Books we enjoyed today.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Hallway Transformation
The downstairs hallway in my house has bothering me for a long time. It is huge and to me it was wasted space. I would look at it and think this is the size of a whole room, just elongated.
In the meantime, our "office" was a mess because we were also using it as an activity room for the older kids. One of our desks was actually in the baby room, where the daycare babies take their naps. This meant that if any of the babies was asleep we had to either risk waking them or wait until they were awake to get anything from or work at that desk.
So I decided to do some major rearranging. Our hallway has now become an activity area. Our office can now truly be our office and as soon as we move the desk and a few other out of place pieces of furniture out the baby room I can start decorating is as a real nursery.
Here are some before pictures of the hallway.
I also have several flannel playsets so I decided to hang these on the wall at a level where they are easy for the kids to play with.
Our toddler room was behind these doors. I didn't want them running helter skelter all over the house but I was tired of feeling shut in so Doug ordered me a large baby gate. This evening he and Austin put it up. Now our hallway and playroom are more of an open airy place instead of two totally separate areas.
Now we have this instead.
A big Thank You to Doug for helping me move furniture, hooking up the computers for me and installing this baby gate.
In the meantime, our "office" was a mess because we were also using it as an activity room for the older kids. One of our desks was actually in the baby room, where the daycare babies take their naps. This meant that if any of the babies was asleep we had to either risk waking them or wait until they were awake to get anything from or work at that desk.
So I decided to do some major rearranging. Our hallway has now become an activity area. Our office can now truly be our office and as soon as we move the desk and a few other out of place pieces of furniture out the baby room I can start decorating is as a real nursery.
Here are some before pictures of the hallway.
Here are some after pictures.
We have a lot of windows and doors in this hallway with wide ledges so I added some fun details there.
This was the view from the hallway toward the playroom.
I'm loving it!
Homeschool Log Tuesday March 9, 2010
Austin and Amanda
We read another chapter of The Shack this afternoon. We are almost finished reading this book. The kids haven't said a lot about it but now and then I hear a comment that lets me know they are thinking through what we are reading.
We also read Hosea 1-8.
Austin
Austin read half of a chapter from Apostle to Inland China: The Story of J.Hudson Taylor
. Then he came and asked if he could take a break from reading because his eyes were hurting. They were red and watery so I told him he could just stop for today and read the other half tomorrow.
He listened to part of Atlantis Found by Clive Cussler. He's listened to this audio book before but is enjoying hearing it again.
He also listened to chapters 8-11 of Peeps In Many Lands: Ancient Egypt by James Baikie on the the online site My Audio School.
He went to Gamequarium and watched a Language Arts video and a Math video.
His friend Tristan (11) was here all day and Zac (10) as here for about half an hour this afternoon. They spent most of their free time playing computer games. They would have liked to outside since it was so nice but Tristan had a bike wreck over the weekend and was sore and bandaged up, so they had to stay inside.
This afternoon we played several hands of UNO as well as Rhyming Go Fish.
He did his chores and he helped with the younger children. Austin does a great job entertaining and helping with the younger children. We have one child especially, who is a year old, who begins calling Austin's name the minute he comes in the door. It's so sweet. And it's great to see Austin learn to relate to and understand the children and hep them when they need something.
And speaking of helping, this evening he helped Doug install our new baby gate. And did a great job of that as well.
Amanda
Amanda read another chapter from The Cross and the Switchblade.
She also went to Gamequarium and watched a Language Arts video and a math video.
This afternoon her activity of choice with me was to play UNO.
I had her start working on a display for the playroom today. I gave her the perler beads and told her she could decide what kind of scene or display she wants to make. We have two walls in the playroom that are very bare and I knew she would have fun livening them up. She started out today by making a cat. no surprise there. It will be interesting to see what she does with this project.
Doing her chores, taking care of her pets and helping with the younger children rounded out her day, as well as some computer games.
We read another chapter of The Shack this afternoon. We are almost finished reading this book. The kids haven't said a lot about it but now and then I hear a comment that lets me know they are thinking through what we are reading.
We also read Hosea 1-8.
Austin
Austin read half of a chapter from Apostle to Inland China: The Story of J.Hudson Taylor
. Then he came and asked if he could take a break from reading because his eyes were hurting. They were red and watery so I told him he could just stop for today and read the other half tomorrow.He listened to part of Atlantis Found by Clive Cussler. He's listened to this audio book before but is enjoying hearing it again.
He also listened to chapters 8-11 of Peeps In Many Lands: Ancient Egypt by James Baikie on the the online site My Audio School.
He went to Gamequarium and watched a Language Arts video and a Math video.
His friend Tristan (11) was here all day and Zac (10) as here for about half an hour this afternoon. They spent most of their free time playing computer games. They would have liked to outside since it was so nice but Tristan had a bike wreck over the weekend and was sore and bandaged up, so they had to stay inside.
This afternoon we played several hands of UNO as well as Rhyming Go Fish.
He did his chores and he helped with the younger children. Austin does a great job entertaining and helping with the younger children. We have one child especially, who is a year old, who begins calling Austin's name the minute he comes in the door. It's so sweet. And it's great to see Austin learn to relate to and understand the children and hep them when they need something.
And speaking of helping, this evening he helped Doug install our new baby gate. And did a great job of that as well.
Amanda
Amanda read another chapter from The Cross and the Switchblade.
She also went to Gamequarium and watched a Language Arts video and a math video.
This afternoon her activity of choice with me was to play UNO.
I had her start working on a display for the playroom today. I gave her the perler beads and told her she could decide what kind of scene or display she wants to make. We have two walls in the playroom that are very bare and I knew she would have fun livening them up. She started out today by making a cat. no surprise there. It will be interesting to see what she does with this project.
Doing her chores, taking care of her pets and helping with the younger children rounded out her day, as well as some computer games.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Let the Fun Begin - Activities to Enjoy With Your Kids
As I browse through my Google Reader each day I often find a lot of fun ideas that I want to remember to do with the kids here. I'm always sure I'll remember exactly where they are when I want to try them.
Um, yeah right . . .that is really not working for me. By the time I'm ready for a specific type of activity I've forgotten where exactly I read about it.
So, I decided to start listing them and when I have a list of five or more I will share them ( and I'll know where to find them,)
So, in no particular order, here are some very cool ideas -
Have fun!
Um, yeah right . . .that is really not working for me. By the time I'm ready for a specific type of activity I've forgotten where exactly I read about it.
So, I decided to start listing them and when I have a list of five or more I will share them ( and I'll know where to find them,)
So, in no particular order, here are some very cool ideas -
Have fun!
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Friday, March 5, 2010
Childcare Photo Journal Thursday March 4, 2010
Books we enjoyed today.
We had fun looking at and naming the sea creatures in this pack of cards.
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