For the Love of Learning

Field Trip! Edventure Children's Museum

2012-01-30T11:20:00.002-05:00

This was one of those field trips that I never would have taken my kids too on our own because it would have been $9.50 for each of us and all four of us went. Ouch!! Yeah, couldn't have afforded that. However, we are part of a home based public school (South Carolina Virtual Charter School) and they pay for field trips. YAY!! I am so grateful. So, on Friday we were able to go to the Edventure Children's Museum in Columbia. Hooray!! Here are some pictures from our experience.

Meet Eddie. He was a giant kid (do you see the little kid at his shoulder?) that the kids were able to play inside and slide down his intestines and stuff. Doesn't that sound fun? "/

Here's another shot of Eddie. Just trying to show how big he is and these were taken from the second floor. ;)

This was Collin in his head.

Collin and Paul in the "farm" area.

Ryanne went grocery shopping. She was soooo excited about it too.

Fire girl!! Collin was on this earlier but he was with Paul and Ryanne was with me so I got more pics of her.

Drumming with the African drummers on the green screen. This is a picture of the TV monitor.

In the rain forest.

This was one of the kids' favorite rooms. Here is the giant chess set. There was a checkers set just as large. You KNOW that Collin was happy. He and his dad played chess and then he and another mom played checkers. So fun. The other mom had a cane and pushed her checkers around the board with the cane. It was awesome and she was so great with teaching Collin the game. ;)

Ryanne played the bean bag toss game and the...

Giant Jenga game!! She knows this one b/c we play a version of this game during general conference. ;)

Another shot of Eddie with Ryanne. And, yes, the watch is a real clock that kept the actual time. ;)

This is Dr. D. He taught the kids about science lab safety and he was funny in a very cheesy sort of way. Paul and I groaned a lot at his jokes but the kids seemed to enjoy it. ;)

My morning...

2012-01-26T09:56:00.000-05:00

How do I start my morning? First off... I try to wake up before the children. I really need that time to just have a little bit of quiet. Although, they seem to be waking up earlier and earlier and it's making it really hard for me to find my peace but that's another post all together. ;) Anyways, I wake up and go through each assignment of the day. It makes it fresh in my mind and makes the day flow better. I do something similar to the work-box system.

I have everything that we will need in each box. I even have the candle, my scissors, our pencil box, the three hole punch, and my folder with the flash cards in it. I'll do another post on that later. This just makes the day go so much better for us. I have been refreshed on what we're doing and everything is set up and ready. This was this morning and Thursdays we don't do Art or Music b/c Collin has speech therapy instead so that's why there are only four boxes out but there are normally five. :)

The Candle Technique -- Motivation

2012-01-26T09:48:00.000-05:00

I need motivation but my students need motivation too and this is so much harder than finding my own motivation. I heard a fabulous idea in a K12 Speaker Series the other day... the Candle Technique. It's awesome! We did it for the first time yesterday.

I used a birthday candle at first. All you do is light the candle while the child is working. As soon as he/she becomes distracted and plays with legos or something, you blow out the candle. I loved my son's reaction. He wouldn't pay attention and started playing with something so I didn't say a word and just blew out the candle. His eyes went wide and he turned back around and started doing his school work again. There was no arguing or yelling of anykind. I loved it. So, why does the candle burn? Well, when it burns all the way down the child gets a rewards. It can be whatever you want... a mother-son date, a small toy, a trip out for ice cream, geocaching...etc. Whatever! The large the candle, the larger the prize. For the birthday candle, I let Collin choose something from the Smarty Pants. It really only lasts for about 30 minutes so I didn't think he needed something large, I just wanted him to understand what it was for. We went to a slightly larger candle but still not too large. I'll gradually work up to a larger candle. I don't want him to lose that motivation. But, I absolutely LOVE the Candle Technique. ;)

Education Outside the Box

2012-01-25T09:44:00.000-05:00

So, I created this cute little graphic for the front of my 3-ring binder that now contains all my ideas for "Educating Outside the Box". :) Yesterday, I was listening to one of K12's Speaker Series Sessions called "The K-5 Learning Coach Checklist: Little Things That Can Make a Big Difference" by Lauren Wallace. She had a list of things she does and how often and it was wonderful. But, one of them was that twice a month we should do something "outside the box" or "stealth learning". What is stealth learning? I wondered the same thing. Wallace said that she calls those times when children are learning but don't realize it because they are just having so much fun stealth learning. I thought it was such a cute word for it.

Why did I put this image on the front of my notebook. Well, that's b/c I'm trying to come up with ideas. I have printed off brochures for local field trip ideas. I even found the South Carolina Junior Park Ranger program so I've printed off the requirements for that. I figured that if nothing else we can go out into the woods or the local state park and pass off some of the requirements. So, I'm just using all the information that I gather (brochures at Welcome Centers) and just anything that I can get my hands on and keeping them in this notebook. Every other Friday we will try to do something from it. Even if it's just something as simple as doing school outside. As I gather ideas I'll post them here. Any ideas that you have, please post them here as well.

Handwriting Help = Epic Fail

2012-01-23T21:37:00.002-05:00

Handwriting is sort of the bane of school right now. Collin seriously is not a fan of phonics at all and handwriting is what he hates the most. Learning has always come fairly easily for him and he's a perfectionist. Well, he's also a Kindergartner learning to write and when his letters don't look EXACTLY like they do on the handwriting sticker strip he gets very angry at himself and declares he "can't do it!" Oh! I very much dislike that phrase. I had been researching ways to get children to want to write and one of them recommended using the child's imagination and interests to my advantage. So, I told Collin that he was an astronaut and he had to write the words I dictated to him to save the rest of the crew before their oxygen ran out.

It worked... at first. He was so eager to save his crew. Then he started stressing and hyperventilating. Paul came out to talk to him but it didn't help. So, finally, I took him in my arms and help him for a minute. Then, between each gasp he got the phrase, "Will you... turn that.... off?" He was pointing to the timer that was telling us how much oxygen was left. I turned off the timer and in a few minutes he was breathing normally again. He said, "Let's not do that again."

So, moral of this story is... don't use this method on a child with a very vivid imagination. It just might backfire on you. haha! Poor kid!

TaeKwonDo

2012-01-14T09:08:00.000-05:00

Every student must have physical education, right? For our son, we chose TaeKwonDo and I am proud to announce that last night he was tested for his next belt and did an amazing job. He was focused and his movements were strong and perfect! He was awesome!

He's a camouflage belt level one!! YAY!! This means that he is going to start sparring. I am not sure how I feel about other children hitting my boy but it'll be good for both him and me. We'll toughen up... right?

Sight Words exercise!

2012-01-14T09:03:00.000-05:00

I was so excited when I saw a picture of this on Pinterest. Such a cute way to practice site words.

Isn't it super cute? It's a parking lot and I tell him where to park the car and he has to find the word or I park the car and he has to tell me what word I park the car on. On pinterest, it's a mat on the table and a little boy is using a real toy car to roll around but this is better for us b/c we just don't have the space. This hangs on the wall so we can go to it in the morning. It's how we start off phonics class which is Collin's least favorite of all his classes so it's a great way to get him smiling at the start of it. =o)

First Grade Math

2012-01-14T08:58:00.001-05:00

Yes, my son is still in Kindergarten but he completed his Kindergarten text book before Christmas vacation so his teacher wanted to test him to make sure he retained all the information. After a 45 minute test and a score of 100% (teacher said there was slight hesitation on two questions but he got them right) the school decided to move him on up to First Grade math! YAY!!! :) He is loving it! He especially loves that he is allowed to work with number over 30. He has been learning <, >, and = signs. I don't remember learning that until second or third grade. I was shocked when we got to that chapter but he LOVES this section. Anyways... here he is working on his first grade math. :)

Ryanne was learning about shapes and was in the background cutting cookie dough into shapes. hehe!! We had very funny shaped cookies that day. ;)

Life in a Tree

2012-01-01T10:41:00.002-05:00

In science Collin has been learning about what all living things need to survive. Yesterday we were learning specifically about how animals need homes and all the help trees are in this. So, we built a tree with animals in it in our dining room. :) What do you think?

I don't know how much you can see but in this tree there are two bird nests, two koalas, two monkeys, two deer (on the ground b/c trees provide shelter for them, too), two squirrels (one is on the electrical outlet), and two tree frogs. I think that's it!! :) Isn't it cool!! :) The kids each colored an animal so the strange colored animals (pink deer, purple monkey, purple koala are all Ryanne's :).

Smarty Pants!!

2012-01-01T10:32:00.001-05:00

We are starting preschool with Ryanne on Monday and she does this thing where she pretends she doesn't know stuff. It's really easy stuff too so... Paul and I have a plan. If she wants to earn a treat from the "Smarty Pants" then she has to try. She cannot pretend she doesn't know things. She's super excited about it and she's already stopped (mostly) faking not knowing things. It's awesome. Here are our "Smarty Pants".

This was before it was stuffed with "Smarties" but now the pants are puffed up full of candy. I just sewed the legs of the pants shut and then ripped out the stitches to the belt loops and then sewed them back on over the hanger. So, we're encouraging our daughter to be a "Smarty Pants". Collin will earn some too when he shows himself to be a Smarty Pants too.

I got the idea from Pinterest and here's a link to the blog. You can also print out stickers notes and the label above for it too but since it's for my own kids I didn't see any reason for that. Although, we may go with the stickers... not sure yet. I think we'll just stick with the pants for now. ;)

Lesson plan template

2012-01-01T10:29:00.001-05:00

I have always wanted a lesson planning book for my kids since Ryanne is homeschooled and Collin is virtual schooled. However, every lesson planning book I found wouldn't work for us and our schedule. They weren't very adaptable. The other day I read on a blog by a teacher that she made her own. Duh! Why didn't I think of that? So, I made this on excel... completely adaptable so you can do whatever you want with it.

This is our schedule but yours may be very different. If you'd like a copy of this (and I hope this works because it's the first time I've ever used this) click here.

Book Buddies

2011-10-24T10:42:00.000-04:00

So, Collin's school has Book Buddies. Yes, he is virtual school but this is Mrs Huiet and she came to our local library to have some time with the kids. If we include little Ryanne then we had K-4th grade represented in this group. ;) My kids thought it was awesome!! She read some books and then talked about some of the things the kids have been learning in the reading class and applied it to the book. It was fun!!!

S.E.E.D.

2011-10-16T10:44:00.000-04:00

Science Education Enrichment Day... yeap, Collin was in heaven. We started off learning about neurons and Collin built one out of pipe cleaners. Then we moved on to glass blowing. This was exciting b/c Collin had learned about it in history when studying Italy.

Then we learned about minerals and the kids had to name a mineral to get a dum-dum. Then we moved on to the animals.

There's a little turtle!! There were a couple of them. :)

A snake wrapped around the light bulb.

A hawk. The kids couldn't touch the birds but they had the parts of a bird sitting around the table for the kids to touch. Kinda creepy if you think about it too hard but the kids enjoyed it.

Here's the owl. There were also owl pellets for the kids to dissect if desired. We didn't b/c Collin had an appointment in the Planetarium.

So, on to the planetarium for a show went Collin and me.

After the show we headed off to the quad where we found a truck that ran on water and a very exciting demonstration of levers.

Collin got to pull the pin and throw the tennis ball with the catapult.


It's hard to see but in the distance is a little boy with a red jacket on. That's Collin getting the tennis ball. It actually went pretty far.

The kids learned what to do if I was choking... do you see how hard Collin had to hit to get that gumball out of "my" throat. Oh my... I think that would have hurt. LOL! Ronni tried it too and the ladies teaching it had to help her get the hotdog out.

Time to make some paper!! Here's the pulp!

No, those aren't pancakes. That's round paper... they were cooking out the water. ;)

We did many other things but there were so many ppl that it was just hard to get the camera out everywhere. It was a fun day. Then, we went out for ice cream to make the day even better. Oh yeah!! :)

Colonial Times

2011-10-14T10:45:00.001-04:00

So, we went on a field trip today and I'm exhausted. It went from 9am-1pm. Okay, so we left at about 12:50 but then we had to walk all the way back to the van so, yeah... it was pretty much 1. It was geared to kids a "little" older than Collin so I was surprised they lasted that long. It was tons of fun though!! Enjoy our adventures.....

This was George Washington. He was telling the kids all about his "adventures". He kind of lost my kids attention after ten minutes or so so we moved on to the guns... :)

This was one of Collin's favorite ones. This man explained step by step how the guns worked and he had samples of the barrels sliced open so Collin could see it all inside. He even fired the gun! Ryanne wasn't a fan of the loud noise so she and I went next door to the yarn spinner instead while Collin finished learning about guns, tomahawks, knives and swords.

