Moments to Remember

As homeschoolers we do lots of "real schoolwork", pen to paper kinda stuff but when its all said and done I want to remember these kinda moments! It is a never ending 60hour a week kinda job to choose to homeschool and these type of moments are the best payment would could ask for!

Here is Maddie at 8 years old has taken up a passion for sewing! You can usally find her here by about 11am once her "book work" is complete. She set up at a craft show and sold items but best of all has been able to make homemade gifts for her family for Christmas! Carson curled up in bed with his reading. (he returned to the classroom and said "Whoa that was a great story!".

Maddie and Annie caccooned in the corner with their Latin, singing the Latin songs too!

Here is the view from behind the girls as they worked!

Carson is SO good about engaging the little ones throughout our morning. This was fun play with Lincolns counters!

This has become a morning routine. For Maddie and Annie to lead our morning/circle time. They are so empowered as leaders and they have much better singing voices than I do!!

Thanksgiving Fun for Preschool!

When homeschooling with preschoolers and toddlers I have found that you have to keep them BUSY!!! Other than an occasional PBS show the boys want to be in the schoolroom with us all day. This can prove to be trying...working with the older ones one on one while keeping the little guys entertained! I of course also want them to be more than entertained, I would love some learning as well!!
Our main curriculum with the younger children is all literature based. We read a story and do related activities. The main curriculum for this is Five in A Row, we also use www.homeschoolshare.com which is basically a FIAR for other books. This site is AWESOME! I use it weekly for something. As you know once you start reading...children start listening!!
In addition to the lit. studies we do I like to add in lots of hands on activites. Some of the activites are open-ended and more montessori-ish. I try to vary the activities to include fine motor skills, cutting skills, sensory work etc. We use lots of activities from our preschool in a bag. If you have not participated in a activity bag swap, they are great! I will try to post of that another day! Lastly I have discovered the coolest, greatest lady ever...and below you will see some of her super cute preschool printables. Although she seriously has SO much great content on her blog/website that you could spend an entire week there and still not read about it all!
Below you will see some pages from her Thanksgiving Pack!
She has a spot with some fun fall activites and Thanksgiving songs too!
I also use her calender system which is genius! Okay enough about her greatness go on over and check her out yourself!
So here is Lincoln making the letter P (for Pilgrim)out of play-doh! I printed these on cardstock and placed inside a plastic page protector. This is great for the boys as they lack the ability to actually write letters at this point. (BTW the girls cry and fit to do all of the boys activites so after they finish their K & 2nd grade work they "get" to do preschool activites!!) Please disregard all the junk (including Maddies "recyclable art" projects!) in the background! Here is Cam the man working with putting his Mayflower ships in order smallest to largest. Surprisingly enough he had to really work at this skill. I debated even printing this activity out because I assumed he could do it. He got the hang of it fairly quickly but Lincoln is still working really hard on this one! (BTW I printed these on cardstock and laminated them.)
Here Lincoln is tracing the lines from the Pilgrims to the Mayflower. Look at his face he was concentrating SO hard! This one like took him about 10+ minutes!! It was so cute! Due to the number of children we have using these I decided to print these on cardstock and laminate so they can be used over and over with a dry erase marker!
This one that Annie is using is a simple math/counting sheet. Obviously quite easy for Annie but she loved it nonetheless!

The Temporary Schoolroom

I know I have been a bit MIA lately mostly because I am having extreme difficulty uploading pictures. I am sure it is a "me" problem and not blogger...but if anyone has any advice please let me know! They get to the uploading stage and never any further.
Back to the subject. This has been our most trying year of homeschooling yet. And my schoolroom is a big source of the issue!
Reason #1-More kiddos! Carson in 4th, Maddie in 2nd, Annie in K, Cam in Pre-K, Linc in Preschool.
Reason #2-Less space. We are in temporary house while we build, so at the moment we are in a house nearly a third of the size of the old house. The laundry also goes in and out of this area. Did I mention more kids...in smaller area...you get the idea!
Reason #3-Random weirdness. In our schoolroom we have 1 outlet (we had to move in before it was even finished). So no pencil sharpener, no computer set up...right now the CD player wins the outlet battle but pretty sure it will lose over to the heater once it gets cold!
Reason#4 -Since the move I have been extremely disorganized (some due to the above, some due to me being ME!)

