Merry Christmas, All Year Long

It's February. Valentine's Day is but a memory. Spring is fast approaching. The days are warm and windy. Most people are thinking and dreaming of picnics, swimming, and baseball.

Daniel, however, is still regularly requesting Away in the Manger as his bedtime song. It's going to be a loooooong year.

Getting a tan, Penguin-style

Just because it's winter... and past your bedtime, there is no reason you can't go ahead and lay out in the sun.

Spelling Pathways

When I was ready to teach Kaytie and Nate how to read, I was recommended this book. It was cheap, and it looked good, so I bought it. We HATED it. Well, I hated it, the kids were not very fond of it. But we are nothing if not stubborn, and they learned to read in spite of the dry, boring book with no teacher instruction but more than enough long lists of words and non-words to read every. single. day! But, I couldn't ignore the fact that plenty of people seemed to really love this book, and I'm not one to bash for personal preference. So pretty much the book got tossed in the back of the school cabinet and I tried to forget the $$ I had spent on it. After all, the kids did learn to read.

So. Lately, everywhere you go (especially in Blogland) moms are raving about a new spelling curriculum. At least, it's new to me. And I felt drawn to it. The more I looked into it, however, the more I realized it is just rules and practice. Rules and practice. hmmm. Then I remembered that I had a book that had all of those rules in it! And tons of words to use as practice! And I can make flashcards just as well as the next person!!!

So. Here we are at the point of the post: I used my phonics book and developed my own spelling program.

We started with easy 3-letter words, just to get a feel for mental spelling. I pulled words straight out of the book, and made picture cards of these words.

The kids choose 3 to 5 cards, and write these words by sounding them out in their heads. This was very easy for them to do, and they enjoyed it, for the most part.

Next, I wrote out the first rule on an index card.

I pulled the practice words from the book and wrote them on pieces of index cards. (I wanted them smaller than the rule-card, but just as sturdy)

I added a few sentences made from the practice words, some home-made spelling tiles, a laminated sentence strip, and a wipe-off crayon.

This is our "kit" for the spelling rule. All in one baggie, they have the rule, words that use the rule, sentences, and tools to practice writing the rule, the words and the sentences. Once they know this rule and can write the words correctly without having to see the word, then I will do the same for the next rule. The practice sentences will get harder, however, as I will use words from previous rules as well as the current one.

We are still in the beginning stages of this program, but I will try and keep you updated as we go along.

In our first session, we went over the rule and talked about it. Then I made words with letter tiles, leaving out the first letter, and she had to look at the rule and decide if the word started with a K or a C. For independent work, I'm making a list of the words with the first letter off, and she can just use letter tiles to complete the word.

Kindergarten

What has Nate been up to lately?



Graphing with hearts. We do this, in some form, every February. I don't know what it is about hearts that just makes me think, "Let's graph!" but that is just the way it is.


Pin punching. I read on my favorite Montessori blog about this activity and how it was good for handwriting. We need all the help we can get with handwriting, so we do pin punching. Quite frankly, we are not good at it, and we do not enjoy it, but we do it anyway. It helped a lot when I bought some REALLY BIG push-pins for them to use.


Reading. The kids LOVE to read. I found them each a series that I keep special for silent reading during school. This is something they look forward to and remind me of if I forget. Their reading is listed on the sidebar. Somewhere.

Totschool: The highlight of our week

Somehow, my camera got switched to a setting that was just very very wrong, so most of the pictures I took this week just weren't any good at all. But I think I salvaged enough to give you some highlights of our week.

The week started, and ended, with goofiness. This girl is crazy!

But then we settled down to serious work with our Montessori boxes...

Daniel loves making letters with the play dough. He usually focuses on one letter each time he chooses it. He cuts that letter out, then destroys it with the knife, then cuts it out again. This activity has helped him learn his letters faster than any thing else I have tried. He now knows all four of these letters, and the sound they make. I just wish I had lower case cookie-cutters!

The ABC puzzle is always a favorite. Daniel whips through it several times in a row, and Abbie completed it TWICE this week!

We played many a game of Color Rolling.