Collin just looked so serious; I had to get a picture of him.

This was the arrogant French-man. He made lace and he was hilarious!! He was so haughty (an act) so it was just funny.

This is the Frenchman's wife. Ryanne thought that her dress was so pretty she wanted a picture with her.

This was the circus and the part that my kids spoke about most. This was one of those eye illusion things. He did some magic tricks and showed the comb of Medusa, a tooth from the whale who swallowed Jonah and some other things. Then... he moved on to the fire....

This was funny. He said, "Do you want to see me shove this lighted baton in my wife's mouth?" The kids all yelled, "Yeah!!" So, he did. hehe! ;)

He really did it for the kids though. He lit his tongue on fire and lit another baton with that flame. Fun! His finale was when he blew fire from his mouth. He made all the kids stand back. It was awesome!

Lunch

Finishing up lunch.

The kids watching the little creek that ran by where we had our picnic.

The wood carver.

Stockades. Neither of my kids were tall enough to reach so I could take a picture so Collin is lifting his sister into it. LOL! It was the best we could do. ;)

Toymaker!! My kids were here for a while.

More toymaker...

Still at the toymaker....

We just needed to get that stinkin' ball into the cup so we could move on from the toymaker's. Collin finally did so on we went.

The Indian Trader... no, he didn't trade Indians. I meant that he traded goods with the Indians. The follow pics of some of the stuff from his tent. In the picture above he was demonstrating how to make fire w/o a match.

The Blacksmith

Collin kept trying to get closer to the orange part. Freaked me out. We finally just left that building and went on to safer places.

This was a soldier showing us the food rations the men in the army were given. The ones on the floor were for the regular army men (rice, split peas, dried meat, vinegar, rum, and flour) and the ones on the table (which looked yummy-- chicken, fruit, cheese, pickles) was for the officers.

By the time we got to this part Ryanne was so tired she was cranky and yelling and crying about everything. Collin wanted to see so we quickly walked to other booths and looked to see who was there and then moved on to make a trip to the "Doctor Who Potties" (as the kids called them) or port-a-potties and then to the van. So, not pictured but also there were Indians, Benjamin Franklin, a leather builder person, a lady with information on tea, a woman doing those silhouette portraits ($20 each if you wanted one of you) and a few others that we just didn't make it to. Tons of fun!! :)

Update on virtual school

2011-10-05T10:47:00.001-04:00

The kids have been loving it!! Ronni participates in a lot of the classes. Collin gets 3 live virtual class each week. He has reading and math and then science and social studies alternate each week. He also just got his IEP and now gets two speech sessions with the school and one through private so, yes, he gets 3 speech sessions/week. On top of all that he has math, language arts and phonics lessons daily. Then he has art, history, science, and music which alternate; he has 2 lessons of each one/week. Ronni loves to participate... especially on the projects. He just had his monthly assessment with his teacher to make sure he was where he was supposed to be. We skipped the first 8 units of math b/c Collin already knew them. That equaled 16 weeks worth of work. So, she tested him on that to make sure he understood everything he skipped. He did!! She was shocked and bubbly when she realized that. At the rate he's going he should be moving up to first grade math in January. He is also reading and building words now. It's awesome. He got to start his first reader book today. Hooray!!

Ronni and I have been working on number recognition lately. She can count to 12 but she doesn't know what the numbers look like so that has been fun! :) It's not as fun for her as it was for Collin so our sessions are much shorter for her. She's only 3 so I don't want to teach the fun of learning out of her. We make it fun and when she's tired we do something else.

Here are some pictures of a few of our projects.
These are from history....

When studying the Netherlands we built a dike. The water is on the right side of the dike.

Then we built a canal to go with the dike.

This is Collin's diorama of The Great Reef off the coast of Australia from when we studied Australia. ;)

The following are science:

We've been studying plants and how they get nutrition so, of course, we had to do this classic science experiment. We ended up with a blue and red daisy. :)

This was when we were working on senses. This day we were focusing on the sense of taste. I blindfolded the kids and they had to tell me if things were salty, sweet or sour. It was fun!! Especially when I gave them the lime. LOL! :) It took a lot of trust on their part.

Collin pouring white vinegar into a jar.

Ronni placing a chicken bone into the jar.

Two weeks later - Collin demonstrating what happens when calcium is sucked out of the bone. (Obviously, this was when we were learning about the body and on the topic of bones.)

2011-09-02T07:49:00.004-04:00

What do you think? I know that not everyone believes in the same God or has the same faith but most people believe in SOMETHING (not everyone, I know). What do you think of the idea of gathering together at the flagpole at school and together asking, whoever you feel is in charge, in a united voice for help. They don't allow this IN the schools but will they tolerate it outside the schools? It probably depends on where you live too. Here, in the Bible Belt, I think most of the teachers would just ignore it but in other places it may cause problems. It will be interesting to see what will happen.

The Bitter Homeschooler's Wishlist

2011-09-02T07:46:00.001-04:00

by Deborah Markus, from Secular Homeschooling, Issue #1, Fall 2007
1 Please stop asking us if it's legal. If it is — and it is — it's insulting to imply that we're criminals. And if we were criminals, would we admit it?
2 Learn what the words "socialize" and "socialization" mean, and use the one you really mean instead of mixing them up the way you do now. Socializing means hanging out with other people for fun. Socialization means having acquired the skills necessary to do so successfully and pleasantly. If you're talking to me and my kids, that means that we do in fact go outside now and then to visit the other human beings on the planet, and you can safely assume that we've got a decent grasp of both concepts.
3 Quit interrupting my kid at her dance lesson, scout meeting, choir practice, baseball game, art class, field trip, park day, music class, 4H club, or soccer lesson to ask her if as a homeschooler she ever gets to socialize.
4 Don't assume that every homeschooler you meet is homeschooling for the same reasons and in the same way as that one homeschooler you know.
5 If that homeschooler you know is actually someone you saw on TV, either on the news or on a "reality" show, the above goes double.
6 Please stop telling us horror stories about the homeschoolers you know, know of, or think you might know who ruined their lives by homeschooling. You're probably the same little bluebird of happiness whose hobby is running up to pregnant women and inducing premature labor by telling them every ghastly birth story you've ever heard. We all hate you, so please go away.
7 We don't look horrified and start quizzing your kids when we hear they're in public school. Please stop drilling our children like potential oil fields to see if we're doing what you consider an adequate job of homeschooling.
8 Stop assuming all homeschoolers are religious.
9 Stop assuming that if we're religious, we must be homeschooling for religious reasons.
10 We didn't go through all the reading, learning, thinking, weighing of options, experimenting, and worrying that goes into homeschooling just to annoy you. Really. This was a deeply personal decision, tailored to the specifics of our family. Stop taking the bare fact of our being homeschoolers as either an affront or a judgment about your own educational decisions.
11 Please stop questioning my competency and demanding to see my credentials. I didn't have to complete a course in catering to successfully cook dinner for my family; I don't need a degree in teaching to educate my children. If spending at least twelve years in the kind of chew-it-up-and-spit-it-out educational facility we call public school left me with so little information in my memory banks that I can't teach the basics of an elementary education to my nearest and dearest, maybe there's a reason I'm so reluctant to send my child to school.
12 If my kid's only six and you ask me with a straight face how I can possibly teach him what he'd learn in school, please understand that you're calling me an idiot. Don't act shocked if I decide to respond in kind.
13 Stop assuming that because the word "home" is right there in "homeschool," we never leave the house. We're the ones who go to the amusement parks, museums, and zoos in the middle of the week and in the off-season and laugh at you because you have to go on weekends and holidays when it's crowded and icky.
14 Stop assuming that because the word "school" is right there in homeschool, we must sit around at a desk for six or eight hours every day, just like your kid does. Even if we're into the "school" side of education — and many of us prefer a more organic approach — we can burn through a lot of material a lot more efficiently, because we don't have to gear our lessons to the lowest common denominator.
15 Stop asking, "But what about the Prom?" Even if the idea that my kid might not be able to indulge in a night of over-hyped, over-priced revelry was enough to break my heart, plenty of kids who do go to school don't get to go to the Prom. For all you know, I'm one of them. I might still be bitter about it. So go be shallow somewhere else.
16 Don't ask my kid if she wouldn't rather go to school unless you don't mind if I ask your kid if he wouldn't rather stay home and get some sleep now and then.
17 Stop saying, "Oh, I could never homeschool!" Even if you think it's some kind of compliment, it sounds more like you're horrified. One of these days, I won't bother disagreeing with you any more.
18 If you can remember anything from chemistry or calculus class, you're allowed to ask how we'll teach these subjects to our kids. If you can't, thank you for the reassurance that we couldn't possibly do a worse job than your teachers did, and might even do a better one.
19 Stop asking about how hard it must be to be my child's teacher as well as her parent. I don't see much difference between bossing my kid around academically and bossing him around the way I do about everything else.
20 Stop saying that my kid is shy, outgoing, aggressive, anxious, quiet, boisterous, argumentative, pouty, fidgety, chatty, whiny, or loud because he's homeschooled. It's not fair that all the kids who go to school can be as annoying as they want to without being branded as representative of anything but childhood.
21 Quit assuming that my kid must be some kind of prodigy because she's homeschooled.
22 Quit assuming that I must be some kind of prodigy because I homeschool my kids.
23 Quit assuming that I must be some kind of saint because I homeschool my kids.
24 Stop talking about all the great childhood memories my kids won't get because they don't go to school, unless you want me to start asking about all the not-so-great childhood memories you have because you went to school.
25 Here's a thought: If you can't say something nice about homeschooling, shut up!

2011-09-01T15:38:00.000-04:00

Everytime I watch this trailer I cry. When I watched the movie, I cried. It is such an amazing video (yes, it is biased but so is everything else). It follows several children as they work with their parents to find a better education and it's all based on luck. You also get a better look into the American schools and what the gov't is doing to try and improve the education system but the stupid politics that prevent them from doing anything. I definitely recommend watching it.

Stress while at home

2011-09-01T15:20:00.003-04:00

Those of us who homeschool know what I am talking about. Being at home with my kids is amazing and I absolutely LOVE learning from them and watching them learn as well. I love knowing what they're doing in school and being so involved in their lives. However, that also means that I get no break! I know, it sounds horrible that I would like a break from my children but occasionally, I think it would be nice. Some days my children just don't want to listen to me.
I grew up thinking I was patient. It was one of my talents and everyone praised me and my patience. Even my mom when I was a teenager. That's saying something, right? Well, then I became a mom and I realized that I really have very little patience. My kids, especially my 3 year old, do not like to obey. They say don't count so I try not to count but often I find myself counting anyways b/c I get an immediate response from them. Professionals tell you not to bribe. I offer fake money for good behavior. Professionals tell us not to yell. Well, occasionally I do yell. I really don't yell often but sometimes the kids are just pushing the right buttons and there is nothing left but anger. It has all been held out for so long that I turn into this evil monster who scares my children. They don't understand why I'm yelling but they fear the anger and immediately obey but then I feel terrible and cry and apologize and feel like an idiot and a failure at motherhood. The professionals also always remind us to follow through. I will admit, this is one thing I am good at. I always follow through on my discipline and make sure my hubby does too. If I tell them that if they don't clean up then I'm trashing their toys then I trash their toys when they don't clean up. Well, sometimes I send it to Goodwill but either way my kids don't get it anymore.
So, how do I make my kids obey so I don't have to respond this way? How do I get a break so that there is nothing left in me to give? Not homeschooling is not an option. I don't want to hand over my children's bad habits to someone else. I want to fix them myself but how? How do I get my 3 yo to just obey me b/c she wants to? I wish there was a manual or something but unfortunately, all children all different -- of course, this is fortunate as well. I sure wouldn't want my kids to be like everyone else.
So, homeschooling moms... in your experience, what is a good way to give yourself a break so you can be a better mom?

The Secret Powers of Time

2011-08-31T13:11:00.001-04:00

This video was awesome. The part that really stuck out to me is that the world is progressing however the way children are fed information is not. Children's minds move 100 mi/hr but our educational system is still stuck going 2 mi/hr. They cannot just sit there and listen. They need more. It makes me so grateful that we're doing virtual school. My son doesn't get to control everything but he has interactive online activities and we have a chart so he can choose which subjects he wants to do. As long as he gets all of those finished by the end of the week then he can do what he wants -- the order he wants, the projects he wants, whatever experiments he wants and he loves it! Are your children moving with progress and have trouble with classes in traditional school or are they okay (only answer this after watching the video to understand)? What are your thoughts on the video?

