Snowmen, snowflakes, and frozen fish

Some of our favorite cousins came over to join us for school today. We had fun mostly, of course. Ain't kindergarten great? We talked about snow/snowmen/ice and all things wintry. I forgot to charge my camera batteries beforehand, so I didn't get all the pictures I wanted, but I'll share a few with you.

We started by reading this book.

Then we played this game. I gave each kid a snowman (really just three circles on white paper) and some crayons and a die. They took turns rolling and whatever number they rolled, they determined what they could draw on their snowman.

Bailey won. Before all six kids finished, however, a few got restless, so we had to fake a few rolls to end the game.

We cut some snowflakes, which I did not get any pictures of. But it was pretty easy. We just did the old trick of folding paper and cutting out circles and triangles, then unfolding the paper!

Then they freed some frozen fish and (oddly enough) dolphins from ice cubes. I froze plastic dolphins and fish in an ice cube tray. The dolphins were on key chains, but I just twisted off the chain. The kids had a great time pounding away with table knives to free their fish! A few of them needed a bit of help, but mostly, they were able to do it on their own.

And finally, they had a marshmallow snack. I gave them marshmallows and toothpicks to make snowmen, then they ate them.

A few, of course, just ate them. :)

And she is not even showing any remorse!

Totschool lite (fewer calories, but not quite as tasty)

So. Here we have a very historic moment... my first picture-less Totschool post. (My niece, who knows my love for pictures, is falling over right about now. :) ) I really have no excuse for why I didn't take pictures this week. Well, no good excuse, anyway. We were busy taking videos with the camera, but I can't load them because after THREE HOURS of trying, I gave up. If it takes the computer that long to think about it, it really doesn't need to be done. The videos really weren't THAT cool. We also didn't have any new things this week. Well, except for my adorable penguin and fish game that no one bothered to play with. Sigh. Come on, it's PENGUINS people! In my house, that is usually all it takes to make them fall all over themselves getting to it first. I simply do not know what their problem is!

Ok, so, anyway, nothing you haven't seen before... so I'm just going to give a quick list of what the popular items were this week and move on to next week. Next week there WILL be new things to take pictures of.

For three reasons:

1. Valentine's Day is coming up, so we are switching from our bland theme of... well, nothing, to hearts and sweet love. :)

2. Because my awesome husband blessed me with $20 and an unencumbered (by children) trip to the Dollar Tree and Target (where I visited the dollar section) and my well-loved but rather more expensive, Mardel. So we have $20 worth of new stuff. :)

3. We have two vehicles again, so we will be having a field trip and starting some Charlotte Mason type stuff this week. (I really love how Montessori and Mason really fit together, especially when they are both tweaked with a good dose of Four Little Penguin-ish-ness)

Ok, so, my list (I almost forgot about it!)

Daniel's favorites were:

the popcorn and trucks;

the ABC puzzle;

and the noodle search;

Abbie's favorites are:

hammering play dough;

the dressing bears;

and the sound jars;

PS. I tried linking all of those to the original post, but, for some reason, links and lists were not working well together and the links kept getting mixed together. My patience was not at its highest to begin with, so... If you click on Totschool in the "I blog about" section of the sidebar, you can peruse all previous Totschool posts at your leisure (or even when you are in a hurry, I'm not particular).

PPS. For more Totschool posts, ones with pictures and working links and patient bloggers, go over to 1+1+1=1 and check it out!

The knee bone is connected to the shin bone...

Here's another big kid "Montessori" work. This is from our science tub. I don't remember where exactly I found this, but if you google "human skeleton" several similar things pop up. I copied and pasted into my print shop program, and re-sized it into four matching images. One I left whole, one I cut the labels off, and one I cut totally apart. For now, I put out the whole and the one with the labels cut off. They use the whole for the control and match their labels to the cut up card.

I found it was easier if they put their puzzle together on a piece of felt, so the pieces don't slide around all over the place.

Since putting this puzzle together a couple of times, they have started including bone names in their daily chatter. Totally hilarious when we are out in public.

