April 15, 2008- April 23, 2008

FREE PLAY/OUTSIDE TIME
Lots of days have been going by quickly and since the weather is turning nice a lot of time has been spent in free play outdoors. The kids have been playing a lot with sand, water, and on the trampoline. We also have spent a lot of time at the park because Charlotte has had lots of soccer practice.

NO VIDEO GAMES/TV
I've been much better at limiting TV and video games lately. We generally have a no TV rule until 3pm but that had slipped over time. So unless it pertains to our homeschool lessons in someway TV is off. Sometimes video games are used as an afternoon incentive to get work done quick, clean up, and then leave mom alone to make/cook some lunch :) But for the most part finally the TV is off again.

READING
Ethan has started reading Magic Tree House books on his own. Sage is doing really well with his flashcards and finally seems to be less frustrated with reading. I found a page I think could help Sage immensely links for k-12 teachers more specifically this page here . I am excited to help him with the pages today and see how it goes. Charlotte is reading the Chronicles of Narnia. She has finished the first book and is now reading the second. It's good to see her into a series again.

BRAIN POP
Lately they want http://www.brainpop.com/ morning noon and night. And I'm cool with that.

JOURNALING
I've got Ethan writing in his paper journal again and I'm trying to get Sage to get back into the habit. I'm also hoping Charlotte will start writing in her online blog again this week. She likes journaling, I just have to remind her to. So I need to make it more of a priority and routine for her.

EARTH DAY
Yesterday we went to the Earth Day festivities at the university. We got to see good friends and the kids and I came home with sprouting flowers, planting seeds, a bird house to assemble, bird seed, pine cone bird feeders, Charlotte got her face painted, and we have assortments of handouts and what-not.

It was a long day. We had Earth Day at 11am, Sports program at 1:30pm, and soccer practice from 5-7pm. I was pretty tired when we got home and everyone crashed hard after seeing dad for a little while.

TODAY
Humm what to do today. It will be 82! I think we should paint outside after we do some reading and journaling.