Baseball, Stars, 'Shrooms, & Davy

The boys have been doing their morning routine of breakfast &/or computers first.  Then I 'boot' them off for a bit till after lunch and then a bit more time.  They love their A.J., Rolblox, Sploder, & FB.  Then it's on to the Latin, computer classes, baseball practices, or what-not.  Rolling with life's rolls.

Baseball Practice has started at home and

and on the field

From our livingroom window.

I love how L.J. sleeps 

On a blog I get  Dynamic 2 Mom's they found a GREAT version of Pokemon that is connected with real world environmental things; animals, environment, forces of nature, the Phylo Trading Card Game.  I downloaded all the copies they have and the boys Love them, mainly Pumpkin.  Here he is sorting his cards.

Everyone enjoys the computer.

L.J. made his mom a First day of Spring picture.

Pumpkin took a class at R.M.S.C. 

He was one of 5 people that signed up.

Pumpkin's Arduino class at The Iron Yard

The boys did a Mushroom Lab on a Saturday followed by ...

Stories of Davy Crockett ~ True or False

 There were parents there that were surprised that kids could learn on a Saturday & they didn't even have to teach.  I was like, "Um.  Yeah, we do it all the time."  (I had a good chuckle.)

Kids that wanted to could go sit on the floor.

This is not what Davy (or Daniel Boone) wore regularly   They wore 'normal' clothes for their time.  But they did wear this kind of outfit in the woods, Davy's white & Daniel's light blue.  That way the Indians knew they were friends.

Good Goofy Friends

We discovered this day that 2 of us had strep.  So while waiting for meds. the boys ordered  their lunch.

I had Fireball Coyote finish a puzzle that was too hard for him last year.  No trouble this year.

A tall oak tree came down in our yard  = a bon fire tonight

We enjoyed our evening of PBS shows, it's been awhile since they had them on ~ Nature ~ River of No Return, Nova ~ Meteor Strike & Hunting the Elements.

I rearranged some furniture in our house and made "strewing & Montessori" shelves for all my boys .  L.J. LOVES the color tiles and works with them every time he's here.

Pumpkin had fun with the Etch-A-Sketch and made his, Fireball Coyote, & L.J.'s name, plus our last name.

Pumpkin is worried he's not learning enough and I asked, "Well, what about?"  "Math", was his reply, "Division".  After talking a bit he realized he did know division and that lead to fractions and place value.  In addition to using the Montessori fraction box I have, that both boys used.  Pumpkin's work is above & I forgot to take a picture of Fireball Coyote's.  He had a stack of 1/6th's and said that it would make 1 circle.  So I had him make it.  He discovered he made 1 with 6 parts.  I asked how many he could make with what he had left.  It turned out to be 2 5/6.  (Who says kids won't learn on their own?!?)

L.J. had a birthday party today.  The BIG 1  !

I think he had fun & enjoyed his cake with Resee's on top (to make the Lego dots).

Pumpkin was even motivated to write a 'pen-pal' in England to see if he plays Rolblox.  I didn't fix his spelling, I wanted to  let it go & see what happens.

This week brings "Other Brother" for Fireball Coyote's birthday, a break from comp. classes and Latin this and next week, baseball practices, and trip to the State Museum.  It maybe a quite week.
 Out like a lion and in like a lamb, right.

Have a Great Easter!

Ch-Ch-Changes

WOW! A lot of changes happening here!  Time change. Weather change. And a Job change. Phew.

Here's how things have been changing and going on.

We went to a friends birthday party & I made him an art box.

Pumpkin & dad reseeded the yard.

Then it was time to change the clocks.  I planned a nice easy, carefree week because of the time change, but that was to change, for me at least.

Late afternoon Party Time!

They played animal tag.

Did push-ups?  No. Had a yoga plank contest.

The birthday boy.

Then came my BIG change.  No more sleeping in during the week and an opportunity to make a buck or two.

The "newest addition" to the house.  A Very Sweet 11 month old boy.  ( I think I'll refer to him as L.J. from here on out.)  He comes at 7 AM and leaves around 4 PM, depending on everyone's schedule.  So much for sleeping in for me.

One afternoon as L.J. was napping the boys played Pokemon.

And looked through all their cards again.

L.J. comes to Latin with us, too.

