Preschool Week of Feb 22nd. Letter "Ll"

This week we have decided to start a letter of the week type deal. I have been having preschool with K, but just learning letters as sounds throughout the 100 lessons book. Now she hasn't been to interested in that book lately so I decided to try this route. Now it is just our first week, and she loves change (like her mama), but for now this is great. We all had alot of fun with it, and it really wasn't that much extra work for me, or her.

First when we woke up on Monday morning we made a letter L out of clay with a cookie cutter.

I poked a hole in it with a wire and hung it across a baking pan. We baked it at 350 for about 15 minutes, while we got ready for the day. Then we let it cool completely (about 10 min).

We threaded some yarn through it and made a necklace. She wore it all week. In the beginning she would look for the letter "L" and check if it matched her necklace. We went to the grocery store and talked about things that we saw there that began with the letter "L". We "spied" for L's.

We tasted lemons and limes. Then we painted L's with them.

Then my camera battery died. =( I have misplaced the charger. I will find it this weekend, when I get time to look. So I will just tell you about the rest of our days.

On Tuesday, we played a ladybug game off of Kids soup. If the picture begins with an L you put it on the lady bugs back, as a spot. She loved this game. We also made Leo the Lion puppet.

On Wednesday, she traced L's by helping lobsters find their mommy. She used a paint chip (the kind with the hole in it) to spy L l 's on this sheet.

She also had to sort through all her alphabet letter magnets and find the letter L.


On Thursday, she traced some more letter L's using this sheet.
We had lettuce, lemonade and lollipops.
We played Lego's. We built letter L's out of those too.
We played "Alphabet Go Fish"

On Friday, we made a letter on our floor with masking tape, and just looked at it. (She did however think this was very neat)
She got to play on Starfall.

This was a pretty good week for us, and I do feel confident that the letter of the week has worked for her in learning the letter L and l.

I was having torn feelings about the Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. It only had me teaching sounds, and only lowercase letters. I would have to go back and teach uppercase. So for now we are going to try this route and lay off the 100 Lessons book.

To see what others are doing in their preschool's check out Preschool Corner.

Muffin Tin Monday Red

Love is in the air at our house. These are all foods I love anyways.
We had:
Heart Shaped Grilled Cheese

Tomato Soup
Mini Pepperoni
Colored Goldfish (I was to lazy to pick out just the red ones)
Red Jello Sweethearts (I think these taste just like homemade fruit snacks, and they are so easy)
Conversation hearts
Strawberry milk with marshmallow hearts (gourmet mom on the go)

We watched a video on how the conversation hearts were made and learned all about the company. The New England Confectionery Company aka NECCO. This was a really fun day.

Now go and see what the rest came up with HERE.

Home schooling one dollar at a time.

I got this great book at Target in the dollar section. It show the USA in sections and then you open the flap and it has the name of the state, the capital, the postal abbreviation and the date of statehood. My kids love to memorize the state and play quiz games with the information. So this book will serve as a great study guide for them. I brought it home and showed it to them, put it on the bookshelf, and they immediately started using it. That is well worth my dollar.




On my day of errands I also went to the dollar store and found these 3 great items. Alphabet window clings. I have 2 big picture windows so these will be great fun for my pre-k. The other 2 things are foam puzzles. One alphabet and one numbers. Both of these will be great for proper sequencing practice on her own. I am really excited about all of my finds today.

I do have a very tight budget, and when I wanted to begin homeschooling, I didn't think I could afford it. I save up to buy curriculum and I have to buy it one at a time. I have my family share curriculum where possible. I believe that if it's what you are meant to do with your family, He will provide a way. And for that I am grateful.

Who needs any toys......

Whenever we get something that comes in a big box I keep the box for a while (in case of a return), then when the kids say I'm bored and I having nothing planned to do, I let them have at it. They get crayons and color the inside and pretend they are lots of things. When the box is hammered or when I get sick of it, which ever comes first I just recycle it. This box was their "house." Even Tiny T was loving it.

Cake on a stick

How fun is this. I was searching around Bakerella. I am planning a baby shower, so I thought, what fun! I will give these a trial run. My kids would love them anyway.

It really worked best with frozen dough.

Bakerella has a ton of baking inspiration. Now I do realize that her's look amazing. Mine, well they were gone to fast to notice.

Next I am trying Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Bark. Yummy!

Muffin Tin Monday Dessert Style!

Muffin Tin Monday again! Yes!


We had a special dessert meal this week. The kids loved it. It was such a surprise as we don't do dessert very often.

I have 3 kids. Each got one grahmn cracker and one marshmallow section with toothpicks. The rest of the sections they had to share, and take turns using. In the dipping sections, we have frosting, melted chocolate, and a variety of sprinkles.

Here is a picture of my favorite combination.

We had such fun eating this dessert together and trying new combinations.

To see what others are doing check it out Muffin Tin Monday!

Lesson Planning, How do you do it?

I am very new to homeschooling. I have only been doing it for about 6 months now. I am starting to feel as though I am finding my groove. While I am loving our journey, I am still trying to find my way. I seriously lack the organizational gene. I want it so bad. I try new things all the time. The core subjects are easier for me. The extra stuff is whats harder. Sometimes I find myself gathering supplies as I am teaching. My kids are having to wait on me to find things, make copies, ect. I have decided that I must change that.

