Not so Patiently Waiting for Santa

It has been a long time since I updated.  It is among my resolutions come January to update regularly.  But until then things are so busy, and crazy.  We have been baking, wrapping, decorating, and helping family out nonstop.  We have suspended normal school until January 3.  Next week Mason is home with his Mom, so we will just do some review and I will get myself organized for the few weeks after that.  It is of course so much easier to stick to a routine, if I have materials ready to go.  This week is cookie baking, reindeer crafts, and letters to Santa.  The kids have been pretty good lately, but so crazy excited about all the holiday stuff.  They go to bed and practically pass out exhausted.  They ask every morning if Christmas is here yet.  We continue to review all that they have learned so far, but they are a little distracted.  We have been watching holiday movies, and discussing Christmas.  We have made ornaments, gone to see lights, gone to a holiday sing at the library, and made holiday cookies.  We are making muffins for Santa, since CJ and Eliza think he would prefer muffins.  Shaped like gingerbread men and snowmen.  They make me happy.  I am so looking forward to Christmas Eve at my parents, and Christmas morning at home with the kiddos.  It will be so wonderful this year, as they are at an age where everything is magical.  I will update again soon, thanks for reading!

Just a little note

I have decided to forego any major lesson plans until the new year.  I am still doing colors, numbers, letters and all, just in less detail.  All three kids are so crazy excited about the Christmas decorations, Christmas movies, Christmas cookies, and all the other stuff.  It has been very hard for them to focus, and to be perfectly frank, it is difficult for me to force it on them, and to make all the plans while trying to prepare for the holidays.  So while not leaving all of the education in the rearview, I am not going to go into the depth I have been till January.  Today Mason was home sick, so I am sure he won't be up to any major school stuff anyhow.  Today we did some cleaning and had a pajama day.  We cuddled on the couch, and cooked together.  It was good to have a day to relax, among this crazy season.  Last week we spent a lot of time outside cleaning out the garden and preparing the outside for winter.  Just to make any of you garden lovers jealous I am going to show you pictures of my garden from last week, along with pictures of what I picked from it last week.  The kids are already excited to plan next years' garden.  This has been such a wonderful learning experience for all of us and a great family thing to share.  Mason is also excited to plant seeds in the spring, especially the celery!

Tis the Season for Craziness

Sorry it has been so long since I updated.  It has been so crazy, with Thanksgiving, my Mom's birthday, getting ready for Christmas.  I hope to have my cards done by the end of the week.  I have lots of cookie dough done, and the whole house was decorated by last Sunday.  The kids are so excited about the holidays, and starting their advent calendar tonight.  We did tons of review last week and got back into new stuff this week.  We are doing F, 6, purple, rhombus/diamond, frogs, and nutrition.  Yesterday we spent an hour and a half outside and cleaned out the last of the veggies that are not overwintering.  I have been so exhausted I haven't had a chance to even check email.  Monday I made homemade pierogies, and today we made foccaccia, an Italian bread as our F food.  We have playgroup at the end of the week, and we are getting back into our routine.  Though it will change the closer we get to the holidays.  CJ and Eliza get very upset when we don't do school though.  And with the busy weekend I wasn't as prepared as I usually am, so it has been a rough week. 

Okay, lets calm this down and stop the rambling.  First the letter F.  Every day we sing the sound, and talk about words that start with F.  We write it in the carpet and sand, trace it on paper and look at it in books.  We identify foods that begin with F.  We look outside for F things, and look at a children's dictionary.  We practice identifying and writing it, and we review our poster daily, adding words as we think of them.  We also make the letter with pipe cleaners.

For the number 6 we count it daily.  We draw it in the carpet and sand, and trace it.  We look for the number six in books, and signs.  We make sets of six things.  For each number we find out if it is even or odd, and we count it by twos if even.  We made a poster for the number, and review it daily.  We color worksheets with the number the word and pictures of that number of things.  We look for the number everywhere.  We identify the number six among other numbers.  We identify sets of six.  We make the shape of the number out of pipe cleaners.

For the color purple we make a color poster first.  Each kiddo picks a crayon in our color of the week and draw a picture using only that color.  We make a list of things that are that color.  I write out the word in a sharpie of that color.  We cut everything out and glue it to a large piece of construction paper.  We then identify things all over the place that are that color.  Purple was a little more difficult this time of year since there were no flowers left.  We spend time identifying purple things, and look at enchanted learning to see the spectrum of the color and items that are on the spectrum.  We also make playdough in our color and spend some time playing with it.

For our shape, we make a shape poster.  We identify things that match the shape.  We talk about the characteristics of the shape.  What makes a rhombus a rhombus?  We look around for things that are the shape and list them on the poster.  We color and trace the shape on worksheets.  We make the shape in the carpet, in the sand, and with pipe cleaners.  We review it daily, and whenever we see anything that is that shape. 

For our animals, we read about them.  We identify them as carnivores, herbivores, or omnivores.  We identify them as bipeds, quadrupeds or something else.  We identify the animal type.  We look at pictures of them, and talk about them.  We compare them to other animals we know, and talk about how they are different.  For frogs we read and discussed different types of frogs and their habitats.  We talk about what we already know, and what we want to know.  The key is to keep talking about it, and to review it often.  I want them to retain the information so that is incredibly important. 

For nutrition this week, we talked about favorite foods.  I introduced them to the food pyramid, and we talked about the food groups.  We sorted their play food into the food groups.  At each meal we identify the foods from each group.  We talk about sometimes foods and junk food, and why we should not eat just that type of food.  We talked about how food goes into the body, and out of the body, and why healthful food is important.  We identify healthful vs junk food.  We planned some healthful meals, and talked about vegetable we want to plant in the garden next year.  We talk a lot about where each type of food comes from.  We talk about cooking food, and why we need to.  We talked about what foods we can eat raw, and which we shouldn't.  And we are only partway through the week! 

Next week I will be much more organized, and we will keep adding review time into the week.  I also think that this week we will trace the shape, letter and number into shave cream.  I hope CJ doesn't hate it again.  We are also learning to play board games.  We learned Candy Land and Lucky Ducks awhile ago, and we learned Uno Moo this week.  It is like Uno, but with colored animal figurines instead of cards.  You put them in the barn.  It is adorable, but exhausting trying to play it.  The kids want everyone to win, and don't quite understand the point of playing the game.  They think they just should play with the animals.  We are working on following instructions.  Amid the more frequent temper tantrums from all three kiddos.  Eliza is often wearing underpants during the day, so we are making lots of progress in lots of areas.  I just need a week off soon, to just play, watch TV, and not stress myself out.  I am happy to be able to do this, but I think I push myself too hard.  I make a homemade meal every day, and I bake bread and cookies.  I try to keep the house clean, laundry done, and dishes washed.  I keep making little projects, and am trying to do things for myself, but often that doesn't happen.  I have Christmas gifts to make, cards to mail, menus to plan, and baking to do, all among the education of three children.  Now I know why I am so tired!  Thank you all for listening to my rant!  Off I go to finish Christmas cards.

Review Week

Monday again.  We reviewed A through E today, and added to our letter word posters.  We did some letter knowledge assessment, and recognition and matching with the capitals and lower cases.  We matched numbers to pictures showing that many for 0 through 5.  Everyone did well.  We talked a lot about Thanksgiving and learning about the first Thanksgiving.  We made cranberry sauce and discussed what foods we eat that were also at the first Thanksgiving.  The kiddos seemed really interested in the subject, and we will continue it tomorrow.  Tomorrow we will be making some turkey crafts and some letter and number tracing/writing practice.  This week is only three days of normal time, so we are spending it just reviewing and learning about Thanksgiving and turkeys.  We talked about our last trip to the turkey farm, and learned about turkeys.  Tomorrow we are also going to talk more about animals and habitats.  We are making some Thanksgiving foods this week, including rolls for Thanksgiving dinner.  All of this, while Eliza is sort of sick.  I was given an amazing birthday party Saturday, and since it was a late night, Eliza and CJ were sleeping at my parents' house.  Unfortunately less than an hour after we went to bed Mom and Dad called.  Eliza was up sick, sneezing and coughing, and kept saying things like, "Do you hear that?  Is that Mommy coming to get me?"  Then for the first time ever, she slept in bed with us.  Needless to say Rich and I got very little sleep, and still recovering from that.  Tonight we are headed to bed early, and I just hope Eliza can sleep through the night.  Looking forward to more learning tomorrow. 

