Homeschooling the Fullers

5.31.10-6.4.10

2010-06-14T10:09:00.000-07:00

Our week has been so much fun, Robert was home on Memorial Day so he was able to do school with us on Monday.

Scissor Practice Activities:

We use the activities out of this book. We try to do 3 scissor activities a week but it depends on the week.

Caitlyn Chloe

Science Activities:

Sun Faded Prints

Caitlyn's hypothesis, it (the objects) will turn into goo

Chloe's hypothesis, it (the objects) will melt

Before sun 10:30am

Caitlyn Chloe

Taking the objects off of their papers to see if their hypotheses were true or false...

Chloe Caitlyn

After sun 1pm

Caitlyn Chloe

Their reactions: Although their hypotheses were proved false, they loved seeing the "prints" that the sun made with the objects they chose.

Popsicles

Caitlyn's hypothesis, The orange juice will melt in the freezer

Chloe's hypothesis,
The orange juice will melt in the freezer

Pouring in the orange juice

Putting the sticks in (with a piece of banana on the end to help with balancing the stick-it doesn't work as well as I thought it would - I readjusted it a few hours later)

After 2 1/2 hours in the freezer, Chloe changed her hypothesis after observing, "They are not frozen yet!" Her new hypothesis is that the popsicles will freeze in the freezer.

After Dinner, we took out our ice pops and enjoyed them in the backyard. We talked about how it was reversible change because it changed from juice (liquid) to ice (solid) and as it melted it was turning back into juice (liquid).

Caitlyn was having a hard time eating her ice pop so she put it back in her cup like this to make it easier and to keep her hands from getting too cold. She is such a good problem solver! :-)

Color Mixing

We used 3 cups of water, and food coloring to first make the primary colors (red, blue, yellow) and then we mixed primary colors to make secondary colors (purple, orange, green). The girls thought that when we added the 2nd color that the water would turn to that 2nd color but then after we did the first one, they saw that it made a new color. I made a picture to help remind them of what we learned.

Math:

Counting by 5s

Chloe used these number cards and play nickels to review counting up to 60. I am focusing on up to 60 so that these skills can be transferred over to telling time.

Caitlyn is working on tracing her numbers:

Art:

Alphabet Trees

Caitlyn Writing Practice:

She traced the letters that spell Chloe in lower case and the letters that spell Caitlyn in capital. She decided to do this on her own, it was so cute!

Chloe Writing Practice:

Reading Practice (Books they read to me):

Chloe-

101 Dalmations (a Disney book)
Morris the Moose (Level 1- I can Read) by
Fancy Nancy: The 100th day of school (Level 1 - I can Read) by Jane O'Connor
Fitch & Chip: Invasion of the Pig Sisters (Level 3- Ready to Read) by Lisa Wheeler

Caitlyn

The going to bed book by Sandra Boynton
Oh My, Oh My, Oh Dinosaurs by Sandra Boynton
Touch and Feel Farm by DK
Fuzzy Bear's Bedtime by Piggy Toes Press

Other Fun:
Caitlyn looked for letters and then spelled her name on her own! I think she's proud of herself.

5.24.10-5.28.10

2010-05-29T14:50:00.000-07:00

We only did school 2 days this week, as I was sick 2 days and they were with my friend Bianca on another day.

Lesson Plans:

Scissor Practice Activities:

Caitlyn Chloe

Art:

Finger painting!!

Two of my girl's favorite things, being outside and painting. We don't do a lot of painting because of the mess so it took them a few minutes to realize that it was okay to use their hands and to get messy while having fun mixing the colors.

Science Activities:

Wind Spinners

We made our own wind spinners while listening to some fun Preschool songs. We haven't been able to hang them outside yet because although it is sunny in the mornings, it has looked like rain in the afternoon. Love that Reno weather! (not really)

Caitlyn

Chloe

Math:

Chloe learned how to count by 2s up to 20 using unifix (counting) cubes. I didn't think that she had grasped the concept. The next day, when Robert asked what she had learned the day before, she started counting by 2s up to 10. She also did her addition flashcards (they have numbers on one side and pictures on the other to give a visual). I had separated the flashcards into sums of 10 or less and sums of 11 or more. She did the 10 or less pile with amazing accuracy.

Caitlyn learned how to count by 1s up to 20 using her counting bears. She used her sisters addition flashcards and seemed to pick up on the concept of addition quickly. I was very surprised as I wasn't planning on using those with her til this coming school year.

Caitlyn Writing Practice:

Chloe Writing Practice:

Reading Practice (Books they read to me):

I will start keeping track of the books they are reading next week.

Back to the Blogosphere...

2010-05-26T14:15:00.001-07:00

It has been a long time since I have blogged, between being sick, the holidays, and finding out I'm pregnant, and being pregnant with a toddler and preschooler under the age of 4, I've been a little preoccupied.

What you've missed....

Chloe started reading words back in November and since then has worked her way up to Level 1 and Level 2 books. Over the past week, during our reading practice time, I've been noticing that the Level 1 books are too easy for her to read so we are going to be doing Level 2 and Level 3 books. Then yesterday, she zoomed through a Level 2 book that she hasn't read before. So tomorrow when I have my day off (my friend Bianca watches the girls every other Thursday and I return the favor the alternate Thursdays) I'm going to go to the library to get Chloe some Level 3 and 4 books. She can also write her letters (still in the learning letter accuracy phase). She can count up to 40, sometimes 50 without skipping a number. For the longest time she would skip 15. She knows the days of the week and can answer basic addition and subtraction problems. For example, this morning, I asked her how many bagels were in the bag, she counted 5. Then I took one out for her breakfast and asked how many bagels were left, she answered 4. Then I said, so what is 5-1 equal and she said 4!

Back in March, we were at the doctors waiting to find out if I am pregnant with a girl or a boy. (It's a boy in case you missed the memo. :-) ). Just for fun, I asked Caitlyn what some words were (not thinking that she would know them) and she read most of the Clifford Phonics bookClifford Can. We were so surprised! Now she is reading Level 1 books with a little help as well as Mother Goose nursery rhymes (1 of her favorite books) and some Dora Stories (her other favorite book). Caitlyn's favorite nursery rhyme is Shoo Fly don't bother me. She is beginning to write her letters. She can count up to 20, sometimes 30 without skipping a number. For the longest time she would skip 16.

