Week in Review #45: Ii is for Insects and Ice Cream

My star students :)

Even though we did an insect and ice cream theme last week, we had more fall activities than we did during F and H week! I guess the fall spirit is finally hitting me. :) The girls did have some hands-on insect activity (all done on their own :-p) through digging in the dirt in the flower bed.  I didn't mind since everything is starting to die. They are both intrigued by bugs.  Crazy girls. 

Hannah started adding double-digits this week. When I saw it coming up in her book I really dreaded it, but it hasn't been too bad. You just have to break it down little by little--add the tens place and then the ones place. Not so bad.  We finished up Venus in astronomy.  Our next lesson is the moon, which I'm going to wait on because I want it to coincide when we do the letter M. :) Until then we can focus more on other subjects, possibly get a little ahead.

The week's activities:

patterns

prewriting

cutting practice...getting better!!

We made a chain counting down the days
when Ryan comes back.  This is 10 days and
now there is only 4!!! :-D

A pic that wouldn't cooperate :P These are fall trees. The
trunk and branches are hands and forearm and then they
finger painted the foliage using red, yellow, and orange

fall sensory bin

ice cream letter  match

safety first in soccer

puzzles

Insect cutting strips...these can be done simply with
paper, a sharpie, and stickers.  Super easy to include
in any theme, or use your kids' favorite characters! :)

Hannah wanted to have a picnic in the yard for lunch on
Thursday :)

This week we are working on Jj, and so far everything is going very well.  Yesterday was a bit bumpy (more on that later...oy), but Ryan will be home on Saturday so this week can't be anything but good!!


Printables (not all are pictured)

Ellen McHenry's Basement Workshop - Insect Activity Pages (these are all black and white which I fully appreciated! I cut all the activities and stapled them together to make little booklets.)
Lanternfish - Letter Ii worksheets
2 Teaching Mommies - Bee worksheets
2 Teaching Mommies - Ice Cream worksheets
Homeschool Creations - Fall Fun Learning Pack

I'll Keep Future Visits a Surprise!

At the Memphis Zoo entrance

My parents came to visit us for the weekend.  I think my mom was tired of hearing about all our zoo adventures and she wanted to see it for herself. :) Let me tell you what I was tired of--Hannah counting down the days for a week straight!! Every single morning the first thing she said, "Only (x) more days until Grendy and Papaw get here!" Oh my gosh! I started to think that I should keep their visit a surprise, but before I could tell Ryan my idea he had already told Hannah they were coming. Oh, well.  We spent Saturday morning at the zoo, lunch at Chick Fila, took a nap, and then they took the kids to their hotel for the night!  Ryan and I took advantage and had a date! We had dinner at Joe's Crab Shack and saw the new Harry Potter (wonderful! I actually thought it was worth paying to see it in the theater!).  Sunday was church and then lunch at IHOP.  I actually ordered something light...kinda proud of myself. :) A great weekend and now the countdown to the Atlanta Zoo will begin!  Ten days!

Fun pics from the weekend:

post-zoo lunch at Chick Fila!

Autumn and Papaw at IHOP

cooling off at a misting station at the zoo...those things are amazing!

hanging out at the herpatarium

Grendy and Hannah at IHOP

Hannah and this super huge python..wow

Julie and Splish get a drink :)

lounging at the pool at Grendy and Papaw's hotel

Grendy comforting Autumn on the carousel...oy

rattlesnake!

Ryan is amazed by the steampot at Joe's!

sea lion show! so cute!

sweet sisters

Some Highlights (and a few lows)

1. Hannah drew a vampire eating a bear.  Sigh. How does she know about vampires anyway? I don't read all this vampire fluff that's been going around. Hannah showed me the drawing and I told her that it wasn't very nice of the vampire to be doing that. She agreed, so she drew a new picture showing a vampire and a bear hugging. Hm. I guess love is all you need.

2. The kids were playing in the pool while I sat nearby clipping coupons.  I look up and Autumn is whacking Hannah with a plastic golf club, while she was only floating around on a noodle. I did not spare the rod. 

3. I'm finding so many free printables for preschool! It makes me giddy. :) I will have to stock up on printer ink and possibly get a laminator.

4. Hannah had an appointment with ENT today (for her overly sensitive hearing)that I completely forgot about. I just happened to call them this morning to double check when it was and they were like, "Today at 1:30." Whaaaa? Well, we were all already dressed...I just had to pack up our stuff and hit the road.  All turned out well.  It was one of those appointments where you feel kinda stupid for bringing your kid in the first place. Know what I'm talking about? Yeah.

