Nature Walk with Mamaw

A home for an animal, maybe a squirrel?

Distance photo of the "sheer cliff"(as Jude named it) on the nature walk.

Jude and a close up of sheer cliff.

Close up of cliff.

Animal track Mamaw and Jude found in the mud.

Picture of the creek or lake.

This is Monroe, Mamaw and Papaw's dog. This was taken before the nature walk.

Most of the pictures were taken by Jude with his own camera!

Last full week of March 2009

Above is a scene Jude made from pipe cleaners. To the far left is a tree with the sun, next is a lion getting ready to pounce on the red antelope at the waters edge and the final piece is a great white shark in the water. Quite a scene!

This is Jude's St. Patty's breakfast of Green Eggs and Ham.... with toast and jam! Oh yes and green milk too!

Jude helping Daddy work on the car. Each one with his own tool box!

Jude's been working on reading his next chapter book, another Ready Freddy book. He only has a few chapters left. He has finally started a nature book! He finds different birds and draws pictures of them. Then we go online to a great site that allows him to choose shape, color, size, beak length, etc. to find the exact bird he saw. He really enjoys it. Then we get to read all about that bird and listen to it's call. He has also drawn some regular pictures of things he sees. It's been a great book to keep in the bag with us when we are in the car.

Jude had a wonderful time at Dani Beth's skating party! He seemed to get along really well with the other kids. He struggles at times to socialize properly but he did great! Of course the kids were all so loving and non-judgemental it would be hard to not get along with them!

This week Jude choose more books on reptiles and amphibians. Luckily this week when we had an appt. for Lainey at Children's Hospital in Columbus it was later in the day and we left early and made a short stop at Cosi. We all love it there. Last time we just missed the opening of the Frog exhibit (it's a traveling one), but we went this time. Jude loved seeing all the different frogs. They even had tadpoles and we were able to see leg/arm buds forming on some of them. He took lots of time reading the info posted too. He even answered some of the trivia questions correctly!

At Cosi Jude got a geode to break at home. He loves rocks. He was a little disappointed though because it was not hollow but a solid crystal inside.

Lainey has been doing well. She refused to do anything for the Dr. though, in true Lainey style! The Dr. now wants her to get a DAFO(ankle-foot brace) to help her ankles from rolling. This should prove interesting! She also was diagnosed with Autism. Labels, labels! She's happy and loves life, that's all that matters to us!

This week in learning

History and Art- This week Jude has been studding Ancient Egypt and Aliens. What a combo right? We are trying to spread out the Ancient Egypt study over a couple weeks. We read a History's Mysteries book on Ancient Egypt. Those books are great and Jude loves them. As you read though the book they have clues to figure out certain villains and each page has I spy type things too. They are wonderful. He's done two art projects as well. One didn't turn out so we're going to try something else.
Science and History- Jude is always interested in aliens. This week we read a book documenting a few of the really famous "incidents'' with aliens. We also watched the footage from the 1947 Roswell alien autopsy. He really liked that. We discussed whether or not the stories were true or not and how valid and trustworthy the people in the stories seemed.
Science- Jude went with Mamaw on a nature hike and took some pictures of tracks they found. I will load them soon. He has been doing a lot of bird watching from our window. He found his binoculars so that's been great. I'm trying to encourage him to draw pictures of the birds he sees to make a book on them.
Reading/Writing- He has not only finished his Ready Freddy book but also read another book! He tried out the Junie B Jones series and he loves them! He read that book in two sittings. Instead of doing a written review on it we found a great website www.bookadventure.org that allows the kids to log on and take quizzes on certain books and earn points to get prizes as you pass the quizzes. He loved it! Plus he won his reward of playing a special game! He also has been doing his Bible study workbook every morning and writing his answers in about every other day. The other days he just tells me his answers. He also choose to do two states in his America workbook this week.
Math- We bought new toys for the prize box for when Jude is really good during the day. I let him help choose some. I gave him an amount I was willing to spend and he got as much as he could for the money. He showed some really good math skills.

Lainey has been doing well this week too. She has been staying up a little later this week. Sometimes because she's happy to be home after a long ride in the car! She watched Daddy eat this week and giggled until she was red in the face. Hopefully just the watching will encourage her eventually. She's discovered her favorite cup (the play one not drink one) makes an interesting noise when she rolls the top on the TV. Not so fun for us but she is definitely doing it intentionally and is putting things together! Pappy got her a new toy hammer that makes funny noises when you shake it. She thinks it's funny but hasn't yet figured out to shake it. We've tried to show her while it's in her hands but she gets angry so we'll let her try on her own some more.

Lainey has taken a few more steps!!!!!!!!!!

I can hardly believe it but our baby has taken a few more steps! She normally only does maybe to steps then lunges, this is her most ever! We are so blessed! The video starts dark but lightens up. We only have our reg. camera with video so there is no sound.

Trains Trains Trains!

Jude loves trains. He has read tons of books on the subject and we've looked up a bunch of stuff online too. He has wonderful questions about trains. He has his own camera and took some pics in Marietta of the trains. I took a few of him with his camera.

Our Reading Time

Jude is currently reading Ready Freddy Halloween Fraidy Cat. He has a goal of 3 chapter books and 1 written (dictating to me and I type) review before a reward of 2hrs of a special video game. This is his second book towards that goal. He really likes the Freddy books.
He is always reading in addition to his chapter books. He usually reads 2-3 smaller books (like Seuss or Arthur type books) every morning in bed before we start the day. He also gets Highlights and Ranger Rick which he LOVES!! He reads the stories usually by himself but we do the activities together as a family. We try to get in at least one book a day that I read aloud to the kids. Lainey sometimes will sit on Jude's lap for it but most likely not. The other day she sat beside Jude as he flipped through two of her board books as he pointed to shapes and named them for her. It really held her attention, it was awesome. Jude was so excited about it too! He kept saying "Look Mommy I'm teaching her! Someday she'll get it!". Such a good big brother!

Our little deer

Early last week Chad looked out our apartment window to see a older fawn just below our window! We took a picture and watched it for awhile. Jude also did a drawing of it. We are used to seeing deer at Mamaw and Papaw's but not ones like this "city deer" lol. These deer visit the picnic area across from the apartments and don't even move when a car passes! Crazy!

Jude working with his tools

Jude tightened up the screws on our dinning room chairs. He's been really wanting to use his tools for something!

Jude's new tool box

Jude has some really nice tools that he received as a gift a few years ago. When he got them he wasn't really ready to use real tools but now he is! We decided to buy him a small tool box which tickled him to no end! He used some allowance he had saved to buy a screw, nut, bolt, and washer type kit. He and Daddy organized them in his tool box.

Learning Today

We started blogging just at the end of last week. We were going to blog on our web page but decided to us blog spot instead! Hopefully this will be easier for us.