Cars 2nd Birthday

Pumpkins and Apples

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Tiger's First Birthday

Family Hike and Science Factory

We started off our week with a family hike. Blueberry has taken an interest in our point and shoot camera so I have been showing her how to take pictures with it. She takes pictures of flowers, people and her toys.

Looking for acorns

 

Showing me the acorns she collected

 During Nonna's visit this week we took advantage of the nice weather and opted for a day at the park. Blueberry needed to get outside.

 The Science Factory preschool program has started. We are lucky to have friends to go with this year.

He always falls asleep in the carrier.

We made a butterfly out of construction paper, then she painted it Rorschach-style with multiple colors. She has a lot of watercoloring experience so putting a "big blob" on her page was something new and different. Here is the result:

My smart, thoughtful, kind, cooperative, witty, funny, and beautiful little girl.

Fall and Football

Last week we officially started homeschool. Of course, when you homeschool, you don't really ever stop. Any minute you may find a learning opportunity. Learning is fun at our house. When Daddy comes home and asks "What did you do for school today?" the answer is, and should be "nothing, we didn't do school today." At least I think that is true for preschool and kindergarten. In reality we are always learning, always curious, answering questions, solving problems.

So my biggest project for last week was making this calendar to learn the days of the week and months of the year. We also learned songs to help us remember months and days. The days of the week are from The Very Hungry Caterpillar, which is one of Blueberry's favorite books. She loves to move the sticky arrows every morning.

Our theme for the first week was Fall and Football. She traced fall words and we did some football themed activity pages. She also did a lot of workbook pages and we made cards for grandparents and great grandparents who are Packer fans.

Little Tiger likes to sit and play with toys while I do school with Blueberry.

We had a playdate with a friend. We also did a lot of playing together at home. 

Little Tiger is very ambitious and is wanting to stand and walk. He takes very large, deliberate steps when we support him across the floor.

On the weekend Blueberry finally was able to purchase her "My Little Pony Magazine" that she has been saving up for with her chore (we call it a cooperation chart) money.

Start of Non-School

OR Non-School Start, OR Non-Start of School

"Stickers" are a reward system that is still working!

Blueberry got some "not-back-to-school PJs". I read about another mom doing that for her homeschoolers and I liked it. Since she is completely potty trained, her footie PJs won't work this fall/winter so even though they still fit, we needed new ones for our independent 3 1/2 year old. She loves them. She loves to be independent.

We have already started schoolwork, but we are officially getting into our routine on Monday. We finished up some family trips and things should me moving into "routine mode", at least until the holidays hit....

Curriculum is finished and worksheets are printed for the first 1/3 of the year. We are still finishing some Pre-K workbooks and starting some Kindergarten level workbooks. This is a bit of a summary.

Blueberry

Faith: "Beginner Bible" with activities and we are going through that along with "Hide 'em in Your Heart" 1 and 2 Worship Music CDs. ABC bible verses found online (printed and laminated).

Language: Pre-writing and tracing worksheets. I pulled some stuff from Letter of the Week curriculum from ConfessionsofaHomeschooler.com. Alphabetizing. Read-Build-Write cards and worksheets with sight-word cards. Pre-reading books.

Math: Counting to 100. Counting by 2s, 5s and 10s. Addition and Subtraction flash cards and manipulatives. Number recognition and tracing worksheets. Shape sorting and pattern sheets by theme throughout the year. Simple pattern block activities.

Science: Animals and Habitats. Mammals, Birds, Reptiles, etc. recognition. Various hands-on projects throughout the year. Cooking "reactions". Seasons and climate. Nature walks. Activities out of "Good Science" by Richard Bliss. Children's Science Museum Preschoolers program.

Art: Various mediums including watercolors, clay, cut-and-paste, mosaic art, collage, chalk art, etc. Craft projects by theme related to other subjects. Play-dough play mats and cookie cutters.

Circle Time: This year we have Tiger too so it feels more like "circle time" than in previous years. I am collecting a variety of songs and poems for Blueberry to memorize (just by repetition). We also read books together and play.

Social: MOPS and Unschoolers playdates, as well as playdates with a neighbor friend. Library Story Time.  Making cards and writing letters to family. Skype with family members. Cooperation (Chores) Chart for family responsibility with age-appropriate tasks.

Tiger

He is only 8 months old, but he will be participating in circle time. He enjoys songs and reading books. 

We are teaching Baby Signs. Tiger already knows "milk" and "up". We will be working on others as he figures out he can get what he wants with signs. 

He is steady sitting up and is pulling himself up and seems to want to walk. He might skip crawling altogether.