Over the last week and a half, I have begun doing school with them each day to get them (and me) used to a schedule and to also see how they learn best. We generally have school about 2 hours a day Mon-Fri. I have stopped doing "Tot School" and now have a lesson plan for them each week.We learn a new scripture each week, reviewing it each morning. We then read bible stories (anywhere from 1-4 depending on the morning, they take turns picking). We do either the M/W/F or Tu/Th schedule (see below) and then Chloe writes 2 of her spelling/writing practice words (I give her 10 a week) and Caitlyn traces or writes 1-2 letters a day. We then stop for lunch, then just before quiet time, I take turns individually with the girls to do their reading practice. I only ask that they do 1 book each during this time but they usually want to do 2 or 3. My 1 main rule/expectation about school is if they start something, they need to finish it. If they start a page in their workbook, then they need to finish it before starting something else.

On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays...we do a scissor activity (Snip Its-a workbook we bought at Walmart), and Math

On Tuesdays and Thursdays...we do Art and Science.

I have a new respect for preschool teachers who are teaching more than 20 kids to use scissors when I have had trouble with only 2 kids. I am also having to continually remind myself that they are learning and it will take time. And to not take over the cutting for them even when they ask me to. I just stop, smile and say I know you can do it, it takes practice.

I will be taking pictures of some of their activities as time and activity allows. We will be starting Kindergarten for Chloe (age 3 1/2) and Pre-K for Caitlyn (age 2 1/2) in August. Do I think it is too early? Not based on their desire to learn and what they have already learned to do. Chloe can read and write, and Caitlyn is starting to read more (still working on enunciation of the T, s, sh, and th) and has begun writing individual letters this week. They are excited and interested in learning so we've decided to strike while the iron is hot, so to speak.

5.17.10-5.21.10

2010-05-22T14:35:00.000-07:00

Although we won't start our new school year until August, I thought it would be good to get all of us used to the schedule. The girls are very excited because they have really missed doing school. They have both been bringing it up a lot telling me they want to do school/learning. Who am I to say no? :-)

Lesson Plans:

Scissor Practice Activities:

Caitlyn Chloe

Art:
I wrote their names on construction paper and then they put glue on their names by themselves, next they used beans to put on the glue.

They also did Do-A-Dot this week and had some fun with stickers (not pictured)

Math:

I introduced them to coins, we separated the coins and then briefly talked about the differences between the penny, nickel, dime, and quarters.

I introduced Chloe to telling time, I think we will come back to time after she can count by 5s to help with the minute hand. It is kind of confusing.

Caitlyn used Counting bears and buttons to put the correct number of items on the number circles (ie: 2 buttons on the number 2)

Science:
Not pictured this week, we started talking about inches and measuring. We also played with Playdough and did some color mixing.

Reading Practice (Books they read to me):

I will start keeping track of the books they are reading in a few weeks.

Caitlyn Writing Practice:

I was planning on Caitlyn tracing only 1-2 letters a day but she wanted to keep going.

Chloe Writing Practice:

I give Chloe 10 words a week to practice her writing. I plan to have her write 2 words a day.

Since Caitlyn was tracing letters and numbers, Chloe wanted to do it too.

Other Fun:

Alphabetical Order -I put out all the letters in the alphabet and asked them to put them in alphabetical Order. When they became stuck, I suggested they sing the ABC song to help them out. Caitlyn loves this activity so much she wants to do it every day!

11.23.09-11.29.09

2009-11-30T07:31:00.000-08:00

11.16.09-11.22.09

2009-11-23T07:31:00.000-08:00

Ff is for Feather

We used feathers to make a collage on an F outline from Shelley Lovett. The girls had so much fun using squeezable Elmer's glue. Usually they use Qtips to decrease the mess but this time I let them try it out to see how it would go.

Name Tracing

I just found these new name tracing printables. They had a correct spelling for both Chloe and Caitlyn. The site also had both capital and lowercase versions of their name. I printed out both capital and lowercase versions of their names on card stock and then laminated them back to back so each girl could reuse it over and over again.

Letter Tracing

Since this week's letter is Ff, we practiced tracing the letter Ff also from Shelley Lovett

Focus Words

I found another resource to help with Dolch words. Two slideshows of the pre-primer words. One with a sound option
One with no sound, one word displayed for 4 second intervals

I think that I will have my husband put this onto my girl's computer so they can do it themselves if they want.

11.9.09-11.15.09

2009-11-12T07:30:00.002-08:00

The Plan

Ee continued this week. I really got into the Ee theme, many of our activities start with an E. We had a busy busy week of learning and tot school. The girls really loved doing more activities so I think that I will look into planning more each day with them. The way I have been doing it is during the course of the week picking activities that we had prepped or that I had energy to do. It has been very relaxed, even the time, sometimes it is in the morning and other days in the afternoon, there have even been times where we do "tot school" in the evening when daddy is home. As always the girls enjoyed using their computer to interact with Starfall.

Letter Tracing

Chloe has been doing good at writing her letters but I wanted to help her to make her letters smaller. I found this dry erase board that has the lines like writing paper and had the letters to trace (Capital on one side and lowercase on the other). I LOVE our local Parent Teacher Aid store, I always find something amazing, the prices are great and the people are so nice too!!

Ee is for Envelope decorating

I thought that this would be a good opportunity to make thank you cards for the presents received at their recent birthday party. And Envelope does start with E.

Candy Land Shapes

This is a new toy/learning activity from one of the girl's friends for their birthdays (Caitlyn turned 2 on the 14th and Chloe will turn 3 on the 23rd).

Pattern Blocks

My friend who gave me the pattern blocks didn't have the cards to go with it. So on Tuesday, I found out that the Parent Teacher Aid store in Reno sold the pattern cards separately for less than $7. I went straight over and bought them and we used them that evening. And I wasn't being artsy with the photos, apparently the lens cover was stuck slightly closed.

Rubber Fish

The girls found some rubber fish that I had around for craft projects. They put them in our new fish tank, while I was doing housework, that my husband is getting ready for fish. He thought they were real at first and one was floating at the top, so he thought that I had surprised him by buying fish and that it had gone horribly wrong. He was happier to hear that they were rubber fish, he fished them out. Luckily the pH of the water was not affected. At least this is better than when they put in the pretzels...true story.

