Weekly Wrap Up {January 31}

by Meghan // January 31, 2015 // Comments off

The past few weeks of homeschool have been great! We are on week 22 of Sonlight, I think. This week we started reading The Milly-Molly-Mandy Storybook. I have been anticipating this book ALL YEAR and I am so glad we are finally reading it. It is precious, and the kids love it. The chapters are plenty long to have good content, but not too long for their attention. Of course the Lady would listen to me read all day, but even at 2 Mister will sit for quite some time!

Lexie is reading “qu” words this week in AAR, so she was very excited when I told her she can read more four letter words. =) She has been doing really well reading short phrases fluently for practice, and is reading the AAR Level 1 readers great! I love watching her progress; it is so fun for both of us. She is also ALL about writing letters to friends and family. Every day she comes to me with a letter she has written that she wants to send off to someone- this past week it was her cousin Emily, and her friends here in York. Last week she made cards and pictures for her gymnastics teacher .. so this is a big interest for her that we are following. She takes her time, sounding out each word and writing the sound she hears.

In math she has been introduced to simple number lines and graphing, nothing too hard. We are still working on writing numbers; honestly we don’t focus on math a lot at this point. But that is okay, she’s four. We aren’t in a rush to tackle everything!

Her interests are in reading, writing, and art right now.

Max joins us for learning time each day; he usually chooses to color with markers or sort by color- which he is still obsessed with. I am trying to do short structured activities with him a few times a week, if he is interested. He usually is. We also read Max’s Before Five in A Row book each day, which makes him feel pretty special. I am not sure which book we will read through next week. We have spent two weeks reading the Snowy Day and doing activities for it.

This past week we read a book about the universe and solar system; so for science we will be learning about the solar system and planets. I cannot WAIT to study this; obviously we won’t be going in depth like we would if she were in 7th grade, but we will be learning lots of great things!

Our memory work is a poem from The Children’s Book of Virtues; this is a beautiful book included in our Sonlight reading, but I highly recommend it for everyone with children! The kids LOVE this book. Mister is joining us for memory work also and does a really great job with each poem/verse.

This coming week we will be making Valentines to mail out and continuing our Sonlight books. We have spent a lot of time outside this month (January) as it has been unseasonably warm- in the 50s and 60s almost every day for the last 3 weeks. Then this morning, we woke up to snow!

I can’t believe it is already February- we have so much left I want to do, read, and learn with the kids before the really warm weather gets here and we are outside all day. Better get to planning!

Homeschool Curriculum Choices Part III: P4/5 Broken Down {with Sonlight Booklist}

by Meghan // January 12, 2015 // Comments off

I am working on catching up with my Preschool/Sonlight curriculum series.

Here is a breakdown of what we are using this year for the lady; she was 4 in September. We ended up starting in the summer before baby Ila was born, and are still trucking through. This is Sonlight P4/5 materials with some supplements in Math, Bible, and Language Arts (we are not using SL LA because she is too far passed it developmentally, but not ready for the next level up). My 2 year old son joins us for all the read alouds, and then he colors/plays while we school.

Sonlight Read Alouds labeled and on the shelf

Preschool Choices Part III

Bible

101 Favorite Stories from the Bible– Sonlight
The Beginner’s Bible (the original out of print version, read 2 stories each night)
Memory verses from Sonlight
Character lessons (really discussions) using different online resources, based on Sonlight memory verses; I am also incorporating our We Choose Virtues cards.

Reading/Language Arts and Readiness Skills

All About Reading
Developing the Early Learner Books 1-4

Math

Singapore Math early bird
Saxon Math K (we will go at whatever pace she needs, doing a lesson or two a day) *edit* we are probably going to save this for 2015/2016 school year)

Read Alouds

Science

World Cultures/History and Geography

Things People Do
Stories From Africa
People
Then and Now
New Toes for Tia
Miss Rumphius

In addition to each of these books, we will expand on topics as the kids are interested. We just began a new science book, “What’s Under the Sea,” and they LOVE it. So we have been watching some youtube clips of octopi, coral reefs, whales/dolphins, and sunken ships. We go at our own pace. =)

I know, it looks like a lot for a barely 4 year old and a 2 year old. Keep in mind this is spanned out over 36+ weeks. And I am under no illusion that we will complete every single thing, or that what we do complete will be on “schedule.” This is they first year I am not piecing a bunch of different things together, printing everything, and that I won’t be making our schedule myself *yay*

Our days are filled with lots of fun- playing outside, dancing, music, playing pretend, singing songs, building forts, etc. We are just adding more great books, and conversations to our days! Fun!

