Tot Tuesday

Riley is going through a phase of putting on socks. He doesn't care who's socks - he will put on any socks. Recently, I went into his sock drawer to find mis-matched pairs and socks everywhere. He just had to practice putting them on! While doing laundry, he decided to try on his Dad's socks!

What a cutie - even if I have to find his socks around the house.

Character Training - Humility with free printable

J is in her second year of working through The Virtue Bible and she is about half way done. For each character trait, she works through her notebook pages and highlights every key verse.

J colored her word ring and we read the key verses for the lesson.

I always like for J to look up the virtue in the dictionary to explain the word in simple terms. She adds the definition to her notebook page.

She then writes ways that she can work on being humble this week in her notebook. She glues the key verses mini book in there as well.

Then, we spend the most time looking up the verses and highlighting them in the Bible. She adds a colored tab to match the verse. If you would like to download the notebook pages for the virtue of humility, link below. J's character notebook is really coming together. It will be a treasured resource for her for a long time. Have a great day.

Download Humility Notebook Printable HERE.

Links

Meaningful Mama - has a list of books for the lesson of humility as well as other lesson ideas.

Kids of Integrity - has a few free lessons and printables for humility.

Rachel Carmen - has a free printable humility coloring page.

Heart of Wisdom - has a free lesson about humility with Peter.

By the Shores of Silver Lake Notebook Pages - free printable

J and I are currently reading through the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. We using The Prairie Primer as our spine along with our reading. We had also used The Prairie Primer Lapbook CD by A Journey Through Learning. This CD gave us multiple pages for our Little House notebook that J was creating. We loved the notebooking pages and mini books but were disappointed that it only covered the first three books of the series. What were we going to do for the next five books?

I scoured the internet for lap books for the rest of the Little House books but could only come up with a few mini ones and nothing that would coincide with The Prairie Primer. I knew that we wanted to continue with the notebook as we were reading but there wasn't much to work with. So, after a long, long weekend on the computer, I made my own notebook pages to go along with By the Shores of Silver Lake. These pages follow some of the activities in the Prairie Primer. You will need the book to see how they go-along with it. These were made to be an aid to the Primer, not to replace it. So, if you are working through the Little House series, perhaps these can help you too.

These took a long time to create - I made the mini books from scratch and had to add clip art and photos. The clipart was googled from free clip art websites. I didn't add too much color because my daughter likes to decorate her own items. I am also hoping to create some notebook pages for the next few books as well. Hopefully, you will enjoy these pages as you read through the book.

Each reading begins with a page for the child to summarize what was read. The reading coincide with the readings from the Prairie Primer. Sometimes, at the bottom of the narration page, there may be some bible reading or words to look up in the dictionary.

There are some mini books to make. Again, many of these activities are from the Prairie Primer and, if you want to use some of them, you are going to need the book to know what activity they are used for.

I added a few mini books of my own to round out the unit. It seems there isn't too much for any of the Little House books after Plum Creek, so sorry if it seems sparse. But I was happy with the outcome and we now have notebook pages for our next book - yay! Hope these help you with your own literature study. Enjoy! If you would like to download the note book pages for By the Shores of Silver Lake, click the link below.

Download By The Shores of Silver Lake Notebook Pages HERE.

If you notice any mistakes or problems, please let me know. We have worked through the first week of these notebook pages and it seems to be going all right. But I won't know until we finish the book. Have an awesome weekend.

Star Wars Mini Unit

Kaleb has been fallen in love with Star Wars in the past year. Even his big brother gave him an actual light saber and working Darth Vader mask for Christmas. I thought that I would give him something fun for school, so I decided to do a Star Wars mini unit. I borrowed a ton of easy reader books from the library and away we went:)

After reading the Star Wars Easy Readers that I requested from the library, Kaleb painted a BB-8 droid using watercolors. This activity idea came from Fun Learning Life (link below).

He then made a R2D2 using shapes, inspired by Toddler Approved (link below). We placed these on his Jedi Reading Wall (more to come about that later).

His sister photo bombed our shot but what a cute picture! She is a Star Wars fan too.

His finished droids, pretty cute.

He worked on labeling Darth Vader. A cute idea that came from Fairy Tales to Fiction by 2 (link below).

We also played a mini game - color Vader. This is a simple coloring sheet with numbers from 2 through 12. Kaleb rolled two dice, added to numbers, and colored the sheet.

Kaleb worked on making a shape Vader, inspired by Toddler Approved. Darth Vader is his favorite of the Star Wars characters.

He had to bring me the picture, complete with Vader helmet and light saber.

Riley had to get into the action - he wants to be Vader too:)

Lastly, he worked on labeling the Star War characters. This one was a cut and paste activity from Fairy Tales to Fiction by 2 (link below). A simple unit but he enjoyed the many books, Lego movies, and games that I found. We will move back to finishing our B4FIAR book units. But, since his love of Star Wars is so strong, I decided to use that in his reading program. (More of that to come)

Links

My Pinterest board for Star Wars

Fairy Tales and Fiction by 2 - has the free labeling activities.

