I had to make a new blog to accommodate all of our children.  Hence the name change from 3 bugs to 4 bugs.

www.homeschoolblogger.com/4bugs

I will probably phase out 3bugs in a month or so, this way if you still want to be on my friends list you can send me the message,

Thanks,

Lisa

Today we breezed through school, but covered everything except reading time.  They couldn't wait to get their gear on and go outside to the welcomed snow.  Well, it wasn't welcomed by me, I personally loved the weather 2 days ago, it was almost 70 degrees.

Wyatt with his shovel, actually it goes in the car.
The penguin look sported by Travis.  Yes, the pants are 2 sizes to large, but they will do until we hit a sale..
Emmett is getting so big and loves this pose for pictures.  Where did he learn this hand sign?  I am certain he hasn't been to any concerts.


I am not sure if Wyatt can see or not.

Landon is coming up on 3 months.  He is growing well.  I weighed him today and he was 14 lbs.  That is 2 lbs shy of Travis around the same age.  He loves his brothers.  We put him in a new seat to work on his balance.


Yes that is a video game, but it is made by Leapfrog.
He found his hands.

I have seen a lot of discussion on whether or not to let your children go Trick or Treating.  Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but please don't frown upon our family for participating.  I have read some pretty strong statements.  That is all it is to us is TOT.  We had so much fun and want to do a family theme next year. 
Boy Golfer

Boy Ninja

Boy Ninja Turtle

3 boys on a mission

Getting ready to hit the town with our gang.

For those who are interested.... We started back schooling when Landon was 3 weeks old.  We were tired of having a free for all everyday.  We just had math and phonics.  We introduced a bit of history.  Our oldest is doing pretty well.  We are doing Math U See for him and he is grasping it well.  He is on the 3rd and final book in Alphabet Island.  He is doing a ton of spelling.  I am looking forward to finishing this book and moving on to a spelling program.  I really tried to introduce grammar, but I just feel we need to have the basics while the baby is so young.  I forgot how much time you spend with a newborn.  We have been to our co-op classes 3 times now and the boys love it.  The day is pretty long for all of us.  Emmett is still taking piano.

Wyatt is really coming along nicely this year.  He unfortunately as a second born learned his letters and their sounds at the same time.  He didn't get the advantage of learning the letter then the sound.  I am finding this to be a bit more difficult in teaching him to read.  He is sounding words out well and we are working on lowercase recognition.  He is writing his numbers well and learning basic addition.  It seems that 5, 6, 8, and 9 are hard for him to recognize.  He is doing Math U See too.  We had to take a break from it and just practice our recognition for awhile. 

Travis can recognize almost all of his letters, thank you Leapfrog.  He has his colors down too.  

We really need to focus on character with all of them.  We are using our AWANA books for devotion time.  I am hoping that we will have a better schedule after the first of the year. 

Who said it is easy to go from 3 to 4 kids.  I sure would like to meet them and tell them they are crazy.  Actually I think it is the newborn stage that is running us down.  Our 3rd child went from angel to not an angel over night.  He loves the baby, but has now learned that he can say no and I can't get to him fast enough to correct the situation.  Here is a perfect example of how #3 doesn't get mommy and daddy's full attention.

#2 took charge and brushed his brothers teeth.  It doesn't look pleasant. 

The colors here are so pretty.  The boys have been helping rake the leaves.  They think they are just making piles to play in, but really they are helping a lot.


He really isn't in any pain.

Travis has hit the magical age of 2 and that is when I introduce the boys to the dentist.  He did great.

As I downloaded my pictures off of my camera tonight I found these from the end of Summer.

Emmett and Travis playing with Jessie and Matthew, our neighbors
Landon enjoying his first beach outing.  He is probably 2 weeks old.
Jessie and Travis

We gave the baby his first bath today.  We had all the boys help.  We did the same with Travis when he came home. 

We finally decided on a name.  We chose Landon Thomas.  I know it is not even one we were considering, but it was funny how we decided.  When the midwife was getting things ready she said, "I'm getting the landing zone ready.".  My husband thought she said Landon and he really liked it.  We told the boys they could pick the middle name and the names they came up with were Tom and Jerry or Ben 10.  We went with Thomas and it just so happens that my husband's uncles name is Thomas.

We had the baby today at 10:54 am. He is 7 lbs. 8 oz. and 20 inches long. We labored for 9 hours, which is a terribly long time considering the last 2 were born within 2 hours. He is doing so well. He does have a bit of a low temp, but we are working to bring it up. We still don't have a name. Pictures to follow when we come home.