Our learning routine looks like this:

4yo, 2yo, and I snuggle into the big chair to read SL books together
memory verse
AAR, sight word ring (10-30 mins)
Developing Early Learner pages (she loves these)
Handwriting Without Tears pages (this program has built her confidence drastically in writing and coloring!)
Math pages, math concepts with manipulatives

I alternate the days we do math and HWT, so Lexie isn’t sitting for long periods of time.

Even if you don’t choose to go with Sonlight, keep in mind they are known for their great book lists- and you can get most of them on Amazon or in used book stores.

See my other Sonlight posts here:

Box Day (p4/5 2014)
Beginning Sonlight Part I
What I think so far
Sonlight Part II-Homeschool Organization

Sight Words and Shapes: Using Binder Rings in Your Homeschool

by Meghan // January 5, 2015 // Comments off

Some of you have asked what I was referring to in previous posts when I wrote Lexie used her “shapes ring” or “sight words ring.”

Lexie (4) is a phonetic reader- she can look at a word, sound it out in her head or aloud, and read the word fluently. But despite the fact she can read phonetically, she comes across words that cannot be read phonetically, “rule breakers” as AAR calls them; or sometimes we just haven’t made it to the rule yet. Some educators believe sight words are effective, others do not. We choose to use sight words, because it allows her to expand what books she can read. Some of our sight words can be read phonetically, they are just words we see over and over so we add them to our sight word ring.

To make them, I simply found a list of sight word flashcards, laminated them with my wonderful laminator, hole punch the top corner, and put them on binder rings. Wa-la!

Then, we have the shapes ring. I found some great shape flash cards by doing a google search (but can’t find the exact ones I used to link here. sorry!), printed them off, and did the same thing as with the sight words. Each time we do math, the first thing Lexie does is flip through her shapes ring and names each shape aloud. This is also how she is learning the names of 3D shapes, like prisms and cylinders.

I keep the sight words we have NOT yet learned on their own large ring (the top left in the picture) and the shapes we have not yet learned on their own ring (top right picture).

Flash cards are another controversial topic in education…

Can they be boring? YES

Can they encourage rote memory- YES

But there are effective ways to use them; I like to take the rings Lexie is using and mix up the words/shapes so she doesn’t get used to seeing them the same way. Also, little hands love to flip through cards or pages, and it can give them a sense of confidence and ownership.

This is something SO easy that can be used while you work with other students, get your morning coffee, or sort your teaching materials. Max has some personalized ABC flash cards he likes, so I am going to laminate them and put on binder rings so he can be like big sister.

This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting this sight. =)

Tot Time {sorting by color} December 2014

by Meghan // December 22, 2014 // Comments off

The month of December we were going to take a short break from learning time, however- both kids are still begging to do it each day! So I decided to use this month as a trial for including Max in our structured learning time. Up to this point he has just been too destructive and too much of a distraction for Lexie.

Two Year Old Development

However, about 10-12 days ago, Max woke up a different child! (Mister is 27 months old) He is suddenly (a bit more) obedient, more independent, talking in complete sentences, eating so neatly, dressing himself, and his melt downs have become non-existent. (YAY!) During the time that Lexie is working on her school work, Max has been coloring, identifying letters, and sorting by color (his favorite) with us at the counter. He loves being included, and this fits well with our ultimate goal of everyone learning together.

This is my FAVORITE stage! He has started showing interest in a bit more structured learning (Lexie always showed interest so we have done it since she was tiny). Of course everything is through play and we/they play all day because that is the most important way for them to learn.

