Homeschool Madness

We were doing our lessons just fine and getting along without much fuss. Then I gave DS some independent work. Boy he does NOT like that. For some reason, even if he is doing the work all on his own, he has a fit unless I’m sitting right there. So today I decided that he really needed to learn a little independence. I went just around the corner to check my email while he was practicing writing some number families. Suddenly I realized that it was really really quiet in there. I walk around the corner, and DS was asleep at the table! So, I took pity on him and carried him into my room for a nap. Little sweetie. Sometimes I forget he’s only 5.

Tomorrow, we are taking a day off for little sister’s first birthday! I can’t believe she’s already one year old! The time goes by way too fast!

If you ever have a chance to go, DO! It was lots of fun, and it was educational too! I thought it was going to be more of a museum type setting but it was very interactive, almost like an arcade!

A look at the outside building:

My family trying out the pulleys:

And here is DS trying it out for himself:

Anywhere there’s a computer, the little one finds it! I think 20 questions is a bit over his head though:

Now entering the space station!

This was on the ceiling!

DS got to pilot a space shuttle!

And try to land one! (Although this one wasn’t quite working)

The little one and daddy playing virtual air hockey:

And this was really fun! This thing projected an image on the ground but it could sense where you walked so it would change the picture as you went. On this one, flowers grew wherever DS walked!

And they kicked a ball around on this one:

And this one was water, so it swirled around wherever you went!

DS riding a motorbike:

And of course, the little one had to try! With Daddy’s help, of course!

They also were able to play a bit of piano!

And look! We practiced a bit of math while we were there too!

These were cool touch screen computers! Here is DS drawing with one:

And here, DS really loved playing with the air cannon! You pull this bowling ball up as far as you can and let it go, and the air pressure shoots this little ball WAAaaaay up into the air! It was so cool!

And here I am, trying out the bed of nails…yeah…it wasn’t exactly comfortable! eeek!

And last, here is this SUPER cool painting on the wall…only one of those frogs is really three dimensional (or was it two?). The rest are part of a painting! The spilling blue can of paint is 3D too

All in all, it was a very fun day! Although the little one got sick in the car right as we were pulling into the parking lot! He gets carsick so easily! Guess he’s a lot like me afterall! Poor guy! Good thing I anticipated it and brought along an extra set of clothes for him! It was everywhere! Which reminds me, I still have to scrub the carseat straps! YICK!

Have a good one!

Believe it or not, we’ve done other things besides Tot school this week! Between tot school, and my birthday festivities, we did manage to get some regular school things in!

During school this week, DS drew this picture:

He told me it was Jesus holding a little baby! Isn’t that sweet?

Also this week, we copied a new verse, 1John 4:11!

His handwriting is getting much better! I really worked with him on trying to make the letters uniform and neat and I think he’s finally getting the idea!

We have been heavily following the olympics all week and have done a few activities for our lapbook that we will put together at the end. Here is our Chinese flag minibook that we got at homeschoolshare!

At the end of it all, we plan on making the graph with the USA’s medals to see how many of each kind we won…unfortunately, I don’t think the graph provided is quite big enough! We rocked the Olympics this year! GO USA!

Hopefully this week I will have many more regular school activities to show you. I just need to remember to keep out my camera.

But stay tuned for LOTS of new pictures tomorrow! Today we travelled all the way to Wonder Works and had SO much fun! (Despite the fact that the little one got sick in the car on the way :(  )  I will tell you more tomorrow! Stay Tuned!

~’Night!

Well, along with some of our weekly activities, we tried some new things I found on Toddler Toddler!

First though, we did a little reading- The Little Engine that Could! It seems like many of the tot school things we do involve all the kids, not just my one tot! Here, sissy is getting in on the reading!

The little one really got into it!

Then, we talked a bit about numbers…but he seemed more interested in seeing if his feet could press the buttons instead!