Tonging Pom Poms

This was the first time that we did this activity, Chloe was able to get the hang of it right away. Caitlyn had trouble with figuring out when to open and close the tongs so that she could put it in the jar to get the pom poms out. This was great for fine motor skills, coordination, and color recognition. After Chloe had the hang of it, I suggested that she pick up specific colors. I bought the tongs at the dollar store and the pom poms were parts of packs purchased at walmart for less than 2 or 3 dollars.

Orange Hunt

Continuing our color exploration we looked for orange items while singing:

We're going on an orange hunt, an orange hunt, an orange hunt
We're going on an orange hunt to see what we can find.

Evaporation Experiment

On Thursday, we poured 2 cups of water into each jar. We then added salt to one of them, labeled them and marked on the tape the level so we could keep track. We made pictures as a discovery journal for the experiment like in Sid the Science Kid on PBS Nearly a week later and they are at the same level that they were when we started. I guess I should have used hot water instead of cold water. Oops, live and learn. I'll leave it out another week or so to see if the water evaporates at all.

Dramatic Play

Pretending that they were driving something. I didn't quite catch what it was they were playing/pretending.

Ee is for Egg Lacing Cards

I made Eggs (Ovals) out of a oatmeal box and then punched holes all around. They used the laces that we use with the other Lacing cards that we purchased.

Number Identification

I would ask the girls to find a number and then after we did that for about 5 minutes (taking turns) I would take a number away and ask which one was missing.

Sequencing Cards

The sequencing cards are a new learning tool. They include 5 sets of 5 piece combos that you put in sequence. They fit together as simple puzzle pieces. I would mix them up - face up and talk it through with Chloe. She really liked this activity.

Ee is for Exercise

My girls were using my exercise weighted balls (2 lbs each). They wanted to exercise just like mommy. We set up the mini bounce house inside our home on Thursday so that the girls and their friend Ms. P could bounce to their hearts content.

Touch and Learn Turtle by Vtech

Caitlyn just received this present from Nana, her aunt, and her cousin for her birthday. She loves to play with it and especially loves to dance to the music that it plays.

More pretend play

Using the pretend kitchen to make different food and drink concoctions.

Elephant Craft

We made an elephant craft using the geometric shapes pattern from RoseArt (it comes with the construction paper). I prepped the circles (large for the face and body/small for ears) using craft punchers, rectangle legs, the trunk and of course a little tail. I helped them to glue the pieces on, they had a lot of fun. And what craft project is complete without googly eyes? When we were done , Chloe said that she wanted to do another one.

Caitlyn took some googly eyes that I left on the ground and put them on a butterfly in one of our big coloring books. You have to look really closely to see it.

E Collage

The girls wanted to use glue and I couldn't think of anything that started with E to put on the collage. Oh I just realized that ELMER'S glue starts with an E, that's funny. Unintentionally funny, but funny nonetheless. I had them tear paper to put on it to bring some color to it.

Not Pictured

We tried playing Snakes and Ladders (similar to chutes and ladders, instead of the slides it has snakes but they are cute snakes) with Chloe to reinforce her numbers. She was having a hard time with understanding how the game worked. We'll try it again as a learning game in a few months.

11.2.09-11.08.09

2009-11-09T07:30:00.000-08:00

The Plan
I only have a planning sheet for Chloe this week, I forgot to take a picture of Caitlyn's planning sheet. I think this planning sheet will extend for 2 weeks because of all the things on our schedule this week.

Writing Focus Words

This week our focus words are: and, for, big, run, not, my. Chloe practiced writing some of her focus words on her orange dry erase board. I purchased it from Walmart during the back to school sale. I bought a blue one for Caitlyn too.

Not Pictured

Estimation Jar - for the girls ladybug themed birthday party this weekend, we made an estimation jar filled with "ladybug candies" Cherry cordial hershey kisses. Everyone at the party made a guess after looking at the jar and moving it around but the rule was you couldn't open it. It is amazing how many candies can fit into a small jar. There were 94 candies and the highest guess was 63. It was hard to estimate because of the way that it all fit together inside the jar.

10.26.09-11.01.09

2009-11-02T07:29:00.000-08:00

I didn't do a lot of planning this week and we didn't do very many activities either but fun and learning happened together so that is all that matters. :-)

Day of the week

We have started focusing more on the days of the week not only by reinforcing it through our calendar but also with this Song, 7 Days in a week.

Chloe wanted to write something new, here is her writing of the word Sunday.

Caitlyn's Writing practice

My rule is that you can only use the dry erase markers if you are practicing writing otherwise we use crayons, colored pencils, and markers.

Counting by 10s

This was not a planned activity. I was tearing along the perforated lines on these flashcards picked up from our Give and Take table at Mops. (We bring stuff we don't use anymore and we take things that we can use. ) Chloe started reading them off and she correctly identified all of them! I don't think she knows how much these numbers represent but that will come in time.

Finding Words
(Dolch pre-primer words)

Chloe and I read through this book, whenever we would get to the words "and", "love", "I", and "you". I would stop and let her read it. This went pretty well, she would get so excited when she recognized a word.

Sticker Fun

I took out a bag of mismatched stickers and let her have fun with no direction or help from me (well except for the very difficult sticker papers to remove). She started counting her stickers and finding ones that were the same color/size on her own. YAY her love of learning is growing.

10.19.09-10.25.09

2009-10-22T17:52:00.000-07:00

The Plans
We didn't get to all of the "planned" activities but we are becoming more intentional with our time and will continue on. Next week is a new week.

Dinosaur Alphabet Flashcards and other activities.

This week was Dd is for Dinosaur in our house. We watched Dinosaur Train on PBS every day and I found these Dinosaur Alphabet Flashcards here. The girls colored on them and later I will cut and laminate them. Chloe and I also did a word search or shall I say attempted to do a word search. All the extra letters were confusing to her.

Green Hunt

This weeks color was green so we went on a green hunt while singing:

We're going on a green hunt, a green hunt, a green hunt
We're going on a green hunt to see what we can find.