Are you part of the 20% who sit down and eat dinner with your family or part of the 80% who don't? We are in the 20%. We make sure to plan dinner every night. We also have family night once a week.

I just thought this was such an informative video. What are your thoughts on it? Do you think it's all a bunch of crock or was there really some useful info in there?

Best Day Ever!

2011-08-30T13:04:00.000-04:00

That is what my kids said about today. It was the best day ever! Of course, they say this often b/c we like to do fun things around here. So, I am sure you are eager to hear what exactly we did today to make my 5 & 3 yo say that it was the BEST day ever.... Well, we made smelly playdough. hehe!! We have been learning about our senses in science and today we focused on the sense of smell so we made playdough with lavender oil. You could use vanilla extract or whatever too.

3 c flour
3 c water
1.5 c salt
3 TBS cream of tartar
3 TBS oil
1 TBS extract.

We actually just made half of this and left out the extract. Since it was half the recipe I added 1 TBS of oil and then .5 TBS of lavender essential oil. :) We now have a very aromatic lump of playdough. Now, if you make it, be prepared for a mess! :)

DIBELS

2011-08-30T12:56:00.000-04:00

Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literary Skills --- oh my! That is a mouth full. No wonder they call it DIBELS. It is a test for grades K-2. I had never heard of it. Did your kids have to take it? My 5 year old took it today and I was proud of him. An average score for a K-er is an 8 and he scored a 12. Then on the letter recognition, the average K-er should know 9 letters in 60 seconds and my son knew 28. YAY!!! :) I was proud of him. He did struggle for part of it. He's used to watching my teeth and lips to figure out sounds and he couldn't see his teacher (b/c it's a virtual school so it was online) and he couldn't figure out that she was saying the /s/ sound. Oh well. He still did awesome! YAY Collin!!

Astronomy

2011-08-29T17:54:00.000-04:00

Most people who know my 5 year old son know that he LOVES space. He LOVES any type of science. His plan is to become a physicist and go to outer space. Hopefully, they'll plan a new space program by then. We'll see.
We are fortunate enough to have a planetarium in our little city. A couple of weeks ago he was able to go and learn more about space. He also watched the little video called "Follow the Drinking Gourd" which is based off the story about the slaves and the underground railroad who followed the Big Dipper to escape. It's a very cool story. Then, last week he went to the observatory and was able to look through the huge telescope and see all kinds of things he can't normally see. He came home and told me about a double star he saw. Did you know there were double stars? I sure didn't. So, my 5 year old then explained to me what a double star is and why one star was blue and the other yellow (I did know why they were different colors -- just to clarify). So, I then set to work to find an activity we can do at home to help strengthen this love of astronomy. His virtual school has an astronomy club but you have to be in third grade to join so we'll just have to do our own. Here is the activity that I found.

What You Need:

Empty paper towel roll
Stickers of stars and planets
Paint
Internet or local newspaper
Blanket

What You Do:

Make a Telescope
While you won’t be able to see any far out planets with an empty paper towel roll, it will help your child focus on what she’s looking at. To make this homemade “telescope”, have your child paint her paper towel roll and decorate it with stickers of the stars and planets. Getting your child involved in the process will build anticipation for the evening.
Research the Night Sky
Some constellations are easier to see than others. Ursa Major, "The Great Bear", is the most popular constellation because it is visible in the Northern Hemisphere year round. The Big Dipper is actually not a constellation at all, but part of The Great Bear. And the North Star, Polaris, is not the brightest star in the sky, but a very important one. Because of where it sits in the sky it appears not to move, making it the marker to find north from anywhere on Earth! Orion, "The Great Hunter", is another favorite of junior astronomers and easily visible from January through April. Teaching your child the legends behind the constellations may also helps her remember what to look for and get excited about it along the way. For example, Orion is the great hunter of the night sky traveling with his two loyal dogs - the constellations Canis Major and Canis Minor. The three stars which make up Orion’s belt that hold his sword are easy to spot. And from there you can locate an array of other constellations.
Not sure what to look for? Using the Internet is a quick and easy way to find out which stars are currently in your area. Check out googolplex.cuna.org and www.astronomical.org. You can also often find this information in your local newspaper.
Let the Gazing Begin
You will probably have to let your child stay up a little later than usual, but lying in the backyard with mom and dad looking at the night sky will be an experience well worth it! It will take your eyes 30-40 minutes to adjust to the darkness, so be patient. As your child looks up at the stars with her handmade telescope, ask your child, “What do you see in the sky?” Explain that the stars make pictures called constellations, and that constellations are used to help people remember which stars are which. Check out the brightest star in the sky, Sirius, part of the Big Dog constellation.
On a clear, dark night, you can see between 1,000 and 1,500 stars with the bare eye. Point out a few constellations but also encourage your child to find her own pictures in the sky. If she were an astronomer, what would she name them?
This is a fun way to introduce the beginning concepts of astronomy and get your child excited about something science-related. It’s also a great way to spend a summer night with the whole family involved.

What are your child's interests? Do you do anything to help them grow in those interests at home? I love getting ideas!

Out of School Programs

2011-08-26T18:10:00.004-04:00

Funding for public schools right now is a bit of a joke. They are laying off the people who teach our children regularly and cutting out extra curricular activities, especially the arts. More and more families spend extra time doing extra curricular activities after school. What types of activities do your children do?

My son, kindergartner, is involved in Tae Kwon Do. It has been amazing watching the growth and the independence come from only two hours a week. He is making new friends, developing interests and skills that he wouldn't develop at home or in school. Today he is getting tested for his next belt -- white, orange, YELLOW!!! So, what do your kids do?

Education

2011-08-25T17:56:00.000-04:00

I have been asked to moderate a group called "Moms for Education." This means that I will be required to have 10 original posts each week. Wow!! So, I think I will be posting here a lot more often. I am going to try to put what I write here since this is a blog about education. True, the type of education that I do is a bit different from what the majority of America does. My children don't sit in a desk. Instead, they learn at the dining room table, the kitchen, the living room, the yard, the park... the places are endless. We have many opportunities to learn. Anyways, that's not what I'm writing about right now. I am just writing to say that I will probably be writing on here more often. Okay, yes, that was a pointless post but I felt like saying something so here it is! :) Enjoy and look forward (or maybe not) of hearing from me more often. :)

another good reason to homeschool

2011-07-30T17:40:00.000-04:00

Okay, I have lots of reasons to homeschool --- the one on one, no busy work, more hands on, flexibility, spending more time with my kids are just a few of the reasons. However, this week I have learned a new reason. Sleep!! Apparently, getting up early and then go, go, go all day is too much for my 5 year old. This past week he went to day camp which lasted from 7:30am - 5:30pm. It was TaeKwonDo Day Camp so there was quite a bit more physical activity than there would be at school but every evening he came home grumpy and he's normally not grumpy. So, he did this every evening and fell asleep around 7pm. In the mornings I tried to wake him up and he groaned at me and rolled over. I couldn't get him to eat because he was so tired. In the van, I always handed him his breakfast and he just held it with a dazed expression and never ate it. The poor guys was so tired. I was just grateful it was only a week.

So, today is Saturday. He slept until 7:30am and woke up my normal, cheerful boy. YAY!! Well, until about 4pm and the grumpy little boy returned. So, now it isn't even 6pm yet and he's been asleep since 5pm. haha!! I can't wait until he finally catches up on his sleep so my happy boy will be back.

What has this week taught me? It has taught me that my son isn't ready to spend all day in a classroom if I want him happy when he gets home. LOL!

The books for the new school year are in...

2011-07-24T10:30:00.000-04:00

We are doing K12 so I am super excited this year. I won't be posting as many lessons as I normally do but I'll try. Of course, I didn't do so well at posting last year either... hehe! oops!! I'm just a slacker. Anyways.... here's a picture of all of our books.

Isn't that exciting? So here's what we have to work with this year:

Math

K12 Math+ Blue Book -- activity pages and the lesson guide
2-D Shapes, 3-D Shapes and Snap Cubes

Music

Preparatory Music Student Pages (there are stories and worksheets that go with songs, up and down practice with music, beat practice pages, all kinds of things I never would have thought to use in music)
Let's Sing Vol K CD (A bunch of kid and folk songs)
Let's Listen Vol K CD (Classical music)
Let's Learn Music Vol K DVD (I haven't watched this one so I still don't know what it is. The back said that it's to teach kids how to move and feel the music)

Phonics

K12 Phonics K Student Pages and Teacher Guide
PhonicsWorks (the big box on the bottom shelf in picture above)

White boards, dry erase markers, flash cards for site words, magnetic book (incredible!) with letters and letter combinations to make different sounds -- awesome!)

Language Arts

Handwriting Without Tears Kindergarten Teacher's Guide and Workbook
K12 Language Arts K Student Pages

Poetry, following direction activities and stuff like that

Junior Great Books Sailing Ship Series (These Jr Great books are neat b/c they have discussions to bring up at certain points in the story and lines for the child to read a-loud with you. Both sets of these series are for me to read aloud to my children.)

The Shoemaker and the Elves by Brothers Grimm
The Frog Went A-Traveling - Russian Folktale
Night into Dawn by Robert Hillyer and John Ciardi
The Tale of Two Bad Mice by Beatrix Potter
Bouki Cuts Wood - Haitian folktale
Fantasy - by Silvia Path, Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll
Lion at School by Philippa Pearce
Coyote Rides the Sun - Native American folktale
Seasons by Nikki Giovanni, Robert Louis Stevenson and Langston Hughes

Junior Great Books Dragon Series

The Frog Prince by the Brothers Grimm
Guinea Fowl and Rabbit Get Justice - African folktale
Nature Speaks by Carl Sandburg, James eeves and Federico Garcia Lorea
Feraj and the Magic Lute - Arabian Folktale
The Tale of Johnny Town - Mouse by Beatrix Potter
Companions by A.A. Milne, Gwendolyn Brooks and Robert Louis Stevenson
Buya Marries the Tortoise - African folktale
The Huckabuck Family and How They Raised PopCorn in Nebraska and Quit and Came Back by Carl Sandburg
Magical Places by Byrd Baylor, William Shakespeare and Martin Brennan

The Random House Book of Fairy Tales
Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
Tom Thumb retold by Richard Jesse Watson
Tikki Tikki Tembo retold by Arlene Mosel
A Story A Story retold by Gail E Haley
Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina
The Complete Adventures of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
Rhyme Time by Tomie dePaola
The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
Millions of Cats by Wanda Ga'g
A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams
Mik Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton
The Rooster Crows A Book of American Rhymes and Jingles by Maud and Miska Persham
Ox-Cart Man by Donald Hall

K12 Art K Student Pages (It's directions for me and instructions for activities to do along with a few worksheets on different drawing methods)
Come Look With Me - Animals in Art by Gladys S. Blizzard
Come Look With Me - Enjoying Art with Children by Gladys S. Blizzard
12 different art prints to look at -- there's Monet, Van Gough and many others in the list

Science

K12 Science K Student Pages(These are the worksheets that go with the lessons)
The Big Dipper by Franklyn M Branley
Animals in Winter by Henrietta Bancroft and Richard G. Van Gelder
My Five Senses by Aliki
What's Alive? by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld

History

K12 History K Student Pages (again, just worksheets to go with each lesson-- mostly geography)
Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain by Verna Aardema
Follow the Drinking Gourd by Jeanette Winter
The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack and Kurt Wiese
The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf
When Clay Sings by Byrd Baylor
Possum Magic by Mem Fox
The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry
Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans

And.... that's it!! :) Most of the books are available at your local library and the K12 books can be bought through K12 w/o enrolling in the virtual school. My son is incredibly excited. We will start school on August 15th so until then I will be working on activity bags for the 3 yo that will be self-checked learning so she can play with those with minimal guidance from me while I work with my 5 yo in Kindergarten. *sigh* I can't believe he's old enough to be in Kindergarten.

Learning Activities on a Budget

2011-06-08T14:14:00.000-04:00

My kids love learning activities and I love it when they love learning but I love it even more when it doesn't cost much or take too much effort on my part. I can't help it... I'm lazy and have lots to do so I don't want to spend hours creating things. It's just not in me. Right now, my son (5) is learning to read. Here's a video of him reading... it's not that exciting but he was excited and so were his parents so it's okay. :) Anyways, I've been looking for things to make his reading practice fun. So, here is something that I saw a picture of and then just went with it.

