My Quivers Full

Nov. 13, 2009 - School Update October & November

It seems I am updating about twice a "semester", even though we don't do semesters around here. I'd love to update more, but this type of post takes a while, and I just don't have the time :( Here's a quick update on what we've done over the past couple of months.

Reading:

Both boys have finally made it through that blasted Level 4!!! It took us, I don't know, nine or ten months. I'm not absolutely sure without looking it up. It is considered the whopper of the system and we're SO glad we're past it! Both boys are early in Level 5 and concentrating on Suffixes & Prefixes. Their reading is going very well. Now we just need to get their speed up, and we'll be feeling fine!

Math:

Big Man (9): Still doing well in the Delta book of Math U See (division) He's also learned things like finding the average of a list of numbers, and how to find the area of any number of shapes. Some of them I don't ever remember learning. Maybe I did.....but it sure seemed new to me!

Little Monkey (7): Cruising right along in his 3rd grade Abeka book. Abeka drops multiplication and drills division for a good long time. They come back to the more advanced multiplication later this year. Why they set it up like that, I don't know, but Little Monkey is still doing well so we're not going to rock the boat!!

Grammar:

Both boys are still doing alright. Big Man still has a lot of diagramming to do *yuk*, but it's all stuff he had last year so far. So far, so good. Also, he seems more solid this year on the definitions of the parts of speech. Check that, some definitions. He still struggles to remember a few of them, but he is doing better than a few months ago. Little Monkey says he likes grammar..........."because it's the shortest thing I do all day." Gotta love him.

Handwriting:

Big Man: Has finished all of the lower case cursive alphabet, and seems to be doing pretty well with it. He's now started learning upper case. He really likes cursive, and I like that there aren't any reversals Typing is also going well, he's up to a whopping 7 words a minute. I probably should make him do this every day, but I don't.

Little Monkey: Well, after a little more than 3 years, I think he has the print alphabet down as well as he can do it. Stinkin' dysgraphia. Anyway, to his utter delight, I've moved Little Monkey on to cursive. He has learned lower case "a" and "b' so far. It's cute how he's always leaning over trying to peek at Big Mans paper to see how to form an upper case letter. We'll see how this goes. He could be on cursive for a very, very long time!

History:

Um, we've done a ton of history things since my last update. I'll just hit the highlights:

Learned about Helen Keller. Watched The Miracle Worker, learned some sign language, & tried doing an obstacle course blindfolded & no auditory help.
Learned about the invention of the car & airplane: Henry Ford & the Wright Brothers. They had a great time building paper airplanes with Daddy & seeing which folds would make the plane fly farther.
Had a "Great Disasters" week: the 1906 San Francisco earthquake & the Titanic. Our trip to Tennessee came in handy here. I knew the Titanic was coming up, so I made sure we spent some time at the Titanic exhibit at the Wonderworks museum. "How long can you keep your hand in freezing water" was the exhibit. The water was the same temp. as the water the Titanic was in when it sank. Big Man made it the longest, keeping his hand in for a mammoth 19 seconds. For the earthquake, we watched a great documentary then built different types of homes: graham cracker, lincoln log, & lego. Then we made an earthquake and saw which ones withstood the shaking the best.
World War I. Mostly they enjoyed looking through the different books with pictures of items/daily life. We learned about trench warfare, and daily life of the soldiers. War Game was our favorite book from this week.
The Roaring Twenties, Charles Lindberg, Walt Disney, 20's & 30's entertainment, the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl. This was not all in one week, of course, but over a few weeks. They seemed to really enjoy this time period, and we did a bunch with it. They especially liked learning about what people did for entertainment during this period. I've listed some of it in the Art update below, but besides that we also listed to the original broadcast of The War of the Worlds. They were just about as fascinated as I was watching the documentary: American Experience: Surviving the Dust Bowl. This is an outstanding show, highly recommend it if you don't know much about this time. The Great Depression also sparked quite a bit of interest. I spent way too much time on this, but I created a file folder game called How Depressing! They seemed to love it, and it really sneaked in a number of skills like cementing depression-era facts, math, and budgeting. I set it up kind of like PayDay, but with Depression twists, like You're Fired! spots, Winter Comes: do you have money for winter coats?, and such. Here's a picture:

I will change this when we play it again. They had no idea how much food to buy to last their family a week, so I think I'll make pre-made grocery cards and they'll choose from that. It was funny while we were playing to see how they were thinking, seeing as they were the husbands during the game. Big Man bought everyone in his family a coat except himself "because you have to take care of your kids and your wife", while Little Monkey didn't buy anyone a coat "because it would cost too much of my money"! The little miser.

Science:

We're plugging right along with science. We've learned about potential vs. kinetic energy, Newton's 3 laws of motion, and the energy of atoms and molecules. We've done experiments along the way with each thing. Now that we've moved into learning about electricity, they have more interst and can see the applications of these things they've been learning. The next few weeks will be fun as we begin to do some things to show how to move the electricity, make solar machines, etc.

Art:

I've fallen off the wagon when it comes to studying certain artists every month. We made it through Degas and Cezzane with a little Monet thrown in ;) I'll get back to it eventually, I've been sidetracked working them through a little of Drawing With Children. I know tons of homeschoolers love this book, but I'm not its biggest fan. I do like how it shows you the 5 elements of shapes, and what you can do with that information once you've practiced it a bit. What I don't like is the lack of any type of schedule or guidance through the chapters. Would it kill them to give me a few examples of warm up exercises I could make copies of? About how long am I supposed to stay on one concept as opposed to another? I don't know and I'm not proficient enough in the art department to feel like I can wing it. This is why I decided this summer I would combine Drawing With Children with the Artistic Pursuits book we already owned. I have liked the variety of learning about Artists Using Shapes (Artistic Pursuits), then working with the 5 elements of shape (Drawing With Children). It's just been more work for me than I'm used to doing for art thus far. I'm getting the hang of it a little bit at a time, and the kids seem to be enjoying it. Also, we were able to apply it to some history lessons:

Combining art and history. We've been learning about the twenties & thirties. One week we focused on the entertainment of the decade with Walt Disney and the first cartoons with sound. We made little flip books of a ball bouncing, then we took the skills we've been learning during our art time and used the elements of shape to create Mickey Mouse. Big Man's (9) mouse is on the left, Little Monkey's (7) is in the middle, and mommys mouse is on the right :) We were quite pleased with ourselves. Peanut (4) was beside himself with excitement because Mickey Mouse rates right up there with Blues Clues. They had a much bigger respect for the amount of work that went into Steamboat Willie (which we watched on You Tube, along with some other very early Disney cartoons) after doing our projects.

P.E.:

A little P.E. time before we begin our day It looks like they are just standing there, but they are all mid-bounce.

There's enough P.E. going on around here I thought I should give a recap on that too! Both Big Man and Little Monkey continue to take Karate, although not seriously enough to test for a belt. Big Man has joined a swim team which he loves very much! He has practice three evenings a week, and one swim meet a month.

This is how he did at his first big competition:

Not the best picture, I know. He did really well, especially for a first-timer. Both ribbons were for team relays he was in. He placed 4th in both of the individual races he had. His coach says he has the best freestyle form on the team. Big Man was very, very proud of that. We're just glad he has found a sport he loves so much AND is good at!