Puzzle Number Matching

I had an idea after watching Caitlyn so easily match the numbers in the puzzle earlier this week at the Creative Arts Center. I numbered all the pieces and their corresponding correct spots. Chloe really likes this activity and Caitlyn is starting to warm up to it. I love it because it combines number recognition, matching, and fine motor skills.

Writing and Spelling

Chloe is starting to write and spell a lot more often. She wrote cat on her own and then happily ran to show me. She is still sometimes hit or miss but I think she is doing great considering she won't be 3 until November.

Not Pictured

Dolch Words we have been focusing on the 2 letter words using the pre-primer flashcards. The words that Chloe recognized on the first try were cat, and, me, big, it, go, we. Starting next week we will have focus words that we will spend more time on since she has shown interest.
Recognizing #s 1-20 for Chloe, #s 1-10 for Caitlyn
Candyland
Starfall - with a focus on -at (they spend hours doing this page on their own)
I wanted to have a dinosaur hunt but due to lack of prep (and dinosaurs to find) it didn't happen, maybe the next time we go through the alphab

Creative Arts Center 10.19.09 - Special Post

2009-10-20T04:38:00.000-07:00

Creative Arts Center

We went to the Creative Arts Center in Reno with Reno moms like me. It was 8 rooms of hands on fun and learning! Seriously amazing. They are currently only open to people who take their classes. We were very lucky to be able to participate for free. YAY Reno moms like me.

Pumpkin Top Painting

Sensory Tables

Bird seed and water = so much fun! Caitlyn barely left these tables the whole time. I am really grateful that we brought an extra set of clothes because she was SOAKED and it was very cold and windy outside. I didn't look at the weather before getting them dressed. :-(

A sandbox sensory activity

Ball Pit

Bounce Pit
Bouncing, which is one of her favorite things to do

Pumpkin Craft

Both girls did a pumpkin craft in what I called the Alphabet room. Chloe wrote the letter P (both capital and lower case) on her pumpkin. I thought she could only write the letters in her name. My girls never cease to amaze me.

Puzzle Matching

There were pictures and numbers on the inside of the puzzle as well so Caitlyn just started matching them. I didn't know she was able to do that yet. Or that she recognized the numbers so easily.

Marble Run

Interactive Story and Movement Time

Mom and daughters

We had this taken by another mom right before we left and Chloe was NOT wanting to leave because she was having so much fun.

Dad at Work

We visited dad at work after we left the Creative Arts Center so he could see the girls crafts and get a few minutes of time with them. He has been working overtime more lately. Too many high priority projects and not enough time in the day.

Daddy and his little girls

10.12.09-10.18.09

2009-10-19T07:29:00.000-07:00

The Plans

We only got to about 5 of our planned activities this week but hey we still were able to do 5 of our activities. It is all about perspective, right?

Playing in the Rain

I bought the girls umbrellas at the MOPs Convention last month. This was the first rain since then so we bundled up (only a little) and they had so much fun playing in the rain. We talked about the clouds and how water comes out of it and the water is rain.

Red Hunt

We continued with the color hunt this week. We looked for items that were red while singing this song:

We're going on a red hunt, a red hunt, a red hunt
We're going on a red hunt to see what we can find.

C is for Color with Water :-)

We had water color time and although there was more paint on Caitlyn than on her paper, they had so much fun. Not only did they have fun, they were also developing their fine motor skills and learning about what happens when you mix colors together - it makes a new color.

C is for Colored Pasta

The girls had their friend Ms. P over for the day. We had some colored pasta left from a MOPs kid activity. We used q-tips to put the glue on the C to decrease the amount of mess from this activity. We put the colored pasta on the letter C. It was also a texture activity since the pasta is bumpy and 3 dimensional.

Name writing and fun with markers

Chloe was practicing writing her name, she is getting better at it. Pretty soon we are going to focus more on holding the pen correctly and writing the letters correctly. According to a speech therapist friend of mine, that is apparently important.

Chloe traced her hands on the paper. I don't know whether she had more marker on her hand or on the paper. I couldn't believe that she had remembered how to trace her hand and did it on her own. This was the first time that she did it on her own, I have usually been the one to trace her hand with a crayon.

Playing with beach balls

The girls played with beach balls. As they were playing they didn't even realize that they were developing their gross motor skills. I love learning especially when they don't realize that they are learning!

Not Pictured

We played Candyland to help with color recognition and taking turns.
They continue to learn with Starfall on a daily basis.
Caitlyn practiced counting to 15. She has the numbers, next we will work on enunciation so that other people can understand her too.
Chloe practiced counting to 20, she still skips 15 but once she is corrected she restarts at 10 and then remembers to include 15.

10.5.09-10.11.09

2009-10-12T07:29:00.000-07:00

Free Week

As I figured two weeks ago, I needed to take last week and this week to get caught up on stuff around the house. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly the house goes to shambles when mom is out of town. My husband tried to keep up the house but had his hands full with the girls. He did such a great job! I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband!

Stamping Fun!

The girls are using monster stamps that I found in the $1 bin at Target. It is a great place to find great deals! I am always on the hunt for things that we can use for tot school.

9.21.09-9.27.09, Bb is for button

2009-09-28T07:24:00.000-07:00

This week we didn't do very many activities at all as I was at a MOPs (Mothers of Preschoolers) convention in Nashville, TN. Next week 9.28-10.04 I am planning on catching up around the house and resting from the MOPs convention so we probably will do no activities, hence no blog post for next week.

Planning Sheets

We didn't get to more than 1/3 of the "planned" activities, but we still had fun learning. I found these planning sheets on 1+1+1=1 where tot school is hosted by Carissa.

B is for Button

The girls glued buttons onto the letter B using glue sticks and Shelley Lovett's Alphabet Outline Collage. She has so many ideas and free printables.

Name Writing & ID

Chloe is getting even better at writing her name.

Miscellaneous

I accidentally put her 2 sandwich halves on top of each other and she thought that it was all one sandwich. So of course Caitlyn tried to eat it all together as one double decker sandwich. She is definitely her fathers daughter in this way.

NOT PICTURED:

Address
We have been working with Chloe on our address and she can easily rattle off our street number and street and then when prompted can say our city and state. she is still having trouble with the zip code but we're working on it.

