Week in Review #42: Ff is for Farm and Family Reading

The activity you see above was by far my favorite and the idea just came to me while flipping through my Pinterest boards.  The girls "built" a farm with various printables.  All I did was glue on the "sky" and "grass" on big pieces of cardboard, and then I let the girls creativity take over. :) Autumn was more interested in seeing how much glue she could layer on. Four (!) glue sticks later we were done. Glad I stocked up during all the back to school stuff. :)

The completed works:

All is well on Hannah's side of the pasture...

..unfortunately Hurricane Autumn went through and
mixed everything up a little. :)

More fun from the week:

Building airplanes (this was her doing!
Impressive!)

Making numbers with the new Play Doh set
her daddy got her

Fall Bingo

Flower puzzle

Hannah pointing to something intriguing
in her math

My cool mom moment of the week--licking beaters while
I made snickerdoodles!

Isn't this the cutest coloring page? Capital
and lowercase letters are each a different
color so you can see what the picture is
(in case it wasn't obvious :p)

Hannah is doing great with the Daily Language Review.  Of course the concepts aren't really review for her so we're having to spend a day or so more on each assignment, which is fine. She's understanding what makes a sentence and what doesn't. Everything else is going along just fine as well. She's still very much into astronomy. On Wednesday we talked about how cold Mercury gets when it's not facing the sun.  I asked her to draw in her notebook what Mercury looks like when it's cold. She drew Mercury in an ice cube! I just laughed out loud! How clever is she!

I did not stress myself this week at all. We got back from Clarksville on Tuesday, so we only had a 3-day week.  We still got the basics done--math, language, Bible, and astronomy. Autumn has recently taken to this animal puzzle game on my phone and can put together all of them in mere minutes. I was sneaky and put it at the next level of difficulty and she still did well. :)

 During meals we have picked up again on reading Little House in the Big Woods.  The kids didn't seem very interested after a couple chapter, but then Hannah asked me to read some one day during lunch and we've done it every day. Although Hannah has the tendency to interrupt constantly, just with whatever random thought that pops into her head (Gee, Ryan, I wonder where she gets that from!).  Today I finally had to tell her that if she interrupts then I was going to stop reading and we  would just pick it up again the next time.  She seems unhappy to stop so abruptly, so maybe it'll work.

The weekend is already looking full--soccer game, birthday party, and church! Fun stuff!

Printables

Build-A-Farm: Barnyard Friends by Whimsy Primsy, At the Farm Printables
Flower Puzzle: 2 Teaching Mommies
ABC coloring pages: Hidden Picture Color by Letters
Bingo cards: DLTK's Custom Bingo Cards

This post is linked up to the Weekly Wrap-Up.

Week in Review #37: Cc is for cat and Copernicus

Working hard no doubt. :)

This was a short week due to our trip to Clarksville on Thursday.  I was bound and determined to get more organized this week and get a good flow going. Seems like every week since we started school there has been some reason for me to not follow through for the week (church day camp, traveling) but I knew if I kept that up we would not get anything done. This week was wonderfully different.  Despite only having a three-day week we got a lot done. We finished our first lesson in astronomy which was just learning what astronomy was and how perfectly God created the universe. :)

Hannah was very excited about this project!

The yellow ballon the far left represents the sun and the rest represent the planets.  I tried to make them the correct sizes in comparison to each other.  This was an activity at the end of the lesson and I really believe it helped Hannah start to remember the order of the planets and all their names.

Autumn traced this herself, no help from me!!! I am so proud!

A low point of the week was on Tuesday when I wanted to go to Kroger and work some coupon magic before the latest sale ended.  Turned out the battery in my truck was totally shot. We took it to Auto Zone and it was so bad they couldn't even check the charge in it!  But the Lord is good and we were able to get a new one.  So we come home, Ryan puts the new battery in, and the truck starts right up.  Cool, right? Still anxious to see what goods I can stock up on, I put my stuff in the car and I turn around to go back in the house to get my phone.  Walking through the garage, I hear this buzzing and then this searing pain in my ear.  I GOT STUNG BY A WASP!!  ON THE EAR!!  My automatic reaction is screaming and swatting at my head, no doubt scaring Ryan and the kids (who are splashing in the pool nearby).  I fall on the ground, glasses falling off in the process, and just sob! It...hurt...BAD!  I'm happy to say that as I type this the swelling has gone down a lot and it's barely sore.  After a bad car battery and getting stung in the ear, I didn't want to see what else could possibly happen so I sadly did not get any couponing done.  I figure my safety and well being was worth a lot more. 

