The Sick Bowl

Such a lovely topic, isn’t it.  Come on you have one too, don’t you?  Our container of choice is a plastic bowl that came with a cover. 

Why I kept the cover, I don’t know but, I am glad I did.  It seems when ever we have a bug floating through the house, I am out of all the required essentials ~ like ginger ale, popsicles, etc.  The kids always seem to find my stash of said items and consume them.  So I decided to stash the essentials in the “bucket” in a ziplock bag. 

I like to keep the following on hand:

• Ginger ale
• hand sanitizer (which I keep by the door of whoever is sick)
• Gatorade powder packets
• freezer pops
• Gin-Gins (these really help my kids when the have an upset stomach)

I also like to keep ginger syrup in the fridge.  We use it in teas and to make our own ginger ail.  It is super easy to make! 

So far this works for me and I am prepared and ready should the kids get sick.  What do you like to keep on hand for when you kids are sick?

~Cindy

Snowy Day Sensory Tub

To go along with the book we are reading this week, Snowy Day, Aiden helped me put together a Snowy Day sensory tub.

What We Used:

• Insta-Snow in a jar (LOVE this stuff)
• wooden blocks
• wooden tree (I have wool roving on the tree but we took it off and put the snow on the tree)
• Peter and his friend (made from Peg dolls)
• snow plowing vehicles
• white pom poms
• plastic tablecloth to put your tub on

We poured the Insta-Snow into our container and I let Aiden add the water. 

As soon as you add the water you can see the snow puff up ~ seriously, it is so fun to watch!

We added Peter and his friend

and some wooden houses.  Aiden made it “snow” so the tops of the houses were covered.

The he plowed the street and we talked about how high the snow was on the sides of the road.

Aiden tried to make prints in the snow but you couldn’t see them so we grabbed some of our snow play dough and he made prints with his fingers. 

Aiden found Peter’s stick in the snow and helped Peter hit the tree with it.

Peter and his friend then had a snowball fight (without the big kids). 

Aiden had fun retelling the story and playing in the tub. 

I will say that the plastic tablecloth or some kind of drop cloth on the floor is a MUST!!  This stuff is messy.  Another note ~ DO NOT put an air tight cover on the snow because it will mold.  If the snow starts to dry out just add more water.

~Cindy

Snow Play dough

This week we are reading Snowy Day.  Since we have had a warmer than usually winter (which I am NOT complaining about) and no snow in the forecast, I made a batch of “snow” play dough for the kids to play with.

To make the play dough I mixed the following:

• 1 cup of flour
• 1/2 cup of salt
• 1 tablespoon cream of tarter
• 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
• 1 cup of water
• lots of iridescent glitter
• 2 tablespoons of white paint

Mix in all together in a nonstick sauce pan until it forms a ball.  Turn the dough out and knead it.  Then all you need is some kids and some accessories.  We used: buttons, a piece of orange pipe cleaner (nose) goggle eyes, sticks from outside, a felt scarf and hat, and popsicle sticks.

 

We used to popsicle sticks to hold our snowman up and keep his hat on his head.

Some of the kids creations. 

May I introduce robot snowman, grandma snow, and Ms. Hollywood snow lady.

~Cindy

Preschool Corner ~ Robots

This week our theme was robots and what a busy week it was.  I didn’t realize how much we accomplished until I looked through our pictures.

~Circle Time~

Carissa at 1+1+1=1 put together a Calendar Notebook, which we have started using.  The notebook has been a BIG HIT with both of my kids.

We also like to add lots of singing and dancing during our circle time to get out the wiggles before we do any table work.  This week we sang and danced to Robot Song from Preschool of Rock.

Aiden doing the robot dance.

For most of the learning activities we used the Robot Printable Pack from Jolanthe at Homeschool Creations.

~Alphabet~

Aiden worked on the letter Rr this week.  He has his uppercase letters down so we focused on the lowercase letter. 

He sang the ABC Song and traced the letter Rr with his light up pointer.

~Math~

Aiden was very proud of himself for cutting and putting his robot puzzle together (counting 1 –10).

He also worked on graphing different colored robots,

matching shapes to the correct word,

and we talked about fractions and he used our Guidecraft Fraction Cups ~ matching them to the fraction robots.

  

~Bible~

We recently started using Raising Rock Stars Letter printables from Carissa at 1+1+1+1 to go along with our letter of the week.  I am loving this addition to our homeschool curriculum!  This week the focus was Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

~iPod Apps~

If you ask Aiden what his favorite part of school is I feel sure he would say using my iPod.  This week he played Toca Boca’s Robot Lab

and UmiNumbers.

