Mish-mash of info...

First off, Happy Birthday Jon! I now have two eligible drivers. Yikes! That's scary.LOL

Here's a few photos from the week...

Jon, evidently doing something quite interesting. He's such a great big brother to include all the littles in his fun and games...


Merry Christmas! This costume has worked it's way through each of my littles. It's probably the best, most loved costume in the whole box.

Cheese!

We had some fun painting yesterday morning. It's so nice to see these kids getting along! I found this banner paper at Wally World and it's great to cover the whole table and let them go at it.

And more dress-up. Evie really likes dressing up and she loves to dress Sophia up too. I thought they looked so cute together.


In other news, I've been deep cleaning again. It sure is a futile activity in a house full of little people, but the clutter is killing me!

I've also been hanging out the laundry again. The weather has been perfect for it. It's amazing to me how quickly it dries on the line. 15 minutes and it's ready to be folded and put away. In the dryer, it'd be at least an hour. It's a good money saver too.

My garden is really doing well so far. I've got flowers on the peas, three yellow squash and maybe a dz different tomatoes on the vine. The pepper plants have been producing also. I'm hoping that the lettuce is nice this year. It bolted last year. My greenbeans look wonderful. I was just out there and I think that I'll have some flowers on those sometime this week. We'll see. It sure has been keeping me busy! We ate some turnip greens the other day and they were wonderful. I can't wait to pick more.

I have a movie of the kids outside on their skuuts and Evie on her bike, but Allison has been working every. single. day. and hasn't been able to upload it for me to photobucket. They are amazing on those things! I can't even keep up with them on walks any longer. I'm going to need my bike soon. Yesterday, I only saw them at every corner.LOL They had to wait for me to cross the street and that's the only time I saw them. Occasionally, Sophia will ride back and forth from me to the corner just to keep busy but the other two will just wait me out.LOL

I'm working the kinks out of Allison's final school year, next year. I'm happy and sad.LOL She almost decided to take an extra year, but just yesterday decided to just finish. I think it's a good idea. She's ready and if she had all her credits this year, I'd have let her go. She's done a lot of growing this year and her maturity makes it much easier to see her grow up. She still doesn't know what she wants to be yet, but I'm sure she'll figure it out. We keep looking up different jobs whenever we see something interesting. At least that's fun.lol

It looks like Jon will only be here for another year after her. He's moving at quite the clip. It's wonderful to see him working toward a specific goal. Much easier when they know what they want to be.lol

Well, that's my hodge-podge of misc. information that I have to share today. I have to go shopping for the week and I'm so thankful for my menu lists. It makes it not so bad.LOL

Blessings,

Preschool on Saturdays...

Sophia is so smart. At least once or twice a day, she'll come get me by grabbing me by the legs and pushing me into the hallway and announcing, "I want a box!" Sometimes it takes me a little while to figure out what she wants since her baby accent is still pretty strong. She clearly thinks I've got hearing issues, since she normally will become exasperated and lead me to what she's thinking of.LOL Today, she wanted our messiest box.


The Rice Box.

She was so cute, sitting there, doing her work...then Isaac came along and they both had some fun...

They both worked together without fighting for at least 10 minutes...lol

Then, right after this photo, they both started flinging the rice from one end of the house to the other. In fact, I had to put Sophia in time out because she wouldn't stop even when told to.

Now I remember why it's been put away so long. I think from now on, this little box will be done outside. In the grass. Far from the back door.lol

Blessings,

The Preschool Rotation...

I just compiled a list for a friend and decided to list it here for future reference. I've found many of these lists from different blogs and online friends. Also, I came up with some of these ideas on my own. :)

These are the activities, bins, websites, kid's sites, and different blogs that I frequent that help me to homeschool with preschoolers and toddlers in the house. They are my saving grace. I hope they help others and I may add to them when I have more time.

Here's the list of boxes...

The treasure box (it's full of polished stones and "gems", a magnifying glass, a pair of tweezers, and a tray to collect their "treasures")

The clothes line box (old fashioned clothes pins, a clothes line, and play clothes to hang up)

The clip box (full of chip clips, regular clothes pins, tongs, and little fuzzy balls to pick up)

Hammer and nails box (golf tees, styrofoam disks, styrofoam plates, and a toy hammer to "pound nails")
Look how happy that little guy is...


Pipe cleaners and fuzzy balls box (title says it all.lol)

Bead box (has beads and string for making necklaces)

Cowboys and Indians box (has little plastic pieces and Kapla blocks to play with)

Foam sheets, stickers, and sequins box (has glue and scissors to make things with)

A playdough box

A science box (has magnets, metal, seeds, and do-dads.)


There are a few blogs out there that I've found some good ideas on also.

http://1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com/ This one has great preschool lapbooks and some rotational ideas.

http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/ This one has GREAT preschool craft activities using things that are around the house.

http://chasingcheerios.blogspot.com/ This one has some nice Montessori ideas.

http://www.thebusybeebag.com/ This site has already made busy bags that are nice.


Here's some of our preschool rotation ideas and groupings...

