Homeschool: Preschool Letter L

Tommy had a good week of preschool. He is just starting to build with little Legos and loves to make things with Charlie.

He worked on his foam ABC puzzle, hammering in the letters.

This is only the 2nd time that he has done the 1:1 cards and I was really impressed with how well he did this time.

He helped empty the dryer. He LOVES to clean and do laundry :)

Charlie helped him work on a new "to him" puzzle. Team work and helping little brother at its best!

Working on the Letter H glue and cut project. Not one of our best moments of school, but he finished it and moved on to his ABC's as he calls them (Starfall.com) and was a happy camper again.

Tommy asks to do ABC's every.single.day. And he would literally do it for a whole afternoon if I let him, which I don't. I limit it to about 20-30 minutes. But I am really impressed with how quickly he has mastered the basic computer skills on both the laptop and the PC. Here he was matching the shapes and spelling words. He doesn't "know" how to spell the words but is learning the letters and their sounds etc.


Playdough Mat, finishing up letter L

L is for Lion

This is the book that we are using for RRSP. I love this book and how it applies scripture verses to every day scenarios in a manner that little kids can easily grasp.

5 Senses Experiments with Charlie

Touch

Taste...too funny!

T-ball with Daddy....he is going to be a great athlete someday!

Painting his papermache pumpkin

Working together with Charlie to make the color orange

I had him mix red and yellow paint in a ziploc bag to make orange. He really liked doing this, squishing it with his hands and seeing the colors mix.

We also spent a good deal of time outside this week. I am taking full advantage of the mild, yet wet weather we are having, even if it means we do less school. I know that in a few short weeks the weather will change and we will be able to spend less time out for long periods of time. Here Tommy is making "hot cocoa" out of mud and water...yum!

Tommy is really doing great with his school. He is quickly learning to recognize all the letters of the alphabet, can sing the entire ABC song, can count to 20 and we are working number recognition as well. We are focusing primarily on ABCs and numbers right now. Reading lots of books and just having fun. He is so eager to learn and be like his big brother Charlie!

Homeschool: Kindergarten week 5

Charlie making a kite out of a leaf, string and a stick. We love his creativity!

We are back into the swing of things, finally!

Charlie worked on his basic subjects, Math, Phonics, and LA. We also did a few science lessons, supplemental hours in Health a handful of fun projects.

Spelling words with Boggle Jr.

Making mazes with marker tops

Crafty ABC: L is for Lion

Charlie is reading!! I am so proud! He has read his level 1 Phonics book to me almost every night for the last week. It has basic CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words in them like, Sam, Pam, mat, bat etc. They also contain a handful of sight words that he is easily memorizing. Did I say I was really proud of him???? :) This week we will move on to the next book of the series. I plan to keep it slow going and FUN!!! I also want to pick up some phonics/reading games and books at the library on subjects that he is interested in.

We finished our paper mache pumpkins. We all just loved this project!

I took plastic grocery bags and made a bunch into a ball. Then I took yarn and tied it around the bags to make the sections of the pumpkin. Afterward, the kids took toilet paper and dipped it into a mixture of Elmer's glue and water to make a papermache. They layered the toilet paper on the pumpkin until the entire surface area was covered. It took about 2 full days for the pumpkins to dry and then the kids painted their pumpkins.

Before we painted them though we did a lesson on mixing paint. We didn't have any orange paint so we made our own.

I first drew two overlapping circles on a piece of paper and put a dot of yellow on the far end of one circle and a dot of red paint on the far end of the other circle. I had the boys spread their color around the circle and then meet and mix together in the overlapping section of the circles to make orange. It was a great hands on way for them to see the colors mix and to work together to do it.

I also put 2 dots of paint, one red and one yellow in a plastic bag and had them squish the bag and mash it until they mixed the colors together to make orange.

We did a lesson on our 5 senses using the book

We put different things in a bag, had the kids close their eyes and try to identify the objects but just using their sense of touch. We did the same thing for sense of taste and had them taste different foods and then tell me if it was salty, sour, sweet etc.


Charlie tasting his lime and feeling in the bag for items.

The boys also spent last Saturday at our local hospital taking a Sibling class since they will both be big brothers here shortly. We spent about 2 hours, touring the hospital, learning how to care for a baby, diaper and hold a baby, we watched a few videos, picked out a project to make at home, had a snack and looked at pictures of new babies. Our boys had the whole room laughing when they looked at a picture of an African American baby boy and asked why his penis was black....and then looked at a naked picture of a baby girl and asked where her penis was. The teacher (who was nice enough but clearly NOT a teacher for small children) quickly flipped through the remaining naked pictures of the babies and moved right along. Ha ha!

Charlie also did several lessons on Study Island that is a review computer site for our K12 curriculum. It has games, worksheets and then quizzes the kids on what they have learned. He really enjoys working on the computer.

The boys worked together to build lego trains and trucks. Charlie also helped Tommy learn how to put a new puzzle together. I encourage them to do an activity a day together to "help" one another and do team work.


I am also having the boys help out in daily chores. Charlie was asked to clean the base boards on the first floor. He ended up doing ALL of the base boards in the house!!!!


Another great week under our belts!

Homeschool: Kindergarten week 4

We have "officially" been homeschooling Charlie for a month now. It has gone really well, despite having a "set schedule" like I would like to have. We are still supplementing the curriculum and tailoring the lessons more to Charlie and his knowledge of subjects. I am still enjoying having the bulk of the lessons prepared for me and now able to focus my attention more on the planning of the "fun" activities that we do.