One-liners

Nate wanted to go outside, but I insisted that he finish his math first. After a few minutes, he commented, "Mom, you are making us work like Jacob's children."
I really thought he would at least be a preteen before he called me a slave-driver!


The kids have gotten into the habit of saying "Hey!" and I have found myself responding like my mom used to do... "Hay is for horses." So the other day, I overheard Kaytie and Nate in the midst of this conversation.
Kaytie, "Hay isn't just for horses; cows eat hay, too."
Nate, "AND, horses don't just eat hay; they eat grass and carrots and apples."


Nate asked, "Mom, our bird needs to talk."
"I don't think he is the kind of bird that can talk, Nate."
"Well, I need him to, because I need him to tell me what he thinks about feather dusters."


Kaytie and Nate asked, "Mom, how do you say 'burrito' in Spanish?"

Nate ran through the house, calling, "Mom! I'm so expensive!"

7 X 7 picture

So the four by four was so fun that I thought I would pick a different number this week and do it again! This time I picked the seventh picture in my seventh folder and found this:

Kaytie swinging. She was 7 months old. I believe this picture was taken in August. I know we were living in "the cow town" where Steve was youth pastoring. We had walked down to the church to the playground there, and were playing with the church's brand new digital camera which we thought was the most awesome thing ever. I remember being very irritated that I couldn't figure out how to get the date off the picture. However, I have no idea why she was wearing footie pjs to the park in August.

Writing practice

This is from our language tub. Nate is still having a lot of trouble making his writing legible. So this is one of our ways of practicing. I originally made this sheet of scribbles to practice cutting, but they saw it and got excited about tracing it, so I just slipped it into a sheet protector and let them at it.

He is doing this sheet upside down. The straight lines are supposed to be at the top, but Nate marches to the beat of his own drum.

Montessori for the big kids

Since the babies' Montessori-inspired school was going so well, I shifted the big kids' focus in the mornings from, play quietly in your rooms or on the computer, to a Montessori-inspired school time as well. At first, it was just a way to keep them occupied while I spent time with the babies. (now isn't that a switch from what you usually hear from homeschooling moms?) But it quickly became a fun learning time. Now our morning school time is full and constructive for everyone. So I thought that, since I share what the babies are up to, I would also share regularly what the big kids are doing. I am not good with titles, so I won't name my big kid school with a clever, catchy title, but I will regularly post on a "game" that they enjoy.
What I do is set out on the dining table all the things that are available for that day. (I desperately wish we had "shelves" but I just don't see how to pull that off in our current circumstances.) They get a different "subject" every day. Monday is math; Tuesday is language (that encompasses reading, handwriting, spelling, grammar (for Kaytie) and creative writing); Wednesday is science; Thursday is geography; and Friday is "fine arts and fun" day, which is currently heavy on the fun and light on the fine arts.
I have a white board up that I use for their daily "work plans". First, I write it all out in a notebook, so I have a record I can keep. Then every day, I write it on the board so that they can see what they are supposed to do. First thing every day, I give them a quick run-down of what exactly I am expecting with very concrete rules, and then they get to choose in which order they do their work. After they have finished their 2 or 3 assignments, they are free to choose from their table anything they want to do. Once they have done a couple of things from their table, they are allowed to alternate choices and pick something from the babies' choices. This keeps them working on their own level without making the babies' work "forbidden fruit" so to speak. (and, they have come quite in handy playing our die-games with the babies and keeping me from going insane :) )
So anyway, having said all of that, here is the first game I am going to post about.



I printed this sheet from here. I gave him a stack of dollar bills and the game was easy. First, he counts out how many dollars he "has" then he counts how many dollars his item costs, and then he counts what he has left, and writes down his answer. He is working on subtraction and also the abstract idea that buying stuff costs money. At least, I hope that is what he is getting from it! We have played with coins before, but this was our first exposure to dollar bills.
This game was not real high excitement, but it held his attention enough that he did all six problems without whining for help, and chose it again another day.

