The Linton Academy Homeschool

Last Minute Valentine's Day Ideas

2012-02-14T06:30:00.001-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day!!! I just thought I'd share some links I've found to some Valentine's Day ideas for your little ones (in case you're like me and wait 'til the last minute). I've also included links to some other Valentine's Day boards, as well.

Our Valentine's Day Pinterest Board
Stephanie @ Shining Our Lights
Carisa's from 1+1+1=1
Airamty Sid's Board
Jolanthe's from Homeschool Creations

Feel free to leave links to your Valentine's Day boards (or other sites) in a comment below.

I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day!!!

Weekly Wrap-Up... Erm... A Little Late

2012-02-12T20:20:00.003-05:00

Our camera seems to be dying, so I doubt we'll have tons of usable pictures for posts for a while. This update actually covers two weeks of sparse schoolwork. Robbie has had a bit of a cold and we've been taking it easy.

We're, once again, working our way through his NIrV Bible Story Book as well as a few other Bible Story books.

He completed a few reading lessons, but read to me and RockerDad each day. He also did a few Explode the Code pages most days.

He colored his helper words from his Hooked on Phonics. He doesn't "memorize" most of these. I usually tell him the rule and he remembers it.

He made helper word snowflakes the first week...

... and hearts the second week.

We read "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats...

... and he had fun playing with Insta-Snow.

Robbie is still working through his Singapore Primary Math 1A and Intensive Practice. We played some Yahtzee and some Rightstart Math Games, as well. He also had fun following the recipe and measuring everything when we baked brownies for RockerDad.

This is a portion of his Lego Mario, Luigi and Sonic the Hedgehog army (as I call them).

We finished up our study of the five senses. I glued items of various textures to index cards and he felt them blindfolded and described them when we studied his sense of touch. We also did some fun taste-testing for his sense of taste, but our camera refused to cooperate on that day.

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What have you been up to this week?

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Five Senses (Part 1)

2012-01-29T09:17:00.003-05:00

Robbie began his study of his five senses this week. We're having to stretch this out to two weeks because this was a short (3 day) week for us. We used some worksheets in his Brainquest K Workbook and read from his Flip Flap Body Book.

On the day we learned about his sense of sight, we made a lego eye. To show him how light enters his eye, we removed the "pupil" legos and shined light through the hole.

He dictated to me what he had learned about sight (which I wrote down in his journal) and then he drew pictures. (You can see his geometric solids we had used while talking about rods and cones on the table.)

The next day, we read about his sense of hearing. We made a model of an eardrum using a glass, a coffee filter and a rubber band.

We recorded what he had learned.

We should be finishing up the five senses this coming week.

Linking up with:

Click here to view our other science posts.

Weekly Wrap-Up

2012-01-27T07:14:00.000-05:00

We had a short week (Robbie was only here for three school days before he left to stay a few days with my parents).. but it was a fun week!

We're re-working our way through his NIrV Bible Story Book. He's also coloring the corresponding pages in his Bible Coloring Book.

His reading lessons continue to be a success.

He just started a new level this week. He was very excited. Our current read-alouds were posted here, but I thought I'd include one of his drawings. This is Robbie's interpretation of "Swimmy" by Leo Lionni.

He's doing very well with addition and I'm just trying to keep up with him. I'm trying to find a balance between going slowly enough to make sure he really understands concepts and not boring him with overkill.

Robbie draws and colors constantly. He made valentines for his Moo and Papa (my parents).

He also began learning about his five senses.

Sight

Hearing

He dictates to me and I scribe for him in his journal.

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What have you been up to this week?

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Current Read-Alouds

2012-01-26T05:20:00.000-05:00

These are a few of the books we enjoyed this week.

"Madeline" by Ludwig Bemelmans

I wasn't sure if Robbie would enjoy this classic story or not. I've never wanted to raise him to shy away from books, movies, etc. which focus on a female character, so I thought I'd give it a try. After all, we don't expect girls to ignore stories which feature male lead characters. He didn't seem interested at first, but he quickly began to enjoy the story and the illustrations sparked in-depth conversations. His favorite part was where she told the tiger "Pooh-pooh".

"Swimmy" by Leo Lionni

Swimmy is the lone black fish in a school of red fish. When Swimmy finds himself alone in the ocean, he sees many creatures (which are wonderfully illustrated throughout). Robbie really liked this story and drew a lovely picture of Swimmy, the school of red fish and the large tuna fish.

I almost always initiate a mini-narration from him when we're finished so that I know he understood the story and we discuss the story during and after reading it. Of course, we read more than these, but many have been listed before, will be blogged about at a later date or weren't worth a report.

To see what others are reading to their children (and what some children are reading to their parents), please visit the links below:

Math Accessories

2012-01-22T22:07:00.000-05:00

Robbie is currently working through Singapore Math (SM) 1A (which he begs to do... he loves math). I am also picking and choosing ideas from Rightstart to supplement and enhance (not to mention, stretch out) his math time. The SM is pretty straight-forward and he adores the format, but we still use other things to round things out. Those "accessories" are what I thought I'd post about today. There is nothing unique or new here, but I thought I'd share... just in case. (Click any image below to a product link. I receive nothing if you do. It's merely for your convenience, should you be interested.)

These multi-link cubes are so versatile. Of course, they can be used as simple counter and to teach/reinforce place value, but they also work well when teaching area and volume. (Robbie also loves to simply create with them.)

Geometric solids can be used for a variety of activities. We've discussed planes, shapes and vertices and charted which will roll, built with them, etc.

Robbie has been consistently beating me at the Rightstart Card Games we've played. These games cover so, so much. I highly recommend them. No wonder Robbie thinks math is fun!

We have kept a variety of geoboards available for exploration since Robbie was a toddler (when he played with the one I made for him - Click here for original post).

Ahhh... Robbie's abacus... this has been well worth the $10 we spent on it. Yes, it's part of the Rightstart program, but I find myself using it when I'm presenting a new concept in his Singapore lessons. He also likes to make up his own math problems and "prove them" (as he says) on the abacus.

While we've done very little on an official level with our balance scale(s... we have three), Robbie has learned much on his own by exploring and playing with it.

Our tally sticks (i.e. craft/popsicle sticks) have been nearly indispensable. These have been a great, tactile way to reinforce grouping by fives and tens.

These fraction towers are another tool that I've mostly just left out for Robbie to play with and explore. They were a gift from an online friend and I am very thankful for them.

We have many more math "accessories" around the house and (of course) there are many, many, many more uses for these items than I've listed. In fact, I'd love to find some fun new ways to use the things we already have. Please, feel free point me to any resources you may know of.

Check out other (and admittedly, much cooler) math ideas over at
Math Monday

Have you checked out our Math Printables or our Math Ideas Pinterest Board?

Weekly Wrap-Up

2012-01-20T15:33:00.000-05:00

Well, we've been AWOL for several months... I know. I won't bore you with the details, but I will tell you that it's largely been a break from our schooling routines. It was a well-needed break, no less. Structured "school time" has been sporadic, at best, since early August. Robbie has been progressing, but our days have been much more relaxed in that area. We are attempting to slowly ramp things up as we prepare for his official kindergarten year (which will begin after Labor Day). I'm hoping to have something of substance to report next week, but I felt the need to ease back into blogging, as well.

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What have you been up to this week?

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We're back.... I think (WW)

2012-01-11T09:30:00.002-05:00

Our Current Math and Literacy Shelves

2011-08-03T11:39:00.006-04:00

For the month of August, we're doing things a bit differently on our shelves. Instead of our normal rotating math and literacy activities, we are having lots of trays and baskets to help with pretend play. These are centered around our Community Workers Theme.

For the past few months, Robbie has been mostly ignoring the items on his shelves. Sure, he may try something.. but once he does it... he's done with it. I suppose it's my fault for not challenging him appropriately or something along those lines. I know that it's also because he has been overindulged with screen time. We are using this month to wean him down to a teeny amount by September.

Anyway, I'm hoping that these new trays help inspire less of this:

... and more of this (pretending to bandage RockerDad's finger):

So, here are the trays, so far. (More will be added soon. I still have to purchase a few things for the others.)

Baker's Tray
(Hat, apron, mitt, play-doh and various kitchen tools for fun..)

Construction Tray
(I know, there's actually no "tray", but I think he will enjoy playing with his wooden tools anyway.)

Doctor Trays
(I included a real first aid kit from the Dollar Tree so he could have supplies. The ibuprofen bottle is empty, of course.)

Grocer's Tray
(We priced everything together and are already having fun purchasing and making change. It's a great math activity.)

Community Helpers
(The little figures were on clearance at Hobby Lobby for around $2.00.)

Police Tray
(Yes, I know there is a toy gun. We are okay with that. We handle this our own way. Dollar Tree is where most of this is from.)

Other Stuff
(Easy 30 piece "Town" puzzle from the Dollar Tree, Fire Fighter word cards and "helper vehicle" Hot Wheels... with a few normal cars to help.)

He has costumes for many of these in his room, so I'm hoping that I'll be doctored, well-fed, protected and have many construction projects all month long. :)

Oh, I almost forgot to include our books:
(Most are read-alouds, but the red basket holds the books he is re-reading to gear up for the new year and his new level of reading lessons.)

You can see more of the things I hope to try on my
Community Helpers Theme Pinterest Board.

The printables were downloaded from Homeschool Creations. Jolanthe is a genius. :)

Ocean Life Theme Highlights

2011-08-02T09:39:00.012-04:00

We had so much fun during our laid back month-long Ocean Life Theme in July. Here are a few of the things we did:

Robbie loved this sensory bin. I used 1cm gram cubes, blue foam pieces and blue & white pony beads for the "water" and "bubbles". The creatures are from our Safari Ltd. Ocean Life Toob. I also included some chenille stems (pipe cleaners) for waves and a magnifying glass for fun.

See our other sensory bins.

We used a pre-printed Ocean Life calendar I created in Photoshop and simply crossed out the days as they passed. This was a simple idea, but a big hit.

There were many hands-on crafts which provided wonderful opportunities to talk about each creature and its unique characteristics and body parts.

