Monday, August 30, 2010

Muffin Tin Monday




The first two weeks of school we have had "Muffin Tin Mondays" for more info and to join in the fun go here . My kids love when we do this for lunch. Anastasia always helps and the others aren't allowed to peak until the tins are at the table. The themes at MTM have been ABC's and numbers.
Our first picture is our muffin tin for ABC's. That week our letter of the week was "B". So all of the foods began with B....broccoli, banana, bacon, black berries, bell pepper, and bagel.

This week was numbers so each kid got 1 hot dog, 2 slices of pear, 3 Hershey kisses, 4 carrots, 5 pieces of string cheese and 6 grapes.

I love checking out the website and seeing all the neat ideas. I am hoping to get a bit more creative and ours will be once again "Muffin Tin Tuesday"since our co-op is on Monday's and we will be starting back on September 13.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Homeschool Reality

Now just to clarify from my post on our first day back at school, lest you think everything just is peaches and cream smooth and on schedule around here. Here is some reality with our lovely two year old Tasha!!! I wouldn't trade her for the world but let me tell you I have decided that she really needs to bond with daddy while we are doing school (in other words any morning that daddy has to run errands and is available she gets to go with!!)

The above picture is how I found her one morning. I was at the sink doing dishes and getting ready for lunch. She was really quiet. She helped herself in the pantry found pudding, punched it open with the spoon and then of course couldn't eat it with the spoon and had to use her hands. This happened all in a matter of 5-10min.

Here is a nice picture of her actually doing one of her workboxes. She even stayed on her mat and this lasted about 10 minutes. Doesn't she look angelic? :) ha!

Tasha was allowed to use dot-a-dot markers/paint which she loves. It kept her busy for awhile until she decided it was more fun to crawl on and under the table.

Beads do keep her busy for at least 15 minutes. She likes to slide them on the sticks but needs to be watched so they stay on her mat and don't end up tossed all over the floor.

Did someone say "snack time"??? Here she is sitting in yes, in the cupboard eating raw oatmeal!!!

Now for the best activity she did this week I actually don't have a picture because come on now I can only reinforce bad behavior so much by taking pictures. I was in the kitchen cleaning and she was really quiet. The couch is in view of where I was but I couldn't see her sitting on it. I walked over looking for her and sure enough she was sitting on the couch very quietly. Why was she so quiet you might ask. She was quiet because she had my pack of dental flossers and she was taking one out at a time, licking it and putting it back in the bag!!!!!!!! They are mint flavored after all. ;) So glad I caught her in the act. LOL

Now each morning I ask, umm rather beg if Jay can take her with him depending on what he is doing. :) She however does love to do school and loves her Dora workboxes so I just need to keep finding more activites for her to do and it should get better! :)

Friday, August 20, 2010

How to Eat Fried Worms




This year I am doing a read aloud each day after lunch. They are completing their yellow job cards before lunch (this works better than doing them after lunch because they work much faster because they are hungry!) So after lunch Natasha and Jadon lay down for naps so does Alexa but some days she gets to stay up for read aloud and then she lays down. I decided to start the year with How to Eat Fried Worms ( I know a real piece of classic literature...ha) Anyways we had a lot of fun with it. I finished the book by the end of the week so we had a very "special" lunch......



Dare I say it's a lunch of "worms and maggots"...EEEWW. (Have you ever cooked hot dogs in the microwave? Slice them and heat them in the microwave and they curl all up) They really look like worms!!

Dessert was yummy worms in dirt! (ground up oreos, chocolate pudding and whip cream with gummy worms)


Monday, August 16, 2010

First Day Back to School

I decided to wait until after our camping trip to officially start back to school. The kids were actually excited to start back and I was glad to get back on a routine. Monday morning arrived and so began our journey of another homeschool year.



The 7th grader

The 2nd grader

The Kindergartner
(note about the dress; this was actually my dress that I wore on my first day of kindergarten! Now don't ask how I still have it.....I ended up with it in my cedar chest for years and years. I took a picture of Anastasia in it on her first day of kindergarten and then decided to hang on to it for any other daughters. I haven't decided if it is nostalgic or just the fact that I hang onto way too much stuff. LOL) The Preschooler



We started the day with their favorite breakfast---eggs on toast, I think it is also called "Hole in One". Use a glass and cut out the center of the bread (save these circles and toast them) Pre-heat a skillet place the bread on and then crack the egg into the middle of the bread cut out. Let cook a few minutes and flip cook a few more minutes and serve. My kids love these.!!!

After breakfast they "clocked in" and we started with circle time and calendar. Anastasia helped on this first day since we were setting everything up. Normally she won't participate in this and she will get started on her work right away.

My plan is to start by 8:30 each morning and work until 11:30 at which time the kids will do their yellow job cards and then by 12:15 is lunch then read aloud. After read aloud Natasha, and Alexa will nap and the others will do unit studies and finish up any other work with Anastasia's goal to be done by 3:00 or 3:30.


(notice she changed clothes right away! hehe)



Over all the first day went well. The kids were excited and our workboxes are working. I definitely have to plan some more for Natasha or she needs to go with her Daddy. I didn't have work boxes set up for her yet but she still had a very busy day as you can see in my next post! We have some scheduling issues to work out which I am hoping to have done by the end of the week.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Summer Camping


Our family was so blessed to spend a wonderful week camping with great friends. We spent a Monday-Friday camping up on the rim at Woods Canyon Lake. The weather was gorgeous and the scenery was incredible; however to Nikki and I the best thing was the fact that our hubby's cell phones did not work!! ;) We had no agenda except to hike, fish, catch crawdads and enjoy our families. I would say we accomplished all that and then some.

Pastor Dan cooking breakfast one morning .


After breakfast and even before breakfast some mornings several kids went down to the lake and went fishing/crawdad catching with the dads.





Natasha found a Nemo fishing pole and she would stick it in the water and twirl it around and say "ishing, ishing" and she did catch something......

Jay and Dan rented a boat one morning
The kids caught a lot of crayfish we were able to cook up
By Thursday we caught a total of 18 fish for our fish fry.

Taking naps out doors and being carried in the baby pack for hikes Jadon had a great time.

During some down time I taught Joshua and Savannah how to play "war". They really liked it.

I Love this photo. During one of our hikes the girls collected flowers and put them in Joshua's hat.




I taught the kids how to play Left Right Center. We played with donuts.

We survived our 5 mile hike by stopping at the camp store for an ice cream treat.




During the hike we found several Horned Toads.


I have no idea what is going on in this picture but thought it was cute.


Hiking is such hard work!