Playtime:
Playmobile
legos
blocks and cars
games
leappad
dress-up
store
kitchen
puzzles
puppets
doll house
nuts and bolts
marble works
string beads
lace-ups
felt board
train set
dollies
race track
band instruments
little people sets
balls

Computer time:
www.starfall.com
http://www.storyplace.org/preschool/other.asp
http://www.letteroftheweek.com/ This is a great preschool curriculum!
www.nickjr.com
http://www.sproutonline.com/sprout/home/jump.aspx


Outside:
nature walk
play with toys
sand or water play
wheel play

Preschool time:
phonics
workbooks
painting (water, tempura, do-a-dots)
playdough
pan of rice or beans
pattern blocks
counting
coloring
drawing
stickers
tracing
dot-to-dot
reading time
stamps
cutting and gluing
measuring
sorting
nature notebook
calendar, time, seasons, weather
cooking
weighing

lapbooking:
http://www.homeschoolshare.com/ free lapbooks!!
http://www.mormonchic.com/crafty/filefolders.asp REALLY neat file folder games!
http://lapbooksbycarisa.homestead.com/TotBooks.html FREE lapbooks for preschoolers
www.enchantedlearning.com is a great site for printing out pages. It's $20 a year to join but you can get some things for free.
http://www.homeschoolhelperonline.com/units.htm free unit studies


http://www.thetoymaker.com/2Toys.html Here's a paper toy site.

Blessings,

Preschool Rotation...

Things have been going a bit smoother lately. I'm not sure why, maybe because the littles aren't so little any more? Nah, can't be that. Maybe we're a little more organized? Nah, it's not that either.LOL Whatever the reason, it's been FUN! Here's some photos of our painting time yesterday...

Evie was exploring Symmetry, while everyone else was exploring color...


Isaac's getting pretty good at keeping his colors clean. He used to just mix them all up and then decide he was done.lol


Sophia has a real knack for painting. She needed NO instruction what so ever...


Here's Evie setting up her paper...


Allison and Jon can't keep away during the fun stuff...




Here's Evie's serious painter face...


Meanwhile, things are getting a little hairy at the other end of the table...


Here's Evie's picture...


Can you say, "bath?"


Maybe just a little more green...


TADA!


You are just so silly, Evie...


What a great girl you are!


Isaac's finished painting...


Sophia just before we wisked her to the tub...


It was a lot of fun! These kids are soooo different that no matter what activity we do, it's like doing three different things at once. Pretty cool.

Blessings,

Preschool Rotation...

I've been working all summer on getting the littles in shape for the new year. We've had A LOT of bumps and today was no exception. Chaos reigned, but Debbie, from SHS and all my SHS friends talked me down from my ledge and I've got some more ideas on how to get these kids on a good solid schedule. Now if I could just get the rest of my life in order.LOL

Trouble? I don't see any problems...


I'll clean it up later, yeah, later... that's it...



What stinkers! Notice how nice the carpet looks though? I carpet cleaned it yesterday. It looked pretty bad and really, o.k. desperately needed cleaning. Whoever thought of putting carpet in a dining room, should be reprimanded.LOL

Blessings,

Preschool Rotation...

Here are more photos of our Preschool Rotations. I'm just getting this out there quickly because we're about to get hit by a huge storm.

The mess...


Sophia's rotation...


Gem finding...


Scooping and measuring...


Blessings,

Preschool Rotation...

We've been getting back into our Preschool Rotations to keep the littles in a routine and to work out the kinks before the older kids begin their new school year. This year, I added in a new rotation I'm calling, "Exploration Boxes!" I've made 10 boxes that have different activities that can be pulled out and used without my help. I'm leaning on a Montessori style for these.LOL

These are the boxes I came up with:

The treasure box (it's full of polished stones and "gems", a magnifying glass, a pair of tweezers, and a tray to collect their "treasures")

The clothes line box (old fashioned clothes pins, a clothes line, and play clothes to hang up)

The clip box (full of chip clips, regular clothes pins, tongs, and little fuzzy balls to pick up)

Hammer and nails box (golf tees, styrofoam disks, styrofoam plates, and a toy hammer to "pound nails")
Look how happy that little guy is...


Pipe cleaners and fuzzy balls box (title says it all.lol)

Bead box (has beads and string for making necklaces)

Cowboys and Indians box (has little plastic pieces and Kapla blocks to play with)

Foam sheets, stickers, and sequins box (has glue and scissors to make things with)

A playdough box

A science box (has magnets, metal, seeds, and do-dads.)



We've also added in a Lapbook Rotation! Here's Evie's finished Dinosaur Lapbook...

Page 1


Page 2


Page 3


Evie had a BLAST and is looking forward to doing another one soon. I'm looking at http://www.homeschoolshare.com/ for free lapbooks and I've also joined Enchanted Learning so that I can make my own. We are really starting to have some fun around here.LOL

Here are some more photos from our day...

Evie painting...


We made a super big mess...


Isaac and his favorite toys in the whole world...


More hammering...



Well, that's it for now. Sophia's in my lap and pushing buttons.lol


Blessings,

Lapbooking...

Here is the "Cars Lapbook" that Grandma G put together with Genevieve yesterday. We don't have a color printer so it made it more of a coloring book too. Genevieve had so much fun that we started her Dinosaur Lapbook this morning and actually finished the first book section. She's clamoring for more but we need to wait for the glue to dry.LOL

Here's the website to make your own. It's my new favorite website!

http://lapbooksbycarisa.homestead.com/CarsTotBook.html

Here's Isaac's name and a counting section...


The middle has colors and the right side has shapes...


Here's Genevieve's first section of her Dinosaur lapbook finished already! We're going to make a dinosaur recipe after lunch...

I got this lapbook from Currclick...
http://www.currclick.com/product_info.php?products_id=16706&it=1

We're having fun this summer!


Blessings,