Homeschooling Journal: February 2014 Part 5

McGuffey's Readers and Classical Conversations Review
Foundations, Cycle 1, Weeks 1-7

Homeschooling August 2013 Part 4

Montessori Culture (Geography): His very first PENPAL!

K was so excited to receive a letter in the mail "just for him!" He was super careful opening it and he was smiling a lot. He managed to read the letter almost by himself. His new penpal is H and he lives in England. K and H are the same age.

K loved all of the stickers that were in the letter. He was finding all of his boo-boos and putting stickers on top of each one to make them better. Hilarious! This is the beginning of a wonderful friendship!

Inspirational...

This is what happens every single time I make myself a smoothie for breakfast! I mean, I add goji berry powder, ground flaxseeds, ground chia seeds, and even spirulina! They love this stuff! I now make double the amount because they do gobble this thing down. Can't complain! Click here to see a ton of smoothie recipes that I have been collecting.

I used to have trays with reading books for the kids on top of this bench (mostly, to keep them from climbing on it and to keep them from opening it because I have a ton of educational materials in the storage area). But now, I really want it to be our devotional/prayer area because having them sit on my lap on the floor and juggling the Bible and two wiggly kids wasn't working. Now, they each sit on either side of me and everyone is happy (mostly, my legs, haha).

Montessori Culture (Geography): Penpal and Postcard Exchange

Here he is, faithfully practicing writing his name so he can "autograph" some more postcards for the exchange.

This is K's letter to his penpal, H, from England. He did a great job! (The first word is "Hi")

This is the little display we made to put up the most recent letter from K's penpal. I think we'll be making one with K's name and mailing it to H, so he can do the same at home.

More postcards are ready to be mailed!

This is the map of Europe that we have in our schoolroom. I used tags to show where friends or family are in all of Europe.
Below, you can see our map of the U.S. and tags of family that live here (and Mexico).

We are starting to receive more postcards! Yay!

Play Time

I know, I am posting way too many pictures under the category of "Play Time," but, if you think of it, Einstein said that the highest form of research is play. The kids are learning and enjoying themselves and hey, it's SUMMER! :)

Homeschooling Baby Girl: Amazing Retention and Language Ability!

The other day, A was playing with my sandals, brand GUESS. She started pointing at the letters and said, "G" as pronounced in Spanish, "U" as pronounced in English, skipped the "E," said "S" as pronounced in English, and "S" as pronounced in Spanish. I was dying laughing because she was mixing up the English and the Spanish, but, at the same time, I was super impressed that she knew all of those letters!

Montessori Practical Life: Cutting with Scissors

Art Materials

I found this book at a homeschooling sale. Retails for $22, but I bought it for only $2! What a buy! I love it! I am going to look at the other books on the back to see if I can find them for cheap. I personally like to buy at www.valorebooks.com because I have been able to find incredible deals there. I've ooked in other sites, but Valore Books has the very best deals, at least for what I've been looking for. For example, I just bought the entire set of the Chronicles of Narnia for $5.50, whereas other sites start at $23.

Spanish: El Alfabeto

Today, we learned the Spanish alphabet rap and sign language for all the letters in the alphabet. I have the best students!

Play Time

The kids love to color, especially together.It's so funny to see the dynamics of siblings, or as we would all agree, a love-hate relationship. The can't live with or without each other! I hope they become best buddies and they can confide in each other.

Homeschooling August 2013 Part 3

Play Time

One of the kids' favorite things to do during the summer is to eat super yummy (and healthy) popsicles. Yum!

Gym Co-op

All three groups are going really well. I teach ballet to 4 (soon to be 6) little girls. One of my neighbors takes the boys and does tumbling, sports, yoga, etc with them. My other neighbor takes the youngest ones (both of our 18-month olds) and she does developmentally appropriate stuff with them (Duplo blocks, chasing balls, etc). I am really enjoying it!

More Play Time

We got a new "toy" to play with around here. There isn't a whole lot to do, so getting this boat will be awesomely fun.

Can you see them sitting in the corner there? haha They are sitting there together very quietly sharing a snack (grapes). I love it when they get along! :)

Montessori Culture (Geography): Penpal and Postcard Exchange

Here, K is practicing writing his name so he can
"autograph" all of the postcards we are mailing out.

These are a few postcards that we have mailed out. I think we have mailed out about 15 and have at least 5 more that we need to ship out. :) One of them is to the Philippines and one is to Guam! :) I found a postcard exchange page for homeschoolers on Facebook and it has been amazing! We have received close to 15 postcards and have several still coming our way. It is exciting getting cool postcards in the mail.

  

This is a letter that K received from his buddies in Oklahoma. It was so sweet 
and a complete surprise to him. The letter was completely filled with superhero 
stickers! Wow! He loved that!

Baby Girl using a yogurt facial mask while eating breakfast!
What a great way to kill 2 birds with one stone! And it's all
in the name of health and beauty, of course. 

No matter what happens or what unexpected things arise, keep in mind that our kids are little sponges and they are learning ALL THE TIME! 
Whether it was in the plan book or not, every reaction, every word, every activity is a learning experience for them. What are they learning from us?
Positive things or negative ones?