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

Week in Review #44: Hh is for Halloween and Headstrong

I know it's a bit early for Halloween, but it's still fun. :) We even got Halloween costumes this week.  Hannah will be a "storybook princess" (which is basically a Cinderella knock-off) and Autumn will be a kitty which comes with a little dress, head band, and bloomers (or pantalettes, I guess they're called). And after Halloween they can be dress-up clothes. :)

Still working on the whining thing (more so with Autumn). I'm becoming very patient, and maybe a little amused, when Autumn has a big drag-out fit when she doesn't get her way. She didn't get a snack at Hannah's soccer game on Monday (sometimes there will be extras so siblings will get some), so she wailed and stomped all the way to the car.  When we got to the car she had the gall to ask if she could watch a DVD. Silly girl. On the drive home she continued thrashing and kicking the seat.  She was wearing her Sketchers Twinkle Toes so all you saw were all these lights flashing everywhere. Ha. I think  ignoring her was more of a punishment than a spanking would have been.

On top of this, I'm trying to be proactive in potty training.   I've been trying to take her to the potty every 15 minutes, so I'm hoping the general idea will click. Hannah was 3 and a half before it completely clicked with her, so I  have six more months before I should really start to panic.  Autumn is actually showing some interest.  Twice she has taken it upon herself to sit on the potty. Sure, she's already wet her pants but it's the thought that counts. She did pee in the potty once though! Go Autumn!

Now for some school-related fun!

 We are learning about Venus, and this is an experiment on what happens after one of its volcanoes erupts. I'll make a separate post about this. Such a simple experiment!

 Autumn is putting pieces of straws on to pipecleaners. Helps with fine motor skills. :) Hannah got into it as well.

 Meagan got Emma and Autumn both Dora puzzles for their birthday.  Each box has three puzzles. They are about 15 pieces each.  Autumn is getting better and better about putting together most of it herself. I'll guide her, saying, "Fill the hole in Dora's face." :)

 "H is for..." cut and paste

 Halloween 3-piece puzzles.  I'm sure  it sucked out a good bit of color ink, but they were too cute. :) These reminded me of those progress puzzles where you move to more pieces little by little, so maybe I can make some 4 and 5-pieces puzzles for next time.

 This was from the same day with the straws and pipecleaners.  Hannah continued making jewelry long after Autumn moved on to something else. :)

 I heard about this as a rainy day activity, but Hannah had found Ryan's tape measure and was already measuring various items around the house. So I gave her a list. She sure enjoyed it. We'll count this as math. :)

Getting down and dirty with the Play Doh Fun Factory :-D

This week definitely had it's moments, and I am so grateful for the weekend. Hannah had a soccer game this morning and almost scored a goal....for the other team.  But she looked adorable doing it, and she has so much fun! "I love soccer and I love Mr. Donald (her coach)!" she proclaimed earlier this week.

Next week will be Ii. The themes will be insects and ice cream (but not combined! Gross!).

This post is linked to the Weekly Wrap-Up

Printables (not all are pictured)

Education.com - H coloring pages
Homeschool Creations - Preschool Alphabet
LAWTEEDAH - Halloween Tot Pack
Do2Learn - Shape Tracing
Coloring Book Fun - Halloween coloring pages
DLTK - Halloween bingo cards

Week in Review #43: Gg is for Giraffe and Gross Negligence

Making fall trees one morning as a "warm-up" before
actually beginning school

Build-A-Giraffe

We had a good week. Some bumps throughout the week (you'll read more towards the bottom), but I think that's a requirement for all homeschool families. :)

 

Autumn enjoyed learning about the letter 'G'--mostly the gluing activity you see below. :)  She was doing pretty good and then decided to go all random,. which is fine.

This activity only requires a sharpie, construction paper, scissors, and a glue stick.  Autumn loves gluing stuff to paper so I figured why not give her lots of exposure to our current letter. :) I think I'm going to do this every week. What's cool is you can create a bunch of sets ahead of time and put them all in little ziploc bags so you can just grab it when you need it.


I don't know about Hannah, but I sure enjoy teaching the language portion of school.  Finally, my English degree is being used! LOL We learned about past, present, and future tenses, and she caught on pretty quickly. We're getting into the money section in math, and I swear that was the bane of my existence last year.  I sure hope it clicks better this year. I got some encouragement from other homeschool moms that it will click when it clicks, and that it's nothing to get stressed over.

Sister Storytime :)

I'm currently participating in a Bible study on Wednesday nights based on the book The Strong-Willed Child by James Dobson (have I mentioned that he is my parenting hero?).  Shouldn't be any surprise to those who personally know us, but Autumn is my strong-willed one. This will be where the "gross negligence" thing comes into play. 

It dawned on me this week that I am neglecting to correct Autumn when she whines and demands (i.e. "I want juice" as opposed to "May I have some juice?"). That's not really doing her any favors, is it? I told both girls a few days ago that if there was whining, tattling, or bickering between them I just wasn't going to hear it.   I completely ignore them, and so far it seems to go over pretty good.  Hannah caught on to this new regime pretty quickly, but Autumn is so appalled that her whining has not gotten her very far this week. Driving to the store to do grocery shopping Autumn dropped her precious Violet and wailed and screamed because I didn't pick it up right away like I normally do.  I told her she had to stop whining first.  She thrashed and screamed, and I started thinking that grocery shopping at that time may have been a mistake.  Long story short we survived shopping, and I was reminded while I consider shopping by myself a treat.