As each project was completed, I placed it on our Ocean Life board (simply a piece of posterboard with some stickers I picked up in the scrapbooking section of a local store). Robbie really liked seeing his crafts displayed.

He played with ocean creatures in the bath tub.

He even got a new whale pencil.

Whales by Lesley A. DuTemple
Dolphins by Morgan Lloyd
A Lot of Otters by Barbara Helen Berger
Life in the Water (A Child's First Library of Learning)
Sea Turtles at Risk by Megan McDonald
Dolphins by Sharon Bokoske and Margaret Davidson
One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss

You can find links to many of the things we used (and some I wish we'd used) this past month on my
Ocean Life Theme Pinterest Board.

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I'll be sharing this post at

Weekly Wrap-Up

2011-07-29T10:33:00.002-04:00

This week has been mostly about planning for the Fall and wrapping up our Ocean Life theme. I was pretty lazy with the camera, but I did manage to snap a few pics.

We're still working our way through his NIrV Bible Story Book.

To make sure that Robbie is where he needs to be before starting the next level of his Hooked on Phonics, I'm having him re-read all of his K level books so that I can make sure he is reading them fluently. He'll then re-read the books from his 1st Grade, Level 1 in the same fashion. He'll start 1st Grade, Level 2 when his new school year begins, on Sept 6th.

This is a pic of him reading one of his Calvert K readers to his Grandma.

He is really having fun with this new perpetual calendar I got from the Target bargain area ($2.50).

He worked on a few projects for our Ocean Life theme.

scratch-art dolphin

paper plate clown fish

Robbie saw some bats flying outside one evening and asked RockerDad about them, so they spent some time together reading about them, looking at pictures and watching videos online.

While eating some pretzels for a snack, Robbie brought these to me. "M" for Mario and "L" for Luigi... then he did them in lowercase ... LOL!

We also went shopping for Tyler's school supplies. He'll be a public school 5th grader this Fall.

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What have you been up to this week?

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Happy Birthday, Beatrix Potter!! (Current Read-Aloud)

2011-07-28T10:16:00.004-04:00

In honor of Beatrix Potter's birthday, we are reading our Treasured Tales from Beatrix Potter once again.

We've been wrapping up our ocean life month and I will be posting about some of the books we read very soon.

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To see what others are reading to their children (and what some children are reading to their parents), please visit the links below:

Proud to Be a Boy Mom!!!

2011-07-28T06:07:00.007-04:00

My name is Jennifer, but I usually go by "RockerMom". I have been married to my wonderful husband, RockerDad, for nearly 6 years. We live in the ridiculously hot and wiltingly humid Southeastern U.S.

I'm a second-generation "Boy Mom". My mother had 5 sons in 7.5 years (I came later). She loved being a boy mom, and I'm loving it, too!!

I have an amazing 10 year old stepson, Tyler, who lives with his Mother most of the time. He loves anything involving action, sports, trying new foods (the more bizarre or disgusting, the better) and is one of the best big brothers I've ever seen.

Tyler has been enjoying the Percy Jackson books. I'd guess these are for about 9-12 year olds (but I liked them, too...lol).

Robbie, my 4 year old, is the main focus of this blog. He loves all things Mario Bros. and has an amazing imagination. He can make me smile faster than anyone I've ever met before.

Robbie loves his NIrV Bible Storybook as well as his Beginner's Bible. He usually loves anything we read, but I'd say his favorite book has always been "Are You My Mother" by P.D. Eastman. It's a lovely book for early and pre-readers.

It can be difficult to be outnumbered by all of these guys, but it is so rewarding. I can't imagine our life any other way.

Heck, sometimes I even feel like I'm a mom to the big boys as well. (RockerDad being silly with my nephews.)

If you're a Boy Mom, hop on over to The M.O.B. Society and "meet" some other Boy Moms!

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine.. FREE Summer Digital Issue

2011-07-27T15:09:00.001-04:00

Take a look at the brand new Summer digital edition of The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine. TOS is offering this digital issue of the magazine totally FREE with no strings attached. Enjoy this free gift from TOS—no registration or email address required to view the magazine! Take a peek here. Then share the link with your friends by clicking on the share button at the top of the magazine pages.

Planning and such...

2011-07-26T13:15:00.004-04:00

I have been trying to gather my materials (and my thoughts, lol) for Robbie's Pre-K year, which will start September 6. (I blogged about our curriculum choices and such in this post.) I've been slowly getting my lessons planned and entered into Homeschool Skedtrack (a free, online homeschool planner). I'm still waiting for Robbie's math materials to be delivered so I can wrap my head around things and plan those lessons.

I'm glad I've given myself this extra time to plan. Even though he's unofficial (as far as the state is concerned) this year, I want to get into good planning and record-keeping habits.

Any advice or thoughts from those of you with more experience? I'd appreciate any and all insights. :)

Pre-K Plans: Fall 2011

2011-07-23T06:30:00.015-04:00

Well, here's the post I've been avoiding for quite some time. Robbie's curriculum for 2011-2012. I've been undecided in a few areas, but I believe I've got it all nailed down... for the moment, anyway.

Robbie just turned 4 at the very end of May, so he is technically starting his Pre-K year this fall. However, we choose to meet him where he is instead of worrying about a "grade level". He loves to learn and I'm sure that this year will be no different.

BIBLE...
will mostly be read-alouds from our various Bible story books. I'm looking into AWANA programs in our area, as well. RockerDad may be working second shift this fall, so that could make it difficult to arrange transportation to and from AWANA (we only have one vehicle). We will also be using some free printables from Bible Study Planet.

READING...
will be our biggest focus this year. He's doing very well, so I want to keep the momentum going.

Robbie will be finishing up his Hooked on Phonics 1st Grade lessons sometime this fall. He'll simply move on to the 2nd grade lessons and continue. (I'll still be using Phonics Pathways as MY guide, though.) He will also finish up Explode the Code 2 and keep moving forward through this series, as well.

He's read nearly all of our simple phonics readers, but I am going to have him re-read them at least once more before beginning the reading list I've compiled for him. It consists of titles from Sonlight readers and similar titles I own. In addition, he will continue with his McGuffey Readers and finish up our Dick and Jane books.

WRITING...
will continue to be homemade letter, number and word tracing and practice sheets until he's ready for copywork.

We aren't using any specific products for this except for highlighters (I make the pages with these), pencils (for Robbie) and the green 1st grade composition books I picked up from Staples. We go through more than one of these per month, so I'm glad they're only $0.90 each.

MATH...
has been, by far, the toughest choice for me to make

After tons of reasearch, soul-searching, fretting, praying and emails/chats with many of you, I truly believe that Robbie will thrive with Singapore Primary Math. I plan to go as slowly (and with as much repetition) as Robbie needs. There will be no hurry to finish. I am hesitant to publish this part of the post, since I haven't actually ordered it, yet. I do, however, feel pretty confident in my choice.

I really, really wanted Robbie to love RightStart Level A. It just didn't happen. He was understanding and executing everything perfectly well (it was actually WAY too simple, for the most part), but he started hating to see the stuff come to the table. I began to hate it because he wasn't enjoying it (not that everything must be fun, but it really didn't seem like a good fit for him). We will be using many of the RightStart methods, materials and even some of the lessons as we go along.... and definitely the games... but it won't be the main program.

HISTORY & SCIENCE...
will be covered by our (mostly) monthly themes & read-alouds.

Dinosaurs
Harvest/Halloween
Native Americans & Thanksgiving
Advent & Christmas
Pirates
Bugs
Presidents
Knights & Dragons
More!!!

Robbie will also be learning some very basic geography this year.

MUSIC...
will simply consist of listening to a different composer each month as we do our schoolwork. I don't plan to go in-depth with this, just learning the composer's name and informal discussions about the music and instruments. I may also begin to teach Robbie some basics on the piano.

ART...
will mostly be incorporated in crafts and such for our themes. Many of our planned activities can be found on my Pinterest Boards I would also like to add some picture study to our days, as well. We'll see, though.

OTHER...

Our read-alouds (outside of our monthly themes... inside when they fit :D) will be books that I am able to obtain from the Sonlight 3/4, 4/5 and A lists (read-alouds, science and history) as well as from the Ambleside Online Year 0 list. We have an amazing used bookstore within 20 minutes of our home. I am always finding wonderful books there for next-to-nothing.

As a member of TOS Homeschool Crew for the 2011-2012 year, who knows what else will be thrown into the mix!!! I can't wait to find out.

Well, those are the bones of our plan for 2011-2012. I'm still workout out how to bring it all together in a fun (and not overwhelming) way.

I can't wait to see what everyone else has planned!!!

I'm sharing this post at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers Weekly Wrap-Up: Curriculum Special Edition, Let's Talk Curriculum at Training Children Up for Christ and Educating Layton's Show Off Your Curriculum Link-Up.

Lazy Wrap-Up

2011-07-22T12:26:00.002-04:00

This has been a very lazy week. Not that Robbie hasn't learned anything, it's just all been very informal and a bit haphazard.

We're still working our way through his NIrV Bible Story Book. We're going to re-read all of the miracles of Jesus in several story bibles. I think he'll get more out of them that way.

READING

We had a helper word scavenger hunt all around the house. I hid the cards and gave him the checklist. He wasn't simply matching the words to the list, he had to read them as he found them.

He insisted on wearing my Harry Potter 3-D glasses I got from seeing the latest movie. He said that he was a detective. :)

I posted a bit more about our reading progress yesterday in my weekly Reading With Robbie post. I also included a free vowel-recognition printable in that post.

WRITING

Robbie is progressing nicely with his letter and number formation. He has improved so much in the past month or so.

Robbie is working through the last bit of his Horizons math book. It's usually the first thing he asks for each day. (I always loved math, too.)

Robbie was our personal chef one day.

JULY THEME - OCEAN LIFE

He got some new ocean life bath toys (he had a few and I picked up a pack at the Dollar Tree).

I found a whale pencil in my stuff. He was more excited about a new pencil than I thought he'd be.

We read a few books about aquatic mammals, then we made paper plate whales. This was so much fun!

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What have you been up to this week?

