18th December, 2009
The Gingerbread Man and the Letter Kk (and one final Letter Mm)
Merry Christmas! We had such a busy week of lifeschool! We had not one, not two, but three playgroups this week. As always, I enjoyed meeting with my MOPS group, Wednesday was co-op, and Thursday we got together with a bunch of friends a a local inflatable indoor jump place. As always, we squeezed some school into Friday. Today will be our last post for a while. We’re taking the holidays off, and I have a date scheduled for little Spud to be born- Jan 13th at 2pm. I hope to squeeze in 2 IBB Units for the months of January and February. Maybe for the rest of the school year. IBB is designed to be year around, so we can pick and choose what we want to do. My goal is to work our way through the alphabet. We’re not quite halfway yet. Of course, we needn’t finish what we started, but we are working on an alpha book, and we’re into a nice routine. Starting in September, I’m thinking about bumping Tater to the kindergarten from My Father’s World, and continuing to do IBB, but using the curriculum designed for younger students for Cheezer with Tater joining us. But, that’s a long time off- and with a larger family!
This week we looked at IBB’s unit on The Gingerbread Man.
But first, we had to finish our M collage. I settled on doing money. I found a great printable from moneyinstructor.com. You do have to create an account to print the worksheets. Tater cut the money and glued it to her collage.
Before changing into our day clothes, we put on paint clothes and painted some great gingerbread paper mache boxes I got at Michael’s for 50 cents.
For the letter K- we did kisses. Tater wanted no part of the lipstick, but Cheezer was game, so monkey see- monkey do.
Hey Cheezer, you have lipstick on your teeth!
Cheezer- with a little help from Tater, colors our letter K clipart:
During Cheezer’s naptime, Tater made a gingerbread tree. I have not inherited my mother’s sewing or cooking abilities. Sadly to say- I did the ugly stuff with the bag decorator.
She’s getting pretty good at using a mixer. I made a mental note today to look into home ec programs for when she’s a little older.
Tater icing cookies:
Finished tree:
Back to our gingerbread men:
Yay!
And one last photo of Cheezer getting her tot school on:
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Happy New Year!
To see what other preschoolers did, please visit Homeschool Creations:
To check on other Tot Schoolers- visit Tot School.
Posted at 9:34 pm | Comments (7)
5th December, 2009
Cooking it up- Tot School
Shew wee. It’s been a rough week. The trip from Alabama to Virginia was a hard one for me to recover from, and well, I still haven’t. I have loads of laundry everywhere, and I’m still not all the way unpacked. It’ll happen- or not.
Cheezer had a slow Tot School week. She made a gift for a gift exchange in which we participated over at There’s No Place Like Home Homeschooling Board. Honestly, Tater did the bulk of the work, but Cheezer was really pleased with herself and would give a quick “Yay!” with ever sticker placed. (For those interested, we made our own version of this ABC fishing game over at First Palette).
This week we went to a Kid’s Cookie Party in which a table full of 3 year old’s (and Cheezer) attempted to make cookies.
I am amazed at little things she’s picked up by watching Tater do preschool. She “counts” to three and can do a few of her ABC’s. It’s nothing I’ve ever tried to teach her. I caught her playing with her shape sorter today. I’d gotten it out in an attempt to play with her for a few minutes, but she had more important things to do. However, she is always involved in Tater’s “school”. She went through several letters on Starfall.com today. There’s no telling her that she isn’t a “big kid”.
Posted at 12:59 am | Comments (4)
30th November, 2009
Turkey Tot School
If you read our preschool posts, you’ll already know that we missed a week. My Paw Paw died on the 16th, and we cut our school week in order to participate in our normal activities, pack, and prepare for the week. Cheezer helped Tater with a lot of her activities this week, but she did manage to do some fine motor skills with tongs. I’ve been looking for affordable tongs for ages- and finally found these little disposable ones at Wemgmans.
She helped Tater glue noodles to her Letter Nn collage:
She also colored some turkeys:
She made handprint turkeys with daddy. She wasn’t overly cooperative with having her hands painted, and it took us two tries- on two different days- to get two sets. She was more than happy to give Daddy some pointers on the placement of feet.
She was mainly uncooperative at our family portrait session.
