Spring and baby animals

David continued his phonics and letter practice today. He also practiced the 2 - 1 = 1 problem again. We practiced the alphabet and how to put them in correct order with his alphabet magnets. We are also beginning our study of Spring and baby animals. Rabbits, chicks, and lambs are some of the animals we will be learning about. I read a Blue's Clues Spring book to David. David practiced his shapes today also. We made a lion mask today and talked about how March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb. It was a short but fun day. Have a great day everyone.

Back to schedule

I have been off in posting the last two days of our homeschool. So, now I am back to schedule. It has just been busy and I was unable to post. Today, we continued our phonics and number practice. We counted paper bones up to 10. We also did our first subtraction problem today. We did 2 - 1 = 1 with the paper bones. David did some practice worksheets on the letter L and the number 0. For arts and crafts, David drew a picture of his face on construction paper and included all of his facial features. David also did a fill in the missing letter worksheet for the alphabet. We did order of objects with David's blocks. I read a book about Spring to David. It was about bears who hibernate for the winter and wait for spring. We then built a bear's den in the living room using two chairs and a big blanket and David got in his makeshift bear's den with his stuffed animal bears and pretended to hibernate. It was a fun activity for him and helped him see how bears have to hibernate until Spring. We also learned about home safety and what to do if a stranger approaches you at the park or anyhwere else. I read a book on safety which showed different scenarios of what could happen in certain situations. The last thing we did was lay outside on a blanket and look for clouds that were in the shape of animals. We had no luck as it is very overcast and rainy looking today. So, we will try that again on the next sunny with clouds day we have. Have a great day everyone.

No Bugs

We went on our bug walk this morning and could not find one bug to catch in our jar. The cold weather has killed everything off. We didn't even see one spiderweb. So, I guess the bug walk should be postponed until spring arrives. I am looking forward to butterflies and bugs after all this cold weather we have had recently. David practiced his phonics and letter recognition. He also counted with pennies and did a few addition problems with them. I had some worksheet pages for David to do for printing practice and addition practice. David drew a bunny rabbit and colored it all in too. We will be watching the Velveteen Rabbit in a little bit because we learned some about bunny rabbits this week. David will also make a cottonball rabbit on construction paper and give it a name. We will also make an ant farm today in a jar. We are hoping in a few days we will get to see all the tunnels they make so David can learn how they make their homes. As usual on Friday we will go to the library to check out more books for our homeschool next week. Have a great weekend everyone.

Insects and Playgroup

We had a very fun start to our day as we had our playgroup that we are a part of come to our house for some fun and food. The kids played and had a blast together. It was so much fun! After everyone left, we did homeschool in the afternoon. We were supposed to collect some bugs today for our bug jar but will do that tomorrow. Our plan is also to make an ant farm from a jar so David can see how the ants make their homes with tunnels. I did some flashcard practice with David on the alphabet letters. David did some printing practice for several alphabet letters. He also did some counting practice with pennies. I finished reading the last two chapters in the Abraham Lincoln book. We learned some interesting facts about insects and that there are so many different kinds that we could never count them all. There was some phonics practice today also and finally t-ball practice late in the afternoon for David. It was a busy day but a fun day.

Insects and bugs

Today, we learned about different types of insects and bugs and how an insect has three body parts, six legs, and usually has compound eyes. We made a "bug jar" and we plan on going for a bug walk tomorrow to see how many bugs we cand find. We will also go on a spider web walk and look for spiderwebs. David practiced his phonics, numbers, and addition again. I read another chapter in the Abraham Lincoln book to David. We played penny store where I labeled items with different amounts no larger than 15 cents and David tried to see what he could count and buy in the store. It was a very cold day today and I hope to see signs of spring soon!

Abraham Lincoln

We continued our study about Abraham Lincoln today by reading in the book I checked out from the library. It was very interesting to learn that both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were both homeschooled! We found Kentucky and Indiana on the globe and learned how Lincoln traveled from both states by horse and buggy. David practiced his letter phonics and number counting. He also did some worksheet pages on numbers and letters. We also visited the Branford library this afternoon and saw a Police K-9 demonstration. It was very educational for both David and I and Rebecca. That was pretty much our day and I hope to have some warmer weather here soon in Florida. Take care everyone.

President's Day

Happy President's Day to everyone! We are continuing our study on presidents by reading the book "Abraham Lincoln, President of a Divided Country". David will construct a paper Lincoln log cabin in honor of President's Day. I will be reading "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back" and also some books on animal babies. We will practice our letters again today and counting also. I will read The Lion and the Mouse from Aesop's Fable to David. We are going to try and make some reptile snakes out of string and beads and then we will take a nature walk and pretend to act out what we would do if we saw a snake and learn about how they like to live under bushes and rocks. Hopefully, we won't have to encounter a real snake! For P.E. we will make a snake path to hop and jump on for exercise. I hope everyone has a great day!

