What we've been up to

Tapping our 2 (yes, two) maple trees. The buds are just starting to open so the season is over, but we had enough sap to make almost 2 quarts of maple syrup and we shared some sap with another homeschool family who had fun making their own syrup too!

Little Man has been a heart-making machine. He strings the pony beads onto pipe cleaners and I twist them together for him.

Classifying animals. I believe the cars, being metal quadrupeds, are in their own category.

Reading about the Revolution! We're all learning so much! Did you ever hear of Sybil Ludington? I know I never did. She was a 16 year old Paul Revere and, apparently, has just had a movie made about her daring ride. We're enjoying TruthQuest History so much that we will probably just continue it all summer.

Learning to read!! Yes, Little Man is putting his letter sounds together and reading 3-letter words! He's enjoyed playing games on Starfall and this week, we'll be getting out the beloved Bob Books.

Learning about Passover - but that will have to wait for another post.

Z-Man doing his math in his pj's. Life is good.

A week of pre-school work boxes

Work boxes are still working for us! I think, eventually, Z-Man will move on to something more like a checklist or a daily schedule that he can cross off. For right now, however, work boxes really help to keep us on track and moving through our day without whining or complaining. And THAT is worth a lot.

Little Man participates in our breakfast Bible time and our Morning Service, where we learn a new hymn each week and learn about a certain character trait. We then do FIAR all together and work on our current unit (weather) and read another picture book on our unit or our history study (Z-Man and I tackle the more advanced books later.) The funny thing is, Little Man doesn't think of any of this as "school" (which is fine with me!) No, only his "chores" say school to him - and that means workboxes. He gets three a day and is very pleased with himself when he finishes them. So cute!!

So here is a week's worth of Little Man's workboxes:

Tangrams, a geo board with shapes to make and a world puzzle

This was a tent in a house with telephone poles and a road. :)

Cutting project from a Kumon First Steps workbook, sounding out three-letter words, a really cool pack of raised pictures for doing crayon rubbings.

Our 21 Rules of This House coloring page - he prefers to paint it, Cuisenaire rods with a pattern book for making buildings and vehicles with them, glitter glue to decorate our Bible verse with, once we write it out together.

An adorable little foam counting puzzle, right and left counting puzzle, a four seasons activity to go with our Henry books (there are four books - one for each season.)

Tangrams again! A basic addition puzzle and another cutting project from the Kumon book. We also have a Kumon workbook for pasting and one for folding. We also have quite a few letter recognition activities but I'll have to put those in another post.

So there you go! I hope to do more of these posts occasionally so you can see what Little Man is up to.

Speaking of Pre-School Work Boxes

You really have to go check out these pre-school activity bag ideas with free printables to go with them. Really. In fact, this blog (Walking by the Way) has a plethora of wonderful pre-K and early elementary ideas. All brought to you by the same talented homeschool mom who is responsible for the Homeschool Share site. Wow! Now there is someone who is very busy being a blessing to others! Thank you, Ami!!

Pre-School Work Boxes!

Since Little Man feels the need to do things that Z-Man is doing, he has his very own set of work boxes!

Here are some of the things he finds in them:

He loves pages from Kumon books:

• books on tape
• puzzles - Noah's ark, a fishing puzzle, this alphabet puzzle:

• a paint with water book
• games (Goodnight Moon is the current favorite)
• books to read with Mom
• animal matching cards from Jan Brett
• a box of foam shapes to sort and make designs with
• Leap Frog magnetic letters:

• an ABC sticker book
• this great letter activity from Carissa's blog
• strips of construction paper and scissors to cut them into a million pieces
• toys for water play in the sink
• measuring devices and small trucks for play in his "flice" (a flat rubbermaid box of rice - kind of like an indoor sand box)
• trampoline time
• educational and Bible memory videos
• magnetic animals
• French words to practice (this was actually his idea and he loves it)

We'll also be doing pre-school activity bags from a wonderful swap! We have 20 bags, each with a unique activity, from matching to fishing! I think he's really going to enjoy them.

Of course, Little Man will also be participating in our around the world travels and I hope to do more Bible memory work with him. And, starting this year, we'll be doing a lot more with the alphabet - I'll keep you posted on that.

Around the world with a pre-schooler

One of the things I was looking for in a curriculum this year was a way to include my three-year-old in our studies as much as possible. Little Man desperately wants to do whatever Z-Man is doing.

Several curriculum plans that I looked at did allow for teaching multiple ages, but generally not as young as three. So, since I enjoy pulling things together on my own anyway, (compulsive planner, remember?) I decided to look for world geography for the younger set.

We'll already be using a lot of picture books and our art, music and Bible (minus some of the missionary stories) will work for both kids. I'll post those plans with each individual country. But take a look at these BEAUTIFUL books from Sleeping Bear Press!! What a find! They are beautifully illustrated and each page has a short rhyme (suitable for the little ones) and a sidebar with more information for older kids. Each one is presented in an ABC format - great for those just learning their ABC's.

Also in the series so far:

C Is For Ciao: An Italy Alphabet

K is for Kabuki: A Japan Alphabet

M Is For Maple: A Canadian Alphabet

S is for Shamrock: An Ireland Alphabet

P is for Passport: A World Alphabet

And it gets even better: Each and every book has its own free teacher's guide here!

Life is good.

