Holiday Craze

I got way behind again.  I had forgotten how crazy it gets this time of year, and it's even more so now that the boys are getting older.  Trying to homeschool, Christmas shop without kids, do some photo shoot gigs, and carry 7 months of pregnancy wears me out!  So, here's hoping things slow down for me a little bit once the new year begins.

I guess I'll try to do a quick summary of what we were able to do this month.  We'll be taking the next week or two off so I can regroup, the kids can play, and I can (hopefully) get back on top of things.

I tried to keep a holiday/Christmas theme throughout the whole month.  Our letters and letter sounds that we worked on were R, S, T, and U.  For the week of the letter R, we read books on reindeer.  Letter S week was about snow, snowmen, snowflakes, etc.  Trees were the topic for letter T week, and letter U week was pretty much a play week since it was the week before Christmas.

For math, we bounced around subjects, using holiday themes for our work.  We did several different worksheets that focused on addition or subtraction or word problems.  One activity involved making a "reindeer" with your finger and a long pipe cleaner.  We used cheerios to help solve the word problems given by putting a certain amount on each antler/pipe cleaner.  For another activity, I had Hayden form numbers out of paper candy canes.  Then, he had to write the number word out below the candy cane numbers that he formed.

We did this twice.  Once for the numbers 1-5 and once for the numbers 6-10.
Other math activities:

Patterns using Christmas-shaped marshmallows

 

Snowman Counting Buttons

Hayden had to figure out the word numbers.  Sawyer had just the regular numbers written on his.

        

Five Little Snowflakes Felt Storyboard

The boys love the felt storyboards.  I did a couple of things this month using it.  I need to do more because they love it so much and want to do it again and again and again.

Another thing we did using the felt storyboard, but was related to spelling words was the Melting Snowman.  We did this several times with different words that Hayden has been learning.  Sawyer knew a few, but for him, I would ask him to identify a letter, or if it was a color word, he was good at picking it out because of songs that they have learned that spell out these words.

For the Melting Snowman, the first time we played this activity, we did it kind of like hangman.  I put blanks on the chalkboard for a spelling word, and they had to guess the letters.  If they guessed a letter not in the word, I would take a piece of the snowman away.  This went slowly for us, even though they enjoyed it.  So, the next time we played the game, I just showed them words that I had written on sentence strips, and they had to sound it out, and tell me what the word was.  This went by much faster, and I think they liked it more.  And to make it even more exciting for them, I told them if they got more than 15 words correct by the time we were finished, they'd each get a Christmas cookie.

Hayden also did a couple of color-by-numbers using addition and subtraction.   He's developed a real interest in the color-by-number activities, so these were a fun thing for him to do.  I found the worksheets from www.superteacherworksheets.com.  The two that he did, once completed, revealed a stocking filled with goodies (addition) and holiday candles surrounded by holly (subtraction).

Sorry this photo is sideways. This was the addition worksheet.

Some science activities that we did:

We read about snowflakes and made hexagonal prisms out of toothpicks and marshmallows.

Building one segment at a time

The finished product

We also made Borax Crystal Snowflake ornaments which were a LOT of fun.  We managed to make about 5 good ones that we hung on the Christmas tree.  I got the directions on this experiment here from About.com.  There are actually a lot of different directions out there, but these were the ones I went with, and it worked out really well.  

We did a couple of fun writing prompts also.  The first one was "Saving Santa."  

The alert came over the radio.  "Emergency! Santa Claus trapped in chimney.  Christmas will likely be cancelled."  As soon as I heard it, I knew I would have to do something - and do it fast.  I quickly gathered my gear and headed out the door.... (here's where Hayden finishes).... and I went to find the chimney.  I got there with a rocket sled.  Then I climbed up the house with a rope.  All of a sudden, the rope broke!  There was a ladder and I climbed up it.  And then I saved Santa by using a different rope and pulled him out with it.  He went off to deliver presents.  The End.

The other writing prompt I had Hayden do was "How do you decorate a Christmas tree?"  He had to use first, next, and finally for this one.  This is actually a little over his level of understanding writing, but he did a pretty good job with it regardless.  Plus, I had him write out the whole paragraph.  It took him three days. Writing is a very tedious task for him, as I guess it probably is for a lot of 5 year old boys.  Here is what he wrote:

Here are some tips to decorate a Christmas tree.  First, you put the ornaments on.  Next, you put on the star.  Last, you put the presents under it.  That is some tips to decorate a Christmas tree.

