Weekly Wrap-Up–September 28–Week 5

I was thinking about the point of doing a weekly wrap-up this week, and I really like what Carisa said at the top of her weekly wrap-up post. It’s a way to throw together some random things that I happen to capture or remember from this week in school.

This week, she proved to me that she has, in fact, memorized her first poem from First Language Lessons.

“The Caterpillar”

We made an “armored vest” like the Israelites would have worn during the time of David. Okay, not at all like it, but it was the best we could do for 1st grade, right? We used a pillowcase and milk jug sides. She punched holes in the top corners and I hand sewed them on.

We started discussing the Skeletal System in Anatomy. The hands-on project was to make a person out of play dough and try to stand it up.

Of course it fell over. Then we made another one, this time with toothpicks inside as a “skeleton”

Hey, look! That one is standing up!

We went to the farm on Wednesday as a field trip for tot school. More about that later. For now, here’s my sweet girl with her new pink parasol (really just an umbrella). It was a drizzly day, so of course she had to bring it.

Thursday she had co-op and made two lyres, one on a hanger and the other on a shoe box, both with rubber bands. I didn’t get any pictures before they were played to their demise.

Friday and today, she’s camper camping in Rocky Mountain National Park with my mom and step-dad. I love that she gets to have adventures by herself, even if I am a bit jealous.

~S

Speak Up Saturday–TOS Review–Music Together CD & Songbook

Music. I think all kids like music. At least all the ones that I know. Young ones especially love to make random noises (vocabules) with their mouths and turn it into music. My kids do, anyway, do yours?

Enter Music Together. I was given the opportunity to review their Music Together Family Favorites CD and Songbook for Teachers.

Here’s what they say about Music Together:

Music Together is an internationally recognized early childhood music and movement program for children from birth through age 7—and the grownups who love them. First offered to the public in 1987, it pioneered the concept of a research-based, developmentally appropriate early childhood music curriculum that strongly emphasizes and facilitates adult involvement.

Music Together classes are based on the recognition that all children are musical. All children can learn to sing in tune, keep a beat, and participate with confidence in the music of our culture, provided that their early environment supports such learning.

As soon as we received it, I popped the CD in the car CD player, and the kids instantly *loved* it! From the first “Hello” song through the catchy songs using nonsense words like “Biddy Biddy Bum” and classics like “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” all the way to “Goodbye, So Long, Farewell”, it’s been an instant hit and much requested by my kids. And, honestly, me too. I find myself singing the songs as I go about my day with the kids.

After I had been listening to the CD for a few weeks, I finally got to reading the songbook, and found another amazing resource! The songbook starts with pages about how to teach a variety of types of students with practical suggestions for class as a whole as well as specific songs. Then it moves into the songs that are included on the CD and suggestions for activities for each one. It also includes a bit of background for each song, which I found interesting.

With the amount of thought that obviously went into each song chosen for this CD, I was intrigued and went to find a bit more information about the classes. At about the same time, I received a flyer for classes in my area…what a coincidence! I contacted the director of the local Music Together studio and here’s what she had to say:

The Music Together Program in its entirety contains 9 different CD and songbook collections (so three years worth of material!) Music Together Directors/Teachers also take in-depth/ongoing training so a class experience offers a deeper understanding of musical development and the music itself. I have had homeschoolers in my classes before and would be happy to offer an introductory discount to homeschooling families. I offer classes in Boulder and Fort Collins. I am also happy to coordinate a class just for homeschooled families if there is enough interest. Families can contact me, Jane Smolens, at www.mountainsongmusic.com or (303)413-1120 or (970)495-1120. Families can contact me to find out the coupon code to waive the registration fee as an introductory discount.

So with all that said, you can guess that we give this product 5 stars :) The songs are fun, musically interesting, and well thought out. The whole program looks amazing, and I am really considering joining a class with my kids. Oh, and did I mention that they could all take a class together? Bonus!

You can get the Music Together Family Favorites CD for $9.99 download version or $14.95 plus shipping for the physical CD.

The Songbook for Teachers is $29.95 plus shipping OR buy the set for $39.95, which is a $5 discount.

They have several other products available for purchase as well, like egg shakers, rhythm sticks, and other CDs, so go check it out!

~S

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this product through The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Wordful Wednesday–Kid’s Room

So, a few months ago, we decided to move Kahlen down into the basement. It was to give her a private space and so the boys could hopefully be more successful in sharing a room. Well, it didn’t work as well as we had planned. Shane has still been sleeping in the living room in the pack’n’play, and Kahlen’s “room” just isn’t meant to be a bedroom. It was this weird space between the stairs and the back of the house, which is the office.

