BOREophyll

Two weeks down and only 30 or so left to go! YIKES...30 more? Actually it wasn't that bad. We had another good week. Eli and Tatum worked hard and had great attitudes and that's all I really ask of them. Evan had his first day of Pre-K on Tuesday. He has been waiting and talking about going to school for some time. Even though he does school stuff with us he was looking forward to doing something that was just for him. This year should be a year of changes for Evan and I am hoping the changes are for the best. Everyone who knows Evan knows my number one challenge with him is trying to contain his aggressiveness. He is intense and strong willed from the moment he wakes up until he falls into bed at night. He is not one to back down to anything. His passion and drive will serve him well as an adult however, having that quality as a four year old is not a positive character trait. He is getting ready to start soccer, and in the winter he is going to try wresting. I am hoping sports will give him a positive outlet for his aggression and help him focus it where it is okay to be aggressive. Like all of us he is a daily work in progress...stay tuned!

It's easy to make science and history fun and interesting for the kids. Making math and phonics fun on a daily basis is a little harder. It's kind of hard to get excited about math problems and phonic blends. Brian and I like to watch movies and we are able to remember pointless movie lines and quote them on a dime. We are constantly using them, and the kids have started to pick them up and can use them appropriately. One of their favorite lines to use is from the movie Billy Madison. I will say, time to work on our blends they will moan and say "Chlorophyll? More like BOREophyll!" While we are not studying chlorophyll yet (that's next month) they realize that studying chlorophyll is just as boring as studying math and phonics. I am sure our silly joke is not being translated well, but if you see them ask them about chlorophyll. If my kids learn nothing else from me at least they will have a sense of humor and the ability to reference movies lines. I'm sure that will take them far in life! Tatum has a way to make reviewing her phonic blends more fun. She likes to make a trail and walk around picking them up as she says the blend. I think it's great she is finding different ways to make boring things more tolerable.

This week in science we learned about air and talked about the atmosphere. They had a fun and competitive experiment too! They tried different techniques to move their piece of paper across the room my moving the air. They found that blowing on the piece of paper gave them greater control. No earth shattering learning going on, just simple experimenting and cause and effect learning. Don't get discouraged though, we still have the chlorophyll lesson next month.

My history loving kids found history interesting this week. We learned about Leif Ericsson the Viking explorer who is credited with being the first white man to find North America. We spent a little extra time on Leif and the Vikings because he was from Norway. The Norwegian heritage is strongly alive and celebrated in the entire Skurdal family. The kid's Great Great Grandfather homesteaded to America from Norway and come to find out the Skurdal's are related to Leif Ericsson. Pretty cool!

After we spent several days learning about the Vikings we learned about Christopher Columbus and his quest to explore the land to the west. To make learning more hands on, which is how my kids learn the best, we made the Pinta, Nina and Santa Maria out of aluminum foil and "sailed" them across the "Atlantic Ocean". The ships didn't have engines back in the day so what did they rely on to move across the ocean? Air of course thus tying it back to our science lesson. There it is again, that extra mile sneaking into the lessons. I thought you would be interested in knowing that the Pinta carried Polly Pockets across the ocean, the Nina carried Batman and Robin and the Santa Maria was loaded up with Trashies.