What a Week

Some days I feel really good at the end of the day, like I know I did everything I could to be the best mom I can.  Then there are days like this, where I see all my failings staring me in the face.  I yell too much at my kids, especially in the evenings when we are all tired.  I let them watch too much tv.  I let them eat too much junk food.  Today they all ate the entire batch of elephant ears we made for E week.  I know that they eat less junk food and watch far less tv than most children their age, but I still can't help but worry.  And dear readers, the whining.  I just want to shake them till they stop whining.  I can't stand it!  The funny thing is, that all three kids were great today, but I still felt quite frustrated at times.  At least they never seem to know when I am.  I am pretty good at holding it together, and staying patient with them during the day.  I think it is just the end of the day, with the list of things I didn't do growing longer, that I just become really frustrated.  I am really exhausted today and that doesn't help. 

Anyway, I did some letter sound assessment today, and all the kids are doing well.  They are great at identifying shapes and colors.  They recognize numbers and count really well.  Some days though, they just won't follow any directions.  This is when I tell myself, they are only two and three.  They are amazing, but I expect too much of them, and too much of myself, and I blame myself when anything is wrong.  Or when they don't understand something (even if it is beyond them).  I just have to keep telling myself how important what we are doing is, and how special they are.  They all seem to really enjoy our "school" and I know they are learning a lot.  I need to not push myself so much to be everything, and to make every moment educational.  We all need to relax and have fun too.  Yesterday we spent two hours outside, and it was great.  We have read lots of books this week, and did so many projects.  We made a book about the seasons, made elephant crafts, and did our cooking project, some yummy elephant ears.  I even managed to get almost the whole house totally cleaned and organized this week, barring the basement of course.  Next week I am looking forward to doing some more review and assessment, and talking all about Thanksgiving.  It will be a good week.

Short and Sweet

We made paper bag elephant puppets, and talked all about elephants some more.  We watched the Muppet Christmas Carol while I made two batches of cookie dough for the freezer.  They played with play dough while I cleaned the kitchen.  We did some coloring, tracing, and writing practice upstairs before nap.  We accomplished a lot today, and I got a lot done while the kids napped.  I started Christmas cards, got my Christmas list in order, and worked on scrubbing the house.  We talked about so many things, and practiced all the letter sounds.  We counted around the house, and everyone took a good nap.  It was a good day, but I am exhausted.  Rich and I have been cleaning like maniacs and I had to go to a wake tonight, so I think this will be all for tonight.  Thanks for reading!

One of Those Days

The kids were pretty good most of the day today, and I was able to spend some good time with each one individually.  Unfortunately, I also had the dropsies.  I broke a bowl, I kept dropping things, and making more work for myself whenever I tried to do something.  I sprayed myself with the sink sprayer, and dropped food on the floor.  It was quite annoying.  The kids helped me clean up, and spent some time with their Meme and Pepe after dinner.  I am thrilled with the amount of work I did with the kids, but I may need to focus some more on housework tomorrow, as I have a lot to do before the weekend.  I also want to get some batches of cookie dough in the freezer for Christmas.  It helps to get some done ahead. 

Today we made elephant finger puppets, and read about extinct animals.  We practiced the letter E sound, and counted five things.  We practiced writing and colors, and had a very productive day.  Tomorrow I hope I can be half as productive as the kids.  Off to get some more work done. 

School Space

Part of the reason I am finding homeschooling rewarding and "easy" is because Rich is so helpful, and he allows me to make our house into a giant school room.  We do most of our "schoolwork" in the red room upstairs.  It is the red room because the walls are red, and it used to be our library/reading room, before kids.  It then became the kids' other play room, and now it is set up for us to do school stuff.  I have gotten really into organizing and planning, and it makes it so much easier to do this.  I thought I would share some pictures of our space.  Today we started the letter E, number 5, color yellow, shape oval, animal elephant, and seasons.  We found things in the house that begins with E and things that were yellow, as well as things that were oval.  We colored papers with the letter, shape, number and color.  We read about elephants, and discussed mammals again.  We talked about what happens to trees and plants in each season, and we had a great day doing it all.  Here is where we work.

This is the wall showcasing our color and shape posters, and some of our letter posters that we made.

Here is our easel, and all my materials on the desk, amid the toys and television (which often doesn't get used, but is necessary to listen to music through the DVD player).

My shelves of materials, and some other posters we made.  Patterns, graphs, our United States Map, and a manuscript alphabet.  I keep several educational CD's here, and lots of art materials.

Here are our number posters, and the end of the alphabet posters.  There is also the small gray markerboard, where we do the date, write our subjects of the day, and do the weather.  It is right next to the window where there is a digital thermometer/ weather center.

This is the beginning of our letter posters, under the bookshelves, over the desk.  I have baskets of writing materials here, and several educational toys, scissors, glue, etc.

Here is their work table, Mason's nap space, and the window.  To the right of the window is my closet.  While there isn't a lot of space in this room, we really keep maximizing it.  It works well for us.  We use scotch tape to put up our posters, and the kids' work, and I keep folders of their current work on my shelves.




I really enjoy using this space, and so do the kids.  They love coloring at the table, and playing on the floor.  We sometimes watch a movie or PBS program on the small television in there, and often have music playing while we work.  It is a bright, cheery and productive school space.

Tomorrow our journey continues with a more in depth study of our themes for the week.  All three kiddos seemed very interested in the elephants especially.  Wednesday we have a craft project, and Friday a cooking project.  They really are adapting well to all the changes, and I am so proud.

Funny Friday

It has been a strange week.  Rich had yesterday and today off.  Yesterday was my birthday, Mason was home, and we had the kids' holiday pics done.  We went to Tuscany (at the casino) for lunch and had a wonderful time.  Lots of good family quality time.  CJ is at Meme and Pepe's tonight, and Eliza spends the night there tomorrow.  We had a fun and productive week, too busy for me to even think about blogging.  Next week, back to the normal "school" schedule.  I have all my lessons and materials organized and ready for the next couple of weeks.  I am so happy with how things are going.  We went to playgroup today, and all three kids did awesome.  Next week we have playgroup again, and next Saturday CJ is going to a Thanksgiving program at the library.  I need to sign them up for more of these types of programs.  Off to go wash some laundry and have a BIG glass of wine.  :)

Snow Day

Last week I got really organized, and set up some "centers" for the kids.  One is a matching center, with three different matching activities that the kids can do on their own.  I have a center that is shape sorting, and another that is science sensory.  It has seeds, leaves, rocks, small pumpkins, and other items.  They have to describe the item and tell me what they know about it.  Today and the rest of the week are all about reviewing what we have already done and getting back into the swing of the "school" time mentality.  Mason is still coughing but they all seem to feel a lot better.  They did well getting back into our schedule, considering there was a SNOW DELAY!  I got up and dressed and came downstairs, opened the mini blinds and did a double take.  The whole yard was covered in snow!  I was planning on taking the kid outside to play for awhile today.  Since not only was it snow, freezing rain, and clouds, it was also ridiculously windy, we stayed inside.  We did the art "center" and reviewed our letters and numbers.  Tomorrow we will review all the animals we have done, and do a craft project we never got to.  Wednesday I am going to work one on one with each of them doing assessment of what we have done.  Thursday is a holiday, and my birthday, so Mason is at home.  Friday we go to playgroup, and will do a cooking project.  For next week, I have myself really organized, and have my copying and printing done for the next two weeks.  Now that everyone is feeling better, it should be easier to keep organized and on track.  Even when sick though, the kids are still learning.  A couple weeks ago we went to a flea market.  While Rich and a friend of ours were looking at things I didn't care about, I brought the kids over to the swings.  We counted to 100 several times.  We took turns with numbers, and we learned about even and odd.  Every day, we quiz the kids on which numbers are even and which are odd.  Whenever we see an animal on tv, we talk about what animal type it is, and how we know.  It is all about talking and activating prior knowledge, which CJ and Eliza do without our prompting.  They make associations, and recognize things from all parts of their world.  It is awesome to see.  They amaze me every day. 