This one was easy. I just bought a book of index cards (we went with neon colors b/c I thought it was more fun) with the spiral thingy on it for $1.30 or so. Then I cut all the pages into thirds so each third would turn on its own and then I put letters on it. Easy peasy!! I read where they're lettered different ways but I did A-Z on the first third, vowels only in the middle and consonants only on the end. My son saw it after I was finished and without telling him anything about it he started playing with it and making up his own words. Love it!!

The second one that I made was completely free but I can't take credit for it. I got it from a friend of mine who runs the blog Children, Cakes, and Creations. Here is what I did. I went to Wal-mart and picked up a bunch of those little paint samples. Make sure the big ones have the little hole in them as seen in the second picture. This is mainly to work on rhyming. I put the last part of the words on the big ones and then the first couple of letters on the smaller ones. See pictures below b/c this description makes no sense. The pictures tell it better. :)

Now both my kids are rhyming away!! :)

Summer Activities

2011-05-31T10:19:00.000-04:00

I have had my calendar pulled out and the internet up trying to find some things to do during the summer. I look for activities all year long but since most kids are out for the summer, I always find so many more activities going on during the summer months than while school is in session. :) Regal has a summer movie event where movies only cost a dollar. Love it!! We go every year. The last couple of years it's been free so I'm a little bummed that inflation has hit us. As for people here in my area... check out the calendar at the library web site... probably will work in other areas too. Here they have family activities on Tues nights (puppet shows, crafts, sidewalk chalk...etc). Then on Wednesdays they have story time and in the afternoon they have a special guest for school aged children. On Thursdays they have something for highschoolers. It looks like tons of fun! I love the summer just b/c of all the wonderful activities that are going on. =o) What does your community have during the summer?

I need structure!!

2011-05-31T10:07:00.000-04:00

Okay, I have discovered that I have to have structure. I know, most homeschoolers like to create their own curriculum and I can do that but it takes up to much time. I used to. Right now I am the Primary President (over 18 mo - 11 yo kids at church), stay-at-home mom of 2, full time college student, housekeeper, and I'm trying to homeschool. I just have no time to create my lessons so I have found a fabulous resource!!! It's a program called The Head of the Class. My kids love it and the best part -- it's completely free. The kids log on and it has all of their assignments for the day right there. They go to them and watch the video(s), play the games and print out the worksheets. So fabulous! I think we're going to do this until the fall when Collin will start K12 and I'll continue The Head of the Class with Ryanne. I signed Collin up for the preschool one and quickly realized that he's much farther ahead then that so I switched his to Kindergarten and signed Ryanne up for Pre-K. Much more suited for them that way. I love finding wonderful resources!! :)

Teaching two!

2011-04-30T07:59:00.000-04:00

Okay, I am hoping that I haven't lost all my readers. I used to have a lot and then I totally slacked off on updating my blog and have lost quite a few of you. Please return! I need some advice!! Okay, up until now I have just always included my toddler with the preschooler's stuff. If she wanted to participate then she did, if not then she went off and played. It was really easy. Sometimes she colored or something. Well, this fall seems like it is going to be so much more complicated. I will be homeschooling Collin for Kindergarten. In my state this means that I have to homeschool him for at least 4.5 hrs and keep a record of everything we do for each subject and a portfolio of his work. I guess I'm saying this to show that our state is a little more strict so I can't just let things slide.
At the same time, I need to teach the 3 yo more about letters and numbers and some shapes. She knows how to count and can sing the abc song and knows most of the shapes but she doesn't know the sounds letters make or what numbers look like or anything like that. She also doesn't sit still long enough for me to teach them to her. She's a busy body so I hope when she's ready she'll stop to learn. :) We will see though. hehe! So, I guess I'm wondering.... how do you teach two children? How difficult is it? What do you do?

Charlotte Mason Method

2011-04-26T11:49:00.000-04:00

I have always found this method fascinating and I think it would be perfect for the filler time needed in the K12 program. We started using this method today and will probably continue until Collin starts Kindergarten in the fall with K12. Most of it is done with reading literature.

Here is a brief description of this method: "
Charlotte Mason was a British educator who lived in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Her method, the Charlotte Mason method, is centered around the idea that education is three-pronged: Education is an Atmosphere, a Discipline, a Life.
By “Atmosphere,” Charlotte meant the surroundings in which the child grows up. A child absorbs a lot from his home environment. Charlotte believed that atmosphere makes up one-third of a child’s education.
By “Discipline,” Charlotte meant the discipline of good habits — and specifically habits of character. Cultivating good habits in your child’s life make up another third of his education.
The other third of education, “Life,” applies to academics. Charlotte believed that we should give children living thoughts and ideas, not just dry facts. So all of her methods for teaching the various school subjects are built around that concept.
For example, Charlotte’s students used living books rather than dry textbooks. Living books are usually written in story form by one author who has a passion for the subject. A living book makes the subject “come alive.”
She taught spelling by using passages from great books that communicate great ideas rather than just a list of words.
She encouraged spending time outdoors, interacting with God’s creation firsthand and learning the living ways of nature.
Many homeschoolers have adopted her philosophy and methods as they seek to educate the whole child, not just his or her mind."

I don't have all the books yet that I need for it but I was able to do a lot of it today using online resources. It was really short today. I thought we'd take it easy.
Hymn: I let the kids decide and they voted on "I Am A Child of God"

Scripture: we ready a scripture and talked about how Jesus is our friend and our brother.
Recitation of poem: We worked on memorizing poetry. :) Since my kids are small we went with a classic. ;) Little Bo Peep. We only worked on the first two verses though.
LITTLE BO-PEEP

Little Bo-Peep has lost her sheep,
And can't tell where to find them;
Leave them alone, and they'll come home,
And bring their tails behind them.

Little Bo-Peep fell fast asleep,
And dreamt she heard them bleating;
But when she awoke, she found it a joke,
For still they all were fleeting.

Then up she took her little crook,
Determined for to find them;
She, found them indeed, but it made her heart bleed,
For they'd left all their tails behind 'em!

It happened one day, as Bo-peep did stray
Unto a meadow hard by--
There she espied their tails, side by side,
All hung on a tree to dry.

She heaved a sigh and wiped her eye,
And over the hillocks she raced;
And tried what she could, as a shepherdess should,
That each tail should be properly placed.

Reading: Collin and I have been working on reading. We are using Teach Your Child to read in 100 Easy Lessons.
I have only heard good things about this book. My sister used it and loved it for her daughter, it's recommended in the Charlotte Mason Method and I have lots of friends who use it -- homeschool and non-homeschool. Collin really wants to read and asked me to teach him. In most of my parenting I follow the kids and do things when they are ready but that's a different post all together. :)

Nature: A lot of science in the Charlotte Mason Method is learned through nature. You go on nature walks and observe what you see. Some families draw or paint what they see or just keep a journal about it. I love this part and think it could be lots of fun. Today we went outside in search of birds. We listened for them and talked about the sounds they made and then we found them and talked about what they were, what they were probably doing and stuff like that. :) Then we used some resources like this, this, and this.

Collin and I practice some speech therapy and Tae Kwon Do in here somewhere. :) That's not really part of the curriculum. LOL! :)

Then there is History but I haven't gotten those books yet. I am going to have to buy them though b/c I can't find them at the library or at paperbackswap.com. The books we are going to start using are An Island Story and Fifty Famous Stories Retold.

We will also be doing a literature/Shakespeare subject. I'm so excited to read Shakespeare w/ my kids. We have a few books and I'll probably use one of those instead of getting a new one. Today for literature we read Jack and the Beanstalk. We used this as an opportunity to talk about how mean Jack was by stealing from the giant and how bad stealing is. It sure didn't end well for the poor giant. I mean, I know he ate little boys and all but, really? haha! I know, sorry.... again, I'm weird. =o)

Then we will have a geography and biography time. For geography we're going to be reading Paddle to the Sea. This one is available at our library so I'm going to use it from there for a while until I decide if we for sure want to use it or not. For the Biographies we are going to read about Benjamin Franklin, Buffalo Bill and George Washington. :)

Anyway... just thought that I'd share now that I have an idea of what we're doing. :)

Homeschooled children are odd!

2011-04-16T12:09:00.001-04:00

Okay, so I just read the greatest article called, "Yes, My Grown Homeschooled Children are Odd and Yours Will Be Too!" The title itself is just funny! :) The article discusses how strange homeschooled kids are -- how they think out of the box so they don't fit the typical public school child mold. The great thing about is that a lot of them don't care. I was homeschooled and all of my friends will tell you that I am an 'anti-conformist'. If something is popular, I avoid it. If it's in fashion, I refuse to wear it. I thought it was still neat and I generally get compliments anyways. An example of my weirdness, a few months ago I cut up a pair of my jeans. I cut it into eight pieces. Then, I put it back together but in a different order with some pieces backwards and the seams on the outside. I sewed it back together as a skirt. I LOVE IT!! :) I think it's awesome. No one else has one that I've ever seen. I get some of the funnest comments from ppl. Some hate it and some love it but I don't care b/c I love it! After reading this article, I wonder if maybe that stems from my homeschooling roots. I only hope that my children will grow up to be odd. That they won't try to fit in the same mold as everyone else but be themselves and let their individuality shine through even if others don't entirely approve. Love the article and I think that every homeschool family should read it! It was awesome!! :)

Been a while

2011-04-13T08:23:00.000-04:00

I know it's been a while since I've posted on here. My camera is old and pretty pathetic and we've been doing a lot of stuff based off of a curriculum and I felt bad posting it so I haven't been. However, in the fall Collin will officially be in kindergarten. My husband and I have been trying to decide what to do -- if we want to continue with the homeschooling or send him to school. We finally decided on somewhere in the middle, K12. Or, more specifically a South Carolina virtual charter school. We have already started the enrollment process. The only thing we have left is getting them documents proving we are who we say we are. It was a difficult decision for us. You can read more about that here. Apparently they have lots of conventions and things for parents and monthly outings for the kids so I'm very excited about this. I will post more about it as we get into the program. I'll give the good, the bad, and the ugly right here for everyone to see. :) I hope we are making the right choice, I feel very confident in it right now. It's just that this is such an important decision that I don't want to make the wrong one. Wish us luck!! :)

Seasons: Winter

2011-01-19T19:39:00.000-05:00

Music: "Once There Was a Snowman"

Literature:

Math: We talked a bit about how birds fly south for the winter and then we learned how to use a compass. The kids loved it. I spun them around in circles with their eyes closed and they had to find south, we went to different rooms and we went outside and they used the compass to figure out where they were going. So fun!

Art: We made paper snowflakes.

Language arts: I drew a few simple pictures having to do with winter on one side of a piece of paper and then they tried to copy them on the other. I drew a star, a snowman, and a Christmas tree.

Science: We went back to the birds flying south and then talked about the birds who stayed and how they found food. Then we made a bird feeder.

And put it in a tree outside. :)

Seasons: Fall/Autumn

2011-01-18T14:40:00.000-05:00

Scripture: Mark 4:29 Explain that the Lord is talking about Fall/Autumn and that one of the things that happens this time of year is that many fruits and veggies ripen and are picked (harvested).

Music: We sang, "It's Autumn Time"

Literature:

Math: We talked a little bit about what happens to the leaves when they change color then we went outside and gathered some of the leaves on the ground. We came back in and sorted them by shape:

And by size:

Art: We made ppl out of the leaves. It was fun use of the imagination. :)

Science/Language Arts: We talked a little bit about what animals do as far as food to prepare for winter. We discussed several specific animals and and finally came to squirrels. We talked about how they hide their nuts but they have to hide them well enough that other animals don't find them. So I gave each of the kids 5 chestnuts (they look sort of like acorns but are larger).

Then, I went through the house (I was another animal) and picked up whatever chestnuts I found sitting out in the middle. Then we talked a little more about animals and how important it is for them to remember where they hid them so they can eat them in wintertime. Then, I sent the kids off to find the ones that I didn't. I found 4 of Ronni's and 1 of Collin's from just walking through. Ronni found her 1 and Collin only found 2 of the 4 he needed to find. He couldn't remember where they were (we later found them). So, we discussed how difficult it is for animals to remember where food is.

Then, we talked a little about the wind and made wind detectors. =o)

Seasons - Day 1: Overview

2011-01-17T14:05:00.000-05:00

Let me start by apologizing for getting so behind on this blog. It was overwhelming just thinking about catching up so I'm not catching up. We're just going to start with what we did today. sorry! Life has been crazy for us since Thanksgiving.