One thing I will mention is that, as much as I wanted to, I have tried not to push him to do learning time with us; he just wasn’t ready. And although it was hard for a few months during his really terrible two’s, ~~OMG~~ he has come out of that developmental leap ready to participate a bit!

Between Mister participating in learning time, and Ila stretching her wake time and feeding schedule, we have an ever evolving daily routine. So for a quick run down, our new routine looks something like this:

7am- daddy gets them up, eat breakfast, while mommy feeds Ila
7:55/8am – Ila goes down for nap, mommy cleans kitchen from breakfast, does a few chores, everyone ready for the day, kids outside if weather permits
8:45am- Sonlight readings for the day, Bible verse of the week, and discussion of any books we read. Sometimes we watch a video about what we have read (for instance this week we watched a few youtube videos on octopi, coral reefs, and sunken ships on the ipad. this is a treat, not a regular thing)
9:30/9:45- learning time- this includes Lexie’s All About reading, practicing sight word ring, shapes ring, HWOT work, any copy work, and math practice. We don’t do all these things every day. Some days we just doodle, color, and talk!
10:30- Max and Lexie to independent play/mommy feeds Ila
11:30- Ila down, big two eat lunch, outside if weather permits
12:15 Max down for nap
12:30 Lexie down for nap
1:30/2 Ila up to eat
2:30/3pm Ila down for nap
3:00-3:300 L and M up from nap, outside again if weather permits, if not we play and read
somewhere in here I prep dinner if I haven’t already
4:30/5- Ila up and eats
5:30/6- eat dinner; Ila back down for last nap of day (we are working on stretching to a 4 hour schedule, when we get there she will drop this nap and do a bit earlier bedtime. Until then she usually needs to be held during this cat nap. We don’t have the swing up or I would use it instead)
6:40- L and M to bed
7pm- Ila’s last feeding of the day, in bed by 7:40

And that is it for now. Hopefully in the next 4-6 weeks Ila will have her 3.5hr feedings stretched to every 4 hours. AAAAAH the 4 hour feeding schedule- YAY. That is when things really get easier. But for now, this is working out well for everyone. I have a little bit of time right now while all the kids are down for nap that I can rest, blog, or sew. =)

But, back to learning time- sometimes after we do our Sonlight readings for the day, we just sit at the table and talk while we all doodle and color. During this time Lexie spells words, practices writing and drawing, Max identifies letters, shapes, and numbers that I write on his paper. We also count, Max may go get a puzzle to work on, etc. So we are learning but it is much less formal and just as important as the formal stuff we do. This is a precious time, and I am so fired up about teaching them!

I am so excited about this time together! It is so much fun watching Max grow and develop from a baby into a big boy toddler; and Lexie is just becoming a sweet, precious little lady, while Ila is becoming more alert every day. We have so much fun.

**One more thing I want to add- I never thought Max’s terrible two’s would end. It was truly hard, stressful, and I was learning to breathe my way through the day. But IT DOES END. And on the other side there is a happy, independent, clumsy, and sweet phase- that’s where we are. Lexie never had terrible two’s (or at least they weren’t very hard if she did) so it was all new to me. If you’re a new mama in the throws of tantrums and all that is the two’s, just continue to be consistent and steadfast because it does end; and when it does, all the time, effort, and discipline you have put in during the hard time pays off!

And it is so much fun! So let the tot-time blog posts begin.

Thanksgiving Books for PreK and K Children (4+ years)

by Meghan // December 8, 2014 // Comments off

This Thanksgiving was the first year we really focused on the history of Thanksgiving. Honestly, I don’t know why I waited until this year? Maybe because we usually aren’t home during Thanksgiving? I don’t know … anyway. This year I checked out a few books at our local (very small) library about Thanksgiving. Throughout the last year, we have come across books and stories that involved Native Americans, so I knew that part of Thanksgiving would really interest Lexie. Turns out, she loved the books we go. Here are a few (keep in mind, this is just what was available at our library, there are many good Thanksgiving books out there).

