http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/myquiversfull/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:55:00 -0600 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:55:00 -0600 We're officially on Thanksgiving break!!    *insert gleeful dancing here*  I wasn't very focused this week on what I was doing.....honestly I was daydreaming far more than I should have about what I'll be able to get caught up on over our break.  Still, I managed to do official Tot School four days this week, with a very, very light 5th day.  So light I probably shouldn't even count it.....and yet I will. Monday: ABC-123 page File folder game: Falling Leaves extra time with speech homework Tuesday: File Folder Game:  Harvest Patterns Ladybug stickers on letter L page Classifying/sequencing:  Little to Large Pictures from Tuesday: "I did it!!" is what he's saying here.  This is the first time Peanut has been able to do an ABABA sequencing exercise and not have a problem with it.  He topped that stunt farther down the file folder by doing an AABBAA sequence!  We were all sooo excited!! Little to Large.  These are from a pool noodle, they'll make great star paint stamps when we get to the letter S!!  Can't remember whose blog I swiped this from.  Whoever you are, I thank you.   Oh, and he's also letting all of you out there in blog-land how many stars he counted. Little Ladybugs on the Letter L. Wednesday: ABC-123 page Lacing blocks onto a shoestring (He finally figured out how to do this!) Apples: Little to Large Pictures from Wednesday: See the steely determination as he figures out how to get that little string through the hole.  Sequencing apples, little to large. Thursday: Handwriting Without Tears page Little Hands to Heaven page -- Letter review Make a Ladybug craft Pictures from Thursday: Friday: Played with play-doh Went to the river front park with cousins & got to visit with Aunt & Uncle we don't get to see very often......okay that was really mommy :)  Peanut played with his cousins. Really, this was a great week for Peanut, and I didn't even realize it.  He was able to sequence from little to big, string the blocks onto string, and complete patterns he hadn't been able to do before.  Three things he's not accomplished before now.  I guess that's a nice perk of blogging all of these things.  With the business of this week, these accomplishments didn't stick out to me before.  What a nice way to begin our vacation. Also this week, our little Peanut turned the big 0-5!  When did my baby boy get so old?  We celebrated with the necessary balloons: Presents: And his very favorite birthday cake: Happy birthday Little Peanut! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/myquiversfull/746339/ Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:55:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/myquiversfull/746339/ 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!  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/myquiversfull/744225/ Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:22:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/myquiversfull/744225/    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   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/myquiversfull/744220/ Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:07:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/myquiversfull/744220/ Well duh is my reaction to this article: No Chairs: Students Get "The Wiggles Out" on Exercise Balls 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 :)  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/myquiversfull/741779/ Tue, 3 Nov 2009 13:40:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/myquiversfull/741779/  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! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/myquiversfull/740710/ Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:52:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/myquiversfull/740710/ 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.  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/myquiversfull/736440/ Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:10:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/myquiversfull/736440/ 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?  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/myquiversfull/734502/ Fri, 9 Oct 2009 14:05:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/myquiversfull/734502/ 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 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/myquiversfull/734101/ Wed, 7 Oct 2009 13:55:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/myquiversfull/734101/  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. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/myquiversfull/730055/ Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:37:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/myquiversfull/730055/ 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:  http://wxxi.org/education/k12/ondemand.html You need to use login code LJPry8hwwF, and then create a Teacher account. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/myquiversfull/727362/ Wed, 16 Sep 2009 07:00:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/myquiversfull/727362/