Still Sick

Well I have thrown out the idea of any "school" this week.  Everyone is still suffering from the head cold that won't let go.  Everyone has it.  Rich, CJ, Eliza, Mason and even me.  Almost everyone who was at our house a week ago is sick.  My parents are getting it.  Halloween was not half as fun as it should have been, since we were all coughing and sneezing and exhausted.  The letter E is staring at me from the desk, where it is temporarily grounded.  I think next week we will review and finish off anything we haven't completed, and going into a bit more depth in some subjects.  The following week we will move on to the new material.  Since I undecorated the Halloween stuff, and went through straightening the house, I have a pile of pumpkins and decorative gourds just begging to be used in a sorting activity tomorrow.  Maybe we will make a yummy snack too, but nothing any more strenuous than that.  I have been working on getting some learning centers made.  Today I finished getting together the play dough box, and starting a sorting box.  I got several matching activities put together and some shape sorts as well.  I need some oval and triangle shaped items around the house to put in it.  I found plenty of circles, rectangles and squares, but triangles and ovals are tough.  I also need to get to the library to replace our selections with some seasonal books, and move on to the next few letters and numbers.  It seems like I never have enough time to get there, since they close at 5 every night.  If I don't get there some night this week, I have to go Saturday.  My goal this weekend is to finish a few more "centers" and get some concrete plans for review work.  I want to make a plan for each week, where I really only change the letter, number, shape and color, but the lessons stay the same.  Maybe by the end of the alphabet I will get myself organized!  Slowly but surely, I am getting stuff done.  Today, while the kids napped, since I was feeling too icky to do anything that required energy I made a powerpoint presentation on the colors.  Came out pretty well too.  Tomorrow we will look at it on the big tv.  Next week I will make one with numbers.  I love doing that kind of thing.  Well off to go sleep.  Thanks for tuning in!

Happy Halloween

This has been an odd week.  CJ, Eliza and Rich were all sick.  Now I am sick too.  We did a lot of stuff this week.  We learned about bats, and did a lot of activities with the letters and numbers.  We are going to review and finish stuff on Monday.  We went to playgroup yesterday and didn't have a chance to make our bats.  So we will review what we have studied already, and continue on to our new letter, number, shape and color on Tuesday.  This weekend we are going to make some special Halloween treats, and the kids are going to help us with the recipe.  Cooking has so much good math to teach the kids, as well as general life skills.  They helped me make pumpkin scones this morning.  I think Rich and I will spend some time this weekend planning some fun activities with the kids.  We have a fairly normal week coming up, but no playgroup again.  So Friday we will do a cooking project and a craft, yet to be planned.  I just hope the kids will all be feeling well enough this week to be happy and attentive.  CJ, when he doesn't feel well does not want to do anything he is told.  Eliza spaces out some when she doesn't feel well, so all in all, it was not easy to do school work this week.  Instead we learned through games and books, music and certain tv shows.  This weekend is all about fun, no overt learning.  In other words I am not worrying about teaching them anything this weekend.  We are just going to gorge on candy, dress up, watch fun Halloween shows and listen to scary music.  I am going to watch the Nightmare Before Christmas and the Corpse Bride.  We carved pumpkins, Lightning McQueen for CJ, and Tinkerbell for Eliza.  They look great, and I will post some pics after Halloween.  Have a safe and enjoyable holiday guys!

Weird Wednesday

This is an odd week.  The kids are sort of sick.  Rich is actually sick, probably his first real cold since I have known him the past 17 years or so.  Rich stayed home today.  He is better, albeit a little miserable from the lack of nasal breathing ability.  Yesterday he was miserable when he got home, and the kids got really stuffed up.  We spent all morning playing outside yesterday, doing some gardening, playing in the sandbox, etc.  They really needed the fresh air.  They also needed a day off.  They are so exhausted from our go go go attitude and activities lately.  Today we did some work, played with play dough, did some coloring, talked all about our topics of the week, and got back into routine.  However the kids never got out of their pajamas.  They just aren't themselves.  Tomorrow we are going to do a bat themed craft, play with play dough some more, and work on our letter and number of the week.   We are going to read all our Halloween books again, and talk all about Halloween costumes. 

Today was just so weird.  Things get odd when Rich is home.  I was in jammies for awhile this morning, while Mason was here.  I am always dressed by 7 a.m.  The kids always get dressed on days that Mason is here, and they stayed in jammies.  We watched a movie with CJ and Eliza tonight, and had a special treat, dinner in the living room while watching the movie.  Odd day, but a lot of good time spent together as a family.  Tomorrow will be more normal I hope though, as I have some cool stuff I want to do with the kiddos.  Off to prep tomorrow's stuff.

Meh Monday

I don't even know what to say about today.  Nobody was bad, but everyone is tired, and the kids and Rich aren't feeling well.  I don't know if it is allergies or what, but they are definitely sick.  We were able to do our black poster, our number poster, find rectangles all over the house, count out the number four, review our letter D poster, do some tracing and writing, and read all about bats.  Sue and McKenzee came over to do school with us today, and she is great at writing some of her letters.  I think she was tired too, though, and a bit shy.  We talked a bit about Halloween and read several Halloween books.  I worked with each kiddo, doing hand over hand writing for each letter we have done so far.  We talked about bats, and what we know about them.  We watched Stellaluna on storyline online again, along with Harry the Dirty Dog, for the letter D.  We watched the letter D video on starfall.  We kept busy, and everyone is tired tonight.  I had to make a spaghetti pie for my parents, dinner for all of us, bread for the week, and grapenut pudding for dessert.  I also needed to do laundry and some other things as well.  So I am just tired.  Early to bed tonight, and tomorrow we have some other cool things to do.  Off to bath and bed.

Wacky Weekend

I was so busy and tired last Friday night, I simply forgot to blog.  Things were crazy this weekend too.  Loved it though.  So Friday we did a review of the week, read lots of books, made homemade animal crackers, and played.  Rich took the day off and it was wonderful.  We took it easy, and just enjoyed each others' company.  This weekend we had a Halloween party for the kids with my best friend's family.  Then a party with several of our friends over here.  We had a late night, but so much fun.  The kids didn't have a nap, and got up early today.  We tried to take an easy day today.  We were going to carve pumpkins, but the kids were too tired to even contemplate it.  We mostly watched Halloween children's movies and read Halloween books.  Tomorrow we are doing D, 4, black, rectangles, bats and Halloween.  It will be a fun week.  I have baking projects, craft projects and play dough planned.  However, we will see what we can accomplish.  I don't want to rush the kids, or make them hate school time.  They are still so young.  I like our new schedule, though, because I have time with each child to work on their particular need.  CJ and I are reading books just him and I.  I should say, he is reading to me.  It won't be long before he is reading whole books on his own.  Eliza and Mason are getting ready for writing.  In no time they will be writing letters and numbers.  And they all need to play dough, to help them learn to manipulate their little fingers and make the dough do what they want it to.  Tomorrow we will take it a bit easy, and let everyone be well rested.  I have a few fun things planned.  I will tell you all about it tomorrow.  Thanks for sharing your time with me!

Change can be Great!

Today went incredibly well.  Eliza and CJ hadn't gotten up yet when Mason arrived.  He and I started making play dough when they woke up.  We went upstairs, and I got them dressed, and we did all of our school stuff before we even came downstairs.  They had their oatmeal and milk when we were done with our work, and Mason had a peanut butter sandwich.  Mason took a great nap, while CJ and Eliza helped me dust, I read with CJ, and they watched Sesame Street.  They had lunch, Mason woke up, they played together and then CJ and Eliza took a nap while Mason had a snack and he and I read books and watched Dinosaur Train.  This schedule worked GREAT!!!  Tomorrow will be even better because Eliza and CJ will be up, dressed and fed before Mason gets here.