ABC Song
Caitlyn worked on the ABC song this week. She is starting to enunciate her letters more and more each time we sing it.

Line Tracing
As Chloe was working on her letter writing, Caitlyn was doing pre-writing exercises by tracing lines. I again want to stress that we do not push our kids to learn, we are child led in our instruction/learning activities. As soon as they are done we stop and move onto something else.

Counting Bears and Mats
We continued our work with counting bears and mats this week. We organized by size& by color.

9.14.09-9.20.09 Aa is for Animal and Arrow

2009-09-21T20:53:00.000-07:00

This was a light pictures week. I wasn't feeling well so there were more videos. The girls watched their new favorite - Hermie: Buzby which teaches that rules are cool. They also watched Leapfrog Talking words factory. I think that the concept that letters make words is starting to sink in a lot more for both my girls.

This week I will begin going through the alphabet (one letter a week) and trying to center some activities around the letter of the week, as well as shape, and color

We focused on the letterA, the color blue and the arrow shape. Starfall and Bible stories also continued this week.

Blue Hunt

We went on a blue hunt to encourage the girls to look for things that were blue and also picking things up and putting them in their baskets (leftover from Easter-I LOVE re-purposing things, less to buy!) The funny thing is that this is an activity I made up on the fly. It wasn't until later til I saw this idea on TotSchool hosted by Carissa. I made up a song to the tune, following the leader.

We're going on a blue hunt, a blue hunt, a blue hunt.
We're going on a blue hunt to see what we can find.

Caitlyn's final items Chloe's final items

Aa is for Animal and Arrow

We didn't do much with the letter theme this week but we did use the Alphabet Outline collages from Shelley Lovett and put animal stickers on them.

Arrows

Chloe coloring and tracing some arrows. We also looked at arrows on signs around town (not pictured).

Not sure but still cool

I'm not exactly sure what program this is on their computer but I think it helps teach other languages. The 2nd picture is either Hebrew or Greek.

9.7.09-9.13.09

2009-09-14T11:16:00.000-07:00

One of the struggles I am having is trying to have individually beneficial activities for the girls while still teaching them at the same time. Because they are a year apart, they understand a lot but not at the same level . Although they are not twins, I have been finding that I have been trying to school them in that way. I'm sure that as time goes on that it will become more clear how to do both group and individual work. Starfall continues to be the girls favorite learning tool. When I say that it is learning time, Caitlyn runs straight for the computer. I have started including a bible story or bible story time each morning while they are eating breakfast rather than them watching TV.

Mama & Baby Matching Flashcards

Chloe found these cards (one of the cool items from Bridget) and began interacting with them. After giving her free reign for about 5 minutes, I began working with her on matching the mama to the baby (aka the Capital to the Lower case words)

Puzzles

Caitlyn was working on our board puzzles that have the picture on both the puzzle piece and the board that you match up. She has really improved with these puzzles. Chloe is doing pretty well with the 25 piece puzzle (the picture on the far right). She uses the puzzle piece outlines on the board to help with puzzle piece placement. I wonder if there is something we can do to help her get the puzzle putting together a little bit better.

CK sound

Chloe and I worked on the ck sound&we talked about words that rhyme that have the ending ck.

Popsicle Stick Matching game

I can't recall where I got this from. You write the number on one stick, the number word on another, and the number dots on another and then match them up. This was the first time we did this and Chloe did pretty well. I think we'll wait a few weeks and try again.

Letters in alphabetic order

Chloe was able to do this activity with little direction from me. This activity grew out of the capital & lower case matching letter game.

Letter ID game - Capital Letters

Although Caitlyn knows her letters, I wanted to test her. I put the letters on the floor and then called out a letter and she would find it and pick it up.

Blocks

Caitlyn was building towers and sorting her blocks by color. It's interesting because I was considering packing these away but since she showed interest in them this week, we will leave them accessible.

Lower vs. Capital Letters (game matching the Lower and Capital Letters)

The girls LOVED this activity and both participated. Chloe wanted so much to help her sister but I tried to gently discourage her so that I could make sure that Caitlyn was learning too and not just having Big sister always help her out.

Counting using math cubes

Counting Bears

We just got these (and many other cool things)this week, thanks to another mom and former teacher in public school. We started to use them on the counting mats, separating by color and to simply get a feel for them. The girls really liked them and we will be incorporating them more in our learning time.

Miscellaneous

We read bible stories every morning this week from a variety of toddler and preschool bibles that we have around the house.
We started to work on even numbers but the girls were not quite ready for this activity. I'll try again in a few months. (not pictured)

We worked on assessments this week to get a better idea where the girls are starting off for the year. They were both further along than I thought they would be. We will continue to do assessments on a quarterly basis to make sure that we are on track for our goals for the year.

Chloe found the letters of her name but then became bored and began rolling with the letters. She knows how to spell her name, can id her name and has even learned to write her name.

I just had to include this picture of Caitlyn because she was so concentrated, focused and ADORABLE while trying to balance the magnet bars (can't remember the name)

A trail of kitchen items

8.31.09-9.6.09

2009-09-07T11:16:00.000-07:00

This week we continued to read bible stories each morning after breakfast. We didn't do a lot this week as I was prepping for our first Grace Church MOPs (Mother of Preschoolers) I was also getting a couple of root canals done this week. That's right a COUPLE of root canals. It turns out that my canals were actually curved into a spiral so I had to see a specialist.

Playdough Letter cards

My girls love this activity! They get to use play dough AND learn about colors and letters.

Writing practice

I can't believe Chloe wrote her name! She even did this on her own. She loves to write. She is also getting better at putting only 3 lines in her E but sometimes (like below, there are still 4 lines) well not bad considering she is 2 and won't be 3 til No

Block building

Counting Mats

Scissor Practice

Chopstick Fun

Sunday was their daddy (my husband's) birthday and so we took him out to sushi after church because he LOVES sushi!! Me not so much! We figured that it would be a great opportunity to work on fine motor skills for Chloe so here she is attempting to eat her food using only chopsticks.

