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busy vacation

We enjoyed a week long vacation over Thanksgiving and visit to my Parents in AZ. Thanks Mom and Dad for all the creative inspiration and time to get crafty. Also had a good visit with Linda and her family and bought an armload of wool sweaters and started an Etsy sight.

kinesthetic phonics

We have been using some books called  Explode the Code for Phonics. I have been supplementing with some active games that I though of. I wrote each of the letters for the sounds we've been working on a piece of paper and set them around the room. For the first game (musical chairs variation) I sing and when I stop the girls stand on a letter and tell me what sound it makes and a word that starts with that letter. The second game we use the same papers and I call out a sound and everyone puts  foot on the letter that makes that sound (I plan to do this with blends, digraphs, sight words etc.)

Home schooling in full swing

http://homeschoolersla.blogspot.com/2011/10/getting-ball-rolling.html
See above link to see what we did this week.

I realized that I need to do more planning ahead of time. I just purchased some books to help with reading/phonics/writing instruction Explode the Code
I also want to purchase a Spelling curriculum but will wait and see how this works out.

We started attending Community Bible Study on Tuesdays and the kids have been learning Bible stories and verses while the women meet to study the book of Job. Afterward we go the the park to play with other home school families. Also joined MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers)which meets every other week. This has been a nice break.

quilting

My latest kick is quilting. I've been obsessed with making quilt blocks during the past three weeks. I went to the first meeting of a new quilting group made up of moms from mom's club. We decided to work on a sampler doing on block per month this year. I got carried away and made 9 blocks so far for that project. Mark got excited about the idea too and he and I made our first 8 blocks of a joint venture. see photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/68397681@N03/6220948691/in/photostream

I hope I can maintain my enthusiasm to see both these quilts to completion. I am nervous about the sashing and quilting and binding. One thing I am noticing is that the more you sew the more you learn and it doesn't take long to gain new sewing skills. The last two blocks I made for are much more sophisticated that the first 7. I wouldn't even have attempted them a few weeks ago. I'm gaining more confidence day by day and am hoping this will seep into other areas of my life. Except for the dining room table and chairs which are covered in fabric, I am actually maintaining more discipline in the are of tidying and cleaning the house. (Of course it helped that I had a babysitter Thrs morning for 4 hours and Mark took the girls on various adventures yesterday.)

hats hats hats

I'm sewing like crazy around here. I just made these two hats and 5 quilt blocks!!! The one Emily is wearing is not her size but very sweet on her nonetheless. I still have a few finishing touches on each.

little chef

Sorry for the lack of blog posts lately. Just haven't felt inspired and the kids are running me ragged.
I took a cute video of Emily today helping mix up sourdough biscuits. Here I posted a still. What happened to the button that let's you upload a video?

Claire has been enjoying listening to audio books of Stuart Little, Little house on the Prairie and Winnie The Pooh.

video from the archives

Last month we got a more powerful computer with a more spacious hard drive, so we have been reviewing old pics and videos. There are some real gems.

video of Claire twirling in a paper bag vest

From MarkHu Baby album on PicasaWeb.com

sweet memories

We sure enjoyed visiting with all the grandparents during the weeks before and after Claire's 5th birthday. Thanks to all of you for chipping in and helping out in so many ways.
Today in the car driving back from the YMCA Emily said that she wants us to move to Canada to live with Nana.

other activity

See new posts over on http://artimom.blogspot.com/ and
City of Angels Christian Homeschool Community
aka http://homeschoolersla.blogspot.com/
and videos at http://www.youtube.com/markhu2

From PicasaWeb

From PicasaWeb

packing box fun

We all enjoyed the contents and box from Oklahoma.

Christ is Risen

New vids of the girls.
Christ is Risen!

cutting skills with scissors

Emily is doing a remarkable job cutting paper with scissors at the tender age of 2.5. She holds it in one hand and can make a 1 inch slice into a paper or cut a 1 inch strip into little pieces if I hold the strip for her.

I cleaned up my "studio" in the entry way and was reminded of several unfinished projects including an alphabet book I stared a while back with photos of the girls.

more words from Claire

(A Little stream of consciousness from Claire)
I am CLaire and I love you
and I love my daddy
I'm wearing my daddy's long sleeved shirt
I have a printerbox slide and I like to slide down it.
I can swing on my swing and hang on my bar
I am playing with a hanger and the hanger is on it's side
I'm just doing a trick

buttons

Thankfully my foot is feeling much better. I still feel the occasional twinge but nothing worrisome.