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Reading... a break from lessons (and a printable)

2011-07-21T10:08:00.008-04:00

I know I haven't posted a reading update in a few weeks. Our weeks have been mostly reading books. We've taken a bit of a break from the lessons. We'll be getting back to them, but I thought it would be fun to simply... READ.

What has Robbie been reading?

His big books from his Hooked on Phonics lessons. He's re-reading these for review. He's loving how easy they have become since he's moved forward in his lessons.

He's started reading his way through our Beginner Books collection. He may need help with a word here or there, but he's really doing very well. Sometimes the books are too long for him to read in one sitting, so I allow him to bookmark them and come back later.

He also enjoyed having a Helper Word (sight word) scavenger hunt around the house.

I also made this vowel/consonant coloring sheet to help Robbie review which letters are vowels and which are consonants. Simply click the image below to download the file.

What reading skills have your students been working on?

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Linking this post up with

Seahorse Mosaic

2011-07-18T10:52:00.004-04:00

We found this little mosaic sticker-by-number at Hobby Lobby for around $2.00. Robbie was really into this project.

He was especially proud when he finished the project.

We're going back to look for more because he enjoyed it so much. :)

Bubbles!!!! (WW)

2011-07-13T05:51:00.002-04:00

Making Our Own Jellyfish

2011-07-12T13:02:00.004-04:00

Materials:

We started by coloring our flattened coffee filters with markers.

We dropped water onto our filters to help the colors bleed and blend.

After the filters were partially dry, I placed them each over an upside-down bowl (paper or styrofoam) to help them form.

I decided to stack the bowls (with another on top) to help the forming process. When they were completely dry, we glued them each to a bowl with a glue stick.

We used glitter glue to decorate ours, but you could use whatever you want.

One of Robbie's took over 24 hours for the glitter glue to dry because he used so much. (He has one of the lids on his pinky smearing it around... LOL.)

While we waited for the glue to dry, we cut some wavy strips of tissue paper and some ribbons.

We also read about jellyfish.

Finally, Robbie got to glue on the tentacles.

The start of our "Ocean Life" board. (Please ignore the wallpaper. We are renters.)

We each still have one to finish. This has been a fun project. Robbie doesn't always have tons of patience for crafts, but he really loved this one.

You can check out my Ocean Theme Pinterest Board for additional ocean life ideas.

Our Ocean Life Sensory Bin

2011-07-11T15:22:00.004-04:00

I thought I'd share a bit about what's in our Ocean Life sensory bin.

We used blue 1cm gram cubes as our base. I thought it was an interesting water substitute. There are also some blue and aqua pony beads mixed in for "bubbles". The creatures are from our Ocean Life Toob. Some blue foam shapes as well as a few squiggly pipe cleaners for waves and beading round it out.

I included a blue-handled magnifying glass for close-up exploration.

It's a small bin, but it works. He's really been enjoying it.

See our other sensory bins

You can check out my Ocean Theme Pinterest Board for additional ocean life ideas.

Weekly Wrap-Up

2011-07-08T05:27:00.004-04:00

We've had a fun and productive short week. Robbie began his month-long ocean life theme and RockerDad's birthday was yesterday. We've had a blast! I only wish I'd taken more photos.

We're still working our way through his NIrV Bible Story Book. He learned about John the Baptist and the baptism of Jesus as well as about the calling of the disciples and the first miracle of Jesus.

READING

Robbie did a bit more work with placing the alphabet in order (without singing, of course). I really believe we can work on the next step in his lessons on alphabetizing. He's able to name the missing letters without starting at the beginning of the alphabet. (He's even remembering "N" now...LOL.)

We began to work on r-controlled vowels this week, as well. (Our cards can be downloaded here.

I posted more about our learning to read fun in my weekly Reading With Robbie post.

WRITING

He's making great progress in writing both letters and numbers. He loves tracing and writing letters and words.

I made up a very simple calendar for the month of July. He's simply crossing off the previous day and telling me the day of the week and the date. Sometimes I ask him to tell me about yesterday or tomorrow, but we're being really relaxed about this. He's grasping it, so I see no need for more at the moment.

He's also been doing 2-3 lessons per day in his Horizons math book. He needed a break from RightStart until I can make it more fun and challenging for him. It's not the easiest program to accelerate.

Honestly, I'm surprised that he is liking the Horizons, since he really seems to prefer sticking with a topic until all avenues are exhausted. Each Horizons lesson covers several topics (some new, some review). It's very spiral.

I never noticed that he was doing addition problems mentally before (probably because we hadn't made it that far in RS). My gears are spinning as to what to do next.

He had fun exploring his ocean life bin. We watched Disney Nature Oceans on Netflix and he enjoyed pulling out each sea creature as it was shown on the documentary.

You can check out my Ocean Theme Pinterest Board for additional ocean life ideas.

He painted a craft stick frame for RockerDad's birthday. I couldn't find a paintbrush, so he used his fingers. :)

We also had a bit of fun in the kitchen. I was too involved in the actual process of making things to get pics, but here are our sweet treats from the holiday.

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What have you been up to this week?

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Hot Rods and R-Controlled Vowels

2011-07-07T05:39:00.002-04:00

Learning to read on a short week...

Robbie picked up the "ar" sound very quickly this week. For reinforcement, he's been coloring our r-controlled vowels word cards and our new ocean-themed "ar" word cards.

Today, his reading lesson had him read instructions. He thought this was very cool. He got to cut and fold to create a paper hot rod. (I copied the hot rod onto card stock so that we wouldn't have to cut up his book.)

The instructions...

Decorating his hot rod...

Of course, he's still doing a page in his Explode the Code daily and reading lots of books to me and RockerDad. He's also reading most of the conversations between characters on his Super Mario Galaxy 2 game and anywhere else he sees printed words (sometimes with a bit of help).

I can't wait to see what fun things others are doing with their children as they learn to read.

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Linking this post up with

Current Read-Alouds

2011-07-06T22:31:00.000-04:00

These are a few of the books we enjoyed this week.

"Life in the Water"
A Child's First Library of Learning
This is a fun question and answer book about aquatic creatures. Each two-page spread starts with a question, such as: "Why Do Fish Have Scales?" and proceeds to give answers (and even exceptions). There are both real photographs and illustrations. We'll be reading and discussing our way through this book throughout the month of July to go along with our Ocean Life Theme.

"I Can Read: Hansel and Gretel"
(no author listed)
This purified version of the fairy tale was not the best version of the story that we own, but Robbie really enjoyed the "read-together" aspect of the book. The left page has the story for the parent to read, while the right page has a sentence or two for the child to read. Robbie really enjoyed reading like this. I enjoyed the price (we found this book, as well as other titles in the series, at the Dollar Tree).

Some other books we read and enjoyed this week:

"One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" by Dr. Seuss

"Dolphins (Step Into Reading"" by Sharon Bokoske and Margaret Davidson

I have also listed many of the books we enjoyed during our June Outer Space Theme in this post.

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To see what others are reading to their children (and what some children are reading to their parents), please visit the links below:

Outer Space Theme Highlights

2011-07-03T16:59:00.004-04:00

We just finished up our June Outer Space theme and I thought I'd post a bit about the things we enjoyed the most.

Robbie enjoyed his outer space sensory bin. I used some black floral rocks as the base. The figures are from a Safari Ltd. Space Toob. We purchased a glow-in-the dark cosmos set and I added them one planet at a time (in order by distance from the sun). The "sun" was the sphere from our geometric solids. He also played with a Matchbox space shuttle and another larger shuttle which was a souvenir from Kennedy Space Center.

See our other sensory bins

Since this was such a laid back theme, I didn't incorporate much into our regular studies. Here are a few of the things that we used in addition to our normal "Three Rs" studies...

Reading: Helper Word Rockets

Writing: Tracing Sheets from this Preschool Pack

Math: Space-Themed Beginning Number Bonds

Robbie really enjoyed his freeze-dried ice cream.

We did a few hands-on craft-type things...

I found this spaceship kit on clearance at Target.

Robbie and I made a satellite from a piece of cardboard, aluminum foil and a straw.

He really loved making this Makit and Bakit Suncatcher.

Robbie told me that playing Super Mario Galaxy 2 on the Wii counted as learning about space.

He built a rocket with his wooden blocks.

Glow in the Dark Constellations: A Field Guide for Young Stargazers by C.E. Thompson
The Berenstain Bears On the Moon by Stan & Jan Berenstain
Little Rocket's Special Star by Julie Sykes
All About Space (a Scholastic First Encyclopedia)
Space Adventure by Amy Adair
Science Starter (A child's First Library of Learning)
We Can Go! (Scholastic Reader)
A Dad in Space (a Scott Foresman reader)

You can find links to many of the things we used (and some I wish we'd used) this past month on my Space Theme Pinterest Board.

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I'll be sharing this post at

Weekly Wrap Up

2011-07-01T05:16:00.000-04:00

We're still working our way through his NIrV Bible Story Book. Robbie learned about Jesus in the temple at 12 years old this week.

Robbie has completed half of his Hooked on Phonics level. I've slowed his Explode the Code to a single page per day so that it will last through both levels of HOP 1st Grade. ETC 3 should fit nicely with the 2nd grade HOP, so I don't want to start it before we're there. He is still reading daily and progressing nicely.

He worked a bit on alphabetical order. He sometimes skips "N" when he says the alphabet. Placing the letters in order reminds him that it has to go somewhere... lol.

Our next step will be placing a few letters in alphabetical order (instead of the entire alphabet), then words.

I posted more about some of our methods and fun in my weekly Reading With Robbie post.

Handwriting

Numbers have been the focus this week. I make all of Robbie's handwriting sheets. I actually have the Startwrite software, but I prefer this method for now.

We enjoyed games of UNO and Dominoes.

I added an addition tray to his math shelves.

It quickly became one of his favorites.

His new geoboard tray. I added these to the little basket after I took the photo.

If you download the geoboard cards, you can simply draw the design you want your child to copy onto the geoboard (or the child can transfer what he/she makes on the geoboard onto the cards). I think that laminating a few of these would be cool so that they could easily be reused.

He also started working on very basic number bonds. Free printables can be found here.

Robbie and Tyler each placed their handprint into a stepping stone for our new place. (Thanks, Aunt Mimi!!!)