Next, the little one and sissy played with this giant pegboard (similar to this):

The little one learned a big lesson in sharing! He got so mad that Sissy was playing with HIS toys, and he started kicking the pegs around! But, he came around and they played nicely! (and made a big mess!)

On another day, I decided we would have a car party for the little one- since he likes cars soooo much! When he woke up from his nap, he found this!

Yes, he has A LOT of cars! He was so excited!

He pulled out his track to make a road for all his cars!

We must have played with his cars for an hour! He had so much fun! We lined up the cars again and again ,talked about colors, and we counted a bit.

Then he decided it was time to ride the big boy truck!

That same day, daddy took the boys out to wash the big car and when they were done he let the little one sit on his lap and “steer” the car back into the garage while DS was honking the horn! What a banner day this was!

Another day, I totally copied someone’s blog I read this week…and now I forget which one it was!!  So, if you read this remind me who you are and I will give you TOTAL credit because the kids had a blast!

Here’s what we did!

It’s amazing how much fun you can have with a roll of masking tape!

As you can see, all the kids got in on this and were running around like crazy! (It’s still on the rug too!)

We played with the two letters we’ve worked on with the little one: A and E. He was excited that he recognized them, although he still wasn’t able to identify them. But he kept pointing at them like he remembered them from somewhere! I also put a square there- we have been talking about the circle, but couldn’t make that out of masking tape!

The kids had so much fun running to the letters while I said them outloud! We even did a bit of simon says with it! But the most fun was just rolling, crawling, hopping, and driving cars over the letters!

We also tried something else new this week- which I TOTALLY messed up! For some reason I thought the instructions said use dry erase markers…yeah, don’t do that! It won’t come off again! I looked again and it clearly says washable markers!! Ah well, we had fun anyways!

Here is our dirty laundry for all to see!

And here is the little one putting it in his little “washing machine.”

But we soon realized the marker was NOT going to come off so we found another use for them!

These stick to the walls magnificently! And DS made up a game! We threw sponges and squirted bath toys at them to see how many we could knock of the walls!

Moral of the story: READ the directions carefully!

We did, however, have a successful time at this game!

I stuck these letters all over me and then went running into the room screaming for them to get all these icky bugs off me! They pulled them off and stuck them to the window…

and then had an even bigger blast sticking them back on me while I tried to run away! Once they were finally back on the window, we had fun identifying the letters and putting them on each other’s head while singing “__ has an A on his head, __ has an A on his head, __ has an A on his head, and he keeps it there all day…Ah Ah!” (saying the sound of the letter at the end)

Since he recognized the tune, he insisted on watching his music dvd, the Laurie Berkner Band.  Guess it’s a popular DVD, huh Carissa? Sorry about that!

The little one also was able to play on starfall.com this week and boy did he have a blast! He especially likes the octopus that juggles oranges! He laughs at it every time! He also loves to hear the alphabet song!

Finally, we had a bit of excitement this week! We woke up in the morning to find these parked in our neighbor’s yard! And boy was the little one excited!

Seems as if someone finally bought the empty lot next door and the trucks were there to dig out and put down a foundation for the new house!

We couldn’t stay out there long though because apparently one of the contractors and the neighbor lady got into a fight and oh the language!! I couldn’t believe how loud it got! The lady even called the Sherriff! While it was neat to also get to see the police car…the situation almost ruined everything! Well, at least we have pictures of the trucks!

Well, that’s it for our tot school! I hope you enjoyed it! For more tot school posts visit Carissa at 1+1+1=1!

I kind of wish I could say my birthday was a productive day and that I was able to do some things that I never had time to do otherwise…but I didn’t! I was ordered to take it easy all day long and that’s exactly what I did! I was brought my breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And I relaxed and chilled out ALL DAY! For a mom with three kids, that was just AWESOME! DS even did my hair for me! LOL!

In fact, it was so awesome that I’m having trouble picking it back up today! I don’t wanna get back to work! Meh, maybe tomorrow will be a more productive day! But until then….I’m gonna chill!