OH MY!     Caught reading at the library.  ;-)

L.J. was a bit sick Tuesday and by Wednesday afternoon he was at the Dr.'s with his mom and had a bad cold & contagious stomach bug.  We were to be at the dentist in late morning Wednesday, but she was on her way, so we post-poned it till the afternoon, after our S.O.S. playdate.

A nice picnic lunch at R.M.S.C. with some S.O.S people.

By the time we got to the dentist Fireball Coyote & I had what L.J. had. (So, we rescheduled a 3rd time.)  And, by the end of the day ALL of us were very sick.  So, I challenged the boys NOT to learn anything the next two days for our 'sick days'.  Fireball Coyote said, "That's easy."  Pumpkin said, "That's impossible."  Well, Fireball Coyote had a 'lesson' on when the first clock was invented one day. The other day they had a NASA lesson watching PBS's History Detectives, along with ...

Everyone (the 'boys') enjoy the router dad bought so they can be on the computers and he on his iPhone at the same time, doing their own things.

The boys worked with BrainPop.com  and  a frog math game

Chatted on FB together.

By Saturday, most of us were feeling 80% - 100% better.  Dad had had it with the boys hair since it was a Hot day.  So .... the boys came home with a cut they chose & dad had a BLAST watching them get.

(BRACE YOURSELF MOM!)

Mowhawk  & THRILLED! 

I think this is his new favorite pose for pictures.

Dad said the expression was from the conversation that was going on.  I believe this to be true since later Pumpkin said to me, "Mom, I think I finally found my cut."  (If you look you can see the back is still long.  He decided he doesn't like that and will go for a Long flat-top next time.)

Starting this week off Fireball Coyote started baseball practices (pictures later), still doing Latin & computer with Pumpkin.  Who also had a History of Astronomy lesson at R.M.S.C., Nova~ The Smartest Machine on Earth and Secrets of the Dead ~ The World's Biggest Bomb, and today, finally, the dentist appointment.  One is good to go and the other 4 ~ YIKES! ~ 4 cavities :-(

Saturday will be a BIG day starting with a Mushroom Lab of local mushrooms, a meeting with Davy Crockett and more.

Sick days

Changes have happened (for the better) and will post after we all are over a bad stomach bug.  :-/  Sick days here we come.

GO! GO DOGS! GO!

I know it's been a L-O-N-G time since I posted last, but if the boys haven't been on the computer, we've been going, & going, & going, & going ...  So here's the long & short of it.

Homeschooler Field trip walk at Lake Conestee Park.

Looking at

The Reedy River

The trees are wrapped to protect them from beavers.

"The Four Friends"

Blue Heron's nests.

A picnic lunch followed with play time.

They had fun with all the equipment there too.

Pokemon sorting

A drive to Charlotte, NC, to meet people from Carolina Homeschooler's at Discovery Place.  There was so much new stuff for us, that I could do a whole blog on what they did & learned! (But here's some highlights.)

Compare sizes with bears.

Look at their Rain-forest. 

Aquariums.

Touch tanks.

Oh dear! What is he in for?!?!

Fireball Coyote pulled himself up on all 3 sections ~ hard, harder, & Hardest! 

Nothing beats a bed of nails!

A participant in a science experiment with the scenes.

BOOM! (add evil laugh)

The area the boys spent the most time and came back too the most often.  Fireball Coyote also made a new friend while we were there, the boy in the orange jacket in the back left ~ 2 peas-in-a-pod!

They had a yoga class with the Homeschooler group.

Acting like lions.  

Me & My 2 boys took a snakes class at R.M.S.C. 

Holding  a corn snake.

Our favorite was not a snake, but a legless lizard.

Beautiful sunset on the way home.

Fireball Coyote and I walked the paths again at R.M.S.C. while ...

Pumpkin had a heart dissection class.

and got to cut it himself! He LOVED it!!

So between Rolblox, Animal Jam, Latin classes, Computer coding & gaming classes, running-around days,  we have been going & going & going.
Coming up in the next few weeks is the above list, in addition to a birthday party, Second Saturday, an astronomy class, baseball practices, dentist appointments, S.O.S playdate & MNO, and a meeting with Davy Crockett.

Like I said ~ "GO! GO DOGS! GO!"