Before Five in a Row: The Red Carpet

The Red Carpet by Rex Parkin was our pick for Five in a Row this week. What a delightful story! It is currently out of print and I’m glad I tracked it down at a reasonable price. I absolutely loved the rhyme and rhythm of this story and never tired of reading it. The Red Carpet is a tale of the Hotel Bellevue’s runaway red carpet which wildly whirled through the town wreaking havoc.

We read about policeman from Usborne’s Things People Do. Both of the kids love this book. We also talked about detectives and how they use fingerprints to help track down suspects in a crime.

While we examined our own fingerprints, we marveled at our Creator’s infinite creativity and His amazing, intricate, and unique design for each and every one of us.

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well

Psalm 139: 13-14

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

Matthew 10: 29-31

We created our own version of La Salle Avenue.

“Shine up the doorknobs, and sweep up the floor, then roll out the carpet right through the front door!”

In the story, pretzels soared through the air when the red carpet plowed into a street vendor. Our town had lego pizzas take flight!

It didn’t take long before it took over the house!

We rolled out the red carpet when Dad came home and surprised hime with “red carpet treatment”. The kids worked so hard. Benjamin presented a wrapped box of conversation hearts on a structure he had built. Clara wrapped up a doll brush from around the house and made a valentine. We also offered him a snack and a provided a selection of beverages.

Clara worked on posing for the red carpet event.

I’ll have to keep these tablecloths in mind. It is impossible to get butcher paper here. This was handy. Afterward, they did some large drawings.

We hunted for street signs within the book’s illustrations and then ventured out on a neighborhood walk to see what kind of street signs we could find. We practiced turning left and right — just like the red carpet.

The town was still decorated from carnevale

We continued on a nature walk through the woods.

We even found signs of spring!

We like to imagine what little critters may call this home. Benjamin voted for a mole; Clara guessed lizards and rats.

In other news this week:

We got our new math curriculum – Math-U-See. The kids had a blast exploring the new manipulatives.

We had so much fun at our library’s Fort Night! They opened the library after hours and allowed us to build a fort between the aisles. We read books in the dark with a flashlight. I’m surprised they are holding another one because there were a few kids in there emptying entire shelves! They even provided cookies, juice, and a lollipop for the road. It was a hit!

What a fun and busy week it was!

Valentine’s Day

Instead of Five in a Row this week, we enjoyed crafting and read many stories about love and Valentine’s Day.

We did watercolor crayon resist paintings to add to the calendars we’ve been working on.

We made gluey yarn hearts. Benjamin had zero interest in this, but Clara enjoyed it and loved hanging them when they dried.

We conducted a failed science experiment. I placed white mums in colored water to demonstrate how the stem drinks the water, but we had no luck in changing the color of the petals. After almost two weeks, we could barely see a few spots in the flowers in the green and blue water. Yellow and red were just as white as they started. Nevertheless, we still had fun inspecting them each day.

LRG_DSC02854 — This is how they looked in the beginning

We worked on a mailbox for each family member and spent a lot of time creating valentines. They had much more fun with this than I had expected. I did nothing other than provide art supplies and they went to work. I am ashamed to admit that I have not yet mailed out the valentines they worked so hard on. I must get to it!

LRG_DSC02817 — Still loves making snowflakes!

Benjamin decided he’d rather have an actual box, so he got to work. It was an evolving project. It began with two coffee filters taped together with a hole in the top.

Then he cut a hole in a box and added the filters to the top.

The next addition was a money dropper. He discovered that if you put money into the tube and tipped the box, coins would come out like a “money machine”. He loved making “change” and at one point required a credit card in order to give him a valentine. Haha!

LRG_DSC02841 — They made their own “George Washington” money

We got ready for the homeschool Valentine’s party and they practiced writing their names.

Teatime this week consisted of valentine sprinkle cookies and sparkling pink lemonade.

Other things we did this week:

Benjamin is working hard on reading and is progressing quickly. I’m still impressed with his cursive though he refuses to use it at any other time.

Clara is working on her cutting skills. She has a difficult time holding the scissors properly. I read straws are a great way to work on scissor skills because they are stiff. Benjamin couldn’t resist when he witnessed how the straws soared up into the air with each snip.