Brothers... hanging out on the front steps. :)

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What have you been up to this week?

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A Glimpse of Robbie's Reading Lessons

2011-06-30T11:55:00.003-04:00

Robbie has been doing his Hooked on Phonics lessons daily. We only spend about 5 minutes per day on these.

These are a few pages from this week's lessons...

Here is the story he will read for his lesson today...

Robbie finished his new helper word rocket this week. He surprised me when I presented the words. I had originally planned to introduce a few each week, but he read every word but "could" on the first try.

He colored half of his helper word cards earlier in the week. He'll be coloring these today and/or tomorrow.

Since he knows his helper words a few lessons early, it will give us an opportunity to play around with r-controlled vowels. I'll use our printables as well as some other things I've found on the web. Hopefully, that will be part of next week's post.

Here is a shot of the board where we keep his literacy work and sticker chart.

He's been doing one page of his Explode the Code daily. He was doing more, but I cut him back to a page per day. It's a good review.

Here is a pic of his page for today.

These are the books he will read to me today. They are below what he is working on, but they are helping to build his fluency and keep his confidence up.

I placed a small magnetic board on his literacy shelves with the alphabet, but I removed some of the letters. I thought it would be a fun into to working on alphabetic order.

He enjoyed doing it. Next week, I plan to just let him put all the magnets on in alphabetical order himself.

He found his old c-v-c puzzles and worked them in his room one day.

This seems like a lot, but we actually spend very little time on structured learning. Usually less than 45 minutes per day, in small chunks.

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Linking this post up with

Current Read-Alouds

2011-06-30T05:42:00.006-04:00

These are a few of the books we enjoyed this week.

"The Tales of Beedle the Bard"
J. K. Rowling
This book is a collection of fairy tales. It was originally mentioned in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" as a fictional work containing a tale which was vital to Harry's quest. Rowling later published the collection, with all net proceeds going to The Children's Voice Campaign (currently known as Lumos). We've only read the first tale, "The Wizard and the Hopping Pot", but Robbie really enjoyed it and we had lots of fun discussing the moral of a story meant for a wizarding world* audience (be kind and don't look down upon those less fortunate than yourself).
*Robbie is familiar with Harry Potter and his fictional life.

"The Magic School Bus - Lost in the Solar System"
Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen
We read this together as part of our relaxed space theme. When their field trip to the planetarium is cancelled, Miss Frizzle takes the class on a tour of the solar system. It is a typical Magic School Bus book, with lots of fun humor and facts dispersed throughout. I've got to get more of these books, Robbie loved this!!

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To see what others are reading to their children (and what some children are reading to their parents), please visit the links below:

The Family Who Spars Together.... (WW)

2011-06-28T22:09:00.001-04:00

Beginning Number Bonds Printables (Space Themed)

2011-06-27T05:32:00.002-04:00

I thought that Robbie would really enjoy these simple, early number bonds sheets. Even though there is a visual representation of each bond, I will have him use either his abacus or another manipulative to provide a concrete example of each.

You can either use them as full sheets or cut out the individual cards. I would recommend cutting them apart and laminating them if you think you may re-use them.

Since we've been doing a lax space theme this month, I used free clipart rocket ships on these sheets.

I'll be adding more in the near future.

You can also download my blank number bonds sheets here for more freedom with your activities.

I hope that someone will find some of these useful. :)

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Check out other (and admittedly, much cooler) math ideas over at
Math Monday

R-Controlled Vowels Printables

2011-06-26T10:33:00.005-04:00

Since the consonanant blends (beginning and ending) which are the main focus of Hooked on Phonics 1st Grade seem to come pretty naturally to him, I thought that Robbie could begin to learn some of the skills which will be taught in the 2nd grade levels. HOP 2nd grade seems to cover many skills, so having an emerging grasp on them will (hopefully) make it go as smoothly as the other grades have.

I decided to start with some basic r-controlled vowels, as these come up fairly frequently in his everyday reading. These printables are simply words to color (or trace) with the vowel and the r underlined to help him remember the rule.

Simply click the image above to download the printables. I don't know if these will be helpful to anyone else, but I thought I'd share them... just in case. :)

Here are some other free r-controlled vowels activities and printables:
Bossy R's
Starfall Word Sorting
Boggles World

A Public School Teacher's Thoughts on Homeschooling

2011-06-26T07:03:00.002-04:00

If you haven't already, check out this wonderful article written by a public school teacher over at Hip Homeschool Moms.

Batten Down the Hatches..

2011-06-25T08:28:00.002-04:00

... and hoist the anchor!!

The 2011-2012 TOS Homeschool Crew is setting sail and I am please to announce that I will be serving on this year's crew. This will be my first time on the crew and I can't wait to see what great products I get to review for my readers.

I sure do hope that I can be helpful to someone. :)

Weekly Wrap-Up

2011-06-24T05:55:00.004-04:00

Robbie was sick on Tuesday and Wednesday, so we had a very light week. I also misplaced the camera (left it in Robbie's room), so there aren't many pics.

We're still working our way through his NIrV Bible Story Book.

Robbie is still reading through his Hooked on Phonics program.

We've also been playing lots of games:

I posted more about how we use games in my weekly Reading With Robbie post.

He practiced writing his numbers a bit this week. He wrote a few notes to me, as well. He mostly colored, though.

We didn't do tons of math this week. Somehow, it slipped through the cracks. I posted earlier this week (with photos) about some of our RightStart activities.

Regrouping tally sticks to make the quantity easier to see and manipulate.

You can see a few more of our RightStart math activities in our Math and More post.

We've all had so much fun with his new (to him... $1.99 at a thrift store) marble run.

Showing us a (vacated) bird's nest at my parents' house.

"Hamming it up" at VBS.

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What have you been up to this week?

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Learning to Read and Spell with Games

2011-06-23T05:20:00.004-04:00

As Robbie makes his way through his reading lessons (which we will probably be speeding up... what is covered in the rest of his Hooked on Phonics 1st Grade seems to be pretty natural to him), we are having fun with some games and other fun things.

He plays Boggle, Jr and works these puzzles... I don't have pics of him working the puzzles. He can now find all the pieces to the 3, 4, and 5 letter words (one letter per piece) for all 26 puzzles. It takes time to find the pieces, but I'm happy that he knows which letter he needs. (It's a bit frustrating for him when he finds the correct letter, but it's to a different puzzle, though. LOL)

He always plays Boggle, Jr with the flap covering the word. I think he's spelled every word in the stack too many times, now. It's just getting too easy.

The most challenging part is turning over all the dice to find the letter... lol.

Even though it's easy, he still has fun with it...

He made RockerDad a card for Father's Day using letter stickers. He spelled 100% phonetically, so it was very cute. I don't have a pic, though. :(

RockerDad found this old Scrabble Sentence Cube game at Goodwill for less than $1.

Robbie and I have had fun creating silly sentences for each other to read.

We've had lots of fun with these games and puzzles. What reading and spelling games do your children like?

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Linking this post up with

Robbie... Just Plain Robbie (WW)

2011-06-22T06:36:00.001-04:00

A Bit of RightStart Fun..

2011-06-20T06:38:00.005-04:00

I was going through my photos for the past few weeks and found a few of our RightStart activities. I've received so many emails regarding this program, that I figured I should share them. (These were all taken during the first 10 lessons of Level A.)

We played "Concentration" (a.k.a. Memory) with two sets of cards. We used the abacus/bead cards and the tally mark cards. Robbie had fun playing this game and we will probably play many variations on it to keep the visualized quantities of 1-10 fresh in his mind as we move on.

I gave him a row of tally sticks (quantities of 5-10) for him to group as a "5 and _" and identify without counting. He is now a whiz at this. :)

Level A is not a worksheet-intensive program, but he did get to do his first RightStart worksheet a few weeks ago. It involved making tally marks.

These are the things we were working on before he went to my parents' house for a week. I'm very excited to see what the next lessons hold. :)

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Check out other (and admittedly, much cooler) math ideas over at
Math Monday

Summer Plans.... Gearing Up for Pre-K

2011-06-19T11:24:00.004-04:00

Robbie spent this past week at my parents' house. It was his own little "summer camp". He also attended VBS at our old church (we've recently moved and are looking for a new one). He had such a wonderful time.

While he was away, I was able to put pen to paper and tweak a few things about our summer school plans. I thought I'd post a bit about that here.

Although Robbie will continue his reading lessons and his math lessons, our summer will be mostly reading and playing around simple themes.

Our themes will be monthly. I figure that will give us plenty of time to explore and complete activities without feeling rushed or having guilt over not getting around to something.

Our Summer Themes

June: Space
July: Ocean Life
August: Community Helpers

I know this isn't necessarily the most detailed post, but I'm leaving lots of wiggle room. After all, it is summer. I am simply hoping that these activities will help us to keep busy during the very, very hot days and that we will have lots of fun along the way.

What will your summer studies (or lack thereof) look like?

Review: Time4Learning

2011-06-18T07:03:00.008-04:00

In May, we were given a free one-month subscription to Time4Learning, an online educational program, in exchange for an honest review.

What exactly is Time4Learning? Here is a description, taken from their website:

Time4Learning is a technology-based online educational program that teaches preschool to eighth grade curriculum using a combination of animated lessons, interactive activities and reinforcing worksheets.

A top selection of the Homeschool.com "Top 100 Educational Websites" list year after year, the Time4Learning program has been refined through years of feedback from educators, parents, and students. The lessons are presented at the student's pace by an automated system in a sequence designed to build strong subject literacy.

Time4Learning is a great curriculum for families who homeschool. It is also a great after school skill sharpener and is often used for remediation and test preparation. Whether mainstream, gifted, or special needs, Time4Learning provides a flexible, student-paced approach.

I was confident that Robbie would love this. After all, he loves to play on our computers. He is an avid gamer (he beats really difficult levels on Wii and DS games by himself). He loves to learn. What could be a better fit?

Due to his age (not-quite-four, at the time), Robbie was placed in the preschool level. He played around with the preschool lessons, but was extremely bored after a short time. He then tried the Kindergarten level, but they didn't hold his interest, either.