Thank You, Sarah: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving
Spuds– We LOVED this book. J.Tom read it to the kids; we laughed so hard we were crying. I am not sure what made us laugh so much, the language it is written in, or the fact that we knew it was hard for Lexie to understand. But she got the overall message of the book.
Don’t Know Much About the Pilgrims– This book had lots of good information you may not already know about the Pilgrims.
The Pilgrims’ First Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving on Thursday (Magic Tree House #27)– We are still reading this one (Nov 30) and Lexie is enjoying it.
Tapenum’s Day: A Wampanoag Indian Boy In Pilgrim Times– This one is great! If you are studying Thanksgiving, or Native Americans, I highly recommend adding this book to your collection/unit! Lexie enjoyed it, and we will probably hold on to it longer than the others, but I think boys would really enjoy this! We may try making some of the tools and weapons from the book.

So, there you have it; these were our supplemental books for Thanksgiving reading. I know it is a bit after Thanksgiving, but you can pin it for next year. =)

Family Advent Devotional: Good News of Great Joy!

by Meghan // December 3, 2014 // Comments off

My family and I were so blessed to review a wonderful new Advent devotional for Christian families! Good News of Great Joy, ($3.99!) by Rachel Tiemeyer from Thriving Home, is a wonderful way to begin your family’s Christmas season.

This e-book devotional is written for children ages 2-11, but is definitely appropriate for all ages. Each devotional is set up for a weekly reading and activity, but you can schedule this out daily if you’d like. This is what I *love* about this particular program- it isn’t a crazy busy craft or activity every. single. day, requiring tons of supplies. It is gentle and simple, just how we like to focus on Christmas in our home!

What’s Inside

There are four (4) devotions; each devotional has a “read,” “pray,” and “discuss and do,” section.

Read: you read the devotional from a Bible of your choice (she has even referenced the particular stories in some of the most popular children’s Bibles- The Jesus Storybook Bible, and The Rhyme Bible Storybook), or several different Bibles.
Pray: Pray about what you have read
Discuss and Do: Here is where you complete an activity. These are fun and simple, but meaningful. You can do one activity, or all of those suggested with your children.

Christmas is one of my favorite times of year- while the world is spinning into utter chaos over material things and sales, we relax, focus on the birth of our savior, and spend time together. We use this time to remember why God sent Jesus to Earth, and thanking Him for that precious gift. This devotional helps us do just that!

So if you are looking for an Advent Devotional (your first, or maybe a new one), head on over to Thriving Home, and get a copy now!

Merry Christmas!

Weekly Wrap Up: November 2014 {and Notebooking American Girl Books}

by Meghan // December 1, 2014 // Comments off

This month has flown by! Thanksgiving is already over and everyone is prepping for Christmas.

We haven’t had any real weekly updates the last few weeks, because well … we haven’t done a lot of formal schooling. Most everything has been relaxed and theme based. And of course, we spend a lot of time just snuggling Ila. =) I mean, I spend 6 hours a day nursing her, and after every feeding Lexie and Max both request a turn to hold her. So, we school when we can. 😉

Fall Indoor activities {quietinthechaos.com}

Lexie and “Jane Kirsten” having a picnic, building forts, happy baby ila

We worked on some pumpkin activities, which involved Max making his own pumpkin description book. (you can find it at www.ThisReadingMama.com) He really enjoyed it! We are still working on NOT eating the markers … =)

Handwriting Practice and Fine Motor {quietinthechaos.com}

practicing handwriting, coloring with markers, gluing pumpkins in book

We also had our first big snow: (Lexie doesn’t mind the cold if she can play in the snow. Mister refuses to keep his clothes on, so of course he gets “too cold” and needs to come in. haha)

Lexie is still notebooking her way through the Kirsten of American Girl series. She loves doing this and I am so glad she does. I am going to introduce her to a timeline soon. We have been talking about so many things in history lately, and I know it will help her understand something so contrast if she can see a visual. We have two chapters left to notebook, and then we will move on to the next book. I got our blank notebooking pages from notebookingfairy.com. I chose the biography pages, whole punched them, and put in a folder with prongs. We will add to it as we go.

