Snowshoeing!

Last week, I ordered snowshoes for Noah and Kadin from LL Bean.  Last year I got them for Al for Christmas, and I thought it would be a great Daddy / older boy activity for them to do.  Later, as the others get a little older, it can be a family winter outing.  I grew up skiing, and I long for the boys to learn.  Al has some reservations about skiing...namely the cost for a family of 6.  So, snowshoeing will get the boys out there and sweating with none of the cost and all of the beauty of winter in New England.  Love it!

A beautiful, brilliant blue sky!

 Ready to go!

Kadin

Noah

And they're off!

Heading to the field...

Love the tracks in the fresh snow!

Rosetta Stone Language Program - Highly Recommend!

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Right now Rosetta Stone is having a special Holiday promotion on our Homeschool Edition program and we’d like you to help spread the word! Everyone can save up to $150 on Rosetta Stone Homeschool by visiting our website at http://www.RosettaStone.com/hsw1110.

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This is a computer based curriculum and Rosetta Stone will also include a headset with microphone, and a supplementary “Audio Companion” CD so you can practice lessons in the car, on the go, or where-ever!

Students participate in life-like conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program. Rosetta Stone incorporates listening, reading, grammar, vocabulary and writing along with speaking and pronunciation lessons. For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program to allow parents to easily enroll up to ten students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, grade completed work (the program grades the work automatically as the students progress), and you can view and print reports for transcripts. Homeschooling a lot of kids at your house? This program is designed to enroll and track up to ten students (five users on two computers) and will work for nearly all ages — from beginning readers up to college students.

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Animal Party

The three younger boys got veterinarian kits for Christmas, and this morning the boys decided to set up the Markert Vet Office and give some shots and put some bandages on.  Then they are going to have a huge party for all of their animals for being so brave at their appointments.  Noah helped, too.  I love their creativity...  :)  They are having so much fun!

Christmas 2010!

As I sit here typing this tonight, I think of how incredibly blessed we are this Christmas Day.

Our week started out with Noah being ill with first, a migraine and tummy bug, then by mid-week, a cold.  The tummy issue made its way to Aaron on Thursday night and then Kadin on Friday morning.  Kadin also developed a fever and cold on Friday, and I was feeling that it was just a matter of time for little Matthew.  Kadin cried on Friday afternoon because this was going to be the "worst Christmas ever" due to sickness...we didn't get to have our gathering with the Moore's and Boisvert's to do Christmas crafts and have a party together, we weren't going to go to Sitho's on Christmas Day and be with our family, and their best friends were going to be away in Tennessee for 2 weeks.  We prayed Christmas Eve night for everyone to be better this morning, for Matthew to be spared and stay healthy, and for peace in remembering the real reason for Christmas and to keep that in focus.

Our prayers were answered!  All boys woke this morning, feeling very good and everyone was fever-free!  They were blessed with many presents under the tree and a surprise visit from Gigi and GrandDad. They played happily all day, ate well, and went to bed early tonight feeling almost all better, though Kadin is still sneezing.  Daddy and the boys Skyped with Sitho and all the aunts, uncles and cousins this afternoon (I took a much needed nap while they Skyped, so I missed the call.)  :(  But the boys were happy to see their cousins and show them some of the gifts they received.

Here are pictures of some highlights of our week leading up to Christmas.  Enjoy!

Early gift on Christmas Eve...2010 Hess Trucks!  An annual tradition since Noah was born.  Everyone cover their eyes!  No peeking!

Ok, open them!  YAY!!

Aaron's new fighter jet

Poor Kadin still feverish, but trying to enjoy his new truck!

Silly Matthew, being a ham for the camera!

Noah loved his new truck!  After this shot he promptly labeled it with his name so nobody would mistake it for their own.  You have to do that in a house with 4 boys!

Christmas Eve night before bed the boys made and decorated a gingerbread house and train.  Noah and Aaron did the house and Kadin and Matthew did the train.  Such fun!

Noah and Aaron working on their house

Both of them were very particular where everything went!  It had to be perfect.  But they didn't argue once!  They make an awesome team.

Kadin and Matthew's train.  I think Matthew was eating more than he put on the train.  See his face?  :)

Finished train...great job K & M!

Finished house...great job N & A!

The quiet of this morning before the boys woke.  Al and I just had coffee together and enjoyed the peace and serenity of Christmas morning.

Our "mantle" since we do not have a fireplace!  This will be a necessity in our next home...

As I made my way to the kitchen to bake fresh cinnamon rolls, I noticed this view off our deck.  Breathtaking!

The cinnamon rolls!  YUM!  They went fast.

Playing with their new Legos!  Matthew fits in the box!  :)

 More fun with Legos!

Noah's new ATM Machine Savings Bank from the Discovery Store.  So cool!

Al's new Lucky Jeans!

Aaron the Rock Star!!  This is Matthew's new guitar, but he let Aaron have a turn.  So cute!

Two Fantastic Frescos!