We joined the homeschool group for a trip to the science museum in town. All of the kids were completely enamored with this phone. I must say, I have very fond childhood memories of playing with my grandmother’s dial phone.

We had fun crafting this week, but the weather was terrible. We were stuck in the house way more than we like to be. It even snowed! Although it’s not much, I have never seen this much snow in our town.

Before Five in a Row: Katy No-Pocket

This week we rowed Katy No-Pocket by Emmy Payne. Illustrated by H. A. Rey, the kids immediately recognized the illustrations and thought it was Curious George. We talked about the difference between authors and illustrators and compared our Curious George illustrations to this one.

This is a story about a kangaroo without a pouch looking for a solution so she could carry her joey. She finds a kind, generous man in the city wearing an apron full of pockets. He kindly remedied her problem by cheerfully giving his apron to her.

We discussed Deuteronomy 15:8 and Timothy 6:18 and learned what it means to be generous. I didn’t think they were listening at all, but a few days later we were in the car and Benjamin announced that he had helped Clara get what she needed (he was referring to a balloon she had been looking for).

Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need.

Deuteronomy 15:8

Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.

Timothy 6:18

We combined this story with Over in Australia from an Ivy Kids box. It worked out perfectly since our library didn’t have much on Australia or its wildlife.

Katy No-Pocket features many animals throughout. We matched, sorted, and tallied up what we found.

We made kangaroos.

LRG_DSC02765 — Benjamin’s kangaroo is running.

We read about boomerangs and had fun throwing them. Boomerangs are an old hunting tool and are designed to return to you when thrown correctly. Benjamin got his to curve back (ever so slightly) once!

We created our own Aboriginal art. This kept them busy for quite a while.

I had given them this kangaroo print out, but after viewing some samples of real Aboriginal art online, Benjamin immediately wanted to start fresh with his own design.

We designed our own pouch — just like Katy!

They had a great time playing with these! I caught them at almost 9:00 one night playing with these.

We talked about different animals in the story and how zoos give us chance to see unique animals from all over the world. We don’t have access to a zoo around here, so we created our own.

LRG_DSC02804 — Benjamin worked so hard on this swing!

We read that kangaroos can jump 25 – 30 feet. We measured what that looks like. We were finally able to get outside. It’s been terribly foggy and rainy for the past week.

We compared our own jumps to the length of the kangaroo.

We counted how many steps, jumps, and one-legged hops it took us to get 25 feet.

Benjamin got the table ready for teatime. He decorated with his coins!

LRG_DSC02805 — Shel Silverstein continues to be the favorite

We sampled Fairy Bread – supposedly an Australian treat enjoyed at birthday parties and holidays. It is nothing more than amply buttered white bread with sprinkles and was strangely delicious. They both loved it and licked every sprinkle off of every plate.

Some other things we did this week:

Benjamin was introduced to place value.

I let him choose a number to make. He just had to pick “a 9 and a 7”! It took a while but he did it! And then of course I showed him what happens when we add 3 more.

Clara worked on counting as well.

The kids randomly disappeared upstairs and built the town of Pordenone.

This hasn’t been my favorite story. I don’t know if it was because our library had zero books on Australia or kangaroos… or if it was raining and we were a bit cooped up inside the house. The kids enjoyed it nonetheless and we read it many times throughout the week.

Skiing in Sappada

We went skiing in Sappada over the weekend. Sappada is a cute little ski town in the Dolomites about 2 hours from us. We always stay at the Hotel Haus Michaela. The owner is so kind and helpful and the kids love her. She always gives them a bag of candy when we check-out and will customize their gelato order. That is service!

This was last year’s ski trip. They’ve grown a lot!

Sappada has a perfect ski hill for kids. I’m not sure if Clara will ever really take to it, but Benjamin is really flying now. Wish I had pictures of him in action.

We also enjoyed Nevelandia – which translates to snow land. It’s just a big snowy play land. They have bounce houses, an ice skating rink, sledding and tubing, trampolines, and a lot of room for snow angels. I wish I had taken more pictures, but picture taking with cold weather gear on is no small feat!

I went to look for Clara at one point and found her in this little cave.

We were lucky and got about 4 inches of fresh snow the night we got there.

I love the little alpine huts!

This was Clara’s favorite ride ever! I think she went around in this tube for 45 minutes. I thought she was going to sleep!

