Decorating cut-out cookies gets more fun each year!
Thanksgiving Books
Our trip to the library yesterday produced some good stuff. The kids were excited to pick up some books on Thanksgiving. We even found a couple neat videos. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and another called, William Bradford – The First Thanksgiving. Now that we are a week into November, it’s starting to feel like the holidays are upon us. I think we are going to relax a little, and just learn more about Thanksgiving for a couple weeks. Before we know it, we’ll be packing into the car driving north to see family.
We’ve been working on a fall lapbook. I think we’ll expand on that more. I also have more crafts, and baking planned. The kids get so excited to bake or when I tell them we have a project for the afternoon. Last year, I wanted to do more with a Thanksgiving unit but we were back from grandma’s house and getting ready for Christmas before I could blink. It’s amazing how fast time goes.
Finished up MUS Primer! 🙂
Kindergarten School Day #63.
Indie (6 y/o in February) is moving right a long. He has finished both his PHONICS – Explode the Code book 1, and MATH – Math-U-See Primer (started last May) books this week. These are the two subjects I want him to do at least 4 times a week. I usually ask him to do two pages of each, each session. Sometimes he does more but the norm is two pages of each. Daily, we also read lots of books. We start with bible stories. Right now, we are working from the Veggie Tales Family Devotional. This usually starts our school day, on the couch. Then we move on to other books. If we are not reading for a unit from KONOS or Five in a Row, most recently horses, then we read random library books we’ve picked up for the week. We are also working though the Magic Tree House Chapter Books that both kids are into. We usually read MTH at bed time. We are currently on book 15, Viking Ships at Sunrise. We started this series at the beginning of the school year as well. I like them because they take you to different geographic locations at historic times. You learn a little about each culture and/or a famous location or event. They are just fun. Yes, it’s a magic tree house but it’s a fun way for the kids to get interested in history and geography. A lot of the books also have research guides as well.
Indie only does Handwriting Without Tears every week or so but he gets a lot of handwriting practice from doing his math and phonics work, there is a lot of writing with both books. He has pretty good handwriting in general, and he tries hard every time he writes. He prides himself on making good looking letters and numbers. At the start of the school year, I was concerned that he was holding his pencil wrong, and starting his letters in the wrong spot, but he’s gotten better over the weeks. I have to be gentle when correcting him other wise he wants to throw in the towel, and give up. He needs lot of praise before correction. “I love how you make that A, you are doing great! Can you just move your finger a tad to the left?” or “Awesome letter O, next time, lets try to start that O at the top!” 🙂
Preschool Day # 63
Beluga 4, is plugging right along…. having fun. She is right there with Indie and I as we read books, and from time to time she’ll do table work but, lately she’s been more interested in crafts, drawing, painting, and Play Doe, while Indie and I are working on school work. That’s OK. She’s learning every day. There is plenty of time for her to do table work when she is older. I did buy her Get Ready for the Code Book A, and she has a Handwriting without Tears Preschool book that she insists on doing sometimes. She also asks to do Math-U-See sometimes but she is mostly interested in playing with the blocks. 🙂
Indie is also signed up for 4-H were we are learning about birds. We are looking forward to the birding field trips and watching birds on nature walk in our neighborhood and in local parks. We’ll soon be starting a KONOS unit including birds that we are looking forward to.
In addition to school work, Indie is doing soccer 2x a week, and weekly homeschool P.E. class for 3 hours. Beluga is in ballet once a week.
I’m sure I’ve forgotten something but for now, that’s it.
We’ve had a nice day today. The weather has finally gotten cooler. Today was in the upper 70s, perfect! Indie woke up wanting to go for a nature walk. It’s hard to say no to that, especially when the weather is so nice so, after breakfast we headed over to our local nature center, where we are members. The center has a boardwalk, feeding tanks, butterfly garden, and access to the intercostal waterway… lots to see! It was a nice relaxing time. When we got home, we ate lunch, had some quiet time, then baked ginger cookies with royal icing and sprinkles. We plan to trick-or-treat after dinner. Indie, will be, guess who??? Indiana Jones, and Beluga will be a princess.
Indie had the best time at his first soccer game. We are OK with him not being the most aggressive boy on the team. 🙂 He did great!
Excited about soccer practice tonight!!!
I was sent a really neat link to a site called Reading A-Z where they are giving away a Presidential Election Package. They suggest the package will “Help students understand how the United States elects a president every four years. Read leveled biographies on 2008’s Republican and Democratic candidates. Students cast their own ballots, discover how the electoral process works, combine math and map skills, and learn about past presidents, too.”
At 4 and 5, my kids are a little young to get too deep into this presidential election but, I wanted to share the link.
I have recently joined a site called Good Reads. A fellow homeschooler sent me the link a while back. I’m just now getting to it. Seems like a neat site and a good way to learn about books you might be interested in.
Explode the Code 1 by Nancy Hall
rating: 5 of 5 stars
My kindergarten has really enjoyed this book this year. We are about to move on to book 2. I recommend ETC, they read and do a little writing as well.
I’ve had another blog for my homeschool stuff for a while… since 2006. I kept the site to myself for the most part, and never announce it to anyone, I rarely blogged. I’ve now decided that it might make really a nice way to track our homeschool stuff so I’m going to try to keep it up…. Be patient while I bring everything over from that other blog and settle in. Because this blog is public, I’ve decided to call B – Indie, and J – Beluga. 🙂