Halloween

We had another great Halloween!  

Dash, Cinderella, and our little lion!

We started with a yummy Halloween breakfast, did school and our other normal daily routines.  This afternoon we headed over to the KOA for their annual Halloween Bash.  The kiddos played in the bounce houses, rode the train and, of course, trick-or-treated.  We headed home, had our annual Halloween dinner and ended the night with donuts, cider, and It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. The kiddos were oh so tired when they went to bed and Mark and I got to snuggle and end with Hocus Pocus!  Not too shabby!

HS: October

This last month has been so good for school.  We are really getting into a groove and I feel great about what we are doing.  I love getting to teach Jacob.  

Jacob flew through his preschool language arts book.  He did awesome and even though it was easy for him, I thought it was all a good review and helped give him a solid foundation for things to come.  He is now working through a kindergarten primer book.  This just got added in the curriculum that we are using and I think it is really helpful.  It is pretty short and he will definitely finish it sometime in the upcoming month - but again, I think it is all good for him.  In the preschool book he finished all the letters and sounds (which he already knew) and learned about vowels.  This was really the only new thing for him.  In the primer we have started blending some words, continued working on vowels, and are learning about long and short vowel sounds. 

Handwriting is going well.  Not much to say there - the pictures at the end our definitely his favorite thing still!  

In math we finished chapter two and chapter three.  In chapter two we finished talking about numbers 0 to 9, pairing sets with numbers and pairing one-to-one.  In chapter three it was all about ordering things by size, length, or weight and comparing those sizes.  

Science we have continued to work on our arthropods unit.  We are in our last week and it has been great!  We have learned so much.  Some vocabulary words that we talked about were: entomology, hive, cell, and molting.  We talked about bees and wasps, the entomologist Jean-Henri Fabre, butterflies, ants, insect defenses, and arachnids.  

Pollination Activity

Did you ever wonder how bees communicate - through smells!  

Identification activity with honey bees, paper wasps, bumblebees, and yellow jackets.  

Making honey candy

Life cycle of a butterfly

Activity showing how spiders are able to walk on their webs

We didn't do much in art this month.  We only did one project but it was a fun one - an owl collage. 

Next we come to our read alouds.  We read Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty MacDonald.  I remember reading this when I was younger and it may have been even more fun as an adult.  It was lots of fun to read together.  We have now started The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting and really enjoying it so far.  

Choose the Right Program

"There's a right way to live and be happy;

It is choosing the right ev'ry day. 

I am learning the teachings of Jesus;

They will help me and show me the way.

Choose the right way and be happy. 

I must always choose the right."

These are the words to Jacob's favorite song this year for his primary program.  I love listening to him sing it.  This is what Jacob chose to say during his program:

"My name is Jacob Berning.  I can follow the prophet by obeying what he says."

Love you, buddy.  

He has so many people who love him.  

Boo at the Zoo

Saturday was go-go-go ALL DAY LONG!  

Mark and I got up early so that we could hop up to the Draper Temple to do some family baptisms.  We got there right when it opened and it was the first time I had done baptisms since I have been endowed and so that was fun.  

We got home right as the kiddos were getting up at 7:00.  We had some breakfast, got ready and the car loaded and headed up to Hogle Zoo.  We had been planning on coming here for over a month but it has just been crazy so we were really excited to go.  And it ended up being great because they were doing their Boo at the Zoo.  The kiddos LOVED being able to see the animals AND go trick-or-treating!  It was so much fun!

It was great getting to have Gramps, Grammy, Aunt Melina and Aunt Megan to all be there too!  Afterwards, we headed to Red Robin for some lunch and then made our trek back home.  

We unpacked the car, grabbed some pizza and then carved our pumpkins.  The kiddos have been talking about their "designs" for their pumpkins for weeks and so it was fun to finally carve them out!

It was a perfect fall day!