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 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.