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Flowers at the Desert Park
I don’t usually focus on the flowers, but they were in bloomand quite pretty last week. Here are a few pictures — Ialways think they look lovely against the red sands.
Contact Paper Art
I put out a piece of contact paper (sticky side up) withsome crinkled pieces of tissue paper. I thought ED wouldhave fun making some art. There happened to be a coupleof craft match sticks and cut up straws in the bowl. WhenI turned around, ED was placing them vertically on thepaper! I was impressed at her three-dimensional picture. A little while later she had just as much fun destroyingher masterpiece.
ED’s Sense of Humor
The other night ED was sitting next to us on the couch. She signed, “The frog is hurt.” A little confused I asked her “The froggy is hurt?” She nodded her head and pointed to a little frog tattoo she had on her foot… she had scratched much of the tattoo off. The best part about all this was that ED started to laugh hard when she pointed at tattered...
First Grade Math Games Online
I came across this website this evening that lists some simple, but cute computer math games appropriate for first graders. I’m not that great about having LD use the computer for these kinds of things, but I think I’ll make a more concerted effort to make games like these available for him. I think he’d enjoy them. http://www.internet4classrooms.com/skills_1st_math_new.htm Here are some examples of games listed at this website: 1) Your...
Sunflower Schoolhouse
I raved about Honey’s website a couple of days ago, but wanted to mention a couple of pages I found particularly useful that I don’t think I mentioned before. She had a very useful post about the websites she likes that have activities for toddlers: http://sunflowerschoolhouse.com/toddler-activities/ Also, I printed these brick building cards (Lego projects) and cut them so that there were two cards on each piece of paper. The...
Halloween Lanterns
The day before Halloween we made lanterns on glass baby food jars and tissue papers. We placed small candles inside and they looked quite cute. You might want to check out some of our other Halloween Posts: Halloween: Freebies (Math, Writing), Homemade Candy Corn Recipe and More!! Free Letter W Printables Halloween Party Games! Free Printable: Homemade Candy CornRecipe: When we lived in Australia (when the kids were little), we...
What Have We Been Up To? Part 1
Aside from the crafts and trips out and about, I wantedto share some of the things we’ve been doing these days athome. Except for ED’s activities, these activities allappeared in their workboxes this past week. I just loveworkboxes because it lets them choose things when theyhave an interest. They get very excited by some of thethings I put out for them and we’ll often get wrapped upin activities for an...
What Have We Been Up To? Part 2
I think I mentioned that LD started a new short lapbookunit on carnivorous plants. He’s been very interestedin the venus fly trap. I found a free lapbook athttp://dynamic2moms.webs.com/carnivorousplants.htm(didn’t I mention that the other day?). And LD’s been doinglittle bit of work on it each day. We’ve been having himdo the cutting this time as there isn’t as much writinginvolved. (Often I cut things out if we’re doing a longerlapbook that...
What have we been up to? Part 3
I know I’ve mentioned a number of times that we usethe Right Start Math curriculum. I really, really like theprogram (and so do LD and DD)! We progress prettyslowly partly because (as you probably have noticed) wedo lots of other math activities/games as well. But, RightStart Math really impresses me with its use of manipulatives,games and its emphasis on truly understanding basicmath concepts. So, pictured below we’re doing a couple...
What Have We Been Up to? Part 4
The kids have really been enjoying these math DVDscalled Mathtacular. It’s a DVD about math–addition,skip counting, place value and things like that. The kidsare really engaged by it and it covers so great mathconcepts.
What Have We Been Up To? Part 5
This week, LD has been reading a Scooby Doo chapterbook aloud to me. I asked him to choose one picture fromthe book for me to photograph, but he couldn’t decideand insisted I include all of these photos — so here you are!
What Have We Been Up To? Part 6
The kids play really well together — and I snapped apicture of their set up of haunted houses and transformers.It was an involved game that lasted more than an hour!I’m always impressed at how creative the kids are intheir free play and find that a valuable part ofhomeschooling. The houses, by the way, are called “Sweet Streets” andwe got them used from another family for an amazingbargain!
Making Candy Corn
We all LOVED making and eating candy corn today. It is not sold here where we live. We visited http://www.homemade-dessert-recipes.com/candy-corn-recipe.html for instructions. It was easy, the kids enjoyed helping me and LD was impressed. “Wow Mom! YOU knew how to make real candy!!!” We halved the recipe which made more than plenty. As you can see, I added baking chocolate to make brown candy corn. Also, I made pumpkin balls...
