Homeschooling August 2013 Part 5

Inspiration...

Play Time

This was our MOPS (Moms of Preschoolers) kick-off meeting. We planned it at the Splash Pad to have fun in the sun and start the Fall semester meetings on a good note. It was a success.
                            

Has anyone read or used this book before? I am interested in getting it, but wanted to hear from someone who has used it.

                              

Nice reminder...

Spanish

Yesterday, we started to learn the alphabet in Spanish. Please keep the handout I gave the  kids because we will be using it for several weeks. I wrote the pronunciation under each  letter (with Spanish pronunciation). We did A to M. Next week, we'll do the rest and they  will learn a rap. It is kind of fast, so I wanted them to be introduced to the names of the letters first.

Art

Last week we looked at Monet and his paintings, and worked with watercolors on our own sunflowers. This week we did finger printing and stamping. Next week we will try Kandinsky and his circles.

Ballet

For ballet, we are always going to be working on flexibility, agility and balance: the key elements that make a superhero, I mean, a ballerina. 
We practiced the 5 positions more today (with arms).
I have 2 rules in my class. It'd help reinforce/talk about them at home. 
1) Listen to the instructor. 
2) No playing with the medicine balls until the end of class. Yup, they're a distraction, er, a big hit amongst the kiddos. 
I always give them a couple of minutes at the end of class to play with them, so I redeem myself a little.

French (First Class)

Well, today went great. It was shorter than we thought, but the kids did awesome! I love small groups! We learned Bonjour (hello) and Au Revoir (goodbye). Our friend, Ratounet, taught us a song with a few French words.

Here is the link: CLICK HERE.

Please show it to your kids a few times during the week and feel free to print the lyrics. In the "Au Revoir" part, there is another phrase in there, but I repeat the same as  the "Bonjour" one. Keeping it simple. :)

______________________________________

Bonjour, bonjour, bonjour Madame (Mrs.)

Bonjour, bonjour, bonjour Monsieur (Mr.)

Bonjour, bonjour, comment allez-vous? (how are you?)(comet alle voo)

Bon bon bon bon bon bon bon bon-jour!

Au Revoir, au revoir, au revoir Madame

Au Revoir, au revoir, au revoir Monsieur

Au Revoir, au revoir, comment allez-vous? (it says something else, but don't worry about it)

Au au au au au au au au au Au Revoir!

_______________________________________

Letter of the Week (My Father's World)

This week, it was "l" for "leaf." K had a wonderful time and learned a lot.

Inspiration...

This is the preparation stage for our MOPS project with the littles. K helped me paint toilet paper rolls to make cool "toys."

Our first MOPS meeting of the Fall semester went super well! The moms loved it as well as the kids!

Out of the four samples, the most popular ones were the butterfly (for the girls) and the octopus (for the boys).  It was really fun making them.

Play Time

I finally decided to become a Young Living distributor and, to Caleb's delight, my first delivery of my wonderful diffuser and essential oils also contained lots and lots of packing bubbles! He had a blast making all that noise (they were the extra jumbo ones).

Montessori Culture (Geography): Penpal and Postcard Exchange

We  are receiving more and more postcards from different states and countries! It is cool seeing the map get some color (we fill and label the states that we have gotten a postcard from). Picture of the map coming soon.

Click here to read my post on Family/Home/Homeschool Rules. It's a post with some great inspiration for those of you who want to come up with something uniquely fitting for your family.

Click here to see my post on healthy, quick and yummy lunch ideas for homeschooling days.

Homeschooling July 2013 Part 3

Montessori Botany: Composting

We bought a worm factory to start our compost pile for this Fall. We like to keep a garden going, but the Summers here are brutally hot and everything dies. The Fall is the perfect time to keep things running from around September or October until May or June. The kids were super excited about playing with the worms.

Crafty Things for Mom

I bought this awesome "buckle" when we went to Oklahoma earlier in the month. All I did was buy the beads and clasps to make my own bracelet. It turned out great and the best part about it is that I can make more bracelets with different color beads and add clasps to them and I can interchange them! How cool is that?

Play Time & Miscellaneous

It rained quite a bit here (which doesn't happen often) so I let the kids play out in the mud and puddles for a while. They had fun. The funniest part was when it was actually pouring and the kids were staring out the window and kept wondering where the hoses or sprinklers were! Yea, we hardly see rain here!