One more week before our Thanksgiving break. Woo Hoo!! Boy am I ready for a "break". We're going to be outrageously busy cleaning (and cleaning out), filing, and planning for our holiday season. We are all looking forward to it SO much!

Nov. 13, 2009 - Tot School -- Week 13

or visit this weeks post HERE.

Life is busy, busy, but I'm trying to make time to update!! This week was the Letter K week. It's a letter in his name, so he already had it down. We still did a few fun things with it though.

Monday:

Flashlight Tag: A great visual tracking game. We sit in a dim room with flashlights. I shine it on a spot & he tries to make his flashlight beam touch mine. I slowly drag it away and he tries to make his beam "hold on" to mine. Then it's his turn to be the leader.
Cut Play Doh: I combined this with our speech homework time today. He cut a piece of playdoh and placed it on the correct answer to whatever direction I was giving him.
Key imprints in playdoh.....because this week we worked on the letter K :)
Visual discrimination sheet, printed from EyeCanLearn website

Pictures from Monday:

Showing off the Playdoh he cut.

Tuesday:

Handwriting Without Tears page
Kumon Sticker Book page
Sorting letters onto matching letter card
Jump Start computer game

Pictures from Tuesday:

We also use these cards for an M&M game. If he tells me the correct letter he gets an M&M. If he gets it wrong, mommy gets the M&M Chocolate has milk in it, and milk is good for you, so M&M's are a health food. Work with me, people!!

Wednesday:

Cutting paper with mommy (I was actually working on something else, but he kept busy snipping the extra scraps of paper)
Jump Start video game -- have I mentioned that he LOVES this game? Today he really just messed around on the game, making the music play or sending the little boy down the slide. I didn't really care. :)
Memory Game
Hi Ho Cherrio Game
Playing around with the Barton letter tiles. He was upset he was the only person who didn't get to "play with those things". Who am I to argue? We played around with the tiles for a while reviewing letters. Then he stood them up like dominoes and knocked them all down :)

Thursday:

Paint with Kool-Aid
Little Hands to Heaven -- letter K Hide and Seek page
Key and Kite grid game
Numbers puzzle

Pictures from Thursday:

A fun little grid game. This one had pictures of keys, we did another one with pictures of kites. Roll the dice and put that number of glass beads on the grid. Keep going until it's filled. Amazingly simple, shockingly appealing to him.

Painting with Kool-Aid paint. Let's just say we won't be doing this one again!! Once he realized this was really kool-aid he wouldn't keep his fingers out of it. It stains horribly, so he's now walking around with orange & purple fingers. At least he was in a dark shirt so if he dripped, it didn't show. (Oh, and purple kool-aid for some reason makes dark gray paint. Not the prettiest color to choose.)

Friday:

K stamps on letter K page
Kite craft
ABC-123 page
lots of outdoor time since it's a wonderfully beautiful day :)

Pictures from Friday:

He just had to hang his kite on our letter wall!

I always forget to mention that in addition to these things, we also have speech therapy homework, (which I try to do every day but one) and we play lots of games & read books. Next week we'll be on our way to the letter L. Almost halfway through the alphabet

No Chairs: Students Get "The Wiggles Out" on Exercise Balls

Nov. 3, 2009 - Why Would Boys Need Chairs?

Well duh is my reaction to this article:

And yet, there are still people that give me a wierd look when I tell them about letting Little Monkey do this:

Sometimes little boys just need to wiggle, even during math :)

Oct. 30, 2009 - Tot School -- Week 12

or visit this weeks post HERE.

I'm back in the swing of things...mostly. This week was much more on track than I have been, however I was still overly busy with some things that made our Tot-School time be cut back a little. If you were to ask Peanut (4) if he did his boxes some days this week, he would tell you no. What he didn't realize (insert sneaky giggling here) was that some of the "games" he was playing with mommy were his boxes for that day. One thing I wasn't good about this week was pictures. I only have a very few (sorry grandmas!)

Monday:

Button practice with felt pieces. *Woo Hoo! He was able to do these without much of a problem. This is a HUGE step forward for him*
J letter page: J is for Jellyfish
ABC-123 page
Book on Tape

Pictures from Monday:

He loved this one so much. He had to tape it to our letter wall right away.

Tuesday:

Handwriting Without Tears page & sand letter J
Kumon Sticker Book page
Math U See page
Jump Start video game

Wednesday:

Letter jump game (where I hold up a sand letter & he jumps on the matching letter that is taped to the floor)
Cutting page (not as good he has been...we need to do more of this)
Make a jellyfish (with clear contact paper, glitter, & yarn for tentacles) I forgot to take a picture once it was finished. Bad mommy!! We are hanging it in his bedroom window to catch the sunlight :)

Pictures from Wednesday:

He's loving the glitter here! We had to shake a *little* glitter off to get the contact paper to stick

Thursday:

Vision therapy website Eye Can Learn Explanation is toward the end of this post.
Buttons: putting a giant stuffed Pooh into a doctor dress up coat with simple buttons (this was harder than the other buttons he's worked with)
Letter Bingo (with Daddy)
Hit the Ball game -- I didn't know what to call this one. Just call me creative.

Pictures from Thursday:

Yes, that's a dog toy. I have it hanging from a string. He has a Nerf Sword. I was gently swinging it and he had to hit it with the sword. It's a visual coordination builder. Hard to take a picture while doing this, though!

Friday:

Kumon coloring page
Handwriting Without Tears page
Vision Therapy website Eye Can Learn (doing something different today)
Developing the Early Learner page....kind of

Developing the Early Learner is a workbook put out by Sonlight. It works on some visual skills we're trying to develop in Peanut. Unfortunately, it's all in black and white. Peanut has really bad visual discrimination when it comes to black and white drawings. So, I took the general idea from the workbook (which picture would go with the first picture: i.e. picture of a match. which would go with a match, a campfire or a forest) and I used pictures from the internet (thank you again Google!) to piece together my own worksheet. He did quite well. If you did the same thing, but with black and white pictures, he wouldn't have any idea what any of the pictures were supposed to be.

Why is a Vision Therapy website now being included in our days? Well, welcome to this weeks rant! We found out last weekend that we have gone over the allowable number of therapy visits for 2009. Since we can't afford a couple of thousand dollars per week, Occupational Therapy had to be stopped immediately. Since O.T. was also supposed to be doing some eye exercises in hopes of avoiding all out vision therapy, I'm frantically searching for things to do at home. I don't feel very comfortable with this, since I know nothing about vision therapy. The sensory therapy I am comfortable doing at home since we've gone through this before with Little Monkey (7). I just need to make sure I am consistent about putting together weekly plans. My at home O.T. things we've done thus far have been under the direction of our therapist, but I don't get that luxury now! I'm scouring the websites I know about as well as the books I have to put together things to keep Peanut moving forward with his sensory problems.

