Sonlight Week 12

 According to our manual, this week marks the finish of our first trimester of school. Twelve weeks, wow, and did it go by fast. I can't begin to tell you how worried I was about the amount of work that Sonlight Core A has but I can tell you, it was needless. J loves Sonlight and is learning quite a bit. She dazzles anyone who asks her about what is learning. She informs them that she loves learning about the Egyptians, Romans, and Medieval times. What kindergartener would tell you that? Only one who is being home schooled with Sonlight. Here are a few of the activities that we worked on this week.

For Bible, we learned about Joshua.

J worked on a word sort as a review of her short a words for reading. She chose a word, read it and glued it to the correct word family.

J learned two new sight words this week - his and you.

J worked on a sight word sheet that I found. Christmas cookies were labeled with sight words and she had to color them accordingly. Can you tell we are in a Christmas mood?

J working with her Explode the Code. We are reviewing short i words.

J is reading her little readers from Sonlight. I usually cover the picture so she can focus on the words and after she reads, I reveal the picture. We practiced reading at least four of her early readers a day. I vary it so I know that she isn't memorizing them.

Reading some more...

Lastly, J is so excited about being six! She said she had to wait a long time until she was six! We finished this week somewhat early since I will be chaperoning a a community service trip over night for my DH. Wish me luck! It will be nice to spend an overnight out of the city where I am hoping that my kids can run around and not irritate any neighbors - yay for small miracles. Hope your week was great, see you soon!

Gingerbread Tot Bag

In honor of our Gingerbread theme week, I decided to put together some activities for the tot. This tot bag can go along with any Gingerbread man/baby book. We are using Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett and The Gingerbread Boy by Paul Galdone. Here are some of the items I included in my tot bag.

 The first activity is a play dough mat. This will be used two different ways: (1) with gingerbread play dough (recipe follows) and (2) with some candy magnets. Both were free printables and the links are listed below.

On the back of the play dough mat, I added a shape match picture. The shapes are magnetic which my tot loves. I found this at Making Learning Fun (link below).

I made a gingerbread puppet to use while reading the story and a felt gingerbread for Kaleb to dress. The puppet was a combination of patterns that I found and the clothes for the gingerbread were cut free handed.

I also made six simple gingerbread cookies. I added these with a spatula and a cookie sheet for some cookie flipping fun. These were very easy to make. I was able to sew them by hand while watching a Christmas movie.

Lastly, I included a gingerbread size sort and a simple gingerbread puzzle. I made the puzzle magnetic to make it easier to put together and stay together. All of these activities were free to print and easy to make. All of the materials I used, I had on hand, no extra shopping trips.

I hope this encourages you to make a tot bag for your little ones whether for the holidays or just for fun. I love being able to grab a tot bag if I need something to occupy my tot in a hurry. It seemed only fair that he gets to participate in some Christmas themed fun!

Links

Living WorldsApart my gingerbread pinterest board

Pre Kinders has the free printable play dough mats. One set has numbers for older tots and another set is just the house to print.

Play Dough Recipe has the recipe for gingerbread play dough to use with the play dough mats.

Homeschool Share is where I found the candies to print. These can be used to practice patterns and addition for older children. This file has other printables but I felt they were too old for my tot. I will be using them later though.

Making Learning Fun has the printable shape match game I used.

Things for Boys has a printable pattern for a gingerbread puppet. I used this for the outline.

KizClub also has a printable pattern for some puppets - a gingerbread man, snowman, santa and a reindeer.

The Iowa Farmer's Wife gave me the idea for the gingerbread dress activity.

She Wears Flowers gave me the idea for the cookie flip. I made my gingerbread because we don't have cool stores like Jo Ann's here.

Homeschool Creations has a free printable pack for the Gingerbread Baby. This is where I found the simple puzzle and the size sort. Again, this pack is great but too advanced for my tot at the moment.

Christmas Activities

Every Christmas time, I try to put together fun activities for the holiday season. Last year, we read a book a day and created some cute crafts to go along with the books. This year, since I do not have any new Christmas books in my collection, I had to figure out something new to do. I struggled with this for a week or so. I wanted to do The Names of Jesus study but I couldn't find a simple craft to go with each of them on a kindergarten level. So, I decided to do a Christmas Around the World theme with a new country every day or two. Then I began to panic...this was going to be too much. I wanted it to be fun and not too stressful. The Christmas Around the World theme would have tied in nicely with Sonlight Core A but it wasn't worth the stress that I was feeling to somehow pull it all together. It wasn't going to be fun for me and if I am stressed, well you know.

So, I decided a simple Christmas project - simple to put together, simple to do, just plain simple. I decided to have a theme week for the four weeks leading up to Christmas. Each week would be a different topic and we could how much or how little we wanted. No stress, no worry. Our themes are as follows:

November 26th to 30th - gingerbread
December 3rd to 7th - snowmen
December 10th to 14th - Christmas (in general)
December 17th to 21st - Nativity/ what Christmas is truly about

By doing this, we can read our Christmas books, watch our Christmas movies, and create cute crafts and such without having to worry about getting it all done. I feel so much better about this schedule than the one for Around the World. Besides, we have a few more years to come if I feel the need to go Around the World. So, please join us in a hassle free Christmas fun study.