~Getting Crafty~

Our big craft project this week was making a robot costume.

     We also had fun making wind up robots.  Aiden did most of the coloring and I assembled them.

Then we had a robot race.

~Snack Time~

I absolutely love a theme so when I found these cute robot cupcake molds I had to have them.  The kids actually use them all the time for snack.  This week they had chocolate pudding with sprinkles and graham crackers.

~Just for Fun~

We pulled out a favorite at house, robot stackers.

Aiden’s art work for the week ~ our family as robots (with some help from his sister). : )

~Robot Week Links~

Aiden’s work for the week PROUDLY displayed.  All of the printables/curriculum we used this week is listed below.

• Robot Printable Pack from Jolanthe at Homeschool Creations
• Raising Rock Stars Letter R printables from Carissa at 1+1+1+1
• All About Reading Level Pre-1

For more Preschool Corner posts, head on over to Homeschool Creations.

~Cindy

Robot Costume

We have had a fun week talking, reading, learning, and playing with robots.  Our craft project this week was to make a robot costume.

I cut the bottom, arm holes and a hole for Aiden’s head in a box.  Then I let Aiden paint the box silver.

After the box was dry we made and added a fuel gauge,

a heart, which is hidden under a flap, and all sorts of shapes cut out of construction paper.

Daddy was nice enough to stop by Lowes and purchase some dryer vent hose for Aiden to wear on his arms.  We taped the ends with silver electrical tape so Aiden would be poked by any sharp pieces.  Then Aiden geared up and voile ~ his robot costume.

Super easy and Aiden LOVES it!

~Cindy

Little House on the Prairie Peg Family

Have you ever seen something on Pinterest and thought ~ I could do that!  Well, I found two cute little Little House on the Prairie peg families (here and here) and decided to make a set since we are reading the Little House on the Prairie books and doing the Prairie Primer.

Emily painted the log cabin (which came from Michaels) and I got busy painting the family.

I still need to find a small peg and paint baby Carrie but, I love the rest of our Ingles family.  I will admit that it took me over 2 hours to paint them due to a little mishap.  I had just finished Pa and set him to the side when I bumped him and he went face first into white paint.

I think they will be a fun addition to our Little House on the Prairie studies!

~Cindy

Our Homeschool Curriculum Choices for 2011-2012

We are actually in our fourth week of homeschooling for the 2011-2012 school year, but I have been such a slacker about posting ~  I figured I should write about our curriculum choices.

Emily is in 3rd grade and Aiden is in doing Preschool (and some Kindergarten). 

Emily ~ 3rd Grade

Emily is using the following daily:

• Teaching Textbooks ~ Math 3
• A Reason for Handwriting Transition
• Daily Geography Practice Grade 3
• Learning Language Arts Through Literature ~ Yellow
• Building Spelling Skills Grade 3

 

In addition we are going to be studying subjects in blocks this year (including grammar and math).

• 2 weeks for drawing ~ we started out our school year doing 2 weeks of form drawing using A Little Flower Garden DVD set.
• 10 weeks Prairie Primer ~ we will reading Little House in the Big Woods and Little House on the Prairie.  During this time our main focus is going to be on preparing for winter, harvest, different fibers and handiwork. 
• 2 weeks Native Americans/Thanksgiving ~ our focus will be on Indian homes and Thanksgiving preparation.
• 2 weeks telling time and money.  
• 4 weeks (December) cooking/measurement ~ we are going to spend the month focusing on Christmas, baking and measurement (liquids and solids).
• 6 weeks Old Testament Stories ~ we will be using Christopherus Old Testament Stories Manual and Storybook.
• 4 weeks grammar ~ we will be using the World of Language books by Ruth Heller and lesson plans from Serendipity.  During this time we will focus on grammar, sentence structure and cursive writing.
• 3 weeks math ~ focusing on multiplication and division.
• 1 week Easter
• 4 weeks Prairie Primer ~ we will be reading Farmer Boy and focusing on farming and planting.  We are also going to do some building during this time.

Aiden ~ Preschool/Kindergarten

Our focus this year will be Before Five in a Row, along with the amazing Preschool Packs that Jolanthe at Homeschool Creations created. 

In addition to Before Five in a Row we will be using the following:

• All About Reading Level Pre-1
• Language Lessons for Little Ones
• Are You Ready for Kindergarten?
• ABeka Arithmetic K
• A Reason for Handwriting K
• A Child’s Seasonal Treasury ~ which has seasonal poems, crafts and recipes.

We will also be doing circle time together, but I’ll post more about that later.  I’m excited about our year and for once ~ I feel ORGANIZED and READY!!

~Cindy