In addition to all that, we baked cookies, did a couple of art projects, and went on a few field trips.  We also took turns battling a nasty bug which took up nearly a whole week to recuperate, and kept us from participating in a few fun holiday events, but all-in-all it was a great month.  Below are some more photos from our adventures this past month.

Candy cane mice art project with candy canes and hot chocolate for a snack.

Sightseeing train tour in St. Augustine

View of the train from our seat

Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum after the train ride

Outside Ripley's Museum

Two tired boys after a full day

That was a fun field trip with our homeschool group.  We missed out on making candy canes with them at Sweet Pete's Candy Shop because of the bug that got a hold of all of us, but we'll be making future trips there sometime in the beginning of next year.  

We also took a trip downtown to the Old St. Andrews Episcopal Church where the Gingerbread House Extravanza was going on.  Winners who competed in this annual contest were on display there.  We got to vote on our favorite display, and we did a scavenger hunt as well.  We spent at least an hour there, and then bought a couple of gingerbread men afterwards to snack on.

Alice in Wonderland Gingerbread Display

Christmas in Oz Display (see tornado on house)

It was Sawyer's favorite.

Mine and Hayden's favorite.  Very ornate gingerbread bakery.

Close up of the inside of the bakery kitchen.

Another favorite - the gingerbread train

Rudolph Monster Truck with elf strapped to the hood!

Eating gingerbread men in front of the church.

December Books We Read

Word Bird's Winter Words by Jane Belk Moncure
Raquel and the Letter R by Klingel and Noyed
My "r" Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure
Sabina at School and the Letter S by Klingel and Noyed
Uncle Russ and the Letter U by Klingel and Noyed
My "u" Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure

Explore Winter! 25 Great Ways to Learn About Winter by Maxine Anderson
How Santa Really Works by Alan Snow
Little Red's Christmas Story by Sarah Ferguson
That's Good! That's Bad! On Santa's Journey by Margery Cuyler
Merry Christmas, Splat! by Rob Scotton
Olive the Other Reindeer by J. Otto Seibold
10 Trim-the-Tree'ers by Janet Schulman
The Fattest, Tallest, Biggest Snowman Ever by Bettina Ling
You Are My Miracle by Maryann Cusimano Love
The Little Reindeer by Michael Foreman
The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
Christmas is Coming by Anne Bowen
I See Santa Everywhere by Glenn McCoy
The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore (3 different illustrated versions of this one!)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Short week this week due to the holiday, and thank goodness!!  I had already forgotten how unfocused children become this time of year.  They are CRAZY!!!  I think the next month is going to be a real challenge.  How does everybody get through this time of year homeschooling little ones?  If you have any tips, please feel free to share because I am all ears!

As for what we managed to accomplish this week:

• Our Letter Qq Mini Book (for Sawyer)
• Practice writing the letter Qq and some q words (for Hayden)
• Reading Eggs program
• Measured Mommy's belly for the 8th time and discovered that I have grown 5 1/2 inches since we first started this weekly activity
• Read a few more books related to the letter Q and Thanksgiving
• Went to a Thanksgiving chapel program at Sawyer's preschool
• Played corn darts, a Native American game that the boys learned about last month when we visited the Old Florida Museum in St. Augustine
• Added more leaves to our Thankful Thoughts Tree
• Practiced our French words
• Attempted a writing prompt called "The Family Meal" that didn't go so well because the boys were too distracted with Daddy being home from work and the fact that we are leaving this afternoon to go visit the grandparents.

Corn Darts



Sawyer's turn



Hayden's turn

He shoots!



He scores!!










I guess, for three days of school before a major holiday, we did okay.  Not so much in the math department, but the boys are having too much fun, and right now, that's what really counts, right?

As for our writing prompt, this is what we ended up with:
If you could cook any meal for your family, what would you make?  Describe the meal and tell how you would make it. (I should insert here that I gave a little help in the beginning because all Hayden wanted to make was dessert, and I had to explain that a meal included dinner - and for this writing activity, an appetizer - as well).

