Our Week: Introducing art again

Junior J's painting: 2 microscopes, fruit and french fries. And duck footprints.

Lil J's painting, which for once isn't drenched with painting water.

Junior J now has a new art set, to keep him occupied during his younger brothers' naps.

More fiddling with the light table.

Using Math U See to learn how to skip count by fives.

Sorting animals into their habitats.

Trying out a new game, Trucky 3, that he received as his birthday present.

This week, we've been trying to incorporate art and craft into our weekly routine again. I realized I've stopped letting the kids paint, simply because I find it daunting to have to clean up the messes that Lil J makes while having to care for a crawling, active baby. Lil J isn't much of a doodler, unlike his older brother. However, I've observed he likes working with art materials, but in a more kinesthetic way. He wants to smear the paint with his fingers. He wants to swirl water all over his paper. But, if some rules are enforced, the mess is more or less manageable on a good day. This week, we also managed to work with clay too (but there are no pictures because I was way too busy preventing Lil J from running off with the clay). Junior J is still the prolific doodler, and fills his workbooks with random scribbles and as usual, his drawings of dinosaurs.

Art aside, we're making slow and steady progress. We've taken to reading poetry instead of readers for a change, and I love hearing Junior J read as he tries to figure out what these curling swirling sentences mean. We're chugging along with regards to Math: he's taking awhile to get the hang of skip counting by fives, but he's gotten pretty good at addition. We've fiddled a little with the light table, but I've yet to find a set-up that I really like. I'll share when I do!