Monday: Martin Luther King Day brings our 3rd Annual Food Drive.  After we moved here 3 years ago, Barack Obama became the 44th President.  With Martin Luther King Day approaching he urged everyone to get out into their community and do something in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  So we did.  We took our sled and knocked on doors in our neighborhood, collecting food that we planned to donate to Foodlink.  That year we collected 33lbs.  The second year we decided to try putting out fliers to help increase our chances of getting more food.  It worked!  We collected 74lbs last year.  This year we extended our flies to include our entire neighborhood in the hopes of collecting more than 74lbs.  We do not have the official weight yet, but I am sure we at least doubled last years contribution!  For next year my husband is hoping to expand again.  Maybe by adding in another neighborhood, and making a page here on my blog for photos and updates.  Only time will tell how we can improve our contribution for next year.

Tuesday: Today we tried out a new drawing game called Pick and Draw. The kids just LOVED it! From my husband and I, all the way down to our 4 year old, we were all able to have fun and success drawing unique characters! Having some ideas to go on made it so much easier to create fun characters. My oldest made a cartoon out of hers! We have not received our game yet, we only tried their example on-line. After we receive the game and try it out some more I will post a full review.

[image width=”240″ height=”240″ frame=”simple” align=”left”]http://www.startsateight.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/pout-pout-fish.jpg[/image]Wednesday: Story time with Mr. Mike is back in full swing now that the holidays are over with. 

I often sit there on Wednesday mornings and think that the stories would not be nearly as fun without him telling them.  He always finds great ways to animate the story, or include the kids in the story, or even to add cute singsong tidbits to make it more fun. 

The Pout Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen was no exception to this.  He had the kids doing the part, almost like a chorus, that goes:

“I’m a pout-pout fish

With a pout-pout-face.

So I spread the dreary-wearies

All over the place.”

BLUB

BLUUUB

BLUUUUUB

Thursday: We have been continuing our Map Drawing that I talked about in September.  So far we have done the 5 great circles, the Prime Meridian, 7 continents as blobs, and labeling 4 oceans.  This week we started the process of mastering the outline of South America, along with the 13 countries within it.  This means having a good 8.5″ x 11″ inch map of South America with the lines of latitude and longitude on it so that you can look at is closely and COPY, not trace the outline.  We are no experts, but as with everything, the more you practice, the better you get!