"I would make granola bars for my appetizer.  They would be honey granola bars and chocolate chip granola bars.  I would bake a turkey in the oven for dinner, cook some fish on the stove, and also cook deer in the oven with the turkey.  There would be carrots, lettuce, and cranberry sauce to dip the turkey in.  For dessert, I would bake fall leaf cupcakes.  They are the shape and color of fall leaves, and they taste like cinnamon rolls."

And, last but not least, I will leave you with a list of the boys' thankful thoughts from their Thankful Thoughts Tree:



Hayden is thankful for:

1. our money because we can buy stuff.
2. holidays because on Thanksgiving we get to eat turkey and on Christmas we get presents.
3. lizards and frogs because we can sometimes see the frogs jump in the water and the lizards run around.
4. our toys so we can play with them.
5. our Wii because we can play Mario Kart and Wii Sports Resort.
6. our library because we can get all different kinds of books.
7. our food because it keeps us healthy.
8. turkeys because we can eat them.
9. our clothes because they keep us warm in the winter.
10. our house because have a bed to sleep in and we have a a kitchen and a schoolroom.
11. the ocean because we get fish to eat from it.
12. the zoos because we can see all sorts of animals there.
13. our friends because we can play with them.
14. my family because I love them so much.

Sawyer is thankful for:

1. lions because I love nice lions.
2. America.
3. the rocket ships because we can ride in them so much to different planets like Mars.
4. apples because I like them.
5. bananas because we can eat them.
6. our dog because I love him so much!
7. the nice ghost because I love him so much.
8. fall leaves coming down because I can jump in a pile of them.
9. the turkeys because I like them to lick me.
10. the ocean because we can go scuba diving.
11. the rain because we can play in the rain.
12. bats because I can pet them and they're not so scary.
13. cereal because I can eat them.

For the record, I would like to state that I have never let Sawyer go scuba diving, ride a rocket ship to Mars, or pet a bat.  Nor has he ever seen a ghost to my knowledge or had a turkey lick him.  With that in mind, I am thankful for my childrens' active imaginations, the opportunity to be with them daily and to nurture their desires to learn and grow, and my ability to love them unconditionally on the days that they drive me insane.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week

As the title suggests, this week was National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week.  So, we focused more on these two issues as well as Thanksgiving which is coming up way too quickly!

We did some of our normal routine stuff such as the Letter Mini Book of the Week (Letter Pp), the Reading Eggs program, money in math, and some games with spelling/recognizing words.


Bean bag toss game for spelling words



Using Boggle dice to spell out words



Counting coins worksheet

For working on hunger and homelessness awareness, we read several books (which you'll find listed in the "Books We Read" post), did some group activities and discussions which I found from the 2003 Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless website.  They have several lessons listed for different grade levels that were very helpful.  For us, we identified our basic needs (food, clothing, shelter) and completed a "What Do I Need?" worksheet together, and we identified ways that we can help homeless people and families.  In doing that, we decided to partipate in the Sulzbacher Center's Stocking Stuffer Drive.  We went to Walmart and to the Dollar Tree store to purchase gloves, hats, socks, chapstick, coloring books & crayons, calculators, pocket calendars, coloring pencils, etc.  The week after Thanksgiving, we'll be taking all of these things to the Sulzbacher Center in downtown Jacksonville, and we'll be getting a tour of their facility.  In addition, we are also collecting canned goods for the Second Harvest with our homeschool group.

For Thanksgiving, we read more books (also listed in the "Books We Read" post).  After reading each of these books, we did some sort of activity such as a pilgrim hat craft project, made harvest bread and butter from shaking heavy cream, made pumpkin muffins, and we added a new leaf to our Thankful Thoughts tree each day. 

Two little shifty-eyed pilgrims

Kneading our harvest bread

Shake that butter!