It was going okay, but not ideal, until one night. Hubby usually gives the kids a blessing before going to bed. One night, he completely forgot to give Kahlen her blessing because she was in the basement. Add to that the fact that we’ve been giving Nate a small dose of melatonin with great success. So over the weekend, we moved her bed and dresser back upstairs. It’s going well so far, we’ve had a few later nights, but overall they’ve enjoyed being together again.

The kids “moving” the mattress.

Story time. Notice Shane in the crib. He thinks this game is *awesome*

~S

Linking up at:

Tot School–Feelings

Nathanael is currently 39 months (or 3 1/3, if that’s easier for you)

Because of my crazy week, we only had one day of school. But it was a good day! We were able to do a lot, and the finished product was great fun. Thanks to Carisa at 1+1+1=1, the printables and activities were pretty much planned for me! She has created this great Tot Book all about feelings, hooray!

Here’s my plan sheet for the week (day). Click here to get a printable version instead.

Theme: Feelings		Day 1:_______________
Verse Song:	Joyful Heart by Steve Green
Story	Today I Feel Silly: And Other Moods That Make My Day	Hurty Feelings	When You Are Happy
Craft	Lapbook	Lapbook	Lapbook
Song	If You’re Happy and You Know It		If You’re Happy and You Know It
Game	Matching Emotions Outside	Cubes: PE
Snack	Happy Face Rice Cakes		Video: Where's God When I'm Scared?

Supplies Lists

To Print:

·         Lapbook Pieces

To Gather/Purchase:

·         Rice Cakes

·         Peanut Butter

·         Apples

·         Fruit Leather

Extra Printouts

·         Mini-Book: Feelings and Faces

·         Feelings Easy Reader

Tilly making a mad face and an excited face

Nate making a mad face (which is pretty accurate, haha)

Happy Face Rice Cake snack

Playing with matching emotion cards from the tot book. These squirrely boys do much better if we do a few activities outside!

Nate’s finished Feelings tot bookThe insideThe back…of Kahlen’s. Yup, my first grader wanted to do one too I told her she could if she got her other work done first. She’s supposed to do some independent work during tot school on Mondays (like her math worksheets and a few pages in Explode the Code 3), and she usually dawdles. Not this day! She really wanted to do it with us, so she did her work quickly and completely.

That’s about it. I didn’t get any pictures of the other crafts we did not on co-op day. I printed the Feelings Easy Reader with 4 to a page and had Nate cut them out for scissor practice, but then we didn’t really do anything else with it.

So, what did you do for tot school?

~S

Weekly Wrap-Up–September 21–Week 4

I posted last week that I knew this week was going to be crazy busy, I just didn’t realize exactly how busy! I survived the consignment sale, but just barely; the good thing, though, was I was able to purchase all new wardrobes for Kahlen and Nathanael AND we still have enough money to buy the new bike trailer that we’ve had our eye on for some time, whoohoo! So, we did very little school last week, but we did a few neat things:

For Anatomy, we created a edible cell model using jell-o and various candies.

(Top)(Bottom before I inverted it)

We had cytoplasm (the jell-o), mitochondria (peanut M&Ms), Lysosomes (Skittles), Golgi bodies (Gummi Lifesavers), Endoplasmic Reticulum (Fruit Leather), some with Ribosomes (Nerds), Centrioles (Twizzler Pull’n’Peel), and a Nucleus (Gobstopper). Nate watched. Kahlen did most of it. Then they ate it, which was a special treat because I hardly ever (like, this may be the first time for them) make jell-o.

Hmm, I guess that’s only one neat thing. We did complete math, spelling, and a flip book of definitions for anatomy.

(Picture taken with my phone, sorry!)

That’s about all we got done last week. This week is shaping up to be a much calmer week, thank goodness! We are taking a field trip for tot school tomorrow, but if everything goes according to plan (haha), we’ll still have time before and after for regular school.

~S

Speak Up Saturday–TOS Review–Family Time Fitness

Okay, so I know Kahlen is only five, but I’ve been thinking about how to help her with coordination and develop her large motor skills. She is active and fairly athletic, but lacks coordination. Enter Family Time Fitness. Now, I don’t see myself as not being able to teach PE, or come up with ideas, but it certainly is nice to just have a well-laid out plan and be able to follow it with very little prep. Especially since I have a tot schooler and a baby around, I just don’t have the time to come up with well-rounded, well-prepared PE lessons. Nor do I want to just sign her up for classes or sports since that will actually take more time, driving back and forth, etc.

Here’s what they say about their program:

Have you ever asked yourself...

Can I teach physical education, even though I don’t know anything about it?
Family Time Fitness says: Absolutely!