So today I planned to get my schoolroom re-organized from the mess that had accumulated from the beginning of the school year. I even stopped and bought Toy Story 3 for the kiddos to watch while I worked on it. Well of course they were already in bed asleep before I was able to start!
I must add that I have a true, true friend who challenged me to post the pics tonight. That type of dare really does motivate me! So here it is at 3:16am!!
Keep in mind this is a partially finished basement with concrete floors, and un-painted drywall! So excuse some of the ugliness!
Below are my shelfs from Target (white and the stackable blue and red ones).
Hanging are my Pottery Barn mobiles (ABC's & Solar System)
The table on the left is Carson's desk with workboxes under it.
To the right is Lincolns table with his "montessori-ish" activities in the colored trays.
The door to the right is my laundry room.
The clear Show-Off totes on the top of the while shelves are my fav. containers and they hold all of my preschool in a bag, mah in a bag, and reading in a bag activities! LOVE these!!
Here you can see the desks for the middle three children. Between their desks are their workboxes. You can see Annies measurement man behind her desk! To the middle you can see solar system canvas we made!

So there it is clean ready for tomorrow,now I better get to bed so I am ready too!!

Preschool Trays

This year we have a new element to our school day. With Camden sitting in on our Kindergarten lessons with Annie, it leaves Lincoln all alone. When I found this great blog and her idea of preschool trays...I knew we had to try it!
I found these colored trays/tubs/bins in the value bins at Target for $2.50.
So Lincoln has four trays to play with each school day. I quickly realized that I tell him when he can go to the next one. Otherwise he would zoom through them all in 10 minutes just to see what is next!

Here are three for this day (the fourth sits on his work table).
The blue tray has an activity from Preschool Activity bags that we made in a swap with other moms this summer. I HIGHLY recommend purchasing this book and organizing a swap. For instance I made 15 identical bags with 14 other women. After the swap I went home with 15 different bags! The kids love them! (even my 2nd grader!)

The red tray was simple yet most likely the favorite! A paint dauber and piece of paper!!!Whoohoo!

The green tray was another Preschool Activity bag...it was plastic straws cut up in little pieces with pipecleaners, string, lanyard etc for stringing!

The blue tray was a grid of stickers (laminated) and then there were cards with the matching sticker. Linc played this for over 45 minutes!

The fourth tray this day was simply a collection of Trio (Lego style blocks).

I try to keep two trays an open-ended activity with no wrong or right or end result.

I could go into more detail but seriously she explains it so well...and in so much detail just go over and peruse her site!! (You will NOt be sorry!)

The only problem with the trays is that the older kids all want a turn!!! So when they finish all of their work...they get a turn!!

Workboxes

We have been using workboxes nearly all of this school year, and they truly changed our school dynamics!! I am not sure how I schooled without them now! A woman named Sue Patrick invented the system and has book on it. She designed them for a child with ADD but I truly believe they are great for any child.
The basic idea is that each child has a number of drawers, file folders, boxes, bins, magazine holders...etc. (You can use what ever system you choose, however the principle behind it is a visual one...so if you have a visual learner or ADD child you may not want to use the file folders).
We chose to use the Sterilite clear drawers (set of 6) for Carson (3rd) and Madelyn (1st)...I also purchased an extra set and I use that for Cam & Ann (ages 4). I bought mine at Staples and they were about $29 each...pricey but worth it!
So each day (or on occasion, the night before!) I stock the drawers with 6 things (sometimes less) that each child can complete on their own or with a bit of help from mom.
This sounds too simplistic...but it works. The children know what is expected of them, they know the order they need to go in, they can see their work at a glance so they realize what is expected of them to finish for the day etc. With multiple children they can all get started and work side by side on different things without the dreaded "What do I do next?" or "I'm all done" (when they are NOT!)!!

So what goes in them?

Well for my 3rd grader it is usually any of his "workbook" work...so handwriting, copywork, reasoning, Wordly Wise, spelling (he brings that to me and I give him the test), Apologia review work or crosswords, math, pen pal letters (include envelope, stamp, paper) etc.
I like to throw in a card game with Maddie, a puzzle, 15 minutes of free time, build a lego structure etc. Just a little something to break up the day and add a little hands on activity.

