had our very own Thanksgiving.  It was fun and delicious...and a little sad.  But we made the most of it and played some gratitude games, ate lots of delicious food and read more books.  Oh and of course we watched "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" to complete our celebration.  ;) 

ART

Preston got to do a pastel art project as part of language arts.  It was pretty fun.  Marissa couldn't help getting involved and starting her own art projects.  

Marissa ended up creating her own crown.  She also took some time to sketch her own inventions, most of which were inspired by her list of chores that she felt was too time consuming.  ;) I'm always happy to be part of inspiration and learning!

Marissa got to do a grateful book for language arts this week.  It was perfect timing falling the week of Thanksgiving!  

Marissa spent time teaching Caleb how to do a backbend.  She's training him so he can learn tumbling like big sister.  

Caleb worked on more reading and writing skills this week on the Reading Eggs app, his 100 Easy Lessons and writing on his chalkboard.  He's doing so well!  

Yes, he's wearing his sister's jacket...because it's warm and fuzzy!  :)

Another favorite this week was the book "Finding Winnie" which is about the true story of how Winnie-the-Pooh was written.  It was such a fun book!