The last 2 weeks: Valentines Day Fun

The last two weeks both boys shared the same theme and we worked on our Valentines Day  decorations and cards.  We made tissue paper hearts with contact paper as well as hand and foot print Valentines.

Even Penny made a Valentine

 Valentine Sun Catcher

The boys also had fun buzzing around the house with the "love bugs" that they had made.

On Thursday we had a small Valentines Day party with a few of our friends.

For our treats we had confetti cupcakes, brownies and strawberry milk. 

The kids decorated their cupcakes and made a valentine card to take home.  It was a lot of fun!

Besides all our pre-Valentines Day fun, we stuck to our basic lessons as well. Charlie completed lessons in Phonics and Math, practiced his hand-writing by finishing up his Thank You cards from his birthday and we picked up his Explode the Code book.  We also learned about matter, solids, liquids and gases in science.  

 

Charlie is using blocks to solve subtraction problems.

Tommy is still enthusiastic to do "school" with us.  

The last 2 weeks he did a few sheets in his workbook and  played on Starfall.com.  He is also doing much better playing independently when I need to work solely with Charlie. 

Having fun with dress up as Kings and Knights in their "castle".

I had a conference call with Charlie's "teacher" from K12 this week as well.   We went over his test scores from the AIMS web test he did a few weeks back.  Charlie scored average or above average on all areas.  She was also pleased with the progress that he has made from the beginning of the year and feels that he is right on track in most areas and ahead of the game in some.  She also said that if we continue to complete lessons at the rate we are currently working, then we will be done with his school in late April.  The last day of school is technically June 3rd.  We will most likely continue on as we have been, possibly taking a few days off for the boys to have a "free day" from school and for me to devote to planning their summer curriculum and Tommy's curriculum for next year.

The last 2 weeks have been so much fun and we have accomplished a lot.  I am so proud of Charlie and the progress he has made. I am so grateful to be able to spend this time with the children and be their teacher.  I am so grateful to be given this opportunity!

Cookies for the Super Bowl

Kindergarten: Mummy week 3

Tommy the Mummy

We finished our study of Mummies this week.  We read both Mummies in the Morning and Mummies and Pyramids from The Magic Tree House series.  We all enjoyed reading these books during lunch or  as a family before bed.

Charlie participated in almost all of the Winter/Penguin themed activities that we did for Tommy's school.

Making his snowman and penguin out of model magic

 

 He worked way at his math lessons, mastering the concepts of addition and subtraction.  He has been able to do simple addition and subtraction problems in his head for over a year now.  However, for most of the equations K12 has him using  number line or simple models/pictures to determine the answer.  He continues to enjoy math.

He also completed 5 phonic lessons, spelled words, started a dictation notebook, reviewed letter sounds and finger stretching. 

Brother's doing school together

Having fun with shaving cream and ice chunks.

The boys also started their Co-op this week.  We all had a great time.  Charlie is enrolled in a LEGO class and a Fun With Numbers class.  Tommy had fun playing in the nursery and  I enjoyed myself at the Bible study for one class and then volunteering in the nursery.  There are about 100 other kids at the Co-op ranging from newborn to high school. 

We are really getting into a groove with our schooling and it feels good.  Life is settling down a bit and we are getting to experience our new "normal".  I love each and every day that I get to spend with our boys, teaching them and watching them grow.  I truly feel blessed!

Kindergarten: Mummy week 2

We had a pretty good week this week.  The girls that I watch started back this week, so that meant I had 5 kiddos all under the age of 6 two days a week.  We managed to get some school work done on those days as well.
  Charlie continued with his core subjects, phonics and math.  Both boys were able to do several science lessons based on measurement.  We used a hand graph to see how long and short several household items were, we filled up cups with different amounts of water to compare different weights and we learned about how things are hot and cold.  We even got to use our beloved snow for this experiment!

We then had a spontaneous art lesson when we added food coloring to the water and mixed them to make the different colors we wanted to use in our ice cube suncatcher.  This was a fun project that we all enjoyed.

Our theme for Kindgergarten continues to be about ancient Egypt and mummies.  We are now reading another Magic Treehouse book (Mummies and Pyramids) that dives deeper into the subject.  The boys are learning about the Nile River and how ancient Egyptians use to live.  We are being selective on what we read to them and teach them on this subject.  At this time we feel that Charlie and certainly Tommy are too young to fully grasp and be able to process the details of mummification and the burial traditions of the Ancient Egyptians.  This is a topic that we will certainly revisit in the future.  I have already found some other great projects to do, like mummifying a  chicken or even better yet...BARBIE!!! too funny!


One of our big projects for the week was our mummy paper mache face.  We mixed up our flour/water mixture and used toilet paper to make the facial features.  Charlie did a great job and had fun in the sticky goo!  We let the faces dry for a few days and then painted them. 