I'll end this post on a lighter note and show the one "c" craft we got done this week:

C is for car

The idea for this craft came from Toddler Approved.  Pretty fun idea to use old Playdoh lids for wheels. :)

Posted at the Weekly Wrap-Up

Summer Reading Program

The girls both participated in the summer reading program at the Millington Public Library--Hannah read and Autumn was read to. :)  Every three books read got a chance to put your name in a drawing for a new bike--plus they also had a bunch of little prizes depending on how many books you read.  We didn't win the bike, but the girls were perfectly thrilled with the little prizes they received which included night lights, styrofoam gliders in the shape of bugs, glow in the dark lizards, and bubbles.

We signed up three weeks ago I believe.  Got a late start but I had already started tracking all the books Hannah was reading this summer. I just had to start also tracking the books I read to Autumn. :)

Autumn's books

The Berenstain Bears Go to Camp
The Berenstain Bears and the Trouble with Money (times that by 10! She loves this one)
Spongebob: The Great Snail Race
The Berenstain Bears Go to the Doctor
The Berenstain Bears and the Sitter
Old Hat New Hat
If I Lived Alone
Molly Moves to Sesame Street
The Berenstain Bears Go Out for the Team
The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Birthday
The Berenstain Bears and the Homework Hassle
The Berenstain Bears and the Double Dare
And To Think I Saw It On Mulberry Street
The Berenstain Bears and the Golden Rule
The Berenstain Bears' Moving Day

Hannah's books

Hop on Pop
Little Bear's Visit
Llama Llama Red Pajama
Owl at Home
The Bears' Christmas
A Kiss for Little Bear
Kindergarten Count to 100
Father Bear Comes Home
Little Bear
Are You My Mother?
Green Eggs and Ham
The Cat in the Hat Comes Back
Go Dog Go!
Wings on Things
Oh The Thinks You Can Think!
Bears on Wheels
The Berenstain Bears and the Sitter
Old Hat New Hat
If I Lived Alone
Molly Moves to Sesame Street
The World of Dick and Jane
Wacky Wednesday
And To Think I Saw It On Mulberry Street
Little Bear's Friend

Oh, yes, we love the Berenstain Bears around here! :) Ryan likes to make up his own stories when reading to the girls like saying Sister and Brother are going to reform school rather than summer camp. He is such a hot mess sometimes.

Caterpillar Craft



Who loves chubby toddler hands? I do! I do!

Materials

-foam circles
-paint
-googly eyes
-construction paper
-cut up pipe cleaners
-cup with a very flat bottom
-glue

Glue circles on paper to form the caterpillar. Glob on bits of paint, 3-4 colors.  Take the cup and place the bottom on the paint and turn it to create a swirled effect.  Glue on eyes.  Glue on cut up pipe cleaners for legs and antennas (which we forgot :-p).

I can't remember exactly where this craft came from but I know it was linked to Toddler Approved.  The only thing I changed was adding the foam circles, just to make it a little easier.



Hannah's finished product...pic wouldn't
rotate. Still cute. :)

And of course, the book to go with it is The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. :)

Paperplate Dinosaur

Red-handed--I hope in some way
this isn't foreshadowing. :-/

 Super easy and you just have the kids paint and piece it together.  You want to give them some extra work have them cut out the body parts and cut up the paper plates themselves. 

Materials

paper plate
paint
foam sheets
glue
scissors
googly eyes
scotch tape or stapler
glue stick

(Doesn't it seem like my material lists are the same with just about every craft? Ha.)


