Spring Break 2012

I knew Trent was going to be gone to a conference during the kids' spring break, which meant I was going solo with the kiddos, so I put on my game face!  I sent my sister, Ali, a shopping list of all the craft supplies I needed and she went right out and got them for me.  I got the box a few days before the kids got out of school, the timing could not have been better.   I was so prepared for the week and it made all the difference.

Our days began around 8:30am when everyone was up.  We ate a leisurely breakfast, watched a bit of cartoons and then got ready for the day.  By 10am we were in the office for mommy school!  I've been freaking out that my kids are in Spanish school, so I've decided to supplement a little during holidays and this coming summer.  This was my first go at it and it went awesome!  I was unsure how they would respond to working during their vacation, but they went along with it and it was fine.

First we did a short little devotional using the gospel art kit, which I love!  We used all the photos of Jesus' life leading up to the passover, suffering in Gethsemane, Crucifixion and by Sunday will be able to talk about the resurrection.  It's been a wonderful opportunity to stretch their minds and see what they're remembering.

I made each child a binder, which they decorated before hand, and each day I put a few activities/worksheets in it for them to complete.  Subjects like science, social studies, language arts and math.  We worked on the binders and then reviewed math facts (addition and multiplication mostly).  We've been reteaching Carley to count to 20 in English.  She's lost some skills she had mastered last year and gets pretty confused sometimes.  She can count to 15 in both English and Spanish pretty consistently, but then it goes down hill in the English department.  I guess that's good, it means she's learning Spanish, but eleventeen just isn't a number and never will be.  It concerns me a little and we've been working all week to banish the dreaded eleventeen...which creeps into her counting whenever she can't think of the next number....aargh!

After that we did a different art project each day...sometimes a few in one day!  Here are some of the things we did:

• learned about the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart & listened to some of his music.
• painted with watercolors
• paint by numbers
• made friendship bracelets
• made bead bracelets 
• colored and drew
• made an Easter craft
• made fireworks in a glass
• played with play dough
• made cookies
• swam in the pool
• went for nature walks
• explored at the tide pools
• rode bikes
• colored with sidewalk chalk
• did spiral art
• made homemade crayons 
• went to the park
• rented some new movies (Puss and Boots & Hop)

We've been pretty busy & had a lot of fun. 

It's been awhile since we've been on a nature walk together.  It was fun to have the kids running around trying to find things for me to take pictures of.   They found plenty!

The following morning we headed to the beach before breakfast to catch the tide at its lowest point.  We were rewarded with some good finds!

so sad...we always see trash along the beach

emry spied this shell and got a little surprise when she picked it up.  we decided it would be best to leave his home be.

 We invited some friends over to do an Easter craft with us.  It was a lot of fun!