We have certainly had our moments of refocusing, discipline, and difficulties dealing with a younger sibling in the mix. However, we are learning what works best and when is the best time to do certain subjects. I might prefer to get everything done in the morning in one sitting, but I know that doesn't necessarily work for Charlie. For example, his phonics lessons are best accomplished on the couch with just the two of us working together and no other distractions. Math, science, handwriting and LA can be done at any time and with little brother present. It is all about learning what works for this season in our life.

This week we played catch up a bit after spending last week with family down in the country, celebrating our beloved Grandma's life. We took things easy and did what we could. It was nice to be home and getting back to our haphazard schedule.

Charlie completed the basic lessons, Math, Science, Phonics and LA. And we were able to add in a few other fun things along the way.

He LOVES math and is adding and subtracting up a storm. He is even writing out math problems in his art work...too funny! So we pulled out the dominoes for some domino math.
We did our crafty letter of the week, L is for Lion.

Played dress up

And did lots of drawing of maps.

We also made paper mache pumpkins out of garbage bags and toilet paper

and made pumpkin spice cookies.

Getting Ready For Baby: The Season of Slow

About a week ago (at 34w) the realization hit me that I have entered a new season in my life, the Season of Slow. No longer can I pack our schedule with playdates, Bible studies, school, doctor's appointments, house projects, cleaning or fun outings. Sure a few of those a week are fine, but not daily and not with the intensity that we have been going at. It is time to slow down, or so my body and God are telling me. When I am quiet and still and actually listen, I can hear God's direction for me to follow. This time I am listening :)

We have only a few shorts weeks before we will be blessed with the birth of our daughter. We can't wait, but we also know that it will be a time of transition and many sleepless nights (sleep is HUGE in our house!). I want to go into this beautiful time with as much inner peace, serenity and joy as possible.

I want to spend these next few weeks doing what is most important, spending time together and enjoying each other. It will never again be just Trent, I and the boys. And even though we are anxiously awaiting our little lady, we are also wanting to enjoy this time with just our favorite fellas.

So the calendar has been cleared. The necessities will continue to get done and we will fit in a few more fun outings before the big day arrives. We will still visit with friends and continue on with our schooling. And doctors appointments has become like playing trains at our house, something that happens almost daily :)

I am so grateful for this time. I am feeling pretty good most days and feel blessed for these next few weeks that I can spend preparing our family and home for another little person! I am grateful to have our boys close by and with me most of the time. And I couldn't of made it through some of these hard days and difficult situations that have presented themselves in the last few months without the love and constant support of Trent. I am forever grateful!

The Party Has Just Begun.............

Grandma Jane "Nie Nie"
1950-2010

Our dear sweet Nie Nie went to be with Jesus last week. Our hearts are broken but our spirits are at peace knowing that we will see her again.
We love you so much and miss you terribly.

Little Treasures

For Mother's Day Charlie made Grandma Candace a small star shaped box which he picked out by himself. He choose to paint it orange (surprise) and found a small wooden fish emblem to glue on the top (because Grandma Candace likes to fish).


Grandma Candace had the great idea of mailing the box back and forth between the two of them and filling it with little treasures. We received the box in the mail a few weeks ago filled with treasures like smooth sea glass, a feather (was it from the Eagles you have told us about?), a Snoopy pin, pine cone etc. Charlie put the treasures in his treasure box and has gone back to look through them several times.


We thought that perhaps he could choose a few items that he found when we went to Lake Chautauqua, but Charlie had other plans :)

He choose his items carefully and they will be on their way to Grandma Candace this week! Hope you like them Grandma Candace, Charlie hand picked them just for you!

Homeschool: Preschool letter T

I love the fact that our boys are learning side by side, teaching one another and having a great time doing it! And they look so cute too :)

This week we did a few scheduled activities for Tommy and finished up the letter T. He used playdough to make the letter T on his playdough letter mat.

He worked on some of his RRSP curriculum which had him practicing cutting along a thick grey line to cut out his Bible verse (Thou Shall Not Steal) for the week and then taped it together. He is very good at cutting but until last week I had not instructed him to actually cut on a line or a specific object out. I was pleasantly surprised the growth he had in this area in just a few days.

He worked on the foam ABC puzzle, pounding the back in with his little hammer and colored his letter T for turtle. We also reviewed his letter vocab cards.

Mr. Potato head came to the rescue while Charlie and Mom did some Phonics work.

Tommy and Miss S did some 1:1 sorting. The flash cards have a number 0-3 written on them and they had to put the correct number of pom poms into the right bowl.

For our craft we made window suncatcher tissue paper leaves. Tommy spent so much time putting every piece of tissue paper carefully on his sticky contact paper. He was so patient and insisted on doing it all by himself.

Charlie was also doing the same project and was a few steps ahead of Tommy. I didn't even have to tell Tommy what the next step was, clearly he was paying attention and was NOT going to miss any of the fun. He rolled out the air bubbles and then promptly ran off to the backyard to find leaves for me to trace. However, he got side tracked after finding a leaf or two and thought that "making" me some delicious mud and sand coffee and painting his arms with his creation was far more fun :)

I also bought out the watercolor paints for Tommy to experiment with. He used different fall colors to make a beautiful painting. We then cut the picture into little leaves and let him make a tree with fall leaves.


I really think that art is therapeutic for Tommy. He gets so serious about what he is creating, very quiet and is very purposeful in his creations. I love watching him create, he is such a sweet boy.

We also read a lot of books, ABC and fall themed books were our favorites.