Trick or Treat

Despite our best efforts to suggest concept based costumes for W, he chose to portray Finn McMissile of Cars 2 for Halloween, and C was more than happy to be Lightning McQueen. Yesterday was the annual Downtown Trick or Treat event in MA that we've been attending since W was a baby. We enjoyed meeting up with friends beforehand at a local coffee shop. It was quite rainy but the event was rain or shine so we went anyway and the boys had fun. Luckily their costumes fit over winter coats! 


Earlier in the day we went to the Singalong at the library, and C had fun. They sing various songs including the Firetruck song, I'm a Little Teapot, ABC's, and the classic The Wheels on the Bus. It is more of a little kids event, so W chose to read books during part of it, but later joined in playing some of the instruments after the noisy parade. We checked some books out so we have plenty of reading material for a while. 

Last night also marked the first snow of the season. It is pretty unusual to see snow whilst still seeing the leaves in various colors on the trees.

FIAR: Andy and the Lion

Last week for Five in a Row, we read Andy and the Lion by James Daugherty. The text is in capital letters and kept very simple, while the illustrations are expressive and heartfelt. The book is not one of the longer FIAR selections, so I recommend rowing it on a week when you have a lot of other projects going and need a "light" fiar week. This story closely mirrors the Aesop fable of the Lion and the Mouse. The overall message is that creatures of all sizes matter and have a special purpose. 


Sunday was the blessing of the animals at church. It was a nice ceremony to acknowledge the animals of our community. There were several dogs, a cat and lots of photos of all sorts of animals. W brought a photo of our cat, he attended last year but we didn't want to stress him out again. 


W enjoyed the book and thinks that "the lion was good". We researched African Lions online, and found the National Geographic website to be very informative and have a lot of great photos. W was flabbergasted to learn that lions are full grown before his age, he couldn't imagine being a grown up lion. We also watched the famous youtube video of Christian the Lion who was reunited with the people that raised him after being introduced back into the wild years later. If for some chance you haven't seen it, it's pretty cool. It reminded me so much of Andy and his Lion being reunited, and it is extremely moving. W liked comparing and contrasting our own cat to his larger "big cat" relations. :) 

Teddy Bear Picnic & Little House stuff

We missed co-op this week unfortunately, but W and C decided they wanted to have a Teddy Bear Picnic anyway (the theme they did this week) with an apple feast. :) Jacob often sings this song to them, so we sang and watched it on youtube and gathered pretend and real food for our picnic. The boys enjoy a lot of imaginary play together. Most of the time this features cars, trains, or legos, but W has a renewed interest in his stuffed friends lately.

 Pooh enjoyed it, but it looks like Paddington passed out. 

Today we had our Little House book club, one of the moms in our group was very kind to bring a demonstration of a spinning wheel, carding wool, and knitting needles so the boys had a great time trying this first hand. We ate some homemade applesauce for snack. It was a low turnout but we had fun anyway, and I hope some more families will be able to make it next time. I will need to think of a good November activity. W and I finished By the Shores of Silver Lake this week, and will begin The Long Winter soon. 

SOTW: The more things change...

The more they stay the same. How little the world has really changed over the span of humanity, only now they put it on TV and tweet about it. W is learning about the Middle Kingdom of Egypt for history and ancient people and dictators fighting for power, all while the news of the death of Gaddafi is in the headlines. It certainly puts things into perspective! When I asked W where Libya was he said without hesitation "next to Egypt". He remembered it from our lesson maps and the GeoPuzzle.

I have been stretching the Middle Kingdom lesson into a few days and today we listened to the CD and did the narration. W and C also made "golden" Nubian bracelets with yellow card-stock and they attempted making sock monkeys with beans. We are about to head into the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt and some Bible stories which he has covered in Sunday School, so I think by hearing these again they will sink in more with W, though he may surprise me at how much he remembers.

Photos and Fall Poetry

View of the fence Jacob built in our back yard, decorated for the season.

I have been wanting to read some poetry with W so I found a couple of autumn related ones online. I printed them on cardstock. This can go along with nature study and appreciating all the sights, sounds and smells of outdoors in the fall. Here is a nice poem for the season by Robert Frost.

Gathering Leaves

by Robert Frost

Spades take up leaves
No better than spoons,
And bags full of leaves
Are light as balloons.

I make a great noise
Of rustling all day
Like rabbit and deer
Running away.

But the mountains I raise
Elude my embrace,
Flowing over my arms
And into my face.

I may load and unload
Again and again
Till I fill the whole shed,
And what have I then?

Next to nothing for weight,
And since they grew duller
From contact with earth,
Next to nothing for color.

                                                   Next to nothing for use.
                                                   But a crop is a crop,
                                                   And who's to say where
                                                    The harvest shall stop?