Daniel finally showed an interest in the dress-up bears. He spent more time organizing the box than he did dressing the bears.

Abbie had a good time matching colors.

And an even better time putting the colors back in the bag.

Daniel turned the heart sort into an architect's endeavour.

Daniel has finally started playing with the Pooh Go-together cards. First, you figure out which objects go together, then you flip them over and check your work by seeing if you made a picture with the cards. Abbie took a turn with them, too, but the "go together" part was too much for her, so she just turned them over and made the pictures.

There are 3 different "levels" to the Penguin game.

Abbie enjoyed the first one, where you match the number on each fish-card to the same number on each penguin-card.

Daniel started with the second level, counting fish and then matching the number to the penguin-card.

The second level was so easy that he tried out the third level. He identified each number (he's getting very good at this) and then counted out the correct number of fish for each penguin-card.

You can print the penguins from here.

And we had fun at our science museum. We buy a year membership every year and then we go whenever we like for free! With a family our size, we pay for the membership with the first two visits, and all the rest are freebies, so it is so worth it. It can be a little challenging taking all four of them by myself, since in a place so fascinating, they tend to take off in four different directions at once, but on this day, they were very considerate and stayed pretty close together.

Sometimes, they were even willing to look at the same exhibit at the same time! I love the fact that they have tons of stools scattered around so that the tiny ones can see, too.

This exhibit is supposed to be about matching iguana characteristics to their environment, and the lights go green when you put the cards in the correct slot. However, Daniel kept working and working with this until he got all the lights in an AB pattern. It cracked me up. If only he had remembered to work from left to right!

This was Abbie's favorite. She loves to turn the air on and off and make the ball go up and down! She got pretty good at keeping it up out of Daniel's reach, so he couldn't run off with it.

One of the awesome things about the museum is Tiny Town. It's a cool little "fenced-in" area for the tots who visit. It is filled with blocks, puzzles, a house to play in, and some climbing toys. We played there for quite some time.

Daniel built this giraffe there. The head on its back is not a growth, but its baby that it was giving a piggy back ride.


Go check out more Totschool posts at Carissa's blog! You'll be glad you did. :)

Ghost stories

The kids love to turn off the lights in their rooms and play. Sometimes they just have fun with flashlights, sometimes they go on Safari, and sometimes they have a camping trip. I'm not sure exactly what they were playing the other night, but I heard Kaytie suggest, "Let's tell ghost stories!"
This is the sort of thing that has the potential to end badly, so I began to pay close attention. Here is her story:
I was walking through the dark house and heard footsteps behind me! I was scared! I ran! But the footsteps followed me! I looked back, and there was a GHOST! So I turned around and I told that Ghost about Jesus!!! Then he went to all the people he had chased and told them he was sorry for scaring them.

Now, before you go "Awww!" and think how spiritual she is, I need to tell you that this is the same girl who used to "evangelize" her brother by informing him, "I'm a Christian and you aren't! So I am going to Heaven and you are going to Hell." Grace is not exactly her strong point.

Geo board

In our math tub, we have a geo board. I have NO IDEA exactly what these are for, or what they are supposed to teach. I tried my good friend Google, but all I found were lesson plans for high school, and I honestly don't think we are ready for that yet. So the kids play with the bands and the board. Sometimes they make recognizable shapes on purpose. Sometimes they make pictures. Sometimes they just string bands for awhile and then take them off again.

So if anyone can give me some sort of direction about geo boards, or even a sense of rhyme or reason as to why we have one and what we can do with it, I would greatly appreciate it!

Spring is HERE!

We live in what was once referred to as "The Great American Desert". So we don't really look for green grass to herald spring. Additionally, we live in a city, so flowers aren't really our harbinger. And because we live in the South, birds don't do it for us either.

So, how do we know that Spring has officially arrived to our fair town? You guessed it! One of these:

drove through the parking lot today. It was cause for much rejoicing. Small children leaped up and down in a senseless act of joy. Kaytie screamed, "I CAN'T BELIEVE MY EYES!"

Imagine how they would have felt if we had actually bought them some ice cream!