5. I had a blind (play)date with another homeschool mom for this afternoon as a park about 20 miles away. I went straight there after Hannah's appointment.  She didn't show up, Autumn fell asleep in the car, and I didn't have her number, so we left.  I got an email from her later asking if I was on my way because they were there (I noticed she sent it from an iphone.  If the time on the email is correct she was there 30 minutes after our said meeting time).  I replied explaining Autumn falling asleep, etc and asked if maybe we could reschedule for something indoors since it was so hot out.  As of now, I haven't heard back.

6.  Autumn took a nap after we got home: 4:30-7:30.  Oh yes. This night should be a fun one. I was kinda hoping she would just sleep through the night. Silly mama, tricks are for kids.

7.  It's only the beginning of June and this heat is already wiping me out! It's supposed to be 100 degrees this weekend!! Summer 2008 I was huge and pregnant with Autumn and I don't remember the heat affecting me so much. Bleh.

Week in Review #18: Angry Bird Incentive

Monday - Snow just came out of nowhere! We got 3-4 inches! I am so indifferent toward it now. I just praise the Lord I don't have to worry about what the school system is doing! ;)  I gave Autumn a few little sticker sheets to put on paper and she counted them out of nowhere! "1...2...3...three stickers!" I know there are 2-year olds  who can count to 10 or whatever, but I had never heard her do that! I was giddy.
Tuesday - A new rule: no playing Angry Birds until school work is finished! Hannah has gotten to the point where she asks to play it on my phone immediately after breakfast.  Her attitude has also been a bit sour when I tell her it's time to get some work done. I figured this would be a good incentive. It seemed to work pretty well since counting by 2's finally clicked a little and she read 4 pages from her phonics (as opposed to the usual 2).

Wednesday - Everything we needed to get done was done before 9 AM. That's always marvelous.  Reading, math, Early Learner, and making valentines for family. Woot! We got more snow, too, and church was cancelled. Kinda bummed, but it was still nice to just stay home and vegetate. :)  Although I don't think it was anything compared to the snow Clarksville was getting! Thankfully everyone I know and love is fine.

Thursday - Ryan wore the kids out playing in the snow, so I didn't push school work today.  I assumed both girls would have an awesome nap, but they didn't.  I heard them giggling and talking.  I figured as long as they weren't destoying stuff I wasn't going to stress over it. At night Hannah stays up 30 minutes to a hour later than Autumn, and when Hannah went to bed she was actually disappointed Autumn was already asleep.  I guess she was looking forward to one of their chat sessions. :) I assured her that she would have plenty of time to talk to Autumn tomorrow. Too sweet. I'm definitely glad they're sharing a room now.

Friday - I can't believe it's Friday! My days are so mixed up now.  Since starting homeschooling I was already losing track of days, and now with Ryan's work schedule it's become worse.  Ryan is off Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, so those days feel more like the weekend than the actual weekend.  Today was very productive school-wise.  I also told Hannah that she could not play any computer games until school work was finished, along with playing Angry Birds. The games she plays are educational, but that is just considered extra.  We get the main stuff done first and then do the supplements, if you will.  She is all about getting her stuff done so she could play her games, and I am all about making her redo her work if she gets in a hurry and it's illegible. :-p

Week in Review #7

This has definitely been one of our busiest weeks since starting school.  There was not one day when we were home for a long period of time.  It's a good thing definitely. :)

At the beginning of the week, I realized I had not been including Autumn in our Bible study.  And why not? I have no idea. I'm a fool, I guess.  Even though she's only 2 it doesn't mean she won't eventually start to understand, and in the meantime it's also a nice time to spend with both my girls.  We either do Bible study while the girls are eating breakfast or at night right before they get ready for bed.  A great blessing! (I'm talking about Bible study...not necessarily bed time but take it how you will).

Monday - We met the church homeschool group at the park.  The girls had such a good time.  Unlimited recess for us homeschoolers! Since addition is still a little challenging, I dragged out Hannahh's many Littlest Pet Shops hoping that would help.  Just one of those areas we have to spend extra time on. 

We went to church since we having a revival that lasts through Wednesday night.  Dennis Nunn is the pastor leading it, and we really enjoyed hearing him on Sunday morning.  The study is entitled "How to Actually Enjoy Being a Christian".  Whudda thunk? :-p Plus, a few extra nights in church during the week never hurt anyone!



Autumn actually came home with those
little rocks stuck in the cuff of her pants!