The boys are in the midst of their Ancient Greece studies.  Today, they each painted a fresco, which was an art form used back in ancient time and is still done today.  Before reading up on this project, I had no idea what a fresco style painting was!  In ancient Greece, people would paint over wet plaster.  When the fresco dries, the color becomes part of the plaster, so it lasts and lasts!  I picked up supplies last week and we made our first attempt today.  We basically took the top of a shoe box, sprayed it with cooking oil, and poured a layer of Plaster of Paris into it.  When the plaster began to lose its shine, the boys painted their choice of art into the plaster.  Noah chose to paint the "Argo" which was Jason's ship from Jason and the Argonauts (he loved the movie, by the way!) and Kadin painted islands in the ocean.  We are definitely going to do this art project again...only we'll use less plaster so the paintings can hang on the wall (these weigh about 5 pounds each)!

Getting into the Christmas Spirit

It's certainly feeling a lot like Christmas with this frigid weather we're having!  But, at least it's not snowing...yet.

The boys wanted to make a craft to start out this Christmas season, so we went to one of their favorite stores, Michaels, and picked out a few things.  They decided to make little, baby trees that can be put on our piano at home.  I have to say that this was a reasonably priced craft, too, with each tree averaging about $8 - $10 per child.  Not bad!  And they look great lined up on the piano!  Here are some pics of their creations...

We got our big tree this weekend and finished decorating it on Sunday.  It's a NH Balsam, and it smells heavenly.  Thought you may enjoy taking a peek the boys under their new tree.

Cuteness...

Yelling...MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!  :)

Almost Friday...but a great week!

Well, it's almost the weekend...almost time to get the "family time" I so crave.  Weeks are hard for Al and I.  He leaves before the sun comes up to catch his train to Boston, and if we stay in NH, we don't see him until the boys are almost ready to go to bed.  Thankfully, Al's Mom has graciously opened her home (and upstairs) to us in MA, so that we can spend at least two nights a week having dinner as a family and Al can tuck his boys into bed.  Our weeks are full, but things are getting into more of a routine with packing and unpacking and sleeping away from home.  Sitho's house is our home away from home.  And I like being in civilization!!  :)

This week we began our second quarter in school.  The boys began their study of Ancient India and will continue through history into Ancient China next week.  This will be a highlight for Kadin, as he is so drawn to China!  He's is in the process of learning Mandarin Chinese and how to write in Chinese...all on his own.  He spends quite a bit of time during the week listening to Chinese on his iPod.  There are lots of cool projects coming down the pike as we study these interesting civilizations.

At AWANA on Wednesday night, Kadin and his "guest Sparky" Aaron had a Regatta boat race.  They spent Tuesday and Wednesday building and painting their boats just the way they wanted them.  They had a ton of fun racing their boats and I must say that little 4 year old Aaron held his own against all the 1st and 2nd graders he had to race against!  Here are some pics:

Today we spent the afternoon with our wonderful friends, the Boisvert's....eight boys under the age of 9, one house and believe it or not, such peace!  I love my sister Jen, and the time just flew by.  I thank God for our friends and family...they help make this busy time of life so sweet!  :)

9 weeks down...

We're 1/4 of the way through school for the year!  So far, it has been a very engaging, fun year with lots of hands-on projects, activities, and lots of new skills that are being learned.

Noah and Kadin are both working through their own level of Math-U-See...Noah working on his multiplication and Kadin working on addition and subtraction.  We're covering subjects such as Writing, Grammar, Spelling, Spanish, and Latin, which are exciting and challenging at the same time.  Aaron is doing a great job learning his alphabet, numbers and other preschool things and tagging along with his big brothers when he can with their schoolwork.

There have been a couple of highlights in our curriculum this year.  One of these highlights is our Apologia Human Anatomy and Physiology course.  Noah and Kadin are studying the human body together, reading all assignments and illustrating their own Science Notebooks.  This curriculum incorporates so many cool projects to drive the learning home.  Our first two weeks were spent on the human cell...learning about its parts and functions.  The final project was making an edible cell out of Jello and candy.  Let me tell you, the boys were in heaven!  Here are some pictures from that project:

In addition to the cell, the boys have learned about the skeletal system and are now learning about the muscular system.  Lots of fun things planned for Science this year!

We are using an amazing curriculum for History, Geography and Bible this year called Tapestry of Grace.  It is a classical, Christian curriculum which uses the history of the world as the core educational theme.  Noah and Kadin are working on Year 1, which explores the Ancient World from Creation to the Fall of Rome.  They are learning so much, and it's all in order from the very beginning of history to current day, spread over 4 years.  We are anxious to learn about the United States, but I really feel that in order to appreciate what we have been through as a country for the past couple of hundred years, it's important to know where we've come from.  The world is an enormous place with a lengthy past and lots of history!  So we're starting at the beginning.  Here are a few pictures from one of the projects from Tapestry of Grace:

A pyramid scene that Kadin built with his Math-U-See blocks

Noah's Mummy

Kadin's Mummy

The dead guy... :)

The jars for the organs with the gods on top

Final project!

For our final Unit 1 Celebration, we will be celebrating Shabbat which is the traditional ancient Jewish Sabbath.  Al will be making homemade Challah bread, and I bought an inexpensive Kiddush Cup, Shabbat Candlesticks and candles.  It will be a wonderful way to remember our God and what He has done for us.  We are also going to have a traditional Passover Feast.  Pictures to follow...  :)