April review

And then there was April! I'm finding that it's helpful to do these monthly reviews on the blog, mostly to see what we are actually doing for homeschool. At the beginning of the month, it was still pretty much directed by the children. They thought of things they wanted to do, and I supported them however I could, or directed them toward some sort of educational goal! Anyway, they wanted to make volcanoes and Marco polo'ed their cousin Everett to get a refresher tutorial!

 They set up their laboratory on the deck and were even able to blow up some balloons!

He was pretty proud of his purple self-manicure.

That's just how you eat breakfast, right?

This was actually Miles' birthday. He got a dinosaur excavation kit and kindly shared a bunch of his eggs with his brothers. 

Our cousins gave Miles another awesome gift, these marble tracks. The boys have been having hours of fun, especially on all the rainy days we've had!

This is always a fun option when you're not sure what to do with the children.

Our baby chicks explored the great outdoors for the first time! They're pretty much full grown now!

We finally had enough sunshine to set up the hammock. It has become the favorite spot for reading books. In fact, anytime Edwin sees me sit down on the hammock he exclaims "I'll go get a book!" and runs inside quickly just to come back with a handful of books.

We thought it would be funny for this chicken to attack this tiny town, however, Chuck did not like standing on the plastic and kept running away!

 Poor Oregon boys, not used to so much sunshine.

 Miles got to do some fun scavenger hunts for his homework.

Eggs...and for some reason our chickens have not been laying so many eggs recently, we think they are stressed out from the little chickens moving into the coop and from losing 2 sisters.

We got to have a quick visit with cousins. The stopped by to pick something up  and we had been doing a whole lot of social distancing, and it was so exciting to see some familiar faces! We still washed our hands a bunch and tried to keep some distance! I know my boys sure love their cousins!

We tried for six feet apart, and boy do we have a lot of kids!

And we had a whole lot of fun with chickens.

Everett held all the baby chickens!

And so did I, I just wanted to be the bird lady from Mary Poppins!

He has some serious business to attend to.

Egg gathering

Many of Charlie's experiments involve ropes and trees, and occasionally trying to hoist his brothers into the air.

 Miles was too heavy so when they tried lifting Edwin, they could do it if both older boys were pulling on the rope. But as soon as Edwin started lifting off the ground, he panicked and climbed out. Haha! I was there the whole time to make sure they were all safe.

Watching the caterpillars!

Another self directed science experiment....slugs and salt...they must have learned that from their dad.

I actually didn't know they were doing this until it had been a bit too quiet and I went to check on them,

We were playing an animal game...this is the penguin round.

Another kindergarten assignment was to make a nature face. Of course Edwin wanted in on the action. I love the faces they came up with.

Miles was proud of his "Magnolia tongue" and i was obsessed with his lilac hair.

 More rope science with Charlie.

Sunday home church, the boys were taking turns teaching words of King Benjamin.

More fun Kindergarten homework. All the boys always want to do the kindergarten homework.

A fun 2nd grade assignment about pollination.

This may have something to do with us missing the majority of my kids' class zoom calls. 

Baby yoga is adorable....but it's especially cute when he puts his underwear on backwards.

 I had a church zoom meeting and when I was done, I noticed that house was quieter than usual and found Max out reading with all the boys in the hammock.

2nd grade assignment making boats out of different materials. (they all get really involved with each others assignments.)

Max went a little crazy buying girl scout cookies so we made the boys do some math before they could get a cookie. They documented and graphed everyones favorites. Thin Mints win. Always!

It was a pretty exciting day then our butterflies started emerging.

Number line math homework for active boys. (Back before I power washed the deck, yuck!)

Which turned into chalk art.

I keep finding him in trees.

Little chickens moved into their corner of the coop.
 

Feeding the chickens while they prep the garden.

And that was our April. Some sunshine and lots of outside time.