Notebooking “Meet Kirsten”

Last Saturday I was working on some knitting, and Lexie asked if I could show her how to knit. Of course I said yes! I love that my girl wants to sew and knit! So, this is the little progress we made. You may be wondering how I helped a four year old knit- I sat on the edge of my chair, and had her stand between my legs, so I could get my arms around hers. I place my hands over hers, and we just went through the motions. By the end, she knew exactly what to do, although she struggled with the dexterity needed. I have no doubt she will be able to do it herself before long!

We did do lots of reading about Thanksgiving. You can see my post of supplemental books for Thanksgiving HERE (link coming soon). Lexie really enjoyed this and learned lots of new vocabulary from these readings. She has been using the new words every chance she gets!

And then, of course, we had Thanksgiving dinner. Usually we spend Thanksgiving traveling to see family, but this year with Ila being so little we just decided to stay home. It was my first year to cook a real Thanksgiving dinner for my family- we had turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole (from scratch, might I add…) and pecan pie. And of course I am using my turkey bones to make bone broth! As my sweet Lexie said, it was a “real Thanksgiving feast!” She was so funny, she was kinda wiggling around on her seat during dinner, and she says, “I am just wiggling my belly so I can make room for more!” haha She definitely belongs to us!

Between all this I have slowly started back running on the treadmill, and decorating for Christmas. I hope to get you a recipe for that DELICIOUS green bean casserole soon, and an update on our Advent activities. =)

Happy Holidays, and stay warm!

{easy} Oven Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

by Meghan // October 23, 2014 // Comments off

If you are like me, you *love* fall. I love everything fall- apples, pumpkins, leaves- and now I can add roasted pumpkin seeds to that list. These were a lot of fun, and are packed full of nutrition. The best part is you can involve the kids in the hardest part of the work, getting the seeds out of the pumpkins! =) We used it as sensory play, letting them get messy and having a big time!

Here’s what you need to do:

1. cut tops off the pumpkins and scoop out the seeds

2. Rinse the seeds well in a colander.

3. Bring seeds to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for 10 minutes (don’t forget the salt for flavor!)

4. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Now drain seeds. Place in a bowl large enough to toss well. Toss with olive oil and salt (and any other seasonings you may want to add)

5. Spread evenly on a baking sheet and bake at 400* for 5-20 minutes. Ours took about 20 minutes, and we flipped them every 5-10 minutes to get the entire seed toasted. They are so good. We got seeds from two pumpkins (it would have been 3 but the tot threw the seeds from one pumpkin all in the grass..) and it was plenty of seeds!

oven roasted pumpkin seeds (so easy!) {Quiet In The Chaos}

Your seeds really need to be more spread out than this … we were just a little lazy. They still turned out good!

And that’s it! This was very easy, and is a great way to let the kids help while learning and playing. We eat on them as snacks, and I plan to use them in a granola recipe. Yum!

What is your favorite fall snack?

Pumpkins & Fall for Tots and Preschoolers

by Meghan // October 19, 2014 // Comments off

Having a 4 year old that begs for learning time can be a challenge with a two year old all-boy toddler literally running around, and a 5 week old baby in the house. So when it comes to our themed and “extra” activities, I like to try to find things they can do together. That way if Mister doesn’t really want to participate it is okay, but he is able to if he would like. This month we are studying pumpkins. While Lexie is ready to learn what kind of plant a pumpkin is, and how a pumpkin grows, Mister’s activities are much simpler.

Max (2) will be learning and focusing on:

the letter “P”
the color orange & coloring pumpkins by following instructions
Completing a “My Pumpkin” book (color, cut, and glue) from www.ThisReadingMama.com
Gluing/matching pumpkin shapes (from www.1+1+1=1.com)
Count the Pumpkins (also from www.1+1+1=1.com)
P is for Pumpkin do a dot (also from www.1+1+1=1.com)
reading (his favorite poem) Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater
words (non sense included) that rhyme with pumpkin
textures of pumpkins (smooth, bumpy, etc)
introduce why leaves change color in the fall
Reading pumpkin/fall books

