Tot School

This was our last week with of our "Love" theme. We didn't do too many "love" activities because we had too many appointments. LOL



Kayleigh has been very, very, very interested in cutting. But our scissors haven't been a remote possibility for her. So I bought her some new ones. These and these. We tried them both and my conclusion is that she's just not developmentally ready for cutting. But that's okay, we'll keep practicing. She liked them anyway.



The spring-action scissors worked the best. I held the paper for her (well not in this picture because I was holding the camera LOL) and tried to get her to squeeze the scissors. She really just wants to stab the paper with them. But I helped her squeeze too so she got a few cuts.

Here she is trying the Melissa and Doug scissors on her own. No way is she ready for these.


And the spring action.

Once we had cut enough paper, I gave her a glue stick and let her paste for a while. Glue sticks make her happy.

So do "sticks." We used heart "sticks" so now her project fits into our love them. LOL


Her finished product.




I made her a heart shaped lacing card. It went well for the first 3 minutes.

Now she's done. LOL



She loves the pom pom magnets I made. So she did an A magnet page and a heart magnet page.

This activity she picked out herself. Counting bears. I got out the sorting mat. She matched them correctly, at first, then her devious streak came out and she put them all over. LOL

We built towers with her foam ABC blocks. She had an obsession with the letter "B".

And she practiced her unzipping. During breakfast. LOL

Next week we're going to start a Brown Bear, Brown Bear theme. I'm excited because I found lots of neat games to make for her. Then we're moving on to Easter.

Be sure to check out the other tot's over at Carisa's.

Weekly Wrap-Up

It's time for the Weekly Wrap-Up hosted by Kris over at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. And I'm on time. Yay!!

Our week, as always, was filled with interruptions. A symphony field trip, which I missed as wee tot had a doctor's appointment, a dentist appointment and a much needed trip to the grocery store tried to slow us down. But we pushed through and got it all done. Woot!!

Bible

This week our topic was Jesus healing the sick. It went right along with what Mackenzie's Sunday school lesson was about. She likes it when that happens.

Math

We finished up with the 7's around Wednesday. Instead of moving on 8's we did online drills for the remainder of the week to help her speed.

Language Arts

In FLL, we spent the week working on dictionary skills. Our narration/dictation in WWE came from Little Women this week and now Mackenzie's really interested in reading the entire book.

Spelling Power is continuing to work well for Mackenzie. Oh and we're finished with "official handwriting" for the year. Woot!

Science

We talked about wind and it's many forms. Mackenzie ended the week by making a warm-air propeller.

Social Studies

This week we finished reading If You Were There When They Signed the Constitution, George Washington: Our First Leader, and Toliver's Secret.

We learned about the Consitutional Convention and how the various delegates reached many compromises. We talked about how it is the only government document of it's age that is still used in modern times and how it has been a model for many other nations. We are excited to see the Constitution when we go to D.C. next month.

We also spent some time looking at School House Rock videos that pertained to the colonial and revolutionary time period. Mackenzie loved that.

The highlight of the week, at least for mom, was this. Mackenzie will probably be more thrilled when it all arrives.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!!!!

School Shopping!!!! Can I get a hearty woo-hoo????


Tomorrow the tax refund arrives in my bank acount so as soon as I wake up I'm hitting submit on all of the shopping carts that I've got loaded and waiting. Woot!!


Here's the damage for Mackenzie's fourth grade year...

Bible

We will be using Starting Strong from Sonlight's Bible 4 and Learning About God From A to Z which used to be in Sonlight's Bible 4. I bought it right before they discontinued it. A friend's son raved and raved about A to Z when he was doing core 4 and Mackenzie has been dying to do it ever since. So I snagged it while I could.

Math

We will continue with our beloved Math-U-See, level Delta.

Science

Next year we're changing it up a bit. We going to do Apologia's Zoology 1, Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day. We're excited. We did the Astronomy a few years ago and it was fun. I think she was a tad too young then so we're anticipating a lot of good retention this time around. LOL


We will not be doing the notebooking per say. Kenzie's not big on a lot of extra writing and, to her, notebooking=too much writing LOL. We'll be doing these Learn 'N Folders. They're like a cross between lapbooking and notebooking. Mackenzie likes to have the "pretty little books" to show all her hard work. And she thinks lapbooking is less writing then notebooking. That's probably not true but whatever makes her happy. This will be our first time using them so we'll see out it goes.


I'll be happy because I can get the complete kit for the experiments, just like at my beloved Sonlight, and the lapbook is easy enough to print out.

Social Studies

Do you even have to ask what I'm using for history??? Sonlight of course!!! Core 4, Introduction to American History part 2, to be specific.


Our supplements will be a Gold Rush Kit and Spy Science from Winter Promise and the Civil War History Pocket. Although Mackenzie is really interested in this from Time Travelers. It does look really neat but since it doesn't come with the supplies needed to complete the activities it's been vetoed by moi. I don't have time to chase down that stuff. I think the Spy Science will make up for it. She dreams of being a spy. LOL

For geography we are going to focus on the U.S., using The Star-Spangled State Book. Mackenzie has really enjoyed geography this year and I think this choice will keep her interested.

Language Arts

No changes here. We'll continue on with Sonlight's core 4 readers that go along with the history we'll be studying. We're also sticking with Spelling Power, Handwriting Without Tears Cursive Success, First Language Lessons 4, and Writing With Ease 3.

