The Little (Home) School House

Another Preschool Printable Site!

2010-02-05T11:29:00.000-08:00

I found this great Preschool Printable Worksheet site today! It actually lists stuff for several grades! Check it out!!!

http://www.education.com/worksheets/preschool/

Recognition!!

2010-02-05T10:54:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to quickly post that I have fallen in LOVE with the following 2 sites:

Confessions of a Homeschooler

Home Grown Hearts

I'm getting a LOT of ideas if not ALL of them from the Confessions of a Homeschooler site....all of my "Learning the Alphabet" stuff. This site is soooooo well set up for teaching the Alphabet that you really don't need to hunt around for multiple sites to teach your child the basics. She uses tons of "Themed" activities for her lessons and has links to everything that you could possibly want to print off or purchase!!! I can't say enough about this site!!!

I also LOVE the Home Grown Hearts site!! I've found soooooooo many great printables there! I think that the confessions site also uses a lot of printables from there and will link you to the this site when necessary.

Both of the women who have created these 2 sites have put sooooo much time and effort into their blogs/sites and I just wanted to let each of you know that so that you too can go there to find a lot of inspiration!!!

As I do various activities with Creston, I will post pictures of what we've done, but since most of the things we'll be doing will be coming from these 2 sites, I won't post the links to everything. That's just toooo much "linking up" for me to do. Just please remember to go to these sites to find the great ideas that I'm using and as I do find other great sites to utilize, I'll post those links!

I've got both sites in my "favorites" section on my sidebar! (along with a few other great sites that I've found!!) You can get to any of them easily!!!

Thanks for looking and if any of you find great sites, please pass them along to me!!!

What we've been up to!

2010-02-05T07:25:00.000-08:00

O.k.!!! I had mentioned that we were going to work on the color Gray. This was one of the worksheets that allowed Creston to see the color gray and to pick out the pictures of things that were gray.

He glued the 2 things that were NOT gray onto the back of the worksheet.

This is the "Letter A" folder that I have all of the activities for him that deal with the Letter "A". He really seems to be getting A! Hopefully he'll take to the rest of the letters this way! I have no complaints so far!

Here are all of the activities that are in his "A" folder. I'll keep everything and then have most of it for when I start to teach Mackie!

I've been having Creston work on the spelling of his name. I created these word documents that have his name on them....I changed the color of the ink to a light gray so that he could still see the letters, but still color over them to draw his name himself!
This has worked rather well so far! I printed off SEVERAL of these pages and will have him do a couple each day until he can spell his name and recognize it and each of the letters!

Today, after he attempted his name several times, he got brave and tried to write it himself in-between each word! He was alllll about making his letters BIG! We've also been working with him on the direction to start his letters when writing them. He likes to start from the bottom up, and I've been working on getting him to start from the top down.
Here was his best attempt (with enough room to do it in!)

Here is a pile of stuff that we'll be working on next so he can learn the letter "B"! Lots of neat activities to work on!!! I also found a printable for numbers, so we'll start working on recognizing the number 1.

His "B" folder!

And HERE are several boards of cardboard that I glued sheets of "workbox" id tags on to. I saw these and thought that these would make good Memory games! There's pictures and numbers and each card has different colors or movie characters on them. I just glued them to some thick cardboard and then......

....cut them all up into squares and seperated them into little workable piles that Creston can start to play with! I think that he'll like this game and there's several to switch between, so he shouldn't get bored toooo soon!!! I think this would also be a good way to start showing him 2 or 3 letter words once he gets his Alphabet down pat.

O.k.! So..........that's what we've been doing this last week!!!!! Hope that this next week goes as smoothly! I think we may work some on things this weekend. Mark has to work tomorrow, and to Creston, it's all fun anyway! I'd like to go through 2 letters a week instead of just one, but we'll have to see how he does with them!

Color Worksheets!

2010-01-31T07:47:00.000-08:00

If you're working with your child to recognize colors, this is a neat little activity! Creston has all of his basic colors down pretty well....except for Gray! So I'm printing off the Gray worksheets and will go over this with him.

http://www.dltk-teach.com/colors/worksheets.htm

This and that...

2010-01-30T21:23:00.000-08:00

After asking Mark today to help me teach Creston a few things in his workbook that I couldn't figure out how to get him to understand.....and after Mark tried, but couldn't get him to understand it either, we had a little talk (which resulted in ME flopping my head onto my arms on the dining room table and sighing loudly...) and decided that I should focus on the Alphabet and only the Alphabet until he got that down pat. Then Mark also said that I should also focus on having Creston work on his name......tracing the letters...spelling his name.....ect.

I had already decided to work mainly on the Alphabet and had found some activities to focus on, so that wasn't such an up-roar for us to decide to stay away from more advanced things. I just sometimes get frustrated that I'm not able to explain things correctly enough to allow Creston to "Get it" and it makes me sad.

However, we sat down with the following "A" tracing worksheet and he did pretty good with that!

Then, I had found this little printable that showed Upper ad Lower-case "A's" and had Vreston match the big and little a's to the page. He did this really well.

All was going good until the very end when I said "What letter is this again?" and he said "R!!!!" and looked so pleased with himself............head on table again......siiiiiiiiggggghhhhhhh.......

"We're done for the day, Creston....you can go play now....."

All about the Alphabet

2010-01-30T12:26:00.000-08:00

I have found several really great sites for helping to teach your child about the alphabet.
Here are a few and I will be adding more to this post later!!!