Can you believe I almost forgot to post our school schedule.  This is why I joined the blog, to keep myself accountable and let our friends and family know what we are doing.  We started 4 weeks ago to get ready for baby. I figure we will take 4 weeks off once he arrives.
Bible
We are using coloring pages.  It is called A-Z Bible.   We are on letter I.  This way all the boys can participate.

Math
I switched from Horizon's Math to Math-U-See.  Even though I already did K with Emmett, I started him in Alpha.  We really like the format.  He didn't struggle in Math, but I didn't see the concepts being explained in Horizons. Wyatt enjoys having his own workbook too.

Phonics/Spelling
I am using Alphabet Island Level 2B with Emmett. It is a strong Spelling program and finishes up the phonics that we missed.  Wyatt is learning how to write better and we are learning how to put sounds together. 

Grammar
Well Trained Mind (haven't worked it in yet)

History
Beautiful Feet-Early American HIstory
I haven't worked this in yet, because I haven't found a good way to make a timeline that will work for us.

Copywork
Draw, Write, Now
I haven't used this yet, because he has so many spelling words to copy, I really haven't seen a need for it.  I will work it in after baby.

Music
Piano, starting in October. 

Co-op
We start the 3rd Thursday in September.  The boys will be signed up for Gym, Art, and an elective of their choice.  I am hoping for Science. 

  Wow, this is only for PK and 1st grade.  I hope it doesn't pile up as the years progress.

Everyone keeps asking me if I am ready for baby #4. Well as of today, I still don't have my bag packed for the hospital.  I am sure I will only have my clothes on for an hour before they make be bare all, so I can wear the same ones home right?  I haven't bought any diapers yet.  Don't they give you a pack at the hospital?  I finally washed the baby's clothes last night in between Women's Gymnastics and Michael Phelps.  My husband did say they dress the baby once he is born anyway.  However, we did need to get the carseat ready, so I washed the cover.  I also thought a light blanket might be in need if they don't let us take it from the hospital.  Poor, poor #4.  I hope we can figure out a name for this one.  Still undecided.  That happened last time too.  Colby, Collin, Levi, Eli.  Oh, the choices.  Please don't ask middle names. 

On Monday we were playing outside as usual.  The kids tend to push and ride bikes up and down our driveway and ride down.  Travis is no exception.  He pushes his little riding toy to the top and scoots down as fast as he can.  Well he decided to take his rider across the grass.  As he did he pushed it over our sprinkler system cover and was stung by a Yellow Jacket.  He came towards me crying.  I can't move as fast as normal so I was waiting until he got to me at the porch.  Once he got to the sidewalk he kept falling down.  I was trying to get to him, but the neighbor got there fist.  He saw a number of YJ's on his legs and started swatting them.  Poor Travis thought he was getting a swat from the neighbor.  He must have been mortified.  I was.  We found 5 stings.  One on his hand and 4 on his knee.  I dressed his  stings and gave him some medicine.  He seemed to be fine.  On Tuesday morning he woke up with a knee the size of a baseball and his hand looked like a club.  He also had a croupy cough throughout the night.  I took him into the doctor and they gave me something to help with the swelling and he seems to be fine now.  His stings are pretty bruised, but he is a trooper. 

We were pretty surprised at the size of this nest. 
He isn't a small kid, but this was taken after 2 days of treatment.  

One of my favorite things we did was to go to the Blueberry Hill.  We were there less than an hour and picked 5 lbs. of blueberries.  The boys were so excited.  Wyatt kept screaming "Look, I found the biggest one."  and "Look at this bush, it has the biggest, juiciest berries ever.".
Travis did a great job picking until Daddy let him eat one. Then he kept saying, "I picked a blue one and put it in my mouth." 
First of all, who does Emmett look like?  Emmett had a good time too.  He tasted one berry from each bush of every size.  He came to the conclusion that the bigger berries that were bluest were the best.  The smaller berries and the ones with pink on them were very tart.   I wish I would have brought a notebook so we could have charted the experience and we could have counted it as a day of school. 
See, look how big.
After we finished we ordered Blueberry Ice Cream.  

We went to the fair a week ago.  Our neighbor met us there with his children.  It was very fun. Here is a picture of Emmett and Daddy.  Emmett looks a bit concerned because there is a sign on the back of the seat that says "Danger" Do not rock seat.  Well Daddy laughs in the face of danger and rocked the seat. 

Travis and his girlfriend Jess rode a lot of rides together. 
Wyatt's favorite ride was the FUN SLIDE.  Our neighbor said his face was priceless on the way down but by the time he got to the bottom he was smiling ear to ear.