All this week, had it been up to me, there probably would not have been a whole lot of Tot School. Motivation was low, but I was inspired by my little one who kept bringing stuff out to do with me! Here’s a little bit of what we did!

First, we colored with our dot paints. The little one likes to use one of every color, and he loves that these make circles; by far, his favorite shape! We made several pictures, but I drew an E and I on this one so we could talk about letters. Again, he showed interest in E the most!

On another day, we brought out the play dough and the little one really enjoyed making circles in the dough.

He also enjoyed making designs in the dough with this rolling pin thingy.

DS saw how much fun we were having and decided to come over and make some pizzas! All the while, learning a bit about fractions!

The little one sure had fun! They played nicely together like this for about an hour!

Later on that same day, the little one pulled out his pattern blocks that we found at Toys R Us (and apparently, many of us who do tot school have these!)

He also got a bit of a lesson in sorting and putting away laundry!

Another day, he pulled out this puzzle and did it all on his own. Although, here it looks like he’s much more interested in his cookies!

One night, as we took a bath the little one had a blast playing with his ABC crabs! We spelled out his name and he loved lining them up on the tub while I called out the names of the letters!

Another day, while I was feverishly working (cough, playing, cough, cough) on the computer, I turned around to see this!

They played very nicely with each other and it looked like the little one was showing the princess how they worked! After that, they pulled out the pattern blocks again, so I decided to sit down and work with them.

Here they are checking it all out:

Predictably, the little one loved the fire truck one, and he was able to correctly identify the circle! This is a new accomplishment for him! I asked him where the circles were, he pulled one out and put it where it belonged! Then he tried to put a circle in the square spot, shook his head no, and then put it in the circle spot and shook his head yes! Seems his interest in circles has paid off!

Here is another picture of circles that he did on his own (I did help with the triangles)…and sissy is about to destroy it!

He also really loves the train picture as well!  He likes to add a circle to the sun!

I meant to do so much more this week but just could not get motivated! We did do a few other fun things though that the little one was involved in. I also found this great website with Toddler activity ideas called Toddler Toddler. For those who do Tot School, this would be a wonderful resource! There is one activity in particular called Alpha bugs that I really want to try this week! Let’s see if I can find the motivation to do it!

OH! By the way, my birthday is tomorrow and everyone is taking the day off, so that means we’ll either have a lot of regular fun stuff to report…or nothing to report at all! Depending on how lazy I choose to be tomorrow! haha!

I hope you all had as much fun as we did! And, as always, if you want to participate or see more tot school posts see Carissa’s blog at 1+1+1=1!

Anyone remember that movie? haha!

Anyways, one day this week we put off regular school stuff in favor of doing a couple scienc-y things. At first, I was just making the little one some discovery bottles. Then DS wanted to help and he started calling them formulas! We made a wave bottle and a glitter bottle.

Making the wave bottle:

Doesn’t this look cool?

DS learned that no matter how hard you shake it, oil and water don’t mix!

Somehow he thinks this big one is his, now!

Here is the glitter bottle DS helped me make. All we had was gold glitter and it didn’t show up very well in the water so we both agreed the water needed to be blue. They love it! (the little one took his nap holding onto it!)

The little one rolling it on the ground:

And the boys racing their bottles:

They had so much fun with them!

That same day, I decided that you ladies who made ice cream this summer made it look so irresistable…so here is our attempt!

DS shaking it up:

“It’s really cold, mommy!” Guess who ended up shaking it the most?? Yeah, ME! haha!

They loved it! Even DH had some and he said it tasted just like his mom’s homemade ice cream! I think we have a winner!

And, finally we did an experiment on condensation that we got from this book I found at Target dollar days!

Mixing the ingredients:

At the beginning of the experiment:

After 10 minutes:

After 20 minutes:

(Mommy, we made snow!) haha!

And after 30 minutes!

