The First Few Months

So some of you might be wondering how our homeschooling has been going. We’ve been at it for two months now and I couldn’t be happier. I am learning a lot about homeschooling, my daughter, my son and even myself. I’ve already had to tweak my plans a bit…mainly because LeeLee was blasting through the workbooks I bought for her and planned on using at least through Christmas. It’s been quite a struggle balancing lessons and babysitting two more kids, as well as whatever life throws at me along the way. But I think we’ve managed quite nicely.

For a while, I started getting nervous that I wasn’t doing enough, doing too much…you know, all those worries I’m sure most parents have -whether you home school or not. She seemed very advanced in some areas, while being bored or having no interest at all in other areas. So based on a recommendation by a friend and by many other home schoolers, I checked out the book “What Your Kindergartner Should Know” By E.d. Hirsch. I’ going to try to give a full review on this book in the next couple days for those who are interested, but basically; I have found it to be a great resource! It has a list of topics (literature, math, art, music, history, social studies, etc) and the very basic knowledge the average Kindergartner should know. I simply pick a few lessons a day, try to make them related if possible (For example: Reading Johnny Appleseed in the literature section while also examining the apple tree diagram in the science section)

I also bought this thick workbook on a whim the same time I bought the Hirsch book and have found that I can usually tie a lot of the lessons in the book with worksheets from the work book. Though not intentional, they actually do work well together.

So besides the Hirsch book and the BrainQuest book, we usually have a Unit we explore. So far we have done Dinosaurs, The Solar System, Johnny Appleseed and now (just for fun) we are working on Halloween! With these units we usually read tons of books, look up videos and make a lapbook of all the information we learn. Each lapbook takes about two or more weeks to finish.

And here are some pictures of what we have done the past few months!

Sorting Coins

Exploring Warm colors and cool colors

Warm and Cool Color Trees

Workbooks

Painting a Spider for Halloween

A trip to the Apple Orchard

Using Scrabble tiles for spelling practice

Phases of the moon

Drawing the Solar System

Putting numbers in order

Illustrating a book she wrote about her family.

I try my hardest to listen to LeeLee and incorporate her interests and ideas into our lesson plans. While learning about Dinosaurs we explored Paleontology, which is what she wants be when she grows up. We looked at different Paleontologists and she became very interested in one in particular, a woman by the name of Mary Anning who discovered the first ichthyosaurus bones at the age of 12! So at LeeLee’s request we are about to embark on journey to learn all kinds of things about Mary Anning and to make a book entirely about her!  I might be just as excited about this as LeeLee is!

We are also planning on exploring Thanksgiving in the month of November. We plan to read many books on the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Tribe. We have lots of Thanksgiving-themed projects planned, too. We are going to focus on Addition this month in Math and adding more Sight Words to her reading practice. I’ve also noticed that Bash is starting to show some interest in wanting to participate in learning time so I have been putting together a little folder of Toddler appropriate activities just for him! He LOVES it!

First Day of Kindergarten!

Hi All!

So we officially started our school year last Monday. LeeLee is starting Kindergarten while Bash is still in toddler activities.

I thought a long, long time about how I wanted to attack our first year of homeschooling. There are so many methods and curricula out there!  For a couple weeks my head was swimming with these words: Unschooling. Classical. Unit Studies.  Charlotte Mason. Eclectic. Easy Peasy. Math U See. Abeka. Time4Learning. Life of Fred. Phonics. Sight Words. and on and on and on. 

After panicking about it  for awhile and, of course, wanting to make the best choice for my family, I finally decided what I wanted to do. I was going to make up my own plan. I guess you can say it’s a combination of the bits and pieces I liked about several different methods. I’m also NOT going to use a curriculum at this time. I really considered purchasing a math curriculum because I was never good at math and the idea of teaching math frightens me, but I convinced myself I can teach the basics and look into a curriculum later on.

So this is what I planned. I had a few obstacles I had to think about when planning our year. Mainly, I have two kids that I babysit three days a week ages 1 and 2. So we are going to have a overall monthly theme in which I will plan activities, read books and sing songs about.