We practiced writing letters and numbers, writing hand over hand.  We read a counting book Miria brought over.  Ten Little Mummies, and the kids LOVED it!  CJ was excited because there are mummies in other Halloween books they have.  We read the Three Little Pigs again, did lots of counting with some books from Enchanted Learning.  We read through the C section of My First Dictionary.  We talked about parts of leaves again, and looked at our leaf collection.  We colored the number three paper, and we colored Jack O Lanterns.  We reviewed camels and read about a capybara (huge South American rodent.)  We accomplished a lot, more than I can remember this moment.  My brain is as tired as my body.

While CJ and Eliza were settling down for their nap, Mason and I were listening on the monitors.  When Eliza fussed a bit Mason kept saying, "That's my girl, you need to help her.  She is my girl."  That is what he calls her, my girl.  I think it is adorable!  The three of them are sweet to each other, and seem to love being together.  They play well together.

After Mason went home, and CJ and Eliza woke up, they had an early bath, they helped me make dinner, and then played more with the green play dough we made today.  They told me stories while I cooked, and explained what they made with their dough.  It was a great evening.  They went to bed right on time, even after Memere and Pepere being here for dinner.  We finished watching Don't Eat the Pictures, an old Sesame Street movie at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that I loved growing up, and the kids loved it too.  It made me very happy.  It has been a crazy week, so I am glad things are calming down a bit, and I am looking forward to a great weekend.  We are taking the kids to a Halloween party with the family of Eliza's godfather, my best friend.  Then some friends are coming over to play cards.  It is going to be a good weekend.  Tomorrow we are going to make circus animal crackers.  We were going to do it today, but I only had enough flour for the play dough.  My parents brought me a bag of flour they had, so I won't have to go shopping tonight.  I hope the kids love them.  I know we will have a fun day.  Looking forward to doing fun Halloween type stuff next week, and carving pumpkins!

Love is Learning

Love is learning.  Learning about your children.  Learning what they love.  Learning to recognize their signs and cues.  Knowing when they are too tired, or wired, or toddlerish to be able to do lessons.  Loving children means not taking it personally when they are angry.  Accepting that when they are tired they will not behave the way they usually do.  It is understanding that loving them is more important than making sure you do all the lessons and activities you planned.  It is letting them know you are there for them, without interfering every time they have a small problem.  Trusting them to try new things they learn from the world around them.  Showing them that you care, without letting them run the show.  Love is all about learning.

Today was not a day of school lessons.  Today was a day of social lessons.  Communication using words even when upset or tired.  Sharing even when you don't want to.  Helping your friends if they need it.  Listening to your friends, and answering them when they want to talk to you.  Learning that not everyone has to play the same way, or the same thing at the same time.  That it is okay to like different things, and it is not okay to make someone play the way you want them to.  That even though I love them and take care of them, and would love to spend every moment playing with them, sometimes I need to scrub the kitchen floor they spilled milk on, and that sometimes they have to entertain themselves while watching Cars on the DVD player. 

We read books, and learned about leaf parts.  We acted out stories they learned.  We colored on the front porch.  Mason hasn't been eating lunch this week, and I think it is because he is too tired by lunchtime to do it.  When CJ and Eliza get overtired they won't eat, they just can't, and I think Mason is the same.  Tomorrow we will try something new.  I am going to have him take a morning nap, so he gets up and eats lunch with CJ and Eliza after resting.  Then they can play for an hour or so together, and then CJ and Eliza will nap and Mason and I will have an hour together before Miria picks him up.  Mason is a much earlier riser than CJ and Eliza so I think this schedule will work much better for him.  Plus then I have more time to work with everyone individually on whatever they need my attention for.  Eliza and CJ I know both need to learn to use safety scissors.  Mason is ready to try some advanced prewriting, such as tracing and preschool appropriate line mazes.  He has remarkable prewriting skills already.  Eliza took to holding a crayon right away, and loves to do it.  CJ is improving on holding the crayon and pencil, but his skills lie elsewhere.  He is great at molding play dough into recognizable shapes, and doing other fine motor activities.  He just isn't loving coloring.  He likes it a lot more know that he sees Eliza and Mason enjoying it, but he still tells me that it is not one of his favorite things to do.

I have to say that this journey is so exciting, especially now that we have a third child in the mix.  I love how the three of them are so different and notice all different types of things.  They all have different strengths, and different points of view.  I love the process of homeschooling with them, and I feel they are all learning so well.  I know I am learning to read them and their interests more.  I am learning how to plan things that are appropriate and enjoyable for them.  I am also learning how to tell if they are not into a day of lessons.  And one of my favorite things about homeschooling is that it is fine to say that we need a day to just watch some Disney movies and read books and color.  It is okay to push that lesson off to tomorrow, because that is what the kids need.  Love is all about learning which roads to take, and which roads to leave alone.

Tuesday's Tribulations

We didn't get to the green play dough, but we did get outside for some fresh air, and celery.  Every time we go outside now Mason wants celery. 

Let me start at the beginning of our day.  We read a book about Johnny Appleseed and reviewed what we know about apples and seeds while everyone finished breakfast.  We watched the Cat in the Hat knows a lot about that.  We all used the potty.  We went outside and looked at all different types of leaves, comparing and contrasting.  We talked about parts of the leaf, and what they do.  We talked a bit about photosynthesis (and listened to the song when we came inside.)  The kids all used the swings and slides.  When we came inside we played Candy Land.  Everyone went potty again.  We read 4 books while on the potty.  We went upstairs and did some lessons on our color green, using some wonderful packets Miria made.  We made our shape poster for triangle, and talked about things all around us that are triangles.  We read the Three Little Pigs, and did some comprehension questions, and some coloring.  We colored a number three paper.  We had some free play time upstairs, and wrote the letter C and triangles in CJ's carpet.  We also learned about camels.  While I made lunch the kids watched Disney's Three Little Pigs. 

It seemed like an insane morning.  The kids were all over the place, and it was difficult getting them to listen.  They are extremely unfocused this week.  At least they all are napping today, unlike yesterday.  They get SO tired!  They are kind to each other, but Mason isn't as used to sharing things as CJ and Eliza are, so he sometimes is upset if Eliza is using the crayon he used earlier, or CJ is moving a book he had a few minutes ago.  They all keep dumping out all their toys too.  It takes them forever to pick them all up.  CJ, being tired, is also very sensitive today.  I ask him to put a toy away and he started to cry.  It has been a trying day.  Patience is a virtue that is wearing thin today!

Tonight we are having our letter C dinner.  Chicken, cauliflower, and carrots.  I wanted cheesy chicken with cornbread, but the kids and Rich want Chicken curry with curried cauliflower and carrots.  Outvoted by the kiddos!  It will be delicious, but I really wanted cheesy chicken.  Tomorrow we will continue with our themes for the week, and I think I will work with the kids to make some circus animal crackers.  I just picked up some adorable cutters that make them look exactly like animal crackers you buy.  I am excited!  First thing tomorrow we will make the green play dough, as well.  It seems like the time goes so quickly.  Of course, at other times when there are three whining children it seems to move at a snail's pace.  It was just a disjointed kind of day.  Time for me to go finish cleaning before it is time for Mason to get up from nap.  I need a magic cleaning wand!

C is for Cranky Kids

Yesterday was exhausting for all of us, and I went to bed really early.  None of the kids napped well at all.  Between the three of them I think they slept an hour total.  They were so tired, rubbing their eyes, yawning, but they couldn't sleep.  We found C words all over the house.  We looked for triangles.  We made our number and color poster.  Green is our color, so we talked about all types of green things.  We are going to make green play dough today.  We sang the /k/ sound, and all three kids knew the sound right away.  We read several books, all about shapes, colors, letters and numbers.  They were so tired they were okay with just sitting and listening to me read books.  Today we will read the three little pigs, and do an oral comprehension task with it.  I think we may even watch the Disney Three Little Pigs after lesson time.  I think we will play Candy Land, and practice writing C.  Tonight I will do a more in depth blog, when I have more time, and energy!  I think we will play outside for a little while today, while the weather is nice.  The kids need some fresh air.  I want CJ and Eliza to do more coloring today, as well.  Now that CJ likes coloring more (since his friend Mason LOVES it!) I hope his skills will improve in holding the crayon/pencil, and in making more controlled marks on the paper.  We are also going to draw C and triangles in CJ's carpet.  Off to prepare some stuff for the day!

