Friday, June 28, 2013

Beginning Learning

Last week, we started working on some pre-learning exercises that I think will greatly improve our success this fall with our official homeschool program.

I picked up the scissors on the left at Hobby Lobby and got the others from Amazon. I wasn't sure what would be the most successful for the boys, and right now they prefer the ones from Hobby Lobby. They got another pair with their Kiwi Crate, but those were too advanced in my opinion for little men that want to stick their fingers & toes in the scissors.


I  got these books from Amazon as well, they say they are for ages 2 and up... They are great! The series also has a book on learning to fold paper and one for stickers & pasting. They also have follow up books that we will likely use as well. All this leading up in a natural progression to other learning skills like tracing and then on to the higher level books for learning different concepts.


Here is Tyler's first shot with his scissors... he did REALLY well, but then went off the grid and started shredding the poor dog. If I could harness his power and mind for "good" rather than "mischief" -- he would be amazing! HAHA! Really, he just wanted to cut in the same spots over and over again - but overall, he seems to enjoy cutting in general.


James' first attempts were not as successful, mainly because he doesn't want my help. He just wants to get it done and move on to the next thing -- playing with his vacuum. I'm not sure how things will go with homeschooling him this year, we may have lots of pictures of Tyler and I doing activities and him off on the distance doing something else.


The boy with the aforementioned vacuum obsession... this is the handheld vacuum we use for cleaning up messes in our kitchen after meals... they also have two toy vacuums... as well as using my vacuum too. 


 Another picture of Tyler working on his poor dog... since this day, he has now shredded a cat and a tiger to go along with his dog.


Coloring did go better for James - he loved putting the ketchup on the omelet as the first lesson instructed. We didn't get quite as excited about lesson two, but timing is everything with him. When the options are going outside to play or working on a coloring project... you know what will win out every time. I think we may be afternoon schoolers for a while -- because it's too hot for them to go out after about 10AM these days, but it takes us some time to recover from the emotions that go along with having to come inside.


Tyler working on putting his ketchup - you can tell this is serious business to him... just about the only time he slows down. You can see his sweaty head in this picture from running around like a crazy person, oh and the knocked over chair in the background... nice.


Our finished coloring projects - they did really well staying within the designated coloring area. I was pretty proud of that. I'll take my small victories where I can get them!


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Thursday, June 27, 2013

No Rest for the Weary


 

We've basically got a park going on here these days -- with bikes, Jeeps, baby 4 wheelers, lawn mowers, water tables, airplanes, and swing sets... I swear... all we need now is a giant fort and we're all set for the next several years - with the exception of a potential upgrade on the swing set front.

My mom sent the boys the airplane last week, and we got it set up this weekend... I've got SO many more pictures to share of our fun in the sun, but these are a few to get us started. 


What little boys in their right mind wouldn't love this? I've got a friend that has one as well, and her son got it at about the same age as James & Tyler... and still plays with it 5 years later... so I totally see this thing "flying" through Arkansas at some point in the back of PawPaw's truck when we move. HA! 



I had to make a quick run to the grocery store on Sunday -- so John braved the yard with the boys -- and of course they needed to up their "cool" factor with their sunglasses. Today is National Sunglasses Day... so I thought this was appropriate. 



The inaugural flight... oh, the trouble these two get into. There have already been MANY fights over who sits in the front... and of course when they decide to teeter totter on the wings -- it's hilarious because Tyler outweighs James by 12+ pounds. 

We came outside a day or two ago to find this... 


I'm not sure if a fat bird or squirrel did it... or just some sort of random thing... but our wildlife is being cut off from their food rations for a little bit... I swear, I fill up the feeder and it's empty the next day. Combine that with Tyler's obsession with getting bird poop off of everything -- and it's just time to cut them back a bit. 

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Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Fun in the Sun

We've been enjoying the great outdoors the last few days, and I've got the sunburn to prove it! You'd think that the boys would be worn out, but James stayed awake last night until 10! So let me show you some pictures of our antics over the last few days.



