Letters From the Homefront

I was browsing through my pictures and realized I have a few that were taken with the intent of a school days post, and just never shared. So I thought I would pull some together, and shove them all in the same post. This is just a smorgasbord of things we have done over the last month or so :) Letter/Number Matching Buddy Boy really enjoyed this game that Miss Priss created for him! She would go and hide the numbers/letters, and he would have to go 'seek' them and put them back in the right place. Sensorial I ordered a little  something new for our shelves - *reminder to self*- check the dimension size of puzzles when you order them. As small as it is, they have actually really enjoyed working with this geometric shapes puzzle.  Math Miss Priss is working through the subtraction memorization charts, although she isn't moving through them quite as fast as she did with the addition charts. She is beginning to get her hands in a few things all ...

Let me just start off by saying, I could probably count on one hand the times I have won a giveaway/drawing - and still have fingers left over. So here recently, when I just happened to notice that Safari Ltd. was having a giveaway, I noticed that all you had to do was like their facebook page, which I had done months ago. So simple that I didn't give it much more than a moments thought, and a quick comment to say what a great bunch of things they were giving away. Imagine my surprise..... My children were so excited to see that we were indeed the winners! And when this lovely box showed up a week or so later (ignore the laundry - it just always manages to show up around here!), they couldn't wait to tear in to it! This beautiful basket was inside, filled with all these wonderful goodies! We had fun taking some 'real life' pictures with some of them. :) The Brachiosaurus A lovely Eastern Chipmunk  In the left corner, we have the ...

Part of what has kept us busy the last couple of weeks was learning first hand how important doctors and nurses are that work in hospitals. Particularly, the outpatient surgery ward. Hoss had to have his tonsils removed about a week and a half ago. We had been through this type of surgery before, with LM, when she was about 3. I don't know if it was just her age, or her age and temperament put together, but it felt like a living nightmare to me for almost 2 weeks during her recovery. For 10 days, she ate next to nothing, we did all we could just to keep her hydrated! So I had no idea how he was going to handle it, although he had about 5 years advantage on her. Thankfully, he did just fine - although I will say, it was quite interesting to see his reaction to Verset. In an instant, he went from a sleepy, drowsy boy, to a wide-eyed, wild child, intent on.....showing everyone his underwear??? :D It was quite the embarrassing, funny 10 minutes or so. Thankfully, the lig...

I didn't think I would be considering even going to any kind of work plans for either of my youngest two. They are both too young, and a plan is not necessary. What I did decide to do, however, is prepare for a work plan. I know that when I gave the older three a work journal and they began to use it, Bug would waste no time in asking for one. That's how it generally goes with a younger child- "Oh, the big kids get one? Where's mine???" When she did ask, I just explained to her that she didn't need one just yet, and surprisingly, she hasn't made an issue out of it. Jessica from  Montessori Trails  shared  in this post  about her son's first work plan - that he started at 5 1/2 years. While I was working on the accountability part of our new work journals (explained next post), I was thinking about the work plan that Jessica's son used. She offers a great printable, by the way, for any one who wants to use the same card style for their little o...

*This is being posted a little later than expected! There has been so much going on here, and I have a handful of posts just floating around in my head and in draft, and will be spending some time catching up on what we have been doing!                           Accountability and Work Journals I knew that when we began to use work journals, there would come a day when more accountability with the older three would need to be put in place. *In my opinion* it isn't enough to just expect them to get everything done you want them to do every day, when sometimes, that just won't happen. There needs to be some underlying direction to make sure that the necessary basics get completed each day/week.  After about a week of getting good practice recording their work in the journals, I brought BACK the small pocket chart I had planned on using, but am using it in a different way.  Not to continually repeat mys...

I was out shopping at Sams here recently - by myself, I might add, since Sams is such a fun place for kids to go and it always takes twice as long. I always do a quick walk through of the book section and wanted to share something I was rather excited about finding for Life Science research in our home. I love the Build-Your-Own Skeletons, and sets for constructing the human body, and the lovely way you can see how God made our bodies to fit together just right. It's amazing, isn't it? What wouldn't be so amazing is seeing Mr. Billy Bones in all his pieces if Buddy Boy decided to do his own research on how quickly he comes apart. :) There will come a day, and not too far in the future, where such a purchase will safely be put in our home. Until then, this book is a fantastic replacement! A few samples of the goodies inside! I really liked that it explained the Urinary System, without going in to too much detail into anatomy that we aren't ready...