Showing posts with label Homeschooling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Homeschooling. Show all posts

Friday, September 5, 2014

Our First Couple Weeks

We are in week 2 of Homeschooling.


Since I am the worlds biggest procrastinator, this post is going to be full of our activities over the last couple weeks. 

In week 1 we read The Three Billy Goats Gruff. 
One of the activities we had to go along with it was a puppet show. We have never done anything like this with G before so it was great to see how well he retained the story and was able to re-tell it using the puppets.

He made us do the puppet show multiple times. Sometimes he was the goats and I was the troll, other times I was the goats and he was the troll. His retention of the story honestly impressed me!


One of our science activities for week 1 was discussing what scientists do. We talked about the scientific method and then to better understand observation, we went outside and "observed". 

He took his magnifying glass as well as a back pack to store things we found in. First we listened to the noises around us. Being in a small town and farther out of town means nothing but nature sounds with the occasional car. Nothing we could have experienced at our old house in the middle of a city. 

We heard chickens, horses, birds, cicadas, and the wind through the trees. Using his magnifying glass he hunted down quite a few really neat rocks. He also collected 6 pine cones. Once we got back in the house we talked about what we had observed. He loved it!

He loved what came next even more though. Using the pine cones we'd collected, we made a bird feeder. 




Once it was complete he used the magnifying glass, which is slowly becoming his favorite tool, to see even closer into all the things we put on the feeder. 
 Then we put it in the front yard.




This week we talked about community. 
As our art project we made a helping hands wreath. We even got Baby K in on the fun and let me tell you tracing his hand was not the easiest task to achieve! He was happy to participate none the less though. 



Before gluing the hands to the base we discussed how we could lend a helping hand. We discussed what chores he does around the house to help us out and we discussed what he can do for his community to be a good helper. We talked about how he could keep the neighborhood and parks clean by picking up trash he sees as well as donating toys and clothes he no longer uses to those who are less fortunate than him. 

Then he set to gluing.


 He was so proud to have it hanging in the dining room and he had enjoyed doing it so much he asked to make another one! We will leave that for another day though.

To better explain measuring to G we had him help Momma make cookies. He was so excited to help. He got to help add the ingredients.



He then got to help mix the dough.
 Baby K wanted to help as well so we set him up with his own bowl (of water) and spoon. 

Since we had time while the cookies were baking, we introduced Baby K to his first sensory material. 

INSTA-SNOW!
This has long been a favorite of G's but we weren't sure how Baby K would handle it. I was almost certain it would go straight in his mouth, but don't worry it's non-toxic!

Surprisingly enough he didn't once try and put it in his mouth until Momma mentioned eating in regards to the cookies!

 Baby K enjoyed every second of snow play. 

While G built a snow covered farm and discussed how many farm animals he wants us to have soon, Baby K just wanted to continuously drizzle the snow on his legs. 

He was even more excited when Momma started making it snow on his head!
Which of course meant G needed in on it as well!

 Then G made it snow for himself. 

 Look at that face! I think Baby K's first sensory experience was a success! He loved it. 



Do you use sensory materials in your homeschool? What are some of your favorite materials?

Friday, October 25, 2013

Favorite App Friday

It's finally here! FRIDAY!
 
Friday means it is time for Favorite App Friday. This is something that I will be making a weekly thing and I am even going to try to get some other mommy blogger's in on the fun. Fingers crossed that goes well!
 
As much as I hate to admit it, technology plays a HUGE roll in our lives around here. We have smart phones, iPods, iPads and game systems. We limit how much time Gage is allowed to be on the devices of course and he is limited to educational games and apps only. He doesn't fight us on that because he LOVES learning. Favorite App Friday is all about our electronic educational journeys!
 
The majority of the apps that I will discuss will be free. There are a few that I have paid for though and I will try and showcase the ones that are on the cheaper end. I am not a huge fan of paying outrageous amounts of money for learning apps that may or may not catch Gage's attention.
 
 
 
For our very first post I will be going over the app:
Team Umizoomi Math: Zoom into Numbers
 

 
This app cost us $2.99 and let me tell you it is worth every penny. Gage loves watching Team UmiZoomi on TV and getting to interact with Millie, Geo, and Bot on this app gets him excited to learn math!
 
With my absolute hatred of math I am extremely open to anything that gets him excited to learn it! There are so many games to play dealing with different sorts of math. You can also buy an expansion pack to add more games if you'd like. I don't remember how much the add on is because we haven't yet purchased it but I plan to in the near future.
 
Now you'll have to excuse my terrible photos! I did my best.
 
This app deals with so many aspects of learning numbers and math. It deals in number recognition:

 You have to pop ONLY the bubbles with the number matching the one on Bot's tummy.
At first Gage didn't quite understand this and just wanted to pop every bubble on the screen but as he gradually picked up number recognition he has gotten much better. This is definitely an early stage recognition game.


 
(Sorry these pictures are upside down)
The race through Umi City game is a harder number recognition game. Bot will tell you which number you have to go under and you have to swipe UmiCar to the right lane.
 
 
 
 
 
Another game on the app, Toy Parade, deals with numerical order. You have to place the toys in the correct order before the parade can begin. This is one of Gage's favorite games on the app.






 On the more advance end, there is a game that deals in addition and subtraction. This is definitely my favorite game on the app because it is pushing Gage to go farther than what he has learned so far. I have slowly but surely been weaning him into addition and subtraction, he now walks around the house saying "OK mommy how many are left" or "If we take away this many what's left?"

 
As far as learning apps that we have tried go, this one is by far our favorite. Gage and I both love it and have an awesome time playing it together.
 
Does your little one have a favorite learning app? If so leave it in the comments below and if we haven't already we will give it a try.




Monday, October 21, 2013

I love October!

We had quite the week around here!
 
On Monday, Dennis came over to join the boys in play! Since fall, well mostly October is my favorite time of year I decided we would paint some pumpkins.
As you can tell, I couldn't find my masking tape so I used duct tape to make the boys' initials.
 
 I am extremely new to using paints other than finger paints with the boys so I made a bit of an uh oh here. I used tempera paint to have them paint there pumpkins. While they all had an absolute blast painting there pumpkins, as they were drying, the paint was flaking. I did however use a purple acrylic paint as well and the purple held without flaking so only parts of them flaked off. 












 These were our end results.



 Sticking with our pumpkin theme I printed up some Pp sheets and the boys used stickers to decorate the P's.


 Even our snack was pumpkin related! They decorated there own cookies and of course gobbled them up as fast as possible.


 We also made masking tape mummy's this week! Everyone got in on this one even K.




Since it has been a while since I've done a DIY like this one I tried my hand at making some wonder dough. You can see this one in full here:
 
 
I have to say that Growing A Jeweled Rose is my favorite as far as activity ideas for the littles! She is always posting so many awesome ideas!
 



 The boys loved it. They rolled it and squished it and described what they felt. The only downside to this is that I probably used way to much paint as it dyed all of our hands. Luckily it washed right out though!





 On Thursday night we had a pumpkin carving party!
 The boys are not really fans of strange feeling things. Gage reluctantly helped gut his pumpkin.
 X and R each stuck their hands in once but were instantly over it.

 Needless to say our pumpkin party turned into adults doing all the work while the kids ran wild in the backyard!
 
Check out our end results though! Not bad in my opinion!
 
 
This Friday I will be starting something new on my blog. I will be posting one of our favorite apps a week. Favorite App Friday! I will go over why we love each app as well as what benefits it has.
 
Does your child have a favorite app on the iPad/iPhone etc.? Let me know what it is below so I can check it out!