Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

We read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory last week for school.  I think this is the first time the kids have really loved a story I've read them.  John isn't really a fan of being read to so chapter books are a challenge.  I had planned to read 2-3 chapters a day and there's 30 in the book.  We read the whole thing in 3 days because they liked it so much.

I bought the unit study to go with it from Confessions of a Homeschooler  It was well worth the $2 I spent.  I got it for the lapbook material and the kids had fun making it.







Then on Friday night was watched the old Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory movie.  I even bought chocolate for the kids.  I never let them eat candy, not even at Halloween, so they were very excited about it.  I printed Wonka Bar labels and put them over the candy bars and the kids thought they were really Wonka Bars.



Then on Saturday we watched the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie, which Corey and I had never even seen.  The new movie is definitely truer to the book and I liked it if you totally ignore the last 15 minutes.  Seriously they did so good and then messed it all up.  So dumb.  That and no matter how good an actor Johnny Depp is the old Wonka can't be beat.

Then today we made a Venn diagram comparing the three.  It was a great book to read and use for school.  Now to find something else equally great.

Kids Marathon

John and Bella ran in the Salt Lake City Kids Marathon today.  They've been looking forward to it and practicing for about 6 weeks.  Bella loves to run, John not so much.  But since she was doing it he wanted to as well.  They had so much fun, despite the cold rainy weather we had.  Bella wants to run in more races now so I guess I'll have to keep an eye out for more.

More lapbooks

John and Bella are huge fans of lapbooks.  In the mornings they like to do art before I wake up.  The other morning I woke up and Bella had made a lapbook out of construction paper.



So that night before they went to bed I printed out some lapbook pieces for them so they could make their own the next morning.  They are currently reading two of the Magic Tree House reasearch guides, Mummies & Pyramids and Dolphins & Sharks.  So John picked sharks as his topic and Bella picked Egypt.

I cut the pictures for the covers but they did everything else themselves.

Swimming

The kids are loving swimming lessons.  John and Bella have gone 4 times now, and Phoebe just had her first lesson today.  Bella can swim a couple feet now, between her teacher and the steps.  John floated on his back all the way down the length of the pool (about 60 feet) with his teacher barely touching him at all.  John's better at floating and Bella's better at swimming (or I should say anything involving putting your face in the water.)  Phoebe did really well for her first time.  She even jumped in from the edge and went under the water.  Considering my kids act like I'm trying to drown them when I wash their hair this is huge progress.





John always looks 3 years younger when he gets in the pool. 

Week 2

So we finished up week 2.  It's going well with Phoebe, she likes it for a few minutes and then hates it.  Then cycles through the two extremes over and over.  I started a sticker chart for her and for every subject she does without making a fuss she gets a sticker.  She's a big fan of it so far, fingers crossed it stays that way.

John and Bella have a lot more work to do this year and so far they are handling it great.  We started cursive, which John was terrified of, and he's doing great and actually likes it.

We read My Father's Dragon over the past two weeks.  I read it to John and Bella when they were in kindergarten and we all loved it.  It's an adorable story.  Phoebe wasn't a fan at first and grumbled through most of it, but by the last chapter she was laughing and loving it.

We made a lapbook to go with it.  Lapbook pieces found here

















We also read this book:


It was one of my favorites as a kid.  Phoebe hated it, probably because every day is a terrible, horrible day to her.  John didn't like how they used the same phrase over and over.  I think Bella was a fan though.

Bikes

Hazel

Lagoon

Lagoon opened last Saturday and of course we were there for opening day.  We could not have asked for better weather, 70 degrees and sunny.  There's nothing like sunshine and rollercoasters to cure the winter blues.  And Hazel has just barely hit the magical height of 36 inches, which means there's more rides we can all go on as a family.  She even rode her first rollercoaster and loved it.  We went both Saturday and Sunday.  This weekend Corey's on call and the weather stinks so no Lagoon for us.

Swimming Lessons

John and Bella started swimming lessons today.  They both loved it.  After we get them swimming Phoebe and Hazel will take lessons (they aren't cheap.)  And someday we might actually be able to go to waterparks/pools with the kids.  Going with 4 kids that can't swim is no fun at all.

Week 1

So we're almost done with week one and it's gone really well.  I've been very nervous about homeschooling Phoebe.  She has major behavioral issues and it's a struggle to get her to do anything, the thought of schooling her scares the crap out of me sometimes.  But it's gone well these past 4 days, the structure has actually made things easier in some ways.  That and at this point she doesn't have to do anything she doesn't already know how to do.  We haven't gotten anywhere with Hooked on Phonics yet because she doesn't understand the blending sounds concept.  I'm not gonna push that though, she'll read when she's ready just like John did.

So far she loves math.  I think because she has a DVD and book just like John and Bella do.





She seems to be like Bella, naturally good at handwriting.





It was 70 degrees today so Phoebe got to do school outside.  John and Bella don't fit at the little picnic table anymore so they were stuck inside, but we kept the door open.