As far as vision things, I've found a couple of resources I'm excited about. One is the Eye Can Learn website. It has a few things that I know Peanut needs help with, and you do it right online. It's very neat, and even the older boys have tried their hand at some things. No one wants to be left out if there's fun to be had! The other resource I'm looking at is a book from Amazon. Developing Ocular Motor and Visual Perception Skills is a workbook written for O.T.'s, etc. to help them put together treatment activities for children with certain diagnosed vision problems. This is EXACTLY what I was looking for! However, with a $43 price tag and us with a multi-thousand dollar payment coming up (thank you insurance for going a month before letting us know we were out of covered visits!), I have to wait on this book until I have a couple of Amazon gift certificates. I'm chomping at the bit to get this book, but I know we're close to getting a couple of those gift certificates. I'm trying my very best to be patient!

Lastly, the younger boys wanted everyone to see their pumpkins:

Big Man has decided he's just about too old for Halloween. I have a suspicion that it's the influence of his best friend (whose family doesn't go Trick-or-Treating). He is going out for candy this year, but has announced a few times this week that it is his last year. We'll start the night at a party given by someone at church, then go hunting for some candy, then we may just end up back at the party :) I'll be glad when Halloween is done, I can't keep myself out of those Kit Kat bars I've got in the top of my closet!

Oct. 22, 2009 - Tot School -- Week 9, 10, and 11!

or visit this weeks post HERE.

I've been bad, bad, bad about keeping up with Tot School these last couple of weeks. Our whole family has been down with a wicked case of Cooties. Sick the week before our trip, sick for two weeks (and counting) after our trip. At least we weren't sick the week of our vacation! This is going to be one looooong winter if this keeps up! Because of this, I haven't really been good about keeping track of our Tot School times either Anyone who knows me well knows that this has the potential to send me into a tizzy. I am a slightly-obsessive record keeper. Do the papers get filed weekly? *snort* NO! But my planning binder where I keep the records of what we've done on a daily basis is always up to date....except a couple of places in Peanuts section now. Instead of a comprehensive list like I usually do, I'm going to give a fairly quick round up of our last few weeks.

His very, very, very favorite new thing? I don't have a picture of it, but Jump Start Preschool--Advanced is his newest love. My darling hubby and I had talked about finding a computer game that would supplement Peanuts learning. He very much enjoys computer games, but our old educational games won't work on the computer we had to get earlier this year. He. Loves. This. Game!! It reinforces his shapes, colors, numbers, letters, sequencing, etc. He eagerly sits down to play this, even when he's not in the mood to sit and do a Tot Box. I've made it a reward he gets to do after doing a couple of boxes with mommy.

Big news for us around here: we've officially filled up the first row of our alphabet wall;That's A - G, and what isn't pictured is our additions of H and I. He's really doing great with his letters lately. H was a letter he was already very solid on, so we worked on the sound for it as well. I'm excited to report that he seems pretty solid on all of the letters we've covered so far. He still has days (or moments) when he forgets a letter I think he knows well, but those moments are becoming fewer

The reason I use a tray for some of our crafts:Oh yes I did. That's glitter people. Green paint and gold glitter on our letter G. Some of it even landed on the letter:

I think he enjoyed himself. Surprise, surprise, Big Man sneaks in to "help". Just get it on the tray, boy!

He loved gluing the foam hearts onto his letter page. He really got into doing the breathy H sound while smashing the heart on the paper.

We tried out a couple of new file folder games. The one above is a math game with fall leaves. The picture below is what I've dubbed the "Owl Alphabet" game. He very much enjoys it when I put the owl letters in a paper bag and he has to pick one, say the letter, then find the matching letter on the tree.

Again, you can print these games yourself with a free membership at the File Folder Fun website. If I had 24 straight hours of free time, I could get a whole bunch printed and made. Ahh, a girl can dream, right?

Also, every week we've been adding another letter to our tape letters on the floor. Below, we were playing a game where I held up our sand paper letters and he had to tell me what letter it was then run to the match:He decided he wanted to take the match with him and jump on it too. That was alright by me, it's one more way of getting in more sensory input.....this time with his feet!

We also spent some time doing math activities:

Other Alphabet activities:

And some O.T. activities:I was surprised how much more Peanut enjoys this toy now that he has a little more strength in his hands. I haven't brought it out in forever. I assumed he just didn't like it, but apparently it was just too tiring before!

Nuts and Bolts of varying sizes. Peanut enjoyed this, although the smallest ones were too much of a challenge for him.

Well, there you go. Hopefully now that things are beginning to get back to normal around here I'll get back to my more organized routine. Of course, the holidays are right around the corner.

Oct. 9, 2009 - Our Week Away

Last week was our first week off of the school year, so of course we took the opportunity to run away from home. We went to what has become our regular vacation hideaway these last few years, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Again, if you're visiting this area you really need to give Little Mountain Valley Resort a try! As usual, the cabin was spectacular, the ameneties of the resort were wonderful, and there wasn't a single time we regreted our trip.

Here are the obligatory pictures of our vacation:

Up early the first morning. Wish this picture wasn't so dark, it was lovely.

Didn't take many pictures inside the cabin this year, but the open loft with the pool table was the kids favorite hangout. There was even a small table with stools where you could eat a snack and watch the downstairs TV.

Peanut (4) rolling around on the couches.

This cabin had much more space for light saber fights than the cabin we stayed in last year!

View from our back picture window (same as the sunrise photo)

Going on a hike. Funny story about this. This trail was just outside our cabin. There was a picnic area off of it at one point. When we were checking in, the person at the front desk told us to watch for bears. It's fall and they're trying to fatten up for winter. Apparently, they've been chasing people away from the picnic area to get their food. Also, she recommended turning the lights out in our cabin & shining a flashlight into the woods if we wanted to see the bears at night. We tried....no one was out there :(

So, we're hiking on this trail, normal forest sounds going on.....until we're just past the picnic area. Then we hear a bigger sound that is decidedly not a squirrel! We didn't see any bears (the picnic area was up a small hill off the trail), but we certainly think we had visitors sniffing us out!

Playing some complimentary mini-golf.

Daddy and the kids also went fishing, but unfortunately this year I was too busy helping to take any pictures :(

Sun setting behind the mountain. Again, too dark, but you can see the "smoke" from the smoky mountains forming :)

And now for our out on the town pictures:

Big Man got to drive by himself for the first time in these go carts. The rest of us thought it was very, very fun. Not so much for him. He's extremely cautious, so I think it was more first time nerves more than anything else.

Little Monkey is very much NOT cautious, so he was disappointed he wasn't quite tall enough to drive himeself. Here, Daddy teamed up with him to be his driver. Next it was my turn with him. I thought he was hysterical, he gave running commentary the whole way (like we were racing NASCAR or something). Peanut wasn't even going to get near those things, so he just stayed with me watching from the overpass while I took these pictures.

Next was Ripleys Aquarium in Gatlinburg. We had never gone here before, but knowing how much our kids love aquariums, we couldn't pass it up! It was really great, very big for an aquarium with lots of neat things inside. If it weren't for my nagging migrane, I would have enjoyed the day as much as the kids! A fun moment for me was a Shark Myths & Facts presentation by one of the aquarium staff. She went over the top ten most asked questions & myths of sharks. My shark-loving boys knew almost every answer. The only one they missed was "What is the largest shark in the world?" If they had thought about it for a few seconds, they know it's the Whale Shark, but they both blurted out "Great White!" first before thinking. Thank you Newport Aquarium and many years of Shark Week, not to mention the constant shark books being read around here for their vast array of shark knowledge.