We even got to play in a real igloo!

We picked up this hand carved wooden mask at a local shop. These masks are used for Carnevale and are typical of this area.

I love this mask! The carver had even burned his name and date into the interior.

We just happened to be in Sappada for Carnevale last year. This is the full costume and a sample of more typical wooden masks.

The Arctic and The Three Snow Bears

This week we learned about the Arctic and read The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett. This story came from an Ivy Kids box and was perfect with our Arctic theme. The story is a variation on Goldiocks and the Three Bears. Both of the kids loved this story and we read it many times during the week.

We read many books about polar bears and were supposed to make bears out of clay, but they were more interested in making and drilling teeth with Clara’s dentist play-doh toy.

We made cozy dens for our bears.

We did an experiment with Crisco to see how blubber keeps animals warm. We dipped our hands in ice water and then wrapped our hands in Crisco. It really worked!

When we were getting ready to leave the house a few days later, Clara says to me: “I have lot of blubber, so I don’t need a coat”. Nice try!

We did a paining of the “northern lights” with ice.

We read Over and Under – a fun way to learn about what is happening under the snow during the winter. We learned about animals that hibernate and animals that must continue foraging for food in the winter.

I made them forage for their own lunch that day. They loved this and begged me to keep hiding their lunch.

We made igloos.

Clara got so sad when she realized she didn’t have enough pieces for a roof. She was fine until she saw how her brothers had turned out. Benjamin was so sweet afterwards and gave his to her and said to her “I made this for you”.

Then they ran off to build an Eskimo village.

We enjoyed playing in the Arctic ocean. Wished we would have had more icebergs, but freezer space is a major issue right now.

We did retellings of the story with character cards. I was amazed at how many details Benjamin included in his retelling!

We finished off the week by making bear dens with graham crackers. They turned out cute!

We also met the homeschool group at the gym for fun and games!

I guess we had a couple of pajama days this week. I wasn’t feeling great and had some bad nights so I’m amazed we accomplished as much as we did.

Before Five in a Row: The Snowy Day

This week we enjoyed an Ezra Jack Keats classic: The Snowy Day. A story where a boy discovers and enjoys the wonders of a snowy day.

We read a lot about snowflakes this week. The Story of Snow was a great one! It talks about the uniqueness of each snowflake, how they are formed, and has wonderful close up photos and illustrations of snow crystals. The kids loved this!

We made our own snowflakes with coffee filters. We had so much fun and they thought it was absolutely magical!

LRG_DSC02559 — His snowflakes were getting cooler than mine!

In this snowflake of Benjamin’s, he commented that it looked like Peter’s (the boy’s name in the story) snowsuit. He was right! I love when they make those observations – I never would’ve noticed.

We talked about Psalms 90:12 and how only God knows how many days we have here on earth, so we must make the most out of each day, enjoy the wonderful gifts He has provided, and live our lives in a way that is pleasing to Him.

Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Psalms 90:12

We made forts and had an indoor snowball fight with socks.

I made snow dough and we made our own tracks in the snow with Legos, animals, and sticks.

LRG_DSC02569 — *Down fell the snow — plop! — on top of Peter’s head.*

Benjamin had the idea of getting his Lego figure ice cubes to use as snowmen.

When the ice melted the snow got a little slimy, so he began creating avalanches instead.

We discussed how Peter handled his situation when he couldn’t participate in a snowball fight with the big boys. We all agreed that Peter made the right decision when he found other exciting things to do instead of pouting and complaining about not participating in the snowball fight.

At the end of the story, Peter is shown telling his mother all about his day in the snow. We discussed memories and how much of the fun of going on adventures is being able to remember them later. I shared some of my favorite childhood memories — a few hours later during lunch, Benjamin asked if I would tell him more about my “adventures at Gan’s house when I was little”. I thought it was so sweet of him.

We went to up to Piancavallo for our own fun in the snow. We had fun sledding, making tracks, and attempting snow angels. Clara has been desperate to make snow angels for a long time. It wasn’t quite the right snow for that but we tried anyway.

We worked on story sequencing cards and created our own snowy scenes with puffy paint.

The finished product turned out cute!

We made a snowflake/snowman snack with pretzels and marshmallows.

In other news this week:

Benny lost his first tooth! He was bursting with excitement and wanted to call everybody.

