Yay! P for Pumpkin! We have definitely learned this letter extensively. We did endless pumpkin activities and had so much fun.

Added to our morning circle routine was the “Five Little Pumpkins” song. They both loved it.  

One of the days we did a craft to match! 

We did a Letter P scavenger hunt and then they named what we found and I wrote it down. They loved this. It helps that every toy we own right now is perfectly spread out aka total mess.  
We did a number match game. Timmy has trouble with numbers 6 and 9.  

Grace was so serious about this lacing pumpkin. When I would try to take a picture she would say not yet mom I’m not done. She’s so cute and I love how she loves to learn.

Timmy did a size sorting activity while Grace did the lacing pumpkin. I’ve started giving him direction and walking away and then come back to check his work. It is amazing to me how much he can do on his own. He only got one wrong. 

 
Timmys handwriting and scissor cutting skills have improved so much since August. He did this entirely by himself. 

   
Now when I gave him this pattern worksheet and he did it correctly this mama was amazed. There is no better reward to this “homeschooling” thing than when you see your child get it. When I first tried to explain patterns to Timmy in the beginning of the school year I thought for sure this was out of our league. But nope. Look at this. 

   
While Timmy was busy with his work Grace did a color matching activity and she did it perfect. 

 
Look at that face. So focused on staying in the lines.   Here we separated uppercase and lowercase P. 

This activity was cute. I put the number up and they added the correct number of pumpkins. Then vice versa.
  
We did soooo many crafts since it’s Halloween week also. Here are some of my favorites:          

“Timmy can you push me up to the sky?”

“No Grace because I will miss you and so will mommy.”

Timmy caught his first baseball last night! 

 
“Mom I love you all all all all day every day!” This boy 💙

And a not so sweet memory lately is Graces obsession with clothes. It’s driving me nuts. There is a wardrobe change every 20-30 minutes. I don’t know what to do other than to lock up all the clothes. 

“Grace that’s a chocolate kiss. That means eat it and give me a kiss!”

We were saying the Lord’s Prayer and when we got to “Thy Kingdom come” Timmy says mom we just saw the kingdom the yesterday at Disney. Hmmmm Guess the kids think Disney is heavenly.

At the dinner table tonight, “Timmy you’re the best brother in the whole whole world!” 

When your son puts his arms around you to watch a movie. Melt. 

 
When you and your little girl have matching mini Elsa braids. Heaven.

  
What a blessing today was spending the afternoon with our church family having a picnic. 

 
& being a little naughty at the priest dunk tank! 

We took a mini family vacation and a few friends came too. To be honest I wasn’t exactly thrilled about going. My husband purposely putting himself on a track with other inexperienced drivers racing at speeds well above 120 doesn’t make me jump for joy. However when we got there it all came back to me. 

The reason we do this, how it all got started, was my Dad.

My dad loved to race and even when he would go off for his weekend races me and my mom would cringe with worry. I got into it for a short while but I think women find the idea of possibly crashing your own car a little less fun than men do, at least I did. Anyway my dad got Tim into it. At the time I thought it was cute seeing my dad, my brother and my husband go racing. Now we have 2 kids so it’s not as cute. My dad has since grown older and can’t race anymore. But just being back at that track filled me with all our old memories of me and him racing together and of me and my mom nervously watching the boys race from the pool deck. 

Our view from the room was perfect. I mean it wasn’t your 4 star beach view but as far as racing goes it was top notch. 😊

 
The way my kids lit up to see their Dad racing was all worth it. Timmy was so proud cheering him on from the balcony.  

 
When did my baby boy become a kid who is big enough to help with the luggage.  

The kids spent time in the pool with their friends while the parents kicked back a couple bottles of walmarts finest vino.

First place in our hearts. #126

Uu! The last vowel! And then we are on to Letter P for Pumpkin!!! But let me not get ahead of myself.

I need to work on my circle time, add some new songs. Right now it’s pretty basic: pledge, calendar, weather and Chicka Chicka boom boom and then I introduce the new letter we are working on. We sing the days of the week and months but I need something new.

Bible study is also lacking. It’s definitely time for a restart in that department. We have our weekly verse but that’s it. Last year I was way more on top of that. I’ve been so focused on my own relationship with God that I’ve forgotten that the kids need it too.

Monday was all fun. We did or letter blocks first. I find this is the best way to introduce a new letter. 

 
We did some gardening which wasn’t necessarily “u” related but it needed to be done. 

    
 
I let them have a free for all with the art supplies. I knew I would regret this but it is Messy Monday!  

   
Ultimately a horrible idea because this is what I’m working with right now. 

 
Then we had a “u” bath. I drew u’s with shaving cream and bath paint and let them play. Then I turned on the shower and had them use plates as umbrellas. 

We also watched Up. Timmy loved it. It was his first time seeing it. On an adult level tho, what a depressing movie.

We made these cute cotton ball ghosts from my friends Pinterest board because it’s October!! My favorite time of year. The next few weeks are dedicated to Halloween fun. I love a craft that they can do all on their own. This way they really feel like they created it.

 
We did letter review by matching sticker letters to written letters. Timmy does this very easily but its work for Grace. 

Tuesday we spent almost an hour singing Jesus songs and playing instruments. 

 
Then we had an unexpected science class with this larger than life big. I think maybe it’s a stick bug with a baby on its back. 

My phone went for a swim courtesy of Miss Grace so I’m alittle behind.

I have hardly any pictures because they are gone with the phone.

Big news.. Grace is reciting parts of the pledge. She says the word America like a hard core redneck. “Amurrrica!”

Letter O is an easy letter to learn to write because well it’s a circle, so check on the handwriting portion.

We did Octopus theme. We made octopus puppets out of brown paper bags and octopus out of paper plates. We used pipe cleaners and macaroni for tentacles.  

 
After we watched videos on the octopus. One ate a shark! 

It rained here so we caught some pretend octopus of our own. 

   
We counted lots of Cheerios and ate some.

We constructed our own Chicka Chicka Boom tree out of old cardboard boxes. I cut, the kids painted and they are oh so proud! At the end of the week we are going to be adding our new letters. 

I hate that I wasn’t able to write about this week as I went because now I’ve forgotten about all that we did.