Books that are so much more!

My Animal Family is a group of books put out by Smart Kids Publishing, Inc.  These are books about different animal families, such as elephants, lions, chimpanzees, polar bears and others.  Each captivating  storybook is wonderfully illustrated and comes with a DVD about the animals featuring real animals, in their real habitats.  Each book also includes membership access to the My Animal Family website, which is an online world of fun and games for kids.  Each book gives you access to that animals habitat online. 

We received Nanuq, A Baby Polar Bears Story.    We decided to turn this into an entire polar bear study.  We read the book together.  We loved it so much we have read it over and over since then. 

The next day we decided to watch the movie.  It was very neat!  Very real!  It even came with an original song, while I found the song annoying, the kids loved it.  They especially love that there is a sing along version with the words right on the screen. 

Next I set up the website for them, you create a character based on gender and age, that way you get activities tailored to the child’s level.  This is great.  The only downfall of it for me, was that my children vary in levels.  I have a 5 year old and a 10 year old.  I was not able to set up two characters at two different levels.    There is a solution to that, you can purchase a membership to their website for $5.99 a month, or they have discounts for extended memberships.  The books are $12.99 each and include membership.  I set the website up for my 5 year old.  She had so much fun exploring and playing the games.  Some of the games are just fun, puzzles of polar bears, some are more educational (trivia) type in nature.   Each time you play a game, you win “money”  to use in the store.  You have to purchase certain items to do certain things, such as an ice pick, to break an ice cube with a cupcake in it for you to eat. 

  My entire family loved this book and it is actually something that I am planning on purchasing for some young children in my family for Christmas presents.

To see what my crewmates thought of this book and more check out our crew blog!

{I received this book, DVD, and website membership for free for review purposes as my part on The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew.   All opinions expressed here are my own.  I received no other compensation.}

Surgery day!

 

October 9, 2010 was the day of Katey’s second surgery.

 

We woke up at 5am to drop Tommy, Emily and Tyler off at grandma’s.  We had to be at the hospital by 6am.  We checked in and they did some quick vitals.

She was in great spirits.

 

Then she had to change into her hospital pajamas and the wait began. 

 

Her surgery time was not until 7:30am, so we spent the time playing video games with mom,

 

and with dad.

And just playing with toys.

Then the time came, Dr. Bateman, her anesthesiologist pushed her to her surgery room in a cop car, he even made the siren sounds for her.

He gave her and Molly (her sister’s American Girl doll) bubble gum scented air to help them take a nap.

 

 

This surgery took about an hour.  She did wonderful!

 

I asked her if I could take a picture of her, she said “yes” and did everything she could to bust out a smile.    She is so swollen. 

The rest of the time in recovery she spent eating her slushy and watching her very own TV. 

 

I am very grateful for her plastic surgeon, he has done an amazing job on both of her surgeries thus far.   

 

She is such a trooper, I am so amazed at her resilience.

Thanks to all our Veterans!

 

I would just like to say Thank YOU to any and all Veterans out there and their families!  What a huge sacrifice you all make for us, and our freedom.  You are so appreciated!

 

We showed our gratitude by observing a moment of silence at 11:00 am on the 11th day of the 11th month.  We read some Veterans Day books.  Then we wrote letters to soldiers in our family thanking them for their service.

 

 

 

 

We learned about the colors of our flag and what they stand for. 

 

Red: Courage

 

White: Purity

 

Blue: Justice

 

We did a fun 3D art project using those colors.

 

Emily’s

Katey’s

Tommy’s

 

 

We really enjoyed learning about Veterans Day, and I hope the soldiers like the letters we wrote to them. 

Surgery Classes.

 

Katey was born with a cleft lip.

Katey had her second surgery (her first one was when she was 5 months) this week.  The children’s hospital where I have her surgeries done offer pre surgery classes.  We took Katey, Tommy and Emily to one. 

They get to play with doctor items. 

Each child gets a doll with a hospital gown, a hair net, gloves, and a face mask to take home.  Then they get to use all the doctor items to “operate” on their doll.

 

 

Or on each other.

 

 

They get to dress up like doctors and nurses.

 

Then we got to take a tour of all the  places she would be going, the waiting room, the surgery room, the wake up room, and the recovery room.

 

At the end they each got to try a slushy that the children would be allowed to have after surgery.

The girls chose root beer, 

Tommy chose fruit punch.

 

I am very grateful for these classes, they really help Katey (and all of us) know what to expect. 

Super Fan!

When it comes to college football, my husband is a Super Fan of the Utah Utes!  His father has 5 season tickets, and one of those is his.  I often go to games with him, but not all of them.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the Utes, and I know how good they are, its just hard to get a babysitter for all the games, and lets face it some of them are too cold for me. 

However when he wants to go to away games, I wouldn’t miss them.  They are like mini vacations for us. 

We recently went to the Utah vs Wyoming game.  It was about a 7 hour drive.  We stopped for breakfast in Little America, WY.  We even let the kids play on the playground while daddy filled up the gas tank. 


We stayed it the worst motel I have ever been in, and we had the most fun ever.

We left the game winners 30-6!  GO UTES!



We got to give the players high five after words, and I even got my picture taken with one of them.    Tommy even got one of their sweatbands (gross, I know).


We were really concerned about it being too cold, but the weather was perfect the entire trip.  

We all had so much fun, and would love to go to more away games.   Which might be harder to afford as the tickets get more expensive since we will be part of the Big 12 next year!

Going to the Farm

 

Our homeschool co-op set up a field trip to go to a farm.  So of course we jumped at the opportunity to go. 

 

Our day started off with a tractor pulled hay ride to see all the crops. 

 

We stopped occasionally and our tour guide would go and pick some vegetables and tell us about them.  We learned that an onion lives for 2 years. 

 

 

One stop we made was at the pumpkin patch, were we each got to pick a pumpkin.  The children were told to carefully look around for their perfect pumpkin, and when they found it they were to raise their hand.  Then the tour guide would run around and cut the pumpkins off the vine.

Katey set a goal to find the smallest orange pumpkin she could find.   

Then we were able to do some exploring, they had a “left turn only” hay maze. 

 

Playing on the neat tire swings.

 

Next came the giant slides, which were a little wet, but none of the kids seemed to mind. 

 

 

Then we got to play in a farm band, and

 

ride an animal train.

There was a really cool pumpkin bounce house, they enjoyed for a while.

We finished the day by getting lost (literally) in the famous corn maze. 

 

We had such a fun time on this field trip.  Emily tells me one of the things she likes best about homeschooling is that she gets to go on more field trips than the public school children near us.