There were a few things there that we love about the Aquarium we usually visit (Newport) that this one didn't have, but Ripleys does have a bigger shark tank with tunnels to go through. One thing this aquarium has that Newport does not? A moving sidewalk to take you through the shark tunnels. My kids saw things from a slightly different perspective than most:

Good thing this place was virtually empty while we were there!

Peanut just HAD to get his picture taken on this pumpkin outside the aquarium.

On our last full day, we visited the very, very fun Wonderworks where you can surround yourself in a giant bubble:

Peanut gives it a try.

Little Monkey has to have his picture taken in the space suit as always...

as does Peanut.

This year Big Man is eager to try the rock wall..

as is Little Monkey.

My guys acting goofy. This is a fun wall where it flashes a really bright light and "freezes" a picture of your shadow on the wall.

Last moments in the cabin, need to take a family shot! Daddy, Big Man (9), Little Monkey (7), and Peanut (4).

My darling husband decided I need to come out from behind the camera for once.

Throwing the last of our fruit out for the forest animals small ....... and big, black, and furry!

Ahh, another vacation done. Why do they seem to speed by so fast?

Oct. 7, 2009 - Hug a Dyslexic Today!

October is Dyslexia Awareness Month. Huh, who knew? The International Dyslexia Association hosts free events for parents and educators of dyslexics during this month. Go to the IDA website www.interdys.org and find your local branch to see what they are offering. They may not have their events posted, but you can contact the branch either by email or phone for their list of events.

Now, go hug a dyslexic.....or their parent

Sep. 25, 2009 - Tot School -- Week 8

or go to this weeks post HERE.

Alrighty, it's the last week before our break and most of us have been down with a little bug. My husband would like to thank all of those people who have been coming into work sick. It was just a matter of time before he got it, then passed it on to the rest of us. We've plowed on with most of our school work, although on my worst day, we skipped Tot School. Here's this weeks wrap up:

Monday:

Cutting page "Mowing the Grass"
How to build an A blocks, focusing on letter E & F (We made this a "magic trick -- first he built an E, then we magically turned it into an F by taking the bottom piece away. He loved it! We did the same thing up on the white board using dry erase markers)
Handwriting Without Tears page
Putting puff balls into a jar using tongs
Number puzzle

Pictures from Monday:

Wow he's really improved with scissors! He was able to "mow the grass" pretty accurately. He was very proud of himself.

This was a nice change of pace for him than sorting by color or something. Once he got them all in, he spent a good bit of time walking around shaking it. Thankfully, those puff balls are almost completely silent! :)

Tuesday: Mommy's just not up for this today!!

Wednesday:

sticking feathers in Playdoh
Rhyme puzzle
Perfection game (travel size)
Handwriting Without Tears page

Pictures from Wednesday:

He sure liked "decorating" the playdoh!

This was a great find at the grocery store! It's a pack of rhyming puzzle pieces. He had to match up the two words that rhymed (like box / fox). Only the pieces that rhyme will fit together. He needs a lot of work on this, it's the one game on Earobics he just can't get past the first level. It doesn't surprise me at all, I knew he couldn't rhyme. He really enjoyed these (I only gave him five for this first time), so hopefully they will help him improve.

Oh. My. Goodness. This was the big hit of the week. This is a little travel edition of the old game Perfection. You know, set the timer & try to get all of the shapes in before they pop. We didn't set the timer, just let him work at getting the shapes in their proper position. He did this.....I don't know how many times. Once he got all of the shapes in we set the timer to pop them. I thought he might get to frustrated with this, but it kept him interested and succeeding just enough to keep going. It's a great visual-spatial and visual-perception toy. I'm going to have to bring this one out often!! The down side: once he plays with it everyone wants turns doing it! It tends to stall our school day, but really it's worth it!

Thursday:

Playdoh
Fish & Frog foam stickers on letter F page
ABC-123 page
Kumon folding page
make a Rainbow Fish (this goes along with reading the Rainbow Fish book) He really enjoyed the book, not so much the craft. He glued four little aluminum foil pieces to his fish and was done.

Pictures from Thursday:

He really enjoyed this, however the little foam stickers were too sticky!! I took off the little paper pieces on the back (because he would never be able to get that off!) and stuck them on a plastic page protector. That usually makes the stickers easy to remove, but not these stickers!! He was able to get a dozen or so on to his paper before giving up.

Kumon folding page. The page started as a little bear in his undies. Once you folded the paper correctly, the bear was dressed. Peanut got quite the kick out of this: "Naked. Not naked! Naked. Not naked!" Ahh, little boys.

Playdoh, because it seems to be his favorite thing lately.

Friday:

Handwriting Without Tears page
Little Hands to Heaven, Letter F Hide & Seek page
Fork & Spoon visual discrimination hunt
Spooning beads with straw/spoon

Pictures from Friday:

Hmmm, where are all of those little F's hiding? He has actually gotten much better at this sheet. He gets one every week that features the letter of the week. Today he found about half of the hidden F's, both upper case and lower case. Yeah, Peanut!

Visual discrimination hunt as suggested by our O.T. He did this without a problem, the spoon to fork ratio was 1:1. Next time I'll lower the fork ratio to make it a little more difficult.

I found that neat spoon/straw (a spoon with a straw for a handle) at the grocery store. He had fun spooning the beads into a cute little ice cube tray I also found in the clearance section :)

On a sad note this week, we found out that our O.T. is moving out of state with her new husband. It's effective almost immediately, so no more Miss Michele. Peanut will miss her. She was in a really bad car accident earlier this year, and while she was out recovering Peanut would ask all the time if Miss Michele was back yet. I know he'll miss her a bunch! I'm aprehensive about the new O.T. we've been assigned to. He's so mellow he almost puts me to sleep when I watch him get excited. I'm hoping they hit it off, and that he will be as eager as our last O.T. was to give me ideas to use at home.

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Sep. 20, 2009 - Tot School -- Week 7

or go to this weeks postHERE.

Monday:

Earobics
How to Build an A book (he picked this out himself, so I dumped a box I had prepared)
Playdoh (also picked out by Peanut)

Although he only did three things this day, he spent a large amount of time on each!

Tuesday:

Handwriting Without Tears page
ABC-123 page
Math game: what number is missing
Shape sequencing match
File folder game: Worms in My Apple!

I've gotten file folder games from File Folder Fun before, but considering how much Peanut loves file folder games I decided to take the plunge and get a membership to have access to the rest of their site. It's a free membership and very worth it! I have loads of new file folder games to choose from....now I just need time to get them together.

Pictures from Tuesday:

Wednesday:

Elephant printable shapes craft. Boy, he's always so proud of these!
Letter E page, filled with letter E stamps & elephant stickers
Kumon Tracing page
Kumon Stickers page

Pictures from Wednesday:

Thursday:

Chalkboard: making E's. Then Peanut wanted to practice his shapes: square, circle, cross, then he made his best triangle ever! We couldn't wait to tell Miss Michele (his O.T.)
Kumon coloring page. I've switched him off of markers and on to crayons since he's able to press down a bit harder now. Progress comes in baby steps around here, but at least it's progress!
Math U See page

Pictures from Thursday:

Friday:

Had a little emergency with our niece, so we kept their kids overnight. No Tot School today!! It's an all day playdate after a very long sleepover night

Pictures from Friday:

Breakfast with six suprisingly alert children. I would post a picture of me....but my haggard look might break your computer screen

Trying to wear them out....it's not working!!