For Madelyn (1st grade) I keep things a bit more spiced up, because she is a struggling learner and too many "workbooks" send her into a puddle of emotional breakdowns! So hers usually have 2 "fun" things each day...now by fun I mean an art project, drawing project, pen pal letter, fun journaling page, preschool activity bag, art dobbers, etc.
Her other boxes would be spelling, phonics, math, handwriting etc.

For Annie & Cam (4 year olds) I keep it all hands on fun with maybe one handwriting page or themed activity. So if we are studying farm animals they might have a farm animal printable book, farm lacing cards, construction paper with farm stickers, a mini play-doh with a cookie cutter...etc. They can do the boxes in any order. Any many times I do not even switch theirs out daily..maybe weekly.


Our drawers fit under each childs desk. Attached are numbers 1-6 that are laminated and velcroed on do each drawer...as the drawer is finished they remove the number and place it in a tray. This way at a glance they can see what is left to do!

A card game for an older child..

a preschool activity bag....

This is what I plan to implement next year. This will be laminated. The way this will work is that there will be picture discs for any number of these spots. #1 might be brush teeth, #2 might be make bed #3 might be get dressed then #4,5,6,7,8,9 will be the workboxes , #10 will be clean your jurisdiction, #11 etc...

I am adding this because the visual-ness of the workboxes work so well, so I figured adding in the daily chores would make sense.

An example of a preschoolers box...

What the box looks like after boxes 1 & 2 are completed.

Extra Tidbits!

-I switch up the order of the subjects each day.

-I split up things that require a lot of writing with math or puzzle etc

-It gives me an opportunity to print fun holiday activities

-It helps me use things that I normally will not build into a school day

Here are some of my FAVORITE workbox blogs/sites! Enjoy!


She uses the bin system!

Here is everything you need to know about workboxes!

Homeschoolshare has some great printable and activities!

She has some of my favorite resources out there! (poke around her site becuase she has lots of great preschool resources too!

That should keep you busy for awhile!!!

How Great Thou Art...

If you are looking for a great art program, we love Barry Stebbing art. We are currently working through I Can Do All Things. We do other art projects all through the year, so we use it sporadically. This covers basic drawing techniques, color mixing etc. The best part is that the lesson is taught on a DVD! So after our school day is nearing the end I can pop in the DVD and the children will sit and draw for hours! This was the first time Annastyn aged 4, tried the program and she loved it! She did remarkably well for her age as well!

This lesson was teaching straight lines. This is Annie's work.

Winter Promise Fun!

This year we are using a literature based program called WinterPromise, we are really enjoying all the rich books we are reading. The kids will beg me to read another chapter over and over, and I must admit that I enjoy the stories as much as the children!!
Along with the books there is a timeline that is done notebooking style, crafts (usually several each week to choose from) and various other hands-on projects. Above the children made little pouches decorated with their own designs.

Here is Madelyn's 3D map of Jamestown.

The kids made leather pouches similar to those the native Americans would have stored items in. Madelyn had to make hers a purse!

The School Room

If you can only imagine...the school room is usually not very presentable from August through May!!! So here is a quick shot of a neat and tidy school room! Below is the cluttered but organized closet! Here is our little reading area. This area is usually used by Annie when she is done with her school work but wants to stay with us in the room.

These are my lovely shelves from Target! The top little cubbies have all of my FIAR books in groups, BFIAR, FIAR vol 1, vol2 etc...it makes them very easy to locate!

The black wall is chalkboard paint..I love it! We school together at the table but the little desk is great for sending one of the children off for independent work. I love my solar system mobile from Pottery Barn...it will be great for our Apologia Astronomy we are studying this year! I also have a small childrens table that has the mini tv on it for Math-U-See for the older two.

Want to see more schoolrooms?? Visit the Sweetman Schoolhouse or the C-family Classroom or how about the Britt Classroom!?! So let's see your rooms!!!

Apologia Science

If you love Apologia science curriculum...you will love this great new edition to her line of books. The most fun and rewarding part of her Science programs are the notebooking activities...but as you well know that is also a time consuming part for moms...so here is the perfect solution!!!