We went to Boy Scouts this week and the boys learned about teamwork and building each other up. They had to work as a team to build a tower without using any hands. This was very challenging for them.

We’re still plugging away with Logic of English. We practiced writing in “snow” and Benny shot phonograms with his nerf gun.

They loved this little story and have made many references to Peter and are still interested in hearing memories.

Before Five in a Row: If Jesus Came to My House

We started this story when we were at my Mom’s for the holidays. I thought we’d do a lot more school while we were visiting but alas, we only managed to squeeze in one day. We finally got around to finishing the book about a month later — it took us a long time to recover from jet lag and Christmas.

This was a very sweet story with a beautiful message… We can show our love for Jesus by serving others and treating them with love and kindness.

We began by learning about the Golden Rule. We made watercolor hearts. They loved watching how the watercolors spread on the paper. I even let them use my fancy Japanese watercolors which made it that much more exciting. I didn’t get a picture of the final product, but we cut them into heart shapes and wrote the golden rule on it.

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

Matthew 7:12

We talked about the power of music and how it can make you feel certain emotions. We listened and danced to classical music selections from Play Kids Music and they explained how it made them feel and why. They were definitely partial to the fast, loud, and exciting pieces. We also discovered how music can make unpleasant tasks a lot more fun… so we blasted music and tidied up the house.

So do not fear, for I am with you

Isaiah 41:10

In the story the little boy is frightened by the shadows on his wall at night. We discussed different kinds of fears we all face in life. Apparently Benjamin has no fear, but Clara stated she is afraid when she is outside in the dark without her mom or dad. We read Isaiah 41:10 and reviewed that we shouldn’t be afraid because Jesus is always with us.

“Although I cannot see him, I still can feel him near to understand and hold my hand and drive away my fear.”

Since the boy in the story mentions shadows, we had lots of fun reading about how shadows are made.

We did a shadow puppet show.

We traced, raced, and chased our shadows at the park…

We watched our shadows swing.

We combined teatime this week for The Snowy Day and If Jesus Came to My House. Benjamin decided we should serve snowball cookies, so we got baking. I have to say this Tupperware chopper was amazing for chopping all of those pecans!

We looked for all of the ways in the story the little boy shows hospitality to Jesus and decided to invite some special visitors for teatime.

We greeted them at the door and invited them in…

welcomed them to our table…

and offered them something to eat…

The kids did all of the decorating for teatime today. I loved the snowflakes as coasters. We enjoyed the snowball cookies and root beer and of course began teatime with My Shadow by Robert Louis Stevenson.

“And with my bricks I’d build for him a palace of his own, and he would be the little king and sit upon the throne”.

We made palaces for our guests.

LRG_DSC02670 — This one looked a bit more like a prison cell!

I was glad I went ahead and finished this story. I wanted to make it more service centered, but living in a foreign country makes it difficult to find opportunities. I also wanted them to find toys to donate, but since it ends up sitting on our train table it didn’t seem too effective in getting the point across. Hopefully we can do more service projects after we move.

Prayer for a Child

We had a lighter week this week as we were getting ready to go home for Thanksgiving and had much to do. Prayer for a Child by Rachel Field was the perfect book — a lovely illustrated prayer of rhyming couplets.

We talked a lot this week about what it means to be content — to be happy with what we have instead of always wanting more. I thought this lesson went totally lost as both of their Christmas lists continued to grow, but it as it turns out, they are quick to point out when I am not satisfied with what I have. Now I am constantly reminded about being content when I want to buy new pens. And truth be told, I am beginning to accumulate an astonishing number of pens. Alas, I suppose we’re all hypocrites at heart!

We made praying hands to think of things in our own lives for which we could pray and be grateful. Clara loved hers so much and had me read it to her many times throughout the week. She even packed it in her suitcase for our trip back to the states.

I was glad to see “better attitude” on Benjamin’s. And cactus juice??? Where did that come from?

We learned the song Jesus Loves the Little Children and watched it on YouTube. I loved hearing their voices caroling throughout the house all week.

