1. Best friend: Bear
Here's how we celebrated our last day ... the kids excitedly put on their Franklin t-shirts. Micah tied his shoes, and Lilly's shoes, before we jumped into the car for a celebration breakfast at Einstein's. We hopped into Target for a white t-shirt for Micah, and came home for some fun activities.
mosaic Franklins; did a skip-counting activity with Froot Loops; wrapped up a few worksheets; and celebrated with a green dinner (lime jello; asparagus - definitely not brussel sprouts; cucumbers; green 
apples; ...).
Grandma Rich sent a package for the Franklin Unit - these cute Franklin iron-ons. We purchased some t-shirts and Matt did some ironing. They got to wear these cool t-shirts today 
for our Franklin celebration. You'll notice Micah in a brown and white t-shirt. When I got the shirts I thought the brown would look great and highlight Franklin's shell, the baseball mitt and baseball. We quickly learned (and read the directions) that you need a light shirt. So, Micah has a brown and white one. :)
Wednesday evening Nana & Papa Joe called to read Franklin Says I'm Sorry to Micah & Lilly. It was perfect timing because Lilly had just gotten up from her nap and I was getting ready to fix supper. It was especially fun to hear the sound effects of the flag ripping! Priceless moments.
Eastside Explorers field trip - Challenger Space Center was yesterday. Guess who took Micah? Matt/dad of course, our Honeywell "rocket scientist". hehe! They carpooled with Ryan & his dad, had some hands-on activities in the morning, ate lunch, and toured the center in the afternoon.
Micah drew a picture of Franklin back in September (right) and then another one (from an online step-by-step) this month (left). Here they are. I've said this before, drawing is something he loves to do and does it often in his own time.
It's such a joy to watch Micah as he begins to gain confidence and share with others. January was our month to teach the Mystery of History lessons. Micah jumped right in to assist in our 'visual aids'. Our first week we taught - Samson, the Zhou Dynasty, and Samuel. Here's Micah as Samson.
and Bob) by David Martin, which boost his confidence. I am sooooooo proud of him! He's doing great.
Micah's friend, Ross Leek, had Tuesday - the day after Martin Luther King Day - off from school. We took advantage of that! It was our rainy rainy week, so Kristi and I arranged an indoor playdate. Micah, Lilly and I packed up a bag of Wii games and accessories and headed over for the morning. Micah shared his Wii Resort games and Ross shared his Wii Matchbox Cars (with steering wheels over the remotes). A very fun morning with a friend!
On Saturday afternoon a good friend of ours arranged for a group of kids to learn more about 'Stranger Danger'. For an hour 20 kids and some parents gathered together in her family room and watched a video with Superchick as our guide. Informative, funny, and provided common terms and understanding for us to talk about together. 
SMART. COOL. SAFE.
On our Barton Home Thursday we chose to share Franklin and the theme of Loyalty. We talked about friendships, Jesus' disciples, read some verses and read a Franklin book. BOTH kids did some sharing - Micah did some skip counting and showed how to tie shoes; Lilly got a Franklin book, sat up in a chair, and began telling the residents about the book. She'd do a page, then pick up the book and rotate it around showing them the pictures. Lilly came out of her shell this month (pun intended)!
Chronological order: One day Micah used context and/or picture clues to put 7 Franklin books in chronological order. "Mom, he doesn't have his training wheels in this one."
We were invited to Ryan Gravel's house (one of Micah's best friends) for "Saturday Science" and playdate. There were 2 mini hands-on science lessons about how light travels slower in water than air, therefore causing things in the water to look 'bent'. Dana read about it, showed 2 videos about how it worked and then we explored. Thanks Gravels!!!
morning he tied his own shoes before we left the house. That was more of a personal goal vs. academic, but it "tied" in well with our Franklin study.
Micah's market was busy selling drinks last week (juice, milk, water, soda, ...). Why? Because they cost $.10 each and we're skip counting by 10's. :) Micah did a great job telling me how much I owed, knowing if I gave him the correct amount, and if not how much I still owed or my correct change to keep. 
"Hey, it's Franklin. Coming over to play ... " He's here! We have 8 books of our own and checked out 16 more from the library. Paulette Bourgeois (author) and Brenda Clark (illustrator) do a marvelous job at putting together the character traits of a young child learning about life, friendship and doing what's right. Micah relates well to Franklin and Lilly enjoys the books that include his little sister, Harriet ("me"). Our character trait: LOYALTY. Verse: Proverbs 17:17 "A friend loves you all the time. A brother is always there to help you." We're connecting the friendship of Franklin and Bear to that of the loyal friendship of David and Jonathan, 1 Samuel; (Ties in well with our Mystery of History study with Saul, David, Solomon, ... going on this month.) and the loyalty of Jesus' disciples and how we can be loyal followers and disciples also.
I'm not sure who was more excited - Micah or Matt. Eastside Explorers lined up a field trip to Luke Air Force Base for January 11 (today). A great way for Matt to spend his last day of vacation.
The kids enjoy watching the hot air balloons that float around near our area. Sometimes it's just one or two, sometimes there are up to 10 that we can see from our house. Matt heard about a hot air balloon event in Cave Creek. So, last night we drove up the road and saw about 7 hot air balloons (Spiderman, a ladybug, two bumble bees, and several others) up close and personal. At 8pm an airplane flew overhead and 4 skydivers (with sparklers and reflectors) parachuted down right where we were. Very cool!
remembers from his childhood. Lilly and I enjoyed the end results! YUM, YUM!!!
Micah's been interested in tennis. For Christmas he got his own racket and some balls. We all went down to 
Roadrunner Park (Cactus & 51) to the tennis courts and playground. Matt, who used to play tennis, showed Micah some moves and drills. He loved it!
Even though we haven't been sitting at our desk and writing alphabet letters on the chalkboard, Christmas vacation has continued to work on the daily ins and outs of building character, social interactions with others, projects with mom & dad, and a few "textbook" type spontaneous learning opportunities. New Year's Day was one such time. Micah couldn't wait until 1/1/10 to change his calendar. He got to change the date, day of the week, month, AND year!!! It was sooooo exciting!!
istmas" story. This year, we chose this Santa Search Activity book from Costco to be one of our 'family traditions'. It was set up so that Micah and Lilly could work on it alone or together (with pictures and words at the top of the page to check off) or we could all work together (using the words and checkboxes on the side). Sometimes Micah would read the words on the left and check them off. We did at least one a day. We'd put it on the floor near the tree (lights on of course!) and snuggle up around it, in our pajamas, with our pens (me - my coffee). It was awesome! It was hard to complete the last one knowing we wouldn't pull it out again.
