Oct. 7, 2008 - Funny Fall Faces
Take your nature walk and collect a shoebox full of stuff (nuts, berries, leaves, grass, seeds, etc.). Get some sidewalk chalk and draw a circle. Decorate your funny face!
This was an easy way to make a good memory and enjoy the great outdoors at the same time. Here are our faces.
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Sep. 25, 2008 - Tot School
Painting ORANGE
Making Play-doh (in pajamas)!
Other things we did
Read books - new favorites include: Mr. Gumpy's Outing, If You GIve a Mouse a Cookie, and That's Not My Lion
Hide and seek with puzzle pieces- this put a new spin on some old puzzles. We "hid" the pieces around the room and Simon went around finding them and putting the puzzle together.
Sandbox Play (does this count as school? It does for a tot!)
Fingerplays and Songs- Simon loves to sing and do motions with songs like "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes; he also just loves "Old McDonald!" I let him fill in the blanks this week (choosing the animals and sounds
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Sep. 25, 2008 - Weather Words Lapbook
This week Elijah got to choose what we learned about. His choice? Weather!
For the extention, we cut the right side off a file folder and paste the entire thing in to the lapbook. It opens on the right side. The printables are found here.
Some of the answers Elijah wrote in, others he dictated to me and they were pasted in, some were typed straight from the book and cut/pasted inside the minits
Rainwords Hotdog Book
clouds accordion opening up
combination clouds flap opened
how a cloud forms fan
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Sep. 25, 2008 - Fun Festival Field Trip - Sights and Sounds
Johnny Appleseed
The Bands
Making Cider
Metalsmith
Making Lace
Spinning Wheels
Trapper/Trader
Magician
Shredding Cabbage for Coleslaw
Dancers
Musicians
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Sep. 25, 2008 - Fun Festival Field Trip Part 2 - Faces and Names
Silly Simon
Uncle & Lindsey
Elijah & Jason
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Sep. 25, 2008 - Fun Festival Field Trip Part 3 - Games & Toys
In the hay maze
Playing with old toys
Simon searching in the corn
Elijah in the Obstacle Course
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Sep. 25, 2008 - Fun Festival Field Trip- Part 4 - Elijah learns about flax
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Sep. 19, 2008 - Apple Copywork
I just love these pictures of Elijah working so hard! I printed up pages for him that have the starting dots included. He loved this. It makes life so much easier for him. I plan to keep on doing it all year long! :)
Here is the part of a poem he copied:
"When autumn comes, our apple tree is full of things to eat. The apples hang from every branch to tumble at our feet."
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Sep. 19, 2008 - A Good Apple and a Bad Apple
Really, this is one of those end-of-weeks where I'm going, "WHEW!" I feel like we've covered a lot of ground in this notebook (we hole punched cardstock and put it in a binder instead of using the tradtional file folder). This kid keeps me hoppin', that's for sure. He is SUPER proud of this notebook (and he should be). He just kept wanting more, more, more (good apple)! And me? We'll I'm all appled-out (bad apple).
Most of the printables came from Homeschool Share (Apples to Oregon Unit & Johnny Appleseed Lapbook). A few are from Enchanted Learning (apple tree through the seasons, Johnny Appleseed circle), and one is from Evan Moor's Giant Science Resource Book (lifecycle printable).
The first page is his copywork/apple drawing in a plastic protector.
Apples to Oregon Section
Mapping Oregon, A tab-book about Oregon, Map showing the Oregon Trail (Iowa-Oregon) that the family in the story probably took.
Covered Wagon Diagram
Figures of Speech- we reviewed alliteration and personification; had an introduction to hyperbole and allusion
Elijah's "Book Report" Page
This exercise kind of happened spontaneously. Elijah thought the allierations in the book were so funny (cause they are!) that he started alliterating everything. I made up this page for him to have more fun. He didn't complain about the handwriting at all!
Close up of fruit alliterations
All About Apples Section
Johnny Appleseed Section
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Sep. 18, 2008 - Win FREE Books! :)
Write a homeschooling review (or two!) and you might win some free books!
Click the button to find out about it.
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Sep. 14, 2008 - Tot School
You've got to keep the tot busy...
Building with Smart Shapes by Lauri
These are great for teaching shapes, colors, sorting, and numbers in quantity (the Rightstart way!). Simon also loves to build with them. The shapes fit in to the main piece like a puzzle, too, so you get some fine motor action going on as well. I like them because I can use them as a tool one-on-one with Simon, or he can just experiment with them all by himself.
Simon tried something new with them this week (which is why I grabbed the camera); he stacked the shapes up on each other.
Lots of trial and error to get the tower to stack right, but he hung in there and did it!
Here's another fun sorting activity I've had since Elijah was a tot. The first time I had Simon do this (a few months ago), I thought he was doing it wrong, but as I stepped back (instead of telling him he was wrong and) watched, I realized that he just does things differently! He instinctively sorts by animal instead of color. What a great reminder to me to not rush in to teach him the "right way" to do things.
