Week 20 February 1st-5th: India, the flu, and learning skills

 This week was busy, despite the fact that we came down with the flu! Our regularly scheduled activities had to be put on hold so we didn't share germs, and instead we filled the week with quite a bit else at home instead!

Michael read his first 200 page chapter book this week!! And in just four days! He was super proud and set himself a goal to read at least six more before summer.

I asked the boys for ideas of what they want to learn about. They came up with the idea of making a pedal car! I had them plan out the steps they needed to take and ideas they had at the moment. They decided doing research and getting books from the library was the first step, then making plans, then getting supplies, and finally making and implementing a step by step plan. They also thought of using some of the old bicycles my parents gave us for spare parts would be a good way to start. 

Story of the World took us to India! We colored Indian style knives while I read the chapter.

Avery is huge into drawing right now. he made a spaceship design complete with close up boxes of small parts. He also loves Dog Man and Press Start books and their short drawing tutorials!

We cooked an Indian style lunch one day! Falafel, Naan bread, and curry!

One day Emmet brought his clock radio upstairs, another random hand me down from my parents when they moved, and it wasn't working anymore. He opened it up and explored what was inside. The brothers thought this was an excellent idea! Michael took apart a broken CD player, Avery took apart a broken remote control car, and then they asked dad if he had anything they could take apart. Turns out we had an old computer that was no longer useful so they spent the rest of the day pulling pieces out of it. In the end the empty computer case make an excellent base for the super hero toys!!

On Fridays we read poetry and do art! I read poems from our seasonal book and we talked about all the types of love in the world. The boys helped me come up with a list of ways to love, and then we made valentine hearts of things we love about another member of our family. I have hung them on everyone's bedroom doors for the month. It felt like, after a week of being home together, we needed to remember what we liked about each other, hahaha.

We played A LOT of board games this week!! Here is a sampling!

Over the weekend we got outside and enjoyed some garden projects. The boys learned how, and then pruned the grapes all on their own! Our side-by-side was broken and they helped John fix what was wrong and then drove it all around the field while John and I worked on fencing. They also spent some time "helping" us with fencing, but mostly put t-posts in random places and then pulled them back out again for fun and  just to use the tools necessary. Learning skills for the future! And a bonus picture of our turkeys! They should start mating soon, and we hope Snow, our one female, will sit and hatch some eggs!

Hope you had a great week!

The Dillman's