I logged into the parental controls and changed his grade level to "Kindergarten". Since students can work on their assigned level as well as one grade level above and below, I thought that this would be perfect. He could choose from Preschool, Kindergarten and 1st Grade lessons. None of this made him more interested.

Robbie hated (I know, it's a strong word, but it's true) the lesson intros. I wish those had a "skip" button. He's the type of kid who wants his instructions and takes off from there. He did, however, really enjoy answering the questions... when he was able to make it to them. He literally ran away during some of them.

He very quickly began to fight me about using the program, so I decided to poke around on the site and get more of a feel for it. After all, I had a review to write. I have to admit, my feelings are mixed.

This review is really not what I hoped it would be. I truly think that the concept is great. I love the way the program is laid out. I think the lesson plans and paths are wonderful. I honestly believe that, for the right family, this would be a perfect fit. For us, it simply wasn't.

Weekly Wrap-Up

2011-06-10T05:34:00.007-04:00

Our week was disrupted a few times in both good ways (my parent's spent a day with us) and not-so-good ways (we were waiting since LAST Friday for the installation of a new water heater , which didn't happen until Thursday... yes, yesterday), so I don't have tons of pictures of the things Robbie did. Next week, he'll be staying with my parents to attend VBS with them, so I'm still trying to figure out what I'll do with myself... (he's never been gone for that long before).

Anyway, here's a (tiny) peek into our week:

We're still working our way through his NIrV Bible Story Book.

Robbie completed lesson 4 (and the first unit of three) in his reading lessons this week. He read his "big boy book" (as he calls it), "Slim Sam". He also continued reading in his Dick and Jane book as well as began reading from McGuffey's First Eclectic Reader. I have added the last two for variety and, because they start out so short and simple, for fluency.

If you ever wish to see the things Robbie has been reading, you can check out his Book List. The list can also be accessed under the "Reading" menu above.

He made "Helper Word Rockets", too. These are from his Hooked on Phonics - Kindergarten lessons.

I quizzed him on the review words and he only had to color the ones he couldn't read on the first try. (He didn't miss many out of 4 rockets.)

I posted more about some of our methods and fun in my weekly Reading With Robbie post.

He has been working on basic handwriting sheets I make for him on K/1st grade paper (I'm simply making them by hand).

We managed to complete several lessons this week (two in one day because he didn't want to stop). He knows how to group and recognize quantities 0-10 as well as what to add to 5 to get numbers 6-10. He is also grasping even and odd numbers as well as the concepts of parallel and perpendicular.

Sorry about the lack of photos. I'm very involved in his lessons, so pictures of us using RightStart won't be as frequent as other subjects.

Paint by numbers (from the Target dollar section)...

He built a rocket after reading this book. It's been a long time since he played with these blocks.

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What have you been up to this week?

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Current Read-Alouds

2011-06-09T11:35:00.000-04:00

These are a few of the books we enjoyed this week.

"Officer Buckle and Gloria"
Peggy Rathmann
I guess we're the last people on the planet to read this book. We thought it was very cute. Robbie enjoyed reading all of the safety tips on the inside of the front and back covers. He laughed heartily as Gloria performed in secret while helping the children to learn safety tips.

"The Elves and the Shoemaker"
(A Little Golden Book)
We've had this classic fairy tale for a long time and I can't believe we've never read it. It was a great bedtime book for Robbie. (I believe he's hoping that some elves come in to clean his room since it didn't wasn't properly tidied before he went to bed.)

"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
Lewis Carroll
We're still reading this, but it's taken a backseat to some other things. We're in no rush, though. It's definitely initiating lots of questions and conversations about some rather odd topics, though. I think that's my favorite part. :)

Some other books we read and enjoyed this week:

"The Mine-O-Saur" by Sudipta Bardhan Quallen

"Green Eggs and Ham" by Dr. Suess

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I always initiate a mini-narration from him when we're finished so that I know he understood the story and we discuss the story during and after reading it. Of course, we read more than these, but many have been listed before, will be blogged about at a later date or weren't worth a report.

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To see what others are reading to their children (and what some children are reading to their parents), please visit the links below:

How We Handle "Helper Words"

2011-06-09T06:27:00.007-04:00

As you probably know, we have been using Hooked on Phonics (HOP) since January. We started with the Kindergarten, Levels 1 & 2 and are now 1/3 of the way through 1st Grade, Level 1.

I was only comfortable using the word family/helper words (a.k.a. "sight words") approach on my own terms. I've tutored too many children who guess more than they read due to being immersed in word families and sight words without a decent grip on phonics.

First, I had to make sure that Robbie was sounding words out well enough to use the word families as a tool and not a crutch. The next thing I tackled was all the "helper words" in the HOP books.

I know the arguments for having the child simply memorize even the most basic and phonetic sight words, but that made no sense to me (or to Robbie for that matter). I have simply been teaching Robbie any rules he needs to know for each particular word. There have only been a few that I've had him memorize (who, said and says... I think that's it). We still talk about the sounds in these words because he's a "why?" kid about EVERYTHING.

Anyway, here are a few activities we did this week with a few of his new helper words:

I made some print-outs of some easy and (hopefully) fun activities. I didn't want this to dominate our days, so I planned very short activities. (No need to memorize these. In fact, he is now comfortable with the -ay sound since we discussed its use in the word "play")

He colored his helper words.

I told him that he forgot to color the "e" and he replied that he was leaving it blank because it was silent. We may do this for all silent letters in the future.

He built the sentence I dictated. (I don't think I'll make these anymore. He seemed to think it was boring. Perhaps a silly sentence would be better received. Hmmm...)

Here you can see all of his helper word rockets from HOP K. You can also see all of his helper words he's colored this week (on the cards). He'll make a "Helper Word Rocket" of these words either today or tomorrow. He loves to make them "blast off" once they have been completed.

This was a giggly grin I captured while we were working on reading earlier this week. I love that he's having fun. :)

As you can see, it's nothing innovative... but it's how we do things (and it seems to be working for Robbie).

Okay, having said all of that, please do not take offense if you use sight words or even if you teach absolutely NO phonics. I know what makes sense to me (and it seems to be how my child's mind works, as well). Every child is different. As long as they grow to be literate, the methods are of little consequence in the long run. :)

Here are some sites that inspired our activities (although we tweaked them a bit):

1+1+1=1

Shining Our Lights

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Linking this post up with

Camping In (WW)

2011-06-08T12:02:00.001-04:00

Weekly Wrap-Up

2011-06-03T07:15:00.005-04:00

Well, we're (mostly) unpacked and settled. RockerDad's sister and her son were in for the long holiday weekend. (There's nothing like pending company to motivate you to unpack and organize.) Tyler was also with us last weekend. The three boys had so much fun together. We hated to see everyone leave.

We did manage to squeeze in a bit of learning during this very short week...

We are currently working our way through his NIrV Bible Story Book. I'll be supplementing his stories with the ones from his Beginner's Bible when appropriate.

Robbie's reading lessons are going well. I still struggle with my urge to make this more "hands-on" for him. He is fine without all the games and frills, but I feel like I should be doing them. I have been incorporating some things (and will be including more as we progress), but those will be covered in a future post.

He completed Lesson 3 this week in his Hooked on Phonics. This is a photo of him making words from lessons 1 & 2.

He did quite a bit of coloring this week.

I know it seems weird to have this in the "Language Arts" section, but it's just one more thing that is helping to refine and strengthen his hand, wrist and forearm muscles in preparation for writing.

I posted some photos of the items we currently have on Robbie's literacy shelves in my weekly Reading With Robbie post.

We only did one Rightstart lesson today (and I think we may do another one today), but he played with items from his Math Shelves every day.

Robbie turned four on Monday.. here are some pics from his birthday weekend:

We took a drive to the Ocoee River on his birthday.

Oh, yeah... and we started our space month this week. This will not be a very intense unit study. It will simply be a lot of space-themed fun (when we feel like it).

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Current Read-Alouds

2011-06-02T08:32:00.004-04:00

These are a few of the books we enjoyed this week.

"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
Lewis Carroll
We're slowly reading through this. Robbie is loving the story and is learning a ton of new vocabulary. I know we'll tackle it again when he's older, but he found it on the shelf and asked me to read it to him. When we're finished with this one, I think we'll go back and finish "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" (since we didn't finish it before).

Some other books we read and enjoyed this week:

"The Pied Piper" (A Little Golden Book)

"The Perfect Fishing Spot" by Stan and Jan Berenstain

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To see what others are reading to their children (and what some children are reading to their parents), please visit the links below:

Our Current Literacy Shelves

2011-06-01T20:00:00.003-04:00

I thought I'd share some photos of what is currently happening on our literacy shelves. These are simply reading, writing/coloring and fine motor activities. Robbie is free to choose these activities whenever he wishes.

His reading lessons and related activities are not included in this post. I'll talk more about those next week.

READING

Robbie's books (I got the idea for keeping books he's mastered in an easily accessible bin for him from Carisa at 1+1+1=1. I apologize for not being able to find the exact post. The good news is that any of her posts are sure to inspire you.)

Here are some of the books that were in the bin on the day I took the photo.

Magnetic white board and letters (Robbie loves to spell).

WRITING

Stencils and markers

Various crayons

Wipe-off pre-cursive tracers

FINE MOTOR (pre-writing activities)

Beads and Baubles

Tweezing patterns

The game of Perfection

Homemade lacing/tying shoe

What literacy activities do you have in your homeschool? Please link up at Teach Me to Read Thursdays and share!!

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Birthday Boy and His Bike (WW)

2011-06-01T05:50:00.001-04:00

Bowling with the Boys

2011-05-31T06:36:00.003-04:00

Rob's sister and her son, LJ, came in from far away for a long weekend with us. Tyler was also with us for the weekend, so we took all three boys bowling one day and they had a blast!!

Tyler had pretty good form...

LJ wasn't looking too shabby, himself...

Robbie didn't really like using the ramp, but he needed it...

He got over being upset about the ramp rather quickly...

I never did get a shot of the many celebratory chest bumps between these two...

RockerDad with the boys...

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Click below to see how other kids are playing over at Childhood 101.

Happy 4th Birthday, Robbie!!!

2011-05-30T04:20:00.001-04:00

4 days...