"Train your child up in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." - Proverbs 22:6

Please say a prayer for me as I continue to train Hannah and Autumn, in hopes they will go to the Lord and not turn from Him!

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Week in Review #39: Dd is for Dinosaur and Daisy

Another week of Dd...at first primarily because I have really cute dino preschool pack I forgot about. Heh.  Since getting back from Clarksville we are finally getting into a good flow to where the kids know what to expect each morning. So nice!

At the commissary...pics of both girls smiling
are far and few between

 Autumn did some more practicing cutting with scissors.  I read about the idea of cutting play doh rather than paper which worked beautifully.  I rolled a bunch of little "snakes", and let her go to town.  I also introduced lacing.  I made some lacing cards using a shape stencil on cardstock and punched holes all around them.  One of the easiest things I've ever made. :) Autumn hasn't quite gotten a handle on it yet, but that will come. 

More "D" crafts:

We ended the week with a birthday party for a friend at church! As you can tell, the girls wore themselves out something fierce! 

Next week is Ee and the theme will be Earth!

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

Student Photos

This is week 3 of Heart of the Matter's "Not" Back to School Blog Hop--student photos!

1st grade! She's so proud she still loves
to tell everyone she comes across!

She loves to "do school" already!

 Close Ups

The shirt doesn't lie ;)

"I love my big hair!" :-D

Our class picture :) You know there's always that one kid
who won't look at the camera ;)

Here's some behind the scenes action, since I'm sure you're all dying to know how this photo magic was accomplished. Once we were done I had Hannah put the back drop back on her bed.

Week in Review #38: Dd is for Dora and Dollar Tree

Ah, another short week, but I think our trip to Atlanta makes up for it. ;) We had a good time and wish we had time to do all the other fun tourist stuff, but I think the baby panda was well worth the trip.The girls and I made it back home Tuesday afternoon.  I am thrilled to say the drive was very uneventful!  Plus, it's always nice to be home!

This was a idea that just popped into my head! Our current stove has no use for burner covers and they were perfect to prevent crayons and colored pencils from rolling on the floor. Love it!

The table obviously didn't stay looking so neat for long. :) Coloring has become a bit of a school warm-up, if you will.  The girls get focused on something instead of just diving head first into school.

On Wednesday I took the kids grocery shopping and made it out alive. It is definitely at the top of my list of things I truly dread doing. I incorporated Hannah's help more than before while Autumn stayed in the cart looking at books.  I saw an idea in a magazine about making a picture scavenger hunt with different items from your list, so I may give that a whirl next week. :)

I've been wanting to try out this workbox system I've been reading about on other blogs--you gather the following day's work and put it in a specified container(s).  I really wanted to get those plastic storage drawers but they are so expensive. I found these at the Dollar Tree! So excited!! The girls both wanted green even though they had prettier colors. :-p Each day I've been bringing their boxes to the table and they pick whatever they want to start with.  Hannah has her normal subjects (Bible, Reading, Math, Astronomy), and Autumn has her dry erase pages plus either a file folder game or her special scissors for some cutting practice.  This system is already working out beautifully.

Take a closer look at the letters. :) I completely forgot I had them. If nothing else it will help me actually learn the military alphabet without making it up as I go along. 

I'm linked up at the Weekly Wrap-Up.  Go there and check out other blogs! :)

And finally, some "D" crafts:

Duck

Dog--found these at the Dollar Tree. The girls just painted
and added the eyes. :)

Our School House

We had a school room once upon a time before we realized that our sanity was on the edge if the girls continued sharing a room. That said, the school room that once was became Autumn's room again.  Since Hannah's room is bigger we moved the desk and all that good stuff in there. Now we have an actual school house since everything is spread out and never kept in a single area. My ultimate dream would be to have a huge finished basement to be a school/play room. It would be the cutest place on earth. Some day.

This is the right side of Hannah's room. Yeah, I'd say it's a smidge cluttered. :) If I'm going to show our schooling space I may as well show it as is. It's looked worse...just papers and various books. The little table has Hannah's coloring and drawing.  The desk features an array of future work and various school supplies I have yet to find a place for. The pink crate down at the bottom left is mostly "I Can Draw" books.  Clean laundry to the right that most likely won't get put away for a week. ;-p

Walk down the hall and you will come to this.  Our morning board and the white rack holds our craft supplies (overflowing a little so I will have to figure something out). Not pictured is a plastic tote with sensory bin stuff (just put one together! so excited!).

Now take a left and you will be in the kitchen where most of our actually learning has been taking place.  Here Hannah is decorating the workbox I got today (Dollar Tree! Woot!)--more on those later.  At this time Autumn had cranked out and went to bed a little early, so she will decorate her box tomorrow.

So that's where our school takes place! :) Hope you enjoyed it!

This post is linked up with Heart of the Matter's "Not" Back to School Blog Hop