Lesson Pathways ~ http://www.lessonpathways.com/
This is a great site that I was able to get in on when they asked for users to check their site out and provide feedback for a free year of use! I believe that you can join up for a free trial, but I'm not sure how long it is! On this site, you can "build" learning paths for all of your children (even Pre-K!) I've got a learning path set up for Both of the boys dealing with the Alphabet and numbers 1-10. They've got a complete listing of subjects for Kindergarten level through 5th grade. I have not yet looked to see if they offer the higher grades or not. I like this site so far!!! However, if you're wanting something that you can do for free.....you can try it for free and print off everything that you think that you will need for your child and go from there!

Lesson Pathways Subscription Plan Monthly Subscription ~ $12.95/month
6 Month Subscription ~ $59.00/6 months
12 Month Subscription ~ $99.00/12 months
24 Month Subscription ~ $149.00/24 months

I will post several useful items from Lesson Pathways and the links to some of the materials for those of you who wish to see if it's right for you or helpful!

Prep. for introducing the Alphabet ~ http://www.letteroftheweek.com/Preparatory.html

The Alphabet Song ~ http://www.hello-world.com/English/song/alphabet.php
The song is sung while showing the letters on your computer screen! There is also another Alphabet song here at Starfall... http://www.starfall.com/n/level-k/song-abcs/play.htm?f this one kinda scared me, though, as I feel it would probably confuse smaller kids that haven't yet figured out the basics of hearing the Alphabet Song...

Introducing the Alphabet ~ http://www.letteroftheweek.com/alphabet_intro_week.html#alphabet%20songs
This shows several different activities that can be used to help introduce the Alphabet to your child!

Alphabet Flashcards ~ http://abcteach.com/directory/basics/abc_activities/az_flashcards/
(print them onto photo paper for the x-tra thickness and glue them to colored cardstock for variety and even more thinkness)

Alphabet Tracking Sheet ~ http://talibiddeenjr.amanahwebs.com/downloads/la_english_alphabet_Alphabet%20Tracking%20Sheet.pdf
(this allows you to keep track of your child's progress in alphabet recognition by date!)

Make an Alphabet Book ~ http://www.education.com/activity/article/letterbook_preschool/
Take 26 pages and paste/glue/color things that start with that letter, then make the pages into a book!!!

Printable Alphabet Coloring Pages ~ http://www.preschoolcoloringbook.com/color/cpletter.shtml
There are severla different kinds to print off for your little person!!!

Alphabet Catepillars ~ http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/insects/mcaterpillar-letters.htm
Print off the B&W or color catepillar letters and make your own ABC bug or your child's name!

Build the Alphabet Activity on the Computer ~ http://www.literacycenter.net/parents_teacher/letter_center.php#
Here, your child uses the computer mouse to drag and drop different shapes onto the actual letters of the alphabet! This might be for older pre-schoolers.....not sure yet how Creston will do with this one!

Other Alphabet Sites with Great ideas! ~ http://www.dltk-teach.com/alphabuddies/links/a.htm

Creston Tied his SHOE!!!!!

2010-01-28T15:09:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting to teach Creston to tie his shoe.....and last week, we talked about putting on his shoes, pulling the tongue of his shoe up so that it woudn't bunch up around his toes, and then I showed him how to pull the laces tight. Then I left it alone!!!

Today, I sat down with him and just slowly showed him how to make a loop and wrap the other lace around the loop, poke it though the hole, and then pull both loops tight! He did it!!! (With a little help from me, but he did it!!!)

We'll be practicing this a lot and he'll be an old pro in no time!!!!GOOD JOB, CRESTON!!!!

Some new ideas!!

2010-01-27T14:53:00.000-08:00

I found several great homeschool sites at http://confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/,
http://www.homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/ , and http://homeschoolcreations.com/preschoolcorner.html.

I found a lot of neat printables and ideas for teaching the Alphabet! Most sites recomend teaching a letter a week.....we may do 2 a week........we'll see!!! I'm still having trouble getting Creston to recognize the letters, so maybe these ideas will help!!!

Here's a cute printable of little "A"nts. There are several colors and you just cut the BIG A's from the little a's and then mix them all up and have the child put them together!!
Silly face!!! He thought that this was neat!

He did this in no time, so I suppose it was too easy for him, but it drilled the "A" into his brain!!

Then there was a "Put the "A"pples in order biggest to smallest". I didn't explain this too well, but after asking him which one was biggest and which was smallest, he put the rest in order!

He liked this too!

THEN...........Mackie wanted to CUT!!!! Oh me!!! I couldn't find the little scisors, so with me sitting next to him, I let him cut a few times on this big paper! He liked this too!!

It was a neat day! I'm excited to be finding new ideas and different ways that other homeschool parents are teaching their kids!!!

Fun with Colors!

2010-01-22T08:46:00.000-08:00

I picked up a new box of crayons for Creston the other day...(Mackie likes to EAT any Crayons that he finds laying around!). We were to the place in his pre-school book to start coloring, so I figured that we'd doit with fresh crayons that Mackie WON'T be allowed to handle!!

I pulled out the Red, Yellow, Purple, Pink, White, Black, Brown, Green, Blue, & Orange colors and laid them in a pile. I would ask Creston to hand me a certain color....he did almost perfect except for getting white and black confused!! I was really tickeled about that!!!

