A Typical Library Visit

We LOVE the library!

Unless illness or horrible weather prevents it we make at least one trip to the library every week.  Sometimes more if reserved books come in or we have to quickly return something that someone else has put on reserve.

All five of us have library cards (yes even hubby though he will probably never actually use his) which means we CAN check out 150 items at any given time.

YES, we do routinely check out that much and sometime more when our favourite librarian breaks the "rules" a bit and overrules the limit! ;-)

 This photo is a stack of our picture books, information books, and board books (chosen by Munchkin).

 Our DVDs (information and for fun), a historical fiction read aloud, and ONE book for mum.

 Hubby surprised me with Harper Lee's new book so I HAD to check out To Kill a Mockingbird since I haven't read it since high school!

This is a tall, narrow bookshelf that sits in our front entryway.

It is the perfect place to keep library books separate from our home books.

The rule is if you aren't reading the books they are to live on this shelf - the only other place library books should be found is the bag that is reserved for books that have been read and are ready to be returned!

For the most part this system works well... but I paid a LOT of overdue fines before I found a system that works well for us!!

Term Three: Week Three ~ Getting Back on Track

Week three and we're finally starting to feel normal again.

I think we are even getting back on track ~ thus I'm not longer feeling like we are perpetually behind.  I tried something new this week and used this glorious Weekly Planner sheet (found at Kmart) to pre-plan our week.  This is posted on the cupboard door in the kitchen so the boys can see exactly what I hope to achieve through the week.

First thing Monday morning we set up our science experiment as it was going to take the entire week to work properly.

Since we studied bones as part of our Human Body Unit we soaked a chicken bone in vinegar to illustrate what can happen to our bones if we don't get enough calcium.

 Our read alouds for the week... as well as some Premier's Reading Challenge books that Monster read silently to himself, our body unit books, and our history read aloud.

 Photographic proof that we do more than read ~ Monster working on his handwriting.

This week saw us getting back into the habit of our evening games ~ which both of the big boys were thrilled about.  We enjoyed playing Skip-Bo (above) and also tried to figure out how to play a new game ~ Mancala ~ below!