Homeschooling Journal: January 2014 Part 1

Our new header! This is such a beautiful design! I had a beautiful new friend help me with this. She is such a kind and gentle spirit and feel so blessed that she took the time to help me (without even knowing me!).

Homeschooling June 2013 Part 3

Music: Intro. to Music

Today we practiced a "hello" song.
We learned the words and have to add in their own action item each week. It will be the repetitive feature.
We talked about how animal sounds can be used in music and sang Old MacDonald Had A Zoo.
Then we did a song with birds where we each sang a part. When combined, the sounds make a song with a beautiful melody.
We then played a bird hunt song and walked around following the instructions.
Finally, a slow song where we rested and then danced slowly to the beat. Again, a lot of fun!

Spanish: Review and Zero

We practiced:
-hola (hello)
-buenos días (good morning)
-las vocales (the vowels) with sign language
-los números (the numbers) 1-10 with sign language
-introduced "cero" (zero)
-stamped on paper matching numbers
-and played the kids' all-time fave: The Flyswatter Game" to practice the numbers. I'd say a number in Spanish and the child swats it. It was fun.

Baby Girl's Homeschooling

Sight Words

Shapes: rectangle, star, oval, heart
 

Shapes and matching items with the same shape. 

 

Cards I made with body parts 

Desk Work

 

Today, K chose the Spiderman activity book (what a shocker, right?).
We were supposed to count the shapes in the two boxes and then circle the ones that have fewer shapes. 
   
    
                                                                                    Word Families: -en, -at, -ar, -ip 

     

Montessori Practical Life: Learning to Pour Water Into a Smaller Container

 
It was fun using all kinds of pitchers and cups. Originally, the Montessori uses blue food coloring to color the water. It makes it easier for children to see and notice when they are getting to the top of the cup. I confess, I could've/should've colored the water, but didn't. I will next time, though. 

Montessori Language Arts: Sandpaper Letters (Upper Case)

 
We started out with the vowels (on blue boards). We said their name, their sounds, and we traced them with our fingers. 
 

Then we traced them on the magnetic board. 
 
He did a great job. 
 
We really enjoyed this activity. He wanted to keep going and going.
 
Tracing the letters before writing them. 
 
After the vowels, K wanted to keep going, so we started tracing a few consonant (on pink boards) and then writing them out. 

Montessori Mathematics: Spindle Boxes

 
This activity is pretty simple. You get all the spindles out, go through each number (starting with 0) and put the correct number of spindles in each box in front of the number. 
 
To go a step further, we used pipe cleaners to bundle the spindles together.
Learning to twist the wire (pipe cleaner) was like a whole new world to K.
He kept practicing over and over and it seemed to be his favorite part in the whole activity. 

Art: Father's Day Trophies

For the past two weeks we've been working on Father's Day Trophies for the world's best dads. K decorated his trophy with pasta, rice, wheat, beans, beads, glitter and gems. It was spray painted gold. Very pretty and worthy of a special owner (dad). Happy Father's Day! Keep an eye out for pictures of the trophy and other Father's Day gifts in the next post.


My husband had to travel for work. While he's gone, I kind of have a hard time sleeping at night (you know, holding down the fort alone is hard work, wink), so I left this note on my door to let him know where I was. He found me in the morning, no problems. :) Smart reader!

Music: Solfege

We learned about the "Solfege" Musical Scale. Also known as, Do-Re-Mi.
We learned the song from the movie and talked about how the notes rise and fall.
We used our bodies to indicate if the notes were going up or down.
We also used the Solfege hand signs to show each note.
Next week we are going to talk about actual notes (what they look like, how long each one is, etc).

Homeschooling May 2013 Part 7

Montessori Science (Botany): Parts of the Root and Parts of the Stem

Nomenclature Answer Key
We go over these a few times and talk in detail about all the parts.

Then I take out the Nomenclature Cards where he matches the pictures with the correct name.

Montessori Language Arts: Sandpaper Letters (lower case)

I took a few lower case letters that are easier to trace and placed a sticker with green or yellow where he is supposed to start tracing the letter and a sticker with red where he is supposed to stop. This helps him remember to trace the letters correctly.  We skipped the presentation this time because he already knows all of the letter names and letter sounds. He also knows the order of the letters in the alphabet. So we went straight to tracing, which he's already done before, but not with this many Extensions.

This is one of K's favorites: "Across and around the world"

Traced all the letters in his name.

After tracing a few letters, it was time for and Extension.
Trace the letter on the sandpaper letter a few times and
then trace it in the sand tray.

Another Extension was to make the letters out of playdough.  I made my own
playdough at home. To get a fun and simple recipe, click here. It is super easy to
make and it lasts forever (as long as you seal it in an airtight bag/container).

Another Extension was to trace the letter on the sandpaper board and then
write it with chalk on the chalkboard. He did really, really well with this activity.

Wiping the board clean in between letter tracing.

Not bad, huh? Not bad for a 3-year old! :)

A little Homeschooling Humor

Montessori Practical Life (Fine Motor Skills): Learn to Use Chopsticks

This little guy is incredible! He picked it up quickly.

Very impressive

Play Time

Hanging out on the driveway and cooling off.
A's new thing was climbing in and out of the pool.
Needless to say, the water ended up filthy.

Yummy snack

This is actually my green breakfast smoothie. K decided to try it and I had 

a hard time getting it back. I juice fruits and veggies every day, but I am 

not making smoothies 2-3 times a week and, since both kids loved the smoothie 

so much, I now make extra for them, too. Can't complain about that!

Recipe for this one: 

8oz homemade almond milk (look up my recipe on how to make almond milk here)

big handful fresh spinach (about a cup)

1/2 frozen banana

1/4 cup frozen mango

1/4 cup frozen plum

1/2 tsp spirulina

1/2 tsp ground chia seeds

1/2 tsp ground flaxseeds

Optional: 1/2 tsp coconut oil

What I did last night was grab about 10 sandwich-sized ziplock bags and put fruit in it. All kinds: 1/2 banana, mango, pitted cherries, kiwifruit, nectarine, plum, etc and made a good mix and match to get different recipes. Replace the highlighted parts in the recipe with the contents in the baggie. Use one bag per serving. So, if you are blending a smoothie for 2 people, use double the amount  of everything and 2 baggies. Put baggies in freezer. 

It is super easy to just grab a baggie in the morning instead of cutting all kinds of fruit. Plus, it makes the smoothie nice and cold. Yes, bananas are great to freeze. I actually have frozen whole bananas and break them in half to throw in the blender for a smoothie.