Tot School This Week

I remembered to take pictures!

The weather outside has been wonderful!  Nice and warm :) 

Mommy playing football.  I am not a football player.  I am a football watcher.  Dh was taking pictures.  He should have been playing.  LOL

We played with bigger brothers......here are Abby, Jeffrey (brother at heart), Bear and Gregory

Please take note of Abby's clothes.  I dressed her and then she fixed herself up with a couple more shirts and Bear's cowboy boots.  She wore it all proudly......

Bear has gotten really good at staying in the lines.  I think we are almost ready to start some writing exercises.

Abby loves pegs.  See her tongue sticking out?  It works better that way.  I got these from Oriental Trading Company.  We use them to build, count, sort colors.

She finally figured out how to stack them herself :)

We also played the Two by Two Matching Game from Alphabet Alley. 

Bear's awana verse this week was Through Him all things were made John 1:3

It's been a great week :)

Tot School

I was doing good on this but then flaked out with the move and such.  Please forgive me!   Finally, I've gotten back in the swing of things with the kids.  Greg is doing 6th grade Switched on Schoolhouse for his lessons so I have very minimal work with him.  Bear is 52 months (4 1/2) and Abby is almost 22 months. 

Awana lesson and memory work.  Both listen to the lesson, Bear does the memory work.

Coloring Worksheets (Bear)
- letter B sheet
- #3 and 3 animals sheets
- letter C sheet

(Abby)
Hello Kitty coloring pages

Hands-On activities (both)
- finger/Qtip painting
- cutting activity (Bear)
- glue/yarn activity


Books we read:
The Greedy Python by Eric Carle
Bedtime Bear
What Really Happened to the Dinosaurs?
Lemony Sknicket: The Lump of Coal
Beaver Gets Lost
Mouse's First Fall by Lauren Thompson
Red Sled by Lita Judge
Bedtime Words - Usborne
Triceratops
Allosaurus
Stegosaurus
Graphic Design Pterandon, Oviraptor and Pachycephalosaurus (3 books)

We also read extensively from our home library.  Extensively.  I imagine that we spend 2-3 hours a day reading aloud.  Whatever suits their fancy.  I am going to try to implement book baskets with "focus" books each week for each of them.  We will see how that goes.  I am also implementing "theme" weeks.  Didn't happen last week, or this week, but it will come in the future.  I am getting a lot of my ideas from Totally Tots.  I've borrowed her ideas for Bear since he was very small.  Bear will be transitioning to preschool starting next fall.

Last week we also had a trip to the library here in town.  Another day we took a bike ride to the local skate park.  Bear got to ride his own bike with brother Greg while Abby (in the stroller) and I (pushing) followed along.  It is an easy 4-5 blocks to that small park and we enjoyed a wonderful hour playing before coming back home.  That day was beautiful!  It snowed again last night.  Grrrr.  I'm ready for spring.

I promise to do better with pictures.  Dh bought a new camera that I am trying to learn the ropes on. 

Fireflies and LadyBugs

Today's science lesson was on Fireflies and LadyBeetles (Ladybugs) - because officially neither of them are bugs or flies....they are both beetles :)  There is your science lesson for the day.  Also note that I was spelling beetles like the rock group...but spell check didn't like that!  LOL

Anyway, Bear is terrified of any bugs, but especially ladybugs and fireflies.  No matter how much you explain about their good qualities, he screams whenever he sees one.  Heaven forbid they be in a herd.  LOL  But he participated and drew a fantastic rendition of a ladybug...in purple.  But hey, that's something anyway.  He has also been "teaching" us all about ladybugs and fireflies.  I hope he remembers some of it for his dad this evening!

First Few Days of School

Many of my online blog friends have been doing "first day of school" posts. I don't think that I usually do one but there isn't any reason not to so here we go.

Lee had his first day on Friday. At least I didn't cry this year. And yes, I do realize that he is 13. I think I am making big strides in the "letting go" department. Anyway, he had a good first day and the last 2 days have went well also. He is very glad to have a study hall this year. He is on a new bus route in the afternoon. He gets home at the same time, but is with different people. So some of his friends that he rode home with last year have dropped by. I always wanted to be the house where all the kids hung out, but let me tell you, teenage boys EAT....a LOT. LOL I will definately need to go grocery shopping and I need to just plan on baking several times a week in anticipation of a visit. It is great getting to know his friends though.

