Weekly Wrap-Up: Week 11: Givin’ Some Love to the Younger Ones!

Usually my wrap-ups focus on Grace’s learning and activities, so this week I’m going to focus on my younger daughters for a change!

Ella asked me two weeks ago to teach her to read so she can read the books big sister Grace reads. How could I say no? Last week we reviewed all the letter sounds- she still sometimes misses q, w, x, and y, but has all the others down! She has been able to recite short and long vowel sounds for awhile, as she learned the phonics songs with Grace over a year ago! I picked up this Phonics book and CD set at a Christmas Tree Shops store and we still listen to it about once a week! You should see Lydia bust a move to “A Little Cat, Cat, Cat”!

We got out the first set of BOB books and Ella read through the first two books really easily! The books Mat and Sam are really simple and do have pictures that pretty much tell the story, but she was able to sound out “cat” and fluently recall the words again later in the book. I was so impressed- but a little skeptical! However, I do know that neither my husband nor I have read the books to her and Grace hasn’t read them in over 6 months, so she either has really great recall or is catching on to these reading concepts really easily! I decided to test her further, and made “short a” word flash cards so she would be seeing only the words- no pictures! Again, she was able to sound out the words and read through the stack of -at words fairly effortlessly. I wanted to keep it fun, so I drew coordinating pictures for the -at words and we played Match and then Memory with the cards. Ella had so much fun with the games that she played throughout the week with anyone who would play- me, Grace, Daddy… even all by herself! I'm really grateful that no one has said, "Hey Momma, this fat card looks like you!"




Lydia has also mastered a new skill- WALKING! She is our latest walker, but I’ve been okay with the delay! A less mobile child is much more content to “stay put”, and most babies just want to be able to go, go, go as soon as they learn to walk on their own! I am curious as to how this new skill will affect our school time, although I still do fit most of it in during her nap in the morning! Here is a little look:





Okay, that was a fakeout! But, I did want to share her funny little “crawl”! She has always crawled like that, kind of scooting along and dragging one leg… but both our pediatrician and our chiropractor have checked her legs and hips several times and determined she is just being “unique”! Here’s a brief clip of the REAL DEAL!




No, I absolutely was NOT bribing her with her pacifier. ;-)


Our big girls also enjoyed a hands-on project with Daddy this week- building Rain Gutter Bookshelves!


“Is this how we measure, Daddy?”





Level on the first try! Well done, Daddy!





Ta-da! All done, even with our beds spread and ready for quiet time!





We mostly followed the directions as posted at Raising Olives and they turned out great!

Interested in what other "Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers" do? Check it out!

Weekly Wrap-Up: Week 3: The One Full of Blessings and Praises!

The beginning of September always seems to bring an avalanche of activities. Praise God that it starts off with Labor Day- an extra day home from school for Daddy! We all took a break from school that day and just enjoyed being together as a family. I was especially grateful for the extra day of help since I slipped and twisted my ankle over the weekend. Resting with feet elevated can be quite difficult with so many little ones underfoot!

We welcomed a new addition to our family this week…




This hungry, wiggly guy chomped on milkweed for a few days and then slipped into his chrysalis during our afternoon quiet time.



Sorry about the “through the plastic wrap” view, but it’s for his protection, as is the perch high atop the shelves in our kitchen. We have very curious little homeschoolers here at the stream!

My little blessings were extra helpful this week! Grace and Ella took on extra jobs, allowing Momma a chance to rest and heal. Grace was extra particular while sorting the cloth diapers- organizing both the inserts and the pockets by type.





She was also very accommodating with her school setting- relocating to the living room and a makeshift desk so my ankle could stay elevated. Although this injury has been a bit of a trial, I am appreciative of the “trial run”… it gives me hope that our school time will still be productive even if I need to be situated on the couch leading up to and following the arrival of Blessing #4!




Ella also enjoyed the more relaxed setting- and a Momma who is willing to call playing games an important part of our school day! (I am especially willing to do so when they are educational games, anyway!)



Some of you may be wondering, “I thought they had three daughters… where is the other one???” Well, I try to squeeze most of our schooling in during the morning when she is doing this:



But, sometimes we start school earlier in the morning and Lydia gets to learn and practice, too!




Part of Lydia’s morning time is “scheduled” playtime with big sister Ella. It’s such a blessing to see our children developing a loving friendship! Lately they have been playing “school”!




Their playtime also facilitates some mostly uninterrupted direct instructional time with Grace. Here we continue to develop her math skills- counting to 100, counting by 10s, and arranging numbers in order.



We also worked on filling in the missing numbers. She really enjoyed this activity!




