We've been mixing in schoolwork throughout the last several busy weeks.  We enjoyed a couple of fun Christmas parties and then a lovely, quiet Christmas weekend at home.  And, we have actually been having quite a few productive and educational moments, in addition to the joy of the holidays.  Here's a bit of the fun and learning we've been up to:

Caleb completed a math segment on rounding and adding numbers in the thousands.  He also started a new section which adds together multiple numbers in the hundreds.  It is impressive to me how comfortable Caleb is doing math.  Even when new things are hard at first, within a few days he will have gotten it down.  He has had to do a lot of adding lately and his memorization and "mental math" skills are really improving.

Smiley is counting in the teens.  He is writing up to 12 and one of the pages he did for the number 12 was a clock with 12 numbers on it.

We have been reading lots of holiday and winter stories together, along with the Beatrix Potter stories that help Smiley learn new letters and Caleb's nature stories like The Tale of Solomon Owl.  Caleb is also enjoying reading Frog and Toad books aloud.  Caleb writes word lists, that lately have been focusing on word endings and rhymes.  He is also learning to read and write the months.  (He is learning the months in Spanish too.)

Smiley practiced letters, including learning U and V.  He learned a U is the shape of an upside-down umbrella and a V is the shape of a valley.

We are continuing to read and learn about the continent Africa.  We also began learning about the continent South America.  After Caleb had a long Skype-call with his grandpa, who was in Ecuador at the time and lives in Venezuela, he marked both countries on the map he drew.  When we study an area, it includes so many things in Social Studies and Science, including reading and drawing maps, practicing with directions, learning about animals and habitats, discovering different cultures and music, and more.   

The kids did fun art projects for the holidays, including making paper snowflakes and making Christmas cards for friends and family.  At their classes at Riverwood, Caleb decorated candles for Christmas presents for his family and Smiley cut out and decorated cookies for the school party.  They received new drawing markers and Bendaroos for Christmas, so they have been very busy crafting lately.

It can be harder to get outside and be active in the winter, so we have all been exercising together with a really fun Get Fit America DVD from the library.  The boys also helped cook and clean, played their new Leappad learning games, made a pie for Christmas dinner, practiced with their new archery sets, learned and sang lots of Christmas songs at class and at home, and lots more!

Our 2nd grader turned 8 this month!  We took a few days off of school while Grandparents visited and did some fun birthday stuff.  Last week we got back into our routine at home, and I am finally getting around to posting some pictures.  Here's a bit of the fun and learning we've been up to.

Since the beginning of the school year, Caleb has been hearing fables from specific regions and studying those areas further.  The first area was China, and now we spent some time learning about Africa.  He can locate Africa on a map and has learned about the climates, wildlife, and lifestyles of the area.  The picture he drew includes some African animals, including the biggest land animal in the world (African Elephant), the world's fastest animal (cheetah) and the world's tallest animal (giraffe).  Caleb thinks Africa is a pretty cool place!

Smiley is doing well learning letters.  Over the past few weeks, he has made pages practicing letters R, S, and T.  In the pictures, the R page has a rat from a Beatrix Potter story we read.  The S page has a snake, and the T page is a tree he made a T into, out of construction and tissue paper.

In Math, Caleb learned about place value in the thousands.  He can now write and read large numbers in the thousands.  Smiley continues to enjoy practicing counting and writing numbers.

Caleb and I are enjoying reading Solomon Owl, as well as other books we get from the library.  He works on word lists, paragraphs, and  poems/rhymes.

The kids have spent some time outdoors each day, enjoying the cold, but sunny days we've been having.  Caleb is doing great on his new bike he got for his birthday.  The boys have also enjoyed hiking around our hills and climbing trees; they help cook and clean-up (pizza dough, tortillas, and oatmeal were their jobs this week), work on art projects, including homemade Christmas cards, read and read (Adventures of Tintin is the new favorite) and lots more!