Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

The visitor that has come now...

Well, in my new house for a bit over two months and all I can say is God loves sending us some friends! The day after we got here a very pregnant cat showed up. A week or so later she dropped kittens literally on my newly layed kitchen floor...SIGH... Her and her little babies as cute as they were found a lovely new home at the cat rescue. It was amazing to see that though. We have come across cool frogs we never saw in Indiana and even caught a sticky frog in my daughters bedroom. We have seen bugs we never saw and the biggest butterflies ever. I never realized how big they got LOL. A tree crashed through my roof and broke my lovely rule about nature staying outside. Grasshoppers longer than my finger. Nature is loud here in my opinion. I am still amazed a colony of ants brought down a huge tree. Another cat has showed up this one bearing a strange likeness to my own cat Little Bit except it is a girl. Nothing compares though to what we found in the barn today. A gopher tortoise. A big one too and if my research has paid off I know he is a he and he is also a protected species in these parts. Owning one of these hefty guys can get you a fine of up to 5,000. He will surely not become a pet. I will say my children are really liking the nature here though. We miss Indiana but we have seen some really cool stuff.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wedenesday

for additional photos including tree removal click here!

This is our set up for workboxes

We have yet to use the workbox system but this is what I have created and I feel it will work for me. I have never read Sue's book just took ideas from other great blogs and the workbox yahoo group. This was made to fit our life style basically and because there is no way I could find spots for 36 boxes at 12 per kid!! The set up is simply each child has a file box with 12 file folders and a basket for the stuff that does not fit. The each have an assignment folder with assignment cards that I got from some notebooking site years ago! The cards are laminated and I will write their work on them each day. I plan on making some fun cards and such when I have the time and the ink that I seem to run out of constantly. The colored canvas bags you see are that childs supplies for Artistic Pursuits and they happen to fit there nicely so that is there spot. The pictures on the front of their boxes are their check in check out cards as well so they know when they are working and when they are done. Feel free to click on the pic link for further pictures with details.

Our first week of school! Monday Sept 13

Our first week back YAY!!!!! We started off pretty slow so we didn't overwhelm ourselves too much. We started out doing the first week of Animal Worlds by Winterpromise with Skyler and CLE math. The boys started with Sea and Sky by Winterpromise and Teaching Textbooks for math. Did I mention I love Winterpromise, no bias there but I just adore it and the kids really like it too.

Our back to school party September 11 2010

Mommy made us shulettes. They are a german tradition for a childs first day of school. They are cones filled with little odds and ends. We had blue jello with gummis octopus and fish for breakfast! Yep for breakfast. If you wanna see more pictures of our party and our little odds and ends click here!

My new schoolroom!!

A few pics of my new schoolroom there are alot more here telling what everything is and more details in the captions and all. I love love love my new schoolroom alot! It is so great to have the space back again and a big comfy reading chair plenty of room to move around it is so great!
The geography center

Math and science

The mostly younger type stuff for Skyler

The office part of my school room

Wow new house new state lotsa changes. I have a schoolroom again and BONUS I have an extra little room that we call the office. My computer is no longer shoved in the living room and my school room is no longer a sectioned off part of the dining room!!! Yay me If you would like to see more pictures you can go here.

Nature Area

I decided to move some stuff around and make a little nature area. We have hermit crabs on the bottom shelf, an empty goldfish bowl, leaves we have pressed as well as a presser, bug habitat lotsa little bug boxes and outside planting toys. I also have a really cool set of labeled rocks and minerals. I figure I will make a nature backpack to go along with it and hopefully some books and do some projects in the Spring. Yes Winter is nature but I hate to be cold.

Our school areas

Here is a link for more detailed pics

Little Passports Japan shipment

Well this shipment was fun too. She really liked the sushi eraser and the oragami. We made a cat with the enclosed instructions. She really enjoys getting her own little package in the mail as well. As usual I took way too many pictures to fit into a single post so if you would like to see more go here.

