This past week was sort of eventful and we really didn't get anything done with school since the following occurred:
We had that snowstorm which knocked out our power for a few days
Mark broke his elbow and will be in a cast for 6-8 weeks
Nora also had a cast put on her right leg to stretch it out for the next month or so
We found out that baby #4 will hopefully be here in October (!!!)
After I get the hang of being my husband's right arm and fitting in extra therapies with Nora, make it through this week's expected snowstorm and get used to the always-there nausea, maybe I'll get around to attempting some educational activities. Or maybe not. Unschooling is looking like a better idea by the day!
This week we combined Oo Octopus with the words to remember: "Even the octopus praises the Lord!" and Ww Water: "Jesus gives me Living Water." We didn't do a whole lot with the curriculum, but we did start the unit off by watching a Blue Planet episode. It is just fascinating. While we were watching it, Nora asked if there were Psittacosaurus' that lived there. (She remembered that name from a dinosaur book we read through two weeks ago - I had forgotten that one!) I said no, since they were not swimming dinosaurs and all the things in this show live in the ocean. She said, "Oh I mean the ones that their mothers don't have to say "Henry, chew your food!" ... Me: "Oh! you mean Ostracoderms! Yes, you're right - that kind of dinosaur did live in the ocean." We reread the poem and tried to find some sea creatures that reminded us of what an Ostracaderm might look like. Nice to know things are interesting them and being retained.
I am enjoying finding new recipes with our wheat free diet. I still bake whole wheat bread for Mark and the girls but I've been wheat free since the new year with one or two exceptions which I have paid for immediately. Turns out that I'm very very sensitive to wheat and I didn't need to be feeling as bad and sluggish as I've felt all this time! Wheat doesn't seem to bother anyone else very much, but they've been happy to eat far less grains than we had been eating. The cashew flour pancakes with raspberry syrup were delicious...
Nora will be getting botox next week in her right leg followed by a series of casts over the course of a month. Hopefully that will allow her to increase her range of motion since she is getting tighter with every growth spurt, making her walking even more of a challenge. We keep up her stretching routine....Claire even helps out.
Here are the pictures from the week...
Sledding!
It's a loooong way down and back up. He carried Nora up so many times. What a good man.
Claire even went down all by herself!
Talking to Grammy on the phone - little teenager
Thanks for the matching hats, Grammy!
Reading...
Nora can sound out so many 3 letter words now
A popsicle stick and clothes pins help us make a problem. Dinosaurs, chalk and a slate help us solve it.
Now we put the babies in their cribs - this was a big hit, of course.
Now 2 bears invite 3 more bear friends to a picnic....5 bears all together. Nora kept doing this on her own and came up with stories to go along with her figures.
Handwriting...
Visiting...
We had a lovely visit with Nanny and Poppop. All of the knick knacks got a lot of love.
Playground...
She kept saying "Higher, Daddy!!"
Baptism...
We celebrated the anniversary of Claire's baptism on the 29th by talking about it and doing this Godly play Baptism story. I did it pretty much word-for-word as the woman on the video demonstrates. They were enthralled. It was a really beautiful way to remember our baptisms. They enjoyed playing with the story materials for a few days afterward. One time I was able to grab a quick video of "Baby Bella's" baptism before they started fighting and they spotted me:
Chickens...
I love this video. The weather warmed a bit today and Claire was able to visit her friends. You just have to see this chicken love...