Saturday: Still going strong on the worlds longest playdate. Today we decided to take a trip to what we call "The Duck Park".

Running down the trail to feed those hungry ducks!

So cute to see them lined up at the fencing like that!

These teddy bear lovers had to pose with the statue outside of the Teddy Bear Museum along the path.

I'm asking you, how cute are these faces? Okay, well it was five out of six kids!

Now I'm tired and need a nap. We have a big week coming up, with a super busy weekend following that. But then, it's off for a whole week!!! Can I start early?

http://wxxi.org/education/k12/ondemand.html

Sep. 16, 2009 - Free PBS Videos Available for Homeschoolers

This came across my local support group email this morning. Who knows how long it will be available, so sign up today!

The New York PBS station, WXXI offers free access to homeschoolers, as well as other educators to a service called Power Media Plus. I've just signed up and had a look: It has all sorts of educational videos, including all of the Magic School Bus and Liberty's Kids, and all sort of other things: American History has 397 videos alone. So, here's the info:

You need to use login code LJPry8hwwF, and then create a Teacher account.

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Sep. 12, 2009 - Tot School -- Week 6

or visit this weeks post HERE.

Well, it was quite a week around here! I found out what happens when I don't plan out the weeks boxes in advance.....I scramble around in a mad dash early each morning trying to figure out what to put in them!! Next week will be better, I can't stand to not be prepared like that!

Monday:

Sensory tub: Mini dinosaurs hidden in a tub of rice.
Letter Match worksheet: A-D
Pom Poms in cups, sort by color using tongs
Kumon Tracing page

Pictures from Monday:

Tuesday:

Painting with sponge letters
Beanbag toss on exercise ball
Seal Game: A-D, capital letters only
Foam sea creatures match
Direction challenge: buttons & shapes. This is where we practice over, under, away from, etc. I have a shape (like a heart) on his desk. I give him a button and he has to place it "next to" or "beneath" the shape, however directed.

Pictures from Tuesday:

I don't have many pictures this week, but at least I got a quick picture of this....even though he's rolling off He decided this time he would put the balls in the open spaces of the taped letters on our floor.

Wednesday:

This was when Peanut had his eye testing as well as the day we were getting the Neurosyph results. Our day was full enough with that!

Thursday:

Earobics -- Yes I've finally gotten around to adding this in. I had this first time, and probably next time, the Earobics box in his workbox. Wow, when he saw it in there he came running. He was so excited and did really great.
Math U See page
Same or Different page
Poker chips in jar slot

Pictures from Thursday:

Not a great picture of the screen, but this is Peanut doing Earobics.

Friday:

Magnet fun pages: Letter D & Number 5
Sensory tub: Yes again, I was scrambling to find something!! We did dinos again, then I threw in a duck as a suprise :) He was just as excited as when he did this on Monday.
How to Build an A book: concentrated on letters A - D
Name plate letter match
Shape puzzle

Pictures from Friday:

Peanut just loves this one! In fact, he decided the little dinosaurs needed to be his "buddies" that day.

Here he is using them to fill the circles of his paper...instead of the little pom pom balls.

So proud of the B he built. Notice his buddies keeping watch?

Friday we also got to go to the kickoff open gym of the school year at a fabulous gymnastics place. They give a special gym time to homeschoolers and my kids LOVE this place!! After that, we got to visit my niece and her family who moved near us this summer My kids are so excited to have cousins nearby, and couldn't wait to visit them at their apartment. We also got some time in the indoor pool at their apartment complex, and some time with the neighborhood kids. I forgot to take pictures while at their house, but I finally remembered to take my camera to the gymnastics place:

This is a picture of a HUGE event. Peanut hasn't ever been brave enough to even approach a giant inflatible slide with its noisy blower, but today he repeatedly ran up the climbing wall and slid down the slide.

Little Monkey shows a favorite of my older boys: the trapeze. They swing into a giant "cheese pit" of foam blocks. The coaches there also show the kids how to swing by their knees and flip off. Very fun!

Peanut racing down the "runway" (trampoline floor) to jump into a cheese pit. See the giant slide in the background? It dumps into a cheese pit.

Little monkey on the rope swing...into a cheese pit of course

Big Man jumping on the best trampoline ever, where you land in a cheese pit.

Like this

Or this!

Also this week we got the results of all the tests Peanut's been through. I'll post "official" diagnosis terms next week when I have my own copy of the report in my hands. Basically, we didn't hear anything from the Neuropsych that we didn't already know, he just made things official and gave them fancy names. The developmental opthamalogist had many things to show us with Peanuts vision. I will include that in the post with the other diagnoses. Thankfully, the vision work that Peanut should do at this time can be done with the Occupational Therapist he visits. We'll retest in about six months to see he needs to do all out vision therapy, or even can stop O.T. (at least for the vision issues!)

A real blessing for me was the encouragement from the Neuropsych. He said it was a rare day that parents like us came into his office with the knowledge & understanding of what is going on, things we're already doing, knowledge of terms, knowledge of therapies, etc. that we have. He didn't recommend any changes to what we are doing, in fact was very, very pleased with what we've been up to. He thinks we are doing things very right, appropriate, and are "on top of everything"! For those who have "neurotypical" children, you cannot even begin to understand the sweetness of these words! There is a massivly heavy burden on our shoulders day in and day out: am I really doing the right things, therapies, techniques, etc. that will help this child; am I doing things that should be done later and do other things now that will be more effective in helping this child; am I doing the right things correctly so it isn't detrimental later on; are there things I should be doing that I'm not; am I doing things that I shouldn't be doing. I could go on and on. There is constant research and educating myself on the conditions my children have so I can help them the most with what little time we have. There is constant prep work to do the various things we do every day. There is (self inflicted) guilt when I mess up on something, even if it is minor. There is always something I see that can be done better. It's basically the worries/work of a regular homeschool mom, only multiplied a thousand times. My prayer for the last week (and I'm talking constant prayer because I was quickly becoming anxious) has been asking the Lord to make me eagerly and joyfully accepting of whatever the His will was for Peanut, no matter what His will would be. I am thrilled to have good reports, it is after all so much easier to be joyful when you get what amounts to the best news you could receive. I'm going to end this post with one of my very favorite sermons from our Pastor, titled the Sacrifice of Faith About 40 minutes in is my favorite section. This family has been through so much, as have many in our church, but they have the heart that I strive to have. Through no matter what God has in store for us, He is holy, blameless, and pure and has a perfect plan for each of us.

Sep. 5, 2009 - Five Weeks Down, Thirty-One To Go!

Finally, here is that update on the other boys I've been promising. My days are crammed FULL, with only tiny bits of space here and there. I'm still getting used to that, and used to all of the extra work Peanut has been. Normally I would say that I'll catch up on the things I've fallen behind on (filing, organizing) when we are on our break. However, our first break will consist of us in a different state taking a much anticipated vacation!! I'm trying not to look at the mess of what I'm dubbing "The Tot School Pile", or my basket overflowing with papers needing to find a home in a binder! Our next break will be during the week of Thanksgiving. Umm, I think by then this stuff will take over the basement! Instead of thinking about all of that, I'll do this blog post instead.