Finished product with mouse & cheese decoration

November Books We Read

Natasha and the Letter N by Klingel and Noyed
Naps, The Sound of N by Klingel and Noyed
My "n" Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure
Oscar, Me, and the Letter O by Klingel and Noyed
Quentin's Quiz and the Letter Q by Klingel and Noyed
Quack! The Sounds of Q by Klingel and Noyed
My "q" Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure
Word Bird's Fall Words by Jane Belk Moncure

Wonderbooks Thanksgiving by Kathryn Kyle
Thanksgiving Day Alphabet by Beverly Barras Vidrine
A Pioneer Thanksgiving by Barbara Greenwood
The First Thanksgiving by Linda Hayward
P is for Pilgrim - A Thanksgiving Alphabet by Carol Crane
An Awesome Book of Thanks! by Dallas Clayton

The Lady in the Box by Ann McGovern
Silly Tillie by Jeanine Wine
Uncle Willie and the Soup Kitchen by DyAnne DiSalvo-Ryan
Fly Away Home by Eve Bunting

A Time to Be Thankful

This week began our unit for Thanksgiving as well as our unit on the homeless and those in need.  We read several books on both subjects, and we did a lot of discussions and group activity.

Some things we did this week for our Thanksgiving unit:

Thanksgiving Bingo - This was printed out from DLTK's website which has a bunch of preschool games, coloring activites, art projects, etc. to pull from.  You can print out these things in color or in black and white.  For us, I printed out 3 cards (you can print much more than that if you want), and we played forever!
Thankful Thoughts Tree - I made a tree out of brown packaging paper and a bunch of maple leaves from red, orange, yellow, brown, and green construction paper.  For the first day, the boys had to come up with 4 things they are thankful for.  After that, we all come up with one thing a day, and I write those thankful thoughts on the leaves and add them to the tree.  It was very entertaining to hear some of the things that they said.  For example:  one of Sawyer's thankful thoughts was, "I'm thankful for my dog because I love him so much!" and then, three seconds later, "I'm thankful for lions because I love nice lions!".  Hayden had some pretty typical thankful thoughts such as, "I'm thankful for our toys because we get to play with them." and "I'm thankful for holidays because on Thanksgiving we get turkey and on Christmas we get presents."  It will be interesting to see if these thankful thoughts morph as we get more into our homeless/helping others unit.
TeePee Craft - This was just a fun little art project where the boys got to color and decorate a small version of an indian teepee. 
Roll a Turkey Game - This was a game that involved rolling a die and getting a shape based on the number rolled to eventually build an entire turkey.  The first one to complete their turkey won the game.  Hayden enjoyed this game so much that he played it again over the weekend with his Dad.
Make Cranberry Sauce - After reading a couple of chapters in one of our Thanksgiving books, we made cranberry sauce from a pioneer recipe that was in the story.  Later in the week, we taste-tested it with some roasted chicken.  The boys didn't think they were going to like it, but were pleasantly surprised to find out how delicious it was!

Our Homeless/Helping Others Unit will really take effect next week during National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week.  However, just to kickstart the boys thinking about it, we read a few books and had some discussions on respecting others' differences, being kind to others, and being helpful to those in need.  On Friday, we joined the Stocking Stuffer Drive with the Sulzbacher Center located in downtown Jacksonville.  We'll use the next two weeks to collect items for this campaign, and then we will take them all to the Center where Hayden will get to see how the items will be given to the Sulzbacher's residents as well as to needy community members as part of holiday gift stockings.  We'll also be given a tour of their facility so Hayden will be able to get a feel for what it is like for those without homes.

In Between Holidays

It occurred to me today that I completely forgot to do the new post on this blog. 

Since Monday (2 weeks ago) was the 31st, we were able to stretch out our Halloween theme for a couple more days.  Hayden had a great time sorting and counting all the candy that the two of them got on Halloween night.  We made a line graph using all those candies.  It was definitely the most candy the boys have ever gotten, and I'm still trying to figure out how to get rid of it all since we missed the boat on donating it to a local dentist's office for it to be sent off to the troops overseas.

The Loot

Graph of our candies - Bubblegum was the winner

We also did a project from The Happy Scientist that involved me telling a story while painting a picture with the spice, turmeric, in addition to using rubbing alcohol and ammonia.  It freaked Hayden out a little bit.  Even after the explanation of why the picture did what it did, he had no desire to hold the picture whatsoever.

