Tot School

Kayleigh is 37 months

This week we worked on the letter Ll, mainly using activities from Confessions of a Homeschooler.

Ladybug magnet page from COAH

She's getting much better at My First Book of Mazes by Kumon. 

She had a lot of fun with her Bear Family Counters.  We sorted by size then by size and color.  I have some also cards to go along with them from my teaching days.  I can't find them anywhere on the web.  These are the closest I could find. 

She played with her color and texture puzzles  A LOT!

Kayleigh asked to get out our foam ABC blocks.  That was a surprise as she never wants to play with them.

We finished her K is for kite page for her ABC block.  She was really happy because we just another Do-A-Dot set that has PINK in it.  

There was another poke page this week.  However, Kayleigh wasn't really into it this time.

from COAH

I finally got a new sensory bin together.  This time it's an alphabet bin.  I used foam bath letters,  letter magnets,  and pieces from this Scoopin' Letters game that I bought in Guam.  I have not been able to find that on the web either.  Too bad because it is AWESOME.  It came with a giant inflatable bowl (which we no longer have), lettered balls, ice cream dishes and spoons, and word cards.  You put a card in the slot on the dish and then use the spoon to scoop out the balls to spell your word.  We just play with the balls for letter recognition at this point.  Oh and we used some funky bug view tongs that we got at Oriental trading too.

Sorting Big L, Little L

from COAH

Ladybug Shape Puzzles

from COAH

We got out the  bear family again along with our balance.  Boy was that a hit.  She didn't understand a word of what I was saying about weight but she had a blast.

She's been very into helping in the kitchen.  One day she "made cookies" all by herself.  I confess I rearranged them when she wasn't looking.    She was very proud of herself.

We played The Ladybug Game and I got pictures of it.  But they're still on my camera and I don't feel like dealing with it.  Maybe later. LOL  She did okay with it considering how much she dislikes rules and waiting her turn.

And that was our week.  Be sure to click the Tot School button at the top of the page and see all the other great tot activities.  

Weekly Wrap-Up: The One Where I Regret a Curriculum Choice

This week was an unusual week.  Something happened that never happens.  Mackenzie had a sick day.  She hasn't been sick since she was three.  She's ten now.  That's seven years.  She has my immune system. Just not last Tuesday.  Poor girl.  She was fine the next day.  Yay!

Poor, sick baby girl

We started WW2 in history.  This week we've been reading through The World Wars (internet links) and it's had some really good links that really helped Mackenzie picture what was happening during that time.  In her spare time she read Yellow Star.  We have a lot of extra reading material on this area so she's been reading more than normal, and normally she reads a ton.

Spy Science

She's now an intel gal like her dad.

Too bad the message we were given was bad to start with.

As an add-in, we did some code cracking with the Spy Science Kit that we bought through Winter Promise.  The kit was great, the notebooking pages that Winter Promise puts out to go along with it, not so much.  Part of the message was fine and the rest made no sense.   

This wasn't the first problem we've had with their notebooking pages.  Some of the quality wasn't good and I found a few historical errors. I had wrote the company about the errors, with references, and hadn't heard back from them.  I figured that it was something they'd fix in upcoming editions.  I don't use the curriculum, I had just bought some of the hands-on stuff and notebooking pages, so I wasn't sure if was an issue with the actual lessons.  And not everyone has fabulous customer service like Sonlight.  In the event that we did something wrong with our "code cracking skills", I checked the forums.  What I found was some complaints about the same errors and quality control issues that I had written them about.  Only these complaints were three years old.  And in those three years they hadn't fixed the issues.  To say that I'm disgusted is the understatement of the year.

The ironic thing is that I was planning on holding off on Sonlight's Core 5, because of the massive increase in workload, until 6th grade.  So I ordered Winter Promise's Children Around the World program for next year.  Now, I'm not so sure.  Now to be fair to Winter Promise, I haven't actually seen the program because, although I ordered it almost a month ago, I haven't received the bulk of it.  To date, I've received some maps, 1 book, and some stickers for the maps.  All came separately, with no notice that they'd be coming nor did I receive any packing slip with the packages.   

So I can add "great service" to their list of accomplishments.  (Please note my sarcasm.)   I may or may not keep it.  I'll give a thorough look if it ever arrives.  I'm sure the books are fine because they weren't published by them.  If the like the books, I can always dump their notebooking stuff and come up with my own.   I've also considered using COAH Expedition Earth program to replace Winter Promise's pages.  It covers a lot of the same topics, although it might be a tad too young for Mackenzie.  So that's up in the air.  

Maybe I'm just too picky?  That and Sonlight has spoiled me.  But what a let down.   It's just disappointing when something doesn't live up to your expectations.  I'm still holding out hope that it will work out.

If not, I can send it back and do Core 5 over two years to ease up the work load.  We shall see.  But I really don't want to have to go to haul all this stuff to the post office. 

Be sure to check out the other wrap-ups over at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Tot School: Kayleigh's first Sonlight core

Kayleigh is 37 months old

We had a really productive week this week.  Turning three must have done something for my uncooperative miss. LOL  And no potty accidents!

This week we "worked" on the letter K, LOTW from Confessions of a Homeschooler, and some St. Patty's day stuff from 2 Teaching Mommies.

Sorting Kk~COAH

Roll-A-Kite~COAH

Roll-A-Kite~COAH~Our first time trying this and she sure loved it!

Paint Can Color Matching left over from my days as a PS teacher

Do-a-Dot Kk~COAH~One day I hope to get her to just stamp the dots so we can see the  letters. LOL

Kk Poke Page. Always a favorite!~COAH

Kite Patterning~COAH

She's really getting the hang of patterns

The highlight of our week...Kayleigh's first Sonlight Box Day!  Sonlighters look forward to that 40# box of great books.  Sadly, this is her only real box day.  Since Sonlight is almost totally reusable, she'll be using Mackenzie's old cores.  She got lucky that they added in Core p3/4 long after Mackenzie was too old.

Hooray!  Books just for Kayleigh.

It's as much fun as a Christmas present.

"Big Gwil Books"

A bottemless box of good reading.

Let's Color~Kumon

K magnet page~COAH

She's finally starting to get the hang of our Fisher-Price Fun-2-Learn Computer Cool School.  She's not really had the time on the computer like Mackenzie used to so she has had a hard time with the mouse.  She finally figured out how to work the pen on her "computer."

A Kite with Pattern Blocks~COAH~She's never been much for following the plan so I was really pleased that she decided to do this as intended. LOL

A few days later, she was still digging through that Sonlight box.  The Bible seems to be her favorite.

  

Mega Blocks are always fun!

Her first time playing Candyland.  She skunked us.

St. Patricks Day pre-writing~2TM~She's really getting good at staying on the lines.

How Many Coings?~2TM

St. Patrick's Day Size sorting~2TM

Clover "Spelling"~2TM

Pot 'O Gold Roll and Count, with stickers~2TM

Tada! All finished!

And that was our week!  Be sure to  click the Tot School button at the top of the page to visit other Tot Schools.