3 days a week: We will do a Kid’s Activity with all FOUR kids. Usually it’s an art project that fits our theme, but occasionally it might be a cooking project, imaginative play, or maybe even a physical activity such as a silly dance. Then once the two kids I babysit (we’ll call them B and C) are napping, LeeLee and I will  do some on-on-one activities. We will do something in math, reading and writing and usually an activity or two on our monthly theme. The whole process only takes about 45 minutes to an hour. The first week, Bash has been so interested in what we are doing and was very eager to get involved so now I am going to set aside activities for him so he can get involved in learning time, too!

One day a week: Project Day. I am setting aside one day a week to do some sort of project. Most of the time it will be a science project but sometimes it might be History or Social Studies. Maybe we will build a small community out of cardboard boxes or make a dinosaur diorama. Maybe we’ll build a working volcano. maybe LeeLee will show great interest in how bread is made or how to make butter and we’ll do that.

Friday Free Day: I always have Friday’s off from babysitting. So this will be our free day. Maybe we’ll go to the park or build a fort. Maybe we’ll work on a project. Maybe we’ll read a chapter book or even work on another project. Anything goes.

Weekends: I am reserving weekends for Family time. Lately we’ve been going to the library and visiting a park, but eventually I’d like to plan field trips.

So that is my home school plan for this year.

And this is how our first week went:

Our Theme for August is…

SPACE!

And of course we had to take the obligatory first day of school pics:

First Day of Kindergarten! She aspires to be a Paleontologist!

We made moons out of homemade puff paint. (Shaving cream and glue)

This stuff was fun! But messy….and smelly. Definitely looking for unscented shaving cream next time!

The finished product!

We made our own constellations.

We played several Space-themed games. This is just one of them, a dice-rolling game. We also had a planet matching game and a spelling game.

LeeLee started her Solar System Lapbook. She will be working on this throughout the month, adding pictures and information about the Solar System as we learn about it.

This is one of her writing activities, she also writes letters to friends and family to practice!

Reading one of the Bob books.

Mixing baking soda in a cup of water for a science project,

In a few days…this string *should* have spikes growing on it!

Of course, we didn’t take pictures of EVERY activity, but you get the idea.

Finally our week was nearing an end and on Friday LeeLee knew right away how she wanted to spend our free day:

Building a Puppet Theater!

This activity actually took all weekend and turned into a great family project!

Our Puppet Theater, made from a cardboard box.

One of our handmade Sock Puppets.

Bash kissing one of our Sock Puppets.

Our first week of homeschooling was a success!

 

Pet Week Books

I’m starting a new weekly post involving the books we read during each week. Normally, I go to the library and rummage through the shelves looking for any book that just might fit into our theme. This results in finding some very good books….and some very, very horrible books. So to help other mom’s out there looking to do similar things, I am going to start reviewing the books and adding the LeeLee&Bash thoughts as well. I am also going to rate the Educational and Fun levels form a 0-10 (with ten being the best)

Here are the books we read for Pet Week:

Dogs, By Gail Gibbons

This book was very educational and easy to read. The pictures were big and bright and each page had only one or two sentences. It included many labeled diagrams of dogs and different types of dogs and even briefly explained the history of keeping dogs as pets. It also describes how to take care of a dog or a puppy. This book was great for my four year old, LeeLee who has great thirst for knowledge and long attention span, but my two year old, Bash, was moving on to bigger and better things by page two. I give this a 10 for Educational value, but a 3 for fun value.

LeeLee Review: 🙂

Bash Review:

The Stray Dog, By Marc Simont

This a wonderfully fun (and true) story about a family who goes on a picnic and finds a stray dog. The spend the day playing with the dog and then sadly leave him to return home. After a week of thinking about the poor dog the family returns to the place they found him and search for him. When they find a dog catcher chasing him they quickly decide to claim them as their own. WE loved the art work in this book and loved that the dog looked very similar to our dog. I give this a 2 for Educational value, based on how it shows the reader compassion, and an 8 for Fun.

LeeLee Review:  🙂

Bash Review: 🙂

I am the Dog, By Daniel Pinkwater

This a cute story about a boy and his dog who decide to switch places for a day. The boy does everything the dog does, sleeps on the floor, eats on the floor, plays catch, naps, and the dog goes to school and does homework like the boy would do. The pictures are bright and colorful and the story held our interest. I give this a 3 for Education since it shows the reader a day in the life of a dog, and a 7 for fun.