But she did manage to put on a smile for her Cousin D’s first birthday party. Cheezer is exactly 10 months older than 10. They are exactly the same height, and D has more hair!
To see what other tots learned this Thanksgiving, visit Tot School.
Be sure to see what Tater did this week during preschool
Posted at 7:20 pm | Comments (2)
13th November, 2009
Play With Your Food- Tot School
So, I’m taking the plunge and switching Tater from Tot School to Preschool. I’m also going to have to do a better job of doing activities for and photographing Cheezer so we can do Tot School posts for her. If I thought I had the time, I’d do the Bailey Curriculum from IBB with her.
This week we dyed rice. Cheezer worked on fine motor skills by pouring and producing general mayhem with the rice.
She helped us fill ziploc bags with rice so that we could color them.
She helped Tater complete her rainbow rice collage for the letter Rr.
Then Tater helped her with more mayhem.
She read Hush! A Thai Lullaby
Daddy did take advantage of the great weather early in the week to take her to the park. Cheezer LOVES to swing.
Posted at 10:57 pm | Comments (2)
13th October, 2009
Will You Be My Friend?
This week everything came from Itty Bitty Bookworm. Each month focuses on three letters- one for each week, and then a review week. We’re lagging a little behind, still doing lesson plans from September. We love them so much, I can’t just skip them! It was so nice just to print everything out and prepare, and go. I did use contact paper on some of the IBB activities so that Tater could get more enjoyment out of the games. I did get the $ for a laminator for my birthday- but I spent it on Pampered Chef instead. For now- the contact paper will do.
We reviewed L, F, and E with this cute little mouse-cheese match game. It coordinated wonderfully with the book for this week, Eric Carle’s Will You Be My Friend.
IBB also included a cute color match game. I covered this in contact paper also. Tater loved it and asked for it several times this week.
Tater loves to read her books all on her own. She spends most of the week memorizing the words and typically knows it by heart at the end of the week. This was a nice change for her, since the book allows for ad-libbing- she loved it.
We used these animal cards from IBB to make our own head/tails matching card. After the were color, cut, and covered in contact paper, she even took the opportunity to put the animals in the correct place in the book.
And as always- for our weekly Cheezer picture:
Tater made a snake out of a paper plate. She’s an expert at using glue now- without making a huge mess.
It isn’t a week without a cooking project. This week, as it often is, they requested muffins. Tater loves showing her little sister the ropes.
I have been looking for a Memory type game for a while now. I don’t want anything character based, and it seems that Dora and Blues Clues have cornered the market on kid games. When I saw this set on sale at my Wegmans, I snatched them up- and they were a huge hit. We can even talk about “healthy food” vs “junk food”. Perfect.
I also picked up this Eric Carle card alpha letter match. It took her quite some time, but she got through it. It was perfect that this week we did an Eric Carle book this week.
We had a break from swimming lessons this week, but we did have two playgroups- one from MOPS, and one from our co-op. She loves both, so much so that I do have a little guilt that I don’t “let” her go to school, but she is learning SO much at home. The one on one hands on she gets from home can’t compare to the “socialization” she’d get from preschool.
Posted at 10:58 pm | Comments (5)
3rd October, 2009
Sept 21- Sept 25th
What’s it called? Life school. We got very little “school” done despite the fact that Tater constantly asked for it. I did manage to sneak a few worksheets and printables in to make it feel like we did some school, but we didn’t get to any of the plans I had made using Itty Bitty Bookworm.
On Monday: We went on a playdate with our new MOPS group. We had a lot of fun. Afterwards I came home and worked on laundry. While I focused on it, Tater cut her hair. Yay. She didn’t do such a bad job, so Tuesday- we went off to fix it.
I actually like it better now that it’s cut. I had wanted to cut it for a while, but Daddy was allergic to the idea.
Wednesday was another busy day. We had our first co-op playgroup meeting. Then we went to do one of Ada’s favorite activities- feeding the ducks!
