Can't Top The Konotopskys: Fear... sadness - awww, RELIEF! We aren't out of Nutella!! (thank goodness!)

Borrowed from the internet - Yes! They are dancing!
We learned about these birds this week, along with the Blue Whale.

Yes, there was a period in which I thought we had reached the end of our Nutella supply, but thanks to Wades keen eye, (and after weeks for secretly mourning the thoughts of Nutella free days) my heart was lifted when he pointed out that we did, in fact, have a few more jars left in our supplies. If there was ever a time to have my life be made into a musical, it would have been then! Needless to say we had Nutella sandwiches for dessert that evening. (a sigh while I remember the bliss of eating it after almost 2 weeks of not having any)

Alex working on an ongoing Map lesson.
I place new flag stickers up every week and the boys have to locate the places on the world map by searching the name
in an atlas to locate where in the world it is, then connect the flag to the county on the unlabelled map you see here.
They work on this when they are in between lessons. Whoever does the most at the end of the month wins a prize.
(I have learned that Alex is really good at map stuff!)

Any who, not much else has been happening around here. We are full on into HSing again, all the kids learning things together, but on individual levels. I have gone back to basics in a lot of ways, and am schooling all 4 kids (yes, Maileigh too) using a main theme, then having them work on things on different levels.

This was an activity I gave Jonboy & Maileigh. It was
free play, quiet time, while brothers had their lessons. This is one that Jonathan created.

Every week we concentrate on a single letter. Last week was "Aa" this week is "Bb". Maileigh does lots of crafts using the letter B's and we repeatedly go through the two sounds (a & b) during the day. She also sits in on most of the games Jonboy and I play together, and these games always incorporate his 'words' for the week, plus we repeat the words from last week. He now recognizes, out of his homemade flashcards he helped make, the words Ax, Apple, Ant, Arm and can distinguish which flash cards say 'arms up' and 'arms down.' This week we have been going over words like boy, big, banana, balloon etc. He and Alex share words, except Alex has to learn how to spell them, and to recognize the french version of them as well. We also learn about two animals that start with the letter of the week. This week we learned about the "Blue-footed Booby"... get your mind out of the gutter! It is a bird. :D (See the above pic.) And the majestic Blue Whale.

I came into the play room to find Maileigh sorting her books.

Like I said, there isn't a whole lot that has been going on here. These last few days have been quite rainy and humid. The other day Wade said the outside digital thermometer at his work read 41 degrees; poor fellow. Today (Thursday) was beautiful so we went to Capella. Jonathan has gained enough confidence that he can swim in the deep/big pool. Today was the first time he swam out to me standing about 10 feet away. It was awesome!!!

I have started to work on some children's books to publish, and have recently hired a publishing company to assist me in do just that - publish my first book. I am still working out the finer details, but look forward to having it printed, possibly, in the next 6 months.... Pray that this will work out please. I am apprehensive about it, but want to give another one of my life long dreams a go. My goal is to start a children's book series and use a portion of the proceeds to go towards helping children in need. I am not sure where exactly the monies will go, but it certainly won't be building up in our bank account... it will go to some place it is truly needed!

Well, like I said. Not a whole lot going on. Sorry it has taken me, again, so long to update this. It seems that the Sundays come and go like the kids' snack time... very quickly! Until next time!