Apologia is now producing notebooking journals that accompany each of the elementary science books. Both Botany and Astronomy are now available. You can see samples on the Apologia website here:
These journals are beautiful spiral bound notebooks that will save you time and money. You won't have to print and keep up with your child's notebook pages, buy and maintain page protectors, or purchase and compile binders...everything that makes notebooking time-consuming and labor intensive for mom. Also, your child will adore having their own notebooking journal.
Each of the notebooking journals include:
A daily schedule for those who like to have a plan or would like their children to complete the book on their own
Templates for written narrations, the notebooking activities and experiments
Review Questions
Scripture Copywork, with both print and cursive practice
Reading lists and additional activities, projects, experiments for each lesson
An appendix with beautiful, full-color, lapbook-style Miniature Books
Field Trip Sheets to keep a record field trips
A Final Review with fifty questions the students can answer either orally or in writing to show off all they remember and know at the end of the course.
See the sample pages here:
Botany: https://apologia.securesites.net/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=128
and
Astronomy: https://apologia.securesites.net/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=127
Jeannie is giving away four Astronomy Notebooking Journals and four Botany Notebooking Journals to bloggers who post about this on their site. Visit her blog to learn more about this contest: www.jeanniesjournal.com

The girls attended an art class at a local government center. Here are the pinch pots they painted.

a little GREEN in the face...

While we do have quite a bit of Irish in us...we actually just have fun celebrating St.Patricks Day every year! Not sure why there is something fun about all the green! We started our day with our FIAR story of the week, St.Patricks Day in the Morning. We enjoyed some fun printables from http://www.homeschoolshare.com/ and http://www.enchantedlearning.com/ .

Notice I STILL cannot get the lighting thing right...in the bright light I get squinting or shadows???? HELP!

We met our church homeschool group at a park for a GREEN party! We munched on GREEN apples, GREEN applesauce, GREEN cupcakes, GREEN grapes, GREEN broccoli, GREEN dip, GREEN peanut butter on GREEN celery, GREEN cucumbers, GREEN cookies and sipped GREEN lemonade!! We also had some fun GREEN games! Above Carson chugs his GREEN lemonade in a relay!

Madelyn poses with the cute cupcakes we brought! Isn't he cute???

Carson and Mickey had a blast together. Carson ADORES Mickey and Mickey seems to think Carson is pretty cool too! BTW Carson is ready for an older brother too!! So as soon as we get off this roller coaster ride we may jump on again!!!

Annie wins the hot potato game and then tries her luck at tossing the gold in the pot!

Here are my crazy kids playing in the mole holes at Uncle Bubbys! We had a trip to the dentist after the party and then headed to spend time with Uncle Bubby. The kids love him so much and we are trying to spend as much time as we possibly can with him.

This week we are doing our unit study on The Legend of the Candy Cane. It has been a fun filled week so far. With FIAR type studies you read the book each morning and then you pull out social studies, math, art etc from the story.
We began our study discussing how a candy cane resembles a shepherds hook. We talked about the similarities in ourselves and sheep and why we need a shepherd. The older children are copying Psalm 23 (Carson is cursive and Maddie in lower case print). Ther letter J is the letter of the week, a candy cane upside down is a J for Jesus.

We got our unit study from www.homeschoolshare.com where everything is always FREE! Here is the candy cane unit. The candy cane recipe and play-dough recipe on here as well.

After all of the "boring" work we got busy with fun activities! We made candy canes! Who knew most of the ingredients for candy canes are in your cabinet?! It was so much fun! This is what the mixtures look like before you twist them. It is very tricky because it is very hot but you cannot let it set or it will harden. Each kiddo and mommy finally got two pieces to twist together.

Here are the finished results! Cool huh!!! Oh and let me tell you the house smelled wonderful for hours! It was good for the sinuses too!

These crafts were something that I did in school as a young child and it was always my favorite craft. My kids obviously got a bit bored and did not fill in all of the spots. You take little tissue paper squares, wrap them around your pencil and dip in glue.

So we also had to make peppermint play-dough! We also added in glitter which the children loved!

Be sure to let the kids watch this video of candy canes being made at the Sprangler candy factory.

Here is another site with some free Christmas symbol unit studies.

Our project for Thursday is to make these cookies.

(Disclaimer-Please pay no attenion to the clothing/pajamas or lack there of my children wear to school!)