Autumn is very influenced by Picasso

Cut out the center of the paper plate (which will be the body).  Cut off a third of the edge of the paper plate.  That will be the tail.  The other piece will be the neck.  Have your child(ren) paint these pieces in their color of choice.  Meanwhile cut your head, legs, spots for the body, and tail end out of the foam sheets.  Try to match it to the color of the paint,  but that's obviously not a requirement.  I'm not one to knock someone's creativity. ;)   

Such a diligent crafter :)

 Let the paint dry for at least 10 minute before attaching body parts.  Use either scotch tape or a stapler to help your child(ren) attach their body parts (especially using a stapler!).  Of course it's just easier than dealing with messy glue.  Go ahead and use a glue stick to attach spots to the body and neck. Glue on the googly eye.


Hannah said she made her dinosaur look like he's running

I also started thinking I should probably have a story to go with each craft--kinda like when we go to story time at the library.  I'll make the story here "Danny and the Dinosaur." :)

Famous Homeschoolers

This list was taken from the book The Well-Adjusted Child: The Social Benefits of Homeschooling (which finalized my decision to homeschool!).  Very interesting to see.  I'm sure some of these people are "weird" in their own right (aren't we all?), but they definitely found their passions and ran with them.

Ansel Adams
Claude Monet
Leonardo da Vinci
Charlie Chaplin
Alexander Graham Bell
Thomas Edison
George Patton
George Washington Carver
Albert Einstein
Booker T. Washington
Winston Churchill
Benjamin Franklin
Pearl S. Buck
Sandra Day O'Connor
Charles Dickens
Agatha Christie

Famous Homeschool Parents

John Travolta and Kelly Preston
Paul Overstreet
Robert Frost


There were some others listed, but I did not really know who they were. :-/ Then there were others I would not exactly use as a model of homeschooling (LeAnne Rimes, anyone?). 

Free eBook: 31 Days to Clean--Today only!

Being a homemaker the day to day tasks can become pretty mundane, and it's hard to ever say I enjoy cleaning. :-/ Of course the end result is always a pleasure, but having the right heart is always important.  I am really looking forward to reading this book.  I know how to clean--it's just a matter of finding contentment and joy in this part of the job that God has called me to do.

Click here to find out how to do get your free copy! :-D

Week in Review #27: The Countdown Begins!

 Is it too late to start a countdown until the last day of school?  ;)  Well, we have a mere 33 days! That's counting weekends since there are some Saturdays when the school mood strikes.

Monday was perfect zoo weather!  Peyton the Polar Bear got to be reunited Hannah while swimming. :) We can never get enough of those bears!  While Ryan was off Tuesday we did some unexpected spring cleaning, mostly in the the kids' room and the school room.  We purged a lot of toys and packed up clothes the girls have outgrown.  The trunk of Ryan's car filled quickly with stuff for the Goodwill!  There were no church activites on Wednesday because of Holy Week (a bit ironic, isn't it?). 

The girls watching Peyton
go for a dip

The books read this week were "Green Eggs and Ham" and "Are You My Mother?" Flipping through Hannah's phonics book I saw that the last few lessons include the ow/ou sounds and the sight words 'should', 'would', and 'could'.  Hannah's already learned those from reading actual books! Sheer awesomeness!

I started writing out the field trips we've done this year.  I'll put down the name of the place and underneath that I'll put the dates.  I'm up to 15 and I'm not even done yet! It's going to be a bit of a pain since I just recently got the idea to do this so I'm going to have go to go through the blog and see when we went to the library and the zoo. :-/

Until I was going through all my pics I did not realize I had
taken this! Love it!

Week in Review #26: "Real" Books

Ryan took the girls to the zoo on Tuesday while I was stuck
at the dentist have a cavity filled...hooray for me. :P

Since Hannah is so far through her phonics book I figured she could handle some "real" books (such as Dr. Seuss).  Well, she actually took it upon herself one day during quiet time.  I give her all the credit! :)  At the beginning of this week she had already read "Go Dog Go!" and "Green Eggs and Ham".  Throughout the week she read "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back" (definitely not my favorite Dr. Seuss, hopefully a lot of you can agree). I'm planning on incorporating more actual books for next year along with this thick phonics workbook called Reader Rabbit that's a lot of review and reinforcement of the phonics rules.