Overheard

When my niece arrived for school this morning, Nate greeted her with this startling bit of news. "Did you hear that my pretend wife died yesterday?"
(thankfully, I was in the other room, so I was free to laugh very hard)
"Um... no." Lizzie replied. After only a short pause, she rallied and inquired as to the details of the tragedy.
"She died 'cause she was very old."
"Oh, so you married an older woman." Her knowing tone finished me off.

4 by 4 Picture Meme

Brenda has a fun meme on her blog, and she "tagged" everyone who wants to do it. Here's how it works.

1. Go to your fourth picture folder
2. Pick the fourth picture--no exceptions!
3. Post it, and tell about it.
4. Tag four more people

This was my picture. Kaytie and Daniel back in April of 2006. Daniel was 5 months and Kaytie was 3. Kaytie wanted to hold the baby and get her picture taken. Somehow, I get the impression that he was not as happy about the idea as she was.

I'm also taking my cue from Brenda and not tagging anyone. :) I'll just say, try it, it's fun!

Totschool, the after Christmas edition

After taking basically two weeks off for Christmas, we started back to official school this week.
I started phasing out the Christmasy stuff and replacing it with winter or just regular stuff. I am taking it slow because it just isn't as much fun to take it out as it was to put it in!


I added some cards I made for Kaytie and Nate a looooooong time ago. They are just star stickers on cards with the numbers written underneath. This is just for counting fun and number recognition. Abbie has yet to notice them, but Daniel enjoys spreading them out and counting the stars.

They played with the peg board. It's really too big for my tub, so it's one of those occasional things they get to choose every once in awhile.

I switched the red and green puffballs out for wintery ones. I wanted to just do blue and white, but I didn't have enough, so the baby pink went in as well.

The sound jars are something that Abbie enjoys a lot. I took out the bewildering array of different sounds and put in two "noisy" ones with noodles in and two "quiet" ones with cotton balls in. She enjoyed them even more after that. She likes to shake the noisy ones and shout, "NOISY!" then shake the quiet ones and whisper, "quiet!" Maria Montessori is probably rolling over in her grave, but it works for us: it's fun, she is learning concepts and opposites.

The counting games I had out seemed to be a little too much for Daniel and Abbie. Alex gets a lot out of them, but he doesn't come much any more, so I switched them out for this. Daniel enjoys this a lot. He names the number and then counts out a "snowball" for each snowman.

The color die game was played almost non-stop all week long.



For Christmas, I got a gift card to my new favorite store and spent part of it on these pretty geometric solids. Since I'm not a Montessori purist, I don't mind that the shapes aren't exactly what I would find at a Montessori school, and that they are not painted blue. I was very excited to get them and to introduce them to the kids. I put out the pyramid, sphere and cube to start with.

Abbie calls them a triangle, ball and block, but she had a great time playing with them! She worked hard to get the sphere to stay on the cube. It cracked her up every time the sphere would roll away.

Daniel learned the proper names rather quickly, but he doesn't seem to enjoy them as much as Abbie does. Maybe it really is true that ignorance is bliss? :)

Abbie is demonstrating that they are "heavy"!

Another big hit was this bowl of noodles and small toys. The rabbit eraser was the favorite find.

And, finally, this is why I am glad that I switched to this method of learning with the kids. This puzzle was out on the table for the big kids to choose. With my old method of doing school, Daniel would never have seen this puzzle. I would have kept it in the cabinet, and only gotten it out for the big kids while Daniel was napping. But he saw Nate putting it together, and then, while I was busy with someone else, he snuck it off the table and took it to his mat. When I saw that he had it, I thought, "Well, he'll get bored quickly and put it back." Except that he didn't. I put in the three pieces that have more than one state, and I gave a few "spatial hints" when he got hung up on a couple of states. As in, "That one goes way up at the top." But he sat and worked with this puzzle until he got it all together! And it took him awhile. I was very very impressed with his determination!

For more Totschool posts, go to Carissa's blog.

