October 30, 2008

In love with reading!

Pac-Man has never been a boy who truly loves reading, however I think he may have turned a corner!!!! My friend Shannon suggested the Henry and Mudge books for him when I was telling her how most of our books were too easy or too hard for him right now. Thankfully Shannon owns TONS of these great books and let us borrow all of them. I wasn’t sure what he would think so imagine my surprise when he screamed in delight at his VERY OWN chapter books (with pictures of course!).

He is now reading these for silent reading time each day, I took this shot this afternoon, and yes you’ll probably get a good chuckle out of it if you look closely :) But the even more exciting news…I took this next photo TONIGHT while he was reading during play time!!!!!!!! He CHOSE to read instead of play!!!! Can you tell I am excited??? For ayone wondering, he is 6 1/2 and a little over half-way through 1st grade.

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October 29, 2008

The Story of the World

We began using The Story of the World (volume 1) today! I am not too thrilled with Calvert’s Social Studies program so I began researching something to supplement and found that MANY moms I know online use Story of the World. I got the final endorsement from my good (real life) friend Shannon, who has used volumes 1-3 with her 2 kids and is completing volume 4 this year.

I had NO idea how much Pac-Man would enjoy history, just learning about historians and archaeologists today got him excited! He didn’t even complain about the copywork I gave him!! Here he is doing what I created for him…
We will be creating a notebook to keep all of his papers in, he is very excited about it and even helped me design the cover!

I found a few blogs online that were helpful in making my decision, specifically this post, from Smooth Stones Academy. Although I am not using History Scribe or the copywork she mentions, it inspired me to make our own. I am using our Startwrite program to make his pages.

We’re going to stick with this for awhile and see if we decide to continue on with the program. I will post again to let you know what we think after we are a bit more into it!

Do any of you use SOTW? If so share your thoughts in the comments! If you use something else please share your thoughts too if you’d like-I am not set in stone on this choice yet.

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October 28, 2008

Addition Flash Cards

When I can’t find what I am looking for on the web, I usually just make it! That’s what I did tonight and I added them to my website in case anyone else needed these too!

Here is the link to addition flashcards (mini size) for facts 0-12. I am working on subtraction through 19 also and should have those up soon on the same link. I am printing mine on card stock to use for Pac-Man to memorize his facts.

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October 26, 2008

Tot School ~ back to normal!!!

I am SOOO happy to say we had a normal Tot School week this week!!!! I got up on Monday morning determined THIS would be the week I would feel better and it was!!! I seem to only be facing normal pregnancy issues now, praise God!!! Our week was filled with lots of fun Tot School time, here’s some of what we did…

This was Krash’s first exposure to Lite Brite, I thought he would love it…he wasn’t all that thrilled!
He was VERY into lacing this week, I found him a few times playing with these after our initial time together early in the week. We soon got out his tractor and other animals so they could all ride along…We played with our Magnetix (similar to Magneatos) and Krash worked on his own for quite some time.We got back to working on our ABC notebook and he had a fun time coloring his Cc page with markers…he loves markers!He did this entire ABC Puzzle almost on his own this day, I was so impressed!I often make Tot Books before I ever give them to K so I have a few saved up. I decided to bring out Thomas and see if he’d like to do some of the activities! To my delight…he did! He colored the entire train book and worked with some of the other parts! He played with our great Noah’s Ark Shape Sorter toy a lot and he finally learned that the animals go in specific places. His favorite was the elephant, he kept putting him in and out!

We have been reading a lot this week and he really likes this pumpkin book we have…Pumpkin Faces
He played with his Pattern Blocks Puzzle set…
Starfall was a HUGE hit with Krash this week, I think he played it everyday! The great part is that Pac-Man is very patient and will sit and do the ABC portion with him, letting K choose the letters.
K has a big collection of Disney Cars and he added the Mac truck with the street racers to it this week (thanks to an old Walmart gift card we found). We could probably get rid of all of his other toys and just have these and he’d be fine. He loves these cars! I love that he is often found counting them!!! We do lots of fun learning with his beloved Cars!He asked me to get out the Travel ‘N Doodle Matagain this week…
The best learning moment for K this week was probably learning to use the drill with Daddy!!
  • Want to see more Tot School posts? Click HERE!
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If you have a tot (approximately ages 1-3) at home, join in the fun and share what you’re doing with your tot! Here’s how to get started if you’re new…

GO HERE 1st for more details, then if you have any ideas you’d like to share, link up your exact post to Mr Linky (if you have questions about how to do that, let me know in a comment or email). Provide a link back somewhere in your post to this post so your readers can see other ideas too!

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October 23, 2008

Homeschool Memoirs ~ 10 Timely Facts

I have unfortunately skipped the past several Homeschool Memoirs posts due to being sick, but I thought this was a simple one to try to get back on board weekly!

Here’s 10 facts about me you may or may not know…

  1. I am 12 weeks pregnant right now, with our 3rd child…planned by God :) .
  2. I am an only child.
  3. I have a dream to know how to sew as well as my wonderful Mommy, I just can’t seem to muster up the patience, I get too frustrated.
  4. I love Little House on the Prairie and have probably watched close to 100 episodes since I have been sick for weeks with my pregnancy!
  5. I live in a rough inner city neighborhood, an American mission field. We have lived and served here for over 4 years now, with no plans to leave. We used to live in the suburban south…big change. :)
  6. I do not cook, my great husband does! He used to be a chef so we are blessed. I wish I cooked better and more, but am thankful that I don’t have to!
  7. All of my babies are born by c-section due to my oddly shaped uterus which causes them to be breech, this will be my 3rd one coming up, and probably our last.
  8. I would love to have tons of children, just not the pregnancies…I absolutely hate almost everything about being pregnant-except the joy that comes at the end!
  9. After becoming a Kindergarten teacher after college I went on to fulfill my other dream…to be a photographer. I went back to school, learned, practiced and developed/owned a children’s photography business with my best friend before moving to Philly. I miss it but love my life more now!
  10. I love having 2 boys. I am excited if our next child is a girl but with the other 2 we desperately hoped for boys…and got them! We are both going to be 100% thrilled either way this time as we think a little girl would bring us all so much joy. We also know that another wild boy would just add to the fun! Hopefully we’ll know at the beginning of December!

If you’d like to join in the fun and share your 10 Timely Facts, click here. You can also see more great bloggers there too!

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