Finally standing!

So our little girl is finally standing! I know most babes her age are running around, but it is big deal for her!  I really think in the next two weeks she will take her first steps.  She's suddenly just very interested in it.  We took this video last week and now she has progressed to clapping for herself when she stands.  The cutest thing ever!!

Dropping the bottle!

So perhaps you thought this would be a big "we got Annie off the bottle announcement."  Well, it's not.  I seriously don't think this child will EVER be off the bottle.  Just like always, I am humbled cause I never understood how people couldn't get their babies off bottles.  Seems easy, right?  Just give them a cup and that's that.  That's how it worked for both the boys.  And then came Annie.  If you remember Annie lost weight for the first 2 weeks after she was born breastfeeding, and then it took us $85 bucks worth of bottles  just to get her to take one.  And she barely took that.  And even up until her birthday it was a struggle to get her to take the bottle.  So I figured this would be easy.  Well, she has the same problem with cups.  She is HORRIBLE at them.  I mean, she can use them, but she just will not sit and drink a large quantity at one time.  She seemed to get better there for a few weeks, but has regressed.  I got her down to just a morning bottle and night bottle, but these last two sick weeks I've been giving her a third.  Oh well, I guess it will happen at some point.  Our doc is pretty pushy about getting off the bottle, but she said for Annie she would make an exception.  Even she remembers what a nightmare it was getting this child to eat!  :)  She seems to do best with these soft straw types.  Well, until her brothers come along and do funny things....

Pumpkin science!

I guess for some reason for the last few weeks, while sickness has been traveling through our house, the only thing I had the strength to teach was science!  I downloaded this super cute science bundle for only fifty cents!  You know I'll buy anything if it is less than a dollar!  ;)  The first experiment we did was with pumpkins.  It was your basic stuff...  predicting the circumference, weight, height and if it would float.  You see they had to turn on the spooky cauldron to do this.  Ha!

We took it out front to test the floating part, which REALLY surprised them.  They were so shocked something so heavy could float!  The assignment also had them test other fruits and veggies, which was really fun.  They love it when they get to use the clip boards for school!  I was pleased with the download because it had stuff for both Wyatt and Noah.  Wyatt drew the results of the experiment and you can see Noah filling in his predictions.

Next up will be "The Black Bloom Of Doom" if I could only remember to pick up a carnation at the grocery store....

Water Filter!

When we first chose My Father's World First Grade I really was certain we would supplement their science program.  But now that we have been following it exactly as written for a few months I am really pleased with it.  It is definitely different than everything I ever taught in public school, or even learned about in college.  But we love it!  They generally read a couple of pages out of an Usborne science book the first day of the week.  The rest of the week we read literature selections from the list in the teacher's guide about the same topic.  And then at the end of the week we do the hands on experiment and make an entry into our science journals.  If we did an experiment they draw the experiment and then write a a sentence about the results.  Otherwise I let them choose a picture to draw (using our book selections as inspiration) and then a sentence about anything they learned.  Wyatt has surprised me the most- he is really picking up so much!  Anyways, this week we discussed rivers, water, and the process of how water gets clean.  They give instructions on how to make this water filter and I was certain it would not work.  I was so surprised!  So were the boys!

First you need some rocks....

Then some sand....

And you put them into a container you have poked some holes in the bottom of.  We did a couple of inches of rocks and then a couple of inches of sand on top.  Then we took some super muddy water....

And poured it in and waited!

Pretty amazing, isn't it?  I figured it would filter out some of the filth, but it really took out way more than I expected.  Fun!

He's growing up!!

So a couple of weeks ago the time finally came to take the training wheels off!  We went to the park with some people from First Class and he saw two of the little boys with no training wheels.  Right then and there he stated that when he got home he wanted to take his off.  You know, cause we've only been telling him we should do this for months and he was adamant that he did not want to.  Little did I know it only took seeing some friends with them off to encourage him!  :)

Josh and I have been dreading this day, cause you know Noah is not one to persevere through something difficult.  But since he started soccer he has really taken to this idea of practicing to get better at something.  Well the boy shocked the pants off us.  Josh just gave him a little shove and off he went - he didn't fall a single time!  I would have been a million bucks it would take weeks to teach him this.  I love it when he surprises us!

The only thing he needed help with was getting started, and you know two days later he figured that out as well.  We are so proud of him!  You can see how surprised Josh is in that last picture that he didn't need any help.  And just so no one calls the bad parents police, we did start making him wear a helmet.  His helmet is just HUGE to fit his square head, so we worried it might throw him off balance for the first time.  But he wears it now and is doing great.  Annie loved watching him too!

Wyatt was a little sad cause he couldn't do it and has since asked us to take his training wheels off too.  We have to fix the tire on the little bike and we're going to let him have a shot at it with that one before he tries on the big bike.  He balances really well on his scooter, so who knows!  Noah surprised us so maybe Wy will too!