Alphabet Notebook Aa Bb

Here are our 1st pages for our Alphabet Notebook. Letter Aa page has apple prints on the front, and on the back there is some colored apples with Aa words on them and colored Aa art book and some apple stickers.

The Letter Bb page is colored with blue and has buttons glued on it. On the back you can see the What begins with B wheel and Charlie's Letter Bb Book.

A brief wrap up on a busy September

It has been a busy week and finding time to blog has been hard. As far as the daycare/preschool goes, we have completed our letter Bb page for our alphabet notebooks as well as our small unit on Brown Bear, Brown Bear. I will post pics on a separate post.

I was pleasantly surprised when yesterday while getting his sneakers on, Charlie stated they had a "B" on them. Which they did because they had the "B" emblem for the Boston Red Sox on the side. He also then decided to get the empty box, waiting near the trash, to play with saying "B is for box!" Seems preschooling him is working :-D

Andrea, the oldest, has been visiting recently. She was on a "separation mode" from family, only making brief appearances and phone calls around birthday and holidays. Chuck and I strongly felt that she just needed this time to settle into her new life off on her own, aka grow a little, and would find her way back on her own better if she wasn't pushed. It appears we got that 1 right, Yay! She has been doing so well and we are very happy for her.

Jenn and the kids are the same. They are definitely struggling and its been hard but we see them often (almost daily) and she knows that when and if the time comes there is always room here for the kids and her. I think when that day comes it will be one of the hardest things in her life for Jenn to admit, and do.

Heather is back at school for her final year. I can't believe she will be a college graduate next spring. She's doing very well and keeping VERY busy between her classes and her internship necessary to receive her degree in social work.

And Amby, my original baby (before Charlie) is doing very well. Back at school in her sophomore year, she has taken her 1st apartment and is learning a little of what the "real world" is like. Her 1st audition she was cast into 2 different dance pieces. Now she has had to add those rehearsals into her dance class and academic class schedules. Second semester she is hoping to get into the study abroad program in France. Busy, busy, busy.

So there's the brief wrap up.

Coloring with thought

Charlie's coloring has changed. At 2 1/2, what used to be just a few scribbles with very little pressure has turned into intentional coloring. He now tries to color the picture, not just the whole paper. Also, there is rhyme and reason to the colors he chooses.

In the picture he colored of The Wiggles, he chose the right colors for each member of the band. Very exciting!

The Apple Pie Tree lapbook

We finished our lap books for The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall. We worked on this book and the related activities and lap book components for 1 1/2 weeks. Thanks to HSS for all the ideas and activities.

Inside our lap books there is a What begins with A wheel, a pocket containing related opposite cards, a counting apples minit book the boys glued apples to, a petal minit book about how bees help make apples, an apple tree they made, and a "recipe" for apple pie they dictated to me. We assembled the lap books today and tomorrow we'll bake our apple pie to finish off this unit.

Hair cut time :-(

Summer is over and the surfer dude in this post was not happy about this at all.

Naptime ... Oh What a Relief it is!

BFS #101 - Plop, plop, Fizz, fizz; Oh, What a Relief It Is!
Assignment: This would be a good week to tell about your worst struggles with a lifestyle of homeschooling. Share any curriculum/home school methods that have been a relief to you, i.e., a particular Teacher’s Manual or Homeschooling method that’s been easier for your family. Talk about how you felt when the burden was lifted and Oh, What a Relief it is!

This year there are 2 major reliefs for me regarding homeschooling three preschoolers and a 1yr old.

1st) I love this site and group http://www.homeschoolshare.com/ they have been a saving grace for me! Go and check them out, you'll love 'em.

2nd) Nap time between 12:00 - 2:00 when all 4 children are sleeping. ;-D

Mid-week check in

We have been working on the book The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall. The boys are really enjoying it. As the week has progressed I notice that they are taking the book themselves and "reading" it to each other, and as they do they seem to have picked up new info each time. Yesterday I heard Charlie and J pointing out the robins in the book and the growth of them during the year. I also heard A at 1 point telling J about what season it was in the book on a particular page. This is what I love to see.



We are working on lapbook elements daily to highlight different aspects of the book/apple tree seasons. Along with this book we are starting our alphabet notebook. This week we have been working on Aa.

Tuesday our preschool routine was interrupted by a school day off for the older boys. Although it was nice to see them, I'm glad to be back to just the younger crowd. The general atmosphere is more relaxed and the boys all seem to play better when the older 2 are away at school.

Pseudo beach time after the heavy rains

After the heavy rains that came by this weekend, we were some of the lucky ones here in Manchester that didn't have any flooding problems. Except for lots of water that needed to be removed from Charlie's sandbox, we had a very nice day and Chuck was able to finish the deck, too.

P'sghetti

Doesn't it look delicious

Chicka Chicka Lapbook

Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom, will there be enough room?

Today we completed our lapbook. Through out the week we read the book aloud everyday and worked on recognizing our own 1st initial, counting/sequencing, and just a simple basic intro to the preschool routine.

The pictures above are of Charlie's lapbook, the boys will be taking theirs home today. On the front is a picture reflecting the theme of the book and each boy glued on the various pieces to assemble the coconut tree. Inside there are pockets for upper and lowercase letters, an accordion mini-book of their name that they assembled (with help), and a pocket with coconut tree cards that they can work on putting in order per number of coconuts in the tree. As you can see they also enjoyed gluing foam letters all over the inside as well. All are very proud of their finished product.

BFS Assignment #100 - Oh What a Feeling!

I had a hard time figuring out how to write what I feel about homeschooling and then the parent of the almost 4yr old I care for took care of it for me.

When her older 2 boys were getting ready to start school there was a lot of talk between the boys about being "old enough and ready" for school. The older 2 were often teasing the A(3) that he wasn't old enough to go to school and he needed to talk better before he could. Here, http://stephaniefurness.blogspot.com/2008_08_01_archive.html#426696042707402987 , I mention that this little boy was denied admittance to the sped. ed preschool in this city, and we were all really surprised. I told all the boys that we, their Mom and I, decided that A will be having preschool here with me and the other kids.

Yesterday after our 1st day of preschool, here, A's Mom picked up and was very excited for her little ones. Apparently 1 of the older boys told her that it wasn't fair that A and J got to have preschool at our house while they went to school. The boys showed her their 1st day of school papers, talked about Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, and both her and the kids were very happy. To see the look of pride on both A's and his Mom's face was priceless. It was something that was very seldom there.

Self-confidence and pride in your accomplishments is something I always felt was very important while educating my older children. They have gone on to be great adults. This is a character that I also want to see in my son and will be happy to help instill it in any child's heart.

1st official day of school.

Today the older boys went off to school so with A(3), J(2) and Charlie(2) we officially were able to start preschool. It was nice to be able to get back to a "school" routine.

We colored out "1st day of school" papers, attached pictures of each boy to them and they dictated to me a few bits of info about themselves. As a group we read Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom by Bill Martin and glued pieces of a coconut tree onto the cover sheet for our lapbook.

We spent lots of time outside playing and "helping" Chuck who was finishing building the deck. The afternoon will be spent playing in the pool and yard. It was a very good day.