The Journey Continues

Pretending to cut steak like Daddy does!

Yesterday was yet another really late night, so I had no energy once we got the kiddos to bed at 9:30 to do anything but send myself to my electric blanketed bed.  The past two days have been extremely productive.  Yesterday we spent a lot of time working with letters and numbers.  We did more work with squares and the color orange.  We read lots of books, and even had friends over.  Sue brought McKenzee (I hope I spelled it right!) over for awhile to play.  They had a great time, and it is great since Mason and Kenzee are the same age.

Tada!  We have LEAVES!

Today we made a square wreath with leaves the kids found, played more with our pumpkin pie play dough, and reread all the B and pumpkin books we have read.  We colored and added pages to our color, alphabet, shape, number books and read B books together that Mason's mom Miria sent me from readinga-z.com.  It used to be one of my favorite resources when I taught after school reading classes.  I am thrilled to have access to them once again!

I love play dough!

We ate outside for lunch during one of the few bouts of sunshine today, and checked again on our lettuce seeds, which have not yet started to germinate.  CJ has made a hypothesis about what will happen to the seeds, and we check every day to see if he is right.  His hypothesis is that small green leaves will pop out of the dirt.  (His words, not mine.)  Mason said he wants to eat the lettuce when it gets big enough, and Eliza wants to plant more vegetables.  But not zucchini, she says.  To celebrate B week we had banana cake yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed the biscotti Miria made.  I think next week we will have to make some C shaped cookies.  One of my favorite C foods!  Maybe with cinnamon!

Hard at work.

I have spent some time this week creating a skeleton of what I want to cover in the next few weeks and compiling some resources and materials.  Over the weekend I am going to organize it even more so the days can be more fluid and easy.  A bit of preparation now means I don't have to scramble when it comes time to start a project or lesson, and makes for a much smoother day and more educational time.  It also gives me more freedom in the schedule and allows for more things like craft projects and science experiments.  The leaf craft today will help introduce a more in depth study of leaves next week, and I like the fluidity and progression that creates in the kids' learning.

I am excited to continue this journey.  I learn from the kids every day, and I am learning how to fit this into our lives in a meaningful and enjoyable way.  Education is part of our lives daily and progresses amazingly well, even when we aren't doing "lessons".  Their ability to extrapolate information from tv, songs and books astounds me on an ongoing basis.  Some days I still feel like I am not doing enough, and then other days I say to heck with it and lets watch an extra hour of Dinosaur Train.  Every day is a lesson for them, and every day is a lesson for me, finding what works, what doesn't, how to work the schedule so that I can do laundry and still complete what I want to do with the kids schooling.  The process continues.

Oh you wanted to see my face in the picture, I thought you just wanted leaves!

Crazy Day

The weather was gorgeous so the kids played outside for an hour.  We read all about pumpkins and looked at the vines in the yard.  The kids ate the celery that is growing in the garden while we were out there.  We found things in the yard that start with B, that were square, that were in pairs for two, and things that were orange.  We talked all about weather, and animals.  We keep going back to those things, since the kids are so interested in them.  We made pumpkin pie play dough, and they played with them for awhile, using forks and plastic butter knives to make designs on the dough.  We talked about what foods we make with pumpkin, and what the difference is between healthful foods and non healthful foods.  We talked about the food groups, and which of our favorite foods belong in each group.  Unfortunately during lunch, full of our healthful foods we had temper tantrums, mostly because everyone is so tired.  They played hard all morning, and did so much counting and letter recognition their brains were quite busy.  My friend Nicole came by for dinner, and brought me a lot of curriculum materials and resources.  We had a great visit, but I am exhausted, and a lot later doing this blog than usual.  So I will wait to post pictures of the kids till tomorrow.  The journey continues. . .

Do you want some cheese with that whine?

Today, while extremely productive, was grating to me.  CJ just kept whining, about everything.  He wasn't listening, and didn't want to do anything I asked him to.  He would finally do everything but I had to resort to really yelling at him, which I hate doing.  Especially since I scared Mason by doing so.  Since I rarely need to yell Mason hadn't heard me yell before and he got a little nervous when I yelled.  Cleaning up took FOREVER!!!  But by naptime, they were all asking to go to bed. 

We read all about the letter B in several different books.  We counted pairs of things around the house, since two is our number this week.  We did a treasure hunt around the house for B, 2, orange and squares.  Everyone participated, and had fun with that activity.  We read a story about seeds, and discussed again how plants grow.  I had them pick out some seeds, and we planted lettuce seeds in trays, and put them in the greenhouse.  We are going to check them and water them everyday and see how they grow.  They all seem excited about it, and it is a good way to make predictions or hypotheses and test them.  I may even show them how to make a chart with the information we gather. 

We listened to songs about the letter B and number 2.  We listened to music about bugs, and talked about what we learned about buffalo/bison yesterday.  We also watched the Elmo Potty DVD since Mason and Eliza are both learning to use the potty.  We made some bread to have as a snack, and we ran around doing ballet in the living room.  We did our daily weather report and calendar.  We practiced writing in CJ's carpet and added to our letter B poster.  A very productive day.  However I am really REALLY tired of the whining.  Once CJ starts Eliza thinks she should.  Mason doesn't follow that, thank goodness.  Three whining toddlers would make the day extremely difficult.  After nap, CJ wanted nothing but to snuggle with me on the couch, and that of course made my day after the whiny morning.  I think that CJ and Eliza are just really tired, recovering from the busy napless weekend.  They got so much fresh air and exercise their little bodies are just worn out. 

Tomorrow we are planning on doing some coloring, more counting, some writing practice, and several more books to read.  I am going to start work on sight words, mostly with CJ, but some simpler words I will also do with Eliza and Mason.  We are going outside to collect leaves for a project, and look at the pumpkin plants still in the yard.  I think we will also make some pumpkin pie play dough.  I want to try making some letters out of play dough with the kids.  Since CJ dislikes writing so much I am hoping that I can find some way to make letters that he likes doing.  I may try the shaving cream writing again tomorrow.  Wish me luck! 

Home On The Range

What a glorious weekend!  We had gorgeous weather and were able to do two Walktober activities.  Saturday we did a treasure hunt walk at Dunhamtown forest.  We looked for items that were hidden and did a nature hunt, all through the forest.  It was a perfect day for this.  Sunday the kiddos stayed with my parents while we went with friends to our annual wine tasting excursion.  We spent a lot of time outside and had a wonderful time.  Today we went to Creamery Brook Bison farm to do a walk.  The kids learned all about Bison or American Buffalo and ate some bison chili for lunch.  For dinner we made bison osso bucco, or buffalo shanks cooked with onion, garlic, tomato, carrots and celery served over mushroom risotto.  The kids love bison, which makes me happy since it is low fat and practically cholesterol free.  Since this week is the letter B, in depth, our animal of the week is the buffalo.  We are going to do the color orange, the square for our shape, and pumpkins since it is seasonally appropriate. 

CJ and Eliza were able to tell me that the buffalo were herbivore, quadruped mammals.  Just by being given some information on their diet and by watching them.  Kids love to sort things, even every bit of information they get.  I think it is important to give them the proper labels for the things they sort.  There were some families on the walk that were really dumbing things down for their 8 year olds, who should be able to handle the information easily.  That drives me up a wall.  Kids are way smarter than people give them credit for.  They understand so much, and yet people think they should not use appropriate wordage for things.  I don't get it.  That is my rant for the day.  Don't think your kids are stupid people!!! 

Moving on, the farm was great.  Not only do they have bison, they also have cows, emus, peacocks, chickens, and a small wildflower maze for the kids.  We had such a great time and took some excellent pictures.  I must say that I really love field trips.  It is a great way for us to have some quality family time that extends the kids' education as well as getting us all outdoors.  Next week I think on the 20th there is a Walktober to an alpaca farm, so I think I till take the three kids on it, since we weren't able to see them last week.  What a great resource.  I am so excited to continue this homeschooling adventure.  Letter B here we come!