LeeLee’s Review: 🙂

Bash’s Review: 🙂

Jacob O’Reilly Wants a Pet

This was our favorite book this week. Both kids requested to read it over and over. It’s about a boy who desperately wants a pet and tries to convince his parents to let him get ANY pet at all. Finally the parents suggest that he open a Pet Sitting business. After two weeks of craziness, Jacob shuts up shop and sends all the pets home deciding it was too much work. But as all the pets leave he finds a snail sitting quietly and decides he has finally found the perfect pet. The pictures are cute and they story RHYMES which always makes it fun. I give this a 5 for Education since it shows a variety of pets as well as how much responsibility it takes to care for a pet and a 9 for Fun. 

LeeLee Review: 🙂

Bash Review: 🙂

Cuddly Cats/Flashy Fish of the Sandcastle, Perfect Pets series

I am putting these two books together because they are published by the same publisher and set up the exact same way. These are a bit more educational. The first half of the book talks about getting and caring for either a cat or a fish. The second half of the book has a short, but fun, story. The first half features full color photographs illustrating how to other kids care for cats/fish. The second half has colorful drawings and a short, rhyming story.  I give this a 5 for Education and a 3 for Fun. They are okay for something short and sweet, but overall not very exciting. 

LeeLee review:

Bash Review: : /

 

and the chapter book I recommend if you want to fit one in with a Pet Theme….

Because of Winn Dixie, by Kate DiCamillo

I love, love, LOVE this book. I actually read it out loud to my daughter a few months ago. It’s sweet and explores many different issues, one of which was, of course, the companionship between a girl and a stray dog she found terrorizing a local Winn-Dixie supermarket and claimed as her own. The story goes through the adventures they have together, facing fears, making friends, not judging others, and even touches on dealing with death and abandonment. Amazing. So far, one of my favorite chapter books we have read together. Definitely one of my daughter’s favorites as well. She STILL talks about occasionally. 

LeeLee Review: 🙂 🙂 🙂

Pet Week

This week was Pet Week!

We are family that includes two adults, two children, one dog, two cats and five fish. So it made sense that we had a pet theme.

Our fur baby, Oscar

Our first activity of the week was to make adorable puppy dog ears. This project used cutting and gluing skills.

Gluing spots onto her Puppy Ears

Pretending to be a puppy.

Have you ever seen a cuter puppy?

And, of course we had to make Puppy Chow!

Not exactly healthy….but fun!

 Most boxes of Chex cereal have this recipe right on the back, but in case you want it before hand, here it is:

Puppy Chow:

9 cups Chex cereal (any kind)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips or 6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter, melted
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 -2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

I let the kids add the chocolate chips, PB, butter and vanilla into the saucepan.

Then I heated and stirred until it was all smooth and creamy.

Next, I let the kids pour in the cereal and I stirred until the cereal was coated.

I transferred the coated cereal to a large Tupperware container, added the powdered sugar and snapped on the lid.

Then I let the kids SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE until it was all coated in sugar.

YUM!!!!

The kids loved making it and eating it!

Another project we did was to make paper plate fish bowls.

Paper Plate Fish Bowls!

Gluing on pebbles

This project actually took a couple days, mainly because I knew the attention spans of two-year olds would not allow them to do the entire project in one sitting.

1. On the first day I mixed blue paint with a little cornstarch to make the paint a little more textured and slightly puffy. Then I let them paint the plates and set them out to dry.
2. On the second day I poured a little tacky glue into the bottom inch or two of plate and spread it out smoothly with a paint brush. Then I handed each kid a pile of fish tank pebbles and let them stick it into the glue. I set this aside to dry, then once it was dried I shook the plates lightly to get rid of the loose pebbles.
3. On the third day I painted their hands with orange paint and made our “fish” hand prints. Once this dried I added eyes, smiles and bubbles with a Sharpie. Then I gave them a few small pieces of tissue paper to glue on as plants.

I wanted to add in some special projects for LeeLee since she is older and needs a little more challenging projects. So I wanted to teach about how much work and responsibility it takes to own a pet. She already feeds and waters the animals on a daily basis as part of her chores, so I added a few more Pet chores to her list.

Helping Daddy clean the fish tank.

Smiling as she helps with the tank.

Watching the fish as the tank is being emptied.

Putting the tank back together.

Giving Oscar a bath

Clean Oscar!

And here are a few books we read during Pet Week! You can click on the picture below to take you to our reviews of this week’s books!

