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!