This week was our first week where it really looked and felt like Autumn.  The leaves are changing faster than you can notice, and they are starting to fall... that is where the fun begins!  It's all fine to live in the woods (kinda) in spring, summer and winter... but autumn is the most fun ever!!! 

So many trees = so many leaves!!!  WOOHOO!

Doesn't that look like fun?  I want to get some good pictures (this was taken by their older sister, but I don't think she waited for the focus to set before pressing the button - time for a lesson in basic photography!) before the rain sets in (comin' soon to a backyard near you! *grin*).

This week, Greyson "invented" a "game" where he spells something out on the fridge with our magnetic letters and Mom has to "try to read it"... thing is, mostly it's spelled RIGHT!  Then he challenges me to "spell something"... which I do.  Sometimes I take a turn spelling a word and see if he can figure it out, and yes, he usually can.  For example (and I must warn you that I think he's quite bright for his age)... I spelled out "SCRAP" ... and he sounded it out SSSS KKKK RRRR AAAAAH P *pause* SCRAP!  Not bad eh?  Who needs worksheet after worksheet on "blends"?  This kid is a genius reader! LOL!

(no Mama Pride here - no siree! grin!)

Chaeli has been a complete Destructo-Child this week, so to save her future embarrassment, I'm going to refrain from listing all the details of her ... er... renovation projects.

I wanted to share a resource that I'm starting to use this week with the Littles... it's from Arctic Publishing and they are called  Early Learning Lapbooks and they are available at CurrClick (my all-time favourite place to buy homeschool materials!!).  They are Alphabet linked lapbooks for ages 3-7 (really).  These lapbooks are Amazing!  I'm so excited about having the Littles learning Bible verses, counting out, making games, reinforcing phonics (the titles run along the lines of A is for Adam, B is for Beatitudes, C is for Cain's Choice, etc...) and Scriptural understanding at the same time.  I can't wait to get started, and hopefully we will be able to get the first one done this week and then in my next post, I hope to have some pictures of the final product! :o)  Currently there are lapbooks (I can see doing one a week) up to G (I think) and having spoken to Amy from Arctic Publishing, I'm assured that they will be staying ahead of me if I do one a week... since she's actually creating them for a preschool-teacher friend and has to keep ahead of them! LOL!

So... until next week, be blessed!

The first week of autumn.  Greyson hasn't been feeling a hundred percent this week, and from the whining, I don't think Chaeli has either.  We didn't get much done, but of course, even when little is done, LOTS of learning is going on... Greyson's been drawing some beautiful pictures and writing family members (even extended family!)'s names on on them to give as gifts.  He's also rediscovered the chalkboard and how much fun it can be to draw quizzes for his little sister. 

A couple of weeks back he was given the Beginners Bible by my dear friend Stephanie (www.homeschoolblogger.com/StephG) and he hasn't stopped reading it.  Although I haven't actually sat with him, I think he's been working out how to sound out the words in it... and from the smiles and how often he goes back to it, I'm not going to get involved quite yet... just let him enjoy it. 

Chaeli has begun to play some "say it slow, say it fast" games with me using her phonics knowledge... she's so bright for a 3 year old!!  Sometimes I wonder how far we can stretch learning... such as, Chaeli (as you can see below) was doing her own experiments with suction.  Really!  She did it twice, once with a cup (as below) and once with a bowl.  She thought (hypothesized) that the bowl would work just like the cup.  She tried it (process) and it didn't work as the bowl was much larger in it's diameter (result) and so she found out (concluded) that the bowl and the cup work differently in suction.  She told me all about this (second picture below) and was so stinkin' cute and smart.. I think I'd have had to grade her A+ (if I believed in grades for a 3 year old ... LOL!).

Trying out her hypothesis (above)

Drawing conclusions (below)

All in all, it was a fun week.

Blessings!