Scripture: We started off reading Ecclesiastes 3:1 and talked about seasons and how there is a time and place for everything.Then we started talking about how the earth is the same way.

Music: We sang "Rain is Falling All Around" We actually sang it twice with all 5 versus. haha! The kids LOVE this song! :)

Literature: We read The Year at Maple Hill Farm by Alice Provensen. It's really cute and talks about each month of the year and what is happening with the animals and the weather. It's a bit long but both my kids (5 & 3) sat through the whole thing.

Math: Understanding calendars is an important skill for children to learn. First off, make a season wheel.

Draw a circle and divide it into fourths then draw a picture to represent each season in the sections. Then write the months that belong to the season with a smaller picture to represent them. I did this with the kids and they helped me pick the pictures to represent them.

Then we took a calendar and I had the kids find different dates. Once they found them, with the help of the season wheel we just made, they figure out which season it is. We worked on all of our birthdays. :)

Language Arts: We talked about what we would wear for each season. We would have put on clothes for each season but all of our summer clothes are put away right now so it wouldn't have worked well. Instead we just talked about it.

Science/Art: We made a season book:

Spring: My 5 yo wrote it himself but ran out of room so the g is a little high. The blue spots are rain drops and the colors are flowers.

Summer: He had a hard time writing this. The blue is water b/c we go swimming in the summer. ;)

Fall: Those are leaves falling from the trees!

Winter: We glued salt to the paper to represent snow.

File Folder: fish and colors

2010-08-16T19:40:00.000-04:00

I made this for my 2 year old to help her learn colors. She LOVES it. I'm planning on making more for both her and my son.

I got it from http://www.filefolderfun.com/PreschoolColorMatch.html

Sound and Music: Blow a Sound

2010-08-16T19:31:00.000-04:00

We read this book. :)
Science: We talked about wind instruments and tried to make one but we couldn't get it to work. I'll have to experiment more with that one.

Language Arts: We went through some titles involving instruments such as "The Lost Trombone" or "The Talking Clarinet"..etc. We went with "The Magic Flute". Then Collin wrote a story based on that. Here's his story.

Once upon a time a magic flute went out for a walk. The magic flute got lost and saw 100 bears. He vibrated and spun and became a tornado and blew the bears away. He walked and walked until e saw his house, it had a big hole in the roof. He felt some raindrops but when he tried to fix it he realized he had no more magic. He tried to fly over the house but his flying power stopped and he fell right into the pool. The water froze over and he was stuck there. Finally, it got so hot that the water melted and the magic flute was free. Then his powers came back and he fixed his roof and went home. Another family had moved in though so they played rock, paper, scissors to see who got the house. The magic flute won and said to the family, "You can live in the house next to me." So, they did.

THE END

Math: Sorta do a cakewalk with numbers 1-10. When the music stops, stop walking. Children (and parent if playing) identifies if they're standing on an even or odd number. :)

Art: Show child how to blow in a glass bottle to make music. Paint and decorate bottles.

Sound and Music: Volume

2010-08-16T19:18:00.000-04:00

We read Quiet as a Mouse by Carol Roth. For some reason I couldn't find the image in google. I found the book at my library though.

Science: We made a 'stethoscope' (well, something to make quiet sounds loud) and a megaphone.

Art: We made a radio out of a cereal box.

Language Arts: Made a loud and quiet book.

Math: Talked about decibels and practice counting by tens.

Music and Sound: Pitch

2010-08-16T19:02:00.000-04:00

We read Nate and the Great Musical Note. We found it a bit dull though so I recommend maybe finding another book.

Science: We listened to the difference in pitch of different sized items. I had my husband cut a small dowel into 8 different pieces, each one an inch larger than the next. We dropped them and listened and figured out which ones were higher than the others.

Then we made a water scale and compared the pitches in each bottle. I couldn't find IBC cream soda which would have been better b/c they're clear but I did find root beer and they worked fine too.

Language Arts: We wrote songs with our water scales. :)
Math: I put a number in front of each bottle, numbering them 1-8. Then I had a card and wrote different math equations like '5+2=' and then we figured out the answer by tapping the bottles with a spoon.

Sound and Music: Echoes

2010-08-16T18:49:00.000-04:00

Literature: We read this book.

Science: We experimented with how echoes bounce off different surfaces.

One was talking in the tube and the other listening. We used a tile, the table, cardboard, mirror and anything we could find.

We used different length tubes too. :)

Then we talked about how the sound waves are absorbed into some so we yelled at the objects and felt some vibrating more than others. Collin really liked this!!

Language Arts: We played a copycat game. The took turns copying what the other said and did.

Math: We talked about places -- ones, tens, hundreds and thousands. I drew the numbers on the driveway and bounced it on the ground to each other. We had to name what place the number was in that the ball landed on. Collin loved this and we played it for over an hour.

I'm not sure why he looks so serious in this picture though.

Sound and Music.... waves and vibrations

2010-08-03T20:08:00.000-04:00

We worked on sound vibrations. Here we hit the pan with the spoon to make the rice on the plastic bounce.

Here we were targeting the sound waves to hit the piece of paper. There's a piece of card stock on the end with a small hole in it. When we yelled in it it vibrated the strip of construction paper.

Of course when learning about sound waves and vibrations we have to make the classic comb kazoo. :)

This one was our favorite -- made from tongue depressors, rubberbands and cut up pieces of a straw we made a sound sandwich. We just blow and it's a whistle. So awesome!

We made a sound box. Collin decorated the bottom and Ronni and I decorated the top.

Okay, I put the paper on it and Ronni did the rest.

Here's the sound box. We talked about the different sounds the different sized rubber bands make. I also pulled out my guitar and and we looked at the different sized strings on there and the different sounds the strings make when you hold one down on the different frets.
We did other things too but a lot of our stuff comes from a curriculum now and I don't want to break the copyright or anything by posting it all on here.

The First Day

2010-08-02T16:02:00.000-04:00

Today was the first day of our new year and I think it went pretty well. :) We had fun. The theme for the next two weeks is "Sound and Music". It's going to be fun! Today we went on a sound walk, made a sound collage, and worked with money. :) The kids are excited about their new year and so am I! :)

The "Classroom"

2010-07-17T09:29:00.000-04:00

Our house isn't big enough for a real classroom but I'm getting the dining room ready to serve it's purpose... it has a lot of purposes. That poor room. It's the kids' library, the piano room, the pantry, the dining room and now it's also the classroom. hehe! The poor overworked room.
The above picture is the bookshelf, next to it are my craft supplies and FHE stuff. There are also two small boxes of the kids' individual stuff like a pencil bag of crayons and their scissors. Next to that are two diaper boxes but I've replaced those w/ crates now. The top one is the Sunday box and the bottom one has books we don't use anymore and tempera paint.

This is the other bookshelf. It holds the piano music and photo albums but the top shelf is used for homeschool supplies.

Here are my trifold boards opened. I will open them only for school time and then put them away later. One is for weather and the other is the word wall. We just don't have room for them otherwise so they're on tri-fold boards that I can fold back up and stick behind a chair. :)

I put this rectangle up there b/c I don't have a cork board. It will be to display their artwork and projects in.

Collin has been asking a lot of questions about states and America and stuff so I thought we could learn a bit about the states this year and the Pledge of Allegiance. On the window are window cling letters. Then, on the right side of the window are aprons for when we work in the kitchen and "experiment." hehe!

I think we're all set for now. Now we just have to wait until Aug 2 to start our "classes". hehe! I'm excited. I was even really shocked b/c as I was putting the words on the Word Wall for this picture, Collin knew all the words except "away". hehe! Surprised me!
And, if you're wondering, most of the wall decorations I found at the dollar store.

plans for 2010-2011

2010-07-14T13:13:00.000-04:00

Well, we're preparing for a new year. I will have one 4-K and one 2-K this year. I want to make sure that I will be able to homeschool so this year I'm going to follow all the laws required for SC. That means that we have to have 180 days of school that last 4 1/2 hrs each day. I have to keep attendance, a diary of everything we do and a portfolio of the kids' work. I found a cool program, that's free if you get the basic, online that keeps track of most of this stuff on the computer. I'll still have to keep a portfolio though.That shouldn't be too hard. Especially if I continue with the lapbooks but I haven't decided yet.

We aren't starting back until Aug 2 so I won't have anything exciting to post. I may just put updates of things going on here in preparation but in Aug I'll get back to it. We will be using a curriculum called In His Image so I won't be posting new ideas on here but I thought I could use this blog for the portfolio. I'll scan in samples of the kids' work and things like that. :) I'll also post about stresses or things that worked and ideas I have here.

I know, you are all curious of our schedule for next year. Okay, probably not but I'm going to post it anyways. In order to get our 4.5 hrs in, I've decided to start school at 7:30am. The kids are normally up by 6/6:30 anyways so it will be easy to just start doing school at 7:30. We will go 7:30-12:30 w/ a 30 min break from 9:30-10am for snack and play outside time. 12:30pm we'll have lunch and then nap/quiet time. After nap, we'll go on a nature walk and find something we think is neat and draw a picture of it. If we need to then we can come back home and look it up. I know, that will be more than 4.5 hrs but I'm really not sure if I can stretch out 4K and 2K work to last until 12:30. We may make play time a bit longer and then we can even count that as PE if we want so.... we'll see. We may find that we can cut back a lot but this is what we're planning on for right now. :)

Easter Day 5 (family)

2010-04-03T17:33:00.000-04:00

Song: I Believe in Christ
Read: John 19

Discussed the crucifixion then watched The Easter Dream.

Easter Day 4 (family)

2010-04-03T17:18:00.000-04:00

Sing: He Sent His Son
Read: Matt 26: 47-56

We talked about the betrayal of Jesus. Then we played the Friendship Matching game. Print out the page twice.

Easter Day 3 (family)

2010-04-03T17:12:00.000-04:00

Song: He Died That We Might Live Again
Read: Mark 14:12-21

We talked about Jesus praying in Gethsemane. When my kids are a bit older we'll do this crossword puzzle but since they aren't quite big enough for that we just ended after the story. My kids were sad enough over that.

Child Reward System I found and starting it today....

2010-04-02T18:39:00.002-04:00

My neighbor told me about this. Her 6 yo and 2 yo are LOVING it so I'm going to start getting things organized here for it. I'm so excited! I think it'll be fun!
Okay... the kids earn "Daddy Dollars" or "Mommy Money" by completing tasks/chores/school or whatever you want the kids to do. Then they get to go to the "Mommy Mart" to spend the 'money'. It can be small toys/candy/tv time/computer time/family walks/game night/movie night/out for icecream...etc. Whatever you can think of that your kids would enjoy. You go to this site to print out the money.
Here's out money (it's me b/c dh wouldn't pose for a pic, I didn't have a good one of him and he didn't want it on there anyways -- the bum!! haha! )
Here's the chart that I made today. I used a manilla folder and folded it so that it was a tri-fold (lapbook style:).
This is the inside ---

Here is the outside. This is where the kids' money that they've earned goes --

Here's a close up of jobs and rewards -- remember, my kids are 4 & 2 so I thought the pictures would be useful. 4 yo can read some words but I thought this would be more helpful for him.

Why did I not post anything yesterday like I was supposed to???

2010-04-02T18:37:00.000-04:00

That's simple. B/c it was 88 degrees here in sunny South Carolina and we were playing on a fabulous water slide and playing on the trampoline and having a blast. We also went on a picnic and playgroup and just a fun but busy day!

Easter Day 2 (family)

2010-03-30T18:24:00.000-04:00

Song: He Died That We Might Live Again
Read: John 13:1-30

Then we talked about Christ washing the apostles' feet and the 'Last Supper'.

Afterwards, for dinner, we had our own 'last supper'. I tied blankets and towels on my kids so they were dressed like biblical people then we sat down for a picnic in the living room. This year we had lamb, unleavened bread and butter, red beans, rice, raisins, and honey.
Ideas came from Sugardoodle.

Easter Day 1 (preschool)

2010-03-30T18:18:00.001-04:00

I had several items sitting on the table: Easter eggs, a stuffed Easter bunny, an Easter basket, and a picture of Christ. We went through each item, saving the picture of Christ for last and I asked, "Is this why we celebrate Easter?" Finally, we got to Christ and he was very excited to shout "YES!"
After that we read a story called The First Easter. It's one of those picture stories so he helped read it too.
Next we cut out The Empty Tomb and worked on handwriting a bit. Just follow the directions on the link. The pic is above... wouldn't load down here. Not sure what's going on.
Matching: We did an Easter egg matching game. I printed out two copies of this picture on cardstock and then cut them out and played a game of Memory. For some reason I couldn't get the eggs to show up here and they kept appearing at the top of the post so... the eggs are above. Sorry!!
Finally, we did an eggsperiment. Does a hard boiled egg or raw egg spin faster?