We've ridden our bikes, played with our lawn mowers, ridden on our jeep & 4-wheeler... we've run, played, and these two still have energy to spare! 



We've had several picnics: popcicles, lunch, hotdogs, and homemade pizza last night. They love eating at their little table outside.


Played with bubbles -- I found the coolest little squeeze bottles where the bubble wand pops up when the kids squeeze... they haven't quite gotten it down, but it's cute anyway.

We also took a trip to the zoo this weekend to feed the giraffes and see all the other animals that Tyler has constantly been talking about. He has such a sweet interest in all animals... if only he would be more gentle with the ones that we consider part of our family.




This picture cracks us up -- it's like James was showing the giraffe how to eat with his tongue. So cute! Love that funny little guy!




We cooled off for a bit while having a snack before heading off to ride the train. Too bad the giraffe feeding and train riding are on opposite sides of the zoo... 


After a morning at the zoo, we came home for naps -- then more play time outside. After having their pizza picnic -- it started raining. So what are two little boys to do when it starts raining? Run outside and get on their slide, of course. We wouldn't have ever let that happen, except it wasn't storming -- and they were about to come in and get a shower anyway... so we let them play in the rain for a couple of minutes for their very first time. They knew what rain was, but they'd never really experienced what it really means.


I'm sure there are lots more evenings & mornings that will be spent out in our yard this summer...

Monday, June 10, 2013

Meal Plan Monday

I've been trying to get things more organized around our house lately - and take a different approach to how I do things. My main thought is that if I don't manage things -- it's not going to happen. Granted, life with two toddlers is out of control - if I don't have a plan for all things... they won't happen at all, right?

This is why I've started working on my own version of a household management notebook - I've started with the planner I wrote about in my previous post, and I'll be adding a few things to it to make it more my own.

I also found some great menu plans on some homeschooling websites -- they took all the guess work out of planning for the entire month! One of them does dinner only and the other does an entire day's worth of meals including snacks! I used them to plan our meals for this week, and I thought I'd share my plan with you.

Monday
Breakfast - Fruit & Cream Oatmeal and Toast
Lunch - PB & J, Chips and Fruit
Snack - Popcorn
Dinner - Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, and Roasted Broccoli

Tuesday
Breakfast - Pancakes & Eggs
Lunch -Quesadilla and Fruit
Snack - Apples and Peanut Butter
Dinner - Baked Chicken Parmesan, Fettuccine Alfredo, and Salad

Wednesday
Breakfast - Yogurt, Fruit, and Granola Parfaits
Lunch - Chicken Nuggets, Corn, and Pasta
Snack - Grapes, Cheese, and Crackers
Dinner - Hot Dogs or Frito Pie

Thursday
Breakfast - Muffins and Fruit
Lunch - Turkey, Cheese, and Fruit
Snack - Frozen Gogurt & Pretzels
Dinner - Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole & Green Beans

Friday
Breakfast - Eggs, Toast, and Yogurt
Lunch - Peanut Butter, Honey & Banana Pinwheels and Chips
Snack - Cheese on Pretzel Sticks
Dinner - Homemade Calzones and Salad

Saturday
Breakfast - French Toast, Fruit, and Sausage
Lunch - Hot Dogs, Tater Tots, and Fruit
Snack - Frozen Gogurt & Pretzels
Dinner -  BBQ Chicken, Corn, and Pasta Salad

We will see how well we do with sticking to this plan, and I'll come up with a new one for next week -- I'll be shopping on Saturday next week because I'll need special provisions for Father's Day. I'll also be doing some "shop your pantry" meals as well - because I saw some things I need to use up in there when I was putting things away this morning.

Thursday, June 6, 2013

The Well Planned Day Planner

When we decided to homeschool the boys, I started looking for a planner that would accommodate the various things going on in our lives -- school, appointments, my Scentsy business, and home organization. I believe I've found just the planner for me - The Well Planned Day Planner.

