4th of July (Independence Day) activities

Here are some of the activities we are doing this week as we celebrate our country:

A transferring activity using some star shaped ice trays and blue water beads

A pouring activity using navy beans

Printable do a dot american flag, from Simply Montessori. 


Play with a Red, white and blue sensory bin

This tub contains the following:
whtie and blue poms
star shaped ice tray (came in a pack of two from walmart)
Red, white and silver bead necklaces (from Michael's)
Felt red stars (I cut out of red felt I had on hand)
Clear and blue bottle tops
A red plastic spoon
Red small cup
Applesauce cup

I would like to get some more poms for this tub.

I will post pictures of the kids and these activities inour weekly wrap up. 

Happy 4th of July!

Our Reading Lessons - The Ordinary Parent's Guide

K has been working out of a book entitled The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. This book has been wonderful for us. It teaches reading phonetically and starts with the sounds of the letters of the alphabet. Because K already knows the letter sounds and how to sound out short vowel words, we skipped to the section on consonant blends. We worked through that section doing one to two lessons a day.

The lessons usually begin with a short review and an introduction to the concept. For example, in the consonant blend section, you review the two letters that make up the consonant blend, and then introduce the blend. Then you and the child work through words with that particular consonant blend and a short story with words containing the blend. Most lessons contain multiple blends.

There are many aspects of this book/work that I like. First, I like the fact that this is self-paced. You don't need to feel like you have to go through an entire lesson at a time nor do you have to limit yourself to only one lesson if your child is ready to move on. Additionally, going through these lessons has helped me to see where K is having issues. For instance, sometimes he doesn't read the words/letters that are on the page. So now, I am more intentional with making sure he is reading what is there. We also go back and review any blends, etc. he is having difficulty with. Another benefit is that this work also requires concentration and focus from K. Some days we do more, and on others, we do less, but we usually work around 15-20 minutes at a time.

Here is a picture drom the day we worked on the addition of s to words and a discussion of singular and plural. On this particular day, I got multiples of items around the house show him the difference between the two.

the letter tiles and book

K really enjoys this book and asks almost everyday to do a "lesson" out of it. He is moving along well, and we adapt the instructions to fit our needs. It is a wonderful tool to use in addition to the other things we have.

The suggested materials are magnetic letter tiles (these can be ordered from a website the book mentions), 3x5 index cards, scissors, pens, pencils, drawing supplies, paperclips, yarn, magnets, and a couple of other items. Some of these items are for optional activies. The items we have used so far are the moveable alphabet (instead of the magnetic letter tiles) that I printed from here and a magnetic writing board. Sometimes, I use other miscellaneous items depending on the lesson.

Our magnetic board - I usually use this when K is having a hard time sounding out words to isolate sounds

Week in Review (June 18th)

Another week at our house has come and gone, and we had fun.  We are still focusing on Exodus 20:12,  a verse about honoring your parents, and one day G even sang the verse, which helped her in obeying something I was asking her to do.  It's nice when that happens.

K has been working out of a book a friend referred to me entitled The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading by Jessie Wise and Sara Buffington.  This phonics book, geared to the classical approach to education, is divided into many short lessons and starts with teaching the letter sounds.  We started work with the lessons that focused on consonant blends.  Though K is able to zip through many of the lessons now, this book has helped me to see some areas where he needs extra work .  K enjoys it, and since it's something only he and I do together, he really likes that.  I talk more about this in this post.  K also did some tracing, cutting, and pasting with numbers.

Numbers on the choo choo train

G did a great deal of work with her 1-2-3 floor puzzle (which we do on the table).  She is getting so much better at putting the pieces together.  K joined in; he had fun helping her out.  G was so encouraging and gracious, telling her brother "Good job!" and thanking him for his help.  It warmed my heart. 

Team work!

K and G enjoyed some art time this week.  I finally bought some do-a-dot paints, and both kids liked painting with those.

K working on his Cars 2 picture and G on an Aerial picture

One day this week was a little hard; so, to break the monotony, we went outside for bubbles (which we play with at least a couple of times a week) and learning time.  G worked on her puzzles and K and I worked on adding using his cars, pretending different amounts of cars were going into the "garage."  It's been difficult to engage him with adding and subtracting, so I was glad this was interesting to him. 

ABC puzzle

On Saturday, the kids got the opportunity to enjoy one of our state parks with  fun in the spring and a boat tour where they got to see alligators, ducks and other birds and hear about their habitat and some facts about them.  Thanks to my friend Ra for inviting us!

M enjoying the water

An alligator on the bank

The kids also enjoyed some time at the park as well as fun with friends.  Grateful for another great week!

Week in Review (June 11th)

We have had a good, action packed week here at our little academy.  Our memory verse for this week is Exodus 20:12, a verse about honoring your father and mother. 
We also started focusing more on intentionally teaching the kids Spanish vocabulary through song.  We have a couple of Spanish children's cds that the kids love.  G asks multiple times a day to listen to the body parts song, as she calls it. And even little M tries to join in as we perform the actions of the song. 

K worked in a Hooked on Phonics book I bought at a bookstore clearance sale; we worked on the silent e.  The book had a page where he had to choose the vowel(s) that he needed to fill in the blank, so to give him a visual, I placed the vowels from the sandpaper letters on the table beside him as he worked. 