Reading: We worked on this over the summer, although not as diligently as I had hoped. The important thing is that we continued to make progress, just not as much as I had envisioned.

Big Man (9): Is almost done with Level 4 of Barton!! Woo! I keep seeing that level 4 is like the "hump" of Barton: once you get past that level, you're going to make it It is very meaty, filled with difficult to learn concepts one after another. The great thing about this level is once you get through it, there tends to be a big jump in the reading level of the child. We feel this is happening with Big Man. Praise the Lord!! His reading is becoming so much better, although he still reads like a robot. We continue to model it for him, and we always have some kind of good literature being read at dinner time, thanks to Daddy. Next I believe is Treasure Island. Big Man has one more lesson to go in this level before the Post test. I have level 5 ordered so I can begin watching the tutor training DVD and jump right into it when he's ready!

Little Monkey (7): Is about halfway through Level 4. He, too, seems to be having a great leap of reading ability in the last few weeks. We are very, very excited!

Both boys have suddenly begun to write their own "books". It's been a great time to apply all of those spelling rules they've been learning through Barton, as well as those sight words they've learned. Once they are done, I'll see if they want me to post their books here for all to read.

Math:

Big Man has begun Delta of Math U See. This is the division book which he has been dreading. The fast death spiral began for Big Man when Abeka started throwing in division along with the multiplication. Now that he's done the first few weeks of lessons, he's beginning to see that division doesn't have to be so awful! In fact, today he had his second test of the school year. He got an A on his first test, then outdid himself this week with an A+! He was extremely proud of himself So far, so good I'd say!

Little Monkey continues to be our math wiz.....even though he says he doesn't really like math. He has finished up the 2nd grade Abeka book and next week begins the 3rd grade book. We'll keep a close eye on things and make sure Abeka doesn't start loosing him like it did his brother.

Grammar: After much consideration, we decided to stick with First Language Lessons for both of the boys. I really like the 1st & 2nd grade book, which Little Monkey is finishing up this year, but I haven't been as impressed with the 3rd grade book. I had to do a whole bunch of tweaking to make it work for us. Since I've already done the work, we are making just little adjustments this year and will see how the 4th grade book goes. Grammar is still not our favorite subject!

Handwriting:

Big Man is reviewing lower case cursive, then will move on to upper case. He seems to be doing well with this. He just needs to keep things neat by not trying to go so fast.

Little Monkey is drilling, drilling, drilling printing this year. I must say, his handwriting has improved immeasurably. He is really concentrating on doing it well. Know why? Well, when he saw the SpongeBob Typing program that Big Man is using, he begged to use it too. I told him we needed to do more work on his handwriting before he could add that in. He's one determined little guy!

History:

We are finishing up Year 3 of Tapestry of Grace and will condense Year 4 to fit in our year too. We are picking up right about the beginning of the 20th Century and will finish at Modern Day. We actually started our year looking at Africa and learning a little about it. It coincided with a trip to Africa a couple from our church took when they picked up orphans they were adopting. They brought back great pictures of the Great Pyramids, Cairo, Addis Ababa, etc. We were able to see the difference between a wealthy big city vs. the slums of a country awash in poverty. Whenever we learn about a different country, we try to make a meal that resembles something they would fix there. Here's Little Monkey helping make fried Plantain:

Yummy!

Peanut Stew. It was good, but I wasn't a fan of the texture:

Big Man helped fix the Chicken Yassa, our favorite dish of the evening. We're going to make this again sometime:

Next, we learned about the great influx of immigrants at the turn of the century. We again thought this was a good time to try some food from different countries. I wasn't as organized on this one and didn't get pictures of everything. We had quite a feast though! Swedish Meatballs, Matzoh Ball Soup, Ravioli, Chinese food (from a local restaraunt--I cheated ). It seems like I'm forgetting something. Hmmm, oh well.

Because it came to town, we took the opportunity to tour a WWII ship and learn about life of the soldiers while aboard.

The most exciting part for boys....GUNS!You can see Little Monkey here. Big Man is on the other side of the gun, sitting next to the man in the red shirt. They thought it was neat that it took two to turn & aim the gun. A helicopter was flying over, so they were trying to aim at it. They also tried on a helmet and a lifevest down in the soldiers bunk area....and were amazed how much nicer their bunk bed is than the soldiers "bunks".

Science:

We're tackling Physics this year! I've been a little aprehensive about this, simply because I feel pressure to make it a really great year for my boys! So far we've learned Newtons First and Third Law of Motion, next week will be the Second Law of Motion. We've set off balloon "rockets" and had fun with an Inertia Zoom Ball. I have a few small things to order for some lessons coming up, like Snap Circuits and some mini Solar Machines.

Extras: Big Man has begun to formally learn typing. So many school districts around the country are dropping penmanship for keyboarding in second or third grades!! We don't like that one bit, but there is also a good case for teaching keyboarding early. We're still learning cursive, but Big Man has been plugging away at the computer too. He's doing well for a first timer. I sure wish I had some of these neat games to teach me typing instead of the boring old piece of paper in front of me that said: "ads asd add dsd", etc.

Art has been going well so far. I've been able to fit it in on Fridays so far, lets hope that continues! We are learning about one artist a month. Our first month has been focused on Edgar Degas. I've been able to tie in our lessons from Artistic Pursuits with books about Degas & pictures of his work. (Like "Artists See Shape", etc.) Here is their project from the lesson "Artists Use Form" from Artistic Pursuits:

Septembers focus will be on Paul Cezanne.

Well, I think I've hit everything. Our days are full, full, full!! So far, so good

Sep. 4, 2009 - Tot School -- Week 5

Or visit this weeks post HERE.

Letter D week:

Monday:

Pipe cleaners in Parmesan jar (hole side of jar)
Dinosaur craft
Cutting strips of paper
Beanbag toss on exercise ball
Handwriting Without Tears page
ABC-123 page

Pictures from Monday:

He's so proud of his dinosaur craft. He had on a very appropriate shirt for this too This was his little buddy for the week, hanging out at his desk.

I tried to have my "helpers" take a picture of Peanut doing his beanbag toss. Unfortunately, my camera kept dying due to low batteries and my helpers couldn't get a picture fast enough. Oh well, next time we do this one I'll be sure to have fresh batteries! It's a great O.T. exercise. He lays on the ball, supporting himself with his arms (don't let those feet touch the ground!) He picks up a beanbag & tries to toss it into a rectangle shape I've taped on the floor. It's a great way to work on his shoulder stability/strength, which in turn greatly helps his hand strength. Of course, as with anything really fun like this, everyone had to take turns trying it out. Do you think I can count it as P.E.?

Tuesday:

Dino stickers on letter D page
Squeeze water from sponge using a garlic press
Little Hands to Heaven--Letter Review page A - D
Sea Foam critters shapes match
Book on Tape
Kumon Tracing Page

Pictures from Tuesday:

Great idea from Shanon's Tot School. It worked on both his coordination and his hand strength.

These shapes came with the foam letters I've been using. Great for working on that visual perception skill!