His book would ask him to pick out the color, and then it would tell him what to color on his page. Below...he's coloring a pair of pants blue. Then he would look at two pictures (Pineapple and blueberries) and he would have to color the appropriate item blue. Other than the Pineapple being called a "Pum-pum-pum", he figured out that the blueberries should be blue.

Mackie finally wore me down and I pulled out a coloring book for him and his "bucket" of broken and half-eaten colors for him to color alongside Creston!

He likes to be a big boy too!

They had fun, but their attention spans are still really short, so we only worked on this for about 20 minutes or so. Now they are playing "store" in their bedroom......at the moment, they aren't killing each other....so it's nice and quiet at the moment! (Shouldn't have said that!!)

The Registration Letter....

2010-01-15T07:10:00.000-08:00

We got it this week......the registration letter for Creston to enroll in Kindergarten this Fall.....actually, we got 2 packs of papers to fill out for him to start school....

And I immediately got a sick feeling in my stomach..................................................UUUggghhhh!!!

Why??????? Because I'm still not sure what we are going to do about Creston and his future with School or Home School. What are my main concerns???? I feel completely inadequate to teach him all the things that he'll need to know. I'm lazy and know that I probably will not be able to keep up a daily routine without the constant help and support of my husband....who isn't able to be home every day due to his job, and when he is home, has multiple other important things to work on that are home or second-job related. My in-laws are anti home school, so we really haven't discussed it with them because we don't want to "go there" with them about it just yet before we've decided.

I look at Creston and can't imagine him in school with all the other kids just yet. I imagine him being bullied and pushed around by the other "mean" kids and it makes me ill. I know that I can't be there with him every minute, and I know that he'll have to learn to fend for himself if he goes to school. (Which is a good thing, I know, but he's my oldest baby, and I worry!)

I'm just not sure!

The drive to take him to wither of the 2 possible school options would be around 20-25 minutes 1 way....with ME driving him. If he rode the bus, it would be longer. I can't imagine putting my little 5 year old on a bus that early in the morning to ride for that length of time....but MANY parents do that every day.

What will we do? I have no idea, but we'll have to decide by April, cause that's when the registration is. Oh me! I wish it weren't such a tough decision. Please pray for me and for us while we make this decision. It is a big one and I don't want to mess it up!

We're BACK!!!

2010-01-11T06:51:00.000-08:00

Hello there, everyone!!! Well........keeping up with the posting on this blog has been a little in-between, hasn't it? That's what I get for dreaming big, huh? :o) We've still been doing "school" but not in the way where we sit down at a table every day and do paperwork........we've done a lot of "On the Go" learning! Creston is getting really good with his colors and with really wanting to "read" more. He's never been one to sit down and want us to read books to him, but over the Christmas Holiday, we actually did a lot of reading with him and Mackie both! Mackie is actually showing a bigger interest than Creston ever did! We re-discovered the Library! Creston loves any type of "fire" related book and then we "rented" a bunch of Christmas themed books too! They also love the train table that the Watauga County Library has in it's kids section, so I don't really ever have to pull teeth to get them to want to go!!

This past week, Creston said "Lets do school!" and got out all of his workbooks and papers and sat down at the table. At the time, I was doing something else, but decided that if he was willing, I'd drop whatever I was doing and do "School" with him! We went through SEVERAL pages in one of his pre-school workbooks. He showed me that he has the ability to know what things "go together" and he understood the directions about drawing lines from certain items to the things that they went with! We hadn't done that before and he took to it like he'd always been doing it! We went over the Alphabet again and his 1-10 numbers. He's getting really good at counting too!

On Creston's Birthday (1/3/10), Mackie counted to 10 for us all!!! All by himself!!! Without ANY help!!!! He had never done that before either (except for the night before), but this time he did it in front of Nana & Paw-Paw AND Mark got it on Camera!!! Smart kids! That's all I'm saying!!! :o) (I'll stop gloating now!)

So.........I'm finding that it's a LOT easier at this stage of the game to work learning in when we have those moments that the boys are more receptive to it. I don't want them to HATE learning before they really get inot it! Creston has been a little slower than some to pick up on certain things, but I'm also finding that he's a lot faster at picking things up now that he's 5!!! Maybe some kids just need a little more time to kick it into gear than others!

So...................we'll be reading and learning some more these next few months. I'll try REALLY hard to keep everyone posted on the progress!!! Now that the Holidays are behind us, it'll hopefully be a bit easier!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, Everyone!!!

Making Halloween Dough Ornaments!

2009-10-30T18:31:00.000-07:00

I made these dough ornaments several years back for one of our first Christmas Trees! (Before the Children!) I remembered how cute they were and that they are still around ~ Hard as ROCKS and as of yet, unharmed in any way! All I did was use a simple recipe and at the time some Christmas Cookie Cutters. I got to thinking that I had some Halloween Cookie Cutters, and that Creston would probably really like to make these with me! I was right!! ((I'll list the recipe below!))

Dough Ornaments

2 Cups Flour (I used all purpose)
2 Cups Salt (I didn't have enough table salt, so I used pickeling salt!)
1 Cup Water
a pencil or pen...something to poke a hole in the ornament with (to hang it by)
paints to decorate the ornaments with, string to hang them with, glitter, ect.

1. Get your recipe and all of your ingredients together!
2. Mix the flour, salt, and water to make the dough.

3. Knead it for about 10 minutes.

4. Roll out the dough...

...and cut it with the cookie cutters.

5. Put the cookies on a cookie sheet and bake them at 225 degrees for about 2-3 hours (flip them every 30 minutes so they bake evenly. Poke the holes in the cookies BEFORE baking!

