Tot Tuesday

My tot....I just love him!

Hanging out in the new park! Have an awesome day.

Letter Writing Experience

Earlier this year, my darling daughter wrote a special letter to our President. She wouldn't let me read it, so I was somewhat nervous. But I sent her letter anyway.

She is super excited. She received a letter in response. I love this. She learned that she could voice her concerns and receive a response. I am so proud of her:)

Tot Tuesday

My tot painted his pumpkin for Halloween this year, side by side with his brother.

He and his brother had a blast. And of the pumpkins, the painted ones are still looking good:)

How I Became a Pirate Experience

If you have been following along with us, you will know that I promised a Year of Adventures. This school year, I promised that we would try new things and go to new places in our school year. We joined a homeschool group to help make that happen. And it has happened! We have been busy - the busiest we have ever been in our schooling. But it also has been fun (tiring but fun). This week's adventure was a play based on the book How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long.

It was a musical put on by one of our local theaters. I love our local theaters! They do such a great job and they make it affordable to see plays through out the year.

I had a brief thought about asking the kids if they would like to dress like pirates but I changed my mind. But, never fear, my homeschoolers came up with the idea all by themselves. They decided to dress like pirates for the play.

And my Riley, his pirate was a cowboy pirate! The play was great and the kids did a great job. After the play, we had lunch while watching the Muppets Treasure Island. Have an awesome day.

Christmas Bible Study - Jesse Tree

Every year for the Advent Season, we work through a bible study. Last year, we learned about the Twelve Days of Christmas. This year, our bible study is The Jesse Tree. J had so much fun sewing the ornaments for last year that she wanted something to make this year as well.

Our spine is Our Family's Jesse Tree by Jen Frost. I bought it as a downloadable PDF. I love this. It came complete with a bible study as well as full sized patterns to create each ornament. There are also several options on how to create the ornaments as well. They can be made with plain paper for coloring, foam for gluing, and felt for sewing.

We are also reading through The Jesse Tree by Geraldine McCaughrean. We read the corresponding part with each day. I am looking forward to giving J her ornaments that she sewed when she gets older. Here are a few of the ornaments that they have already finished. Each ornament represents different bible stories leading up to the birth of Christ.

I love how these turned out. They will be a great heirloom for my J when she gets older. This is turning out to be a pretty good advent study. Have an awesome day.

Nature Journals Week 8

We have been super busy lately and not able to do too much nature journaling. These were our last few pages.

Jadyn drew a before picture of her pumpkin and and after picture. She carved a bunny in her pumpkin for her pet bunny. She did a really good job doing it too!

Kaleb drew an alligator catching a fish, another fish, and his pumpkin. I love his alligator!

Tot Tuesday

 Recently, my tot watched as I had my first grader counting to 100 with a 100's chart. I do this for practice and number recognition. We count by 1'2, 2's, 5's, and 10's to keep it fresh. My tot wanted to work along us so he promptly found a second 100's chart that we had and counted along.

I love it! He was counting....8, 9, 10, 25, 22...

I also love that his chart is upside down (if you look closely) but that didn't stop him from counting along with us. Have an awesome day.

Owl Pellet Experience

A year of adventures for this year of schooling. We are excited as this week's adventure/experience was dissecting an owl pellet. We have been studying animals in our Science curriculum and we just finished learning about owls. It was a perfect opportunity to dissect an owl pellet.

We read about owls in our Encyclopedia of Animals book.

Then the fun began - first I had them draw what it looked like before we began. Yeah, I know what it resembles but an owl pellet is not from THAT end of an owl. An owl actually yarps (regurgitates) the bones and fur of animals that it eats. The pellet is then sanitized for your protection.

Kaleb is working on separating the pellet. I was truly amazed at how many bones were actually in the pellet.

J is working on hers. She couldn't believe it either! It took some time but they finally separated the bones and fur from the pellet.

This is what we came away with - a ton of bones. I think each pellet had at least four skull pieces and lots of vertebrae. We soaked the bones in bleach to make them whiter and easier to see. This was an experience that J said she would do again. She loved finding all of the bones, like a mini treasure hunt!

Tot Tuesday

For the last month, my kids have been dinosaur crazy. I found some dinosaurs at the Dollar Store which were just the right size for some great dino play. And we were able to go to Dinosaur World and see life-sized versions of the dinosaurs. My tot - Riley keeps asking me are the dinosaurs ....tinct?  Yes, Riley they are extinct. He also asks whether they are meat eaters or plant eaters. It is so cute! I keep thinking I should create a mini dino unit just for my tot - we will see:) I caught him playing at the school table while I was working with Kaleb.

My dino crazy tot hard at play. Love it:)

Pumpkin Patch Experience

A new school year...a year of adventures - that is what this school year brings. Why? Well, our lives have been on hold for that last few years. We thought we were going back to Turkey and we were working for that. It made life somewhat difficult and we put many things on hold. I wanted to give my kids a different kind of school year - a year of adventures and experiences that were new to us. No more putting things on hold - we are where we are going to be for awhile. It is time to stop being in the holding pattern and start living and learning:) I can do anything for a year, right?