It was a busy and lovely day.  Before playgroup we reviewed everything we did this week, and did an apple sorting activity.  They were able to sort by size, by color, and to put them in order of size.  They colored and traced this weeks letter, number and shape.  Then we went to playgroup where they all played extremely well with the other kids.  I was thrilled, because CJ usually hates to do any craft project, but Mason wanted to, so CJ actually sat and painted, and made a puppet.  It was great.  Eliza painted 4 leaves.  She painted for at least 20 minutes.  After playgroup we went to see the alpacas, which unfortunately were never out to see today.  So instead we went to the playground so they could run around outside and get some fresh air.  I ran into someone I went to grammar school with, and her daughters played with CJ, Eliza and Mason.  We came home, ate lunch and everyone had a nap, and I did some cleaning, which I have been neglecting a bit too much this week.  When Rich got home we went to get grinders for dinner and pick my mom up at work.  We had time for me to run into the library to get some books for next week's lessons, and a DVD, They Might Be Giants, Here Come the ABC's.  I am looking forward to the long weekend, and some great Walktober activities.  Monday we are going to a Bison farm, to start our B week.  That will be quite a walk. 

Amazing Animal Study

It was a good, albeit unusual day.  We read Aesop's Fable, The Ant and the Grasshopper.  We talked all about fables and morals.  We read this story at least 6 times today.  They LOVED it, far more than I ever expected.  Reminder to self, get more Aesop's fables when we go to the library.  They were then acting out the story while playing.  I had them retell the story to me and I was blown away by how much they retained.  This will become a favorite I think.  We extended this with a mini lesson on insect characteristics and continued with the study of various animal types.  We used the magnetic habitat to identify animal types, as well as some animal flashcards.  We read information about alpacas, and compared and contrasted what we know about camels and alpacas, since they are related animals.  We spent a lot of the day talking about animals, and finding out what we know about all types of animals.  Pretty soon we will start putting our animal alphabet book together so they can look at it whenever they like.  We also read a book about aircraft, to go with the A for airplane picture they colored today.  While interested, they didn't enjoy that as much as the alpaca and other animals.  We also did animal sounds and Old MacDonald at least 5 times today.  Mason and Eliza are particularly good at the bear growl, and CJ is quite adept at making the turkey's gobble gobble sound.

Mason and Miria brought over a drum full of instruments today, so the day was also filled with music.  We sang Alouette over and over, practicing the French body parts.  We sang the Ants Go Marching, while they marched with their instruments.  We sang the alphabet, and letter sounds.  We also sang along to the Here Comes Science cd.  It was a loud and fun filled day, though everyone had at least one time out for not sharing, and pulling toys away from someone else.  I figure they can't all be perfect every day, but they have way more great days than not.  Tomorrow we have playgroup, and we will be going to see the alpacas after that.  Eliza and CJ love going to visit the alpaca, and Mason also seems excited.  I hope they love it.  We will also review what we learned about apples this week and do an apple counting activity tomorrow.  There won't be a lot of time, so I am not planning too much.  Next week we are moving to letter B, number 2, squares and the color orange.  I think we will also do some study on pumpkins, since we still have a few growing in the yard, and we have them all over the house.  Rich is going to help me set up a pumpkin scavenger hunt type activity in the house for next week, where they will have to answer questions and find a specific number of pumpkins.  It should be a lot of fun for next Friday.

Speaking of Friday, and days of the week, we have been doing the calendar every day.  On a small board I write today's date, day of the week, the weather after we discuss it, and what we are studying.  I said yesterday was . . . and CJ said, "Yesterday was Wednesday, today is Thursday and I think tomorrow is Friday, isn't it Mommy?"  I said yes, and he said, "That is good, we go to playgroup and farmer market on Fridays."  Again he blows me away with something I didn't know he knew.  Eliza knew all the words to a new song we have only heard a few times, and knew every single French body part we have sung so far.  She looked at a box today, and told me it was a rectangular prism, and not a cube.  She saw a picture of a triplane, and immediately noticed it had three wings.  When I told her it was a triplane, she said, "Tri, like triangle and tricycle.  Tri means three right Mommy?"  When we were talking about certain animal traits we mentioned that one of the animals walks on four legs, and she said, "That means it is a quadruped, like a brachiosaurus on Dinosaur Train."  When we discussed the traits of a bear and found out what it likes to eat, fish and fruit and honey, Eliza said, "That means it is an omnivore, because it likes to eat meat and plants.  Just like us!"  Pretty soon I will have to go back to school just to keep up with them.  Mason is doing so well, and knows so much already.  We went through several flashcards and he was able to identify most of the letters, and he knew what all the pictures were, many before Eliza and CJ.  He is a very fast learner.  I can't wait to see where these superkids are in a few months.  If they all work together later in life, they will take over the world. 

Looking forward to tomorrow to see how they all do at playgroup and seeing the alpacas.  Meanwhile I have some apple books to go cut out for tomorrow.  Thank you for spending some time with me and my meanderings.  Please leave me a note, a suggestion, a question, or any comment you like.  I think the way you all help me and support me makes this journey far smoother.  You often have amazing ideas and resources, that only a group of moms and educators can provide.  Thank you!

Here Comes Reading!

Tonight we went to my parents' house for dinner, and to help them with a few things.  On the way there we were listening to Here Comes Science by They Might Be Giants, the kids' new favorite album.  It was on CJ's favorite, the Bloodmobile (nothing gruesome, tells all about how blood delivers food to your body, and moves the garbage out of it, etc., educational and interesting) when we pulled into the driveway.  He told us he would like to wait until the track was over to get out of the car.  We sort of looked at him, and paused the song.  Neither of us had ever called it a track so we asked him how he knew the word, and he told us, because the radio says it is track 4.  The digital display reads TRACK 4.  He read it, spelled it, and read it again to us.  All I can say is wow.  He is reading words in unexpected places all the time, and recognizing rhymes in songs, books and poems.  He also shows an affinity for numbers, knowing almost immediately what number you get when you add two more to a number, and immediately recognizing how many are in pictures showing up to 5 of something. 

Enough of my bragging about CJ, Eliza bragging will come later in the week.  Today was a successful and terrific day.  Mason did a fantastic job today.  He is showing CJ how to color!  CJ had a bit of a freak out when it was time to color their red paper for their color book.  He told me, "Mommy you know I do not like to color, I really don't want to do this!"  I had to explain that sometimes we have to do things we don't like, and that he won't get any better if he doesn't do it more.  Eliza and Mason just sat and colored and talked and did a wonderful job.  They all colored their red paper, their A paper, and helped me come up with a list of red things, and words to add to the A letter word poster.  We talked about the days of the week.  We wrote down on a white board what today is.  We talked about yesterday and tomorrow.  We wrote down what the weather was, with a little picture to go with it.  We drew this weeks shape, circle, on CJ's carpet, and on some drawing paper.  We used the larger whiteboard to draw the number of the week, 1.  I drew sets of items, and they had to tell me which ones showed one thing.  I then drew 1 heart, 1 star, 1 circle and had them tell me which shape we are doing this week.  They all enjoyed this activity and participated wholeheartedly.  They get so excited about the activities we do.  We listened to the Bug music while we had lunch and we danced around the living room.  All the kids kept cleaning up as we moved from activity to activity, and room to room, with no nagging or hesitation.  All three kids were helpful and attentive all day, and they really seemed to have a lot of fun.

Tomorrow we are going to read a story about alpacas, Eliza's and CJ's favorite animals.  We are going to read some information about them and color a paper that shows their body parts.  I found some great stuff on enchantedlearning.com.  I think Friday after playgroup, I will take them to the Alpaca farm in Bozrah to show them the alpacas in person.  This will be our A week field trip.  We will be eating applesauce for breakfast, and asparagus with dinner.  The kids are going to plan an A food dinner for the weekend.  I am excited to see what they will choose.  Tomorrow should be much nicer weather than the grey and gloomy weather of the past week.  Looking forward to some outside time tomorrow.  Thank you all for reading!

An Apple a Day. . .