We added Spelling to Grace’s coursework this week and we are loving the curriculum! I will probably have to modify the pace of the lessons, as she breezed through this week’s work, but it is nice to ease into additional subjects. I really like the integration of Scripture and writing prompts, too. After all, there should be A Reason for Spelling, right?

Grace really enjoyed using our new letter tiles to practice her list of words.






During our spelling review, Grace noticed two eagles flying around outside! I snapped a quick pic from inside, then we quietly stepped outside to get a better view. Okay, maybe not so quietly… they flew higher and farther away, but we did get to watch them for quite some time!



The Scripture for this week’s Spelling lesson was Psalm 136:1, "Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good." We tied it in to our Bible time and read a story about the same verse from our ABC Bible Verses, Letter O. Then we listened to Forever by Michael W. Smith. We danced, sang, and praised God with full hearts! The girls requested that we play it over and over and over again. It was such a blessing to me- of course I obliged!

Part of me was still (and is still) in awe from the news about God’s newest blessing in our life, and I was able to demonstrate my praise and thanksgiving through this worship time. I truly cherished this time of singing, dancing, and praising our Heavenly Father with my children! I am so grateful for the opportunity and conviction to homeschool our children… I can’t imagine having missed this morning of praise with my beloved blessings!

The girls have also delighted in their time with Daddy, waking up early to at least wave goodbye to him, if not share breakfast before he heads to school, missing him throughout the day, and gleefully welcoming him home as soon as he steps through our door! I am appreciative of the chance to start dinner preparations (or even have 5 minutes to myself) while Daddy practices soccer with the girls outside!








You can check out everyone else’s week over at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers!

Works for Me Wednesday: Bean Counters

What's a frugal, homeschooling mom who needs math manipulatives but is too, um, frugal to purchase those oh-so-cute counting bears for $10 to do? Well, what "Works for Me" is waiting until a Christmas gift of dry bean soup mix falls off the display shelf and spills all over the floor. Pick the many beans off the floor, add a mini muffin tin, and Ta-da! Free math manipulatives! Here is how we use our bean counters:

Sorting by kind or color... great for preschoolers! Tip: Small preschool hands work best with larger beans. I have removed all the split peas and lentils from the bean bag, as shown here.



Dropping beans in the cups to match the number produces a satisifying "plink." Again, larger beans are better, otherwise some of the quantities will have to be recounted numerous times as multitudes of split peas and lentils suddenly appear with the drop of a single kidney bean.



Grace loves to check her work with the beans. I, too, prefer it when she uses the physical manipulatives rather than copying the correct answer for another page! A few numbers and coordinating bean quantities accomodate both addition and subtraction review!



Creating patterns is a fun activity, too! Here Ella reviews the pattern to find which bean she needs next.



Grace's patterns are more intricate and difficult to recreate, but she does a terrific job! Especially when she has been served a delicious breakfast by her loving sister!


We love our bean counters! You can check out other great ideas at We are THAT Family's Works For Me Wednesday.

Weekly Wrap-Up: Finding our Groove???

This week ran a little smoother than last week. Of course, it helped that we had more days "on schedule". We hosted our own kindergarten and preschool orientation, which the girls loved!

A breakdown by subject this week:

Reading:
We soaked up all the Daddy time we could on his last day home!


Reading time just may be our favorite part of our school day!


Library books are always fun for a new adventure!


Math:
A rekenrek is great for reviewing counting by 5s and 10s!


We also love to use our bean counters! Here, Ella works on patterns.


Phonics/ Spelling:
Working on wordsearches, crosswords and rhyming pairs is a fun way to practice phonics and spelling!


Bible:
Grace continued reading in her Early Reader's Bible. This week we discussed the two faithful spies, Caleb and Joshua, and their trust that God would help them conquer the Promised Land (and the Hebrew's lack of faith). We also read about Joshua and the Battle of Jericho.  We talked about God's power and how He brought down the walls of the city. I asked the girls if they could push down the walls of our house.
"No!" was their enthusiastic reply.
"Well, what if you walked around our house, like the Hebrews walked around the city of Jericho? Would our walls fall down then?"
"No!"
"Then how did the walls fall down at Jericho?"
"God did it, just like He said He would!"
"That's right, girls, because God always keeps his promises!" (I love it when they GET it!)
For our family movie night, we watched one of our favorite Veggie Tales movies, Josh and the Big Wall.

Handwriting:
Ella had a lot of fun working through some of our wipe-off writing books! I have found a new love, too... Crayola's dry erase crayons! They are just the right size for children's hands, don't smudge or smear and end up all over their hands and clothes like dry erase markers, and wipe off easily -but not too easily- and without any water! Now, if I had only found them on sale...