6. When they are done, let them cool completely before decorating. Then......DECORATE THEM!!!

These cookies will last forever!!!!! The salt preserves them. The ones that I made several years ago have held up and haven't molded or turned any funky colors!!!

Hope that you enjoyed this "cooking" lesson!!!

There will be more to come soon!!!

Halloween Activity!

2009-10-28T18:19:00.000-07:00

I decided that this year, when we go to the few houses that we go to Trick-or-Treating, that we would in return for the candy, give a "Thank You" card to our friends! I had thought about making candy treat bags to give BACK to those giving our kids candy, but that seemed realllllly redundant, so I opted for the craft instead! I was able to do this with BOTH Mackie and Creston! I took each one of them into the dining room seperately and allowed them to stick their foam stickies onto the pre-printed Thank you card. Then we added the stickers, the hanger and the bow on the front!!! They were really very cute!

I was really tickeled watching Mackie do this as he was all about "I do it my sewf!!!!" I would "start" to peel off the sticker just enough so he could get it off the rest of the way....he was a BIG boy!!

Creston also thought that this was GREAT! He was able to peel the stickies off all by himself without mommy helping him!

He was very pleased with himself!!!

Now, I'll have to think up something just as cute to make for next year! :o)

Catching up...

2009-10-27T22:57:00.000-07:00

As with our Family Blog, I often get a little behind in the postings of our daily lives. This is also happening here! So sorry! I know several of you like to follow along with our progress, so hopefully I will start "filling in" posts for the past few weeks. October is always a busy month for us, especially when we make Molasses. We were sidetracked for a couple of weeks while getting that all ready. Then, on the 20th, Mark's best friend passed away unexpectedly, so we really haven't felt like doing much of anything for the past week or so. We are finding more and more that life can and will throw so many unexpected things our way. So often, things don't seem fair, but life must go on...our loved ones would want that for us...they wouldn't want us sitting around being sad for days on end, so back to some sense of "normalcy" we must go.

Hopefully, as I mentioned, I will be able to fill in the blanks and do some "blog-bursts" in the next few days. Hope that you all are having a GREAT week. Halloween is on it's way! I finished the boys costumes yesterday! I'll post pictures soon!!!

9/26/09-10/2/09 Update!

2009-10-02T23:09:00.000-07:00

*ASU Ballgame!

*Eli's 2nd Birthday Party!

*Hunting for Wooly Worms!

This week, we started things off with a WET Football game! Creston liked it, though! It was really nice to spend some one on one time with just him, me, and Daddy. :o) (Mackie got some quality Nana & Paw-Paw time too!) I got to show Creston the band and the pre-game and half-time shows!!! Mark got to explain to him about the actual game! We almost got through the third quarter, and HAD to leave! I was freezing!!!

We got to go to our good friends little boys birthday party! Creston got to play with all the other little boys and girls there and even played a little "football" with some of them! (I'm finding that Creston and Mackie both get quite a bit of interaction without being enrolled in a pre-school...this is something that is often discussed as being a drawback to home-schooling, but anymore, kids have PLENTY of opportunities to get involved with other children!)

The Wooley Worm Festival is coming up! The little fuzzy worms are EVERYWHERE!!! Hopefully there will be some to "catch" closer to the Festival weekend! If you take them to the school, the wooley worm people will buy the lives ones from you for $1.00 a piece!!! They boys found one and had a good time watching it crawl all over their frisbee! Then they dropped it in the grass and it was lost forever!!! I couldn't get them to let it crawl on them though...we'll have to work on that one!

It was a good week! We didn't do a lot of "book" learning, but we did do a lot of outdoor stuff and got to play with some good friends! YAY!

09/21/09-09/25/09 Update!

2009-09-25T23:04:00.000-07:00

This week has been a fun one! As I already posted, Creston decided to spell his name to me in the grocery store and then he got all creative and read his favorite book to his Daddy! He's such a sweet little guy with a BIG imagination! It amazes both his Daddy and me just what he can come up with! He will think up all of these stories and he will start telling them and will add as he goes! His stories could last for days if we didn't tell him to "continue" it later! Hate to stop him, and hope that it doesn't damage his creative tendencies, but it hasn't seemed to yet!

We're taking Creston to an Appalachian State University Football game tomorrow! That will be something! Hope that the weather holds out for us!

Creston "Read" Mommy & Daddy a book!

2009-09-23T18:07:00.001-07:00

O.k.....once again, I'm posting, but this was also really neat!! Last night, Daddy read the book "The Fire Engine Book" to Creston & Mackie. After Mackie went to bed, Creston climbed into bed with Daddy and decided that he would "read" the book to Daddy!

Mark starting pecking on the bedroom wall to get my attention so I would come from the living room into the bedroom...after getting in the bedroom, Mark said sit down and let Creston read his book to you! I sat down, and he promptly started reading. Now................he does NOT know how to read yet, BUT....he was hitting the nail pretty much on the head while "reading" to us! He said "Clang-Clang" & "Crank-Crank" where the book said it and he pretty much told us word for word what was on the pages. Now....this book has REALLY good pictures, but to be able to remember almost word for word the story blew my mind! We haven't read it to him enough for him to have memorized it, but maybe he's got Mark's brain after all!! (Hopefully!) Mark can remember ANYTHING about ANYTHING for ever and ever! Oh!!! If he does have a good memory like that, just think of the possibilities! A Parent can dream!!