I'm sure you may have noticed that all of the pics are at the top of this post. I'm not sure what is wrong but for some reason it won't let me put the pics in the post. Grrrrr.... I think you can figure out which pic goes w/ which activity. :)

Easter - Day 1

2010-03-30T18:07:00.001-04:00

As a family we:
Song: Easter Hosanna
Read: Mark 11:1-10

Then we talked about the Triumphal Entry.

After that we made Edible Tombs.

These ideas came from Sugardoodle.

The Letter 'C' - Day 6

2010-03-30T18:01:00.000-04:00

Colorful Collages: This is pretty self explanatory. We gathered a lot of bits of things and then made a collage.
We made carrot cupcakes

Easy day. :)

The Letter 'C' - Day 5

2010-03-30T17:58:00.000-04:00

Read some books about camels
Do and Discover: We talked about how camels have huge feet (about the size of a dinner plate) to keep them from sinking in the sand. We went out into the yard and we took a stick and stuck it in the sand and saw how easy it went in. Then we took a plate and tried to stick it in the sand that way.
Finally, we made a fact book about camels.

The Letter 'C' - Day 4

2010-03-30T17:54:00.001-04:00

First we did a graphing activity. We worked on colors -- favorite colors to be exact and graphed other ppl's favorite colors. He's really getting good with graphs.
After that we made "crazy crayons". This means that I took all of those old and broken crayons that no one likes to use and recycled them. :) We peeled off the paper and then put them in lined muffin tins. We stuck them in the oven on the lowest setting until they were just barely melted. (You don't want them too melted or all the colors will mix and turn brown.) I took it out and stuck it in the freezer for about half an hour. When I removed it from the freezer I just popped the "crazy crayons" out of the paper and we had some fun coloring. They're their favorite crayons now, even if they are shaped like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. hehe!
We played Crossing the Creek. I made a "creek" out of rope and we jumped across it. I gradually made it wider and wider until we couldn't jump it anymore.

Sorry!!

2010-03-30T17:49:00.000-04:00

We really haven't been on "spring break" this whole time. Life's just been busy. We've had sick kids and family has been in town and I've just been a slacker. SORRY!! I'm going to get caught up right now!!! Don't hate me. :)

Spring Break!!

2010-03-08T13:06:00.002-05:00

This is spring break in this area so Dad is going to be home and we may go out of town for a couple of days so we're taking a spring break too!! YAY!! Have a great week everyone.

Book of the week

2010-03-07T13:49:00.000-05:00

This was such a fun book! I loved Flossie's attitude in it. I kept laughing out loud as I read it to the kids.

Here's what Amazon had to say about it:

Grade 1-3 McKissack recounts this story which was told to her as a child by her grandfather. Flossie is a young black girl who lives with her grandmother in the rural south. When Big Mama sends Flossie to deliver a basket of eggs to a neighbor, she cautions her to be careful of the fox who had been frightening the chickens and stealing their eggs. To Flossie's "How do a fox look?," Big Mama responds that "A fox be just a fox." Having no idea what this means, Flossie sets out on her mission through a wooded area, where she is greeted by the fox. As he tries to convince her that he is to be feared, she refutes him by insisting that he prove who he is. To readers' delight, the frustrated fox fails every attempt. Fox' final confrontation with a fierce dog saves the day for Flossie, who proves herself to be more cunning than the fox. The watercolor and ink illustrations, with realistic figures set on impressionistic backgrounds, enliven this humorous and well-structured story which is told in the black language of the rural south. The language is true, and the illustrations are marvelously complementary in their interpretation of the events. This spirited little girl will capture readers from the beginning, and they'll adore her by the end of this delightful story. Helen E. Williams, University of Maryland, College Park
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Wind (toddler)

2010-03-07T13:43:00.000-05:00

Wind Watch: We watched the wind for a few minutes so I was sure she knew what wind was.
Paper Bag Kite: We decorated brown paper lunch bags w/ crayons and stickers. Then I used a hole punch and put a whole near the top on both sites and stuck some yarn through to make a handle. We went outside and the kids ran around, holding onto their paper bag kite handles letting them "fly". They loved them!
Wind Chime: We played with the wind chimes for a bit. She shook them, hit them and watched the wind blow them.
Like the wind: I pulled out different objects (a feather, a piece of cardboard, and a small rock) and asked her which one the wind could blow. Then I demonstrated how we can make wind by blowing out of our mouths. She blew each object --- the feather was the easiest to move and I asked her why. She said b/c it's small. She shocks me sometimes. ;) Then we played around with the feather. All three of us tried to keep it from touching the ground by blowing it up into the air. We couldn't let it touch the floor or our hands. The kids had a ball!
Wind Dance: I attached crepe paper to her wrists and she spun in circles and danced around pretending to be the wind. :)

The Letter 'C' - Day 3

2010-03-07T13:35:00.000-05:00

Camel Cal's C Race

similar to the others. I made a board game and then I printed out small pictures of different objects. If the objects starts with a C then move one space, if not, don't move. If you get Camel Cal then you get to move 2 spaces! Collin leaves these so I continue to do them for each letter and they're great to work on phonics with.

Candy Estimating

I filled up a jar with candy (we used peppermints) and estimated how many were in the jar.

Clap and Count

We practiced counting. We clapped with each number but I made it a bit tricky. I would say... every 10 numbers we through our hands out on the last number then spin around on the first. Example "[spin around] 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-[throw hands out] 10 - [spin around] 11-12-... it was fun. We had to do it several times before he got the hang of it but it was fun!!

Today was pretty simple... we didn't do much but we always seem to keep Fridays simple.

The Letter 'C' - Day 2

2010-03-04T17:36:00.000-05:00

Read Corduroy by Don Freeman
I showed him what corduroy felt like and looked like. Then I pulled out a bunch of cloth samples and we made a cloth collage.
Where did Corduroy lose his button? He drew a picture of where Corduroy may have lost his button and then glued a button on the picture.
Finally (this took a while) we made crystals for science. Well, we got them started. He's going to keep a journal of his observations. He's very excited about them. I just hope they work. ;) More info on growing crystals, click here.

The Letter 'C' - Day 1

2010-03-04T17:29:00.000-05:00

Collin saw crackers and cheese sitting on the table when he came in (you can really use any type of snack that starts w/ c -- cookies, candy canes...etc). I said... which animal pal do you think left these treats? He started thinking of animals that start with c -- all he really got was cat. I introduced him to a cartoon picture of a Camel named Camel Cal (our mascot for the week).
He glued Cs onto paper with Cotton balls. ;)
We talked a little bit about clowns and had a carnival. We played carnival games like the penny toss, bean bag races... etc.
We made a C book

Music Activity

2010-03-04T17:21:00.000-05:00

I read a book about elephants. Then we talked some about beat. I played a song that the kids knew well and had them sing and I played it on the piano completely off beat. It sounded HORRIBLE. Then I gave each one a bell and told them to play. Then I had them play as I kept beat w/ my hand so they would ding them together. I played the Baby Elephant Walk as the kids and I kept beat by tapping noses, feet, floor, head... etc Anything I could think of. It was fun. Enjoy the song.

FHE -- Emotions

2010-03-04T17:15:00.000-05:00

We played emotional charades only we changed the rules a bit since my kids are too young. I put the cards face down and we picked them out one by one. We talked about each emotion, when we feel that way and then we all showed each other what our faces looked like when we felt that way. =-) It was fun. You can print out the cards here.

Book of the Week

2010-03-04T17:07:00.000-05:00

Kindergarten-Grade 3–This is the story of an older buffalo that is no longer able to keep up with the rest of the herd. While the idea that the once-powerful old bull is growing older and unable to keep pace is sad, he is filled with serenity. In his travels behind the herd, he comes across a buffalo cow about to give birth. He stays with her throughout her labor and protects and cares for the calf, saving it during a dust storm. The book portrays the circle of life in a beautiful way, but it also shows the protective bond between young and old, as well as the important role Grandfather Buffalo continues to play in the herd dynamic. This book is a perfect interplay of poetic text and strong art that is full of love and empathy. Arnosky gives the impression of the harshness of the prairie environment without overdramatizing. Each spread features the majestic expanse of the tall grass and the other creatures that inhabit it. This is Arnosky at his excellent best.–Susan E. Murray, Glendale Public Library, AZ

Spoon Spree (toddler)

2010-03-04T17:03:00.000-05:00

Spoon painting: Pour tempera paint into a bowl and mix w/ salt for texture. Have child paint a picture using salted paint and spoon.
Spoon Puppet: Draw a face on spoon and then tie a napkin around "neck" for the clothes.
Stirring Fun: Walk in a circle, pretend to stir a huge pot in the middle. Give directions, go fast, go slow, go the other way... etc.
Little Spoons and Big Spoons: Get out measuring spoons or spoons that are different sizes. Have child sort the spoons by size. If measuring spoons -- have child try to nest them inside one another.
Eat a snack w/ a spoon.

Push and Pull (toddler activities)

2010-03-04T16:56:00.000-05:00

Blanket Pull: Place toy on blanket and have child pull blanket around w/o toy falling off.
Jingly Sock Pull: Put a bell in an old sock and stuff it w/ newspaper. Tie it off with string and enough hanging off for a handle. Child can pull it around.
Push Cars: Make a road on the floor with masking tape and have child push it around inside. We have a rug with roads on it so we just used that.
Tractor Push: Put some books in a box and secure it shut. Have child pretend to be a tractor and push box (pretend to be a rock) around the house.
Push and Pull Basket: This is great for learning to follow directions. Put some toys in a laundry basket and give child directions. For example "push basket to tv" "Pus basket to window"... etc.

The Letter 'B' - Day 6

2010-03-04T16:47:00.000-05:00

We didn't get to this day but this is what I had planned. Life got in the way. :/

Graphing Activity with beans. Which type of beans are the favorite? Then write an experience story about the graph.

Next, we were going to work with bubbles. I was going to fill a cup with water and have him blow through a straw and make bubbles. How long do they last. Now add dish detergent to it. Are the bubbles different?

Make bubble prints: Fill small jars w/ 2 Tbs liquid detergent, 1/4 c water, and 1 tsp of tempera paint or 5 drops of food coloring. Blow bubbles in jar then lay paper over the bubbles on top.

The Letter 'B' - Day 5

2010-03-04T16:40:00.001-05:00

I've been a slacker at posting b/c I haven't had a chance to get the pictures on the computer so I'm just going to catch up here and add the pics later. ;)
On this day we focused on learning about bears.

We practiced following oral instructions. I gave instructions on how to draw a simple bear. I demonstrated on the white board at the same time. We read a couple of books about bears -- here's one of them:

After that we got on youtube and looked for videos about bears. I had him note the bears standing on their hind legs. We talked about why bears do that but dogs and cats don't. I got Baker (our cat) and showed Collin his feet and had him walk. How did he walk? on his toes. ;) Then he watched Bears walk and he realized Bears used their whole foot. I had Collin walk on all fours only using his toes on his legs and then stand up still only using toes. Then I had him try again using his entire foot and asked him which was easier.
Then we wrote a book about bears. On the front page was the pic he drew earlier. On the next page he drew a Bear's habitat, the next page was food and the last page was something that he thought was cool about Bears (he liked the whole hibernation thing ;).

The Letter 'B' - Day 4

2010-02-24T20:20:00.000-05:00

We started with MATH:
I pulled out a little bag of buttons and we estimated how many buttons were in there. Collin and I both guessed way too low. We sorted them by colors and counted each color then I added them together and realized we have over 200!!

I wrote down the numbers on the white board and I had Collin put them in numerical order.

Then we used the buttons and worked on patterns.

Science time!! We pulled out bones and Collin and I fit them together with brads. Tons of fun. ;) After we got it together I told him there were two REAL skeletons hidden in the room somewhere. He guess immediately that I meant his and mine. =) We talked about what skeletons do and why they're important.

Just for FUN we made balloon prints on the back of the lapbook. He just dunked a balloon in paint and then patted it around on the paper.

