chick day 3

Today we worked on our ABC's letter review again I drew capital and small letters on bottle caps and they had to match the charts made from coconut abc trees I found here. Pitty pat aced hers, Tippy toe missed three now I know where he needs more work, and Litttle-man needed a partner for the whole game of course. I also made a set for a friend's son who is four. Great file folder game! So much learning fun. I have really come to enjoy this book and unit study. Such good testing and review of the basics.

Japan Lapbook

In the light of the disaster in Japan we are doing a lapbook so the kids can better understand where Japan is and who the people are that are suffering there. It makes it more real and personal. I want the kids to feel real empathy for these people.

1. We have started with some a lapbook from lapbook lessons and more lapbook elements from homeschool share.
2. I printed a flag and map to color. from here
3. Activity Village has koi kites. 
4. I printed paper dolls from making friends.These are in traditional dress. as well as these awsome coloring page of traditional dress found here.
5. We found the characters for numbers1 through 10. I wanted to make flash cards but pitty-pat used them to do copy work of the symbols. We discussed calligraphy.
6. I read them fun facts from Scholastic about Japan. I enjoyed the section on manners and how important they are in Japan.
7. I printed out some origami patterns to try out.Some are from here at enchanted learning and here at ActivityVillage
8. We watched a video message from a high school friend who teaches in Japan that was made to let everyone know he is ok.
9. Japanese theme lunch- Ramen noodles and frozen mixed vegetables. Easy peasy! I did find a recipe at family fun for candy sushi I plan to try this weekend as well as buying real sushi at a local grocery store made fresh on the weekend. I happen to love sushi but I am not taking them an hour away to the nearest sushi restaurant.
10. Zen sand garden- We already have a meditation sand garden we bought at the local dollar store and embellished with more polished rocks. This can be kind of messy.

"I've seen the village and I do NOT want it raising MY children"--unknown  thanks for the quote Aimee

Ireland Lapbooks

For March we are doing Ireland lapbooks. The kids are excited to get started. We took a week off because of Trent's graduation and Aaron and I visiting Columbia,SC. While on vacation I found some Irish money to use with our unit study. I also found a board book copy of Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel and started reading it to the boys at bedtime last night. I remember reading it to myself when I was Tippy-toes age or a little younger.

Ireland Lapbook

I am working on an Ireland Lapbook for St.Patrick's Day. I printed out some celtic crosses to color. I have to say my 12 year old is already working on coloring hers. I have printed out a flag and map for the cover of our books. I found a sheet with several symbols of  St. Patrick's Day. I found this counting clovers sheet as well. I found and printed St. Patrick's prayer to make into a bookmark. I also printed out several Irish Blessings the is to have each child pick one to put in their books. Maybe we will each try writing one of our own.

Transportation Lapbook

I started putting together a Transportation Lapbook to help the kids understand our trip by airplane soon. Now I see on my dashboard alot of us are doing the same thing this week. Here are some photos of the kids lapbooks. Even little-man colored an airplane for his half size one. Most of our worksheets and games came from Jolanthe at http:homeschoolcreation.com. I found a great tranportation pack to use. I got the Go Car Go! Minit book from DLTK.

5 senses lapbook

Today Tippy-Toe and I are working on his 5 senses lapbook. The cover is like I be Jamin's with a match up game of see, hear, smell, taste, touch to eyes, nose, hands, mouth, and ear pictures. Inside is a four square graph of sweet,sour, salty,and bitter with magazine pictures to signify each. After our tasting game we will put pictures of each in the correct square. On the other half is two large triangles  one saying loud and the other quiet. On the back cover it is divided in two parts  for soft and rough with sandpaper hands overlaying --I traced and cut to represent  touch. I also made a mystery bag for him to use during studying touch. I cut out many pictures and Tippy-Toe then pasted into a 5 senses mini book.( I would have let him cut for practice but I prepared them since we didn't have alot of time I wanted to keep him on task) We read the  "5 Senses" picture book by Aliki. I just happened to find it this summer at a garage sale.

"..the chief function of a child--his business in the world during the first six or seven years of his life--is to find out all he can, about whatever comes under his notice, by means of his five senses..." Charlotte Mason (volume1, Home Education, Pg.96)

All About Me

We did "all about me" lapbooks today from homeschoolshare.com We started them, but company came over unexpected. After our company left, we went back to work. Aaron put in the movie Cars we had rented for little-man, that was it. I lost pitty-pat and tippy-toes' attention completely. We will finish later. The one good thing about homeschooling is the ADHD can be worked around without drugs or tears.