Nov 30-Dec 4 week 18 Insects Insects Insects

Wow looks like that wall needs some bug spray. The letter is I and the theme is insects and we did an awful lot of insect bug stuff. We did all the usual MFW stuff the worksheets and all but I added an awful lot. I had so many early learning bug things so we did alot. I have an Inch by Inch literature set from Lakeshore Learning with the book, inch blocks, and birds to measure so we played with that. We made an inch worm book mark from Danielle's ABC I believe. We also made an inch worm from that site and got an itty bitty inch worm book there too. I really like that site. I have some inch worm manipulatives and cards to use from learning resources so we played with that as well. That was on Monday. On Tuesday I used my Lauri alphabet cards and pieces and we played around with that. I am still happy with the Lauri alphabet box. We read some ant books, Are You An Ant? and Lost wich since she has learned those letters i had her sound outr the title. We watched our ants in our anthill and I was a bit on the dissapointed side. They have never really made any tunnels and they all stay in the front while all the dirt is in the back. After all was done we went on a dead bug hunt. We read online that harvester ants like dead insects so off we went. On Wednesday we also used her HWOT workbook for the letter I. I have started using this calendar from childcareland.com . They have alot of free printables so she traces the days of the week numbers. I have been using my start write program , to make worksheets with her name and phone number. I love that it has HWOT fonts and all, they also offer free trial. We colored an I and read The Grouchy Ladybug which she really did not seem to like well. I got a lady bug count and graph from childcareland.com that we made as well. I also took some lapbook pieces from homeschool share's The Grouchy Ladybug Lapbook. Danielle's place also had a itty bitty lady bug book so we did that too. We made a ladybug craft and she loved her little bug and we ended that day with an early reader BUGS! book from Hubbards Cupboard . On Thursday she made an I Like lapbook piece from homeschool shares alphabet lapbook and read an Izzy the Iguana mini book from HOAC early reader lapbook. We played with a honey comb that I found in a yard forever ago on a nature walk. We also played with lakeshore learning bee box. Really cool a bunch of bee manipulatives with matching pic cards that tell about that type of bee. We again used Danielle's place for a really cool bee mobile that is proudly displayed in Skyler Bay's school area. We talked about what bees give us, God making all things for a reason and we should really appreciate the bees cause without them all the pretty flowers would die. We read The Bee Tree ate honey off a spoon and made a bee lifecycle wheel from homeschool shares honey bee lapbook. Friday was a quick day she did some insect theme worksheets from The Learning Page . Membership is free and man they have ALOT of free stuff. I know there are thousands of bugs but we just touched on those few the lapbook pieces I will probally just make into a BUG lapbook sometime when I have time LOL. All in all great week. If you would like to see more pics you can go here. My camera is really crappy but I still photograph everything. She had alot of fun and so did I. We are still working on that handwriting as well. Start write is pretty cool for extras.

Little Passports Shipment Brazil

Her first shipment came in late October and was from Brazil. They get a sticker for the map, suitcase, and passport. She also gets little souvenirs as well as a personalized letter. For more pictures go here. She really enjoyed the little crafts and pictures. I just can't say enough about this great product.

Little Passports

I ordered this for my daughter the 5 year old and have yet to blog about it. I have recieved the first shipment as well as a second. She totally loves it!!! Here are pics of her opening it up. She loves her big map and little passport. She could barely wait for the second shipment to arrive. This is a very well thought out set and I am sure any child will love it. You could use it for so many ages and add so much such as lapbooks and reading crafts etc. I am really glad I purchased this and the price is wonderful!!

Not So Wordless Wednesday

This is our count down to Christmas. I hung up 24 little stockings and each day there is an activity or somewhere to go for fun. The Santa Claus poster is where each day they will add a piece of cotton to his beard. When all the little stockings have been emptied and are taken down the night before Christmas I will put up there stockings so they can wake up to that. I have about 15 days worth of things to do so if anyone has ideas please share!!

1 Put up the tree

2 make little foam Christmas friends

(crafts from Jo Ann's)

3 Make Christmas cards for daddy

4 Read Legend of the Candy Cane and make candy can ornaments

5 paint ornaments I bought from Joanns

6 ?????

7 Read Ginger Bread babies and make little foam gingerbread people

8 Make Christmas cards for friends

That is all I got so far!!!!

Our New Writing Center

Skyler needed a writing center so last weekend I made one on her art table. The crate full of books in the background are art books from the Come Look With Me series. I used her handwriting without tears wood pieces and letter cards. Every week that we change her letter a different one will be posted up top, this week happens to be I. I printed some insect writing paper off line since it matches our "insect" theme. I used the handwriting without tears letter cards from homeschool share to add in there. Her fat pencils and handwriting without tears flip crayons finished it off. For more pics click here. She had a blast when she came home and found it.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

MY BABY IS A DAISY GIRLSCOUT!!!!!!