The Letter 'B' - Day 3

2010-02-24T20:07:00.000-05:00

This was a fairly easy day. We just played Bobby Bear's B Game. Pretty much the same rules at the A game. I had a bunch of different pictures. If the pic starts w/ a B then you get to move forward 1 space, if you get Bobby Bear then you move forward 1 space. Afterwards, we played a bunch of beanbag games outside. We did thing like... beanbag b/w knees, on head or elbow or shoulder, bend over with beanbag on back...etc. I don't have bean bags so I filled some old socks with beans and tied off the end. ;)

The Letter 'B' - Day 2

2010-02-24T19:57:00.001-05:00

We spent most of the day focusing on The Three Bears. I got three different books of The Three Bears and we read them. We also used this interactive story of the Three Bears. It was fun! =-)

After that we made some porridge and put it in a small bowl a medium bowl and large bowl. We then worked on sizes and putting things in order according to size.

Next we worked on some of the worksheets found here. We made a B book and worked on patterns with objects from The Three Bears.

We then printed out little printouts of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Collin colored a little brown paper lunch bag to look like the Three Bears' House. We glued it into the lapbook and put the characters inside the bag.

Next we rewrote the story. ;) I told Collin that we needed to pretend that the Three Bears came to Goldilocks' house. What happened? He kept going on and on. I finally had to make him stop so it ends a bit abruptly but I was proud of him. Here's the story.

Nana and Goldilocks made some porridge but it was too hot so they went for a walk. While they were gone the 3 bears got in goldilocks’ and Nana’s home and ate all their porridge. They found some games and played them, then threw a block. Then, they came to our house while we were sleeping. They tiptoed into Collin’s room and took away a book from his bookshelf and took it all the way to the Giant. Then the Giant ripped the book into eeny weeny pieces. He grabbed all the pieces and threw them up, up, up into the highest place ever. They went all the way to Arwen’s home which was a little high up in the sky. Then the giant threw our house all over the place. The house was spun around in circles and we got very, very dizzy – even JoJo and Kenzie. All of us, even the three bears went all the way up to the giant’s and asked him to fix Collin’s book with some clear tape. Then we took a picture of Collin’ s best friend, Goldilocks. And then we took another picture and another and another and another and soon a raisin picture. We then slipped away with the Giant. But then the book ripped again and they decided they needed to use glue this time so Collin climbed down the beanstalk, got the glue, went back up the beanstalk, and gave the glue to the giant who then fixed the book again. The giant gave the glue back to Collin but Collin dropped it and it made a hole in the floor and kept falling all the way to our house and made a hole in the roof. Collin just went into the Giant’s home, JoJo and Kenzie came along too. And then we looked for the glue again and again and again. They couldn’t find it so Collin went down the beanstalk, got the glue and then up, up, up to the Giant’s again. They threw it again but soon it fell down and big, big hole but Collin couldn’t reach it. The Giant said, “I will use my long, long hand to get it.” So, he did and he pulled it out with his strong, strong muscles. But it was heavier and he dropped it again. It was very slippery too b/c there was glue on the outside of it. So he went down and down and down and soon the glue was so heavy, so all the friends came to help the Giant. Then everyone went home. THE END

Of course we also did our normal math, handwriting and read aloud.

The Letter 'B' - Day 1

2010-02-16T15:50:00.000-05:00

Today was mostly just an introduction to the letter B and our mascot, Bobby Bear. ;) First we talked about the letter B and some words that start w/ it then Collin noticed a bear paw print on the floor. (I thought he'd notice it sooner but... oh well. hehe!) I said, "Oh, look! I think our friend, Bobby Bear, left some footprints for us to find something. Let's see where they lead."

We found a Bowl full of items that start w/ B -- Banana, Block, Book, Beans, & Bubbles.

Next I said, "Oh my goodness!! I almost forgot. Today is Bobby Bear's Birthday!" Collin looked at me like I was nuts. Before he could respond I said, "What do you think we should make?"

Without hesitation he said, "Birthday cake!!"

So, of course we made Birthday cake w/ Blue frosting. ;)

I had Collin do everything. He measured out the ingredients and even cracked the eggs. He preheated the oven and greased the pans then iced the cupcakes. I did help with those though b/c there were a lot of them.

Next, I read a poem:

We set our stuffed animals up in a row-- / a chimp and a lion, a bear and a crow./Each one got a hat/and a special balloon,/They each got a plate/ and a cup and a spoon./ The bear ate too much, and the chimp spilled the punch./ but they had a great time at the animal lunch.

Collin then picked out the words that rhymed -- then we talked about how many items each animal had and why they were all the same --- 'one for each'.

Service

2010-02-15T19:55:00.000-05:00

My hubby had the lesson tonight. He based it off an article from The Friend called The Zucchini Bandit. After we read the story we talked about ways that we can serve one another.
Collin had refreshments so he and I made poppy seed muffin tops earlier today... yum yum and then Ronni wanted to play games for the activity... guess what game! Operation.. yeah... haha! We seem to be playing that game a lot lately. ;)

1 Ne 8:12

2010-02-14T22:14:00.002-05:00

1 Nephi 8:12 "And as I partook of the fruit thereof it filled my soul with exceedingly great joy; wherefore, I began to be desirous that my family should partake of it also; for I knew that it was desirable above all other fruit."

We should have that desire that Lehi felt, to strive to actively share our beliefs with our children, whether we're at home at church or out in public.

The Snowy Day

2010-02-13T12:27:00.002-05:00

Amazon.com Review

The Snowy Day, a 1963 Caldecott Medal winner, is the simple tale of a boy waking up to discover that snow has fallen during the night. Keats's illustrations, using cut-outs, watercolors, and collage, are strikingly beautiful in their understated color and composition. The tranquil story mirrors the calm presence of the paintings, and both exude the silence of a freshly snow-covered landscape. The little boy celebrates the snow-draped city with a day of humble adventures--experimenting with footprints, knocking snow from a tree, creating snow angels, and trying to save a snowball for the next day. Awakening to a winter wonderland is an ageless, ever-magical experience, and one made nearly visceral by Keats's gentle tribute.

The Letter 'A' - Day 6

2010-02-12T21:31:00.000-05:00

Today was a bit of an odd day. During craftivities, a friend called b/c she needed help so I went to pick her up and take her home. Then... the exciting news... it snowed in South Carolina!!! Who knew!! Not just our normal dusting but there are several INCHES of snow out there and it's still falling. My kids were a bit excited so once the snow started nothing happened except playing in the snow. Here's what we did though:

First, we went on a walk. The main point was to observe ants but since there were no ants on the surface of the ground b/c of the cold, we figured out letters different things started with that we found outside. It was actually fun. Collin enjoyed it.

Next, since we were unable to observe any ants outside we watched some youtube videos on ants. There were some really really neat ones. I'll attach my favorite (it'll be at the very end)... I learned a lot about the colony.

Then Collin made a mural that we added to the lapbook. (I'll try to make a video on this lapbook soon so you can see everything we did). The orange is the ant hill and the brown are the ants. Obviously the green is grass, blue sky, and yellow sun. He did it by himself. I was proud of him. =D

The Letter 'A' - Day 5

2010-02-11T16:26:00.001-05:00

Yes, I know... I'm a slacker and didn't get this posted yesterday. Sorry!!!

To make this little alligator fact book we got 'several birds with one stone'. First, following oral instructions. I talked him through directions of drawing an alligator. I used the dry erase board and demonstrated as I spoke it. His turned out quite differently from mine but that's okay... it' really cute!
Science: I asked Collin if he could remember what an alligator eats? He drew pictures of animals and a snake (it's on the back of the above book. Then I asked him about the alligator's habitat and he drew a picture of it. Then I asked what the coolest thing was about alligators (of course, he said teeth).

Then we made some apple treats. I cut the apples in half and used a melon ball cutter to core out the seeds and put a hole in the middle of the apple half. Then Collin put 5 raisins in each half, a walnut broke into pieces, a dollop of honey, and sprinkled with cinnamon. Then I helped him wrap them in aluminum foil and place in the oven at 350*F for 45 minutes.

While it was cooking I read Collin his first chapter book. It's ten chapters long and I thought we could read a chapter a day and finish it sometime next week... well, I was wrong. He didn't want me to put it down so we read the entire book! haha! We curled up on the couch w/ cocoa and popcorn. It was lots of fun!

Heart (Toddler)

2010-02-10T05:40:00.003-05:00

Heart Hop: Today, I cut hearts out and taped them to the floor. I put some children's songs on and we hopped from heart to heart. It was fun! My preschooler joined in on the fun as well.
Hearts Everywhere: Recite poem as you walk around looking for hearts

Hearts on the cake/Hearts on the box/Hearts on the shoes/Hearts on the socks?hearts on the table/Hearts on the chair/Hearts on the wall/Hearts everywhere!

Heart Lineup: Cut hearts out in different sizes and have child line them up by size.
Pass the Heart: Cut a heart shape out of red construction paper. Sit dwn and pass it back and forth as you name people/things you love.
Valentine Heart: Decorate a red heart with red ink/finger paints/stickers or whatever you have.

The Letter 'A' - Day 4

2010-02-09T14:35:00.001-05:00

Craft: I know this isn't an A but I told him to pick a letter (of course he chose C b/c that's what his name starts with) and draw it and then we'd decorate it. Here is what he did.

Math: We learned about estimating. I put a few apples in a small box and had Collin glance in the box quickly and then estimate how many he saw. He estimated 5 and then counted. He was close. After that we estimated how much it would weigh. I estimated 2 lbs and then he estimated 100lbs (WOW!). It was 2 lbs. Of course, he decided he should eat one when we were done.

Science: We talked about alligators. How do they see underwater? We discussed the alligators' third eyelid called a nictitating membrane.

Then, I got a bowl of luke-warm water and Collin stuck his face in and opened his eyes. I asked him what he saw and he said things were fuzzy. Then I had him put on his goggles and I explained that nictitating membranes are similar to goggles. They protect the eye and help the alligator see. Then he put his head in the bowl to see what things looked like. He thought it was pretty cool.

Then we read "Who Lives in an Alligator Hole?" and talked about reptiles being cold-blooded and how they lay eggs, habitat, food...etc. It was fun.

I really wanted to read this book but I couldn't find it at our library so if you're library has it then you may want to check out this one.

After the book we went to youtube and watched a bunch of alligator videos and found pictures online. It was pretty fun.

Prayer - Daniel in the Lion's Den

2010-02-08T21:58:00.000-05:00

Tonight was Ronni's turn to do the lesson. She's two so I asked her what she wanted me to talk about. She said cats so I asked her if lions were okay and she excitedly said yes. So.... I planned to mainly just talk about the importance of prayer and show a movie on Daniel in the Lion's Den.

We sang a song and then Collin (4 yo) said the opening prayer. Well, he said it really fast and short and then seemed proud of that so I ad-libbed. I started talking about how Heavenly Father is the father of our spirits and that prayer is how we communicate to our Father in Heaven. Then I grabbed my cell phone and flipped it open and asked Collin to demonstrate how he starts a conversation with Daddy.
He said, "Hi Dad."
Then I asked him how he starts a conversation with Heavenly Father. He said "Dear Heavenly Father." Then we went over the steps of praying like that.
After we discussed prayer and the importance for him I asked him if he wanted to see a movie about a prophet who loved the Lord and wanted to obey Him so much that he didn't want to stop talking to Him, even when he may die for doing it. That sure got his attention.
Then we watched Daniel in the Lion's Den.
We talked a bit about the story then said closing prayer and did a coloring page before refreshments of fruit and homemade whipped cream.

Have I Done Any Good In the World Today?

2010-02-07T18:28:00.000-05:00

Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert

2010-02-07T18:22:00.000-05:00

From Publishers Weekly

"Apple to Zucchini, / come take a look. / Start eating your way / through this alphabet book." So begins this delectable feast of fruits and vegetables, in a diverse and plentiful array. Each turn of the page reveals a mouth-watering arrangement of foods: Indian corn, jalapeno, jicama, kumquat, kiwifruit and kohlrabi. The words are shown in capital and lowercase letters set in bold type for easy reading. At the end of the book, Ehlert provides a detailed glossary that includes pronunciation, botanical information, the origin and history of the particular plant and occasional mythological references, with a small watercolor picture to remind the reader of what the plant looks like. Ehlert's glorious watercolor collages are lively and enticing; as in her Growing Vegetable Soup , she presents the plant world in an appealing and easily accessible manner. Both parents and children will be encouraged to sample exotic new foods at mealtime. Ages 3-5.

The Letter 'A' - Day 3

2010-02-05T14:46:00.002-05:00

Language Arts: This is The A Game. It's just a basic game board. I colored it then covered it w/ contact paper. Then I printed out pictures of different objects. There are about 12 pictures total. Turn them face down and if you pic one that starts with an A then you get to move 1 space (our game pieces were coins). If it starts with something different, you don't get to move. If you get "Alligator Ann" then you get to move two spaces and if you get "Amy Ape" you have to move back 1 space. Collin loved it! I glued this one to one of the large flaps in the lapbook.