Fun and Games

I was wanting a color die. Because I saw one and thought it would be easy to make. Not because I had any particular idea for one. It often works that way. I see something "cool", find a way to get it, and THEN figure out how to use it for teaching someone something. :) (yes my husband thinks I'm crazy)

So anyway, I found, on my rambling across the world wide web, a free, printable, template for a blank die or what passed for one, anyway. :) And I excitedly printed it and made this.

It sat in my cabinet for awhile until I finally figured out this game. It's for two or more players and they take it in turns to roll the die. The roller then says what color he/she rolled and gets to choose a math link cube of that color. There are two of each colors represented on the die, so after the second roll of each color, the roller loses a turn. The game is over when all the cubes are gone and the winner is the one with the most cubes.

This game was such a big hit with everyone that I came up with new forms of it.

ABC die for letter recognition.

and a lower case one

An addition die for help in memorizing math facts. I taped this one up and used stickers for the addition problems, so they are removable. I figured the big kids would learn these facts much faster than I wanted to make new dies!

And I am busy thinking of new kinds to make!!!

Oh and by the way, the site I linked above has tons of printable fun! I spent an evening drooling over all the things they have to offer for free!

Dreams

Just about six years ago, I got to hold the fulfillment of a dream.

I think I was about four when I first decided I wanted to be a mommy. It was second grade (I think, I was home schooled, so grades are fuzzy for me) when I wrote a report on "What I want to be when I grow up". It went something like this... When I grow up, I want to have six kids, three boys and three girls. I went on to list their names and ages.

I don't remember the details, but I do remember the dream. I also remember being told by several well-meaning adults that I would not get to choose the number of kids I would have, nor their genders. But I was not dissuaded from my dream. Nothing could do that... Not gentle reminders of reality... Not scorn at such a "pointless career"... Not shock that anyone would go to college with the intention of someday being "nothing but a housewife"... Not the eye-opening experience of caring for (other people's) children... Not even long years of boy-friend-less-ness.

And on a cold, January day, I finally got to hold my first baby. I achieved my dream of being a Mommy. Nothing else I could possibly achieve could be greater than this. I cried.

Raising her has been a challenge. :) She is so full of love and life. Everything is BIG and GREAT and PERFECT in her eyes. She is on one hand so very very like me, and on the other hand so incredibly opposite of me that I have learned so many lessons from her. Everyone loves and values Kaytie, because Kaytie loves and values everyone.

Ironically enough, Kaytie is full of dreams. She always has been, even when she was tiny. And this year, six years after she made my dream come true, a special dream of hers was granted by her Heavenly Father, her earthly daddy, and the love and generosity of a woman Kaytie doesn't even know.

The story goes like this. One (of the many) things that Kaytie loves is giraffes. I won't go into the long story of why, but suffice it to say Kaytie is all about giraffes. And this year, her daddy, out of a "real" job, was working part-time at a seasonal game/toy store. And in this store, was a life-sized baby giraffe. (as in, five feet tall) Over the holidays, since Steve was working there, we visited this store several times, and Kaytie instantly fell in love with this giraffe. To the point that she asked if we could buy it. Which is something the kids rarely ever do, especially Kaytie. Well, as you can imagine, a five foot giraffe is not a cheap toy. So I told her no, and I told her why. She looked a little disappointed, then later, she brought the subject up again, having emptied her piggy-bank to help with the cost. Again, I gently explained why we could not buy the giraffe and she dropped the subject. She never brought it up again.

But Steve heard her, and, being a daddy, he set about to see what he could do. He asked his boss (the owner of the store) if/when/how much the giraffe would be discounted after the holidays. She said, "Oh, probably 30%." But then asked why. Well, 30% was still way too much money for us, but he told her about Kaytie. And her immediate response was, "She has GOT to have that giraffe!" So she stuck it in the back to ensure that it didn't sell, then informed him that it would be discounted after the holidays to whatever price he was able to afford.

So after Christmas, a determined daddy shelled out the cash, drug a five foot giraffe through the mall, and contrived to hide it in our closet until a special little girl had her birthday.

She cried. And my dream continues to come true every single day.