Obviously been MIA for a while. The last 2 months I had one of those "life learning" experiences. At the first of May, my mother discovered a large cyst inside my neck. Long story short---it turned out to be a benign colloid cyst inside my left thyroid gland. I underwent ultrasounds, CTs, and 2 biopsies to determine the nature of the cyst. I have to tell you when the word "cancer" was first thrown out at me, I was scared. Mainly for my boys. I underwent alot of soul searching, prayer, and pouring over the book of Job. It has been a scary experience, and the outcome will have some side effects, but I feel very blessed and a better person because of it. Last June 28th, I underwent surgery and had the cyst removed. It was rather large, measuring 2 inches wide! The risks outweighed the option of just leaving it alone. So for the next few months, we will just see if I will need thyroid hormone replacement or not. Kind of a waiting and watching game.
So soon, I plan to update and share with you my following projects:
1. the schoolroom - the look, the layout
2. our curriculum and school plan for 2012-2013
3. still working on my "Why we homeschool" story/statement
4. working on a Sunday morning Bible class schedule/curriculum
5. monthly meal plans
6. scrapbooking and shutterfly books
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Learning through Games
Not long ago, I joked on Facebook,"Who said the Wii isn't educational?" Isaac was playing Wheel of Fortune. It actually was helping him learn his vowels, spelling patterns, and numbers. Children love to learn through play because it comes natural. Choosing some fun games that have some education behind them can help them learn without it being a sit down with pencil and paper time. Just make sure it is not all "Edutainment" and actually helps them learn a concept you want them to grasp.
Before Isaac was even 2 he learned his letters and sounds by playing on Starfall.com. Unlike Eli who could care less and gets mad at the mouse, Isaac was a natural at the computer. He loves learning and playing on the computer even today. I let him play a game called Civiballs. It is great for cause, effect, thinking things through, and a little bit of physics. Neon Maze is another good one in which he as to use that noggin.
The other day, I taught Isaac to play Yahtzee. He needed some help with the Lower Section, but the Upper Section was really good for him: adding, grouping, introduction to multiplication, strategy, counting by 2s, 3s, etc. The best part is I got to spend time with him.
Here is a dice game we played this morning and one we've done in the past:
So we use the Lauri pegs and board with some
big foam dice I got through Oriental Trading.
I didn't see this game anywhere, we just made it up. So if you've seen it anywhere, its purely coincidental. Who knows, maybe it is in the instructions, I don't know! We take two dice and foam mats 2-10 (because you can't roll just a 1 with two dice, and the box doesn't come with 11 and 12). We roll the dice, Isaac has to tell me the answer. (reinforces his math facts) Then, we place a peg on that number. We roll until we have no more pegs. When we get to the end...
We make a graph, count our pegs for each number
and see which number was rolled the most.
Now this game originally came from www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com
but it was too easy. You roll the dice and circle which one you rolled.
This would be an early game for learning your dice patterns, numbers, and counting.
So we changed it up, and took turns rolling the dice to see
who got the higher number in each square.
Then we tallied up my wins and his wins to see who the grand winner was.
Isaac wanted it to be more challening, so we made boxes
with the numbers through 12 and used two dice.
This again, helps him reinforce his addition facts because we
are rolling two dice to add together.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Community Helpers and More
Been MIA for a while, but we've been busy! So here a few things to catch you up.
In March, we went to Roundup, an annual homeschool educators camp for members of the church of Christ. Met so many great people, and we really look forward to going back. The boys were sportin their shirts here. Hope to have actual pictures of camp in the future to share.
The boys have been as onery as ever. Keeping me on my toes.
Workin on some potty training. Unlike Isaac,
Eli needs some lessons in modesty,
but it does make potty training easier!
Wish me luck!
However difficult they be at times, my boys bring me joy,
and I'm so thankful that I get to stay at home with them.
I'm working on my own "Why We Chose to Homeschool" topic that I will want to share in the future. It is more for me, but perhaps it will answer questions as well. With Isaac's Kindergarten year coming up, I knew I'd be getting more and more questions and facing those that might be a bit judgemental in our decision. Just feel the need to get my thoughts out on paper. Hope to share that soon.
So here are some things we've been doing:
Mama has been on a 30 day yeast/gluten/refined sugar free diet. Trying to develop better habits. Today is day 30! Now I'm trying to decide my meal plan for the next month and decide which foods I will allow myself to add back in. The goal is to leave the refined sugar treats for special occasions. (ex.don't make a batch of cookie dough and eat on the dough all week...lol) The best thing about this has been new recipes and ideas on healthier snacks!
The boys certainly didn't mind my sugar free snacks!
Notice the chocolate on Eli's face and that longing look for MORE!
We got carpet in our schoolroom! Remnants from the Sterling church building!
Gotta love the orange...lol. Piece of my childhood in here.
We started a unit on community helpers.
Read library books about each career. We made lapbooks, too. Most of the material came from
We've learned about police officers, fire fighters, librarians, and post office/mail carriers so far.
Occupation cards from Mardels
Here's our policeman costumes.
We played a stop and go game like red-light, green-light.
Happy officer
Mad officer
Happy officer
Our homemade stoplights. Eli wasn't convinced that it wasn't his instrument.
Note: On the Making Patterns section. I laminated and put large magnets on the back of the cards.
The actual squares you see on the lapbook have magnetic paint behind them, so it sticks!
Studied Fingerprints
I made a notebook full of our work.
Laminated alot of this stuff b/c color ink is expensive.
Then we just use wet/dry pens.
The graph is a dice game using these things I bought.
Isaac had fun with it.