Wednesday:

Jump to Letters game (same as jump to shapes game)
Handwriting Without Tears page
Math U See page
string beads on coffee stirrer

Pictures from Wednesday:

Okay, so painters tape shows up much better than regular masking tape! Last week we did this game with shapes taped to the floor, this week it's letters. Let's just say this didn't go as smoothly as the shapes jumping game!

Man, this boy really needs a haircut!!

Combining the Handwriting Without Tears page with our pieces from the book "How to Build an A". The book comes with the foam pieces for about half the price of the same pieces(only wooden) from Handwriting Without Tears. He really enjoys being able to "build" his letters.

Thursday:

Little Hands to Heaven Letter D page
ABC-123 page
Melissa & Doug word puzzles
Button felt pieces together

Pictures from Thursday:

Friday:

Dot paints
Handwriting Without Tears page
What's the missing number game
File Folder game: Puppy matching (called it Dog Matching for D week)
Color matching Ducks

Pictures from Friday:

We kept saying together, "D is for d, d, dots!"

Boy Peanut loved this! These are from our "Lucky Ducks" game. That game annoys me only because of the volume......meaning it's outrageously loud with no volume control! We just spread them around his desk instead. Each duck has a colored circle on the bottom. You have to match the duck to the correctly colored "nest". He played with this for a good long time, quacking all the way.

Okay, next week looks to be another review week. He seems to be having problems remembering the four letters we've worked on over the last few weeks. He has the letter A down well........and that's it. I'm not sure yet if it's his processing problems getting in the way or what, so we'll just do another week of review. It's going to be a long school year! Also, next week we get the results of the Neuropsych testing, and Peanut will (supposedly) get the testing from the Opthamalogist as well. By this time next week hopefully we'll know more about what's going on with Peanut. There may be changes in the way we are teaching him, maybe not. I'm just concentrating on putting my trust fully in whatever the Lord has in store for us. Who knows what next week will bring!

Living With Central Auditory Processing Disorder

Sep. 1, 2009 - Tot School -- Week 4

Or visit this weeks post HERE.

Monday:

spooning beads into egg holder
twisting lids on jars
colored clothespins on pipe cleaners
lace beads on pipe cleaners
math game: What's the missing number:

Pictures from Monday:

The missing number game: First, lay out numbered cards. I did 0 - 10

Next, have him close his eyes. Flip 1 (or more) cards. He opens his eyes and needs to figure out which card(s) is flipped over. He got the hang of this game after a while. He really enjoyed it & asks to play it again.

Tuesday:

Shape squencing match (ooo, this was a hit!!)
Umbrella toothpicks in styrafoam
Kumon stickers page
Number matching puzzle

Pictures from Tuesday:

I can't remember which blog I saw this on, but I thank you whomever you are :) Peanut picked up quickly what he was supposed to be doing. He had to match the bottom shape first, then the shape on the top.

Wednesday:

Seal game: A, a; B, b; C, c

Aaaannnd....that's it. Okay, so here's the deal. My darling hubby, whom I love with all of my heart was home today. He wanted to help out, and considering our house isn't all about Peanut (meaning there's other educating of children to do) he would do Peanuts "boxes". So they layed on the floor together and did a box. They had fun. Then daddy had something to do for a few minutes, told Peanut he could play the Star Wars game he loves so much, thinking he would pick up another box in a while. Yeah. Right. So, to avoid a cataclysmic explosion erupting from Peanut, he was done with boxes for the day. Now my hubby understands how we work the boxes around here. :) He felt bad, but it really wasn't a big deal. We had an eye appointment to get to anyway.

Pictures? I only have a picture of a field trip we took later that day. There was a big WWII ship in our town this week. We went on a tour, which even Little Monkey (7) said was "Really Cool!" Anyone who knows Little Monkey knows this is high praise. Peanut was not thrilled with the big ship until we got on. Then he was so distracted by the maze of the ship, and guns, and being up on the main deck, etc. that he forgot he was afraid the ship would "wake up" and start moving. Here's a picture of Peanut, Big Man (9), and Little Monkey (7) in front of one of the guns they were allowed to try out.

I have a couple more pictures from this trip which I'll post in an update of our other boys. Really, I'm getting to it! Hopefully it will be done by Sat. morning!

Thursday:

Playdoh
Jello powder in tray, make letters & shapes (Woah. Biggest hit of the week!)
Math U See page
Kumon tracing page
Same or different page

Pictures from Thursday:

Holey Moley was he excited about this one!! This kept him busy for about 15 minutes. Here he is about 5 minutes into it.

Meet the powder monster. Not bad really. If you look closely you may be able to see his face coated up to his eyes. Notice the spots on my picture? That would be all of the powder floating through the air!

Friday:

Book on tape
Tangrams
Name Card matching
Math U See page
Water Color Paints
"Jump to Shapes" game

Pictures from Friday:

I was able to make name cards for the rest of the family. He LOVES this!

C is for Colors!!

We also did the Jump to the Shapes game & I tried to take pictures, but you couldn't see the tape shapes on the floor. Basically, I just took masking tape & laid it down in different shapes spread around the floor. I called out which shape to jump to next. He enjoyed this very much. In fact, between boxes he would run over and jump through all of the shapes himself, calling them out as he went.

Gripe of the week: So Peanut went to the developmental opthamologist this week. We had been referred there by both the Neuropsych & the speech therapist. Both said he seems to have either a) a tracking problem, b) a visual perception problem, c) a visual processing problem, or d) all of the above. All I found out at this appointment is that he has problems seeing the difference between blue and purple. DUH! Oh well, at least we can prove now that we're not imagining things. Now, we have to go back for the specialized testing he was supposed to get at the last appointment. Grrr. Believe me, I had typed out a huge rant about this visit, but I've cooled off a little so it's been deleted. More waiting to find out what's going on with Peanut.

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Aug. 27, 2009 - Fantastic Essay About APD

For anyone wondering what it's like to live with Auditory Processing Disorder, this essay is a must read!!

It's very well written, describing what difficulties someone with APD experiences, and strategies to help. I may just keep a copy of this printed out to hand to those that just "don't get it" :)

Aug. 21, 2009 - Tot School: Week 3

Or, visit this weeks post HERE.

Alrighty another four day week around here, but it's for a great reason. FINALLY Peanut (4) has had his testing with the Neuropsych! Woo, am I glad that's done....and I'm sure Peanut is too! Next week will be his testing with the Opthamologist for vision issues, then we'll brace ourselves for all of the results. He had problems with the letter C this week...he keeps calling it T. We'll do another week of C next week, and review the letters we've done so far. Hey, at least he got through the first two letters before running into trouble. I'm happy with that! Here was our Tot School this week:

Monday:

Name card with magnets (woo, he was excited about this one!)
Colors!! Paints in baggies good for mixing, squishing, etc.
Same or Different Page
Clothespins on matching pipe cleaner
Geo-board shapes
ABC-123 page

Pictures from Monday:

This was a BIG hit!! I'll be making more of these for next week :)

C is for Colors! He had a good time with this one too...and so did his brothers

A little O.T. time with muscle strengthening exercises. He really enjoyed this and wasn't happy about only having five of each colored clip. I eagerly went to the store to buy more.

Tuesday:

Letter C, make into a caterpillar
Felt button squares
Handwriting Without Tears page
Kumon coloring page
baster with water
Magnet number puzzle

Pictures from Tuesday:

Yes, back in p.j.'s again. I'm just excited about his excitement!!