I can't believe we're finished up week THREE of homeschooling already!  We have been studying Native Peoples of Canada with the Bigs since the begining of September, and Greyson is facinated by the legends... and bows and arrows and weapons of different tribes.  He wants me to get him a knife so HE can be an Indian too!!!  (uh, no.)

I've hummed and hawed over the 100 Easy Lessons for Greyson.  I love that book, but he's so far beyond it!  This week (having only done a couple of lessons which I knew were review for him) he sounded out "candle flame"... and with flame, he said, "fffff llll aaaahhhh mmmmm eeeehhhhhh  no ... A says Ah ... AY!  fffffllllllAAAAYYYYmmmmmm - FLAME!"  So he figured it out for himself that sometimes vowels say their sound and sometimes they say their name.  The blending is coming along so naturally, it just seems painful to keep him doing the 100 Easy Lessons.  SO, I think - after checking it out thoroughly at my friend's house - I am going to get Explode the Code 1 and 2 for him to work through this year. 

He also has discovered mazes.  He did about 10 of them today all on his own "talking himself through them"    He would ask me, "does the boy have to get to the boat, Mommy?" I'd confirm that, yes, this is what he has to do... so he'd be, "here goes the boy, he is turning, nope, wrong way!  He is going back he is turning, he is turning up, he goes over, he is turning up again, he is going around and YAY!  He's at the boat!" (or along those lines...) then he'd ask me the "goal" of the next maze in the book.  Too cute!

But back on the subject of 100 Easy Lessons, which as I mentioned I really love, I think I'm going to do the lessons with Chaeli instead.  She's at the point where she needs to review the sounds, learn to put them together, and start seeing something more than just random phonics... although she does know all her letter sounds, THANK YOU LEAP FROG!   She knows many of her shapes and colours, but I guess I will review those too... that is about it for pre-school except of course reading a zillion stories!! LOL!  I'm glad the Bigs like to read to the Littles, especially Ev who loves to do all the funny voices for the characters!  *grin*

Chaeli has been growing.  Really growing.  She's a little thing, but I have hard evidence that she truly is finally growing... her winter clothes from last year are too small for her!  I packed them away thinking that for sure they would fit her this year, but alas, so many of my favourites were simply too small.  Oh well, I have generous friends who have endowed her with MANY years of gorgeous wardrobes... so out go the old, in come the new (to her anyhow).

This week, Kenzi took pause from her studies one afternoon to engage the Littles in a creative play of Legos... they built a Lego Car "Hopsital" and spent a good couple of hours "doctoring" cars and bringing the cars for drives in the "amalances".  Kenzi will make a wonderful mother one day... she loves child-play.  I regret not loving that kind of play more or at least engaging it it more when my Bigs were little... but at least the Littles have the benefit of imaginative older siblings to get them through! *grin*

(and yes, we did school in our PJs that day... saves on laundry! LOL!)

Blessings!

Well.. this week wasn't at all what I had planned.  Guess that happens, eh?

We didn't do our lessons as I had them planned for my K and Pre-K'er... but I guess they did some educational things... playing mostly, but learning cause and effect, concepts of space (not outer) and got lots of stories read.  Not a complete and utter failure.. and I found out a few things...

For example.. Chaeli knows her numbers.  I mean, she knows the arabic numerals for them... like 1, 2, 3, 4 etc... up to where I'm not sure, but while she was waiting at the hospital for the second half of a test she was there for she got to playing with this toy which she had to match hearing a number and it's written counterpart.. and she got them ALL right!  Wow. 

Greyson has taken to drawing really complex pictures... for a 5 year old that is!  LOL!

a Knight and a Dragon.  I guess all boys go through this phase... Ev did too and I think he was the same age!  It's so neat watching "replays" of phases we've been through before!  Chaeli is funny though, where Kenzi ignored Ev's facination with all things knights and dragons... Chaeli is right in the thick of things.  Every once in a while Greyson will have the audacity to tell Chaeli that she needs to "be the princess and I will save you" and she LOUDLY protests, "NO.. I a knight TOO!  I kill the Dragon TOO!"  hehe... guess not all phases match up, eh?

