It's Me Again Margaret

Hi everyone, well, we survived the garage sale, kind of. We quit after day one - due to storms and due to my lack of motivation to do it for one more day.

 P.S. I hate having garage sales.

Moving on - I made a summer fun calendar.  But it is in Word format and its only for my area but if you happen to live in my area leave a comment and I will e-mail it to you.

I'm busy behind the scenes - you know living life and such.  This whole homeschooling, dyslexia thing just has shifted my thinking in about 100 different ways.

The status quo DOES NOT WORK FOR US.  So therefore, I must figure something else out.  And that is what I am busy doing these days.

So I've been really busy reading and doing research but mostly I've been having fun with my kids.

Strawberry picking

 Playing with friends and cousins

 Doing some fun stuff at the library (my son and nephew were the only ones who participated)

I've decided that this summer we are just going to maintain a picked up house, do a small amount of learning in the mornings and then get out and explore our world and just enjoy the day!


 

Doing Math

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Read Alouds

I had heard about read alouds from all the homeschooling blogs I read.  I actually steered clear of that until recently.  Well, I mean, I tried it a few times but it didn't go well so I just gave up.  Reading aloud involves reading chapter books with no pictures aloud to my young children and some of them will sit there and some of them won't and some of them will whine and some of them, well, it just was not an enjoyable experience.

Until recently, I finally just waited until my younger two were taking their naps and started reading aloud to my 1st grader.  He wasn't thrilled at first but then he started getting into the story.  I started with reading Stuart Little by E.B. White.  I honestly just didn't enjoy it and thought it was a little weird so I dropped that one and picked up Charlotte's Web instead (by the same author).

At first I thought my son wasn't really paying attention but then he started asking me to read more (shocked me!) and now I read it in the evening when my daughter and sons can hear it and my daughter likes it too.

The chapters are pretty short and I really like the book too.  I'm not sure what we will read when this one is done but I plan to continue the reading aloud.

It is an effort on my part but once I sit down and do it I think we all benefit from it.  If you have any good read aloud suggestions I would love to hear them.

Weekly School Wrap Up

This week we had fabulous weather.  It was hard to stay inside very much.  We did manage to accomplish school though.  I had parent/teacher conference with my son's teacher (he goes to a hybrid charter school for those that don't know - homeschooled three days a week and at the learning center 2 days a week).  The conference went well.  His teacher is very encouraging and always just gives me ideas and resources to use.  The biggest drawback to me about public schools is the standardized testing and how everything is tied to that.  It limits teachers and students.  I know there needs to be a better solution I'm just not sure what that is yet.

Now onto the week:

First Grader

He is doing his math online.  Part of it is online and part is offline.  They had a very fun "germ" game to play this week.  He loved it and we played it several times.

He also took a break and played with his siblings with our St. Patrick's Day sensory bin.  They really liked this.

He was also student of the week at his school this week so he was able to bring in something to show the class and so he brought in his Bey Blades.  He even used my camera and video taped battles on my phone while narrating what was happening.  It was quite funny.

I instituted D.E.A.R. Reading Time this week.  1+1+1=1 described it and I thought it was a great idea.  Basically you just drop everything and read.

Fun Times

His grandparents came over and brought bubbles and we played Frisbee outside too.

His sister was crying because she missed her cousin and he brought this blanket and wrapped it around her and put his arm around her and was talking very sweetly to her AND I caught it on camera.  I love moments like this. (Just ignore the laundry behind them that needs folding).

I got out the sidewalk chalk when our little neighbor girls came over and you can't see it very well but Iman wrote "I am the Hunter, Beware"  It was quite hilarious.

Preschool (with my 4 year old)

She was decorating her "E" sheet while I did math with my older son.

She also loved playing with our St. Patrick's Day sensory bin.  

I also got out the clothes line busy bag for her and my younger son to play with while we were doing some math.

 

Since the letter was E I got out some of my previously printed and laminated things.  This is numbered egg cards that I had her put in order.

We are currently working on her writing her name.  I am trying to get her to write it correctly with her first letter capitalized and the rest in lower case but she doesn't like writing her "e" in lower case which we worked on this week.

Doing some of her K5 papers from Abeka.

 

She still loves doing the USA puzzle and we are working on state recognition with that.

 

Fun Stuff

She also helped me plant my onion sets this week all while wearing a tiara. 

She got the big bubble wand and she loved it.

 

Tot (2 1/2 Year Old)

Here we are doing our calendar time notebooks and I am trying to say the picture that begins with "E" and have him circle it.

I also got out a spooning busy bag for him to do and he enjoyed doing it for a little while.

 

I already told you about his color sorting busy bag earlier this week.  He really likes this one.

He also really liked this color matching puzzle.  It is from Confessions of a Homeschooler's Pond Theme pack (pages 8-9).

He is enjoying doing this puzzle more now.  It is just a simple wooden alphabet puzzle.  Sometimes his sister helps him.

We also tried working on scissor skills.  He likes to cut but he reverts back to cutting the wrong way.  We'll continue to work on it.

Fun Stuff

My stepmom bought them all new bubble blowers.  He is using his older brother's spiderman bubble blower while sitting on Papa's lap.

He climbed into my bed at about 7:30 am to sing the B-I-B-L-E while "drumming" on this tin he found.

This boy loves his geetar (guitar).  He loves to play it along side his Papa.  It is so sweet.  He tries to keep up.  I think we may have to start lessons soon.

Last but not least, can you just see his little personality?  He is quite the silly boy.  He likes me to put these on him about once a week.

How was learning at your house this week?

Weekly School Wrap Up

Since revamping our calendar time poster I decided to add calendar time notebooks this week.   Each of the kids have a notebook but they have a few different things in them.  I also added a " . . . of the week" little board.

First Grade

 I use breakfast trays as "mini desks" for the two oldest. Iman is still getting used to calendar time.  He likes some of it and other things he can kind of rush through but it is really good practice for him.

It really is a good skills refresher for him.  I also add things he doesn't know yet too.

 We also do their Word of Life books (our church's Wednesday night program) during Calendar Time.

Here Iman is having a snack and doing some phonics work. 

We made homemade playdough this week and the kids really liked it.

 Here he is acting out a poem we just read for Language Arts.  

 

 And another rare moment of sibling love:

 

Preschool (4 years old)

Here she is doing her weather graph in her calendar notebook.

Doing some of her K4/5 work:

Helping her little brother with "smallest to largest":

Doing a busy bag/learning activity that I put together.  First she puts her numbers in order, then she matches up the number of object with the number.

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She also really enjoyed the homemade playdough.  She made a few pies with it.

Tot School

He had his own calendar notebook.  Here I am calling out a shape and having him color it.

He is helping me by putting apple slices onto our lunch plates.

He is mixing the yellow playdough.

We had dinosaurs (our letter was D this week) and we were counting them and putting them on the correct numbers.

He decided he was going to "read" me some Bible stories out of his little Bible.

This was a huge hit.  I made two tubs and used WAY too much blue food coloring for the water so it looks more like a lake than a pond.  We got some of their toys and other objects and tested whether they would sink or float.  I also used silicone muffin cups as boats for the dinosaurs that would just sink.    They played with this for a long time so I was able to work in the kitchen while they played.

And finally he crashed.  He usually is a bundle of energy but every once in a while you will catch him resting.

That was a quick recap of our school week.  How was learning at your house this week?