Anyway.....I'm just documenting these really neat achievements that we are excited about!!! :o)

(Again, just bragging a little bit!!) :o) If you know me, then you know that I usually do NOT brag about much of anything unless I'm just really super-excited about it!!!

YAYAYAYAYAY!!!

Creston SPELLED his name!!!

2009-09-22T17:58:00.000-07:00

I know that I posted that I would only be doing a "weekly roundup" of everything accomplished during the week, but this was too good not to have a post of it's own!!!

Yesterday, in the grocery store, I was pushing Creston through the store in the little Fire Truck shopping Cart (Mackie stayed at home with Nana while I took Creston with me to the dentist). We stopped in the Frozen food section for a minute and Creston popped his head up and said "A-R-E-S-T-O-N" smiled and looked completely pleased with himself! I fumbeled in my mind as to what he had spelled and realized that he was 1 letter away from his own name! I said "OH!!! If you change that A to a C, then you'll be spelling CRESTON!!!" He stopped and then looked at me again and said "C-R-E-S-T-O-N!!!!" He really WAS was tickeled then! I clapped and said "YAYAYAYAY!!!!!" There was another lady in the aisle and she just smiled at us. She didn't know what he had just done!

He later spelled his name for NANA, and then after Daddy got off work, he spelled it for him too!!! We are all so excited!!! :o)

Here's a picture to mark the occasion!!!

Good Job, Little Man!!! We're so proud of you!!! (and yes......I am bragging......just a little!!)

Weekly Wrap-up 9/18/09

2009-09-18T20:24:00.000-07:00

Since everything seems to be repitition, and I'm sure no one wants to look at repeated pictures of Creston drawing or cutting paper, I will do a weekly wrap-up and sum up what we worked on for the week!

No pictures for this one either! Aaagghhh!!! (For those of you that know me, that is HIGHLY unusual for me!)

This week we spent digging potatoes, working some more on the Alphabet and letter recognition...working with Creston on his B's and V's which all come out sounding like B's ~ Violin sounds like Biolin and vroom sounds like broom...

I introduced the color PINK and worked more on getting him to recognize Purple...we have a Barney doll and a Pink clothes hanger, so I would hold each up and when asking about the Purple, I would stomp and say "PUR-PLE!" like Barney was stomping around (which we ALL know that Barney has NEVER stomped a day in his life, but it was a good visual!) For the pink, I would hold up the hanger and say "Pink, pink, you stink!" I realize that this may cause some kind of mess in the future, but if he'll remember Pink, then I'm fine with it!

He painted some more & worked on his 1000 piece John Deere Tractor puzzle. He's actually getting really good with the bigger piece puzzles, and when we work on his tractor puzzle together, he's becomming more aware of what he needs to be looking at/for when putting the pieces together! He's doing really well!! :o)

Thursday, we went to MOPS and he had a GREAT time! This was the second time this year (Mack HATED it, but Creston was all about needing to get to "His Class!" I was proud of him, the little booger! He was all excited about everything that they had done in "Class"! They played Basketball and made a picture with glue and tissue paper squares and watched a video! It was a whole weeks worth of stuff rolled into a 2 1/2 hour period! I was sooooo happy that he was happy! We might need to leave Mackie at home for the next MOPS meeting.... :o(

Today, we worked on counting a bit....he's got a big fire truck poster and we counted the trucks together. He's got 1-12 down pat, but then skips 13, goes straight to 14, 17, 18, 16, 19, 20!!!!! 15 is lost somewhere in never-never land....I need to find it! He's VERY adament that this is how the numbers go! We'll have to do some serious work on that, but he'll get it in time!

It's really been amazing to me how quickly Creston and even Mackie picks stuff up when we aren't even trying to get them to learn something! Earlier today, Mackie had a pretend Doctor's blood pressure cuff and he had placed it on his ankle...he pumped the little hand-pump a time or two, then looked at the dial, looked at me and proclaimed that "I got a heag-ake!" I said "What?" He looked at me as though he had just discovered a GREAT thing and said rather definately "I got a heag-ake!!!" ripped off the cuff, and stomped off into another room! Little feller! They are so cute when they are little!

I never pushed Creston with the potty training thing...I figured that he'd get it in time...his Nana, however would work with him when he was at her house....after many months of going back and forth between pull-ups and diapers, we finally bought "big boy underwear" and put him in those. Other than night-time accidents, he's been doing pretty good ever since! We've got him in a pull-up at night, but he promptly puts his underwear on in the mornings with his clothes, and the pull-up is most always dry! When the last few run out, we hopefully won't be buying any more of those! YAY!!

I've rambled enough now. It's time to end the day now. We've got a big weekend planned with a 21st b-day party for my niece tomorrow and then a 34th b-day party for my husband on Sunday! Party-party!! :o)

See you all next Friday!

Diggin' Potatoes!

2009-09-14T18:58:00.001-07:00

Today was another day that didn't really allow for "structured" learning. We dug potatoes for most of the day today, so that was pretty much our day! We did get in some alphabet recognition this morning before going to the garden, but other than that, we did "hands-on" learning today!

The boys had a great time playing outside and the weather was PERFECT!!!

Better get outside while we can! The leaves are starting to turn and it'll soon be too cold to go out anymore until next spring!!

Friday!

2009-09-11T20:00:00.000-07:00

Today was an end to our first week of home pre-schooling it! It was a good week.....I've learned many things myself already this week!