I'm going to show you the various things I love about this planner, but want to let you know that I did not receive anything for free so these are my honest opinions. I personally love that it's spiral bound as well as hole punched because I'm thinking of taking mine apart and putting it in a binder. It runs from July through June of each year -- so the newest version just came out in print recently.


In addition to a great planner, this gem also has 12 articles written on all sorts of topics like: Letting Kids be Kids, Recovering from Homeschool Burnout, and 5 Things I Wish I'd Known Before I Started Homeschooling. They are short reads with great information.

I has a perpetual calendar that you can enter your important dates in as well as putting them in on the dates they fall in the year. Additionally, it has a budget worksheet and a household duty worksheet - so you can set up a cleaning schedule for yourself with weekly information as well as special projects for the month.

There are 4 pull out sheets where on one side it's a chore chart, and the reverse side is a mini school schedule for each child to know what subjects they need to work on each day. I plan on using these in the future and laminating them to put on our refrigerator.


There is a worksheet for the teacher to plan out your schedule  for the week - which I will use to not only plan out our school schedule, but throw in cleaning time, and business hours for my work as well.

There are 4 sections following that follow to track all the information for your child's personalized plan for school - you can track the materials to be used and costs, personal information for your child like their goals and additionally their weekly schedule. The teacher's schedule looks exactly like the student's -- so I'm only going to show you the version for the kids. I personally don't have 4 kids, but I love that they've set it up this way. I do hope to have another baby in the future -- and who knows what will happen from there so this planner can grow with our family over time.







There is a great year at a glance page where you can plan out your holidays and things that you'll want to plan for your school year. I plan to compare the school calendars locally as well as the calendars for our family so that we can make sure that things all match up as best we can for holidays and vacations. The other side of this layout is a sheet for you to write out your goals for the semester.

Of course there is a two page monthly layout, and if you look closely at the bottom of each date -- there is a plan for you to read the Bible as a family with chapters for each day's reading.





On the back of this layout there is a page for planning additional reading project lists, field trip plans, and monthly bills... with a second page with 6 shopping lists that you can pull out to use.









Your weekly schedule is set up with each day you can plan your class assignments (each subject has 4 lines -- one for each student) Then there are two sections for additional electives or daily appointments. I LOVE the check boxes that are built in for when an assignment or item is completed. The left side of the layout has Monday - Wednesday, and the right side has Thursday-Friday as well as some other great items. I love the open boxes for your weekend planning, the weekly priority boxes, and the menu planner.





As you move out of November, there is a great section of holiday organizers with a Christmas Card planning list, Activity planners, Gift giving lists with budget, shopping list broken down by store and list of items to get, online shopping planner with date ordered & received tracker, and a page for notes.

As you move out of December, there is a page to write out our semester accomplishments, and and attendance tracker for each student that you can use -- some states require proof of your homeschooling dates and things - I think this is a GREAT resource for keeping up with these items. On the back of each attendance record, there is a progress report form that you can track weekly grades and the semester grades for each subject as well.









At the very end of the of the planner there are 4 report cards on a nice card stock paper - they pull out and fold in half. They will be a neat keepsake to keep with your child's school records, and will be great to look back on when they get older. We of course won't be using them until we get to a level with tests in the curriculum, but I think they are great! When the report card is folded: there is a cover, then a side with grades and attendance, a side with literature completed and enrichment activities, and finally a page for comments.


(I can't get this picture oriented correctly for some reason)

My plan is to add a couple of other items in with this to complete my planner -- I will likely laminate a more detailed cleaning schedule to put inside the planner I can then use it as a wipe off schedule for the week -- and it can be moved around to mark the place for where we are currently... like a place holder for where we are in the year. The publishers also have a sneak peak of the inside of the planner you can check out here. Additionally, they have student planners and even have an online version that you can share between all of your electronic devices -- each family member can have a unique log-in for their family's information which could be convenient with older children.

I am so excited to get started planning out our year!