Toddler Approved - has the Star Wars Crafts that we did plus some we will do later.

Fun Learning Life - has the BB8 droid craft with free printable.

Tot Tuesday

Recently, I gave Riley a pair of safety scissors. I love these scissors - they are only able to cut paper (not hair, cloth, etc...). 

I love that smile! He is so excited to have his own "sears." Now, when he is ready to color, he has to have his scissor as well. 

Character Training - Hope

J and I are still working our way through the Virtue Training Bible and this week, we learned about the virtue of hope.

At the beginning of our lesson, I always ask her what she thinks the virtue means and then I have her look it up in the dictionary. She adds the dictionary definition to her notebook page.

We talk about ways that she can exhibit the virtue of the week. Then she adds them to her notebook page.

We then take the time to look up and highlight each scripture that corresponds to hope. This may take a few days but it is well worth it. It is neat to see all of the scriptures that we have read so far with all of the different colors.

Here are her hope notebook pages and word ring. For every virtue that we have studied so far, there is a corresponding notebook set. If you would like to download the Hope Notebook pages, the link is below. Have an awesome week!

Download Hope Notebook Pages HERE.

On the Banks of Plum Creek - Week 1 and 2

 

We recently started the next book in the Little house series - On the Banks of Plum Creek. The family had to move off the Reservation and started a new life. Everything was going well....until the grasshoppers came. We are learning a lot and I added a few new projects in our learning mix.

J worked on her note booking pages but she was eager to try the new mini loom that I bought at Hobby Lobby. She kept asking when she could try it, so the time came...

Thanks to my Mom sending a box full of yarn, J had a tremendous choice of colors and fibers. (Thanks Mom:) She is weaving a few projects for her little house and her doll.

After a week, she is still weaving on her mini loom. I all most wish I bought the larger one!

J worked on her mini books for her notebook. Here she is creating a button necklace like the one Carrie received at Christmas time.

J decided to paint some of the wild flowers that the girls say on the prairie. Here she is painting Lavender. This prompted her to paint wild flower pictures for each of her friends for gifts. I love her enthusiasm over her school/art projects. Next week, I am hoping to have a manners tea party with Vanity cakes. See you soon.

God's Promises

As part of the new year in our homeschool, I knew that I wanted to have a Bible time with both of the kids together. I truly wanted to use Telling God's Story Book Two but I decided to save that for next school year and I found God's Promise by Sally Michael. J and I worked through God's Names by the same author for an Advent study. This is a simple Bible study that can be added to, if needed, or just taken at face value. Hard as it might be, we are just taking it at face value. I wanted something simple that we could do together since we had so much fun with out Christmas unit.

Each day consists of reading the lesson, reading the Bible verses, and maybe a simple project or activity. One thing you do for each lesson is write the lesson verses on a notecard and decorate it as a gift. So, we started our gift ring of Bible verses.

For Kaleb, since he is still an early writer, I made notecards that are traceable for each lesson. He decorates the other side as a present.

Sometimes, the lesson calls for a definition of a word. I made cards for each of the words that needed a definition. J is working on her cards - I love that smile!

Here's a picture of the first two lessons of God's Promise. It includes a small book, our Promise definition card and our gift verses. Not too bad for a new study. I am currently creating a file for this book for download - but not finished it yet....soon. If you would like what I have, I can send it to you. Please let me know.

I definitely like having a set time for both my kids to sit down together and learn about the Bible. This book may be somewhat over my Kaleb's head but he seems to enjoy the lessons anyway. I am glad we started this and hope to continue have Bible time together next school year.

B4FIAR - The Red Carpet

Recently, Kaleb and I rowed The Red Carpet by Rex Parkin. I just knew that he would love the story of the runaway red carpet that had police chasing it all over town!

Because of the police chase, we learned about our community helpers. Kaleb painted a police car for a simple art project,

We talked about stop lights and what each color represents. He made a mini book about stop lights.

He painted a police cap to add to his dress up bin.

He made his own map where the red carpet rolled through town. I put it in a protective sheet so he could erase and run the carpet through town again.

I found printable traffic signs and made a matching game. We talked about the signs as we played and then he noticed more of them as we traveled around our town.

He found some of the words from the story. Kaleb isn't reading yet but he can still find words in our story.

Kaleb sporting his police cap.

We made pretzels the easy way - from pizza dough. Besides being somewhat smoky in our house, they were pretty good. He decided he wanted cinnamon and sugar pretzels. (link below)

He made his own town and ran the red carpet through it. I gave him a roll of red streamers and he made the town. In the background, you can see the Batman dresser that my DH painted - Kaleb loves it. Have an awesome day.

Links

Homeschool Share - has a free printable pack for The Red Carpet.

Domestic Serenity - has a few ideas for the row of this book.

Delightful Learning - has a few more ideas for this book.

Homeschool Creations - has some free printables as well as some ideas.

Life a Little Brighter - has a super easy pretzel recipe using pizza dough.

Talice Harper - has a free fingerprint investigation sheet if you are working a unit on police officers.

Cooking Classy - has a recipe for cinnamon pretzels.