Autumn loves doing her puzzles during school time--or "puzz" as she calls them. :) As soon as she got up the other morning she asked, "do my puzz?" For next year I definitely need to get on the ball on more fun things for her during school time.

Speaking of next year, I have decided that no matter what our school year will end May 28th!! I'm sure we won't be done with the phonics book by then, but we should only have a few lessons left. I'm sure I can just roll that right over to first grade. :) Everything else should be no problem.  We will take June off and start first grade in July!!! I'm so excited!!!

I'd really like to do something special for Hannah for doing so well through the year and being that this was our first year homeschooling. Any ideas?

Week in Review #20: A Mini Spring Break



Autumn covered with
mud, thus began a messy
adventure

This week actually began on Thursday. Ryan and the kids were in Clarksville again, this time Sunday through Wednesday.  Ryan was wanting to trade in his truck and get a car from the same dealership since he's kept in touch with the salesman, blah blah blah (I won't bore you with that :-p). The car was taking a while to get ready, and we thought they would  be there one or two nights tops.  It was totally fine though, since the kids had a ball with their cousin and their grandparents.  I for one was all by my lonesome, which was alright.  I'm not going to say I totally lived it up but it was definitely bizarre.  Although I forgot how nice it was actually wake up on my own and have some coffee without telling the girls to stop acting psycho! 

The girls loved seein their
cousin!

By Wednesday I was missing Ryan and the girls pretty good.  I was so glad to see them, even though the girls were sobbing something fierce from being so tired.  I can understand that feeling for sure. Autumn had to take a nap the next morning to finish catching up on sleep.  Hannah and I jumped right back into her school work the next morning (Thursday) which was wonderful and productive.  Ryan said Hannah was reading various signs on the drive home like "Wal-Mart" and "Starbucks"...just sounding them out using those handy phonics rules she has learned. ;-D


 Autumn is all about books these days! Makes me want to jump for joy! She will cram as many books as she can in this one basket (which I used to use to keep diapers in) or a tote bag, drag it to either her room or the couch, and sit there looking at all of them.  once in a while she will ask me or Ryan to read one  to her. I have pretty much given up trying to fight her to take a nap so I let her sit in her bed and  look at books, which has gone beautifully!!! So now both girls have quiet time.  Hannah has hers on the couch in the school room since that limits the misbehavior that would undoubtedly occur.  Autumn is now becoming distressed that she can't look at books at bedtime.  I suppose eventually we can work something out to where both kids can look at books quietly for a half hour or so before lights off.

Bringing Up Girls

Over the past year I've become quite interested in various parenting books, preferably from a Christian standpoint.  I asked Ryan for Bringing Up Girls by James Dobson for Christmas and it is so phenomenal. I am not at all a science person, but I really enjoyed reading the chapters talking about what happens in the female brain that makes us the way we are. I about laughed out loud when Dr. Dobson said that when the male brain is "bathed" in testosterone in the womb that the part of the brain dedicated to communication is disconnected. That's why so many wives complain  that their husbands don't talk to them! Ha! I think in Ryan's case they might  stayed connected and added a chatterbox mechanism, but I digress...

Anyone who has a daughter or is pregnant with a daughter needs to read this book!!! I felt so encouraged that just because the rest of the world is going you know where in a handbasket doesn't mean your family has to! I am also kind of intrigued to read Bringing Up Boys...just in case. ;) I will at least be picking up Dr. Dobson's other books.

What are you reading?

I'd like to start talking about books I've recently read on occasion.  What's so hilarious is since I started homeschooling I feel like I have time to read.  When Hannah was in preschool, I would start reading a book but then it would be time to pick her up and then the rest of the day would jam packed with other things.  But I digress....

The Outsider by Ann Gabhart

This is a Christian historical novel about a young women in 1812 who is a member of the Shakers and falls in love with a doctor who has come to treat a burn victim in their group.  The Shakers oppose marriage and basically believed anyone in the outside world is of the devil.  I knew nothing about Shakers prior to reading this, so I was a bit intrigued.  While the violent details of the War of 1812 were a bit shocking, I enjoyed the story.  I did find the end a bit unsatisfying--something that definitely calls for a sequel.

