Looking Back Since January

January began with knitting.

 It continued with loads of snow. 

the birds finally came to the bird feeder!

sisters

samuel spent hours watching big kids at the window. Klara joined him on occasion.

angelina did her own ballet bun, and klara developed a luv for them

 Graphs.

 Being a good homeschooling mom, I try to keep learning fun. I dabble in unschooling when time allows. (thats funny...) Meaning I try to draw them into an activity with lots of 'this will be fun!' 'lets try something new,' and my favorite 'do you want learn something neat?'. Unschooling is so much more work then workbooks and timelines.

Anyways, I decided to have fun with graphs. I bought a giant bag of m&ms.

"Lets make graphs! It'll be fun! In the end...." I get cut off here by Angelina. She groans loudly and rolls her eyes. I narrow my eyes at her. Ruining my great teaching moment. (The end of the sentence was, "...you can eat the m&m's!")

"Do we have too?" She says very dramatically.

I smile. "No. In fact you can go downstairs and read a book."

"Ok!" she's gone.

The others were waiting to see what would happen.

The all get a generous handful, make their graphs with counting, and drawing, using a ruler, writing, and coloring. Learning stuff, but they are having fun, so they don't realize it.

Little Miss 'Do I have to?' comes up at the end to see everyone eating m&m's. Her face falls when she realizes what she passed up. I didn't have to say anything.

A few days later I came home from groceries with a small bag of cadbery eggs for everyone. HER face lit up instantly and she says.....

"Lets make a GRAPH!"

Mission accomplished!
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1 year photo shoot.

u try getting 5 kids looking in the same place at the same time. I dare you.

he is this cute all the time. I will have to see if i can unfuzz this picture. can i?

Maple Syrup Trip

It was the middle of March. It was cold and snowing and everyone insisted on wearing rubber boats. Except me in double socks, everyone ended up cold and miserable. The one that is missing was crying about cold toes. Poor girl. Next time she will double her socks!

I have lots my battery charger to my camera. I'm getting a new one tomorrow and will continue posting better pics. The camera phone doesn't cut it.

Bryan is riding the 2 wheeler. Pics to follow.