I bought the Valentines Unit Study from The Old Schoolhouse. While they have done most of the preparation work, there is still a lot to do. I have spent the last three nights preparing for it. I will officially begin the lesson on Monday. I will try to squeeze in into 4 days if I can. If not, then we will finish it after Valentines day. I think I don't lesson plan now, because I really like to be flexible. That is not working for me right now. My plan is that I will plan the lessons, and leave room for flexibility. I have made all my copies, printed my lapbook components, previewed all the websites, checked out the library books, and gathered supplies. I am keeping paper in a file folder to keep it together. Anything else, I am keeping in a small tote.

On the outside I am writing the crafts that I have decided to do, and for this all of the words to learn. I am really hoping for this week to run much more smoothly. It really feels good to be this prepared.
Right now I am planning the next week (Olympics), as we are working on this week. My goal is to be 2-3 weeks in advance, maybe even a month, YIKES!

I also made an action file this past week, (I got this idea from Mommy Matters) and that is where I will be storing these. I made my portable so that I could take it anywhere I needed to. I can really see this action file saving me tons of headaches.

My question to you all is, How do you do it?
How far in advance do you plan?
And most importantly (for me), How do you keep it all organized?

I don't really know how many people read my blog, but I will give this MckLinky a try because I am really interested in how others do it. (Please be courteous and leave a link to my blog in your post, so people can get back here and check out others.) Thanks.

Preschool Week of Feb 8th

Love, Love, Love

When I saw this great Love Tot Pack on 1+1+1=1, I printed it immediately. I knew we would have so much fun with it this week. Each day this week we talked about love and how we can show it, and what it feels like. We also colored some hearts each day and make them into a book. We used hearts as cutting practice. (She really loves to cut.)
We made Heart Sun catchers that were in our Valentines Unit Study.We also learned to have a heart of service.

WE GAVE OUR GRANDMA A HEART ATTACK


We cut out some hearts from construction paper. We made cookies and sweethearts. We delivered them to Grandma. While she was gone, we decorated her door, and set the treats on her table. Then we waited around for her to come back, so we could see her surprise. It really feels good to do service for others.

To see what others are doing in their preschools click here.

Groundhog Day

Groundhog Day

We had a special Groundhogs day celebration. We had Groundhog pancakes with sausage shadows for lunch, (because I couldn't get my act together in the morning) and Groundhog hot cocoa with chocolate shadows. (I originally saw the hot cocoa on My Family My Forever) While eating lunch we discussed some facts about Groundhogs Day.

We made these cute Groundhog puppets, and did a Groundhog Maze.

After lunch the day was nice and sunny, so we went outside and played some shadow games.

For my kids and I these fun activities and meals make some GREAT memories.
I am so grateful that we homeschool!

Tiny T gets a room

Our plans are to knock out this wall from the lightswitch to the edge of the wall. and build a wall along the edge (where the globe is until the front door) This will essentially cut our front room in half. This was a bedroom at one point so we thought this will not be hard at all! You can feel that they left the door framed and just sheet rocked over it. There also was a cross brace along the ceiling so we could nail the top plate into it. So let the construction begin.

Construction stops.
We decided we better hand cut a scope hole anyways. It sure was a good thing. We found some type of pipe and electrical wire.

We decided that we would have to repair this hole anyways, with a sheet of sheet rock so why not just cut out the doorway completely and see what we are dealing with. Especially since this is where I really want the door. It comes in from the hallway, right across from my bedroom. If I was going to put it in the new wall it would come in off the living room. I would rather not have a bedroom door come off of the main living area. So let the construction begin again!

Luckily we know a plumber so he came and gave us an inexpensive solution, that does not involve rerouting the pipe, which was our other option. (our house is sold old, that most of it is not sheet rock, it's that chicken wire/mud type wall, might be called plaster, you can not cut it, it just crumbles, no straight lines)
Construction stops again!
We go buy a door, it does not match any other doors in our house, but we are working on a budget here, so we just picked out a nice door, that was close enough. We get it home, and noticed that it's chipped, so we return it, and get a new one. Then we look at it, and notice that it opens the wrong way, so we return that one and get the one that opens the right way. Whew that's great!

Construction starts.

We go to put the door in, and it's to big. ughh. So construction stops!
We take it back and see if they will cut the bottom off. (it's too tall) They will, but it will ruin the door, there will be no support at the bottom. So it is not a good idea. We come home with the door, and decide to cut the door hole bigger.
Construction Starts!
I then begin looking, just before cutting, at the hall way. Now this door will be right next to the bathroom door, and across the hall from my door. So now it will be a different door, and a different size. I decide to take a day to think about it. So construction stops.
I find out that you can custom order doors. I wonder how expensive they are.

I decide to go and check it out. I drive 1/2 hour to a store that will custom make doors. I show him a picture of the existing doors in my house and the measurements. He has a door. YES! It opens the wrong way. Ugghh. He can fix it, but it will take a week. That is fine.

Construction starts!
We decide to begin framing while we wait for the door. We got it framed all in one day with no hiccups! HIP HIP HOORAY!





We hope to sheet rock this week! Really hoping it goes smoothly!

I can't wait to paint and redecorate!