New school supplies!!!

The kids and I went shopping for new school supplies for this school year today.

Here are some of D&K's favorites...


I found a big pack of dry-erase crayons at Target for $5! The box includes an eraser mitt and sharpener!


When we returned home D&K emptied their turn-abouts so I could clean them before they load them.

I was able to find a 3rd turn-about at a garage sale this summer for C...so D&K's supplies from last year now reside in C's turn-about. She is delighted to have her own school things!



I was originally thinking our first day would be the 15th but I think beginning on a Weds would be a better way to "ease" back into our school routine...so next Weds (8/10) is what I am planning now!

I have a few fun ideas to kick-off our year... :o)

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August already?

We ended up taking the summer off after deciding to use something other than HOD this coming year.

I am excited about this year as D is in 2nd grade & K is in K!

We are planning to use FIAR together for all subjects except math & phonics/grammar.

Saxon will be our math this year with K using K and D using 3rd grade.

For phonics, K will go back to 100 EZ lessons to finish it and then move to Phonics Pathways.

We will start in a few weeks!!!


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monkey see...monkey do!

K was coloring a bunny & 4 carrots for her math activity Thursday morning. C climbed up on a chair at the table and wanted to join in which does not work as C messes things up!

So I drew a bunny & carrot for C to color - which made her content (for the moment). :o)

Then K could finish her math page in peace! :O)

The Fruit of the Spirit

We're learning about fruit this week and more importantly...The Fruit of the Spirit!

We're emphasizing 1-2 "fruits" a day and reviewing the verses (Galatians 5:22-23) daily. To remember what we're learning, the kids are each making their own lapbook.

(these pictures are of D's book)

The cover:

Inside left: fruit basket & Runts Math

Inside Right: verse & individual fruit mini booksInside the mini books, the kids are drawing pictures of ways to show that "fruit"...top pic below is D's "love" pic where he's made a card for someone. The bottom pic is D's "joy" pic where he's shown his soccer team losing the game but he is choosing joy with a smile on his face. These were his ideas all on his own...I'm so proud of him!

We sampled a TON of fruit Monday morning.


I was so proud of D trying new fruits!


K learned that she LOVES kiwi!


C really enjoys raspberries.

The kids really enjoyed doing math with RUNTS! Before opening them, they each "estimated" how many candies were in the box. D guessed 40. K guessed 60...both boxes actually had over 100 in them. We'll keep working on our estimating skills! ;o)


After estimating & counting, the kids then sorted them into little cups, counted each group and graphed them in a simple graph.

K also had fun making patterns with her Runts.And they made happy faces...
I let them eat about 10 and then we poured all of them into a jar. It's the "fruit" jar - candies are handed out when I observe them displaying a "fruit." They cannot ask for it, they cannot brag about their actions...J or I have to "catch" them showing "fruit."

Get lapbook printables from the links here. The only place around me where I could find Runts was the Dollar store! I tried both big grocery stores and neither sold them, the bulk food section didn't have them either. And the big box store didn't sell them...cRaZy! They must be on their way to being retired, maybe?!?!

Memorial Day!

We talked about Memorial Day on Friday...how it started, what it means, why we see flags all over this time of year, etc. I also taught D about the different branches of the military and why we are so thankful for the hard work they do, the sacrifices they and their families make so that we can have the freedom we have in our country.

I had wanted the kids to make something...but wanted it to be something we could USE. I saw an idea for a fabric wreath online. We made this one Friday for $10 (maybe a little less)...
D had quite a bit of practice tying knots, though after we were only 1/4 of the way done, he asked me to do the rest. Oh well...it was fun to do 1/4 of it together. ;o) We watched a Bill Nye DVD on magnetism while we worked.

Supplies:
1wooden embroidery hoop ($3 at craft store)
1-2 yards each of red, white & blue, and/or designed cotton fabric (I used 4-5 yards total fabric)
1 yard each of red, white & blue tulle (89 cents/yard on sale!)

Directions:
Cut strips of fabric 1.5" wide and about 8-10" long using pinking shears (leaves zigzag edge :o) ). When cutting the tulle make it 2" wide using regular scissors for a straight, easy cut.

Tie fabric pieces singled or doubled around the hoop. Tied the tulle (doubled or triped) around the hoop, pushing fabric tightly together after knotted.

Time: 2-3 hours

Rain & Floods!

Today we read about floods and watched a Nova DVD on the flooding that happened during Hurricane Katrina when the levees broke. D is becoming a little meteorologist! I so wish we could get to meet one of our local meteorologists this week...I'm working on it. ;o)

We also talked about the water cycle using the book Down Comes the Rain. The kids drew water cycle pictures for their weather books.
Notice D's words on the page??? "water cycle" - he wrote in cursive!

D also alphabetized weather words and matched their definitions from a worksheet I printed from the web.

While D worked on alphabetizing, I read a few weather poems aloud. Their favorite was one about galoshes making splishes & sploshes in the rain. :o)

Here's how D's weather book looks so far...The fancy word "weather" was all his idea...
He messed up his first pic of a hurricane (top gray scribbles)...

He was afraid to waste pages in his book...so his tornado page went above weather ingredients, oh well!

Weather Unit & Worms

We're doing a WEATHER unit this week and LOVING it!

Lots of books from home & library... (with a few DVDs, not pictured)

Our verse for the week is one we've learned before..."When I am afraid I will trust in you!" (Ps 56:3) And we've talked about how some weather is really scary - we know that God is MORE powerful and always in control of it!

Yesterday D&K both created their weather books - to "journal" and draw in this week as we learn about different types of weather.

We learned about tornadoes Monday - watched a DVD about Extreme Weather that included a story about "The Monster" tornado that hit Oklahoma City in '99, read two books - Tornado Alert & Flash, Crash, Rumble & Roll. We also discussed what we do when we have tornado warnings in our area. K kept saying, "I'm thankful for our basement!" (ME, too!!!!)

After watching the DVD, D was amazed that some people choose to drive TOWARDS the storm! Whew, no storm-chaser in the making here!

D found a "twister" in a jar experiment from one of his storm books and so we did that today - a review from yesterday's topic. :o)The twister happened so fast that we caught just the end of it in the picture underneath the white bubbles...D thought it was pretty cool! I'll have to make the pop bottle one for him another day as I know it lasts longer. :o)

Today we read about Hurricanes and stopped frequently to point out various areas on the globe (D remembered a lot, I'm glad!). D & K made their own hurricane to observe the calm in the eye of the storm (idea from Janice VanCleave's book about weather). It was neat to see the paper clip remain still in the "eye" of the storm swirling around it (water & pepper).

D's "hurricane" as it looks on radar...

We also looked up the hurricane flag & D drew it into his hurricane page.

We learned hurricanes rotate counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere.

We also read through the list of hurricane names for the 2011 hurricane season - did you know the lists go A-W (minus Q & U names)? I love learning with the kids! :o)

Remember our worms project from 2 weeks ago? D took off the black paper today and found a tiny path through the sand with dirt from one of the worms he placed on top. He was hoping for a lot more paths, but still got the idea that worms move and move the soil around, so they're good to have in the dirt!

Besides the fun weather books, activities & reading, D&K are keeping up with the their Singapore Math and HWT. D's cursive is just amazing to me...he's so anxious to learn all the letters.
K had fun using clothespins for math today to see that adding horizontally is the same as adding vertically. By the end of the paper she wasn't using clothespins anymore...kept saying, "Mommy, don't look, I can do it." She sure did it...they were all correct!