Yes, I'm getting desperate. Send help.

Maybe I have too much time on my hands to have come across this.

Maybe I'm simply getting desperate.

Maybe it's time to start with Abby? Oh, the thought of that is headache inducing.

Saturday Fun!

Yesterday was a FUN day! We went to the go-kart races that were here in town and after a quick nap for the kids went to the pumpkin patch. HERE are the pictures!


(Obviously I need to edit this picture to cut me out...)

D

This week was about the letter D. Yes, I know it's Thursday, but we usually don't do anything on Friday other than our Bible lesson, because, well....he's only 3 and I have to vacuum and clean sometime.


The Zoo Phonics set that was on Ebay for cheap-cheap went sky high at the last minute and I wasn't able to snag it. Shoot bummer. (I'm starting to sound like my 3 year old!) So, we are just doing the motions for Zoo Phonics and continuing with Confessions' Letter of the Week curriculum. (I bought the whole thing for $10 and am enjoying the activities. I have no intention of reinventing ANY wheel!)

We finished up our Five Little Monkey's Jumping on the Bed lapbook, and you can see the final project - a monkey puppet - hanging on the closet door. I love how he's really understanding how to correctly hold a writing tool, although it's hard to see it in either of these photos.

Here is his final David and Goliath picture. (Obviously I helped him out a little bit.) Every picture he colors has to get cut out so he can paste it on construction paper. (I found this picture on some random preschool coloring page.) In our Bible book we just finished up David and Goliath and of course, as we all know, Goliath ends up dead. William for some reason, is still stuck on Moses. (I think it's because we spent a great deal of time on Moses.) Anyway, I've told him numerous times that "Moses is dead. Gone. We are done with Moses." So, when we got to the part where David kills Goliath William pipes up, "So, now Goliath is dead? Just like Moses? So now we're done with Goliath?" Yes Son, we're done with Goliath. And since we're "done with Goliath" he really doesn't want to sing the "Only A Boy Named David" song because why? "We're done with him!"

This picture has everything to do with the letter D. Disastrous! I know some people think that I am wound up a little too tightly and don't like messes, but here's proof I'm settling down...a bit. I'm not sure William's face ever had food on it, because I kept him quite clean. But with #2...I'm starting to let go a little and let her be a little messy. Let's just say, though, that immediately after she finished her sandwich she was cleaned up! What can I say? I'm anal. I'm a first-born.

Her Baby

Abby has an incredible love for Baby. And I love that fact! She wakes up with Baby and goes to bed with Baby. When it's time to go to sleep, and if Baby isn't in her bed, she screeches and points and generally gets her point across that Baby isn't there and Baby should be. When she wakes up Baby comes downstairs with her...along with her diaper (burp cloth) and a pipe. Sometimes two pipes. This girl comes with a lot of accessories!


I think she was trying to feed Baby. With two Duplo shovels. We have play utensils, but when William was little John took them away due to them being a chocking hazard. I'm not sure he knows where they are...so...she uses shovels. Quite ingenious, if you ask me.


She never forgets about Baby's bottle. Shoves that thing right up Baby's nose like a pro! It's quite cute, actually - she gives Baby a sip then she gives herself a sip. I think she's learning to share quite nicely!

Songs

We sing tons of songs everyday. William is quite the medley-maker, as a lot of his songs start out one way and end with, you guessed it, Take Me Out To The Ballgame. Anyway...here are a couple we've been working on.



My cuz wrote me and suggested looking into Zoo Phonics. I did, and have been hooked. It's quite expensive, though, so...no buy as of yet. However I did print off the motions to the sounds and we know Allie, Bubba, and Catina. He has SO much fun doing these motions that I wish it were more economical to get the whole program. (Magnets, flash cards, etc.) Anyone else heard of this program?

Lil Sis

Abby is starting to rid herself of her morning nap. (Did I seriously just write that?!?) I actually looked forward to William quitting the morning nap, as it gave me time to get groceries, go to the mall, etc., but during Abby's nap is when I like to work with William on his "studies". When she is up she is into everything. She touches everything, she moves everything, she tastes everything. So I've had to get creative. You know, involve her somehow. I got out my unifx cubes and let her have at it, at least while William and I did our Bible lesson.

William dutifully showed her how to play with them. By the time we finished with David's Anointing (yes, IknowIknow...we just covered Moses and the 10 Commandments, but this Bible book moves fast!) the cubes were all over the school room and just about everyone had been tasted.

I never really taught early elementary school, so I wasn't sure if it was time to introduce scissoring. It wasn't. We'll be waiting a bit longer to try these babies out again.



Check out this cool sepia picture! I like to call this time outside with the water "Playing with the sensory table".

This picture just cracks me up! What in the world is William trying to eat? I think he's taking a bite from the hand exerciser. Who knows!

10 Commandments

I realize that some of these blog posts are mainly for me, so I can remember what we're doing throughout the week...so bare with me!


We are up to the 10 Commandments, so I thought I'd venture into the world of lapbooking. I had never heard of lapbooking until I ran across it on various homeschooling websites. I felt like I had been left out of an entire creative world. Okay, not really, since I'm NOT creative, but I thought this might be of some interest to William.

Since he's only three there's a bit (okay, okay, lots!) of prep work that I had to do ahead of time to make this activity go smoothly.

• I took a file folder and cut it into the shape of the 10 Commandments' pillars of stone.
• Found pictures of each commandment that represented their meaning and cut them out
  
• Found 10 Commandments Song and printed it out (this was for me, so I could teach it to him). Seriously - does learning the 10 Commandments get any easier than this? I love this song!
• Found a coloring page of Moses holding the 10 Commandments (forgot the link, sorry!)

There is SO much more that I could have done with him for this lesson, but...that will wait until he's older. For now I think he got the point!