We are starting a button collection for math games, sewing and craft projects if you have any buttons of any size shape and color you want to part with we would love to add some buttons from your co0llection to ours. Thanks

We also need some small and large matchboxes to make doll house furniture if any one wants to send some our way Claire will be extatic.

Claire's poems

A couple weeks ago I asked Claire if she wanted to make up a poem for Papa's birthday.
She told me the title should be "Home Sweet Home" and dictated the following.

Home Sweet Home
My Mommy, my Daddy, My Sister
My rocking chair
Three bedrooms, three beds
So sweet because it has
lots of books
and a printerbox slide.

Her second one is about our cat.

Cupcake
He's a tiger tabby cat
he likes to catch mice
and eat catfood
he loves to chase his jingly ball
he loves Frankie
he and Frankie sleep together and
lick each other's heads
lick, lick, lick

Sis
She likes to play games
she's small and cute
and loves her Mommy
She loves to be with her Dad too
We like to walk on pillows and pretend
we're stuck on an island
We hop on the pillows, on the floor,
on the trampoline
We like to read books and play on my bed
We have tea parties and paint.
We like to hug our Mommy and Daddy


Claire
I'm growing and I like to eat and read my books
I like to stretch my arms and my legs
I can stretch my feet
and I can push up backwards
I can jump high and jump low
I can count alll the way up to 60
I love my Mommy and Daddy to take me to Alette's ballet class

daily grind

There are some new photos on Flickr as of Friday Mar 18.
Claire is jumping on the trampoline saying the alphabet in Spanish. Emily is carrying her babies around.
Other things we did
wrap up in blankets and roll around on the trampoline
Claire gave Emily her first haircut.
math with unifix cubes:
patterns and counting and one-to-one correspondence and building towers with 10-1 cubes
crafts: collage with lots of glue and paper strips and magazine photos.
deal with major ant infestation a la Jim Hudson...go after them with the vacuum.
talk to Beth about mi foot injury...a 7 oz can of salsa fell on top of my foot yesterday, ouch!
tea party at the kid's table

Photos

Couldn't post photos to flickr so here are a couple more

Chums

The girls are becoming quite chummy these days. They play together a lot and really enjoy each other's company most of the time. We still have episodes where Claire snatches things from Emily or is overbearing, but instead of every 5 minutes these occur a few times a day. This morning they did a puzzle, splashed in some water outside, and danced and got dizzy in the kitchen.

ballerina girl

I joined the YMCA a couple weeks ago and have been enjoying it.The girls love the mommy and me music and movement class. Claire is also taking ballet and arts and crafts.

I just uploaded new photos to Flickr.

The girls have been requesting pigtails lately. So cute.
Emily now likes her apples whole. See photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/hudsonthego/5411855528/

Emily only naps two days a week though she does rest in her crib each day during nap time just in case...

Claire continues to enjoy sewing. She is working on stitching some Valentines. Emily has een working on felt collages while Claire sews. She loves to squeeze out the glue.

morning activities

Morning activities were as follows:
Write a letter to Nona Beth, Claire wrote her name fairly legibly for the first time. I only helped with the "e".
do a science experiment involving straws and blowing small objects.
using magnets to make a dangling chain of washers.
bouncing and catching/chasing a small ball
coloring the doll house with colored chalk
snacking on dry cheerios

The other day Claire sewed the eye and flippers onto this fish and started sewing it onto a pink felt bag. I helped her finish it. Click to enlarge and see Claire's writing.

sisterly love

We were reading a book about a boy who planted seeds and earned $5.00. I asked Claire what she would do if she had $5.00 and she said she would buy a toy for Emily. A little while later we were doing math with unifix cubes and Claire made a long train and said it was a surprise for Emily when she wakes up.

tiny tea cups

The Girls are inaugurating their new tea cups ad saucers with roobois tea and jam on toast. A couple of small angels are joining the tea party on a blanket on the kitchen floor. Most of the tea parties at our house are "pic-nics" which means sitting on blankets on the floor.

Thanks for the new cups, Nana, they are very pretty.

Happy New Year toddler quotes

Emily quotes:

"I'm learning how to do preschooler." As she and Claire try to jump rope and make up games to do with the jump ropes.

"Little Mama is brushing your hair to get the tangles out." (11 words for those counting --her previous high was 9 word sentences.) I let her brush my hair after my shower this morning. She must've spent at least ten minutes brushing.

In church, we are all lined up kneeling reverently at the communion rail, which gives us a good view of the altar decorations --this time of year including poinsettia flowers and conical fir trees. Emily shouts out, "Christmast Trees!" then launches into an off-key toddler rendition of "Oh Tannenbaum" before we can shush her, barely restraining our own giggles.