We came home for lunch and naps, and then went to get flu shots. Of course, shots are followed up with ice cream!
and flower pickin’:
On Thursday we got out the printables, and some of the booklets included in IBB. I am so proud that Tater can write her name. So is she :
Posted at 12:55 am | Comments (2)
18th September, 2009
Silly Sally and the Letter Ff
I’m learning a lot about the realities of being a homeschooling mom. Firstly, my expectations have been a little high of what we can complete in one week. Instead of trying to work everything it, I ditched some of my plans- and felt good doing it! We still got a lot done this week. Besides our science experiment below, we did have fun this week. We read Silly Sally. This has been a favorite of Tater’s for some time, and we enjoyed doing this unit on it. It was a wonderful book to introduce the term “setting”. We used the illustrations to make predictions of what might come next. We discussed where each animal lived- or was- in the story. At the end, I asked Tater were she lived. She colored a house and drew who lived in it.
We talked about the Letter F. I asked Tater to think of some words that started with the F sound. We came up with: flowers, fish, feet, feathers, and family.
Additionally, she glued feathers to her letter “F” template.
Tater and her calendar:
Tuesday was our first day of MOPS. She had great fun and thought she was going to school. That evening we went to swimming lessons again.
Wednesday I tried to finish the lesson plan I had to complete in order to lead my Small Group on Thursday night. Tater decided since Mama was working, she needed to work too, so out the worksheets came.
Cheezer tickled me. I got out her shape shorter, and she cheated!
With some coaching, and some whining, she did eventually, do it correctly.
Thursday was our busiest day in a long while. As soon as Daddy left to go to work, we piled up in the van and headed to our pediatric dentist. He is an hour and a half away. We’ve been worried about Tater’s teeth for some time now. She was a 10 week preemie and had large doses of antibiotics at birth due to an infection I had, and then two weeks from an infection her sister had. We were told at the time that she was at risk for her having bad teeth. She was a year old the first time she went to the dentist. She went again at 18 months and then at 2 years. She missed her 2.5 year appointment because we had no dental insurance. We’ve recently gotten it again, I took her in, knowing that her back tooth was going to need filling. I wasn’t prepared for the fact that she will need 5 fillings. I feel like a horrible parent, but in our defense, we do limit candy and brush her teeth. She gets a little too much juice, but we aren’t reckless with her dental care. She did so well at the dentist. I was so proud. But doesn’t she look so tiny just sitting there?
Clean teeth:
We fought traffic on the way home and ended up being a little late to our swimming lessons, but missing it totally- just isn’t an option. Afterwards, we rushed to where my small group meets. By time we made it home, we were beat. I did take the time to pack some worksheets and things she could do if she wanted, but we never had the time.
Today I went through our lesson plans and decided what to ditch and what to teach. We read Silly Sally again. Actually, Tater read it. I recorded it with my phone, and if Daddy can figure out how to upload it, I’ll share. We sequenced the story using sentencing strips, and the illustrations provided in the IBB kit.
We made flowers to replace the ones I’d planned to throw away from our science experiment(see post below). Tater wanted to keep them, so we ended up hanging them up to dry.
We also discussed size using three different sized houses provided in the IBB kit. Tater colored them, cut them, and glued them- in order- to a sentence strip.
So, although we didn’t get everything done that I planned to get done, I’m still learning about the reality of what can be done. Next week- we plan to do even less. In addition to swimming lessons on Tuesday and Thursday, we have our first playdate with MOPS and I’ve joined a co-op that meets on Wednesday mornings.
The only activity we did from Hubbard’s Cupboard was discussing the fall of man. We could’ve made it work with our study of the letter F- since technically, the Bible said it was fruit, and not an apple that they ate when they disobeyed God. We used the opportunity to talk about our house rules, and what rules we practice for our safety, and the consequences of breaking the rules. We just didn’t have the opportunity to work anything else from HC into our studies this week, since it all focused on the apple.
Next week we will be doing the unit My Friends from IBB and Noah’s Ark from Hubbard’s Cupboard.
Posted at 8:23 pm | Comments (5)
18th September, 2009
Science experiement conclusion
The flowers didn’t change as much as I thought they would. Next time, I think we’ll use carnations- as called for. We did make an interesting observation. We described each flower, and which seemed to have changed the most. When lining up the flowers from most changed to least changed, we noticed that the shortest of the stems had changed the most. We haven’t enough information to make a definite conclusion, but it is an interesting result. We’ll look forward to doing this again in the future.
Posted at 7:37 pm | Comment (1)
14th September, 2009
Our first science experiment
This was a suggestion in the IBB curriculum for the week to go along with our unit on Silly Sally (and the letter F- F is for Flower!)