Extras

We're going to attempt to do better with the Spanish and art that we already use. We dropped Spanish early on and just started art back up. Sonlight also suggests taking up the recorder when starting core 4. We already have it but we haven't really tried it yet.


It should be easier, in theory, with Kayleigh being older, right? Feel free to lie to me about that. =o)

Weekly Wrap-Up

It's (past) time for our Weekly Wrap-Up hosted by Kris over at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

We had another good week with school being done by lunch. Woot!

Bible

We studied the various times when Jesus fed the mulitudes and had good discussions about how He will provide our needs.

Math

We're still working on our times tables, x8's this week. She's still not as fast as I'd like her to be with them but we're getting there.

Language Arts

Mackenzie is working on memorizing a new poem, The Bells by Edgar Allen Poe. She doesn't have it memorized yet but she sure likes the poem. For grammer, she was reviewing the different uses of verbs and adverbs. She's definately gotten the diagramming down.

Social Studies

We have come to the end of the American Revolution and are now studying the difficulities of starting a new country. Particularly getting 13 separate states on the same page. Particularly when nobody would send delegates to help fix what was wrong. We learned why the Articles of Confederation didn't work and how the states had to compromise to get a constitution that would work for all.

Mackenzie is reading George Washington: Our First Leader, as her reader. Together we've been reading If You Were There When They Signed the Constitution. We're particularly enjoying the sections that describe what some of the leaders personalities were like. Who knew GW had such a temper? LOL We're also reading from The Landmark History of the American People and The Story of the USA vol. 2, to help fill in the blanks.

We're finishing up our read aloud, Toliver's Secret. Mackenzie likes it because the main character, a little girl, is acting as a spy for the patriots. Mackenzie aspires to be a spy one day. LOL

Science

We learned about wind, frost, and snow this week. No experiments but I am going to post pictures of last weeks rain experiment. I finally got it off my camera. LOL

Extras

Here are a few shots of Mackenzie playing basketball. This is her first year playing so she's a bit afraid of the ball. I wish I had gotten a picture of her dunking when the ball game to her. LOL She's great at running up and down the court to her "position" but then she pretty much tries to avoid the ball. She's the one with the ribbons in her hair. (She had to cheer for the next game.)

Tot School

Kayleigh is 24 months

We had a bit of a chaotic week so we didn't get much done. Monday Daddy was home so that pretty much killed that day. Tuesday Tot School consists of baby gym, so that went as normal. The rest of the week was filled with errands (GS cookie season ugh!). But we did fit in a few things and, for the most part, Kayleigh did great. I was pleased. So here's our week, in no particular order.

For our love theme I made Kayleigh a Color Matching Game. I printed the mat and colored it to match the heart erasers that I got in the clearance section at Target for mere pennies.

She got really into it and played for quite a while. And even matched the colors correctly which, as you might recall, she doesn't do often.

It was so fun that "Lily" had to play too.

We got a package with styrofoam peanuts. So she had her first sensory box. She liked finding hidden objects for about 5 minutes. Then she dumped it all over the floor and stomped on them. Yeah, I'm not anxious to give her the rice I bought for her to use anymore. We were going to try that next week. We'll see. LOL

Kayleigh played with her Lauri Number Fun puzzle. For about 45 seconds. She was not into this at all.

I made this "A" matching game from clip art I found on the internet. At first Kayleigh didn't want to do it. But then she really got into it. She even had her "baby" help her.

Just two cute sisters.

Kayleigh is "helping" Mackenzie with a science experiment. They are making "rain" with hot water and ice.

My favorite picture. Sweet baby starting to pray along with us at dinner. How precious is that?

Be sure to check out what the other tots are up to over at Carisa's.

Tot School

~Kayleigh is currently 24 months old~

Hello fellow Tot Schoolers! I hope you all had a great week.

One highlight of our week was that Kayleigh behaved during big sister's school. Because we forgot to turn off the tv in the living room on Monday. She kept wandering between there and the school room. And she didn't dump out anything. It was amazing.

The main highlight is that Kayleigh turned two!!! I'm not sure how I feel about that but I guess I can't stop it. LOL

Because of the birthday this week, we didn't really do the letter or number themes. We did get in a lot of "love" activities. And she actually did them.

Love Theme

Kayleigh decorated a big red heart with Valentine stickers.

She transfered white/pink/red pom poms from a bowl to our valentine icecube tray. We started off with tweezers but she wasn't ready for those yet. So we switched back to a spoon. She did this over and over all week long. I still can't believe it. She never does what I want her too. LOL

She painted a "V is for Valentine" picture with her new red Crayola Beginnings Paintbrushes. I love, love, love them. They are so easy for her to use and not much for me to clean up. My only complaint is that they only come in four colors.

We went on a heart hunt. I made a trail of hearts and she collected them in a bag. Then we were supposed to use the hearts for a game of Valentine Number Match Up. She did match the #1 with one heart but that was all she was willing to do.

Big Sis read her Five Little Candy Hearts and then they did some Valentine Math . She wasn't too interested in doing the actual counting because she wanted to eat the candy hearts. She managed to stop herself from eating the candy until I gave her the okay. LOL That was more then I'd hoped for.

She spent some time playing with her ball pounder. It's always nice when she hits things that she's allowed to. LOL

She also enjoyed playing with her magnetic animals. She always insists on putting the parts on wrong. It's like a game for her.

Although she won't be having her party with family for a few more weeks, she enjoyed some special things on her birthday.

A special birthday treat for breakfast.

Some presents.

And a cake.

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check out the other Tots over at Carisa's.