Buckets of Fun

This post is a little different from my usual posts. I’m going to try to start blogging here and there about the little extra things we do that have nothing to do with our weekly themes.

So this is a little creative project we just finished:

Buckets of Fun!

I can’t even take credit for these cute creations. This came from the creative mind of my mother in law! She scavenged some “junk” from work that would normally go straight to the dumpster and we created art out of it with a little help from the kids. We used clean paint buckets, screws, nuts, bolts, allen wrenches, tiny levels, spacers, and an assortment of rocks and plastic shapes. Then we hot glued it all on to the buckets. We made an evil-looking professor guy for Bash and of course, LeeLee wanted to make hers pretty!

So then when we had finished that, we had to figure out what to put inside the buckets. Bash made it easy, as he was busily playing with all of the other leftover pieces. So we scooped up a couple handfuls and dumped it into the bucket…BAM! We created hours upon hours of creative, imaginary play in mere seconds.

Nothing more fun to a two year old than a bucket of junk!

Now, of course this will require some adult supervision since the pieces are a little small. But they are actually bigger than you’d think by looking at this picture and BOTH kids LOVED it!

They played like this for almost a full hour!

Now, I had to get a little creative with LeeLee’s, I could have just did the same for her, but she adamantly said “No!!” Plus, I thought she needed something a little more challenging.

After thinking about it for awhile I finally figured out a good use for it. I gathered some smooth, light-colored stones that up until now were just some useless decorative item and I wrote sight words on each one with a sharpie marker. Now, she can pull one out at a time to practice her words.

The beginning of our sight words.

Later, she can even form sentences out of them.

Sight word sentences.

Best of all…it was LeeLee approved.

So there you have it…our Buckets of Fun!

Keep a look out for some changes I might be making to my blog.

Here’s what you can expect:

1. My usual weekly theme posts
2. Minnesota Mondays (exploring and learning about our great state)
3. LeeLee&Bash reviews(weekly reviews of our library books form the toughest critics around)
4. Occasional kid-friendly recipes
5. More random blogs like this one!

Car Week and Jungle Week

The past two weeks we took it kind of easy. I started babysitting two great kids and my family seemed to be hit by two viruses, one that caused a pretty wicked sore throat and some evil stomach bug.

I am still adjusting to having two extra kids a few days a week, but it hasn’t been too bad so far. The biggest obstacle has been adjusting my activities to be more appropriate for teh attention span of two year old boys, while still fitting in more challenging activities for my four year old daughter. But now that I got a feel for it, I think I know how to plan out the rest of the summer.

So here is what we have done the past two weeks:

Car Week

We used foam blocks to stamp out cars with paint.

Stamping away!

I cut out various shapes to glue on paper to make a scene of a car driving down the road.

Our stamped car!

Practicing gluing, I also had LeeLee practice cutting.

Hot Wheels Painting. We dipped little cars in paint and “drove” them across paper to see the tracks they made.

Bash was more interested in just playing with the cars.

Then we had a Car Wash to clean up the paint! This was the boys’ favorite activity!

Making sure the cars are shiny and clean!

Jungle Week

Paper Plate Animals. I had the kids paint the plate, then I cut the Lions into masks and made a curled up snake.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Trees!

If you are not familiar with the book, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault, you should be. Both of my kids love it!

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Trees

Supplies:

Small foam rectangle

Toilet Paper Roll

Green Tissue Paper cut into leaf shapes

Tacky Glue

Glue stick

Alphabet stickers

Colored cotton balls

Instructions:

1. I like to do a little prep work before starting the activity with the kids. So I gathered all materials and glued the TP roll to the foam rectangle and left it to dry.
2. While the glue is drying, cut green tissue paper into leaf shapes.
3. Still while glue is drying, read them the book. If you want you can even look up the song version. I personally love the Ray Charles version if you can find it, but this one is good as well: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Video
4. Next Use the glue stick to add aglue to the top inch or so of the TP roll. I also added glue to the rim and the inside. Give the kids the paper leaves and let them glue away.
5. Let the kids use the alphabet stickers to decorate the tree and show them “climbing” up the tree.

Use the tacky glue to glue the cotton balls on as the coconuts. You might have to hold it in place for a few seconds.

Bash’s tree

LeeLee’s tree. Complete with the entire alphabet, numbers AND coconuts. She loves detail!

