Oct. 10, 2008 - Happy Fall Y'all! ;)

This week we did a unit study with the book, When the Frost is on the Punkin.  We also read parts of Crinkleroot's Nature Almanac (Arnosky), Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf (Ehlert), Leaf Man (Ehlert), and Why Do Leaves Change Color? (Maestro).  We didn't do a lapbook; we stuffed everything in the pockets of a folder instead!   Here are some random pictures of our week.

Simon painting with some fall colors
Photobucket

Photobucket

Simon reading Trains
Photobucket 

Elijah painting (with TWO brushes)
Photobucket

Elijah's Draw Write Now
Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket
 


Pumpkin Pie
(from a real pumpkin!)
We used this recipe

Elijah getting the pumpkin ready to bake
Photobucket

Pouring the Pumpkin Pie Filling

Photobucket


Photobucket


Photobucket

Finished Pie
Photobucket


Fall Tree Painting
Instructions found here

Blowing the ink (to make the tree)
Photobucket

Photobucket

Chromatography Experiment
Photobucket

Photobucket

The colors separated! There is yellow in a spinach leaf!  
Who knew?
Photobucket


Fall Paper Bag Album

Instructions to make a paper bag album
For the inside, we found a fun idea in Crinkleroot's Nature Almanac.  Elijah insisted that we do this!   You trace a leaf then color it in (we used oil pastels).  Cut it out and paste it in your book.

Photobucket

Photobucket


Photobucket


Photobucket


Photobucket


Photobucket

Photobucket


Final Folder

Photobucket
Left Pocket:  Lifecycle of a pumpkin, Cheerfulness Who's Who Book, Bible verse pumpkin, Fall Funny Faces Page, Watercolor/Ink Painting

Right Pocket:  Rhyme Scheme, Fall Paper Bag Album, Handwriting, Fall Colors (not pictured)
 

Photobucket
Bible Verse Pumpkin

Happy pumpkin-pickin' and pie-bakin'! 

• 2 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Oct. 8, 2008 - Park Day

I love homeschooling because we can school when we want and break when we want!  Last week was a break week.  We hit the park, and it was SO much fun!

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Aunt Lisa and Uncle Brian came to play, too...

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

• 1 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Oct. 8, 2008 - Electricity

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Oct. 8, 2008 - Happy Birthday #7

Elijah wanted a PIZZA party for his big #7. 

Here's the pizza I made for dinner:


Photobucket



Photobucket

Here's the pizza Aunt Lisa made for dessert (isn't it AWESOME!?!)

Photobucket

Photobucket

 Photobucket



Photobucket

Photobucket

And, here are some birthday morning pictures (SEVEN chocolate-chip pancakes, of course!)

Photobucket


Photobucket

• 1 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Oct. 8, 2008 - Too Cute...

Photobucket

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Oct. 8, 2008 - Art Exhibit Pictures

Here is Elijah posing with his bears drawingPhotobucket

Close-up of the drawing
Photobucket

Alien Art
Photobucket

• 2 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

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.

• 3 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Sep. 25, 2008 - Tot School



Painting ORANGE

Photobucket


Making Play-doh (in pajamas)!


Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

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

• 2 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

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.

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

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

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Rainwords Hotdog Book
Photobucket


clouds accordion opening up
Photobucket

Photobucket

combination clouds flap opened
Photobucket

how a cloud forms fan
Photobucket

• 3 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Sep. 25, 2008 - Fun Festival Field Trip - Sights and Sounds

Johnny Appleseed
Photobucket

The Bands
Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket


Making Cider
Photobucket

Metalsmith
Photobucket

Making Lace
Photobucket

Spinning Wheels
Photobucket

Trapper/Trader
Photobucket

Magician
Photobucket

Shredding Cabbage for Coleslaw

Dancers
Photobucket


Musicians
Photobucket

• 1 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Sep. 25, 2008 - Fun Festival Field Trip Part 2 - Faces and Names


Silly Simon
Photobucket 

Uncle & Lindsey
Photobucket

Elijah & Jason
Photobucket

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Sep. 25, 2008 - Fun Festival Field Trip Part 3 - Games & Toys

In the hay maze
Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Playing with old toys
Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Simon searching in the corn
Photobucket

Elijah in the Obstacle Course

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Sep. 25, 2008 - Fun Festival Field Trip- Part 4 - Elijah learns about flax

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket


Photobucket

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

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."

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

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
Photobucket
Mapping Oregon, A tab-book about Oregon, Map showing the Oregon Trail (Iowa-Oregon) that the family in the story probably took.

Photobucket
Covered Wagon Diagram

Photobucket
Figures of Speech- we reviewed alliteration and personification; had an introduction to hyperbole and allusion

Photobucket

Photobucket
Elijah's "Book Report" Page

Photobucket
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! 

Photobucket
Close up of fruit alliterations

All About Apples Section

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Johnny Appleseed Section
Photobucket

Photobucket

PhotobucketPhotobucketPhotobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

• 3 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

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.


Tot School

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Sep. 14, 2008 - Tot School

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!



Since big brother was learning about apples this week (and next), I made a little "lapbook" for Simon.  He went crazy over it!    He asked for his "apples" folder more than once.    He really had to think to decide which apples to put in each pocket.




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!

• 5 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

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!)


• 4 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

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. 




• 7 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

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!




• 3 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Page 1 of 8
Last Page | Next Page