Supplies- check
Cheezing Tot in Flowery Dress- Check
Add food coloring:
Describe, count, discuss:
Add flowers:
The red flower after just 4 hours.
Posted at 7:35 pm | Comments (3)
13th September, 2009
Creation/ I Like Me Wrap-up, Letter Ll
Tater is 40 months old Cheezer is 19 months old.
I think next year, we’ll start preschool after the Labor Day holiday. Daddy was home on Monday- so naturally- we took the day off. Tater has battled a sinus infection all week. She’s very good about saline drops and having her nose suctioned, but when she woke on Thursday, her breath was so bad that we went to the pediatrician. I told him just to get a whiff of her breath, he did and agreed. We got our prescription filled and she’s 100 % better. Forgive the cream on her nose in the pictures. We were originally scheduled to have our portraits done on Tuesday- but there was no way with the skin breakdown on her lip and nose.
We started swimming lessons again on Tuesday. She’ll go twice a week on Tuesday and Thursday. I had a moment of pride I had to really fight off when another parent in the class couldn’t believe she was just three. She asked if we had considered the swimming team for her- which we have, but not until she’s five. The summer swim team is open to children starting at age 5. This mom had all of her children in swim team, and now her four year old was in Tater’s class. Apparently they do allow children as young as four in who have the ability and potential. She’s a natural swimmer. She gets that from her Daddy. I play in the water; he swims and dives and strokes and does all that other stuff. I can’t even hold my breath under water. The temptation to be a parent that pushes my kid won’t be hard for me to ward off. She’ll join swim team when she asks to join the swim team. I can’t imagine that she’ll be asking by May, or that she will even know what the swim team is.
On Wednesday we finished up our study on Creation. This artwork has really helped her recall, and she goes to it often when she wants to talk about it.
We finished up our work from Itty Bitty Bookworm. We created an “I like me” booklet for tater”, and another booklet about the letter L.
As much as I don’t like worksheets- she likes them, and when she wants to “do school” Daddy can pull them out and do them with her- as long as I have them pre-prepared. Since I sunk the money into the Christian Liberty Preschool books, I ripped all the pages out related to the letter L and the color red and stuffed them in a folder. We ended up doing them in the waiting room at the pediatricians office. In the examining room, she laid on the floor and the Dr had to wait while she finished up.
I went to a consignment sale on Friday and picked up a Supegirl costume that she’s worn most of the time since then. I also picked up this Melissa and Doug puzzle- which I have had my eye on for some time, some lacing cards, and a Blue’s Clues Memory game. She took a break from getting her hair curled for her rescheduled portrait sitting to play with it. We don’t watch Blue’s Clues, but she really enjoyed matching the cards, even if we didn’t play the traditional way.
Thanks to the Letter Factory DVD- Tater knows her phonics, but she occasionally misses one when we do letter recognition. I can ask her what the letters say- in any order, and she is always correct, but when I ask her “what letter says …” she struggles with it. When we talk about words, and I ask her what letter the word starts with, her answer is phonetical- which I believe is acceptable. It shows that she can isolate the sound. Once we get all the skills working together, I’m not sure what I’ll do. I have to admit I don’t know where to go from here. I have Get Ready, Get Set, and Go – I guess the primers for Explode the Code, but I hadn’t planned on working with them any time soon. I believe the correct path for us to take would just be more of the same- really permanently lay the phonetical foundation before moving onto “reading”. I have my eyes on some Leap Frog Toys- like the World Builder- that Santa will probably bring. I’m also thinking of getting Tater the Tag reading system- complete with the Learn to Read books, and Cheezer the new Tag Jr. If Tater shows an interest, great, we’ll move forward, if not, we’ll wait until she’s ready. I’m kind of confused about how the phonics system from Leap Frog works. There seems to be a lot of stuff to go along with it- that I didn’t think was necessary at all- until someone on a homeschooling board suggested the Letter Factory DVD. I still don’t think investing in interactive educational toys is necessary as the core of learning, but obviously, to supplement learning, it works great. Tater loves words because she’s read to every day. She can’t wait to learn to read, and once she does learn, I’ll have more time on my hands. Right?
Posted at 8:28 pm | Comments (4)