1. Creston is already the smartest kid I know! (I know, I'm biased!)

2. Creston does "school" better earlier than after 10:00am.

3. He has the attention span of a hyper ant!

4. He focuses really great one minute and can remember just about anything you ask of him, but the next minute, he can't remember a thing.

5. I'm going to have to take it in small increments and work at HIS pace, expecially since we aren't racing against the clock or anything ~ if he gets something, GREAT, only THEN will we move on...if he doesn't get something, then we need to stick to that and only that until he does get it. I need to throw out my great plans for getting through his alphabet all in 1 week, and have him reading by next week! That isn't going to happen! :o) (I did have grand dreams, though, didn't I?) Silly mommy!

He loves hands on stuff! He LOVES anything NEW! He LOVES having my one on one attention! And I LOVE HIM!!!! :o)

This morning, I printed off the Alphabet after I typed it up on one sheet for us to look at while singing the Alphabet. I had the printouts of each letter, but flipping them to the music was a bit aggravating. This way, we can sing, and I can point to each letter as we go! Hopefully this is a good way to help him recognize the letters as we say each one. I'll let you know how that goes! I REALLY would love it if he could at least recognize the letters in his name by the end of the month, but I won't hold my breath and we'll see what happens!

Our day was pretty much the same as the rest of the week...we did the Alphabet, shapes, numbers 1-5, & cutting! He STILL lives to cut!

Now we'll rest over the weekend!!! See you next week everyone!!!

Cutting Shapes and Using the Glue Stick!

2009-09-10T12:09:00.000-07:00

Mark is home with us today, so our routine got a bit out of order while Creston went with Daddy to help in the wood shop for a little bit this morning. When he came back, though, he was excited to learn something else, so off we went! Our computer has been acting up quite a bit lately, so I didn't get to print off any new work-sheets, but we used what I had already printed off. We went over letters A-F again, and he can recognize A & C! YAY!! (Except for when Mark quizzed him, and then he couldn't remember much of anything which made me feel like a worthless pile of goo.....) Anyway..........

We went over the writing of the letters A-F again and he actually tried it today! I told him that I just knew he could do it if he tried and he did! He had a little difficulty understanding that he needed to stay within the lines while writing, but other than that, I was tickeled pink with how well he did!

Lastly, I drew some shapes onto construction paper and let him cut some of them out (I helped cut some out since he was getting aggravated), and then we broke out the glue stick (Purple!!) and I let him stick them onto his paper however he wanted to! He liked that! He didn't want them to overlap, though, so he put the black shapes onto the back of his page! (Note that Mackie joined us today in his High Chair! He brought his book to read and sat there and read/watched as we worked on this last project!)

All in all, it was a good day!!!

Tracing Letters & Counting Fun!

2009-09-09T11:56:00.000-07:00

O.k. so now I've found this great little site called Read Today. It's a neat little site that offers a great list of printables for letters, numbers, colors, shapes, and some short words!

Today, I printed off letters A-F for Creston to focus on. He was able to trace the letters (see the pics. below). This was his first attempt at tracing, so he was a bit wobbly, but really did pretty good!

There was also a printout for letters A-F along with lines for practicing writing the letters. You can trace the letters first, then try your own hand at making them all by yourself. Creston did pretty good with the tracing, but was a bit intimidated with making them himself. I didn't push him. I don't want him to get frustrated with himself since he's new to this and it's not that big of a deal if he can't do it yet! That's what learning is all about! Learning how to do stuff and how to get better over time! (not sure you can see it, but the A towards the right hand of the page is his own "A"!)

I also printed off the numbers 1-5 and let him point and count to me how many stars were on each sheet! He did this very well (he had already been doing this for a while, though). The other blank-looking page in the picture below has the shapes of a circle, triangle, square, and star on it. He knew all of these, but had a hard time remembering the square. We'll keep at it! He'll remember them all before long!! And......lastly, I let him cut the coupons again! I have lots of these coupons books since K-mart just finished up with their double coupon event this past week. I figured they would be GREAT practice for helping him learn to cut straight lines! He LOVES cutting!!

What should children know before entering Kindergarten?

2009-09-09T04:11:00.000-07:00

This is a BIG question that I know a lot of parents ask themselves! Living where I do, there are quite a few parents who are choosing to keep their children home in a Homeschool environment for at least the first major years of the children's lives, if not for the whole she-bang!

So......how do we know that our kids are competitive with the other kids who ARE attending public or private schools? Everyones ideas about "normal" are different, so what is it that we strive to teach our kids so that we know they will be able to handle themselves appropriately? (I'm talking about the pre-school aged kids, here! :o)

You google the info.! You google it and are bombarded with TONS of things that a child should know! Some kids are expected to know how to walk, talk, count, spell, read, speak a second language, do some basic cooking, do chores, and maybe even know how to play several musical instruments all before starting Kindergarten! Shew! I'm not even sure I can do all of that just yet myself!!

I applaud the parents/children that can accomplish all of that in such a short period of time. I however, can't seem to find two socks that match at the moment, so my expectations of what we will be ablet o teach Creston is a bit lower......still striving for excellence, but somewhat lowered expectations!

