Letters From the Homefront

It's really awful. She's been neglecting her blog. No, that's not really what's happening. We are just so busy with school and life! The very thing I started a blog to cover has kept me busy! I just felt the need for myself (and anyone else that cares out there, but mostly for myself) to say that I am still loving being able to blog, and sometimes it just means playing catch up after a couple weeks.  I have found that trying to overly focus on catching pictures of everything we are doing can sometimes overshadow actually doing them. So I grab one if I can, but I want to make sure I keep my focus where it's supposed to be.  That, and the fact that I am starting to work on an at-home business (Plexus) and that has taken some time working that in to my schedule.  Sometimes, things get a little crazy around here....  But what I love is this: Lunch dates I love seeing the light come on when a child learns to read.  ...

Just an update of some of what we've been doing around here. MATH Bug finished the addition booklet I printed out for her to use with the addition finger chart. I also gave her the first presentation of commutative addition (modified because it's been a while since I gave it to Miss Priss, couldn't remember exactly the steps I  used last time, and I needed to give it immediately that day) with the printed bead bars. I am in the process of  making her a new version of the addition booklet, to practice identifying the commutative addition equations. \ Miss Priss was working on some pages she tore out of an old workbook we had eons ago, that had been hole-punched and put in her binder. She came to a page that had addition equations involving money and several addends. She was having a difficult time, but has been resistant to using the stamp game - I think it's becoming more time consuming than she feels is necessary. I showed her how it is possible to do the s...

Today we worked on some exploration with magnets.  I found this very small, inexpensive set of magnets at a local school supply store here. They didn't have the one I REALLY wanted, so I settled for a cheaper one for the time being.  I prepared for our day this morning by going online and printing off a few ready-made free worksheets. And here is where you insert the gasp-heard-round-the-world. :)  I generally shy away from worksheets - we don't use them on a daily basis. I would not print out a worksheet for something that was new to my children. I believe you should always, as much as possible, give your children a concrete learning experience long before bringing in anything abstract, like a worksheet. In this case, they had already had that.  When you are working with children who have had the concrete first experiences you can build off of those with some that review what they know and give them a chance to expand and show what they have r...

What a game of catch up it is, too.  Blogging has taken a back burner for a little while, for a few reasons.  #1 - We are SUPER busy! Just flat busy, no other way to put it.  #2 - I am now solely dependent on my phone for pictures, which is fine - it takes great pictures, but I am trying to find the easiest way to get them from my phone to my computer in a way that doesn't try to save Every. Single. One. every time. I'm not real tech savvy so I am slow to try and mess with it.  #3 - The kids have testing (state mandated) this week, and though it's only one day - half a day, at that - I generally try to put a focus on the type of material that they will be facing so they are not surprised and ill-prepared for the final day.  I've pulled a few pictures together to try and give a good idea of some of the things we've been doing the last month or so, since the last time I posted. I still have a couple vacation posts I want to finish, and am determin...