We read Children Just Like Me. A story that spotlights the lives of children all over the world. Although we discovered many differences — types of shelter, languages, clothing, and traditions — we also found many similarities. We learned that kids all over the world go to school and like to play with toys. In countries where toys are scarce, the kids create their own. We invented our own toys just like the kids in the book. Benjamin made a sword out of a stick and his praying hands, and together, we made a ball out of old grocery bags. We had fun playing games of tennis and soccer with our ball.

In the story the girl spends some time gazing at the stars. We read a few books on stars and learned about the big dipper. We worked on making pinhole constellations. We never had time to stargaze through a flashlight as intended, but they enjoyed poking holes in the paper anyway and I was happy because it was great for fine motor skills!

And then Benny decided to make the Big Dipper with his bread.

The prayer begins with ‘bless this milk and bless this bread.’ We watched a little video about dairy farming and wheat harvesting. We also read Little Red Hen. I didn’t even need to talk about the moral of story because that spoke for itself. We baked some bread to practice being cheerful helpers.

Benny measured the flour while Clara made a tally mark for each cup.

We learned how to knead the dough. Clara tired quickly, so Benjamin did most of the kneading. Clara got to grease the bowl for the dough.

Ready to watch it rise!

They loved working with the dough so much that they continued to “bake bread” with the play-doh.

They loved checking in on the dough and watching it rise. Purely magical!

The finished product was excellent! We enjoyed the fruits of our labor all week!

LRG_DSC02476 — I love this sweet little face!

We had a special teatime for Thanksgiving this week and Dad could even join us because it fell on a Sunday! We slurped hot apple cider, licked the frosting off of pumpkin spice cupcakes, and read stories about Thanksgiving.

Our Thanksgiving tree is complete! Though I regret not recording what they had said each day, I love how it turned out in the end! One of my favorites from Benjamin was “turkeys in all of the land”. I hope to make this a family tradition and will look forward to it every year.

That pretty much sums up the week! Now we are looking forward to a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving and holiday season with family in Utah and California.

Blueberries For Sal

Blueberries for Sal, a beautifully illustrated 1948 classic by Robert McCloskey was up this week.

Kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk! Sal and her mother go a picking blueberries to can for the winter. But when Sal wanders to the other side of Blueberry Hill, she discovers a mama bear preparing for her own long winter. Meanwhile Sal’s mother is being followed by a small bear with a big appetite for berries. –Amazon

The first day we studied the illustrations to find similarities and differences in how we live today. We also read Then and Now from Usborne. It’s a book comparing past and present ways of life. Lots to discuss in this one — both kids loved this story and wanted to read it several times. Now I frequently overhear them talking about the “olden days”.

We did a blueberry picking race around the house and then sorted and counted by two’s. We loved dropping different objects in the pail to see which would go kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk.

Benny and I worked on some math while Clara transferred pompoms with tweezers.

We made smashing cotton “blueberries” — an idea I got from Fabulously Frugal. It consisted of equal parts flour and water, some food coloring, and cotton balls. We dipped the cotton in the mixture and baked it. You’re supposed to be able to smash them with a hammer, but I don’t think we baked them quite long enough. They were a tad too squishy to smash. We still enjoyed counting, stacking, and listening to them go kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk when they hit the bottom of the tin pail.

Every now and then I like to surprise the kids with a themed meal. It never fails to get a chuckle out of them.

We played find the hidden bear where I would give them clues about a number and they had to guess the correct cave. They loved this game!

We worked on a directional book.

We created our own blueberry hill with oil pastels.

Clara and I baked blueberry muffins for teatime.

For poetry teatime we served up blueberry muffins, blueberries and cream, and blueberry juice.

We had a lot of fun with this story. Clara’s favorite part is when little Sal and little bear followed the wrong mom. Benjamin’s favorite part was when little Sal got tired and sat down in the bush to eat berries.

Other things we worked on this week:

We practiced blending words together and beginning sounds. Ziggy came out for this one. They go wild whenever Ziggy makes an appearance.

Benny learned the phonogram “d”.

For math we did counting games with the number mats. We did exercises, built towers, and, sorted toys.

We tried to think of all the possible ways in which we could sort socks. We discovered we could sort by family member, boy/girl, colors, size, and tall/short.

I made a fall themed sensory box with rice, colored pasta, pumpkin pie spice, and apparently just about every kitchen utensil we own. I’m working hard to get over my fear of messes!

I also made little ribbon rings for Clara. She had fun dancing around with these for a while.

