Homeschool: The last few weeks

I haven't posted much lately about what we have been doing in school.  We still continue to have the theme of Dinosaurs and Volcanoes.  We started to make our paper mache volcano but need to paint it and then let it explode!  Charlie and I had great fun putting it together during nap time one day.  It was so nice to just do a project with him and be able to really talk with him and listen to all the neat ideas and thoughts he has.  He is such an incredible kid!

We also have been working on a Dinosaur lap book.  I found a few fun things to put in the book and so far Charlie decorated the cover, wrote down the definition of Paleontologist and a fact about Dinosaurs.  He also did an addition and subtraction Dino game. His math skills are great, that has always been his strength!    We still need to complete a Dino measurement graph and a fact sheet about his favorite Dinosaur.  We plan to finish that up this week.  We haven't made many lap books but I do like the fact that it is a review for Charlie of what we have learned and he made it!

Working in our ABC magnetic book, Buzz Lightyear costume and all :)

Color by number, I have seen a change in his coloring abilities.  He is becoming more deliberate with his strokes and trying to stay in the lines more.

Tommy has done a few worksheet pages, coloring by number and making patterns.  Nothing formal or really planned out.  I will be starting his preschool curriculum in the Fall and have found the resources I want to use and just need to get things organized.  Sometimes I get so caught up in making it "perfect", a perfect theme etc, that I lose sight that he doesn't care if there is a theme or not, he just has fun doing projects, reading books and learning together!  Our children are such good teachers!!

We made Daddy birthday cards, made fun cookies and sent them to Aunt Chelsea, had a tea party and did a lot of cleaning and organizing.  Speaking of which, I have a new chore plan for the kids.  It not only involves chores, but money management and giving to others.  We started today actually and so far they are both eager and excited to do it.  I took pictures of different things around the house, like the kitchen table, the garbage, the snack container, Penny's diaper and wipes station, dog food etc.  Then I printed them out and laminated them.  Each day the kids will be given between 2 and 4 cards.  I am thinking 2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon.  These are paid chores, not things that we already expect them to do like clean their room everyday and put their toys away etc.  If they complete each chore (without fussing and in a timely manner) then they have the opportunity to make $.25 each day.  They will get paid on Fridays and they have to divide the money into 4 different banks.  The first bank is money for God, that they will give as an offering at church. The second is for giving to others.  We will buy food for the pantry at church, use some of the money for our Good Samaritan Christmas Child shoe boxes or perhaps even sponsor a child through the Compassion network. The third bank (their piggy bank) is for saving and the fourth is for spending. Once in awhile we will take them to the toy store and match what they have to spend.  They must put their money in the banks in that order and if the earn the entire $1.25 (in quarters)  a week then they can choose where to put the 5th quarter.  I am as equally excited and can't wait to see how it goes!

We read lots of books, continued to work on our daily lessons in Phonics and Math.  Finished up the requirements for K12 LA and need to focus more on our science lessons in the next few weeks.  Charlie continues to show progress with his reading abilities and I plan on starting a new journal of types where he will draw a picture and then write a sentence or two about what the story was about.  He had to do something similar for his K12 teacher that we mailed to her last week.  He was to have no assistance with writing out the sentence, and I think he did really great!

Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne digging a tunnel through the mountain for the train.