A Nice Surprise!

Imagine our surprise when we got back from our Spring Break work-cation, to find a brand new playground in our apartment complex. It was so unexpected but it was a great surprise.

We had some great weather so we decided to check out our new playground.

J's only complaint about the new playground was that it didn't have any swings. But it did have 3 slides. Kaleb loved it, especially the tallest slide. That's pretty much all he did - go up the stairs and down the slide. It was definitely a nice surprise. Hope your week is full of surprises as well.

Tot Tuesday

Kaleb's little lovey is a regular part of the household. He tries to take him everywhere he goes (although I live in fear that if he takes it out of the house, he will lose it forever - never to be replaced). Mousey shares all sorts of experiences with Kaleb. I took some pictures of them enjoying breakfast on the couch the other day.

He snuggled himself and Mousey in a blanket and ate his breakfast on the couch.

He may even had tried to feed Mousey but I am sure he removed (licked) the evidence away. Kaleb loves his Mousey. I really need to find a replacement when I am in the states, just in case. The only problem with that is Mousey is well loved and all floppy. I am pretty sure he will know it is an impostor! May your day be filled with warm thoughts.

Trees by Joyce Kilmer

I was recently flipping through the Sonlight manual and I noticed that, starting in week 29, J was to begin memorizing the poem Trees by Joyce Kilmer. It is funny that J will be memorizing this poem since it is also a poem that my mother recalls from childhood. I wanted to create something that would aid in her memorization. I thought that creating a mini poetry book which would be illustrated by J would be fitting for this project. It wouldn't be too time consuming since they are only expected to memorize two lines a week.

The first option for the illustrated poetry book is just for the child to draw the pictures.

Download Trees Poetry Book HERE.

The second option for the poetry book is for the child to illustrate and trace the words to the poem. Because I am using a small book format, tracing the words may be difficult for your student. If so, use the format above for less frustration.

Download Trees Handwriting Poetry Book HERE.

You can use this mini poetry book in many ways. Use a page each week to aid in the memorization of the poem. Use the pages to practice handwriting. Use the book after the child has memorized the poem for a review. My hope is that this will aid in your child's learning of the poem Trees and, perhaps, have a keepsake of the school year. 

If you have any questions or notice any mistakes, please let me know so I may correct them. Enjoy your week.

Sonlight Week 26

It is amazing how going on vacation can totally mess up your schedule!  We recently returned from our Spring Break work-cation....on Monday, no less! Returning on Monday really messed with our whole week. I felt like I spent most of it trying to keep up. If losing an hour on Sunday (we finally changed our clocks) wasn't bad enough, I had tons of laundry to do and struggled all week to find the time to go to the grocery store. We hit the ground running but it was hard, so pictures are limited. We homeschooled whenever we could, where ever we could but we finished. I love the flexibility of teaching at home but I will be glad to truly be back on schedule next week.

A couple of weeks ago, J finished her Bible workbook. So she is working on some pages that I found.

J is working on take-away. My older daughter taught her how to use her fingers to complete the problems. I am not sure if I will encourage that or not.

Our mystery letter of the week was V. J is learning to draw vultures. She drew a whole vulture family.

 J started U word families this week in her reading lessons. She is working on the -un word family house.

She worked on a U family word sort as well. She read the words and glued them under the correct column.

And of course, we read, read, read. We finished The Wonderful Wizard of Oz this week. J loved it. I found that I had the rest of the Oz books on my Kindle and J has asked me to read them to her.

Lastly, I caught Kaleb "reading" our Dr. Seuss books. Since Seuss' birthday, I have kept our Seuss books in a bin. He took some time just looking through the books, talking about the pictures. Sorry that the post is so light this week. I hope to be back in the swing of things next week. Hope you had an awesome week - 10 more weeks to go ;)

DEF Review Pack

It seems like Spring always brings the promise of a new school year and I shift into planning mode. I have been planning items for Kaleb's tot school and I had decided to loosely introduce him to the alphabet. I truly wanted something totally "BOY" oriented for him and I came across Royal Baloo's Zoomin' Movin' Alphabet Series. Erin, from Royal Baloo, has tons of great, free printables for learning. I just love her site! After seeking her permission, I began creating alphabet review packs to go along with her series. My thinking was to stretch out the alpha learning for the entire school year. By adding the review packs, I can do just that.

So, I finally finished the DEF review pack using the graphics and sight words from Zoomin' Movin' Alphabet Series. This pack covers a variety of levels. Some activities may be easy for your tot while others may be too difficult. Follow your child's lead and use what you can. You do not have to use every activity. I love to have options and like to change things up every week, if possible.

 I have included:

letter/sight word play dough mats

sight word puzzles

roll and graph the sight words and letters

search the letters magnifying pages

letter/picture match game

milk jug labels

missing letters

clothespin number cards

letter/sight word tracer cards

number/letter strip puzzles

number cards and more. 44 pages of activities to review the letters DEF and sight words: can, up, down, and is.

I hope this printable pack is useful to your preschool plans. Please leave me a note if you have something you would like me to add to these packs. 

Download the DEF Review Pack HERE.

All of the graphics were purchased from:

Tot Tuesday

One thing that I have noticed with my tot is that anything his big sis does, he has to do. I sat back and watched him the other day while J was playing dress-up with her princess dresses. I saw his little mind go to work and he decided he wanted to do what she was doing. So, he walked to the dress up bin and searched for something to wear.

And he brought me a pink tutu. When he was smaller, J put a tutu on him and he cried until I took it off. Today, though, they had fun running around the house all dressed up.

 

Now, I wondered whether I should post these cute photos or not. I allowed my son to wear a tutu. I really don't see the harm in this. He only wants to follow his big sis.

And what's a little pink tutu among friends? May your day be filled with dancing!

More Letters

Letters, letter, and more letters. Kaleb has taken a recent interest in letters. He finds them everywhere and likes to point them out. He also has found the rag letters that I made a long time ago for J.

I have the awesome "letter" metal bowl that my DD gave me the first year we moved here. It seemed to be the fitting storage solution for the rag letters. He is pointing out the letters in the basket.

He is checking them out, spreading them out on the floor.

Look how excited he looks! I am so glad that he loves the rag letters. If you would like to make your own set of rag letters, visit Happy Together Creates for a tutorial.