We crafted our thankful tree for November. Clara helped me paint the tree and get the leaves ready. Each day we will name something we are thankful for and add a leaf to the tree.

No glitter left behind in this house!

The finished product! I’m not very artistic, but was quite happy with it in the end!

Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?

Our Five in a Row pick for this week was Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?. Written by Nancy White Carlstrom and illustrated by Bruce Degan, it is a delightful rhyming story about a little bear’s day with his mom. I absolutely adore the illustrations in the Jesse Bear series.

We read a lot about patterns. We looked for patterns throughout the story in the wallpaper and their clothes, we found patterns in our own closets, and since it was laundromat day, we went on a pattern hunt around base. We found patterns in many of the buildings and in the floor tiles. We also made our own with gummy bears.

We hung “Jesse’s” laundry out to dry with clothes pins. Clara really enjoyed this and spent at least 30 minutes hanging laundry – Benjamin had no interest.

We discussed dressing for different kinds of weather. I surprised them with these felt weather bears. Clara LOVED these bears. I think she spent 3 hours dressing them the first day. She played with them all week and I found her narrations to be most amusing. Benjamin dressed the boy bear once and lost interest.

This poor bear must have had a rough day!

In the story illustrations, Jesse Bear’s home has shapes on the carpet. We worked with pattern blocks and discussed different shapes. I’m amazed at how Benny seems to notice shapes everywhere now. He has found hexagons in restaurant floor tiles and in shopping carts…I never would’ve noticed these.

Clara enjoyed sorting the shapes by color and made neat stacks.

We also painted a “tablecloth” with shapes on it. They always love when the sponges come out.

We recreated Jesse Bear’s healthy lunch and practiced rhymes from the story. Printables from Homeschool Share.

Carrots and peas and a little more please…

Juice from a pear and rice in my hair…

We also read about oral hygiene and watched a Brain-Pop Jr video about teeth and practiced flossing with play-doh and legos.

We painted eggs with coffee and tried to brush it off with toothpaste. It was really hard to get off! No wonder why my teeth are in desperate need of whitening! I drink a lot of coffee.

We learned that tooth enamel is the hardest part of our bodies and observed what would happen if we eat too much acidic food and neglect our teeth. We soaked an egg in vinegar and witnessed what happened to the shell. After a few hours, it was so soft it caved right in with barely any touch. Now Benjamin walks around scolding us for drinking acid. Haha!

After all of that talk about tooth care and healthy foods, we made Rice Krispy treats and settled in for teatime. We invited our weather bears, used our tablecloth of shapes for decoration and slurped a Monster Capri-Sun in honor of Halloween.

They had fun in water to float my bubbles and boat.

In addition to Jesse Bear, I began Logic of English Foundations A with Ben. The first few lessons spend a lot of time practicing blending sound segments. I “unglued” a clothing item with sound segments and they got to dress up in the matching attire. This was difficult, but they loved getting bundled up.

We practiced handwriting in sprinkles. They both loved this and it was Clara’s high point of the day. And yes, I did catch them dipping their tongue into the tray more than once.

Other fun things we did this week…

The base put on the annual big Halloween Fest. It is the bases largest event as Italians don’t celebrate Halloween. They had donkey rides, bounce houses, a haunted house, a pumpkin patch, and lots of candy!

Can you find the ninja?

We also attended the homeschool party this week. They played a few games, munched some candy, and ran wild round the field.

To finish off the week we blasted rockets off with the boy scouts — they were all so thrilled! Derek built the rocket and Benny painted it.

When his rocket launched, it shot straight to the side and exploded with a big flame bursting out. I was fairly certain his rocket was going to set the field on fire.

One of the boy’s rocket landed high up in a tree. The poor boy was desperate to launch it a second time. Derek tried to knock it down with a ball. He had great aim, but the string was wrapped around the branch too tightly.

Wow it was a busy week! So much going on, but we had a great time. Next week we’ll keep having fun with bears when we read Blueberries for Sal.

I forgot to mention the broken bones. Early in the week we took the bikes out to the piazza to enjoy some fresh air. He was riding his bike on top of the fountain (which is several steps up), wasn’t watching where he was going and drove his bike right off of the top and landed on his wrist. Luckily it was just a buckle fracture and was quick to heal.

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