I'll be trying to be more "on schedule" with the Littles this week, and I'm hoping to start Grapevine with them as well, if I can get the books printed and bound in time... not sure the best way to go about it yet though.  The Bigs are doing New Testament this year... and well, I havent' done any with the Littles yet... so I'm still debating if I start with Old Testament or try to match the Bigs... I'll probably go with OT...

The kids had a lot of fun with the little wooden blocks from the "no name brand" Jenga game we have... building domino-like patterns and knocking them down to see what would happen.  Ev and Greyson built some bridges over books.  That'a about it, I guess... I'll try to have a more exciting week next week! :o)

Blessings!

Well, it hardly seems possible, yet here we are - end of week 1 of Greyson's Kindergarten year! 

This week went mostly smoothly... I'm taking it very gentle with him, no real pressures at all.  What he's enjoyed has really suprised me.  Greyson loves poetry... he's learning "Changing the Guard" by A. A. Milne... he's got half the poem memorized already, as does Chaeli (our tag-along preschooler!)... mind you, this astounding fact  should be balanced with the disclosure that half of each stanza is exactly the same all the poem through.  LOL!  But that's okay... some of these words are hard, like "Buckingham Palace" and "Christopher Robin" (Greyson still has some speech issues).  He's so cute when he's learning a poem... all smiles and proud of himself.  *grin*

In penmanship, copywork if you will, we are following along the letters from the "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons" book.  I love this book.  I have two older children who have learned to read from this book, and they've never gotten past lesson 76 before they are off and reading on their own... and I start yelling, "put that book down and..."  but who am I to complain?  Bookworms are good.  Both Greyson and Chaeli are doing the program at the same time, since both already know all their letter sounds... this is more for putting the letters together in words.... and it gives him a real sense of accomplishment.  I love success in early years.  His handwriting is coming along... but I'm not in a rush.  It seems unfair to put expectations of perfect performance in an area that is still developing muscle co-ordination.  I would never expect a baby to run before they could walk, right?  Well, his little hands are still not as steady as he needs for "good" penmanship... so this is just writing for fun.  He loves telling me HOW to draw a letter (we're using HWOT) "doooown and bump and up and over and dooooown and bump!"  hehe, it's so cute!

What else have we done? Well, we examined a pretty yellow snail (see the picture bellow) I found on the mailbox... and then went to look up snails in the visual dictionary and learned that his eyes are at the end of his "horns"... Greyson thought that was funny!  And then he came across the anatomical pictures of an adult female and male (not that we're prudes or anything, he's seen the human body nekkid before... grin!) and exclaimed LOUDLY, "LOOK!  They are showin' off their TOOSHIES!"  It took everything in me not to burst out laughing... he's so modest (ya right, till he takes off his clothes for the day and has to run like he's walkin' in waves to the bathroom in nothing but his birthday suit to deposit his clothes before puttin' on his PJs!).

It's going to a very different year this year.. I'm hoping to introduce the idea of a simple lapbook, get him to learn some memory work (Bible verses and poems), master the whole early reading thing, and get a good sense of numbers.  That is one area I would like to see stronger in him as he starts out on this academic journey... but of course, never at the cost of his Love of Learning! 

My older two are studying Canadian History this year... so the Littles will be learning some age appropriate stuff alongside them.  Both Littles already love singing "O Canada"... learnt from the many hockey games Daddy has made them watch.  So, we'll learn some basics, like where is Canada on a map/globe, what are the provinces and territories, what are each provinces capitals, what does our flag look like and why, what are some national things; like animals, sports, languages, etc...

See how happily they are all working... from Pre-K (there in the back) to Grade 9 (back to me in the foreground)... our little happy homeschool:  LHH Academy (Little Homeschool on the Hill).

Blessings!