The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids by Alexandra Robbins

The author shadowed several high school student during their junior and senior years--those types of students who are involved in every possible activity that would look good on a college application while stressing themselves silly over getting nothing less than a 4.0 GPA.  These kids are suffering physically, mentally, and spiritually--shakes, depression, losing hair, suicidal tendencies, taking diet pills to stay awake--and for what? The author also talks about different cultures' takes on education and the No Child Left Behind Act.  I am only a fourth through this book and I'm already recommending it to anyone whose kids are high school and younger.

The Duggars: 20 and Counting! by Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar

This is obviously for those of us who are big Duggar fans (like me!).  A lot of the info throughout the book has already been mentioned on their show, but there's a lot of new stuff--great suggestions about getting your kids to sit still and how to keep better organized in your household.  There are also a few family photos that I have never seen prior on TV.  I also enjoyed reading about the many business ventures they went through in the first years of their marriage. Wow! I am truly impressed by their diligence and their vow to never carry debt, not matter how small.  Their testimonies how God has blessed them in situations where anyone would assume there was no hope has really encouraged me. 

Wishin' and Hopin': A Christmas Story by Wally Lamb

You might remember two of Wally Lamb's novels (She's Come Undone and This Much I Know is True) as being chosen for Oprah's book club.  His books are amazing, but the subject matter can be a bit heavy.  I'm usually a bit emotionally distressed for a day or so after finishing one of his books. :p This book, I am happy to say, is very light reading and will provide quite a few hearty chuckles.  A good coming of age story about a 10-year old boy and the in's and out's of pre-pubescent life such as a dirty-mouthed best friend, the intriguing foreign exchange student, and being related to certain Mouseketeer.  I read this in only a few days after the kids went to bed.  Two thumbs up! :)

The Well-Adjusted Child: The Social Benefits of Homeschooling by Rachel Gathercole

I read this a couple months ago, and I consider this the go-to book for anyone who is considering homeschooling.  If homeschool has crossed your mind, then you need to buy this book.  Now.  Reading this book made me feel so silly to ever question the lack of socialization and, as a matter of fact, it made me wish I was homeschooled! Something that is touched on throughout the book is being homeschooled, your child actually has time to be a child rather than stuck in a building for 8 hours a day.  Kids have time to pursue their interests and actually prepare for the real world.  I could go on and on about this book, but I'll let you read it and decide. :)

Now tell me what you're reading! I'm always up for recommendations! :D

Rediscovering a Classic

Remember that big (or little depending on your city) building in almost every city in the country where you could read and study as long you wanted and even take books for free for a certain amount of time? If you haven't yet guessed, I am referring to the library. When I was a kid, I remember very distinctly going to the library very often. Since graduating college, the novelty of the library had faded...until I discovered the children's library. The children's library here in Clarksville is quite charming with various landmarks in city painted on the wall, a big play area for kids of various ages, and stuffed characters from various children's books lining the shelves (Hannah was glad to see Mama Bear, Sister Bear, and Brother Bear during our last visit). I guess I should mention the hundreds of books that fill those shelves. :) Don't forget about the fact services are free...did I mention that? Since moving back to Clarksville, we have made it a point to go to the library at least once a week. The girls play for a while and we wrap up our visit with the girls selecting a few books (or 12, as with our last visit). The girls will grab books off the shelf at random which has been great since we have made some wonderful discoveries--new stories and characters. Somehow Hannah ended up with 3 different books about monkeys. Must be a popular subject among children's authors. We also ended up with two different books from a series about a little opossum named Gilbert who is always in the process of learning valuable life lessons (think of the Arthur books, more or less the same except it's a different animal). The book pictured here shows the importance of telling the truth, which has been great since Hannah has been testing the waters of lying lately. We're trying to nip that in the bud by giving the illusion that me and her daddy are much more clever than we really are, but that is whole different series of blog posts I'm sure.