LOL!

Abbie's first (understandable, as in, spoken in English, not Abbese) joke:
Daniel is cold because he went outside!
And we all laughed because we understood what she was saying!!!!
Plus, one can't help but laugh when Abbie laughs.

Totschool, hearts and stars

For Totschool this week, we were very busy with Valentine's Day. We made some valentines for friends and cousins.

And one for Dad, as well.

And we went to a party, where we decorated hearts

with stickers

and with glitter glue.

We spent a little bit of time working with our Montessori stuff, and we also spent some time outside. We are starting into Spring around here, and have been having some glorious weather! So we have been going downstairs to ride bikes, draw nature pictures, and kick balls around. Next week, it is supposed to be cold and cloudy, so we will be back to working hard inside.

Another interest happening around here is space and space travel. The big kids are learning astronomy in "afternoon school" so we have been reading books and watching movies (at the science museum) about space. As a result, the kids have turned the couch into a spaceship and have taken to roaming the universe. Daniel now converses quite intelligently about asteroids, Mercury, and just how hot the sun is. So now I'm pondering and searching for ways to incorporate this into his and Abbie's Montessori box...

Oh, and I almost forgot... Daniel's new love is this book Seaweed Soup. It is a "math" book, and I really got it because it sort of teaches that you might think you don't like a food, but if you taste it, it could be really good! (and this is a lesson that can never be re-enforced too often around this crowd!) But none of them seemed to catch that part. :) Daniel loves it because it has the word "disgusting" in it more than once, and he is IN LOVE with grossness right now.

For more Totschool posts, head on over to Carissa's blog and check out Mr Linky!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!

I'm so jealous!

This really makes me wish I had a couple of nine year olds hanging around the house.

Making Valentines

We have a Valentine's Day party tomorrow with the cousins. So today, we made valentines!
First, we looked through all of our valentine books and online, for cute one-liners. Such as "Somebody wuffs you". And I made a list. We came up with nearly 30.
Then I made another list of each child and who they needed to give a valentine to.
They then went through the one-liners and picked one for each kid they were making a valentine for.
I then browsed clip art and found a cute picture for each one-liner that we would be using.
I pasted them all onto one "sheet of paper" in my photo shop program, sized them, and printed them.
I typed all the one-liners up, colored them appropriately, and printed them as well.
I cut everything out and sorted them by child.
Then we got out the glue and brushes and the colored paper (cut into eighths).

They had a blast gluing everything together. Kaytie and Nate are old enough to get the humor as well. :)

The final step was my writing the names on each valentine.


Here are a few to show off the final product.

Stay at home mommy

This is what happens when one spends too much time home alone with small children and a camera.

Beastie enjoyed making a heart bouquet.

Beastie loved counting marshmallows onto the snowman chart.

She practiced her number recognition by matching penguins and fish.

She copied the AB pattern very well. Here, she started to put out the wrong color, but she caught her mistake and changed it on her own.

And here is her favorite, matching the geometric shapes to their picture. She was very very good at this! Beastie is a smart giraffe and a joy to have in the classroom.

Totschool when we are sick

We had a lot of sickies running around our house this week, so several mornings, instead of doing school, we watched Veggie Tales, or Thomas, or... yeah. We also had a couple of birthday parties to cope with, both of which were tons of fun and highly enjoyed. And we had some beautiful weather, so we spent some time outside riding bikes.

Daddy giving a ride to the Speed Queen.

Daniel was more than willing to pose for a picture.

And here is Abbie, demonstrating how freakishly strong she is by picking up, and carrying, Daniel's tricycle.

We did get in a little regular school.

Daniel practiced counting. He puts one marshmallow on each snowman, counting as he goes, when he runs out of snowmen in the line, he yells his last number, and points to the printed number on the sheet. I first put this out with cotton balls, and no one paid any attention to it, so I tried marshmallows, and now Daniel is all over it.


Abbie made a bouquet.

And then she finally discovered the name puzzle and put it together.

She worked on the number puzzle and put it together without any help at all.

And Daniel sorted hearts by color. This is a new favorite work.

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