Miscellaneous

Not Pictured: Sticker Fun

This was too cute not to include. Here are my girls watching The Wonder Pets: Bengal Tiger on their computer

Homeschool 8.24.09-8.30.09

2009-08-25T16:34:00.000-07:00

Versatile Paper Clips

We used the jumbo color paper clips to test colors, do same or different exercises, counting by linking them together and ultimately a paper clip necklace. I did the linking this time but am hoping that they will be able to link it themselves in the future which would help with their motor skills. When I first put them out, Chloe was coloring and she started laying the paper clips on the lines and then whatever crayon marks were on our paper.

Finger Painting & Handprints

This was our first time ever into the world of finger painting. It was a lot of fun for the kids although my husband was nervous about the mess. So although finger painting with toddlers is definitely a two grown up supervising activity, I will wait til a friend is over to help.

Messy hands
only 1 of Caitlyn's is dirty because I cleaned it before realizing what a fun pic it would be.

Finished Product

Starfall (with the NEW touchscreen)

They LOVE their new touchscreen that Daddy brought home last week. They like to be more self-sufficient with their computer. My husband set it up so that only the websites we put on can be accessed by the kids as links.

Clothes Pin Counting - this activity is from Shelley Lovett http://www.childcareland.com/teach4.html

Caitlyn having fun with the Leap Frog Tad. She especially loves the songs.

8.17.09-8.23.09

2009-08-24T15:34:00.000-07:00

We did a lot this week although it was in small spurts of time. It's funny because I didn't think we did a lot (or that I had taken so many pictures) until putting this post together. Believe it or not there are even more pictures that I didn't post, it was hard choosing which ones to include.

Pre-Writing/Writing
I'm kind of doing tot school with some more challenging activities for my nearly 2 3/4 year old Chloe. Here is a laminated tracing pre-writing page. As well as some other pages with her practicing writing. I didn't realize how much she had been desiring and working on it on her own. Sorry if there are too many pictures of her letters, I am just amazed at how early she is starting to write. **

Pre-Writing Diagonal Page, don't remember where I found

Letters:

She mostly traced the letters, either the red/blue or the black of green.

It looks like she drew a circle and added a line for the P

Scissor Cutting Practice
we put together a word family game with paint chips (an idea from ABCMomof3). I had some leftover strips from sizing the cards. Chloe really wanted to try cutting, I grabbed the leftover strips and tried to give Chloe a short tutorial on how to use scissors but as you can see she just wanted to jump right in. Caitlyn was trying to cut too.

Water Tubs

They had SO much fun with discovering the "what happens if I do this with the water?" We were doing this activity for almost an hour!

Caitlyn pouring water onto the patio. Chloe putting out "fires" Caitlyn testing the water

A few weeks ago we worked on fire safety and one of the activities we did was coloring with sidewalk chalk (in yellow or red) to signify fire and then "putting the fire out" with squeezable water bottles. Caitlyn and Chloe finally decided that their dresses were way too full of water. They decided they wanted to get into the tubs without the dresses but I decided not to post for privacy reasons.

Pom-Pom Muffin Tin Sorting
(don't remember where I saw this idea and I tried looking without success)

We sorted by color and by size, they each used half of the muffin tin. Chloe was more interested than Caitlyn. Caitlyn wanted to put them all in the same tin - Can you guess which circle is hers in the first picture? Then after about 10 min or probably closer to 5, all the pom poms were thrown back together.

Starfall

The girls using Starfall to learn their letters, they LOVE this activity - they call it learning on the computer. They take turns picking a letter. On Friday, my husband brought home a touch screen monitor which will allow this activity to be more hands on with the girls. I will post about how it goes next week with the new touchscreen monitor.

Word World Tot Book

I put together our very first tot book/lap book Word World tot books for my girls. Chloe helped color the word world friends last week. I laminated everything because I knew that my girls would be pretty rough on the paper. Also truth be told, I LOVE my new laminator! When I was putting the pieces together, I was realizing that I had A LOT of empty space(I didn't realize I missed the part about cutting the file folder in half first). I changed around the way that the Word World Friends was connected to the folder on the right "panel" and made it a flip forward connecting it to the folder with tape. I had some trouble figuring out how to attach the ABC accordion style book together because Elmer's glue didn't seem to work for me. I ended up using tape but if you have any ideas in how to glue laminated paper together please let me know. I had no idea how I was going to staple the laminated pages to the folder but then I saw a post on making a Cars lapbook that instead used a hole puncher and binder rings to attach the oval numbers book piece. I didn't have any binder rings so I just used gift wrap curling ribbon but I think I will replace it with binder rings because it is hard for the kids to turn the pages on their own. Chloe really loves the Memory part of this lap book because there are only 6 pairs to match. We are still working on taking turns because she wants to be the only one who takes a turn. :-) I really want to add a second number book for 6-10 possibly even through 20 but I wasn't able to edit the pdfs I downloaded from Carissa's page. I may add to it later.

Counting Mats - Idea from Childcareland

This was the first time we used these Counting Mats and they had so much fun they didn't realize that they were using fine motor skills as well as learning how to count higher and discover the different sizes as well as some spatial recognition (top, middle, bottom).

Chloe pretending she's Squish Squish the playdough on the floor
juggling ended our activity. :-)

Capital and Lowercase Letter matching

Caitlyn picked this up really well, she made at least 3 or 4 matches before getting bored and switching to the Dolch cards I found at Mrs. Perkins very helpful site. I had set up the dolch cards for Chloe but she wasn't interested. Caitlyn picked up a card and said the letters out loud from left to right. R-U-N. I don't think she gets yet that it is a word but who knows. Then she decided to read to herself.

Random - Grape Threading

I was making spaghetti one night and then I saw the grapes on the counter and thought "would the grapes be able to be "thread" onto the raw spaghetti?" Turns out it can. They loved eating the grapes off of the spaghetti.

Paper Tear Art

Lately the girls have really enjoyed ripping paper especially coloring books so I decided to channel that desire into an art project. We ripped up paper (blue for Chloe, Yellow for Caitlyn) and then just glued it on the other piece of paper.

Caitlyn's Masterpiece Chloe's Masterpiece

Homemade Pizza Dough

This past Saturday, we restarted our Pizza Dough Saturday tradition. It is so easy because you just add the ingredients to a bread machine, push the dough button, take it out 1 1/2 hours later, roll it out, add toppings and cook!! It is time-consuming, but way cheaper than pizza delivery.
The girls helped me put in the ingredients and Chloe was given her own pizza ball to roll out and put sauce on before eating it.