1 year...

2 years...

almost 3...

almost 4 (his party was 2 days ago)...

I love you, baby boy!!

Our Current Math Shelves

2011-05-29T09:22:00.005-04:00

Robbie considers math a fun game. He loves to solve puzzles of any sort and thinks numbers are cool.

Here is a glimpse of what's hanging out on our current math shelves. I didn't include items from our actual math lessons, I'm sure you'll read enough about those in the future, anyway. ;)

Fractions Board and Equivalency Set (through 1/4 for now)

Place value flip chart

Hundred board and colored tiles

Fifty and one hundred piece puzzles

Geometric solids and sandpaper matching cards

Balance scale and 1cm gram cubes

Coin sorting/matching (one sheet has coin values and the other has coin names)

Geoboards and rubber bands

Do you have math shelves or a center? What do you currently have out for exploration?

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Check out other (and admittedly, much cooler) math ideas over at
Math Monday

Weekly Wrap-Up

2011-05-27T04:48:00.007-04:00

It's been a busy and crazy week! Last Monday, RockerDad started a new job and on Friday, we were moving things into our new place. We've been trying to get settled in this week and do the final unpacking and setting up. We did manage to get in a bit of school a few days this week, though.

Robbie worked through Lesson 2 of his Hooked on Phonics 1st Grade this week. These lessons are quick and he loves the format.

He also read several readers both to me and on his own for fun.

I wrote a bit more about what's going on with his reading progress and my thoughts
on how we will proceed in my weekly Reading With Robbie post.

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Robbie is working through the letter formation section of the Brainquest K workbook. Also, he has been working on penmanship sheets that I make for him by hand. I use these homemade sheets for extra practice and to isolate individual strokes which seem to be difficult.

He has really found an interest in coloring, so I have been letting him work through his Kumon Book of Coloring at the Zoo to help strengthen his finger, hand and wrist muscles and build the necessary stamina for writing (when he's older).

We completed a few Rightstart lessons this week. I really don't think I'll know if we like it or not until we get to lessons that are more challenging.

Other math activities...

He really enjoyed sorting plastic coins by both value and name.

We played with his hundred board together, taking turns calling out a number for the other person to cover.

Every time he saw an abacus this week, he felt the need to make the stairs. He does this easily (without counting, sliding the entire quantity). I know that when we get to this part in Rightstart, he'll breeze through it.

Robbie was amusing himself with his balance scale and 1cm gram cubes on this day.

Playing on Time4Learning.com

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Current Read-Alouds

2011-05-26T13:35:00.002-04:00

Since we found a townhouse and moved over the weekend, Robbie wanted me to read some old favorites to him. :)

There were more, but this week has been so crazy that I can't remember them at the moment. I'll try to do better and include descriptions and such next week.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

To see what others are reading to their children (and what some children are reading to their parents), please visit the links below:

Reading with Robbie...

2011-05-26T06:16:00.002-04:00

Robbie is finishing up Lesson 2 in his new level of reading lessons and doing very well.

This lesson doesn't have a story to read, it has a recipe to follow instead. He will be cooking ham and eggs (per the recipe) for his Daddy later today... with my help at the stove, of course.

He read some of his Calvert K readers as well as from one of our "Dick and Jane" books. He read a few "I See Sam", too. These were all below his reading level, but I've been using them to help build confidence and fluency.

He also read some more advanced readers with my help. I'm so glad he enjoys reading with me.

We have been unpacking our things and getting settled into our new place, so we haven't been doing many creative learn to read activities (I'm not sure he enjoys those, anyway.... he prefers to just read).

I'm trying to formulate a plan to make his reading lessons more hands-on, but in a way he will really enjoy. Most of the activities I have seen involve drilling sight words. Since we are very light on those, I'm having to come up with some ideas of my own.

Hopefully, I'll be able to share a plan with you soon!!

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Linking this post up with

... fit for a king ...

2011-05-23T17:25:00.007-04:00

Robbie is so excited to be in our own place again! He is really thrilled to have a bedroom of his own.

He was playing in his new room with his little kitchen and play food (pictured in his new room below.... he had forgotten that he had these things in storage).

What was on the menu?

... for Mommy ...		... for Daddy ...
Carrot and Potato Soup Carrot and Potato Cake Apple and Orange Pie A Big Cup of "Joe" Lemon Cake A Nice Cup of Tea		Hot Pepper Soup Hot Pepper Cake Hot Pepper Pie A Big Cup of Joe More Hot Pepper Pie A Nice Cup of Tea

He knows that his Daddy loves hot peppers.

Needless to say, we were very full after this huge meal. I'm glad he's having so much fun. I can't wait until we're completely settled in. :)

Click below to see how other kids are playing over at Childhood 101.

Please pardon the interruption...

2011-05-21T08:13:00.000-04:00

My blogging will probably be a bit more sporadic over the next few weeks as we are finally moving to a place of our own (insert me doing a happy dance here). I'm not sure when the internet will be on (AT&T is very slow about these things), so I'll be checking in at either hot spots or Mom's house.

Weekly Wrap-Up

2011-05-20T04:27:00.002-04:00

Our week had no real theme and it was fairly light. RockerDad started a new job and we've been searching for a place to call home... finally. I love both of our families, but I'm ready to live on our own again.

Robbie did his first word find puzzle. He liked it!

He had lots of fun playing with this word cube I made for him. I suppose I'll have to make some more.

He did a bit of work in his Brainquest K workbook, too.

You can see more of our reading activities from this week
in our Reading With Robbie post.

I didn't get any pictures since we're both still adjusting to Rightstart math, but we did a few lessons and we're both enjoying them.

Robbie wanted to make bracelets with his pony beads and pipe cleaners.

He enjoyed painting in this Cat in the Hat painting book. He painted a very colorful robin.

We also made ice pops from 100% fruit juice. Robbie convinced my Mom to give him one after breakfast several days this week.

We're gearing up for his birthday at the end of this month. I can't believe that my baby is nearly four years old. Where did the time go?

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I'll be linking this post to Preschool Corner and Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Reviewing ch- and sh- digraphs

2011-05-18T23:14:00.002-04:00

Our main focus this week has been a review of the digraphs ch- and sh-. Robbie read and spelled several words beginning with these.

He used these letters to spell many ch- and sh- words, as well as review some of his helper words. (I teach him the phonics rules for these as we encounter them. He then has no problem sounding them out very quickly, just as he does any other unfamiliar word. They soon become familiar, though, and he's learned some new phonics rules!)

He also used our consonant digraph printables:

Here are a few of his helper word review activities. I made these for the week's words plus a few old ones for review, but you can download Carisa's amazing You Can Read! printables over at 1+1+1=1.

He also did a few of the alphabet pages in his Brainquest K book. He doesn't mind coloring or mazes, so he doesn't fight the "baby work" (as he usually calls it). He also likes the handwriting pages.

It's been a great week and he's loving his lessons.

sharing this post at

Fashion Sense... (WW)

2011-05-17T22:03:00.004-04:00

Fun With Water

2011-05-17T05:00:00.000-04:00

My parents' pool is not quite ready for swimming yet, so we picked up a Slip N Slide on sale the other day.

Robbie had a blast out in the sun...

jumping in the little splash pool at the end...

over and over...

and, of course, gliding down the slide for a big splash...

Click below to see how other kids are playing over at Childhood 101.

Rightstart Math...

2011-05-15T15:44:00.003-04:00

We will officially be starting Rightstart Math Level A tomorrow. Well, technically, we started last week, but that was only the first lesson.

I won't have all of my manipulatives for a few more weeks, but we will be fine with the ones we have until then. Robbie is very excited to do more of these fun math lessons.

I must admit, I'm pretty excited, too.

Hopefully I'll have some cool photos and add-ons in my math post. :)

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Check out other (and admittedly, much cooler) math ideas over at
Math Monday

Happy 10th Birthday, Tyler!!!

2011-05-14T22:12:00.004-04:00

I thought I'd share some pics of the elder RockerBoy through the years...

Daddy, Robbie and I couldn't be more proud of the young man you're growing up to be.

Robbie's Repair Shop

2011-05-14T07:33:00.005-04:00

My mother and I found this Original Big Wheel at a local yard sale for $5. It was missing the pedals, but we couldn't pass it up!!

With no prompting, Robbie drew these plans (using sidewalk chalk) to repair the big wheel.

He grabbed some of his necessary tools and parts (the old bicycle pedals were thrown in for free with the Big Wheel... unfortunately, they were too big).

He used the duct tape to secure some stiff cardboard around the pedals. This was the compromise he made since we didn't have the wood blocks he originally envisioned.

He took it for a test drive.

Of course, the pedals still fell off, but I was really floored by his level of planning. He still tells us that it would have worked if he had been able to use the wood blocks.

Oh, and we found a set of pedals online and ordered them. The Big Wheel is now complete!!!

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Linking up with:

Free Worksheets from Worksheet Lab

2011-05-12T08:36:00.001-04:00

I happened upon the Worksheet Lab site while doing a google search. I wish I had found this site sooner! I love, love, love their printables!!!

The site features full-color printables for preschool and kindergarten in the following categories:

Pre-Writing
Mazes
Dot-to-dot
Drawing
Coloring

Writing
Uppercase
Lowercase
Titlecase

Numbers
Numerals
Counting

Concepts
General
Matching

Papercraft
Cutting
Cut & Fold

If you haven't checked them out before, you really should see if they have anything you may be needing.

The Ultimate Homeschool Blogroll

2011-05-10T05:58:00.003-04:00

Have you seen the Ultimate Homeschool Blogroll? Have you listed your site?

Hop on over to Hip Homeschool Moms and get your blog or site listed!

The blogroll is divided into homeschooling styles:

Charlotte Mason

Classical

Eclectic

Montessori

Traditional

Unit-Based

Unschooling

Other

First Year Homeschooling

If it's your first year, you may choose both "First Year Homeschooling" and one style that best reflects your philosophy.

I love Hip Homeschool Moms and I am happy to share this wonderful blogroll.

Time4Learning Free Trial and Review

2011-05-09T19:03:00.002-04:00

I've been invited to try Time4Learning for one month in exchange for a candid review. Time4Learning can be used for homeschool, afterschool and summer skill sharpening. Be sure to come back and read about my experience.