The boys also did snowflake resist water color paintings and shape snowmen to go along with Tommy's theme for the week of Snow/Winter. They turned out so cute!
 

Homeschool: Kindergarten Getting Ready for Christmas part 2

(Penny watching Charlie do school)

The last 2 weeks we have all been kind of "off". It all started with a migraine for me, followed by nasty head colds for all the kids and I, ear infection for Charlie and tummy bug for Trent :( There was a lot more fighting and whining going on and far less patience on my part. LOTS of prayers were said :)

So, some days we simply have been in survival mode and others have been better and more productive. We did manage get a lot of school done and do some fun projects along the way. I did scale back our Christmas curriculum that I had planned and I am thankful that I have not tried to push things and get it "all" done. Instead we have been able to spend a lot of quality family time together focused on the true meaning of Christmas!

Charlie is starting to work on graphing in his math and he LOVES it! We did a bunch of graphing last year so he has a good idea of the process and is doing more complicated problems.

He also continues to plow through his phonics and is doing really well. He is spelling words and reading up a storm! I do need to set aside time each day for him to do more independent reading. I also need to find more beginner readers for him to work through.

(Charlie making words)

We are also working on following instructions and listening carefully. He sometimes has a hard time focusing on things if it isn't something he 100% wants to do or isn't something that he choose to do. If it was his idea to do it then he has NO problem giving all of his attention to it. I am sure that this is something that we will continue to work on for a.long.time. with all the children! :) (Thanks Aunt Susie for the advice and encouragement! It helped us a lot and he is doing SOOO much better!!) It is obvious that he is really trying.

(Learning about muscles, the brain and your heart)

We did a really cool science project (despite my migraine) and managed to have fun doing it too! We reviewed about bones and joints and learned about muscles in our body. We made a neat model of an arm with a paper towel role, deflated balloons and tape. The balloons represented our muscles and how they work to make our arms move. Charlie enjoyed this project and even added veins and drew bones on the paper towel roll.

Charlie showing me how his "arm" bends with the "muscles"

We also learned about our teeth and the boys watched a video about Molly Molar on the computer.


The boys made some homemade peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. They were super yummy and no one even noticed that I used whole wheat flour :) Charlie made his cookies "mystery" cookies and hide chocolate chips in the middle.



Then we started working on our Christmas crafts. The boys made pine cone glitter ornaments and Christmas trees out of pine cones that Grandma Candace brought from Whidbey Island.

We also assembled our Gingerbread Train. Trent hot glued the cookie pieces together and the boys and I decorated with royal icing and lots of candy. It was really nice to work together and a fun activity for all of us.

Tommy worked on counting and number recognition using one of our Leap Frog games.

And despite all the sickness, we still managed to have some fun.

Honestly, I am really looking forward to next week. I pray that we will all be healthy and getting back into our new groove!

Homeschool Kindergarten and Preschool: Week 10Thanksgiving!

One of the easiest and our favorite craft for this time of year was the Give Thanks banner we made from a variety of beans, glue, yarn and construction paper. I wrote out the letters on the construction paper, the boys and I covered the letters with glue and the boys went to town placing the beans on the letters. We will definitely do this again next year.


The boys and I went shopping for our Operation Christmas Child boxes a few weeks back...and Penny went to. That is going to take some getting use to, I am so accustomed to saying just the "boys" :) The boys picked out some toy trucks, stickers, harmonicas etc as well as some fun toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap etc. We did this last year and Charlie really remembered the meaning behind what we were doing and was excited to pick out the different things to send to his "friend".
We had a lot of fun last week and did a BUNCH of school work and lots of fun activities gearing up for Thanksgiving.

There was also a lot of loving going on. Both boys are still smitten with their little sister :)

Tommy had fun playing playdough.

Charlie concentrated on Math and Phonics again this week. His teacher gave us permission to skip through a lot of the lesson since most of them are review for him at this point. I am carefully going through the lessons to make sure that we aren't overlooking any concepts that he does not know. I am excited to see him be a bit more challenged!

Both boys had fun with our Fall sensory bin. I added plastic gourds, paper leaves, crystal pumpkins, pine cones from Grandma Candace and a few trucks. I gave the boys some measuring cups, spoons and containers and let them go to town. They really enjoy these sensory bins and it really holds their attention.

We had fun making these Turkey hand print cookies. The boys helped with the entire process and had just as much fun eating them as they did decorating them ;)



They also completed some foam Turkeys that I picked up either at the art store or at the dollar store.


I also made a Cornucopia out of dough for our table centerpiece. It turned out ok, but I have bigger and better plans to do it again next year.


We read a few books about Thanksgiving and why we celebrate. I had wanted to make a Mayflower ship with Charlie but we didn't get to it...maybe next year.

We have so much to be thankful for! It was a great week!