 Tuesday - Hi ho hi ho, off to the library we go! Four and five-year old story time and craft.  Hannah made a "polite dinosaur" and we checked our usual 15-20 books. Always fun.  A month or so ago I started saving the receipts from the library just so I can see later on all the books we've checked out and we have acquired at least 7 receipts already!  I wish I had saved them from all the times we went over the summer!

After lunch Ryan took Autumn with him on a few errands so Hannah and I could do some school work.  Math went a little better.  Church also went very well.  Dennis Nunn talked about having a better prayer life and I felt very encouraged.


Hannah made a very detailed caterpillar
from Play-Doh--actually taking little pieces
to roll and make legs. How's that for fine
motor skills? ;)



Wednesday - Autumn was up and down all night with a croupy cough.  I hate the sound of that. The best thing I could think of was the change of seasons are making her allergies act up.  She was up at 10 (Tues night), 2 AM, and 4 AM.  After she got up at 4 I couldn't go back to sleep, but after Ryan got up I went straight back to bed for 2 hours.  It was glorious! 

I had an idea for maybe helping the girls share with each other a little better.  Declaring that different times during the day is "play together" time when they are to share nicely and not holler for me unless someone is bleeding out of their ears (a little extreme, no?). Ryan is not home all the time obviously, and I am never guaranteed to make dinner in peace.  I guess it comes with the territory of having more than one child, but I would like to eliminate as much hair grabbing and toy stealing as I can.



I discovered Autumn has quite a few
Halloween shirts so we better get as much
mileage out of them as we can!

 Thursday - We went to the homeschool storytime and for once Autumn didn't run around the library squealing like a heathen. Thank you, Mr. Stroller! After story time we visited my grandma and had lunch there.  The visit came to an abrupt end when Hannah pinched Autumn for picking up a toy she was done playing with.  For that, Hannah's favorite bear went to "jail" (the spare bedroom) for the night along with her radio which she always has playing when she goes to bed.  Obviously the designated play time isn't showing immediate results, but it's just one of those things where I will have to be consistent. School work went pretty good.  Math is still a source of frustration for the both of us.  I started looking into finding cute songs and/or games to help with addition and counting money. I got a couple of suggestions from some friends on Facebook that I'm looking into.  All her other subjects are coming along just fine so I maybe we should focus a whole day on math and see where that leads us.  That's what so great about counting money and addition--that you actually use it in everyday life so it's not going to require me strapping Hannah to a chair with a stack of worksheets.

We also did the South America (or Latin America) GeoPuzzle.  Those puzzles are really cool! We're going to look a little closer at Brazil since it's the biggest country. 

Friday - I dropped Hannah off at my grandma's house to spend the night.  As an early anniversary present Ryan sent me away for the afternoon where I got my hair cut and got a pedicure (both long overdue!) I also did a bit of shopping (half of which was a few groceries we needed anyway :-p).  I also went to the Dollar Tree, which always feels like a shopping spree to me. ;)

More Changes

She wasn't asleep...I think I just caught her blinking

My kids' shifts from baby and toddlerhood to being actual people (ha!) seem to happen in the blink of an eye.  I was telling Ryan the other day how toddler beds at Walmart are only $57, which was what I wanted to get for Autumn for her 2nd birthday (Saturday!) along with a cute toddler bedding set.  Ryan practically bounds to his feet and says he has the greatest idea that will save us that $57 and also help Autumn in the transition.  He simply took the side off Autumn's crib, automatically turning it into a "big girl bed".  I have to say that was an ingenius idea since Autumn is already used to sleeping there, and it will be an easy transition in another year or so when we get Autumn her own twin bed.  Hannah was about 3 and a half when she went from a toddler bed to a twin.

Ryan's other idea did not work out so well, while it was a good one...just something the kids weren't ready for.  After our lease is up in December we are more than likely going to move to a smaller place to save money (more on that later), so the kids will probably end up sharing a room.  We wanted to test that idea.  Both kids were excited at first, but then Hannah fell asleep and Autumn still wanted to party.  She kept getting into Hannah's bed, and I heard on the baby monitor "Autumn, stop bothering me!"  So upstairs I would go (Ryan was lucky...he was at work :p), and I put Autumn back in her own bed.  By the time 11 PM rolled around we put Autumn back in her own room.  All has been well since...Autumn sleeps just fine and even if she did get out of bed there's nothing within her reach that poses any safety issues.  I'm sure once Autumn gets used to her "new bed" sharing a room won't be a problem.