For math we talked about graphs. We discussed different ways to eat apples (whole, applesauce, juice, and pie). Then we made a bar graph on ppl's favorites -- we used our family and then talked about some of Collin's friends. He got it. I was excited at how quickly he caught on.

For the lapbook we used this

The one on the right was still drying but the one on the left, I will attach with a brad later. I put this inside the right flap of the lapbook.

Lapbook -- the basics

2010-02-05T10:23:00.000-05:00

Okay... I recorded this on day 1 but didn't get a chance to put it on youtube until today so it just has the stuff on it from day 1. Here is a basic way of making a lapbook. There are lots of ways and you can get very creative. I hope the video makes sense.

The Letter 'A' - Day 2

2010-02-03T21:11:00.001-05:00

First we read this book. (Side note: Collin loved it -- I read it twice and he's been quoting it all day.)

Next, Collin and I cut out letters and glued them to paper. This gave him a chance to work with letters AND scissors which he really needs to get better with. He's left handed and I just bought him left handed scissors two days ago so it's all new for him. ;)

Once the glue is dry we'll put these together to make a letter book. The cover of this book (upper right hand by Ronni) says "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom! Will there be enough room for...?"

While the glue was drying we went outside -

and did the Alligator Crawl

the Bunny hop

the Crab crawl

the Duck waddle (this is done by bending your knees and "waddling" that way -- it's hard to tell in this pic but Ronni was just so cute trying to do it.)

and the Elephant walk.

After a bit of playing outside we went back in to check out letters.

And made a book. ;)

Lapbook addition came from here.

This is the coconut tree for Chicka Chicka Boom Boom! He wrote the letters by himself so they could climb the tree. He kinda covered up the coconuts w/ the letters and he made the leaves into stairs for the letters so they wouldn't fall. haha!! I thought it was pretty funny! I glued this to the back of the pocket on the lapbook. ;)

Red - toddler

2010-02-02T23:58:00.002-05:00

Day 1: This week we are doing different things for the kids. What I was doing before was too simple for Collin and too difficult for Ronni so I just quit doing that and now they're each doing separate things. Ronni still hasn't learned her colors. She doesn't have the desire to learn like Collin did. That's okay though -- she's more talented other ways, for example, she already knows how to cut well. It took Collin forever to get the hang of that (we're still working on that one). Anyways.... today we all had to wear something red. We ran through the house, searching for anything red and we went for a drive (it would have been a walk but it was a wet and rainy day) and looked for things that were red.

Day 3: (For some reason, it won't let me type under the pictures so pretend that's where this is;) Today, I put a red sticker on Ronni's finger and we walked around touching anything red.
Afterwards we sang a song: I Love Red (sung to Farmer in the Dell) I love the color red/I love the color red/ red, red, my shoes are red/ I love the color red.
You can name different things that are red for the third line. Have fun!

Day 2: Continuing our red theme we made a red collage today. I just used any craft supplies I could find that were red. Then I smeared glue all over a piece of paper and Ronni got busy. I kept asking her what color the different items were. She would reply "red". Hopefully, she's catching on. ;)

The Letter 'A' - Day 1

2010-02-02T15:09:00.002-05:00

First, we made a list of words that start with the letter A. I had Collin go through and underline all the 'a's he could find.

Then we made an "A" book. We took all of those items that he had just named and turned them into a book. We wrote one of the words he came up with on one side and then he illustrated it on the other side.

Then he colored a picture of Alligator Ann. She is the mascot for this unit of study. ;) Then he was supposed to cover the A's with rice and he sure covered them. haha! You can use pasta or beans or whatever you want. ;)

For this unit of study we are making a lapbook. The left picture is the front and the one on the right is the

inside of the first flap. I have a writing section... I covered it with tape so he can write the answers. The next part is identifying upper case and lower case but they're all in different fonts so there is the computer a and the regular written a w/o the cap. He just sticks them in the proper baskets. This template can be found here. We are going to start doing lapbooks. They're pretty fun.

For instructions on making a basic lapbook watch this video. This is very basic. You can get creative and have flaps and pages everywhere if you want. ;) I used scrapbook paper to decorate mine. HAVE FUN and BE CREATIVE!

FHE - Light of the World

2010-02-01T14:40:00.001-05:00

Ronni (the 2 year old) had the song and she picked "Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes"

When the kids are in charge of the lesson they choose an item from the "30 Fast and Easy Family Home Evening Lessons" Box. haha! Was that a mouth-full? Each item has a number on it that corresponds w/ a lesson. Last night, Collin picked the candle. I gave each child a candle coloring sheet (found at above link) and then my husband and Collin taught the lesson together.

Hubby had the refreshments and he made brownies --- yum yum!

I had the activity so we play the game Operation. =o)

Sunday Spiritual Thought

2010-01-31T13:55:00.001-05:00

Doctrine and Covenants 78:18 "And ye cannot ^abear all things now; nevertheless, be of good ^bcheer, for I will ^clead you along. The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the ^driches of ^eeternity are yours."

Children's Book of the Week

2010-01-30T17:23:00.000-05:00

This was a really cute book that we got from the library this week.

Good Night Sam by Marie Louise Gay

Synopsis

Stella’s little brother Sam is back in this charming picture book. Sam asks his big sister whether or not she is sleeping. "Yes," answers Stella. "Aren’t you?" But Sam can’t sleep: he misses his beloved and faithful dog, Fred. Where could he be? Sam knows that Fred is afraid of many things: the dark, the monster that lives in the closet, and the giant toad that lurks downstairs. Luckily, Stella is there to reassure Sam as they search everywhere. Gay’s delicate watercolors, full of whimsy and humor, bring Stella and Sam’s world to life.

Rhyme/Music Activity Thursday: Hickory Dickory Dock

2010-01-28T14:38:00.000-05:00

First we read this book. I found it at the library. ;)

Then we learned this song.

We made out own clocks. ;) I cut the numbers out of an old calendar and I cut the 'mice' our of brown and white paper. They look sort of like half hearts.There is string attached to the mouse to look like the tail too. This is a picture of Collin's.

For older children: one of the girls at playgroup is 9 -- she's homeschooled and comes with her younger brother so we talked about limericks. Hickory Dickory Dock is a limerick so after we discussed what a limerick is -- proper order of rhymes and syllables -- she wrote her own. ;) It was fun!

Teeth Day 2

2010-01-27T16:21:00.000-05:00

Craft: I drew a tooth on a piece of paper per kid. Then I gave them each an old toothbrush and some white paint. Again, we practiced strokes to brush teeth as they painted the teeth white.

Science: I drew a happy tooth on a paper bag and a sad tooth on another. Then I grabbed different foods from around the kitchen and laid them out. The kids had to tell me which bag they went in -- will they make the teeth happy or the teeth sad?

Alternate: Cut out two teeth and draw a happy face on one and sad face on the other. Then go through magazines and cut out pictures of food and glue them to the appropriate tooth.

Song:

Little Tommy Toothbrush

Sung to : "Eensy, Weensy Spider"

Little Tommy Toothbrush

Had a big job to do.

He spread himself with toothpaste

And jumped up on a tooth.

He scrubbed and scrubbed the germs away

To prevent tooth decay.

Then Little Tommy Toothbrush

Jumped down and said, "Hooray!"

Snack: We ate the items from the happy tooth bag.

Teeth Day 1

2010-01-26T16:50:00.000-05:00

Science Part I: First, we took a "giant tooth" (a tile) and smeared it with different foods. We used orange marmalade, ketchup and mustard. Then we set it aside and let it dry. I talked to them a little bit about how teeth have armor (enamel). When food sits there it weakens the enamel so cavities can get through and cause tooth decay. Then we talked a bit about what tooth decay is.

Craft/fine motor skills: I printed out two 4x6" lips. You can draw them on red paper if you want to... I'm just not that artistic. Just do a Google image search. It works great! ;) Then I gave them a 1/2 x 8" strip of white paper and a pair of scissors (watch them closely with the scissors). Ronni got the children's scissors and I gave Collin my small scissors. They cut the strips of paper up and then glued them to the mouths. The top one was Collin's and the bottom one is Ronni's. Whoever these mouths belong to are in desperate need of some orthodontic care. ;)

Science Part II: Finally, it was time to get back to the giant tooth. ;) First, I talked to the kids about the different ways to brush teeth (side to side, up and down, and small circles). I gave them each an old toothbrush with a small cup of water and smeared a bunch of toothpaste on the "tooth". Their job was to clean. I had them practice the different strokes for a little while then I just let them go at it. I thought they did pretty well. The food all turned green when mixed with the blue toothpaste... eeew! haha!

Music: I Brush My Teeth - sung to "Jingle Bells"

I brush my teeth, I brush my teeth

Morning noon and night.

I brush them, floss them, rinse them clean

I keep them nice and white.

I brush them once, I brush them twice

I brush them till they shine.

I always brush them up and down

Those precious teeth of mine.

I eat good foods, I eat good foods

I give my teeth a trea.

I always eat fruits, breads and milk

Vegetables and meat.

If I eat sweets, if I eat sweets

I brush right away

To keep my teeth shiny bright

And free from tooth decay.

FHE - Building Strong Families

2010-01-25T20:44:00.000-05:00

Collin was in charge of music and he chose "My Eternal Family".
Then we said an opening prayer and started the lesson. I got the idea from here.
I talked about the first family -- Adam and Eve -- and discussed how they had to teach their kids so they could be a strong family. Then I had the kids name things that a family should do. The website gives examples like 'show love', 'service', 'use kind words'. I put them on blocks then we stacked them up and I talked about how if we do all these things we can be a strong building but if we don't do one of these (I pulled out that block) the family weakens (all the blocks fell over). We did this a couple of times, pulling out different blocks, each time the "family" fell over. The kids had fun!
Here are some examples:

Spiritual Thought Sundays

2010-01-24T10:03:00.002-05:00

3 Nephi 17:21 And he took their little children, one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them.

"The Savior made it clear through his simple but powerful example that we must make time to call our children to us, to see that they are blessed, and to pray unto our Heavenly Father for them."

-- Mothering with Spiritual Power by Debra Woods

Children's Book of the Week

2010-01-23T08:43:00.000-05:00

I know... that's a really long name. haha!! In case you can't read it in the picture it's called, Jared and the Ordinary Handy-dandy, Excellent, Extraordinary Plain Brown String. Yes, quite a name. ;)

Jared's mom gets a gift in the mail and challenges her kids to see what they can do w/ the wrapping. One child gets the wrapper, one gets the box and Jared gets the string. What can a little boy do with string? Find out as you read this story about "the joy of sharing." It's a wonderful story w/ a great moral!
Reading level 9-12 yrs

Feet Day 3

2010-01-22T16:36:00.000-05:00

Craft: (Well, ignore the distraught face there... they both wanted the orange crayon. ;) We used some of the footprints from the other day and glued them to a popsicle stick. They colored them and drew a face on them.

Language Arts: Here the kids had to tell me about their footprints so... this is the interview I had with Mr. Bode (yellow) and Mrs. Boley-dalawie (no idea where Collin came up w/ those names.)

me:What do you like to do, Mr. Bole?

Mr.Bode: I like to play catch w/ my sister but she runs away with my ball.

me: What kinds of shoes do you like to wear?

Mr Bode: My 'jump really high, run really fast shoes". They help me chase my sister, knock her down and take my ball back -- but that's really mean.

Mr. Bode and Mrs. Boley-dalawie then re-enacted this sequence for me -- quite interesting.

me: Is there anything else you'd like to share with us Mr.Bode?

Mr.Bode: I love going fishing!

me: laugh and turn to Mrs. Boley-dalawie What do you like to do?

Mrs. Boley-dalawie: Drink juice boxes.

Me: What are your favorite shoes?

Mrs. Boley-dalawie: my church shoes.

Mr.Bode: Her super-fast running shoes!

me: Is there anything else you'd like to share?

Mrs. Boley-dalwie: I like to color.

Science: We examined feet. How do they move? Are our feet different? How -- big small? colors?

Then we wiggled our feet different ways to see what happens... we wiggled toes, walked our feet, ran, and jumped (all while sitting in a circle -- that works your abs. ;)

Math: We matched.... ;) Do I really need t explain. In case you can't tell, the second picture is of socks b/c I thought shoe would be too simple for the four year old.