This week's adventure is going to the pumpkin patch. I know that might not sound like an adventure to you but it was to us. Living overseas, we didn't have pumpkin patches. We didn't even have orange pumpkins! There wasn't Halloween or Thanksgiving...at least not like here in America. So, yes, going to a pumpkin patch is an adventure:) (at least to us).

We were enjoying the cooler weather here. I love these pics.

I asked Riley to look up. I meant look up to the camera but he literally looked up. Haha!

The great pumpkin. Loved it. Hope you get to have an adventure today:)

Riley's Rhymes - Hey Diddle Diddle with free printable

If you have been following the blog, you may have noticed that I have a new section called Riley's Rhymes. What is Riley's Rhymes? It is a gentle form of tot school that focuses on nursery rhymes and songs while learning about shapes and colors. While I do not believe in formal education for my tot. I created this for my tot since he was always asking to do "school." Our new Riley's Rhymes mini unit is the rhyme - Hey Diddle Diddle. The shape we will be learning about is the crescent (moon) and the color white.

I included a visual schedule. I am a visual learner and it just helps to have pictures of what I want to accomplish.

I added clothespin cards - match the shape on the plate with the correct shape in the box. Have your child clip a clothespin on the answer.

 I included a two part puzzle that I will make magnetic and a sewing card. Riley likes the sewing cards.

There are spoon number cards. Have your child add glass beads or pom poms to the handle of the spoon while counting.

Sort the moons - large and small moon sort. You could even practice patterning if your child is ready. Enjoy the new mini unit.

Download Hey Diddle Diddle Mini Unit HERE.

Gratitude Journals

This Thanksgiving, I wanted to be more conscious of being thankful. I wanted my kids to be aware and be thankful as well. So, I thought we would work on a gratitude journal for the month of November. I wanted it to be a simple activity to make us think of ways we are thankful. I found a free printable from____ . It was a thankful calendar for the month of November but I took it further. I printed the cards on paper, cut them out, and added them to our Thankful Jar. Each day, one child will choose a card, read it, and then write/draw their answers in a mini gratitude journal. We will complete this activity as part of our Bible each morning.

I found some mini notebooks that I had been keeping. They had 16 blank pages in them and if we used just half a page for each day, there would be enough pages for the month. They made their covers for their journals - Kaleb on left and J on right.

I had the children draw their responses to each of the daily questions. I journaled for Kaleb so we could remember what he was thinking.

Another set of entries - thankful for what color? Thankful for family and friends.

My journal cover ....

And one of my journal entries. May you take some time to be thankful this holiday season. Have an awesome day.

Links

Proverbial Homemaker - has the Thanksgiving Calendar set that I used for our journal jar. I printed each day, folded them, and added to a mason jar. Each day, someone picked one and we journaled the answer to the question.
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Tot Tuesday

I recently read the kids a book called Grandfather Tang's Story by Ann Tompert. I just had to bring out the tangrams for fun. We read through the entire book and made each animal from our tangrams. Riley didn't want to be left out, as usual.

I started by giving him a regular set of tangrams. He put the shapes together but he had difficulty putting together the animals. Then I remembered that I had just the right thing for him - Tangoes Jr.

I found Tangoes Jr. at Target on sale. I am always on the look-out for games and activities that challenge the mind. These Tangoes were magnetic and had two different levels of difficulty. He was thrilled to have his own set and they didn't move around like the others.

He used the cards that had each shape marked and was able to create the pictures we were creating with our own tangrams. I love when things work out:) It was a good math day!

Nature School

The other day we were blessed with cool weather and we were promised a day with no distractions, field trips, or piano lessons. I just wanted to have a good school day. I looked at my school schedule and saw a ton of lessons and activities that I wanted to complete. This year of adventures is hard on my school plans! But the cool weather was calling us....a day with no sweltering heat....a day to spend at the nature preserve. The kids pleaded...I wavered. I wanted a good, full day of school...but the day was calling us outside. So, I did what any homeschool mom would do...I ignored the schedule and took my kids to the preserve for some Science!

Don't get me wrong, this was a hard thing to do for me. I like getting things done and checking them off my list. This wasn't on my list but I had to think...why do I homeschool? Is it to check things off and stay on track? Or is it to show my kids the love of learning? I want them to love learning. I want them to love school. And this was a perfect day to be outdoors. Not all learning is done at a table:)

We started all bundled up because this weather was chilly to us. We are Floridians and it was cold.

Kaleb had great eyes today - he found a bald eagle in its nest. We sat there for awhile just watching it while the kids learned how to use the binoculars.

We walked the trails and found some wetlands to explore. The kids are learning about wetlands so we made sure to make some notes of animals and plants that live in wetland areas.

I love this picture...they are exploring, observing their environment, trying to find animals and such.

We claimed this "square" as our wetland observation place. We sat and watched our square and wouldn't you know it - Kaleb found a baby alligator that walked right past us into the water. It surprised me so that I didn't get a picture. I just couldn't believe seeing an alligator so close!

And walking back to our car, we came across this library. I love these book houses! I have always wanted to stop and look through the books but I have never gotten the chance. Now, J found a book and when we return, we will have books to place inside. It was a good ending to a great day.