To all the Moms....

2011-05-08T00:49:00.003-04:00

He is finished!!!

2011-05-07T12:12:00.002-04:00

No, he hasn't finished learning to read... but today, Robbie finished up Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read Kindergarten. He read the final book, "Big Bad Ben" to me and did an excellent job!

He is so proud of himself and is already asking when he'll get the "green box" (the first grade level). We haven't ordered it, yet.

Robbie completed both levels 1 and 2 of the Kindergaten set in four months, but I fully expect that the First Grade set will take longer. We'll spend as much time on each lesson as he needs to master each concept.

I never would have thought that we'd use or love Hooked on Phonics.... but it sure is working at this house!!

Weekly Wrap-Up

2011-05-06T05:37:00.002-04:00

Theme for our studies this week
Forests

I couldn't find any forest printables that I cared for so I whipped up a few quick ones for him to use.

Great books we read together

Our Current Read-Aloud post can be found here. It has a few more of the books about forests we enjoyed this week, as well as some other books.

Books and stories Robbie read to me
Pig's Backpack
Hop on Top
The Nap
That Cat!
In the Well
Jack Picks Up

He also re-read several of the old books he's read before... these were simply the new ones.

Learning and exploring...

As Mom/teacher, I found this week to be
... long ...

A favorite hands-on project
... we didn't really have one :( We just played a lot. ...

We laughed when
... we watched a Veggie Tales movie together ...

I am praying for my child to
... finally have a real place to call home ...

Our Favorite extracurricular activity was...
... observing forest animals from the yard ...

Mom's favorite...
... this came in the mail today ... a gift from an online friend ...

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I'll be linking this post to Preschool Corner, Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers and Mama Buzz.

Teach Me to Read Thursdays

2011-05-05T09:16:00.003-04:00

Stephanie, from Shining Our Lights Preschool, has just started a new linky. It's for all those posts about teaching our children to read.

If you're teaching a child to read, hop on over there and link up! Be sure to visit the other bloggers who are linking up. I'm sure we'll all be able to give and get some wonderful ideas to use with our children.

Current Read-Alouds

2011-05-05T05:49:00.003-04:00

Our books and activities for the week mostly revolved around forests, forest animals and trees. Here are a few of the books we enjoyed:

"Forest"
Sheila Rivera
This short non-fiction book is a great introduction to Forests. Words which may be unfamiliar are in bold and are then defined in the text. This book is perfect as either a read-aloud or as practice for an emerging reader.

"Who Grows Up in the Forest?"
Theresa Longenecker
This is another non-fiction title that we enjoyed. Eight different forest animals and their babies are featured. This was a fun way to study some baby animal names.

"Backyard Bear"
Jim Murphy
We used this as our main storybook for the week. Its the story of a young black bear who wanders into a neighborhood and wreaks havoc (non-violent). The bear is not anthropomorphic and it is child-friendly while still remaining realistic. It was a great opener to our discussions about wild animals and our safety.

Some other books we read and enjoyed this week:

"Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" by Bill Martin, Jr.

"Curious George and the Pizza Party" by Margaret and H.A. Rey

"Beauty and the Beast"

"Mickey's Wish" by Barbara Bazaldua

"Thomas the Circus Boy" by David Merveille

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To see what others are reading to their children (and what some children are reading to their parents), please visit the links below:

Phonics Pathways and Hooked on Phonics

2011-05-04T11:13:00.000-04:00

We have kind of slacked off on our use of Phonics Pathways for the past few months, but I have been checking it (in order) to make sure that we haven't missed anything.

We haven't...

So far, Hooked on Phonics is covering pretty much the same material in the same order. This makes me very happy. I will continue to do this as we move forward.

Robbie will be starting the Hooked on Phonics First Grade very soon and I will be using the Phonics Pathways and Reading Pathways (Pyramid) as reinforcement and practice.

He is loving this adventure of learning to read (and so am I)!!

Compound Words

2011-05-03T11:48:00.000-04:00

Well, Robbie will start his final lesson in Hooked on Phonics Kindergarten... Compound Words. He's already pretty good with these, so it will be a useful review for him. Then he'll read the final reader, do his Unit 6 Review and read "Big Bad Ben".

"Big Bad Ben" has 3x the pages of his readers and reviews everything from Kindergarten (both levels). It also has some words with rules he has yet to encounter, just to see how he handles them. This wasn't a problem with the big book ("Tim and Sam") at the end of K Level 1.

He's very excited to start the First Grade lessons soon!

Circle of Moms: Top 25 Homeschooling Blogs

2011-05-03T10:25:00.003-04:00

I know that our little blog is certainly not in the top 500 homeschooling blogs, not to mention the top 25... HOWEVER, I did want to let you guys know that you should vote for your faves over at Circle of Moms. There are many wonderful blogs listed (and I've even found a few more to follow over there).

So, do your part... VOTE!! (Simply click the badge above to go to the voting page.)

:)

Ordering Food on the Fridge...

2011-05-02T04:57:00.004-04:00

Robbie spelled a few snacks he was craving the other day while I was doing the dishes. The spellings are 100% his own.

Fruit Snacks

Cheese Bits (just like Cheez-Its)

Yoo Hoo

He told me that if he spelled a word on the fridge, I was supposed to give him that snack... he didn't get the Yoo Hoo, though.

I thought he spelled them pretty well for a not-quite-four-year-old... what do you think?

Weekly Wrap-Up

2011-04-29T00:30:00.009-04:00

Theme for our studies this week
Are you sitting down?? We had a garden theme. I know, I know... we had a theme last week, too. I'm just as surprised as you are.

We mainly used this wonderful Garden Preschool Pack from Homeschool Creations. Robbie loved it!!

Click Here to see how this unit was used on the Homeschool Creations blog.

Great books we read together

Our Current Read-Aloud post can be found here. It has a few more of the books about gardens we enjoyed this week.

Books and stories Robbie read to me
You Can, Too
My Cat
Tim Has a Hat
Hap
Peg-Leg Meg
Ted
In the Pen
In the Sun

Learning and exploring...

... sorting seed packets ...

... garden-related vocabulary (he matched the little word cards in the bottom right with the correct picture) ...

... parts of a flower puzzle and word cards ...

As Mom/teacher, I found this week to be
... scary ... a tornado ripped apart much of our town ... This photo was taken in the afternoon (approx. 5 or 6 hours before the tornado hit)

A favorite hands-on project
... working in his little corner of his Moo's garden ...

We laughed when
... he was so dirty from working in the garden that he actually needed a thorough "pre-bath" before he could get into the tub for his REAL bath ...

I am praying for my child to
Continue to love learning and grow to be a self-confident, compassionate and tolerant man... but the man part doesn't need to rush itself.

I love that he loves to learn...

Our Favorite extracurricular activity was...
... does coloring Easter eggs count? ...

Mom's favorite...

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I'll be linking this post to Preschool Corner, Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers and Mama Buzz.

Current Read-Alouds

2011-04-28T04:15:00.001-04:00

Our books and activities for the week mostly revolved around gardens, flowers, seeds and spring. Here are a few of the books we enjoyed:

"My Garden"
Kevin Henkes
This is a delightful book. It's about a little girl who helps in her Mommy's garden and how she imagines her own dream garden to be. Chocolate bunnies, jelly bean bushes and sprouting umbrellas kept Robbie giggling.

"I'm a Seed"
Jean Marzollo
This story is a conversation between two seeds as they grow into very different plants. The seeds compare and contrast their characteristics as they develop. Robbie and I took turns reading pages in this one. It was a great way to read it, since one seed always talks on the left page and the other on the right.

Some other books we read and enjoyed this week:

"Spring" by Nicola Baxter

"Usborne First Nature: Flowers"

"The Four Seasons: Spring" by Maria Rius

"Spring Green" by Valerie M. Selkowe

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To see what others are reading to their children (and what some children are reading to their parents), please visit the links below:

Gardening... (WW)

2011-04-27T09:08:00.004-04:00

Reading with Robbie...

2011-04-26T07:33:00.000-04:00

Well, I haven't been updating very regularly because most of our lessons are a bit hit or miss these days.

Living with my parents is great, but it's not very easy to have a routine. They tend to make me feel that I'm hurting Robbie by doing ANYTHING educational with him. I hope we have a place of our own soon.

Anyway, Robbie is four word family lessons and the final, compound word lesson away from finishing up the Hooked on Phonics Kindergarten program. He's very excited. I am planning to spend a bit more time on the compound words lesson.

Review: The Curiosity Files - Blue-Footed Booby

2011-04-24T18:59:00.009-04:00

We were recently given the chance to review one of The Curiosity Files available from The Old Schoolhouse. We were sent a link to an e-file of the Blue-Footed Booby unit.

As soon as I opened the file, I knew that Robbie would have lots of fun with it. The file is 100 pages and covers many subject areas (as any good unit study should). Math, writing and copywork, spelling, vocabulary, geography, crafts and more are all included in this file.

Since Robbie is only a preschooler, my first task was to view all the pages and print out the ones which were appropriate for him. I was pleasantly surprised to find so many sheets and activities that we could either use or easily modify.

Robbie and I both enjoyed putting together his mini "Curiosity File".

He loved looking at a picture of a Blue-Footed Booby to choose the correct colors for his coloring page.

Overall, we really had a blast with this unit! It was a wonderful addition to our bird week.

This unit includes activities and worksheets for a wide variety of ages and levels, so it would be perfect for a family study. The official ages listed are for 8 - 13 and up, but it was very easy to modify for a preschooler.

Some of the pages include:

Math
Measurement
Word problems
Fact families
Multiplication Facts

Writing
Combining sentences
Writing a story

Spelling & Vocabulary
Word Lists
Spelling activities
Spanish worksheets
Games

... and SO much more! Many of the topics even have two versions, one for elementary and one for junior high/high school.

This product is not secular. If you and your family are not Young Earth Creationists, you will probably need to modify/skip a few parts. I don't see it being a huge issue, though.

This unit is available through The Old Schoolhouse Store (http://www.theoldschoolhousestore.com) and is priced very reasonably at $6.95.