You turn your back for one minute...

and Pluto is no longer a planet. And now, friends, they're going after rainbows. According to this site, 

The sequence of colors red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet may be remembered by memorizing the name of that fine fellow "ROY G. BV". This was originally "ROY G. BIV", because it used to be common to call the region between blue and violet "indigo". In modern usage, indigo is not usually distinguished as a separate color in the visible spectrum; thus Roy no longer has any vowels in his last name.

Is nothing safe? What's next? My guess is they're eyeballing February. It never did fit in with that "30 days hath September" rhyme.

Now I would like to tell you that when we came to this point in our Noah study, we stood up and said "NO! We will not participate in this blatant, revisionist color snatching!" But those dot painters don't come in indigo. And you can't really mix them. Well, you can but the applicator tips get all messy and then the three year old wants to mix all of them and then the yellow actually paints green and he cries because he wants yellow and it's just chaos, I tell you! 

Sorry, Roy.

So here is Little Man's masterpiece:

and Z-Man's:

Nice, huh?

There's gonna be a floody, floody - All things Noah

We've had a fun couple of weeks here learning about all things Noah. We use Bible Study Guide for All Ages as a jumping off point.

Some cool things we learned:

• The Fisher Price ark sinks pretty quickly if you put it in the bathtub.
  
• There are a LOT of verses to that "Rise and shine and give God the glory, glory" song. And they all have hand motions. Don't forget the hand motions.
  
• The colors of the rainbow make a kind of muddy brown when you paint them all on top of each other.
  
• We looooove stickers. Oh yes we do.

So here are some of the things we did:

Printed out animal matching cards and laminated them with clear contact paper. Little Man almost has the hang of playing memory match. Almost.

We also printed an ark to color and we put animal stickers on, over and around it. Both were at the Jan Brett site, which is an educational wonderland in itself. For those who have children who could color for days on end, there is a very extensive mural to print out. Once assembled, it's like 3 by 6 feet. We don't have anyone with that kind of coloring stamina here.

Little Man also worked on his wooden Noah's ark puzzle and can do it completely without assistance.

We worked in The Ultimate Bible Sticker Activity Book which was a big hit. It's a DK book with over 250 stickers and also covers Joseph, Moses, Jonah and Jesus. Sorry, I can't find a picture of it.

We did some easy multiplication (twos, of course!) for Z-Man with a Youtube Schoolhouse Rock video from way back when you could actually use religious themes on Saturday morning TV.

Naturally, we had to round up all the toy animals in the house and play.

We talked about the search for the ark and the possible locations, obstacles to finding it, etc. Answers in Genesis has lots of interesting info.

We talked about God's mercy in waiting so long and giving people a chance to turn to him before the flood. We also talked about the meaning of names in the Bible and the long life expectancies.

We found some wonderful books at the Dollar Store that have all sorts of word finds, break the secret code, mazes, crosswords, activities where you have to look up verses in your Bible to complete a message, etc., that were great for Z-Man.

Next time...Rainbows!

Check this blog out for zillions of pre-school ideas:

Fun Bible memorization for tots

As I was thinking about working with Little Man on his letters in a slightly more formal way today, I remembered something that Z-Man and I did when he was a tot. (And when I say tot, I honestly can't remember if he was 3 or 4. People told me that would happen, but I didn't believe it!) We made an alphabet book with short Bible verses for each letter and cut and pasted magazine pictures to decorate each page. 

I put my hand over his and we wrote the verse together*, we would say it over and over until I could just say the letter and show him the picture and he could respond with the verse. Now, we didn't do EVERY letter (like X) but that's still a lot of verses! He had quite a sense of accomplishment and took pleasure in showing friends and family. Of course, he's that kind of kid - Little Man, on the other hand, isn't big on performing. At all. But I think he would still enjoy making the book and learning the verses.

Now that I'm thinking of it, I remember getting the idea from this book, which is excellent:

Here are the verses we used, for anyone interested in doing this with their own tot:

• A  All we like sheep have gone astray. Isaiah 53:6
  
• B  Be kind one to another. Ephesians 4:32
  
• C  Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Ephesians 6:1
  
• D  Don't fret or worry; it only leads to harm. Psalm 37:8
  
• E  Every good and perfect gift is from above. James 1:17
  
• F  "Follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." Mat. 4:19
  
• G  God is love. 1 John 4:16
• H  He cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7
• I   "I am the Bread of life." John 6:35
• J  Jesus said, "Let the little children come to Me." Mat.19:14
• K  Kind words are like honey, enjoyable and healthful. Prov. 16:24
• L  Love one another. John 13:34
• M  "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me." John 10:27
• N  Now is the time to come to Jesus. 2 Cor. 6:2
• O  Obey God because you are His children. 1 Peter 1:14
• P  Pray about everything. Philippians 4:6
• Q  Quick Lord, answer me, for I have prayed. Psalm 141:1
• R  Remember your Creator now, while you are young. Ecclesiastes 12:6
• S  Sing a new song to the Lord. Psalm 98:1
• T  Thank God for Jesus, His gift too wonderful for words. 2 Cor. 9:15
• U  Underneath are God's everlasting arms. Deuteronomy 33:27
• V  Visit the orphans and widows. James 1:27
• Y  You must be born again. John 3:7

We didn't do W,X or Z. Obviously, this project is much easier to do with a stash of magazines that you don't mind cutting. Some verses are more challenging than others to illustrate, but as long as your child associates the verse with the picture, that's all that matters.

*Z-Man now tells me that one of the things he liked best about doing this project was the smell of the marker. Hmmm...