Today was a day where everyone started out exhausted, and I just got more and more tired as the day went on.  Lessons were pushed off a bit, as the three kiddos watched Cars as they all woke up.  I had to feed my white and wheat sourdough starters yesterday, so today was baking day.  While the kids played with all their wooden puzzles, and wooden food toys I made two apple pies, a walnut currant whole wheat sourdough, six rosemary olive oil sourdough bread bowls, seeded beer bread and fish nuggets for lunch.  After naps, and Mason being picked up I also made an apple bread pudding, a large salad, and a tomatillo chicken and rice casserole.

We reviewed all the A words on our poster again, sang the alphabet, and letter sound songs, and practiced the /a/ sound.  We talked about autumn, and what the other seasons are.  We sang a French song, Alouette, that teaches body parts in French.  We read some poems about Autumn, and read books.  We listened to the /a/ sound and several /a/ words on the readinglessons.com website link.  We also visited the starfall website to watch an interactive video about the letter A.  The kids absolutely loved it.  We reviewed the number 1, and the color red, but didn't get to all the activities I would have liked.  None of the kids were up to anything too strenuous, or school-y. 

Today was a crazy day.  All the kids took a super early nap.  My grandmother came by to get her pie and stayed to play with and read to the kids.  Things just didn't go in the order they normally do.  While not a bad thing, it just made any hope of sticking to the routine pointless.  Hopefully everyone will get a good night's sleep tonight and be refreshed and ready for some fun stuff tomorrow.  I want them to do a coloring page for red, and we will make a list of red things to hang next to the red poster.  We will make a number one page for their number books, and a letter A page for their letter books.  If we can get to half of that I will consider the day's lessons successful. 

We also talked today about apples.  I am going to do a few apple activities, and move to pumpkins next week.  We talked about how apples grow, what colors they come in, and describing how they taste, and how we use them.  We counted apples in the kitchen and counted the apples I used for the pies.  We even colored an apple paper red.  While we were coloring I asked the kids to tell me what they learned today.  As they were telling me what they remembered, Eliza told me that it is important to learn new things every day to exercise her brain.  I really had to keep from laughing.  She is so right.  She then told me that apples are a good food to help her work her brain, and that she should have an apple now.  What could I say?  They had apples, homemade wheat crackers and cheddar cheese sticks for an afternoon snack.  They compared lengths with the apple peels from the apples I peeled for the pies.  They looked to find the longest and shortest.  I kept asking questions like, which one is longer than this one?  Which two are shorter?  Can you find two that are the same length?  It is amazing what you can do with any materials you find in the house.  Apples, healthy snack and amazing homeschooler's teaching tool. 

I will leave you tonight with some pictures of the pie that I am now going to eat warm with cold ice cream and a hot cup of decaf coffee.  My journey is headed right for the couch and tv!

And because it is so sweet, a picture of my grandmother reading to my children.  Warms my heart even more than the pie!

Absolutely Awesome

Today was the first day of the letter A week.  It was also our first day including Mason into our routine.  It went far more smoothly than I could have hoped.  They shared well, they played together, they all behaved remarkably well, and they had a productive and happy day.  When Mason got here, they all played with trucks until the Cat in the Hat came on.  While watching that, they all ate and drank some milk.  After the show, we talked about the show, and they were all able to tell me about what they learned.  We then sang the alphabet, and looked at all the letters.  I explained that this week we will be talking all about A and we sang the letter sound song.  The A says /a/, the A says /a/, every letter makes a sound the A says /a/.  We did this for all the letters, and we will sing it each day to reinforce.  We went upstairs and colored the letter A, and circled pictures whose names start with A.  We reviewed the letter A poster, and added words to it.  We talked about animals whose name begin with A.  We colored an apple and an airplane.  We named foods that begin with A.  We sang The Ants Go Marching, while they marched around the play room.  Then I had them play with any toys they liked, while I took them one by one and sat down with them to do a worksheet.  It was matching the numbers 1-10 to the picture of that many ants marching.  They all did well.  CJ was excited to do it, but both Mason and Eliza didn't want to stop playing to work with me.  For each of them I just sat them on my lap and told them that they would be able to play, but that it was important for us to do this together first.  CJ was great, telling them that it was fun, and it didn't take very long to do.  After that, they each sat with me and did a fantastic job identifying the numbers, counting the ants, and telling me which ones matched.  I held their hands to draw the lines, but they did great!  With CJ I had to adjust his grip a few times, but he did it with almost no help from me.  Then together we made a number one poster, with one terrific turkey stenciled on it.  After that, they played in the kitchen in Eliza's room.  They all have great imaginations and they played together so so well.  Mason pretended to make mashed potatoes for everyone and kept giving us a taste, while Eliza pretended to make ice cream for dessert.  CJ pretended to wash the dishes and warm the milk in the microwave like Mommy does.  We came downstairs and watched Sesame Street, and played in the living room.  After Sesame Street we were able to play outside for awhile before it started to rain.  Then while they ate lunch they watched Dinosaur Train and everyone took a nap.  I had to wake Mason up so he would be ready when Miria got here, but CJ and Eliza I let sleep till they woke themselves up.  When they got up they helped me make dinner, and we played with their animal habitat magnet board.  It was a wonderful and productive day.  Tomorrow we are going to continue with A, and 1, and do some activities with circles.  CJ and Eliza are excited, and I hope Mason is too.  I really felt like today was great for all three kids, and I know it was great for me.  What a great leg of the journey, changing our dynamic in such a positive way.

The Road Less Taken

Last week was productive up until Thursday.  My sister moved yesterday, to New York, so we had to see her on Thursday and Friday, and it kind of screwed the routine up, a lot.  We were still able to do some learning, but I was too tired by nighttime to do any blogging.  This week we are going to have a bit of a change.  Miria's son Mason will be with us every day while she is at work.  So I will have three kids for "school" and I am excited.  The kids are ecstatic and I think it will be great for all of us.  I was going to use the readinglessons.com series of plans, but I think it is a little too advanced the more I look at it.  So we are going to do letter of the week lessons, starting with A.  We are also going to do a shape a week, a number a week, and more color recognition.  I have prepared some song sheets, worksheets, and books from enchantedlearning.com.  Hopefully the weather will be great tomorrow and we can spend some time in the sunshine.  Tomorrow I will blog all about our first day with three "students"!  I am sure it will be a great day.  Our journey is taking a turn, into unknown areas, and it will be a terrific challenge!

New Horizons

We spent almost an hour and a half at the senior center today.  We brought some pumpkins, and helped fold pamphlets for mailing, and everyone kept saying how cute the kids are, and are they twins?  My grandmother was so proud, that it made my day.  It made it okay that our schedule went out the window today.  We still got quite a bit accomplished.  We did some work with the letter N, reading N stories, and singing the sound.  We also spent a lot of time on shapes, sorting attribute blocks, and finding the shapes all over the house.  We also covered three dimensional shapes, rectangular prisms, cubes, cylinders, etc.  We read several books and took it easy today.  It was a very nice day.

I also am going to be taking on a new challenge.  A friend, Miria, has a son Mason who we have playdates with.  Miria works full time and her daycare is being provided by her sister in law who needs to go back to work.  So she asked me if I could do with Mason what I have been doing with CJ and Eliza.  So we will be doing school for three starting next week.  We are going to have a trial week to see how it goes, but I think it will be great for all of them.  It will require a little more prep and organization, but I am looking forward to the challenge.  I think it is important for CJ and Eliza to see that people all learn differently, and that different people have different skill sets, different knowledge, and different ways of solving problems.  This is a tough concept for them since they know the same things and work together so often.  They practically share a mind sometimes.  We are all looking forward to the challenge, and I am excited to try out some new lesson plans.  I found some great free or cheap resources online, and will post the sources soon.  Meanwhile I have some more work to do before bed.  Thanks for sharing our journey!

