We had a lovely week; the weather has cooled and was just about perfect.  The kids had some extra days at home with Dad while our friend Gina, who teaches kids' art & movement in Chewelah, was on vacation.  The kids got to help Dad load hay, feed animals, and they used the pressure washer and the weed eater.  Quite entertaining for little boys!  Here's a bit more of the fun and learning that went on this week:

Since we are still reading The Tale of Jolly Robin, Caleb writes and illustrates a few pages each week about the chapters we read.  He practiced the consonant blend BR.

Smiley practiced his numbers, and made a page in his book for the number 3.  He drew a triangle, which has 3 sides.

We read more legends from Africa this week, full of tigers and other savannah animals.  Besides being entertaining stories, they also taught about the importance of sharing and other good virtues.  Caleb also is working on writing a true story from his own life, similar to the ancient legends we are reading which get passed down from generation to generation.  

Smiley learned the letter E.  He drew the bunnies in the story The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies by Beatrix Potter.  He made an E on the bunny's ear.  It might not come across good in the picture, but truly, this is an "E" page.

Caleb learned how to write inequalities, or how to find which number is greater than or less than.  (On some of the symbols he drew the alligator teeth; the mouth always wants to eat the biggest number, you know.)

The kids made pine cone bird feeders while we talked about wild animals finding food.  A lot of the stories we read this week lead to discussion about what animals eat, so this was a fun progression of our animal stories.

The boys also helped in the garden (think watering vegetables, cutting flowers, planting berry bushes), did more beeswax sculpting, took nature hikes in the perfect end-of-summer weather, made designs with a new set of tri-ominos (like dominoes, but triangle shaped), rode bikes, and lots more!