We also did a few other things during Jungle week which I forgot to photograph. We made Elephant hand prints. We talked about animal sounds and acted like animals. We went out into the “jungle” (aka: the backyard) and pretended to be monkeys. And as always…read lots of books about Jungle animals.

I am going to spend the next couple days loosely planning out the rest of the summer. I’ll be looking for activities for two year olds, as well as more one-on-one activities with my four year old. Hopefully having it all planned out will make the activities more fun and less of a scramble to figure out something that ALL the kids can do. So far, we are planning on weeks such as; Oceans, Pirates, Water, Bodies and Independence Day.

Next week will be: Pets Week! (an idea my four year old personally requested!)

Bug Week

So it’s been kind of crazy here the past few days. I got to witness a birth…my little nephew came into the world just a couple days ago!

Needless to say, I am very late posting last weeks stuff. So here it is!

Last week was:

It was a pretty fun week. My daughter is a bit squeamish about bugs. She gets that from her dad. So I thought it’d be good to learn about bugs. We finished up reading Charlotte’s Web and that actually taught us a lot about spiders! We read sooo many other books about bugs, too. I realized that I didn’t pick a great time to do bug week since it’s been so cool outside that there are not a lot of bugs out right now. So I think I will definitely revisit this later this summer. Besides, Bug week was pretty fun and there are A TON of activities I could find for bug week!

Big News! We have also decided to start babysitting two kids during the day. So starting next week I will be planning activities for four kids! This will give my kids a chance to interact with other kids as well as giving us money to go towards more activities and home school supplies!

We didn’t do a theme or very many activities this week, considering how busy we were. But next week I will be getting back on it. Next week will be Transportation Week and the week after that will be All About Dads (for Father’s day!)

So here are some things we did last week:

Grow bugs. Put them in water and watch them grow!

These bugs were purchased at The Dollar Tree for a dollar each!

After a few days, we took the bugs out and examined them.

We measured, counted and made observations and recorded our findings.

I created this sticky spider web using a hula hoop and painter’s tape.

Next, I stuck some of out sight word cards onto the web. Since we used painter’s tape, they were easy to pull off without tearing.

We played “Sight Word Spider Web”. I said a sight word and she had to find it and pull it off the web!

Then we altered the game slightly to include Bash.

We took the little plastic bugs we have and threw them at the web to see which ones would stick.

It just so happened…the spiders stuck the best!

There can be many variations of this game.

1. Use different colored cotton balls to work on colors.
2. Use Numbers or even make an adding or subtraction game.
3. Use different materials to see what will stick:balled up paper, tissue paper, fabric, pieces of cardboard, paper clips, small toys…anything!
4. Use shapes or colors

There are so many ideas!

Butterfly Sandwiches!

I actually bought the sandwich cutter at Dollar Tree, too. I don’t always do fun things like this for lunch, but the kids love it!

Our cooking project: Worms and Mud!

We altered the recipe a bit since I didn’t have pudding. I used Oreo cookies, a spoon or nutella and a spoon of peanut butter. Mixed it all in a food processor. Spooned it into a bowl and added sour gummy worms.

LeeLee approved!

Bash approved!

Butterfly paintings!

Bash’s finished product

Put paint on one half of the paper.

Fold and press.

VOILA! LeeLee’s finished product!

Painting Caterpillars out of egg cartons.

Painting away!

I used the top half of the egg carton as a convenient (and disposable!) paint dish

Getting very detailed

Decorating the letter B (our letter of the week) with Bug stickers.

Our hand decorated bug jar

Sight word game on the chalkboard

Shape game on chalk board

LeeLee’s finished Caterpillar

Exploring Butterflies at the Nature Center

Dragonfly puppet

We went on a Nature Walk to see if we could find any bugs. This is LeeLee examining a very tiny green bug.

We loved seeing the geese and ducks with their babies!

Awww!!! Fuzzy!

She spotted a baby grasshopper on a dandelion.

Adorable!

  So that was our Bug Week! Tune in next week for our Transportation Week!

Here is where I got the inspiration for the Spider Web game: http://handsonaswegrow.com/halloween-activity-a-sticky-spider-web/

And here is the Real recipe for Mud and Worms: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/mud-and-worms/

Farm and Gardening Week

As I was working on getting back into a good home school routine the days were getting longer, warmer and sunnier so I thought it was a perfect time to explore Farming and Gardening. I want my kids to understand that their food doesn’t just come from a grocery store. So we spent a lot of time talking about the plants and animals that we get our food from. We also planted a garden of our own and visited the zoo, which has a section just for farm animals! Not too mention we read many books about Farms and crops.

