Sonlight Week 15

I am finally glad to be back on track with school. Don't get me wrong, I love the holidays but there are times when you are ready to get back on schedule. This week in Sonlight brought us The Story of Dr. Dolittle, reading about Victorian fashions, and ocean creatures.

We added a new monthly calendar page to our math notebook. Our math notebook is used every day. It has monthly calendars which J traces the school day and counts how many days are left in the month. She marks special days with stars and counts the days. It also has a 100's chart. She uses the chart to count to 100 by ones, fives, tens, and soon by two's. It also has a blank 100's chart which she adds a sticker for every school day. Then she counts the days she has been in school and how many we have left until we reach 100. This notebook adds a few minutes to math instruction but I have found that it has helped J learn to count to 100. She now no longer has to look at the chart but it is there, in case she looses her place. It has also helped with the concept of weeks and months. (Links below if you are looking for some of the notebook pages)

She practiced her handwriting while I was working with Kaleb on the color red. I placed this sheet into a page protector so she can reuse it.

She worked on a word sort for cvc words. She had to say what the picture was and add it to the word family.

J worked on her mystery letter page. Her letter was D. She looked through magazines for pictures that started with the letter D. She worked on this while I was working with the tot.

J reading her words in Explode the Code. She is in the book Explode the Code 1 1/2 for the school year.

She worked on drawing ducks for the letter D. She made a whole family of ducks.

She practiced beginning sounds with this free printable that I found from Kindergarten Crayons. (Sorry, try as I might I could not find the exact link)

As a review from the long holiday, J worked on some word family mini books, a free printable by Lavina Pop. These are mini books that J will glue the pictures and write the words.

J is working on her Dr. Dolittle animal scrapbook. J loves animals and this is something she has requested to do. You can download the scrap book from here. In order not to stress out about the research, I have two animal encyclopedias on our table. When we work on a page, we look them up in the books.

We talk about the facts and she informs me which ones to add to her animal page. I write them for her. The basic idea is to learn about the animals. Here J is looking at the hedgehog pages. Did you know that a hedgehog can stay rolled in a ball for hours?

Lastly, we spent much time outside on our balcony, enjoying the snow. This week was a quick week due to snow days but it was full of fun and cold weather. Hope your week went well.

Links

Sharing Kindergarten space themed, missing numbers for child to add, plus a chart for number writing practice

What the Teacher Wants all the numbers missing except 1 and 100

Homeschool Creations has an ultimate file for math/calendar notebooks

Teaching First more free printable charts, use one for counting practice, the other for keeping track of days

Ironic Adventures has free printable calendars to trace the day and she added a new colorful set 2013 calendar set

Snow Day

This week we had an unexpected snow storm. My DH and DD both had the day off from school and, try as I might, I could not keep J focused on her school work. So, we had to play in the snow.

We had a snowball fight with our balcony neighbors and we even had enough snow to make a snowman. Kaleb cried when we came in but we were frozen. I guess home schoolers can have snow days too.

Dr. Dolittle Scrapbook

This week in our Sonlight adventure, we are reading The Story of Dr. Dolittle by Hugh Lofting. J absolutely loves animals and this book is full of animals to study. I wanted to add a scrapbook of sorts during the reading of this book. When we are introduced to an animal in the story, J can work on a mini-scrapbook page. She can add a picture of the animal at the top, trace the name, and add facts as we read about each one. I have several animal encyclopedias that we will use while reading the book so the research time will be minimal.

I added a page for each animal suggested in the manual. I also added a blank page for any other animals that you would like to add. At the end of the file, I included 3 pages of animal images that your child can cut and paste, if he doesn't want to draw. This is my first, true, self made printable. It is not perfect but I made it and I am offering it to you for use in your homeschool. If you download, I would love to hear from you. If there are any problems/errors that I have overlooked, please inform me and I will fix them. Hope this adds to your enjoyment of The Story of Dr. Dolittle. Please click HERE to download.

Tot Tuesday

One thing that I have had to learn to deal with this year homeschooling my kindergartner is that the tot is never too far behind. He insists on being right in the middle of everything - my lap, our games, everything. I have had to be flexible and creative, giving  Kaleb things to occupy him. His favorite activity is coloring with markers. I try not to give them too much because, if he is not totally supervised, we end up with marker on everything. The nice thing is that they are washable.

Look how happy he is that I caved and gave him markers to color with!

Busy, busy, busy... lining them up and coloring.

A Last Farewell

My DS left this weekend to go back to school in 'Merica. It was a sad day for the family. We will miss him very much but we are also proud of him as well. J cried and held onto him, asking him not to leave and Kaleb ran after him. Today, we start back to normal life-school and such but it was nice to have him around.

One good note, we were finally able to visit the Monet exhibit. Yay! We went the day after Christmas, saw a few people we knew, and enjoyed the paintings.

We actually got a semi decent photo of the family. We are hardly ever able to do that. This one is not perfect but it is us. Bye Joshie, love you and see you this summer!

Blog Interrupted - Sorry

Gosh, it seems like forever since I wrote. I promise I am not ignoring my blog. It seems like everything has hit at once. First, we had a terrible virus run through my family the week before Christmas - not even my college son visiting was exempt from catching it. Then we had Christmas, followed by another sickness - head/chest colds. My DS also was on the receiving end of this. He traveled many miles to visit us, only to be involved in our germ catching. We are still struggling with the final colds and coughing and I hope to be back to school on Monday. Yay! I am working on more tot posts and several more tot bags for the school year. I am excited about those. I can't wait to get back on a schedule. I have lost track of time and days. I am just ready to be healthy and back on track. Hope your week is germ free. I know I could use that!

Tot Tuesday

I love those preschool scissors that only cut paper - not hair, clothing, or fingers. I found these scissors here at the beginning of the school year. I have given these to Kaleb to play with but he wasn't interested until lately.

I gave him some scrap paper to color on and he requested his scissors.

Here he is trying to manipulate the cutting action.

not quite working...

need some more practice....

success! I love the look on his face when he finally cut a piece of paper. He couldn't believe that it actually worked. This is great for fine motor practice. It may still be years before he is truly proficient in cutting items but this is a great start.