We did a fire experiment. I didn't take pictures cause you really gotta watch Eli around fire! Here is the site where I got the idea.
Our mailbox. These came with their valentines this year.
I bought them because I thought it would be perfect to let them play
"mail" or "post office." And that is what we did!
Isaac had to purchase paper, an envelope, and a stamp. I then helped him write letters to his Daddy, Leah, and Nick. This activity turned into a shopping activity. He got his shopping cart and started filling it up. I was the cashier. I told him that will be one quarter, dime, nickel, penny, etc. So he was learning to identify the coins, but he thought he was playing! ;) We also made a trip to the real post office to pick up a package. Isaac had to do the talking.
We go to the library every Thursday so he is pretty familiar with librarians.
This was an activity I made while in college. You alphabetize the books on the bookshelf.
A teacher friend gave me these old books that were being thrown away.
I swear these are so familiar. I think they were the same readers I learned from. This is 1st grade and Isaac is whizzing through the reading. He doesn't like the workbook though. Phonics rules, spelling, and writing can come later. He just wants to read, read, read!
I bought this cool little slip pocket thing.
Perfect for dry erase and reusing supplies!
I have alot of folder games from Words Their Way. I keep this bin full of the ones he can do, we've worked on, or are currently working on. These go in his little reading corner.
This box holds little readers he can read independently. I kept alot of Leah's old readers from kindergarten and 1st grade. Isaac has been reading alot of those. Apologetics Press easy readers are great, too.
Watching God's creation at work! We found this on our front porch.
We'll be turning this into a study of the Butterfly Life Cycle!
Love how education just happens at home!
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
The 5 Senses
So I see Isaac's football toybox in the floor...
And out pops my little turtle!
Alright, so I wish I could have these deep thought provoking blogs, but I guess its not my style nor my talent. Today I'm gonna share with you what we did for learning the 5 senses last week. I try to be short and sweet with lots of pictures #1. Because I don't have time to do much more than that. #2. If you're looking for ideas, it makes it easier for you to skim through! and #3. Keeping it short and simple on here is good for me so that I can look back and remember. So here ya go!
We used Mr Potato Head throughout the week.
Each day we studied a new sense, and then we added that corresponding body part.
We also used it for review. Isaac put it together as he named the senses
and what we do with them.
We worked on our lapbook each day.
Most of the inserts came from www.homeschoolshare.com.
Some pictures or diagrams that I used were just found under yahoo image search.
We added the front cover pictures on the last day as review.
We had a different verse each day that corresponded to each sense.
These went in the Bible Verse pocket of the lapbook.
TASTE flaps and diagram.
The diagram of the tongue showed the locations of
sour, sweet, salty, and bitter. We looked at each others tongues
to see the bumpy taste buds.
Inside the TASTE flaps were pictures of 4 different items we tasted.
We labeled them sweet, sour, bitter, or salty.
We also gave them a smiley face or a sad face---whether Isaac liked them or not.
Cookies-sweet, lemon-sour, unsweetened cocoa-bitter, and tortilla chips-salty
We read "Quiet Loud." I copied the page in the back of this book that had quiet and loud sounds listed. Isaac pasted the quiet sounds and loud sounds under the appropriate flap. We looked at the diagram and discussed the parts of the ear (on his level of understanding). We also read "The Ear Book."
I had a cd of different animal sounds. We listened to each sound and the boys had to guess what animal was making the sound. They loved this one. They literally went crazy with giggles.
TOUCH was a fun one. I traced Isaac's hand and cut out some
felt, foam craft, and sandpaper all in the shape of his hand
so they could feel the different textures. We also did fingerprinting and read a book
called All About Hands. It focused on the fact that God gave us hands
and the things we can do with them.
I had a mystery bag. I would put a different item in it each time that
they had to feel without looking and guess what it was.
We had a rock, cotton ball, playdoh, and I forget what else...
I should have wrote it down!
F is for fingerprint
Feeling for the letter F.
Fingerpainting!
At first they were all neat and paranoid about getting dirty.
I don't want to mix the colors!
But with two little boys...things don't look this sweet for long.
Ya gotta get dirty.
Isaac said, "Are we artists?" Hard to see in this pic,
but his paperplate is spinning in front of him. It was pizza he said.
They got in trouble at one point (for fighting) and had to go lay down.
Eli was so worn out after fingerpainting that he fell asleep holding his lightsaber.
Isaac pretending to be asleep cause he "never takes a nap."
Sense of SMELL - We had 5 jars with cotton balls and different scents.
He had to guess the scent and rate them. He guessed the peppermint,
but I forgot to tell him not to get his eyes too close for that one.
The peppermint burned his eyes and made them water!
The SMELL pocket held perfume samples from magazines
and then we discussed the diagram of the nose
...the eye diagram was for the next day.
The SEE flap had aluminum foil inside for reflection.
You can also see the Bible Verse pocket here.
We talked about eye doctors and how they check your eyes.
I had Isaac read the eye chart. Then we talked about Braille.
I had this little Braille alphabet card.
We looked at various items under the magnifying glass.
Starfish, seashells, wasp nest, birds nest, animal jaw bone,
we looked at our fingerprints
And got silly
and even more silly
We played a game where I placed several items on a tray. Isaac had to look at it and try to remember the items on the tray. When he wasn't looking, I took one item away.
He had to then look and guess which item I took away.
We went through several "I Spy" books. These were easy level books.
We also played I Spy with colors while eating breakfast in the kitchen that morning.
Summary flap in the lapbook.
3 pictures. He had to glue next to the picture---the senses he would use with each.
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