Art:
We also added a new "official" subject this week! Grace and I are working through Draw Write Now, Book One to further develop her skills. She loves it and it has become a great motivator to complete our other schoolwork in an expedient manner!

First lesson: Hen and Chicks


Unlike her Bible drawings, where she usually wants to copy something directly from her reading, with this drawing she was excited to create her own story!


Second lesson: Pig (completed with Daddy!)

Besides the wig, this unusual pig also has a towel protecting it from the rain!

That was our fun week! Be sure to check out what everyone else was up to at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers!

Our "Homeschool Bus"

Who says homeschoolers have to miss out on all the "normal" stuff??? This week our local public schools had their kindergarten orientations. Our Daddy came up with the brilliant idea to host our own kindergarten (and preschool!) orientation for our students-- complete with a bus ride!

Grace and Ella were completely delighted with the idea! They donned their backpacks and hopped in for a ride with the best "Homeschool Bus" driver ever... Daddy!


When they arrived at "school", Grace asked Daddy, "Can we do this again tomorrow?"


Walking home (aka "school") from the bus stop! I pray their excitement and love of learning lasts all throughout our school year... and the rest of their lives!

Weekly Wrap Up: 2010-11 Week "One"

I know I have been absent from here, and I'll probably address that... later. I have not, however, been absent from homeschooling our children, and I wanted to jump back into blogging by sharing about that! And, why not dive right in and link up with other homeschooling families at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers?

We homeschool year-round, but since Daddy is home from school during the summer, we tend to take extended breaks and focus only on our core subjects (Math, Reading, Bible). Sadly, this was our last week before Daddy starts back at school again, so we eased into our more "regular" schooling schedule and I decided to call it Week "One" of our 2010-11 school year. Tuesday was our real trial run, as Daddy spent the morning at school preparing his classroom. While we were able to complete all our scheduled subjects for the day (before lunch!), I learned the hard way that having a younger sibling learning at the table distracts the older sibling from efficiently and attentively completing her own work... especially when she decides to "help" the younger sibling with her work. I will have to adjust our school schedule to compensate for individual table times, especially for Math work, but otherwise we utilized Lydia's naptime very effectively!

This week's Bible stories were about Moses. I love having the girls draw about the story afterward! It's really fun to have something colorful to hang up on our magnetic wall to show Daddy when he gets home!


This one is complete with Moses and his staff, two walls of water, lots of Hebrew children, and a pillar of sand!


Mt. Sinai is apparently very colorful and has trees around it, even if it is in the desert!


We also discussed the miracles God performed and how powerful God is. Here, the girls try to "part" the waters like God parted the Red Sea. This exercise was especially effective at illustrating how we cannot do what God can!


I assessed Ella's "start of the year" knowledge since it was Week "One". She is able to identify all of her capital letters and numbers 1-10, arrange the numbers 1-10, and count out the appropriate number of beans per number 1-10! Sometimes it is surprising how much they pick up in the short, targeted, but consistent lessons! She was especially thrilled to use "sister's" beans and numbers for her Math time!


We took our first field trip of the school year, too! We visited Pemaquid Point Lighthouse first.


The girls and I explored the Fisherman's Museum there while Daddy and Lydia prepared lunch.


The girls really loved seeing a lobster trap up close! We prepared for this trip by reading several books about lobsters.




After lunch we headed over to Fort William Henry.


This was a must-see stop as we have been learning about archaeology in our Story of the World studies, and the fort has hosted archaeological dig sites for the last two years! We were able to peek into the archaeology lab and see some of the work they were doing!



When we mentioned we had made the trip specifically to see the archaeology lab as part of our homeschool learning, we were gifted an activity book about the fort! The girls also each received a State of Maine State Parks Passport. This was possibly the best part of the day for them! They immediate wanted to read through the passport, so we did!


Each page highlighted a different state park and had a place for a stamp. After we climbed all the way to the lookout deck on the third floor of the "castle", we headed out to find the stamp!


We discovered several old, ruined stone foundations and a "NEW OLD" building project!


We finally found the stamp in the museum! The combination to the lock was the date the park was founded!


There were lots of great artifacts and relics that had been recovered during the digs. The girls also liked the interactive displays, like this one where they sorted the items into "Present" locations and "Past" locations.


We found a great "Little Beach" before heading home and cooled off in the very cold ocean water. It felt great! On the way home I asked the girls if they would like to visit another park the next day and get another stamp in their passport. "No, I'd like to stay home... I'm tired," Grace replied, the only child awake! Our first field trip was a great way to end our summer with Daddy home!