Besides the Blue-Footed Booby unit, you can also find these Curiosity Files in The Old Schoolhouse Store (some priced as low as $1.00):

Cicada-Killing Wasp

Blue Diamond

Dung Beetle

MRSA

Platypus

Puffer Fish

Quicksand

Red Tide

Zombie Fire Ants

This is a thorough and fun study of a creature that we didn't even know existed. I would definitely recommend it if you are studying birds, The Galapagos Islands, or if you're simply looking for something fun and different.

* * * * * * * * * *

The opinions expressed in this post are purely my own. I received this product free for review purposes. I was given no other compensation for this review.

Weekly Wrap-Up

2011-04-22T08:24:00.005-04:00

Theme for our studies this week
We actually had one!!!! ..... BIRDS!!!

Here are links to materials we used for this:
Homeschool Creations Birds Preschool Pack
1+1+1=1 Birds Preschool Pack
The Curiosity Files - Blue-Footed Booby

Great books we read together
Our Current Read-Aloud post can be found here. It has a few of the books about birds we enjoyed this week.

Books and stories Robbie read to me
Big Ed's Bed
Pat
Where is Cat?
Sam
Sam the Seal
I Am
Monkey
(He didn't read any new ones... sorry.)

One lesson or interesting fact we learned
... many, many facts about birds ...

As Mom/teacher, I found this week to be
... fun and surprising ...

A favorite hands-on project
... working on his Blue-Footed Booby mini lapbook (I'll be posting a review of what he used later this weekend) ...

We laughed when
... we lauged so much this week, I can't remember them all ...

I am praying for my child to
Continue to love learning and grow to be a self-confident, compassionate and tolerant man... but the man part doesn't need to rush itself.

Our Favorite extracurricular activity was...
... playing with "fuzzy", the caterpillar ...

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I'll be linking this post to Preschool Corner, Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers and Mama Buzz.

Current Read-Alouds

2011-04-21T07:55:00.004-04:00

We are now living in an area with a much smaller library than we had in IL. I think I was a bit spoiled up there. We had an amazing selection there. Anyway, here are a few of the books Robbie enjoyed this week:

"Birds" (Variety of Life Series)
Joy Richardson
This book is a bit more in-depth than the book below. It uses real photos of birds instead of illustrations. Robbie really loved the photos (and acting out the individual traits and/or facts).

"About Birds: A Guide for Children"
Cathryn Sill
This is a lovely book which we really enjoyed. It is beautifully illustrated with various kinds of birds. Very basic facts about birds are on every two-page spread.

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To see what others are reading to their children (and what some children are reading to their parents), please visit the links below:

Weekly Wrap-Up

2011-04-15T10:18:00.007-04:00

Theme for our studies this week
As usual.... none.

Great books we read together
I fell a bit short on this one this week.... I'm so ashamed... We DID read, but it was sparse. The great outdoors was beckoning.

Books and stories Robbie read to me
Big Ed's Bed
Pat
Where is Cat?
Sam
Sam the Seal
I Am
Monkey

One lesson or interesting fact we learned
... Robbie really loves to play with his cousins...

As Mom/teacher, I found this week to be
... a time for Robbie to help out around the house... he raked hedge trimmings and helped his "Moo" put up Easter decorations... He also helped with putting away laundry. cleaning up and more... but I don't have pics of those.

A favorite hands-on project
... this wasn't planned, but he drew this "hopscotch" game on the stones in my Mom's sidewalk. I've never taught him to write his numbers, so he was doing his best to "write" them from memory...

We laughed when
... he tried to play one of my bass guitars...

Craft idea for this week
Not really a craft, but he did make this "turtle shell" for himself. He wore it for hours...

I am praying for my child to
Continue to love learning and grow to be a self-confident, compassionate and tolerant man... but the man part doesn't need to rush itself.

Our Favorite extracurricular activity was...
... playing catch with Daddy ...

Pic of the week

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I'll be linking this post to Preschool Corner, Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers and Mama Buzz.

Expression (WW)

2011-04-13T07:53:00.001-04:00

List of Free or Nearly Free Homeschool Resources

2011-04-12T14:02:00.005-04:00

I just saw a great post at The Joys of Home Educating that I thought I'd share:

Free (or Almost Free) Resources for Homeschoolers

This is one of my favorite blogs. I constantly find new blogs to follow or sites to frequent due to her posts.

Be sure to check it out!!

Planting Sunflowers

2011-04-10T06:49:00.001-04:00

Robbie planted sunflowers with "Moo" (my mom) last week. I was able to snap a few pictures. He is loving all of this outdoor fun!!

He gently pressed the seeds into the soil.

He spilled one of his little planters when he began to water them... but "Moo" helped him save it.

He has been watering and checking on his sunflowers daily. (I'll post updates as they sprout/grow. He'll enjoy relocating them into the garden.)

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I'm linking this post to:

Playground Fun...

2011-04-09T06:44:00.003-04:00

Robbie has been to the playground nearly every single day since we arrived back in Tennessee (except the rainy ones, of course).

Here are a few photos of one of his recent playground escapades.

Weekly Wrap-Up

2011-04-08T06:22:00.002-04:00

I am simply posting a photo recap of our week. There were no planned educational activities. We were all simply adjusting to life back in TN.

A light educational schedule WILL resume next week. ;)

Reading with Robbie... Okay, so I lied...

2011-04-07T22:43:00.000-04:00

I know, I know... I promised we'd get back to Robbie's reading lessons this week.

We didn't.

He did read a book to his "Moo" (my Mother) today.

I plan to do a light school schedule a few days per week starting next week.

Printable Link Correction

2011-04-07T20:01:00.002-04:00

I have corrected the link to the complete Super Mario Bros activity pack/lapbook on our printables page.

I apologize to anyone who was unable to download this due to my typo. I am including the proper link below.

Super Mario Bros. Activity Pack/Lapbook

Thanks to Tiff at Making the World Cuter for letting me know about the dead link.

The Park (WW)

2011-04-06T06:10:00.003-04:00

Reading with Robbie... Plans for the next week...

2011-04-03T21:40:00.000-04:00

Well, we're back in TN and I think it's time to get back to reading with Robbie. I mean, that is the blog title... isn't it?

Seriously, though, we'll start back up tomorrow pretty much where we left off. We're both excited.

Weekly Wrap-Up

2011-04-01T08:47:00.004-04:00

Our week has been filled with tons of real-life learning and playing...

We had no official "school" time this past week since our things were all packed for the move back to Tennessee. We made the journey on Tuesday and are still acclimating to being at my parents' house. Robbie has been enjoying his time with "Moo" and "Papa" (as he calls them).

Well, I wish I had more to report, but I guess this has simply been a week off for us. :) We're enjoying it!!

Reading with Robbie...

2011-03-28T09:12:00.000-04:00

Robbie finished Unit 4 and is still doing well.

We will be taking a week or two off from lessons as we move our family back to Tennessee.

Packing up......

2011-03-28T08:52:00.003-04:00

We're packing our things today. We are moving back to Tennessee tomorrow. It's bittersweet for all of us. We will stay with my parents until we find our own place.

I may not post as often for the next week or two, but I will be back!!

Please remember our family in your prayers and thoughts as we travel (RockerDad will be making two trips).

Weekly Wrap-Up

2011-03-25T08:04:00.005-04:00

Theme for our studies this week
As usual.... none.

Great books we read together
Our read-alouds are listed here.

Books Robbie read to me
Dog Bug
Tub Fun
Tom's Pal
The Fog
Pop Fox

One lesson or interesting fact we learned
Robbie learned some basics about digestion (poop is always fun for a little boy). He was also a platypus named "Carpet and Shells" for a few days.

As Mom/teacher, I found this week to be
Short and mostly play-based.... but he is starting to surprise me with his mental math. He does addition problems all day long (we don't really work on addition, yet). RockerDad says that Robbie gets the math stuff from me.

A favorite hands-on project
Playing with Flarp and drawing.

We laughed when
He made noises with the Flarp

Craft idea for this week
Hmmm...

I am praying for my child to
Continue to love learning and grow to be a self-confident, compassionate and tolerant man... but the man part doesn't need to rush itself.

Our Favorite extracurricular activity was...
Playing catch with the dog in the back yard.

Pic of the week
I don't have any pics. Hopefully I'll take some next week.

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I'll be linking this post to Preschool Corner, Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers and Mama Buzz.

Current Read-Alouds

2011-03-24T05:32:00.012-04:00

We weren't able to get new books from the library, so we had to read some of what we have on hand. I really hope to be able to have access to all of our books that have been in storage for the past six months soon. That will make us both happy. :)

"What Happens to a Hamburger"
Paul Showers
This is a book that tells, in child-friendly terms, all about digestion. Robbie was very fascinated with this book and asked many questions as we read (even more than usual). He's really amazed that all of those "parts" can fit inside his body and do all that work.

"How Many Veggies"
Phil Vischer
Listing this book almost seems silly. It's a book about counting to ten. Robbie can count into the hundreds by ones, twos, fives and tens. That has no bearing on his love for this book. I have to read it at least once per week... usually more. Perhaps the familiar rhyme and meter of the verses and predictable outcome is soothing to him.

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To see what others are reading to their children (and what some children are reading to their parents), please visit the links below:

Reading with Robbie...

2011-03-23T16:13:00.000-04:00

We hit our first snag last night. Robbie stumbled a bit reading "Dog Bug" after his lesson. I think he was just tired, but I decided to back up a bit and slow down to make sure he's ready to move on.

Today, he re-read "Pop Fox", "Fun in the Sun" and "Dog Bug". He did extremely well on the first two and read the third pretty well. I've decided to do the Unit 4 review with him tomorrow and let him re-read some more books along with "Dog Bug". If I'm satisfied with his fluency, we'll move on into Unit 5.

Unit 6 has an intro to compound words, so I want to make sure that he's mastered the one-syllable words before we hit that.

Where do these things come from?

2011-03-23T10:39:00.002-04:00

Robbie: "You can call me 'Carpet and Shells'. I transform into a troodon."

He cracks me up daily!!

Stormy Weather (WW)

2011-03-23T03:20:00.000-04:00