Rhyme Time

I continued to the next lesson from readinglessons.com today.  We listened to and sang Down by the Bay, paying close attention to the rhyming pairs.  We played a rhyming game from the Disney website, and another two rhyming games from the PBSkids website.  (Where they also have printout activities to go with the Cat in the Hat show!)  We used rhyming word cards to make our own verses to Down by the Bay, which the kids thought was hilarious.  We spent time all during the day listing all the words we could think of that rhymed.  When I asked them what rhymed with bay, they came up with tons of words.  We talked about how words are made up of several sounds, and that the ending sound is important in rhyming.  Onset and rime in teacher talk.  We matched pairs of rhyming cards and played games with them as well.  We also sang lots of songs that have rhymes, and read several nursery rhymes together.  Both kids noticed how often they use rhymes while watching the Cat in the Hat.

During our math time we focused on patterns.  I drew a simple two shape pattern, and they told me what came next.  Then I made a slightly more complicated pattern and they again had to continue it.  They were able to identify and continue many patterns, and of course this helps them identify shapes and colors too.  We talked again about shape attributes, and sorted some shapes.  We spent a lot more time on lesson stuff today, since it poured all day and we had to stay inside.  Again, our schedule worked really well, and we were all able to accomplish a lot today. 

We also talked about science.  On Sesame Street the episode was about the Happy Scientists, and they talked about hypothesis and investigation.  Now since we watch Dinosaur Train, the kids know what a hypothesis is, and were excited to see this somewhere else.  All day CJ has been making hypotheses and testing to see if he was right.  We also listened to their bug music.  A great cd we borrowed from the library, and then had to find since they loved it so much.  They know so much about animals, animal types, and science in general.  Rich and I are going to figure out a simple science experiment we can do with them some weekend.  In November, after all the amazing Walktober activities we are going to do.  This weekend we will visit one of the Farmer's Cow farms, and Ekonk Hill Turkey Farm.  The kids are excited to see the animals.  I am excited to get some turkey pot pies! 

Tomorrow we start some more intense work with individual letters.  I am really hoping to get CJ more interested in writing, since he is so interested in reading.  It still amazes me that he is able to read and spell so many words.  For math activities we are going to continue talk about patterns, and talk about sets.  Compare and contrast items in a set, and identify things that don't belong.  For example a square, a rectangle, a triangle and a rhombus.  The triangle doesn't fit, because it is the only shape that isn't a quadrilateral.  I am trying to teach them to describe and explain their thinking.  Metacognition is the most difficult part for most children, and adults.  It is not easy to think about your thinking, but is vital to lasting knowledge.  I have some printouts that go with the Down by the Bay song to help with this activity, as it requires the child to identify the part of the set that doesn't belong.  I will have them explain why it doesn't belong.  Later I will have them put some of their rhyme cards in sets.  There are several vehicles, animals, and other items that will be easy to sort.  I know we will be using those websites to do more literacy games as well.  The kids loved them and it helps teach computer literacy. 

So to recap, love the new routine, and it seems to be working for everyone, naps and bedtime have been smooth.  Meals have been handled easier, as is the no food anywhere but kitchen rule.  And the kids are less bored, so less cranky and whiny, which makes me happier and less stressed.  Continuing with the rhyme time theme I wrote a sappy little poem for my sweeties.  They are so empathetic, and always want to help people.  They are sweet to each other, and to people they don't know.  CJ and Eliza do not want to go trick or treating, because they want to be home to give away the candy.  They said it is their favorite part about Halloween.  We are bringing our extra tiny pumpkins from the garden to the senior center tomorrow, so that the seniors can enjoy them.  The kids are thoughtful in a way beyond their years, and we of course want to foster this, so any suggestions on age appropriate service projects would be greatly appreciated.

The kids are cute, adorable true,

and oh so clever and smart.

But my favorite thing about them is, 

the amazing breadth of their hearts. 

Every day they amaze us all

With all they learn and know.

And even more they show concern

For others as they grow.

I want them to be safe and well

and to be an amazing team.

And every day they show me up,

With kindness beyond my dreams.

Organized Chaos

Last week it dawned on me why the kids weren't behaving as well, and why it seemed like I had too much to do and not enough time.  The kids were bored and I was disorganized.  Both stemmed from our general lack of a routine.  Now we have always had a basic routine of our day, but since we started the alphabet days, where we had a much more structured day, the kids seem to respond much better to having that schedule of expectations.  I of course do better when I have a plan, and time built in to the day to complete what I need to.  So last week I did lesson plans, not too in depth, but a basic guide of what I wanted to accomplish each day.  I am also using lessons from readinglessons.com, a fantastic free resource.  I mapped out a basic daily schedule, and while I am not going to be rigid about it, it is nice having a plan and an idea of how I want my day to go.  It also means that we plan time for our daily reading, our outside time, and Sesame Street.  I know I will have an hour to do a lesson.  I know I will have an hour to get dinner ready.  It takes off a lot of stress.  I even built in time for me to exercise.  And I have to tell you that it really worked well today. 

I got up at 6, exercised, did some yoga, had coffee with Rich, and had a bath all before the kids got up.  We had breakfast, cleaned up, and did the first lesson.  We watched Sesame Street, then went on the porch to play (since it was raining and we couldn't go in the yard.)  We had lunch, then went upstairs to play with play dough.  We read a Butterfly Alphabet Book, and the kids went down for a nap.  And nap they did, they went right to sleep.  Last couple of weeks nap time has been rough, crying, fussing, and no sleeping.  Which of course led to some extremely cranky evenings.  After they napped, which gave me time to fold 3 loads of laundry and diapers, we made a red poster.  They love all the number and letter posters so we are starting color posters.  On large piece of red construction paper we glued computer paper that the kids drew pictures on with red crayon.  I wrote out names of things they told me that are red, and the word red.  It looks pretty good.  I also wrote a sentence telling what the kids drew.  After that we did another mini lesson, and some free play time upstairs in the playroom while I put laundry away.  When Rich got home he took them for a walk so CJ could use his new umbrella, and I got started on dinner, and some cleaning.  The kids watched Animusic, while I got dinner ready, and we ate dinner at a reasonable time, got cleaned up and had some time to play with the kids before bath, stories and bed.  The day ran really smoothly and we all got a lot accomplished with a minimum of fuss.  It felt pretty great.

The first lesson today from readinglessons.com was all about listening, and involved sound patterns, identifying sounds, identifying missing sounds, and being a good listener.  We sang Baa Baa Black Sheep, they had to tell me when I made a mistake.  We sang Old MacDonald, and I would describe an animal for them to sing about.  We had a couple of worksheets to go with it from the Kididdles website, that matched a number to a picture showing that many.  They went with the songs, and the kids loved them and did great.  The other mini lesson I did today was to introduce the kiddos to charts and graphs.  Sid the Science Kid mentioned them and the kids seemed interested so I made a super simple chart and graphs showing the same information, involving the favorite colors of CJ, Eliza, Memere, Pepere, Mommy and Daddy.  Two of us like red, two blue, one pink and one green.  The kids already know this information so I was able to show them a bar graph, circle graph, and basic chart.  While this is beyond what they need to know, I like to capitalize on anything they show interest in, and they enjoyed learning about them.  It sets the stage for later on when it will make more sense.  We hung the graphs and chart on our learning wall with everything else, so they will see them all the time. 

This past weekend the kids slept over at Meme and Pepe's so that Daddy and I could go to a concert.  They Might Be Giants was at Mohegan Sun, for free in the Wolf Den.  One of my favorite bands ever.  One of my favorite things about them is their focus on educational music that caters to adults and children.  They do the music for Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, among many other things.  We bought the album Here Comes Science, which has a song about being a paleontologist, a song about what shooting stars are, and it goes on and on.  We listened to it today, and once I explained that these people really aren't scary giants, no matter what they call themselves, the kids loved it!  If you don't own any They Might Be Giants albums, you really should find one.  Awesome!

So while we were organized today, it was still as chaotic as one would expect with a two year old and three year old as precocious as my two are.  I really feel though that this new schedule and planning will benefit us all so much.  Chaos is fine, as long as it has some purpose.  Kids need some time to decide what to do, make choices, make mistakes, and just play as children should.  But kids also need and want to be told what to do.  They need to feel safe and taken care of, and to have clear expectations, and limits.  Having a plan helps us all with creating clear expectations and it makes me feel more in control.  It makes me feel like I am driving on this journey rather than just being along for the ride.  And that is a great feeling.