When Dad Comes Home Sick. . .

. . .this is what he decides to do.

President's Day Activities

We decided to take the day off school like most other folks around us. I had way too much work to catch up since we've all been sick for so darn long. But we did spend a little time learning about President's Day.
The older two boys worked on their President's Day worksheets from Enchanted Learning late last week. Today Kieran made a President's Day Word Book using worksheets from the same place.
After naptime, everyone made a log-cabin like the one Lincoln lived in. Ok, they were not all exactly like that but everyone had fun and got a chance to use liberal amounts of glue. Have I ever mentioned how much glue we tend to use in this house?
Katie is almost done.
Liam decided to do things his own way and quickly ran out of extra craft sticks.
Kieran discovered that when you don't close the glue properly, it is rather hard to use it next time.
Bryan was providing supervision and instruction for the activity today.
For some reason Sean looks rather bored today.
One of the finished products.
And here is another one. This activity has officially used up the last of our craft sticks. I have a feeling I will no longer be able to put off a trip to the craft store to restock supplies. Maybe that will be my escape next weekend. I can easily see myself getting lost for a few hours at the craft store.

Cheesecake

While I was out doing the large monthly shopping yesterday, Alan and the kids were making this cheesecake for me. They made a white chocolate raspberry cheesecake topped with a few strawberries. They are under the impression that if they ask nicely enough that I may share with them. I think they underestimate the draw of cheesecake. Ok, maybe if they are really nice I'll share. After all, they did all the work to make it.

A Hammer and Some Nails

In our attempt to avoid junk toys and provide the kids with real experiences, we bought Liam a woodworking kit for Christmas. This is really the perfect gift for Liam since he is always getting a hold of the hammers, screw drivers and such anyway. Now he has a chance to spend some quality time with Dad and learn how to actually use the tools properly. Hopefully this will help us avoid having him hand Alan a handful of 30 or so screws again that he "found" all over the house.
Yesterday Liam got a little help and made a piggy bank with his woodworking kit. It still needs to have a hole cut in the bottom so you can actually get the money out but he is very proud of his work.

Valentine's Treats

The kids all got mail today. Valentine's cards from Grandma who always manages to remember all of the little holidays for the kids. This is the highlight of their week, I swear. Then again, anytime they get mail just for them they are thrilled. I'd planned to have the kids help me make cookies and do something a tad more elaborate but since everyone is sick, I decided to make them myself. Less chance of someone sneezing all over the cookies.

Geography Games

In an effort to make geography a bit more fun and easier to remember, I do my best to supplement the book learning with games, puzzles, videos and audio CD's. I have a feeling the kids will retain the information better if they are active while learning it. We use GeoPuzzles to learn where all the different countries are located. We also have several board games to cover geography ranging from Made for Trade and the Great States! game to Name that Country and Where in the World. And we can't forget the Carmen Sandiego computer games. The goal here is to take what is often a boring subject in school and liven it up enough for the kids to actually remember and enjoy it.
One of the current favorite games is Scrambled States of America. This card game has kept Bryan and Sean interested for several weeks now and they are learning more as they play.
It involves trying to slap the cards to claim them before your opponent which is, I believe, their favorite part of the game. Here's hoping after a few more rounds of this game that they boys will have learned the states and capitals painlessly.

Art Time

The rain and fog rolled in this afternoon so we needed something to keep little hands busy. So it was time to bring out the Do A Dot Art Paint Markers and some print outs from DLTK-Kids. These paint markers let the kids paint in little circles. The print outs provide them with pictures full of little circles to try to fill in. A great combination for both creativity and hand-eye coordination. These markers are also great for when the kids want to paint but you don't want to have to deal with the bigger mess involved with finger paints. They are, of course, washable so even if the kids do manage to paint on themselves, it comes off super easy.
Katie is taking her time and being very serious.
Liam is working on filling in his heart so he can get to the important picture-the monster truck.
Kieran is very proud of his work.
I was rather surprised when Abby made sure to keep her dots in the right place after I showed her the first one.
This picture is from yesterday. Gabe wanted to try using the Color Wonder markers, too. So his big brother showed him how to color and I swear it was the first time Gabe smiled all day.