Lexie (4) will be learning and focusing on:

how pumpkins grow
what kind of plant pumpkins are
words (non sense included) that rhyme with pumpkin
Completing a “My Pumpkin” book (color, cut, and glue) from www.ThisReadingMama.com
Counting pumpkins math sheet (we will use unifix cubes to add hands on) from www.1+1+1=1.com
Pumpkin number match book (from www.childcareland.com)
Pumpkin Syllable Count and Clip (from This Reading Mama)
introduce why leaves change color
reading pumpkin/fall books

Now, obviously all of these activities aren’t solely focused on fall; many of them just include pumpkins. But at this age especially, I am following my children’s lead as to what interests them. Lady loooves “worksheet” type activities, cutting, pasting, assembling books, etc. Mister … well, he is just being introduced to activities and learning time, so I am still trying to find what he loves to do. Also, many of their activities overlap; I will modify and adjust as needed for Max.

Hopefully we will be making a trip to the pumpkin patch soon. We spent some time playing in pumpkins last week. This was great sensory play for tots and preschoolers- they had fun digging out the insides and sorting the seeds. We then roasted the seeds for yummy snacks (which they ask for constantly). I plan to use some of the roasted pumpkin seeds in granola as well. We talked about how the pumpkins felt- were they rough, smooth, smushy, hard, etc.

This unit has been a lot of fun so far, and I suspect it will be a lot more fun as we continue through it in the month of October. I was hoping to get more of the activities and lapbooking done before this post went up, but life got in the way. Hopefully I can bring you a post full of completed activities and lapbooks in the coming weeks!

Weekly Wrap Up: 10/17/2014

by Meghan // October 17, 2014 // Comments off

Welcome to weekly wrap-up for the week of October 17, 2014! (Today is actually mine and my husband’s 8 year anniversary! woo hoo) Anyhow- here is a little update on what we accomplished this week.

Lexie (4) worked on her sight words each morning. I have printed out many different “sets” of sight words, which I have laminated. I keep these on a “master” ring, and as I assign them to Lexie, I put them on her own ring. This is something I learned while student teaching under a great Kindergarten teacher. These are words like at, the, am, that, my, you; basically words she will see a lot while reading, but that don’t follow the typical reading/phonics rules (although some do ..). She does great with these, and we introduce 1-2 new words as I feel she is ready.

While he was out getting groceries, daddy grabbed us some pumpkins to play in! He cut the tops off and we let the kids scoop out all the goop and seeds. They put the seeds in a clean, empty bucket; later we washed and roasted them in the oven (post coming soon!). We did this last year also, and they enjoyed it a lot. Lexie had more fun than Max (he surprisingly doesn’t care much for “messy” play), but Charlie enjoyed eating the seeds they dropped!

Unfortunately, both of them broke out in a rash after playing in the pumpkin (which they had smeared all over their faces and arms). We still aren’t sure why this happened? They ate the roasted seeds, & those didn’t bother them …

cheeks broken out from pumpkin? =/

One thing is for sure, I’ve gotta get the kids some epi pens. J.Tom has severe reactions to wasp stings and would need to go to the ER if stung on his chest/neck/head, and although the kids have never been stung, I don’t want to risk what might happen if they were.

This week I started doing more “structured” activities with Mister. He knows maybe 1/2 of his letters? But isn’t interested in sitting down and learning them like Big Sister was. I am 100% okay with that, but thought he might enjoy a quick craft to get introduced to the idea. He enjoyed it for the most part; he isn’t a fan of glue on his hands (yet), but he had fun making an “H” and hanging it on the door by Lexie’s creations. While I did that with Max, she created a magazine collage with pictures she found in my Real Simple magazine.

For Mister I am going to focus a little on a letter or two a week and plan an activity for him to join in on while Lexie does something independently; he loves to be included, i just need to find things he enjoys. After he gets the hang of activities I hope to incorporate Before Five In A Row after Christmas.

For his H activity I just cut out a letter H, had him help me come up with “H” words (he knows his letter sounds, just not all the correct letter names) to write on it, then he colored on it and made ovals. I traced his hands and he glued everything together.

And you know … we do a lot of this (after every feeding, actually). They always want to take a turn holding Baby Ila after I nurse and giver her a bottle.

How was your week? Did you do any new activites?