Oh my goodness, do you see those C's??!! This boy was excited to make a recognizable letter....even if he did keep calling it T.

A little more O.T. for those hand muscles. He very much enjoyed this. Back and forth went the water. I'm suprised how little got on the desk!

Wednesday:

Car shapes craft
Handwriting Without Tears page
Tweezers & puff balls in cups
Book on Tape
Melissa & Doug word puzzles
snap, zip, clip puzzle pieces

Pictures from Wednesday:

More, more, more O.T. for those hands! This was pretty difficult for him. These puff balls like to spring away so you really need to squeeze hard to keep them in the tweezers. It was very tiring for his little muscles.

A book break: Froggy Plays Baseball

Trying to put together a car shapes puzzle. Pretty taxing for a little guy with suspected visual perception problems. He was able to complete it with a little bit of help.

Thursday: Testing day. That's enough work for a week! No school things today!! Let's go swimming!

Friday:

Little Hands to Heaven Hide and Seek Leter C
ABC-123 page
Handwriting Without Tears chalkboard, etc.
Thread blocks on shoelace
File Folder Game: Pizza Party
Stamps & Paper

Pictures from Friday:

Trying out a little Handwriting Without Tears sequence, since he was so proud of his C's from earlier in the week.

Oh how Peanut loves his stamps!

A little Pizza Number Party game. Big Man (9) complained it was making him too hungry to look at it.

Okay, so he was supposed to thread these blocks onto a shoelace for some O.T. time. He decided it was much more fun to stack them. Little Monkey (7) decides it's time to ham it up. I've really got to get a post together about what the big brothers have been doing so far this schoolyear! If only I could run on two hours sleep.......I could get so much more done!

Writing Skills Activities for Special Children

Aug. 14, 2009 - Tot School -- Week 2

I'm still geting used to filling the boxes every day, though it is helping me greatly to make detailed plans for the week. I jot down in my planner what I'm putting in them at the beginning of the week, then I just need a few minutes to fill the boxes for the following day. Wondering what other families are doing for Tot School? Click on the Tot School link above, or visit this week's post HERE.

Monday: We're calling this one "Migraine Monday". Ugh! No Tot School today!!

Tuesday:

wooden beads threaded onto a pipe cleaner (o.t. work)
Math U See page
Letter B page, paint blue
Color naming & matching with color snap blocks (o.t. work)
Pouring little beads into jar with funnel (note to self....make sure beads can easily pass through opening of funnel before giving to Peanut!!!) (o.t. work)

Pictures from Tuesday:

You can tell from his expression....uh, mom, these things aren't going through!!

Wednesday:

Feed the Seals letter matching game (favorite activity this week!)
Color snap blocks, color naming & sequencing two colors (o.t. work)
Math U See page
Stickers on a number page (thanks Casey for the idea !) (o.t. work)
ABC-123 number 2 page
Snipping strips of paper (o.t. work)

Pictures from Wednesday (Yes he's in his pajamas! He didn't want to wait to dive into his boxes):

Best game ever: match the letter on the index card "fish" to the letter on the front of the seal (envelope), then feed the seal. This week we had the letters A, a, B, b. The book I got this idea from is Carol Barniers book: The Big What Now of Learning Styles.

Thursday:

Kumon coloring book
Letter B sand letter & build with blocks from How to Build an A book
Handwriting Without Tears page
Same or Different page
Clip number page w/stickers (from yesterday) onto clothesline (o.t. work)
Butterfly Craft (thank you Crunchy & Green for this idea!)

Pictures from Thursday:

These turned out remarkably well, especially considering Peanut went crazy with the spray bottle!

Friday:

Math U See page
Paper punch shapes (found these last year at Big Lots for a dollar each!!) (o.t. work)
Little Hands to Heaven letter B hide and seek page
File Folder game: Ice cream color match
Kumon Tracing page (o.t. work)
Umbrella toothpicks in styrofoam (o.t. work) oh my goodness he loved these!

Pictures from Friday:

Peanut enjoyed these paper punches, but they were just too hard for him to do all by himself. We'll work more on finger muscle strength and bring these out again later in the year.

Playdoh wasn't planned, but he asked. I'm not about to turn down an opportunity to break out the Playdoh, especially since his Occupational Therapist wants him to work even more on strengthening the muscles in his fingers!

Again, we also read oodles of books, this week focusing on things that start with the B sound. I'm thrilled he remembered his sound from last week (A), and has picked up the sound from this week (B). Two weeks in, and Peanut's doing great with school (shhhh, nobody tell him it's school!!) Peanut also had lots of fun making balloons fly through the air while everyone else did a physics lesson with balloons, and we saw a gorgeous double rainbow after a thunderstorm. You'll have to look very close, I don't have the best camera and the second rainbow was fading fast!

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Aug. 10, 2009 - Workboxes

Considering how popular workboxes are in homeschool circles right now my Site Meter counter is sure to get a workout with a title like this one! We aren't using workboxes as many people do, getting a days work laid out in them to be completed one by one until they are all empty. Instead, I fill three boxes (and make it so they can't see inside!!). If either Big Man (9) or Little Monkey (7) are done with their work for the moment and are ready for more, but I am occupied by someone else, they can pick a box. Now, I must say, Big Man figured out right away that these things still contain schoolwork (most of the time, more on that in a minute). He doesn't mind the boxes, but would be just as happy without them too! Little Monkey, however, falls for the boxes hook, line, and sinker He is eager to see what he finds and is willing to do anything that is sitting in the box. Now, to be sure that they are getting what we need to fit into our days, they are each required to complete two boxes every day. I always make two copies of whatever I'm putting in a box so it's ready to go for both of them. If it's a worksheet, they know to look for the sheet with their name at the top.

I have found filling the workboxes for our 9 & 7 year olds much more challenging than filling the ones for our 4 year old. I think a big part of this is that I don't have O.T. things for these two like I do for Peanut (4), but I have many things for them that will get lost along the way if I don't find a way to fit them into our daily routine. Enter workboxes!

Both of these boys are dyslexic, and they each have other "special needs" as well. Our boxes are designed to fit the extras in that don't really take long, but there are so many extras that it's easy to forget to do them all consistently. The majority of our boxes are filled with these things:

HELP books for Processing problems

McCall Crabbs book for comprehension

Summarizing Page

Main Idea Page

Fine motor practice page for art

Mind Benders book

Interactive Metranome pages -- homemade

Tying shoes (they need all the practice they can get!)

Auditory Processing Game (my kids are not thrilled with these games, it is more of a chore to get them to play these....therefore it is not in the bonus box section)

Time Bingo (same as above)

BUT, a couple of times a week, I throw in a "Bonus Box". These are the fun boxes:

Books on tape (but also great for auditory processing work--my kids should listen in their left ear only)

Get a bone for the dog, then 10 minutes of free time.

Equilibrio from Timberdoodle.

"Grab your brothers, run outside. Jump on the trampoline for 10 minutes."

Play a math game on the computer (like Timez Attack, or something from a site like this)

Multiplication War (my kids love this game, which is why it is in the bonus box section)

I'll come up with other ideas during the year. If anyone has any other suggestions, I'm all ears