Counting to 100 (by 1's, 5's, & 10's)

Target (2nd best store to Goodwill) has foam hands in their dollar section and so I coulnd't resist buying two sets of them. 

I wrote on each finger 1-100.
On a piece of tape in the middle of each hand I counted by 5's.

Andre now has a visual for counting to 100 by 1's, 5's, and 10's.

This game is even more fun because he gets to sit on my shoulders to point to the numbers at the top of the door.

(and yes, Andre's ninja outfit consists of black tights with pink hearts on them)

Wood Working Class 101

Kids LOVE tools -

 so we gave them all wood, a hammer, and some nails...

Instant Learning - Instant Fun

P.E. class homeschool style - GOLF

Another homeschool perk -

Daddy gets to teach us all golf on a beautiful day!

Eli Dash

The Father

The mother

Eddie James

Simone Marie



Andre Charles

CHICKENS

Josh built me a beautiful chicken run that is

attached to an insulated dog house (craigslist purchase).

Pepper and Salt

So... many people ask - why do you have chickens?

1. They are so cute! 

2.They come when I call and they follow me around

3. Eggs - but they are seasonal egg layers

(maybe next year I'll hook up lights to get eggs into the fall)

4. As vegetarians its important that our kids view animals as animals and not something deep fried and smothered in sauce

5. This is good practice for the farm we're going to have someday!

Word Study - three letter words

In order to reinforce the idea that words are made up of a combination of letters Ander did an assortment of activities.

1. Make three letter words out of playdough.  I wrote the word on a piece of paper and made the letters out of playdough for him to copy.

2. Sounding out 3 letter pictures with scrabble tiles.

3. Sounding out three letter words and matching them to a
     picture.

** To make the picture cards, I cut pictures out of old workbooks but magazines and websites are both good sources.  Examples of words we used are: cat, rat, web, hat, fan, can, bat

I'm BAAAACK

I know I have been gone from blogging for practically a year but I have returned. 
Of course I am still homeschooling my children and I may occasionally post about things we have done in the past. 
But just to give you an idea of what my past year has been like (and to help explain why there has been no time for blogging), let me tell you about my last 24 hours...

Andre climbed into my lap last night at 7:30 to tell me that "the money went down my throat".  When I asked him if he swallowed a penny he said "I didn't do it".  But he obviously did swallow a  penny because that is what the doctor pulled out of his esophagus this morning! 

Children ... how can they be so cute and innocent but oh so naughty at the same time?

Now all the kids are cuddled up on the couch watching CAPTAIN AMERICA...

Sewing Valentine Heart Pillows

           First: Cut out 2 hearts

 

Second: Sew the hearts together - inside out

Third: Turn rightside out, stuff, finish sewing together

LAST: Hug and Snuggle and give to a Valentine

Creative Writing: Create a story for the distorted picture

This assignment was hilarious!
I uploaded a picture of Simone and Eddie to FotoFlex.com
Then I distorted their picture and had them write about it.

*** Edison had a hard time making his character fictional ***

Edison wrote:
Alien Big Nose has a fat nose. 
When Big Nose sneezes he makes trees fall. 
He runs away from the trees. 
He is me.  He is not an Alien.
Mom made my picture funny on the computer.

***Simone had a lot of fun with this.  She really liked teasing Eddie about his picture! ***

Simone wrote:
Big Eyes can see well because she has big eyes. 
She can eat well because she has big teeth. 
Where does she come from?  Jupiter is her home. 
Flying around is what she likes to do.

Andre's ABC Games

Although we review with ABC flashcards, Andre learns the letters best through games.  Here are a few that we have been doing...

Andre is jumping on the letters that I tell him to find.

Andre is driving on the letters and telling me what they are.

Andre is pointing to letters that I say.

Andre is shining a flashlight at the letters as he tells me thier sounds.

Andre can write his name!!!!!!!!!
(He was still working on his e when I took his picture)

Andre and Eli where playing music together. 
I was leading them in a round of the alphabet song.
It's Eli's turn to start learning his ABCs:)

Fingerprints

1. We read about finger prints in our Science Book.
2. For each kid, Josh dipped one of their thumbs in ink and
    made two prints of them - on two separate pieces of paper.
3. We mixed up the prints and the kids had to look closely at them to find the ones that match.
4. Then, Simone and Eddie had to write and type a paragraph about it.

Simone is getting her thumb dipped in ink

Simone's thumb print

Simone's Finger Print Paragraph

Edison's Finger Prints

Edison's Finger Print Paragraph

Andre's Finger Prints

Sewing Buttons

Grandma taught Simone how to sew on buttons

Simone's designed her buttons to make an "S".

Aunt Sonja is showing Eddie how to sew buttons.

Edison's basketball pillow now has a face :)

Learning how to type a paragraph

The kids are learning how to write an interesting paragraph. 
We are working on having each sentence start different.
After it we edit it together, they type it on the computer.
Then it is printed, illustrated and put into their binder book.

Simone is writng about our button collection.

Edison is writing about being a ninja.

Andre is practicing typing letters that he knows and
erasing them with the backspace button.

Eli is so silly... he climbs into everything!!