Baby girl got a haircut! Her hair was super uneven and very hard to manage. Now, it'll keep her cooler and it will grow more evenly. Can't wait to start with the ponytails and ribbons again!

Bible / Devotional Time

Our very favorite thing to do as a family is reading the Bible and praying. We do this every morning after breakfast and with Daddy before bedtime.

More Play Time

Who doesn't love playing with bubbles and with other kids? Yes, we had fun playing with our little neighbors and bubbles. It was fun! It was hot!

Montessori Practical Life: Visit to the Dentist

K's teeth were not only perfect, but he was a true champ there! He behaved really well and he wasn't scared at all to be there. I was anxious to hear about his teeth because we have been using my homemade toothpaste and wanted to see if it was working as well as I was hoping. Well, it does! If you are interested, here's a link to the 2 recipes that I alternate: Homemade toothpaste recipes.

I ordered K a garment hanger from amazon.com because his costume corner was constantly messy and out of control. This was a wonderful alternative to having everything thrown into a bin or be spread all over his room. Plus, it teaches him how to keep things organized and how to hang things up.

Baby Girl is 18 months old!

Here are pictures to compare both kids when they had their 18 month pictures done.

Such a cutie pie!

Homeschooling June 2013 Part 4

Bible: Thank you, God, for Nighttime

We stayed in our pjs and grabbed our pillows for the lesson. 

We sang songs about nighttime, God making nighttime, and how we are thankful for nighttime. It was cute, one of the songs was about lying down to sleep, so we used our pillows to lay our heads on them. It was fun.

For our craft, we had to go outside to look for a stick and this shows how baby girl can go down a step on her own.

Nighttime Mobile

You will need:

- a stick about 2ft long, not too heavy, but sturdy

- 1 sheet of black construction paper, cut in half widthwise

- 1 sheet of white construction paper

- pencil

- kid scissors

- glue stick

- about 2ft of thread or cord

- hole punch (optional)

We had to find the perfect stick for our nighttime mobile, so we went outside our backyard. We found a pretty nice one.

   
He drew two moons with the pencil and cut them out. 

We really tried to punch stars through the white construction paper, but it was too hard to do with little hands.He insisted on doing it himself, so we found an easier way to punch through the paper. It worked!
He used the glue stick to glue the moons. He glued one moon on each half of the black construction paper. I wrote "God made the moon" on one and "God made nighttime" on the other.

On the other side, he glued about 10 stars. I wrote "God made the stars" on one and "God made nighttime" on the other.

Hole punch (or use scissors) at the top.

Use thread or cord (about 8 inches) to attach construction paper to the stick on either end and another piece of cord is attached in the middle.

The mobile looks like this.

We hung it from the fan in our play room.

Field Trip: The Car Wash!

  

The kids were ok, but a bit hesitant about the whole thing. I, on the other hand, appreciated not having to clean my very dirty car by hand! :)

Playtime

    

It was great having baby girl play with the toy cleaning supplies. At least work AND play at the same time, right? haha

Special Day: Happy Father's Day!

   
This is the trophy K made for his dad. He glued rice, pasta, wheat, etc. Then it was spray painted gold. Beads and glitter were glued on as well as a picture of K with Dad.

We also drew a track on the back of a white t-shirt. We used sharpies and fabric paint. The goal is to have the kids play with cars while Dad wears the t-shirt. Free massage! Clever, huh? Dad liked it!
   

Music: Solfege and Signs

Spanish: Greetings

  
Imagine that you are at my door and want to come in. Look down. You will see "HOLA" on my welcome mat.
Now imagine that you are leaving my home after a sweet visit. As you come to the door to leave, look down. You will see "ADIOS" on my mat.

This was a great way to introduce these two words. I put this copy on the floor and went over the coming in and going out a few times. It was fun.

These are a few of the greetings we learned. We also sang a couple of songs with motions (see above and below) to reinforce the greetings.

Art: Marble and Ball Painting

Put construction paper in a cookie sheet.

Put paint on the marble or ball and put it in the cookie sheet. Swish the cookie sheet around so the ball or marble roll around. Voilá! Instant art and good coordination skills.

Practical Life: Peeling an Ear of Corn

   

Playtime with Dad: Blowing Bubbles