Tot Tuesday

Sometimes, as a parent of two small ones, you wonder if they will ever get along. They go through stages/days of always fighting and bickering but then you find this....

In a small little hole, between the couch and the wall, I found my kids propped up on some pillows. J had her head in Kaleb's lap and he was stroking her hair. They weren't fighting or arguing, they were just together.

No pulling of hair, no hitting or yelling....just together.

So sweet, those moments when you think you kids will actually be friends.

Hope your Tuesday is filled with sweet moments like these.

Sonlight Week 11

This week we started a new chapter book Twenty and Ten by Claire Huchet Bishop. I was a bit unsure about this book because of the theme (war and hiding children from the Nazi's) but J has enjoyed the book so far. It was a busy week of a birthday, a teacher Thanksgiving, and a family Thanksgiving. But we continued through the week. Here are a few of the activities we did this week.

J learned to play Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star on the piano. She recently started piano lessons from her sister. J wants to play an instrument like her father and her brother.

Our mystery letter of the week was I. J is practicing writing her I's.

J working on her I page. It was difficult finding I related pictures in the magazines this time.

We started short i words in our reading program. For every word family, I make reading cards that we cut - separating the word family and the beginning letter. These help her to read the letter, blending it.

J worked on her Bob book printables  for the book Mat. She is coloring by letter the main words from the book. She liked this activity and wants me to print more. These printables came from In Lieu of Preschool. There are a group of blogs who have gotten together to create printable pages for the Bob books. So far they have posted up to the third book - Dot.

We read about the Indians and created an Indian headband. J cut out feathers and copied Indian symbols on her head band.

 She decided her headband needed to have six feathers since it was her birthday this week. She is already thinking about being six.

For Thanksgiving, we made a cute book named Hide, Turkey, Hide! It is a free download from Merry Kinder Kapers.

J also worked on a word sort. She started with some i words because we are working with those in her reading program. I found this free printable but I lost the link. If you know of the link, please let me know, so I can share it.

For Science, we learned about mammals. We worked on our Sonlight Science pages. We finished our week and had a good Thanksgiving with family and friends. Next week, we will start our Christmas fun weeks in addition to working through our school work. We will be preparing for Christmas. Hope you week was filled with family and friends.

Happy Birthday, J!

Today is my squeaky's birthday. She will be six years old, I can't believe how fast the time has flown by. Six. She has kept my life full with excitement and wonder. She is a joy and a sweetie, a little mother to Kaleb as well as to Keke. She tried to keep everything in line and orderly. She loves animals and loves learning. It is amazing what she has learned over the years. J, love you and happy birthday.

first birthday

Happy Birthday - and may you have many more!

Tot Tuesday

One Saturday, we took the opportunity to visit the school that my DH teaches at and just played and played.

Kaleb took to collecting some rocks and digging in the dirt.

Rocks are so much fun!

J enjoyed digging as well. It was nice to get out of the apartment and just play in the grass, dirt, sunshine. How I miss having a yard to play in. But I am thankful for having the school nearby with dirt and grass.

Sonlight Week 10

This week brought us the end of The Family Under the Bridge, learning about animals, The Mayflower and Pilgrims. Here are just s few of the activities we did this week.

In Bible, we learned about Moses, the burning bush, and miracles.

In Math, we worked on our ten frame. I would add yellow chips to the ten frame and ask her how many she would have to add to make ten.

I pulled out our Inchimals to practice measuring. These are the cutest things. I splurged on them last Christmas and I am glad I did. J was using them to measure items from her desk. We were working on measuring to the inch so these worked out perfectly.

We played a new game with our chalkboard. I wrote different words and she had to read them to erase them.

We worked on syllables with this worksheet I found here. She had to say the word and count how many syllables. She then used a hole punch to punch the number.

J started a word family notebook page. I found this free printable at This Reading Mama. We started with the am family. She wrote all of her am words on the page, leaving some room to add more when she learns blends. These will be kept in a notebook and we will add to these.

S was the mystery letter of the week. J was practicing her S writing.

J working on her S page. She asks to do this every week. She likes to look through old magazines and find items that start with out mystery letter.

J is practicing her reading using the Bob books. There are a few blogs who are offering free printables to go along with these Bob books. We are working on the first Bob book, Mat. I cover the pictures so she has to focus on the words. After she reads the pages, she can look at the picture.

J is working on her Mat word search. You can find the printables for the Bob books at In Lieu of Preschool. Go there and it will direct you to the other websites. So far, they have posted for the first three Bob reading books.

Just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday (which the country does not celebrate but we do at home), we learned about the Mayflower. J created a replica of what she thought the Mayflower would look like...

complete with colored sails!

J and I then created a 3-D model of a Pilgrim village. This was found in a Scholastic book and I printed it on card stock. We watched two videos at Scholastic about the Mayflower and the village life at Plimoth. These were great to add a visual to our learning. Check the videos and website out, some good stuff for Thanksgiving there.

Next week brings us Thanksgiving but we will have school all week. It is also J's birthday. We will be learning about Indians and reading a new chapter book Twenty and Ten. Hope you have an awesome week.