Signs of Spring--Butterflys

The Dow Gardens Butterfly House Midland, Michigan is open all month and in preparation for our field trip we are studying buttterflys today. Pitty-pat is still sleeping but Tippy-toe and I have read three books today. When she gets up we will read them together, although she should be able to read them herself. We will see. Tippy-toe just soaked up the knowledge like a little sponge this morning. Separating them for learning times really helps them focus better. I can't imagine either of them in a class of 25 to 30 other kids.

Today's Booklist is from our own home library:
Life Cycles Caterpillar to Butterfly by Sally Hewitt
Born to be a Butterfly by Karen Wallace
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

I found a neat pasta and paste idea from somewhere online and didn't write the site down ooops! I am trying to give credit for all the ideas I use so I can use those sites again myself.i think I have everything I need for this craft in the cupboard.
spiral pasta--caterpillar
shell pasta---chrysalis
bowtie pasta--butterfly
small pasta---egg

I found a lifecycle printout to label at enchantedlearning.com

I traced circles on green cardstock for them to cut out and make their own hungry caterpillar.
Tippy-toe needs fine motor coordination practice so cutting is good for him.

Today's mittenmom approved video is "Meet the Sight Words 1" by The PreschoolPrep Company. Little-man likes the cartoon words.

We do alot on saturdays since I usually have weekends off from work. Also someone is usually home to occupy little man for our artsy-craftsy times. I set up a modified workbox full of worksheets for during the week. We go for a walk and read in the evenings after dinner. The weekends are more one on one times.

The Signs of Spring lapbook

Today we started a signs of spring lapbook. They decorated the front with daffodils and papercut grass. I cut each out a brown bunny to hide in their tall grass. I also cut out brown crosses for the inside.
Our list of signs of spring so far:
flowers (daffodils and crocus)
robins
bunnies
green grass
Ressurection Sunday


Poems to put in our book:

Spring, Almost
The sunshine gleams so bright and warm,
the sky is blue and clear.
I run outdoors without a coat
and spring is almost here.
Then before I know it,
small clouds have blown together,
Till the sun just can't get through them,
And agqain, it's mitten weather.

that poem seems written for Michigan!


Little Robin Red Breast

Little Robin Red Breast
Sat upon a rail.
Niddle, Naddle went his head
Wiggle, Waggle went his tail.



Books on our reading list:
Bunny My Honey--Cam's favorite when she was little!
Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present by Charlotte Zolotow

FROG Lapbook

Today we worked on our frog lapbooks.

They loved the bingo marker activity the most from www.dltk-kids.com
Tippy-toe did a good number dot-to-dot from www.printactivities.com
We used alot of the resources from homeschoolshare.com(including a frog with bugs on his tongue)
I printed out frog sequence cards from enchanted learning

Baking Bread with JonBoy

Today Jon and I are baking bread. He was so amazed with the yeast when it bubbled over the measureing cup. Let's forget when I let the milk on to scald and it went over the pan while I was giving little man a cracker. Jon likes it when I let him help me in the kitchen. He is doing a kindergarden program on his leapster. The time for the bread to rise is flying by for him since he has been without a powercord for his leapster for about eight months now. This is only my third or fourth time trying to make bread without a breadmachine. I hope it turns out for him. I read an article this morning while looking for homeschool ideas and thought since the girls are gone with Aaron I would try the recipe with Jon. Little Man has fallen asleep in his giant play yard and our cat tiger is curled up with him. I will try to post some photos. I plan to use this blog to record our home school activities for our first year. I am not using a planner but have some unit studies I have put together into lapbooks. We use workbooks we have found and printouts for our math concepts. We are checking out most of our books we don't already own from the local library. this week we read The Mitten a folk tale illustrated by Jan Brett. We used the lapbook ideas from homeschool share and jan bretts web page to make our lap books. We are also reading M is for Mitten by Annie Appleford since we do live in the mitten state...Michigan.

Brown Bear,Brown Bear What do you See?

We are reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you see? by Eric Carle. I just love his books. I found several worksheets to go along with the book. We watched several National Geographic videos someone from from work gave me for the kids. I have to say the videos were too old for them. They each did a unit study on black bears in a file folder.