Including this little gem:

Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White. We are actually still in the process of reading it but it fit in so nicely with our farm week and I adore this book. I did as a kid, I do as a parent and my daughter is loving it as well. Plus, next week our theme is Bugs, so it still fits!

As I was reading this beloved classic last week my daughter interrupts me…

“Mommy, they eat animals?!?!” She says with a look of horror on her face. I took a moment to think about my answer, i didn’t want to scar her for life. Would I be turning her into a Vegan or vegetarian instantly based on the way I answer? (I might actually be ok with this since I have considered doing this myself) I took a deep breath and answered her.

“Yes, people eat animals. You do, too.” She stared at me, scrunched up her nose in disgust,

“Uh, NO I do NOT eat animals!”

“Well, yes, you do. Hamburger, chicken, pork chops all come from animals.”

She stared at me with big eyes and I held my breath waiting for her response. She shrugged and said,

“Oh, ok.” Whew…not as bad as I thought. Then I went on to explain to her that things like milk, cheese, and even honey came from animals to which she proclaimed with her famous attitude, “Well, I know that already, Mom!”

Anyway, it was a good two weeks exploring this theme. Here are some more activities we did:

Playing with farm Animals

Watching our seeds grow.

Our Vocabulary Word from Charlotte’s Web on our brand new chalkboard wall!

Painting a green circle. Our shape and color of the week.

Painting a picture of a horse. Her favorite farm animal.

Petting goats at the Zoo.

Adoring the baby goat!

Sitting on a giant pig sculpture at the Zoo.

Riding a tractor like her grandpa!

The start of our garden. My first garden ever…so don’t laugh!

Planting herbs with grandma.

Planting herbs

Happy little gardener!

And that was the past two weeks. Next week: Bug Week. So far, I have NOTHING planned. We will see what we end up doing!

Getting Back on a Routine

The past few months of been hard for my family. There were a whole lot of big, crazy, insane things going on topped with even more tiny, crazy things. But…we survived, we made it through, and maybe we learned a thing or two along the way.

Last summer I spent numerous hours planning out fun weekly themes for teaching my kids. I am just jumping in blindly to this whole home school thing, but having things planned out and ready felt like the right thing for me. It didn’t happen quite as smoothly as I planned, but maybe it is still the right thing…maybe not. For now, I am just trying my best to get back on some sort of routine to see what works for us.

I only stuck to my plan a few short weeks before it all crumbled, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t any learning going on. Through all of this I turned to the one thing that has always been comforting for me and I shared it with my kids: READING. We read and read and read. I really feel like, if nothing else, you should always read to your kids. There is SO MUCH you can gain from reading.  There is the obvious: learning words, sounds, sentence structure, etc. But books are also sprinkled with facts about history, social studies, geography(provided the right books are chosen) and life lessons. Some of the very best discussions between my four year old daughter and I were sparked by something we read in a book. Not to mention that valuable time spent together, my son and daughter cuddled up in my lap as we read book after book.

Every week, we would make a trip to the library. We’d check out the entire limit of 30 books on my library card and then when that didn’t seem to be enough I got my daughter her very first library card and we checked out more. We would spend the next week reading every single one of them. Everything from picture books, board books, story books, educational books, Spanish books, ASL books, even chapter books. I have always read chapter books out loud to my kids here and there, but we really dove into it the past few months, devouring book after book. The Wizard of Oz, Because of Winn-Dixie, Charlotte’s Web, The Little House in the Big Woods, a few of  the Magic Tree House books, a couple of American Girl books…and that was just since Christmas!

And of course I fit in art projects, cooking projects and math projects when I could. Also, now my four year old has taken on a few chores: feeding the pets, cleaning her room, putting her laundry away, dusting , vacuuming and watering the plants. All valuable lessons, in my opinion.

So even though things didn’t go as planned, we learned a lot along the way. I, for one, learned to be a little more flexible. Now I know that things won’t always fit neatly into a week of themed activities. I still like the idea of doing themes and planning around those…but maybe it will take more than week due to unforeseen circumstances  OR maybe it will take a month because my daughter or son has a particular interest in one of the themes. We spent over a month completely immersed in dinosaurs and now my daughter is a tiny little expert on dinosaurs. But maybe…we will move on after a week or not even make it the whole week. Who knows. I’ve learned to just go with the flow, listen to their cues and see what happens.

