Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from my crew:

my little pirate, my little parrot,
and Pirate Red Beard.ARRGGHHH!

The Letter B

The boys were busy busy bees this week as we learned all about the letter B! There were so many fun options for the letter B this week: balls, boats, bunnies and more! But we decided to focus on brown bears, bugs, and bananas, with a few extras thrown in for fun. If you know Henry at all, you know that his favorite stuffed animal is Brown Bear.

We can't go anywhere without beloved Brown Bear, so our very first craft of the week was to turn the letter B into a Brown Bear.

Will didn't want to make a brown bear at first and insisted on a polar bear. Then he changed his mind, so that's why he has a two-toned bear.

They turned out really cute!

We also read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr. and then visited the bears at the zoo. One of the grizzly bears was cooling off in the water. The boys thought that was pretty fun to see him just sitting there. At home, we practiced some math skills with chocolate Teddy Grahams (brown bears!).I made some addition sheets for Will. All he had to do was put the correct number of bears in each circle and then add them up and write the answer on his page.He thought it was the greatest thing ever! Plus, he got to munch on some bears as he worked! I had Henry practice counting by just putting the right number of bears in each circle.

We also saw fruit bats eating bananas at the zoo, so at home we read Stellaluna by Janell Cannon and made our own hand-print bats at home. It was also the perfect craft leading up to Halloween!
One afternoon we went outside for some bubble painting. I mixed some paint into bubble solution. Then we blew bubbles in the cups and pressed the paper onto the bubbles to make designs.

Here is Henry's completed bubble painting.

We also made B's into bumblebees and read books about bugs. One of our favorites is The Bugliest Bug by Carol Diggory Shields.

Cute, right?

On Thursday, Pop took the boys on a bug hunt in the backyard. They were supposed to find different bugs and mark them down in their science journals, but Will got a little side-tracked because he wanted to find all the bugs in the exact order I had drawn them in the journal.

They did manage to find one dragonfly and one dead bumblebee, but it was not a very buggy day (surprisingly) in Houston!
At the end of the week, we turned to bananas. We started by reading Once Upon a Banana by Jennifer Armstrong. It is a funny story about bananas and it also teaches cause and effect! Next we watched an episode of Sid The Science Kid. Sid was curious about why his banana turned brown and mushy, so while Henry was napping on Friday, Will and I conducted our own banana study! We got out green, yellow and brown bananas and Will did a great job comparing and contrasting the three bananas.
We felt each banana, then peeled them, smelled them, and tasted each one. Will discovered that peeling the green banana was much harder than peeling the other two!
Will drew pictures of the bananas in his science journal and then he described each banana to me and I wrote down what he said about each one. He was very descriptive and loved showing Daddy his journal!
Will decided the yellow banana was the best one to eat, so he ate it all up. We put the green one in the fridge to see if it will ripen more and turned the brown banana into banana bread! Will mashed the bananas all by himself. The boys are getting really really good at helping me in the kitchen!
After making banana bread, the boys worked on their banana b craft. We had a great time with our B week!

At-Home Play

My boys love adventures, so we are always taking them on outings to festivals, museums and the zoo. But sometimes they crave some quiet time at home too. Will's favorite new thing is to work on his dot-to-dot books.

He's slightly obsessed with them, and I'm not sure he even knows that they're educational. He would work on connecting the dots all day if I let him!
Henry, on the other hand, is completely obsessed with Play-Doh. He plays with it every day, but I've made it an outside toy. As you can see from this picture, Henry has mixed all his colors into one shade of muddy green.

Sometimes, if we're all playing inside, Henry just likes to draw.

For me, the most exciting thing about our at-home time is teaching Will to read. We've been using Hooked on Phonics for several months, but we just recently finished the pre-K books (which were mostly review for us) and last week we cracked open our Kindergarten set. I'm so impressed because Will is already reading! We've only covered four lessons, but Will has learned all the -at, -an, -ap, and -ad words as well as a couple of "helper" words.

The little reader is SO proud of himself!

The best part is showing Henry (or anyone who will listen) how he can read! I'm already looking forward to our next quiet day at home!

The Zoo and Good Buddies

The boys and I went to the zoo on Monday. The dinosaur exhibit is leaving soon and we had to see our favorite animatronic giants one last time! The boys even convinced me to buy them stuffed dinos. Will chose a spinosaurus; Henry's favorite is still the stegosaurus, so that's what he picked.

After a couple hours at the zoo, we met my good friend Belinda and her little ones at the train. Belinda lives just around the corner from us and is absolutely one of my favorite people. As you can see, our kids adore one another too! There were lots of hugs and hand-holding going around!

Will and Chloe are in the same class this year, so they see each other all the time but still love to play together outside of school.
All the kids loved climbing through this sculpture while we waited for the train to arrive.

Finally, we boarded the train!

Henry and Bella are so adorable together. They held hands for most of the morning, played on the seesaw, and, when Henry chased a bunch of birds, Bella ran after him to try to protect him! After a train ride, lunch at the park, and lots of fun at the playground, Belinda and I were beat. But these little monkeys still had tons of energy! This was the perfect morning -- and I can't wait to do it again soon!

Pirate Red Beard

Do you ever feel like you live with a bunch of pirates? No? Well, if you are ever feeling pirate-deprived, just come on over to our house. There are three of the scalawags hanging around here and they have lots of fun adventures together! This pirate just showed up at our door the other day. We're not sure where he came from or what his name is, but we decided to call him Pirate Red Beard. Clearly he does not have a beard, but Will decided that Pirate No Beard is a silly name. Pirate Red Beard lost his treasure and needed a couple of little pirates to help him find it. Pirate Henry was up for the challenge.

So was Pirate Will. ARGH!

Pirate Red Beard is not a very bright pirate. He is always misplacing his treasure. Fortunately, the little pirates have been able to help him find his map.
But he still needs lots of help counting the paces. Pirate Red Beard gets the numbers all mixed up and then he goes the wrong direction.
Here the little pirates are listening to Pirate Red Beard's instructions about where the treasure is hidden so they can help him find it.

There is an awful lot of laughter at our house when Pirate Red Beard stops by, but fortunately, he always recovers his treasure, even though I'm sure he'll misplace it again soon. Will and Henry are already asking when "that pirate" is going to visit again!