We began french lessons this week as well at a friend's house once a week.  Hayden participated really well.  Sawyer was hit-and-miss.  It mostly involves playing while using french words for objects that they are already familiar with.  Since the holidays are here, the focus is on food and cooking utensils now.

For math, we went back to learning about money.  Mostly, I had Hayden learning to count out pennies in groups of 10 so that he learns that 10 groups of 10 equal 100 (cents) or $1.00.  We expanded that to dimes this week.  He had to place one dime for each group of 10 pennies, thereby learning that 10 dimes = $1.00 and 10 pennies = 1 dime and 10 dimes = 100 pennies.  We then used that knowledge to "buy" some toys around the house.  We talked about what was easier to manage - 100 pennies or 10 dimes or 1 dollar bill?

Our "bulletin board" with our money poem and large versions
of each type of coin and dollar bill up to $100.  

For language arts, we did our letter Nn mini book, read some books about the letter N, and Hayden got to work on his Reading Eggs program.  The boys also worked together in matching letters in different fonts to the correct letter box.  Each letter of the alphabet was sectioned off, and there were 5 different styles to find the letters in.  This activity was mostly to encourage them to see that the letters of the alphabet don't always look the same (i.e. Aa, Aa,Aa, Aa).

Hayden playing his Reading Eggs program while Sawyer watches and learns.

Pumpkin Mania

This week, in honor of Halloween, our studies focused around pumpkins.  It was kind of an easy week for us which was nice after the last couple of not-so-great weeks.  There were no spelling words, and I have cancelled the reading lessons for the time being until I get something that works better for us.  We still have the Reading Eggs program that Hayden appears to really enjoy.  There is a lot of review for him, and it seems to be a bit redundant for me (much more so than the 100 Lessons book we were using before), but the constant repeating of the same sounds in one lesson for him with this program doesn't bother him at all.  With the book, he would whine and complain every time I had him repeat the same word or sound over just once or twice.  The last time he got on the Reading Eggs program, he spent an hour on it (joyfully, I might add).  12 minutes with the Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons was pure torture for him.  So, I guess this is better?

In addition to the Reading Eggs program, we also worked together as a team to write a Halloween story.  Sawyer also helped out with this.  Tomorrow (Halloween Day) we will put the story together in the form of a book with illustrations, title page, cover, etc.

Books we read this week were all about Halloween and pumpkins.  They are listed in the Books We Read post for October.

Probably the most enjoyable thing we did this week was the Five Little Pumpkins Felt Storyboard.  The boys absolutely loved it, and I videotaped them doing it themselves.  If I ever figure out how to connect the video camera properly to the computer to get just a certain segment, I will do it.  If you don't know the poem, it goes:

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate.

The first one said, "Oh my! It's getting late!"

The second one said, "There are witches in the air!"

The third one said, "But we don't care."

The fourth one said, "Let's run and run and run!"
The fifth one said, "I'm ready for some fun!"

Whoo-ooh! went the wind,

and out went the lights,

And five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.

Of course, my children like to ad lib to make the ending unique, and they are very fond of saying, "and the witches went dead." instead of the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.  Gotta love boys, right?

Our math and science went hand in hand this week.  We used pumpkins to measure, weigh, estimate, and count.  We recorded our estimations vs. actual measurements, and we performed a pumpkin floating experiment.   The boys compared pumpkins with other fruits and vegetables by guessing which ones would float vs. which ones wouldn't.  They played with that activity for ever.

Measuring the pumpkins



End results posted on board after weighing, measuring,
and estimating our seeds.

Floating pumpkin experiment

Recording results of floating vs. nonfloating foods

Everything but the carrot floats!

Time to count the seeds!
(Guess who wouldn't put their hands in
the pumpkin?)

In addition to these activities, we also had a Halloween party with our homeschool group.  The boys got to dress up and enjoyed playing with some of the other homeschoolers their age and older.

We also took a field trip to Vicar's Landing in Ponte Vedra Beach which is an assisted living facility.  We went with some friends (this was our third year doing this), and all the children dressed up in their costumes while the sweet little old ladies oohed and aahed over them and gave out candy.  It was very enjoyable for everyone, and it's nice to know that you can start working with your children at such an early age on the importance of being kind to others and giving them a sense of community, etc.

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