As I am starting to get back on some semblance of a routine I’ve made a very loose (FLEXIBLE) plan.

First: I want to start everyday(or most days) with a Family Circle time:

This is something I use for our circle time. We will talk about the day, date, weather, letter (it says Letter of The Day…but it has turned out to be more of a Letter of the Week for us), Rhymes, color, shape, number and Word Family. Then we sing songs, play games, etc…depending on how interested they are. It lasts anywhere from 10-30 minutes and I think it’s a good way to start the day. If they are really interested, I keep doing activities, if not…I stop. No big deal.

We will also have a larger theme, the past two weeks it was Farming/Gardening. Then I will try to find projects and activities around the theme. But, like I said, I am being flexible, if they aren’t interested in doing a project or I just am simply too busy. no big deal.

Another thing I have been working on is teaching my daughter how to read. She has a list of sight words we add to when I feel she has mastered them. I think we up to about 25 now. We also have been working on phonics, word families and I checked out this awesome set from the library:

 

BOB books. Inside each box is a set of twelve books. This is set 1 for ages 4 and up. Each book is very simple with very few words and most of the words repeat throughout the book. My daughter picked up on it very quickly and can now read almost all of the books in this set with little to no help!

I wasn’t sure how to approach teaching her how to read but when she started showing interest we just kind of jumped into it, it must be working because suddenly…she is reading! It was like magic!

So that is what I have been up to the past few months and here are my goals for summer:

1. Get on some sort of routine. ( I think I have to have some sort of plan for this to work, even if it is extremely flexible)
2. Work a little more on integrating other subjects into our activities. I am excellent at doing reading and art because those are my favorites, but I need to work on math, especially.
3. Cut back on TV. We usually watch less than two hours a day, but I think I want to cut it back to even less. Maybe only once or twice a week. I like the idea of watching a documentary based on our themes on Fridays and maybe a fun family movie night on Saturdays.
4. Get more involved in the Home school Play Group I joined.
5. Explore classes/activities for my kids to be in next Fall. My son may be slightly too young for most classes, but I really want my daughter to get involved in at least one thing. Dance? Girl Scouts? Gymnastics? Yoga? Art? Music? I’m not sure what yet…

So follow along as I (hopefully) get on a good routine and figure out what I’m doing. Maybe today…or within the next few days I will be posting another blog on the past two weeks theme: Farming/ Gardening. I’ll post the link here when it’s finished!

Team JaNae

In September, my mother was diagnosed with Stage IV Ovarian Cancer. It’s been a rough few months for my family but with a lot of love, perseverance, strength and luck we have gotten through the hospital visits, chemo and healing standing right beside her the whole way.

I am writing today to ask if you’ll join me for a great cause. I will be participating in the 2013 Spring Fling Diva Dash 5K & 10K Run benefiting Minnesota Ovarian Cancer Alliance on April 28, 2013. I invite you to participate with me and help raise money for a cause that is close to my heart.

Minnesota Ovarian Cancer Alliance has awarded $4 million dollars in the last 13 years to 44 ovarian cancer research projects aimed at early detection, better treatment and a cure for ovarian cancer. This support has given women across the state and country, access to cutting edge treatments developed right here in Minnesota.

If you are unable to join me at the event, I encourage you to make a donation to my fundraising page. You not only help us raise money for research, outreach and awareness programs, you also are spreading the word about the signs and symptoms of ovarian cancer.

KNOW THE SYMPTOMS OF OVARIAN CANCER

•Bloating

•Pelvic or abdominal pain

•Difficulty eating or feeling full quickly

•Urinary symptoms (urgency or frequency)

TAKE ACTION if any symptoms occur almost daily for more than a few weeks. Experts suggest a combination pelvic/rectal exam, a transvaginal ultrasound, and a CA125 blood test.

If ovarian cancer is suspected, consult a gynecologic oncologist.

For more information contact 612-822-0500 or visit http://www.mnovarian.org

Thank you!

Your gift is tax deductible to the extent allowed by the law. Minnesota Ovarian Cancer Alliance is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.

Click This picture to go to my donation page!