Snakes and Chickens

It is raining here today so we won't get to get outside for any outdoor play. It is expected to get in the 20s here this weekend. Ugh! Where is Spring? We are learning about different types of snakes today and their living environments and how they lay their eggs. Phonics and addition practice will continue today. I will sing a song about shapes. For art today, we will make a poster board snake wrapped in aluminum foil and put glitter on it with craft "eyes". David will use his paints to paint the upper-case alphabet on construction paper for practice. I will read the book "The Ugly Duckling" and then we will talk about the correct way to treat people. David will count pennies again today. We will finish our final chapter in the George Washington book. For P.E. we will play baloon volleyball together which should work out great for something to do inside since it is raining. This afternoon we will head to the library to get out books for our homeschool for next week. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Short Day

We had a very short day today with our homeschool. The reptile study continued today with learning about how many different species of each reptile there is and how some are very unusual. David did some worksheets today practicing his letter and number writing. I read the book "The Little Red Hen makes a Pizza" to David and we also read some Valentine books that we checked out from the library. David also counted pennies up to the number fourteen and then he used them to practice his addition practice. We read another chapter in our George Washington book. That was it for the day. I hope everyone has a great day.

Reptiles and Presidents

We started learning about reptiles today and their different characteristics and environments. Our review of phonics and addition practice continued today. David also did some fun Hooked on Phonics games on the computer. He is up to book 3 which is Pig Wig. We read some books about eggs and how different animals are hatched and born out of eggs. That was very interesting. We also started reading in our George Washington book about him and his life and we will read a short chapter each day this week from the book. David made an American flag from construction paper and then he glued a picture of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln onto the flag for President's Day which is Monday. I showed David the different presidents that are on the penny, nickel, dime, and quarter. We also did some counting practice.

I also came to another realization of how thankful I am to be able to homeschool after hearing about something that happened at my daughter's public school today. There is something almost everyday at her school that has happened either dealing with drugs, sex, or fighting and bullying. I won't say what happened as it is quite gross and digusting but it did involve a boy and girl and the girl was the principal's daughter and the boy was known to be a very nice, Christian young man. You just don't know what is going on at public school unless you are there each and everyday to witness it. So, I hope they never outlaw homeschooling!

No school today

We did not do school today because David was not feeling well this morning and then he came down with a high fever this afternoon of 103 degrees. I took him to his doctor and he was diagnosed with strep throat. So, we will try to do school tomorrow if he is feeling better. If not, then we will try again on Thursday. I hope everyone is doing well.

Animals and Presidents

I was unable to post on Friday. So, I am back to schedule today. We did our normal stuff on Friday with homeschool plus we finished up our planet mobile. Today we are focusing on baby animals and their different sounds. We will watch the movie "Babe" this afternoon and pop some popcorn. We will learn about veterinarians and how they help take care of animals. I am going to read the book James Herriot's Treasury for Children which accompanies our lesson today. Our letter sounds and addition practice will continue today. We are going to use a carrot to dip into paint to make upper-case V's and lower case v's on a Valentine made from construction paper. There will be more reading with The Lifesize Animal Counting Book and Babies, Babies, Babies. We will being our study on the Presidents today. I will introduce the term president and explain what it means to David. I also have a book about the Presidents that I bought from the Dollar General store called "Great American Presidents". I will be reading that one sometime this week as we study about the Presidents. Have a great day everyone.

Animals and Planets

We are finishing our planet mobile project today by using construction paper to make our different planets and then we will hang them on the clothes hanger with yarn in the correct order they go in the solar system. For social studies we are learning about kindness to others and our family and friends. We are also making an animal book today out of construction paper and I will print out different animal coloring pages from the internet and David will color them and put them in his animal book. There are lots of animal books we have already on our bookshelf and we will read a few of those. We will continue with our alphabet letter and sound recognition. And also some review of addition problems. I had to go to the bank, trash center, and post office which contributed to our learning today also. You can't beat everyday life experiences to teach and learn. Have a great day everyone!

Another busy day

Whew! I am really playing catch up on all of our homeschooling. I will be glad to be back on schedule. Today we contined our study on mammals and differentiated between wild animals and domestic and also between wild animal babies and pet babies. David colored some pictures of wild animal babies and pet babies and then glued them onto contstruction paper. Then, we took some straw and made a cage over the wild animal babies to show the difference between the two. We also printed a picture of a porcupine off the internet. Then, we took some clay and formed it into a porcupine shape. We stuck some spaghetti noodles into the clay to look like the porcupine's hair and then took popsicle sticks to make four legs for the porcupine. It was a really cute craft and taught David how porcupine's look and feel. Our space and planet study continued today also with reading some books on the subject and we also began our two-day planet mobile project. We took two clothes hangers and stretched them out and connected them and then we tied nine pieces of yarn onto the hangers. We will make the planets to go on them tomorrow for science. I read a book about shapes to David and we did some fun look and spy games for shapes around the house. Later today when Dad gets home we will make a geoboard for David to practice his shapes with rubberbands. Have a great day everyone and see you tomorrow.

A Busy Day

I did not post yesterday as it has been very busy here these past two days. We had a funeral to go to today which took up most of our day. So, we will be doing homeschool tonight. It was just too hard to fit it all in this morning before the funeral. Anyway, tonight we will continue with our study of mammals and how some of them can help us in many ways. We will continue reviewing the letter sounds and addition problems. We will be drawing illustrations of farm animals on one side of the construction paper and wild animals on the other side. We will also make a kite out of construction paper and then I will have David glue yarn in the shape of a big K and little k on the kite. There will be many books read tonight and one of them will be about space and the stars and planets. We will overview each planet and will try to make a planet mobile to hang up. I have lots of Valentine books we checked out from the library that we will try to read this week also. I will see everyone tommorrow.