I did find the following list at this website: http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_What_your_child/

What Your Child Should Know and Be Able to Do Upon Entering Kindergarten

Care for Personal Needs
_Y_Can blow nose, cover sneeze
_N_Is independent in using the toilet (he can go by himself, but still needs help wiping)
_Y_Can wash own hands (Likes to wash his hands a little toooo muh, if you ask me!)
_Y_Can snap, button, zipper or belt own pants
_Y_Can take off and put on coat
_N_Can tie shoes (Working on this one)
_Y_Recognizes own possessions: jacket, lunchbox, etc. (Esp. if Mackie has something that is his!)
_Y_Can eat unassisted (doesn't LIKE to, but can)
_Y_Can use silverware
_Y_Will put away toys when asked (or if I tell him the Toy Fairy is coming to take them away)

Social
+/- Will listen to an adult and do as told (Ummmmmmm........sometimes)
_Y_Can cooperate with other children (if it is NOT his brother ~ sometimes)
_Y_Can play with other children without hitting or biting (however, they seem to like to hit)
_Y_Can sit for short periods (15 min.) (if watching Cartoons)
_Y_Can follow a rule (after being reminded 15 thousand times!)
_Y_Understands and follows oral directions

Intellectual
_Y_Shows an interest in books and reading
_Y_Holds book and turns pages correctly
_Y_Knows some songs, rhymes
_Y_Participates in rhyming games
_N_Identifies some letters (especially those in own name) (Working on this one too!)
_Y_Identifies labels and signs in the environment (McDonalds, Chick-fil-A, ect.)
_Y_Pretends to read and write
_Y_Knows first and last name
_N_Knows names of family members (we are still Mommy & Daddy)
_Y_Can tell about an experience (MOST DEFINATELY!!!)
_Y_Can tell and retell familiar stories
_Y_Can communicate personal needs
_Y_Has had a variety of experiences such as library, park, zoo, grocery store, post office
_Y_Can use crayons, pencil, scissors
_Y_Expresses ideas with drawings
_Y_Is willing to try to complete a task

Health
_Y_Has had all required immunizations
_Y_Has had a health check-up
_Y_Receives medical care when sick
_Y_Receives dental check-ups regularly
_Y_Eats at regular times each day
_Y_Gets eight or more hours of sleep at night
_Y_Can run, jump, climb, swing and use balls (Can't catch, but can do everything else!!)

So................looks like my little man isn't so far off the mark after all! The thing is, is that each child is different! No two are the same, so what works for mine may not work for anyone else's kid. It's all in how you do it and tailor the learning to YOUR child! :o)

Let's go see what we can learn today!!!

First Day of Home Pre-School!!!

2009-09-08T16:43:00.000-07:00

We did it! I was actually able to show Creston several things today without him jumping up and saying "I'm DONE!" He even looked at me and said "I wish we could have School EVERY Day!" I looked at him and said..."Well, we can if you'd like!" He said "YIPPEE!!!"

(Hope that enthusiasm holds up!)

I got up when Mark did to leave for the Fire Department for Training this morning. I took the time before the kids woke up to get the dishes in the Dishwasher and the Laundry in the Washer/Dryer. Then everyone woke up and we ate breakfast and I got the boys clothes on...(I had done really well this morning and put MINE on first thing when I got up!!!)

I was all cheesy and made Creston sit on the front porch steps so I could get his "First Day of Pre-School" picture. Before doing anything else, I decided that Creston needs to learn responsibility along with everything else, so as I folded towels, he got to fold the washcloths! He did a VERY good job and even put them away for me without me asking! YAY!

As I posted yesterday, I printed off the Alphabet and put the letters into sheet protectors and into the binder shown below. This made it very easy to flip through them as I showed him the letters. Before showing him the letters we sang the Alphabet Song together. He did get a bit antsy after we were only about halfway through the letters, so I might just show him a few (to focus on) each day until he recognizes them! I'm pretty hopeful about him learning these!

After we did the Alphabet, I let him cut some more! What did I let him cut you might ask??? COUPONS!!!!! To be honest, for this to be his second attempt at cutting, he did extreemly well! Coupons have those dotted lines around them, usually, so I just told him to follow the lines and he did!

He was VERY pleased! This might turn into something for me as I expand my knowledge of couponing in the near future! Slave Labor????? Nope! Learning Experience!!! :o)

THEN, we had Art! I let him whip out the watercolors and some paper and he played with painting lines. He LOVES to paint lines! I even got inspired and painted my own picture with him!
Guess who drew each one!!!

Then, we were done for the day. Creston's attention span was going quickly and Mackie was yelling at us (I had him playing in his room while we had "School"). RECESS!!!

Mackie liked getting to join in the fun and play! I meant to have him some "educational" things to do for him that were age appropriate while Creston practiced cutting, but Creston decided after 1 sheet of coupons that he was done and would save the other 99,000 coupons for later! OH WELL!!! Maybe tomorrow, I can incorporate some play/learning time in for Mackie too! I want them both to feel that I'm giving them my attention.

In just the last few days, they have both been bringing me books to read to them. Mackie and Creston will BOTH sit and look through the books and tell themselves their own stories from the pictures on the pages, but now they want me to read to them. Before, when I would try to read to Creston, he would always want down, or go in another room or tear the pages while I was reading. I got aggravated and just stopped (I know......BAD mommy), but this week has made me feel better about the harm that I apparently have NOT inflicted on them by not reading to them yet. Mark & I personally LOVE to read and hope that they also have this love!

GREAT first day! We'll see how the rest of this first week go!

Getting Ready for Tomorrow!!!

2009-09-07T17:47:00.000-07:00

Today is Labor Day! Tomorrow, I will oficially start Creston's FIRST DAY of Home-Pre-School!!! YAY!!!

