Switzerland & the Netherlands

Next Stop was Switzerland! and the Netherlands. I did not get many pictures this week but as always we are flooding in books of interesting things. We learned that the Swiss love Cheese, no surprise there right! they have there own kind! They actually make tons of kinds of cheese there. We also learned about many great artist like Rembrandt, and Vermeer I think I found it all more fascinating then the kids. 

did some fun crafts projects (not really related but it was fun technique to try.

For our party at the end of the week, we had a Swiss Cheese fondue Night, and if you are thinking it is from France you are wrong, well it is both, but we chose to do to it this week because the Swiss people love cheese oh so much! I do not blame them their cheese is awesome. We also had Gouda cheese and saw a video on how they make this (in the Netherlands) And of course Swiss chocolate. YUM! 

Ireland

Our Next stop was Ireland and then Scotland. Each week when we study a place the kids pick some sort of project here, Ethan is working on his North and South Ireland report 

Aaron decided to do a cartoon strip about the people there, telling the story of the Potato Famine.

At the end of each week we have a celebration from the area we are learning about, this week we had a traditional Irish- Jig :) We made Irish Soda Bread.

Had it with some awesome Irish Beef Stew, and some super yummy cheese.

We listen to the boys give there reports, danced the river dance, then listened to Irish music and played hot potato.

it was super fun.

after it all we had a Irish sweet apple cake it was sooooo good! Will ended up wanting it again for his birthday the very next week, so we had it again then too.

We also read lots of books, did some geography and watched a little video about Ireland.

Learning b and d and other fun things

These are just a few of the preschool/First Grade Activities we have done. 

 I found this book at the Library, I love it. Wish I owned it. BUT it is out of print so it is expensive. BUT we enjoyed the Library copy, and learned all about shapes, this was really a review but this book had some shapes that are more then the standard shapes. Then we drew all kinds of shapes out side with chalk, also traced the boys and had fun, making all kids of chalk drawings.

Another one we like is "guess where the rock is" we got these stackable cups from Ikea, but anything will do, we put a small rock under one then they take turns moving them around and hoping the cups around switching things up fast then you try to guess where the rock is. Lots of fun, great at developing skills with paying attention, and focusing etc.

 Both boys know what better b and d are but when Ryan is reading he often times mixes them up. I thought it would go away but even after a year of reading and he is reading many words on his own he still mixes them up. I was super happy when I found this idea on Pinterest, worked like a charm! More details bellow.

 You can only Bulldoze a b! "b" is for bulldozer, and when you scoot a little bulldozer along it will stay straight, because it is a b! But, if you try to bulldoze a d, it will dump over because "d" is for dump!

This activity worked soooo well, and really make it click! when reading I tell him to check and use his finger like a bulldozer, if his finger lines up with a "b" then it will be bulldozed. If it hits a curve part of a "d" then he knows it will dump. After only 1-2 days of this activity he has got it, and does not mix them up any more.

I used some magnet letters and a little bulldozer that we already had, and drew a track on some paper.

England

Our first stop was England. These pictures are not very exciting, but I like having proof that I did something, makes me feel better. I am not sure if the Good Lord was trying to give us the FULL England experence or just accident but we woke up to SNOW this week, and yes just the beginning of September, my friends. BUT thankfully it did get warm weeks later. But that is why we are all huddles under blankets, reading about ENGLAND! 

We make Scones and had hot herbal tea - fitting for the weather.

we read lot of Beatrix Potter, also read some Charles Dickens, and watched a short moving about the Stone Hedge, Big Ben and other wonderful things about England.

Our kids NOW understand why we are always saying "I hope we get stationed in Europe some day!"