My Two Favorite Children

The students this year at Homegrown Learning Academy are Miss B, Fifth Grade, and GMan, First Grade.   Rather than get them all dressed up for "formal" pictures, I decided to snap some shots at our favorite place, the ballpark!   I'd like you to meet my two favorite children in the world:

Miss B - Age 10

You have never met a child with a bigger and more compassionate heart than my daughter.  Her understanding of people with differences makes me such a proud mother.  Her favorite things to do are play piano, read (on her Kindle!), swim, and create anything possible with whatever materials are on hand!     She and I are very much alike, but she lacks her mom's competitive streak (and I am thankful for that!).   She is introspective (like her father) but is also quite social and easy with people she doesn't know well.     When she finds a friend, she is quite faithful to that person.  She doesn't have a ton of friends, rather just a few GOOD friends whom she cherishes.    Her dad and I love watching her mature into such a sweet young lady.  


This year in school she will probably love science and history the most, and do whatever she can to wiggle her way out of math!!    She's also learning to knit and wants to learn to quilt.  I love that she keeps me on my toes, always wanting to learn new things, which in turn keeps me learning, too! 

GMan - Age 6

  
My little guy, GMan, is my weakness!   As you can tell from the picture, he LOVES baseball, whether it be playing the game or learning as much about the players as he can.   He is definitely the wild child in the family, but his sense of humor and gregarious ways make him a people magnet.    It seems that he is always doing or saying something that makes us laugh.   His favorite things are (of course) baseball, anything sports related, playing Legos, swimming, and math.  Anything that has numbers involved intrigues him.   He is helping me to see the world in new and different ways!


This year in school he will definitely enjoy math the most, with history and spelling coming in a close second.   He is truly my joy, and I'm blessed to be able to spend my days learning beside him.  




It is Student Photo Week at Heart of The Matter!  Have you shared your students' current photos?

The Beginning of an Obsession

Photo credit

We're SERIOUSLY into Legos in our house these days.   Oh, we've had Legos for years, but my daughter never seemed to like them all that much.  My son, on the other hand, loves them!    He likes to make everything "from scratch" (as he puts it).    The Legos are taking over his bedroom, they are under the cushions of the sofa.  Somehow Legos creation even wind up on my dresser -- because "mom, you really like them!".

I read this post a while ago - 10 Good Things About Legos - little did I know how Legos would be overtaking our life in such a short time!

I'm on a mission now to find lots of fun things to do with Legos!  Rather than go through all of them with you, why don't you visit my Pinterest page.  I've made a board called "Lego Activities".  Check it out!   

Another activity I found that we WILL be doing very soon is a Lego Lapbook from Walking by  The Way.   Scroll down her page of lapbooks until you find the Lego one (in the second grade category).  It is so well done and incorporates history, math, geography - you name it, she's covered it!   

We're lucky enough to have a Lego outlet store about an hour from our house.   As a Fun Friday activity we visited the store.   My children had never been there - needless to say there were a bit overwhelmed.    What's better than a Lego sarcophagus?!?! 

I had heard (via the Lego website) about Lego mini builds.  They are held the first Tuesday of each month at Lego stores.  Each month there is a different project children can build (with the assistance of employees at the store).   When I mentioned we lived far away and had missed the August mini build the cashier told me they still had some projects in the back left over.   She got a wonderful young man from the back; they set up a table and called all of the children in the store for a mini build!    It was a great exercise in listening and direction following.  

  My daughter excelled at building - it was great to see her getting involved with her brother.   When we got home they rushed to his room to build Legos.   

My great find of the day was this Lego calendar, which you need to rebuild each month!  I thought the price was right at $14.99 (considering it retails for $30 on Amazon!) 

Do you have some Lego activities to share with me?    Or, maybe a favorite website?    I'd love to know, because I'm a Lego newbie!!