(And All My) Work Be Praise

As I mentioned previously, the boys are really into charts right now. This is almost entirely thanks to Sid the Science Kid on PBS, and I only feel a little bit guilty about that. We're in a rough season right now, and even though I don't love how much television we're watching, I'm glad that at least they're learning about science-y things (albeit from a slightly creepy, annoyingly-giggly crowd of cartoon characters). So while last year we painted and cut out dozens of leaves for our November "thankful" list, and the year before that I even put the leaves on a big tree on the wall , this year went something more like, "oh, shoot, it's a week into November already and I haven't even thought about Thanksgiving. We should probably do something . . . ." As I had the thought, my eyes landed on our animal classification chart , and inspiration struck. Another big sheet of paper, a few markers, and ta-da: our Thankful Chart! Clearly,...

As I sat down to write this post, I thought to myself, "gosh, another childhood favorite. I wonder why I'm using so many of my own books this year." And then it hit me: getting to the library with all of the children, without ruining any naps, requires a mid-size miracle. So it is that we pulled another fun one off the shelf this week: The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash  by Trinka Hakes Noble. Craft:  snakes, of course! ( Idea here .) Paper bag, paint, foam cut into triangles, glue, and the ever-present googly eyes. Silas wanted in on the painting action this time. These boys are serious about their gluing. (Never mind the weird lighting. It was not the middle of the night, honest.) Snakes! Science:  I got several library books on snakes -- hold up. Didn't I say above that we never get to the library? It's mostly true. But my favorite local library branch is open on Sundays, so once a month or so I sneak off by myself in the middle of ...