Friday: Lego games

For Joshua's Lego challenge today, I told him to make Candy Land or Chutes and Ladders.  He made a combo game.  Isaac really wanted one too, so I told him Outfoxed or Blokus. 

Joshua made a combo Candy Land/Chutes and Ladders game.  It was playing along about like those games go, and I asked him how one is supposed to win.  It turns out that instead of choosing one (or two or three or four) of the color pieces you could choose zero pieces which would trigger a special piece being put into your hand and that would bring you to the end.

Isaac made a pretty close rendition of Outfoxed, but added a volcano.  The volcano might go off every round or it might not, depending on how Isaac was feeling.  If lava hit you you zoomed around the board like a crazy rock and ended up in a new place.  As add-ons go, it wasn't too bad and could be used strategically.

Thursday:

For "Mom's choice" today we finally got out the robot that had been languishing, partly put together.  It turns out that Joshua had gotten stuck on a hard step.  (It was hard.  The instructions were not clear and it was a technic join, which he doesn't like.)

Anyway, we got about half way through it before school was done.  He kept going on his own and finished.  He was super excited about it and I'm glad we got it back out!  I wish I had realized it was such a small stumbling block, because we could have restarted it a while ago.

Wednesday: Joshua

Let's see, today Joshua made an alien ship.

For art we've been tracing assorted objects, then he'll color them, cut them out, and send them.  Today was Grey Bear.  It got put on the wall by my bed.

Yesterday was Horizon.  I was really hoping to trace him in the classic 'cat walking pose' but he would have none of it.  So he ended up in a lounging pose.

The day before that was a hug.  It got sent to Scarlet and Autumn.

Monday: Psalm 23, chalk smilies

We've been working on Psalm 23 during school.  Joshua is a little farther behind, but Isaac was able to do the whole thing today.


During our walk I gave the boys chalk and told them to draw smilies at the end of all the driveways.  It worked really well.

Sunday: life skills

Today's life skill was pushing a stroller.  It was also "let's not play the line game again."  Joshua was really too short to make it work well, but he tried really hard.

I've also started something new with my freezer meals.  I'm labeling them on the side instead of the top.  While not a radical change, it makes it much easier to tell what I have in the freezer!

Oh!  Last night they stayed up until 2am.  Around 1am Joshua lost it a little bit, but their plan was to watch a show in bed.  I heard them talking a little bit around 2am, so he must not have fallen asleep.   Both boys did well today even though they were short on sleep.

Saturday: lock-in

A few days ago Isaac had the brilliant idea of having a lock-in.  He was really looking forward to the one at church and everything was canceled about a week before.  It also means unlimited screen time, something he is always angling for.

At the same time, really?  A lock-in?  Does it not seem as though we're already locked in this house?

He had to come up with a few activities besides just screen time.  He and Joshua also got a Lego set, a bowl of candy, and they did tin foil boats.

It's now 10:30pm and tin foil boats are done and they spent some time on the Lego sets.  It wasn't a ton, so I'm sure they have more to do.  I expect Isaac might last quite a while yet, but I'd be interested in knowing when Joshua falls asleep...although they probably won't check the time.  Joshua was supposed to take a nap this afternoon but I'm not sure that he actually did, because he was awake when I got up from my nap.

We also went on a short walk today.  It was slightly drizzling, so we brought the umbrellas.  It gave the boys something new and we didn't have to play the "if you step on a crack you lose a point" game.

Friday: in pictures and videos

Joshua's Lego challenge came from the librarian's daughter: a chicken, a dinosaur airplane, and a robot that only mashes potatoes.  I really liked how he interpreted the chicken in the second video; it isn't an alive chicken but a pile of chicken pieces to eat.

I wish I had made a goal of using ALL the things in the kitchen.  Isaac made a cake (I only helped with the egg whites and putting in the cake in the oven), I made fried rice and peanut chicken.  We used a 9x13, pan, instapot, rice maker, blender, garlic press, all the teaspoons, and the large bowl.

It wasn't clean to start, but note the empty shelves.

Joshua keeps pulling out this game for his game time.  It isn't too bad, but isn't my favorite either.  We don't follow the rules at all, and the mazes have gotten better.  We do (usually) have rules that have evolved though, so that has helped me.

Tornado was helping Isaac with his homework.

Isaac was so excited to frost his cake.  He made a lot of zig-zags.