As for other things we did this week- nature walks, apple orchard, caramel apples, tea-time with poetry, stories, and markers (notice the green on his forehead and the red on his arm!).
Happy Tot-schooling!
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Sep. 14, 2008 - A Bigger Bargain
I went to a neighborhood garage sale a few weeks ago, and found something fun- two puppy dog quilts (and pillow shams) from Pottery Barn. They are so cute! I was so happy to find bedspreads for the boys!
Guess how much I paid for TWO bedspreads and TWO pillow shams? (If you already know the answer, you aren't allowed to guess!)
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Sep. 12, 2008 - Smart Shoppin'!
Ooooooooooh! I love library book sales. I know I shouldn't throw the word love around, but I REALLY love book sales!
I felt like I got a great haul tonight and my total was a whopping $34. Okay, so $34 seems like a lot, but look at what I got! Lots of books and even a stack of audio books!
Disclaimer: I have no clue if some of these books are suitable for my dc to read, but I will preview and preread.
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Sep. 10, 2008 - Apples and some CHEESE!
This is one happy toddler. Why is he smiling so big?
Aunt Ann is here and we're making
CANDY APPLES!
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Sep. 10, 2008 - Apple Orchard
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Sep. 2, 2008 - Backyard Bird Lap/Notebook
As we rowed Albert, Elijah completed a backyard bird notebook. We still have one more bird to add, but I thought I would go ahead and post pictures! :-)
COVER PAGE
CARDINAL
ROBIN
BLUE JAY
MOURNING DOVE
GOLDFINCH
General Bird Information Page
Many of the printables for this lap ~n~ notebook came from Homeschool Share.
Albert Resoure Page (cardinals)
Backyard Birds Page
The rest of the printables came from Evan-Moor's Giant Science Resource Book and Enchanted Learning.
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Sep. 2, 2008 - The Best Nest (more fun from Albert)
The lessons for this book (Albert) also suggest some clay-making. So, we did!
Due to a recent find in our yard, Elijah decided to mold and make robin eggs instead of cardinal eggs. I think the end result turned out grand!
The real nest!
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Sep. 2, 2008 - Comic Writing (for Albert)
One of the lessons in the Five in a Row Volume IV manual for Albert (a book we recently did a unit study on), is to make your own comic.
Here is Elijah's!
Runny Babbit was taking a walk.
He meets a few munny fonsters.
But it was really just his friends!
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Sep. 2, 2008 - Legend of Lightning Larry
Calling all you cowboys and cowgirls! Who says school can't be fun?! :)
We started our week off at co-op with a Legend of Lightning Larry play and some lemonade tasting!
Here is our finished lapbook:
This is a double lapbook (two file folders glued together). This is the first folder.
Inside the Books I Read About Cowboys. This was a great activity for Elijah. He got to underline all the book titles, find the copyright dates, and add a word to describe each of the books we read.
Inside Cowboy Clothes
Parts of a play (we learned at co-op)
Inside the onomatopoeia book (ZING!)
Vocabulary hats
Inside the second folder
Elijah had a fun time putting the outlaw names in alphabetical order! :)
We used the dictionary to help us think up some new alliterated names for the outlaws (since they had a change of heart)
After we read the D'Aulaire book, Elijah dictated his narration to me. I typed it for him.
Memory Verse boot :-)
We ended our week with a co-op field trip to the RODEO! 
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Sep. 2, 2008 - Tot School
I actually snapped a few pictures of Simon in motion last week.
Painting BLUE!
Making Banana Bread ~
When I left the room to grab the eggs, I came back to find SImon adding a little extra vanilla. He thinks he's a chef. Well, when Elijah took a taste of the batter and yelped, "SALT!" I guess the little chef thought the banana bread needed extra salt, too. We had to throw it out, but I was impressed at Simon's ability to fill the pan! :)
Reading Books ~
At our house, the very most important part of Tot School is reading books. Simon sat for 40 minutes on Friday morning to listen to train books! He was very upset when we ran out. "More too-too-woah-woah-book!" was his plea.
Here is a little list that my tot loves. If you are a tot-schooler, please post your list! You never know...you may help someone's tot find a favorite.
The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper
Choo-Choo the Runaway Engine by Virginia Lee Burton (if you can do sound effects and if your son likes trains, you need to read this one together!)
Dinosaur Roar by Paul Stickland
My Friend Rabbit by Eric Rohmann
Chugga-Chugga Choo Choo by Kevin Lewis
First Picture Animals (Usborne)
That's Not My... (Usborne)
As a general rule of thumb, we (as in me, my husband, and my older son) try to read Simon at least ten books each day. I read his favorites, but try to sneak in 1-2 new books, too. New books usually get added to the favorite list!
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