Rolling out the dough using a fork to punch holes in dough Yummy pizza dough!

Number Identification game

We were changing the date on our calendar and Chloe just started to play a game by herself by pointing to a number and identifying the number. Then I started to lay them out in order (only 1,2,3) around the edge of the table and I would ask her what comes next. She would say the number that was next and then pick it out and line it up. We started counting our way up to 15. She can count to 20 (30 if prompted but even then she says 20/10 instead of 30) but she always skips 15. We have been spending a little extra time on 15 and the location of where it belongs (between 14 and 16).

Rice Sensory Tubs

I saw this idea on another page (?) and was so encouraged to see a non-sand sensory tub. I put rice in and added measuring spoons and cups, a freezer pop holder, a metal steamer and 2 silicone basting brushes. They had a lot of fun and I had fun watching them even when they started dumping it out on the patio. I'm so glad that we did this activity outside! We also did an experiment with the rice and the metal colander. We tried putting a little bit of rice in and it fell right out but when we put a bunch of rice in, it stayed in. I figured that we would be able to reuse the same rice for at least 5 times of play but nope it ended up on the patio so we are looking into a cheaper alternative. Any ideas?

During the rice sensory tub time, the girls kept wanting to go into this pile of dirt and I kept trying to keep them from it. After all the rice was on the patio, I gave up and they played in the dirt for nearly 30 min! They sorted rocks and Chloe made a dirt cake, with dirt candles and dirt fire. When Robert sprayed off the patio, he washed her cake away too, she was very upset.

Caitlyn rolling on a mostly deflated purple balloon. So much fun!

**Please note that I am NOT pushing my girls in any way for any of the learning, particularly writing and reading. My "education philosophy" has always been to make information/activities available to my girls and if they are interested and want to do it then they can but if they don't then we do something else. I think Carissa says it best in her Tot School Blog in the FAQ - when talking about her son Krash "If K becomes uninterested, we stop! When I begin to force my teaching on him, he begins to resent my teaching all together. Eventually he will pick the skills up, it is not important that he learn them early. I believe in exposing him and letting him learn at HIS pace."

F is for Fire Safety Continued 8.10.09-8.14.09

2009-08-17T16:14:00.000-07:00

I think that rather than breaking it out by day, I'm going to just put it together as the week and then add pictures. Also I think I'm going to put away the theme board until preschool because we didn't really use it. It was an idea I ran across when I was still planning to do preschool with the girls but then came across the Tot School idea. I don't know, maybe I'll try it again for another week. I will definitely keep the date up so we can learn about the months, days of the week and it is another opportunity to get in numbers.

This Week we

Started Lacing cards - first I tried giving it to them and seeing how they did on their own so I could get ready to leave the house, it didn't go so well but then when I showed them how to do it a couple days later they did much better (amazing right?) it was great for their fine motor skills

Caitlyn more interested in the picture taking than the lacing cards and then either hiding behind her lion or giving the lion lacing card a kiss.

Chloe so focused on her lacing, trying to figure it out

went to a free music class with Reno Moms Like Me at the River school and even had a chance to feed the chickens they had outside. That's right I said chickens! I have never been that close to chickens but the girls had a blast! Well at least until Chloe was bitten on the finger - I didn't see it happen so I don't know if she was provoking them or not.

Chloe with Maracas Caitlyn showing Timmy how it is done Chloe having a blast!

Chloe doing Owl Eyes Caitlyn doing Owl Eyes

River School Chicken Pictures - Caitlyn had SO much fun with the chickens and they even had a chance to feed them too! Chloe fed the chickens but then was done after the chicken bit her thumb. :-( It looks like we might need to do a chicken unit soon for Caitlyn. :-)

worked on putting together their first ever tot book on Word World (a less involved lapbook but still educational), thank you Carissa for that idea! I will post the pictures of the completed tot book next week after we complete it.

Chloe coloring the Word World coloring book part of the lapbook

Worked on Chores (Life Skills)

Caitlyn putting away her diapers

My husband Robert made the girls peanut butter and banana sandwiches and he made them super cute. so I had to get a picture! He made me one too, although I asked him to add a sweet pickle it was unbelievably delicious!! I had a 2nd one too. And no I'm not pregnant. :-)

Fun with shaving cream and a great tactile activity. I showed them how they could write letters in the shaving cream. They were not so interested so I didn't push them and just let them have fun. Although Caitlyn (21 months) didn't like the shaving cream - it got her dirty and it was sticky. But once I added a toilet paper roll, Caitlyn had much more fun.

The aerial view from our stairs Chloe (2 1/2)

Caitlyn (21 months)

We had a date night on Tuesday and we asked the baby sitters (Brianna & Kayla) to do a fun activity with the girls to continue our fire safety theme. They used sidewalk chalk to draw circles on the sidewalk and then the girls sprayed water on it to put out the "fires". (no pics :-( maybe next time)

We bought washers, magnets, nuts & bolts at Home Depot at the end of our date night. And we also found some paint chips to make a word blends activity/game for Chloe. Yes she is young but has shown A LOT of interest in letters, words, and reading. She is such a sponge soaking up knowledge, that I do not want to discourage that in any way.

I don't think that I will be doing themes anymore. It is A LOT of work for this age. I am just going to continue to focus on letters, numbers, shapes, fine and gross motor skills. Just having activities available that they will enjoy for as long or as short as they want.

F is for Fire Safety - Week of 8.3.09

2009-08-10T01:15:00.000-07:00

I started this week with lots of expectations about our first "official" week of homeschooling the girls. Official for us, we don't become official to the district until we file our notice of intent when they turn 7 (which is 4 years away for Chloe and 5 for Caitlyn).

In looking at Carissa's Tot School blog and other blogs about homeschooling kindergarten and below, I kept seeing references & pictures describing fine motor skills, gross motor skills and I didn't know how that played out with young children. I found this site about Developing Fine Motor Skills and this one about Early Childhood Physical Development which is helping me to understand what I need to incorporate into their learning. I also am realizing that perfection and providing tot school do not mix!! I started realizing it when I was "doing" more of the fire truck gluing and placing on the paper rather than letting them experience and experiment on their own. I will be working on this part of myself and will let you know how it goes.