It was really caked on there thick! But it started to melt away a little again by the 30 minute mark! The thing I loved about this book is that it has the explanations all written out for you, fun little sheets to record your findings, and some stickers in the middle! 1$ people! I’m telling you! I love Target!

Oh, and on a side note DS has most definitely mastered counting by tens! He’s just now really getting into counting by 5’s. But look what he did on his own (this worksheet from Teacher’s Helper Magazine, which I LOVE!)

I’m so proud of my little man!

It’s been a while since we’ve had a Fun School day, so one day this week I packed the kids up and took them to the park! Not very original, but it worked for them!

Here, the little one decided he was brave enough to try the bridge on his own:

He walked all the way to the middle and bounced!!

There was a math spinny toy thing that both boys enjoyed spinning:

Here, the little one decides he’s going up and down the stairs the right way (rather than getting on his hands and knees like he usually does!) Boy was he brave today!

And he kept going back to the spinny toy over and over again!

He loved these little ride on toys and was able to get on and off all by himself!

And of course he adored the swings and laughed the whole time!

DS also decided he was brave enough to play on top of the play structure:

I turned around at one point and he was straddling that bar on top, and then another time he was on top of the tunnel slide! Yikes! My fearless boys!

Well folks, the 2008 Summer Olympics are well under way and this year I was determined to get DS into the action! We’ve only just begun our studies and I intend to keep it going just about as long as the real olympics last! On a side note, I realize some people are boycotting them this year because of it’s location but I’ve found this experience an incredible opportunity to teach DS a little bit about another country(the good and the bad), sports, and so much more! However you feel about it, it’s such a good feeling to be able to relate your studies to something that is happening in our world right now! And DS is sure enjoying it!

We discussed and colored the Olympic flag:

Talked about the important symbols and traditions related to the games:

And played a matching game with the pictograms used to identify each of the games:

I recorded the opening ceremony since they started when DS had to go to bed and we watched it this morning; skipping over commercials. It really was great to see the symbolism and to learn a bit about China’s history and DS learned what the Chinese flag looked like. When he saw it on TV, he left the room and brought back a piece of red construction paper and a yellow crayon and drew the Chinese flag all by himself and without me telling him to! He did a great job too!

We also caught a few of the games today! He learned what fencing was, saw the cycling pictogram and was able to tell me what game it was, we saw the flatwater races, and enjoyed a very nailbiting beach volleyball match between the US and Norway! (We won, by the way!) DS was very excited and wanted to see more, but we’d already watched several hours so we stopped for the day. I do plan on picking up some more games tomorrow. Perhaps we’ll see some weightlifters or boxers?!!

Carissa over at 1+1+1=1 came up with this lovely idea for making lapbooks for tots. (ie: tot books) She has personally created quite a few and the trend is catching! Already I found one other person making tot books of her own here. As soon as I saw this one I knew I had to make it for the little one since he is SO into cars and trucks and things!

I didn’t have any official Cars stickers or anything so I decorated the front like this.

And here’s the inside- my printer didn’t quite print the colors right so I may have to print the next one at MIL’s house.

And here’s the little one discovering it!

He loved seeing the characters; I think his favorite is Mater because he kept going back to that picture over and over again.

Here he is discovering his name! He loved pointing to the letters while I named them and seemed especially interested in E. So we may go with that and learn some more about E in the future.

Here he is pointing to the square on Mac’s nose!

And here he is lining up all the number cards! He was semi rough with these so I may either have to laminate or reprint them on cardstock and then laminate. He loved taking them out and putting them back in the pocket over and over again!

I had him color a picture of McQueen to put on the back, but he wasn’t interested for very long and so the picture isn’t finished yet. I like to leave pictures out for him on the table and he comes over every now and then to color it a bit. I like giving him a variety of mediums to explore with so the resulting picture ought to be interesting!

To snag this lapbook and more check out Carissa’s Tot Book page!