Learning About News Firsthand

So this pretty amazing thing happened a couple weeks ago that involved Joshua being recognized for volunteering at the food pantry that is hosted at our church.

Hopefully sometime I'll get around to putting more on here at that. Having that experience gave me a contact I could ask for a tour of a local news station. He agreed! Kurt Williams from WTKR News Channel 3 showed us all around the news station and we learned so much and had a great time!

We got to see the news desk and even were able to watch them reporting the news live!

We learned about the green screen the weather guy uses and that it's  bad idea to wear a green tie when you're in front of it.

It's also very hard to figure out left and right to point to the right cities.

 The control room was pretty cool! I'm amazed that they're able to watch so much at the same time and make sense of it all!

The guys watched 

while Nathaniel and I hung out in the halls so we didn't disrupt anyone.

It was an amazing experience!

A Day in the Life

Homeschooling this year has been different. With a vacation planned next month and a huge cross-country move planned the month after that, we knew we could not use a regular curriculum successfully.
The perpetually optimistic side of me realized that in spite of that we had a huge opportunity because of these things well be doing. We've been doing all sorts of research instead. We are learning about the things we'll see on the way and while we're at Disney World. We're studying states, countries, animals, foods... It's been fun! Overall it's been really nice to chill and focus on just one thing a day and let the boys learn mostly at their own pace.
This morning Jeremiah is reading with Nathaniel and Joshua is watching a video about Jacob Barnett and feeling not so alone in his love of challenging math. I think I'll go get some bread dough and then we'll learn a little about Georgia.

Lego Quest

The boys were looking for something to do today and we ran across this blog: http://legoquestkids.blogspot.ca/2012/10/final-challenge-quest-52.html
It's 52 Lego building challenges. Perfect way to kill a little time! Here are their first creations:

You may be seeing more of these in the future.

Tooth #2

Last night Jeremiah lost his second tooth. He really nursed this one along so it literally just fell out as opposed to him pulling it.
Last night he wrote a beautiful note to his tooth fairy so I thought I'd share it. He has such a sweet heart!

His Own Personal Ball Pit

Nathaniel has loved the couple of baby ball pits he's been exposed to. When I went to use an amazon gift card that was given to him I knew exactly what would give him a thrill. I set up his play pen when they arrived and put them in. Now even the big boys are having fun figuring out all the different what's to play with them!

Chess Tournament

Today the 2 big boys competed in their first ever chess tournament. They both fell in the middle of the results somewhere but had a great time and can't wait for the chess club at the library next month!
Nathaniel didn't have quite as much fun.  He crawled around and generally tried to make a nuisance of himself... but that's what little brothers are for anyway, right?

A Birthday Coming

We are now back in Virginia settling back into relatively normal life. It's been quite an overwhelming task this week!
Now that things are quieting down I've started to turn my attention to things coming up. This week Phil will spend his birthday overseas and we will miss him so badly. Next month we will celebrate Nathaniel's first birthday without him.
Nathaniel woke a little while ago when I was thinking about all of this and even after he went back to sleep I just had to sit there and hold him a while longer. I have always felt a particular pang in my heart when each of the boys have approached this milestone. It's a turning from a baby to a toddler, an increase in independence and there's no going back. This time, with Phil gone, realizing all he's given up during this first year of Nathaniel's life, the pang is something much more. The solace is that this one major impending milestone will put us that much closer to homecoming when all that was missed can be forgotten while we enjoy the ability to finally be all together again.

Six Flags- More fun

Today was my Dad's birthday so we all headed to Discovery Kingdom to celebrate. The boys loved it! Rides and animals and yummy food to snack on. The weather was beautiful to boot!

Another San Francisco Day

Today we rode the ferry into San Francisco and visited the Maritime National Historical Park there. It was such a neat experience for the boys and I learned quite a bit too! We visited a steam tug boat, a paddle boat and a full rigged ship as well as going through several exhibits. We had a great time and were able to get soup and pizza at Boudin's before catching the ferry back homeward.