I'm going to chronicle our adventures and fun complete with pictures. I didn't start taking pictures until Thursday.

On Monday we

looked at our theme board
read lots of fire safety books (see the bottom of this post for the titles)
colored A LOT
did tracing activities (and realized that a laminator would come in VERY handy and would be instrumental in helping us to save ink, paper, money, and the planet)
found rectangles in the kitchen, playroom, and their bedroom
talked about fire safety; if you see fire get out of the house, if there's a fire no hiding under the bed or in the closet, firefighters are your friends and of course stop, drop and roll
did some pre-literacy activities on Starfall

Tuesday was a free day (ie lots of TV) as my back was hurting very badly. Wednesday was Women's bible study and then a play date for the girls. We went shopping and bought some school supplies, a laminator, and some food.

On Thursday we

read more fire safety books.
ran on the rectangle~~I tried to make a rectangle on the floor with scarves and ribbons to give an active movement to help give a visual of a rectangle but the ribbons and scarves kept moving.
We went to the fire station (Reno Station 11, on Mae Anne) to take a tour with Reno Moms Like Me. Click here for more details about our fun at the fire station.
We came back and made our own fire trucks with mommy pre-cut shapes. I think that next time with pasting specific shapes that I might draw an outline on the paper for them to match and of course have other activities where they are just freely pasting whatever wherever. On the paper of course!

On Friday we

made a rectangle on the floor with masking tape and tried having them run again - more more fun this time
practiced fine motor skills by rolling play doh and forming it into letters on the Playdough alphabet card Chloe and Caitlyn starting to get into the fun!

Look mom, i rolled it!

Caitlyn rolling and pounding it in her hands and then holding it up and smashing onto the table just like mommy did.

Chloe squishing it... She was making finger holes

painted with watercolors for the 1st time (my memory card was full so we don't have any pictures. :-(

Random things we did

I started making a point about showing and saying the title and author of the book with the girls.

Books we read this week:

Clifford: The Firehouse Dog by Norman Bridwell (their favorite!)
Fire Safety by Nancy Loewen
Rescue Machines at Work: Fire Engines by E.S. Budd
Scholastic News Nonfiction Readers: A Very Busy Firehouse
We work at the Fire Station by Angela Aylmore
A Day in the Life of a Firefighter by Heather Adamson
Safety Town: When There is a Fire Go Outside by Dorothy Chlad
Safety Town: Matches, Lighters, and Firecrackers Are Not Toys by Dorothy Chlad

Fire Station Field Trip

2009-08-09T02:27:00.000-07:00

We went to the fire station (Reno Station, on Mae Anne) to take a tour with Reno Moms Like Me. We ended up being 15 minutes late because I was having way too much fun laminating with my new laminator preparing items for school the following day. The fire engine had apparently left the station to answer a call about a fire, so the tour was cut short. A firefighter trainer gave us the kid goody bags, showed us around the garage, showed us a little bit about the outside of the fire truck and fire boats.

Afterwards, I asked if we could see the kitchen so we could see if it was just like the books that we had read about fire stations. Then I just chatted with the firefighter while the girls played on the square floor and kept getting up onto chairs then back down. We ask if we could see the fire pole but that station doesn't have one anymore. I asked Chloe some questions to see if some of our learning about fire safety had sunk in:

Me: What do you do if there is a fire in the house?
Chloe:Get out of the house!
Me: Are you supposed to hide under your bed?
Chloe: NO
Me: Are you supposed to hide in your closet?
Chloe: NO
Me: If you see a fire fighter in our house, are you supposed to go with them?
Chloe: YES

Then the rest of the fire fighters came back and Tao e poo (spelled phonetically) gave us our own personalized tour. He was so friendly, nice and great with the girls. He told us the difference between the fire truck and fire engine. The fire engine has a more specialized water system that an engineer who is really good at math can operate. The fire truck has a ladder so that they can climb onto roofs to put holes in so that the smoke and fire have somewhere to go. I always thought the terms were interchangeable. Unfortunately with budget cuts in Washoe County and in the city of Reno, they are not actively using the fire truck. To use it, they have to call someone in from another station.

The fire engine has 4 people to operate it: the Captain, the driver/water engineer, 2 fire fighters. We also learned that fire trucks & engines are designed with the right handed in mind. Left handers are still able to be fire fighters, they just have to get creative with their hoses and other equipment.

They were able to sit in the drivers seat and "drive" two times each. They had a blast! They wanted to touch the buttons but I told them no because they were exactly the way that the driver needed them and we didn't want to cause them to waste time fixing them because they have to get to the fire SUPER FAST!

They even were able to sit in the Captain's chair and put on his helmet (with some help because it was HEAVY!!)

From Preschool to Tot School

2009-08-03T12:43:00.001-07:00

Homeschooling at age 2 1/2 and 1 1/2 - isn't that too early??? Although I did consider this question A LOT, I realized that my kids have such a love of learning and they are sponges waiting to be filled with knowledge. Every day, either Chloe will come up to me and say " we do learning now"? or Caitlyn will crawl up on my lap and point to my computer and say something that while not understandable to many, I have come to learn means learning. So this week we started "preschool". After hours and hours of searching the internet for ideas, direction and curriculum, I came up with a lesson plan for our first unit (theme) on Fire Safety. Why Fire Safety as the first theme? We were scheduled to take a tour of a fire station with a local mom's group this week.I was having a hard time figuring out what home school would look like for our family especially at the girls being so young. I had like 3 hours planned with activities and art/crafts for the first day. We ended up doing about 2 hours and I was just relaxed about the whole thing, if they wanted to move onto something else we did (even if it wasn't on the schedule/lesson plan. I was proud of my perfectionistic, planning self. :-) Then during the girls nap time I came across a website about "tot school". At last what I had been looking for... and the more I read, the more I realized I had already been doing this and just needed to focus our attention slightly to start teaching additional skills. Not drilling them in or being militant or legalistic. My philosophy of education is very similar to this blog writer, Carissa. As she states on her website about Tot School Goals, "

Our #1 goal, above all else is to have fun and to develop a

love of learning, everything else is secondary at this stage. We are now "Tot Schoolers" I will post as frequently as possible our adventures in Tot School.