K at work

He also used his magnetic letters to spell words that contained the silent e.  I would say a word and he would spell it.  Of course, once he finished spelling his silent e words, he wanted to spell other words =).

G enjoyed playing with play doh, and did this for all of our learning time one day.  She also enjoyed more water pouring this week.  She asks to do this throughout the day.  It really engages her right now. 

G pouring away

K asked for the beans so he could pour them, so both K and G poured and played with the beans, making "breakfast" for one another.  It was so cute. 

I found out this week that M has developed a new skill.  He can stack his shapes onto the stacker pegs.  This is the first time I have seen him do this.  I was really excited. 

Go M go!

On Friday, we worked on a Father's Day activity for my wonderful husband; I am so happy and thankful that he is the Dad of our children.  Most of the cards/crafts we make seem to be a bit more labor intensive for me, but the kids enjoy it anytime we get to make things like this. 

Work in progress (it's a little messy)

Finished products from K and G

M and Mommy's card

Excavating Buried Treasure

I actually originally got the idea for the excavating adventure from Chasing Cheerios a couple of months ago, but the idea came up again as the chickadees and I were watching an episode of the Sid the Science Kid, which addressed reversible change.  I decided to put the activity together right then, and the kids were really excited.  K kept asking me if the water had frozen every five minutes it seemed.  This was super easy to put together, and of course, the kids enjoy any activity where they are free to play with water. I simply filled a plastic bowl about three quarters full with water and put small toys, letter magnets, and other knick knacks in the bowl.  The first time the ice didn't freeze as hard as I wanted since we put the bowl in the freezer a little before lunch and took it out shortly after everyone woke up.  The items we used to break through the ice were warm water, salt, and butter knives, our version of ice picks. For me, this is definitely an outdoor activity =). 

Let the fun begin!

After we finished excavating the items, I brought out some extra cups and bowls and let them have fun with the water on the deck. 

It's all water play now

When K and G were done with their water play, I put the bowl and the items back into the freezer, and my husband and K had fun excavating again the next morning while I slept in (thankful to my honey for that). I am sure this time the ice was a bit more difficult to get through.

Week in Review (June 4th)

We had a fun week at our casa last week.  We spent a lot of time getting back into the swing of things after a few weeks away from the normal routine.  We continued our work on our scriptures about self-control. 

K enjoyed working on his Go Together cards and we tried some water transferring activities with a turkey baster.  At first, I gave him a medicine dropper, but the time it took to move the water was much too long to hold his attention.

Matching work with Winnie the Pooh Go Together Cards

Water transferring

G also enjoyed a water transferring activity with a sponge.  This activity definitely had her attention for a good bit of time.

Glancing over at K

Both K and G enjoyed bubbles and play-doh. 

K has some Cars wands, and G has some princess wands. 

K pretended to build a building with his construction vehicles.  G ws content to create flower imprints with her accessories

We also had a little science fun.  After watching Sid the Science Kid in an episode about water changing into ice and vice versa, we froze some small toys in a bowl, and then the kids used salt, warm water, and ice picks (i.e. butter knives) to melt the toys and get the ice out.  We will be doing this again soon.  I talk more about this activity in the post here.

Just getting started here

M is still entertained with the pom tub and his cups. 

Over the weekend, the children enjoyed an impromptu slumber party while my friend was giving birth to her fourth sweetie pie.  All of the kids involved loved that!

All and all, a great week!

Weeks in Review (May 21st and May 28th)

Yes, you read correctly; this is a couple of weeks in review.  I have been away from home for a little more than two weeks, but it has been fun.  It started with a weekend away with my love and ended with five days of vacationing fun, friends and softball with my sister.  My Mom and Dad were godsends during this time as they both helped make these getaways possible.  This time makes for a refreshed Mommy and wife =). 

Due to our travels, our schedule was a little (well, a lot) dfferent.  The kids had their travel tubs while we were with my parents (refer to this post for more information on the tubs), so they did get some designated learning time in (though a great deal of fun and learning were found in lots of places during this time). 

The children got the opportunity to share their verses with the family, which both parties enjoyed.
K enjoyed working with his letter magnets.  Who knew that my parents back door was like a big refrigerator?!  We didn't until K attempted to place magnets on them.  He loved that!

K making words

G enjoyed the Pooh matching game, which was originally in K's tub.  She simply matched the picture puzzles with a little help from Mommy (I had to give her the three cards that went together, usually in order and spread apart, and she put them together and counted the items on the card).

Both K and G worked with the First Words Flash cards, but K used them more (even though these were orginally packed in G's tub; funny how these things work out).  K would put them out, and he and I would take turns telling a fact or something about the picture/word on each card.  G simply identified the pictures and sometimes the beginning sounds of the words.

K with the word cards

G with the word cards

All three children enjoyed time outside with Paw Paw and Poppy.  Poppy enjoyed taking them on wagon rides.

The kids also enjoyed the ultimate in sensory areas, the beach! This was M's first time really being big enough to enjoy and play in the sand. He was so content the entire time we were there as long as sand wasn't in his mouth =).  K and G enjoyed the sand and the water as well.

M enjoying the sand

These were fun times.  We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  My vacation was fabulously wonderful(thanks E for taking me!), but I am glad to be back with the family.

At the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City, OK