We kinda already got started yesterday by letting him cut out shapes with his scisors. He did a really good job and cut out a square, rectangle, triangle, and circle pretty well! The circle was a bit iffy, but the rest were really good for a first time! He LOVES the scisors!

Today, on our way home from Boone, I would ask him what colors things were as we passed them on the road...so far, he knows Red, Yellow, Orange, Black, White, Blue, Green, & Blue. We are working on Brown (Mommy's hair is BROWN) and Purple! We'll take it one day at a time as we learn the new ones!

I'm wanting to start with the Alphabet recognition, so I found a great printables site on the WonderTime Magazine site. http://wondertime.go.com/create-and-play/article/ABC-printables.html I printed out the alphabet and put the pages into sheet protectors and placed them into a binder so we can "flip" through them easily! I also want to start working on getting him to at least recognize his name this week!

I've not nailed down a timetable for what we want to learn and at what speed, but as I figure it out, I'll post it here!

Hopefully this next year will be a good one filled with learning new things for all of us! There's so much that kids are expected to know when they start Kindergarten these days! If we do decide to enroll him, I want him to be on target with the rest of the children! If we keep him home, then I know he'll be just fine!!!

Hooray tomorrow!!!

Getting Ready!

2009-08-18T13:10:00.000-07:00

I successfully took ALL of the toys out of the boys room and put them all into mine! BIG MESS!!! THEN.......based upon another blog author's idea (homeschooler), went through them and sorted into "Educational" and "Not Educational". Then...I took it one step further and tossed quite a few things out of the "Not" pile! YAY!! I returned the "Not" pile to the boys room and arraged the toys in a manner to which they SHOULD be able to see how the toys should be put away! We are in the middle of a room-redo and I have BIG plans for how things should look and work in the end......I know...I know.....I'm dealing with 2 boys under the age of 5! There's never going to be a clean room....I should just stop trying, but....I can always DREAM!!!!

Anyway...one of the homeschool blogs I follow suggests putting trays onto a bookshelf that the kids can pick activities from on a daily basis, rotating the "Activities" out from time to time. I hope to do this, and have the "Educational" toys in 2 totes awaiting the shelf that my hubby will probably not have the time to build us any time soon as he and his father are currently up to their eyeballs in a Kitchen Cabinet job that needs to be done by 12/1. We can wait!!! :o)

I've also been looking for ideas for what I need to start working on with Creston. I just found this site...http://www.getreadyforschool.com/and will be going over it more closely. Just looked at it.....has good ideas for what a child should know, but they want you to purchase their program to teach your child the basics in a 10day program format. I think I can do that myself, so we won't be ordering anything..... I want to make sure that Creston knows all of the things that he needs to know before starting school next fall (If that is the route we take!).

According to the site, he should know how to:
Dress Himself
Draw Shapes
Hold a Pencil Correctly
Jump, Hop, & Skip
Tie His Shoelaces
Know His Numbers/Be Able to Count to at Least 20
Write His Name/know ABC's
Cut Neatly with Scisors
Know the basic Colors

Hopefully, I'll be able to find some good worksheets and more ideas to teach him these things! I'll keep looking!!! I'll post good links/sites as I find them!!

Plans for Starting Home-School!!!

2009-08-16T18:54:00.000-07:00

This will be my first post for our Home-School blog! Creston is currently (almost) 4 3/4 years old. He is probably old enough (if we tested him) to go ahead and start Kindergarten this year, but according to the State rules and regulations, he just isn't old enough yet ~he'll be 5 in January. He's such a smart little booger already. He catches on so fast and picks a lot of things up just by watching a couple of times. He could probably run a Fire Truck if left alone with it after watching his Daddy so much!

Since Creston will NOT be attending school this school year (2009-2010), Mark and I decided that we would attempt to "Home-School" him until it's his time to start school next fall. I plan to start the Home-Schooling the day after Labor Day! That is when ALL schools should start!!! :o)

We will be doing a combination this year of Pre-School/Kindergarten curriculum. There are many basic things that Creston already knows, and several that he does not...(once Mackie came along, I stopped trying to make him memorize the 50 states and colors and stopped trying to teach him how to write and spell.....Bad mommy, huh??) If all goes well, and if he seems to be doing well in this Home-School setting, then we will definately have a hard decision to make NEXT fall when it really is his time to start public school.

There are many factors involved when parents choose to Home-School. These decisions are not made lightly, but often-times the parents of those being Home-Schooled are criticized for their "Harmful" decisions to keep their kids out of the Public School System ~ the harmful effects of teaching a child when you are not qualified to do so and also the harm that it does to keep their children away from socializing with other children. I would like to report to everyone that I am married to a man who was a School Teacher for 9 years (up until 2 years ago when he pursued his dream job of working full-time for the Fire Service). He is FULLY capable of over-seeing our Home-School lessons and has enough patience (when necessary) to work with the toughest of learners!! I have full faith in myself and my husband to teach our oldest son and also our youngest son what they will need to know to pass any tests given them and to succeed in life later on! :o)

This is a decision that we have prayed about and that I have agonized over. We have already received negative responses to our decision to try this out this next year and he's not even eligible to start school yet!! It's probably going to be an interesting journey, but one that we are willing to make. Please pray with us that we are able to teach our son what he will need to know and that we too will learn many important lessons along the way. This journey may end next fall, but if not, then I will be right here, blogging Crestons progress for all to see!!

I'm excited! Keep us in your prayers!!!