Greg and Bear had a very short "here is the plan" class on Friday and then a short day on Monday - dad supervised while I was in town. So today was actually the first "real" day of school for them. I think it went well. I gave Bear my undivided attention right off the bat. He was THRILLED. We are using a free curriculum I found on the internet. It is going really well. With our letter of the week we are using the Abeka memory verse cards that my friend Shanna gave to me. So this week for the letter A we are memorizing "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23". We drew pictures, sang songs, read about the days of creation and several books that I had gotten from the library. I think it went really well.

While I was working with Bear, Greg was working on independent stuff. Mainly drawing. I am encouraging his artistic abilities this year. I think it is going well so far. Everything else went about the same and I was done with schooling by lunch time, just like last year. I was afraid with the addition of another scholar and a baby that I would still be working after lunch, but other than a few minutes of grading I was done by 10:30. Greg finished up shortly after lunch and was done with chores and everything by 1:00 ish so that isn't bad. He hasn't started working on his character building projects yet, but I don't anticipate that taking to much more time.

Abby is her normal sweet self :) I have nicknamed her smiles. She is such a sweetie. Loving her so much and yes, she is very different from the boys. So very thankful to have her every day :)

Our family is very blessed in that my husband will be going to day shift in 2 weeks. He has only worked less than 1 year of day shift in the 15 years we have been together. It has been at least 11 years since he worked day shift. I am so excited! I am sure that I will have to rework our schooling a little as I am used to him being home and awake at least during lunch time, but Greg and I agreed that if Dad wasn't home, we could eat lunch whenever we wanted! LOL

Thinking about sharing some struggles, but will save that for another post. Have a great week!

Tot School

I haven't done a tot school post in a while....and sorry, I don't have pictures, but here is what Bear has been doing for school:

Activities:
playdoh - with cookie cutters and small rolling pin and butter knife
"writing" with pen and paper
beans/rice/lentils - scooping/pouring, etc.

Books:
My goodness, he has decided that he wants to be read to all the time. We are having to fight about it because I can't just sit here and read to him 24 hours a day. He wants me to though! Some of his favorites right now are:
The Wheels on the Bus (a book version of the song, we sing it!)
The Grouchy Ladybug
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
John Deere Alphabet Book
The Little Engine That Could
The Digger Book
The Little Engine Book
Pajama Time
O Me, O My, O Dinosaurs
And we will be going to the library tomorrow to trade the 2 we borrowed for more. If he will let me (The Wheels on the Bus is his FAVORITE - a library book LOL).

He also loves playing in the sandbox that my dad filled for him the other day. Greg and Bear are out there right now. There is something about a sandbox that makes little guys (and medium sized guys!) very happy :)

TV Shows:
Bear still won't sit for most shows and I don't push him. There isn't any need for him to sit in front of the TV for hours at a time. He likes Imagination Movers and Handy Manny on Disney. Sometimes they will buy me and Greg a little school time, sometimes not.

Potty training is really a no go. He doesn't want to wear the pull-up but he doesn't want to use the potty. We are trying to feel our way around this. I didn't have any trouble training the other two.....I guess the last one has to be difficult!

For more tot school ideas for your tot, be sure to check out Carisa's site!

Tot School

We have been sick all week. When I say we, I mean the short people. Lee is better and did do some math corrections and reading one day but that has been the extent of "big boy" school.

Tot School however has continued on, because little people never stop learning. As sick as Bear has been this week, only one day did he lay with is head on my shoulder. It broke me mommy-heart :(

The rest of the time he was busy with his balls and books. His favorite book right now is BAby Einstein Let's Look!. I got my copy from Books-A-Million for $8 last fall. It is an oversized boardbook. There is at least one picture on each page that he points to and I tell him what it is. Even though he knows. Over and over. And he gets angry if you won't say Tiger when he points to the tiger or Bicycle when points to the bicycle or Nemo fishy when he points to the striped fish. It can't get very annoying. But that's ok. We are working on vocabulary, sizes, shapes and counting. He loves that book. He tried to sleep with it the other day.

I am taking the younger two to the doctor today. We are going to be better by Monday. Did everyone hear that???? We will be better by Monday. I don't think that I can take much more of this.

Hopefully school and tot school will pick up some sort of order next week and I will post about all of that. Today, I don't remember what order is.

Have a good weekend!