The Fitness 4 Homeschool Curriculum allows homeschool parents to teach physical education without previous knowledge of physical education and athletic development. Our program, designed by experts in fitness training, nutrition and body movement, is designed to suit every age and ability level while affordably fitting into your budget. Our program combines flexibility and fun with a comprehensive curriculum to give your children a foundation for strong bodies and minds.

We created the Fitness 4 Homeschool curriculum because of a lack of fitness programs for homeschoolers. We started this program because we couldn’t find any at all! With the child obesity epidemic on the rise in the U.S., now is the time to give our children the exercise guidance they need while building the skills necessary to stay fit for a lifetime.

We believe that a PE curriculum is absolutely essential for a balanced homeschool classroom. Our expertly designed program has been created to maximize the benefits of spatial awareness, body awareness, environmental awareness, enhanced neurological development, mind-body coordination, stress reduction, social engagement, poise and confidence.

Each lesson has a one-page summary that you can print to use while you are doing the lesson as well as a detailed description of the lesson/session that includes links to demonstration videos. There are 260 lessons! The lessons are designed for K-8th grade, can mostly be done inside, and take about 25-45 minutes. Each lesson has a warm-up, activity or game play, a cool down, and an outside activity that can be done for as long as you or the student wants to (for example, the first one is jump rope). There is also an assessment test available which you can use to measure progress over the course of the year.

For us, this program will be a ton more useful when I can include Nate in the sessions as well. So many of the activities are way over his skill level for the moment that it made it hard to find a time to do the sessions with just Kahlen. There were some of the activities that I could adapt to make them more useable with a 5 and 3 year old, but some of them are just over both their heads. Kahlen enjoyed the variation within each lesson and from lesson to lesson. She’s not one that likes to keep doing the same thing over and over again, unless of course it was her idea ;) I liked the ease of setting up each lesson and that we could do most of it inside or outside with very little equipment needed.

This curriculum will be something that we will continue to use, and probably for several years. Even if the kids are in sports, that’s not going to be every day and it’s not going to teach them other ways to move their bodies, which is so very important for long term health. I also feel like it’s a good thing for me to do with them! As a mom, I don’t always feel like I have time to get in the physical activity I should be getting for my own well-being. If I do 30 minutes of activities WITH my kids, what better use of my time could there be?

(Sorry, no pictures. It’s hard to take pictures of them while walking like a crab myself)

You can purchase the Fitness 4 Homeschool - Core 1 Physical Education Curriculum K-8 Curriculum for just $57! It is downloadable PDFs which you are free to print or put on your tablet or just look at on your computer.

~S

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this product through The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Tot School–Me and My Family

Nathanael is currently 38.5 months

We had a very successful and normal school week this week! We focused on All About Me on Monday and All About Family on Thursday. I’m still tweaking my plan sheet and how I get it to you. Anyone have any opinions about Google Drive? Do you even want to see my plan sheet or just pictures of the activities that we did? Is anyone out there? Enough talking…here’s my weekly plan sheet for Me and My Family:

Me and My Family		Day 1: All About Me!
Verse Song:	Colossians 3:20
Story	ABC I Like Me	I’m Gonna Like Me	I Like Me
Craft	All About Me Mini Book & Worksheets	Full Size Me	Jell-o Name
Song	Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes		Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes & Verse
Game	Red Rover	Cubes: Picture Game	Video: Chrysanthemum
Snack	First Initial Cheese & Fruit Leather

Me and My Family		Day 2: My Family
Verse Song:	Colossians 3:20
Story	Me and My Family Tree	Mommy Loves Her Baby/Daddy Loves His Baby	Oonga Boonga
Craft	Family Tree File Folder & Worksheets	Family Quilt	Family Puppets
Song	He’s Got The Whole World		He’s Got The Whole World & Verse Song
Game	Mommy Says (Simon Says)	Crazy Walk	Video: Because Your Daddy Loves You
Snack	People cutouts using tortillas and hummus	Activity: Family Puzzle

Extra Printouts

1.      Coloring Page from picture

2.      First Initial coloring pages

3.      Family Size Sort

To see my supplies list and print the plan sheet, download it here.

Day 1 Pictures:

Worksheets

Jell-o Name(Glue and powdered jello over printout of name)

Name Game: I printed two pictures of each kid and put one set in a Stack n Smile Photo Blocks Stacking Toy. The other picture I put in a circle of yarn. We rolled the cube, then they had to run to that kid’s circle an stand in it.

Full Size Me: I traced each kid on a large piece of paper and then let them color it. If we’d had more focus, I’d have let them decorate it more, but coloring it was about all they could handle by this point.

Nate was very proud of his picture

Day 2 Pictures:

Dot Painting their initials. They love the dot painting!

Family Puzzles: I printed a plain black and white family picture and another color one on cardstock. I then cut the color one into four pieces and had them lay it over the black and white one. This was just enough of a puzzle for my bunch. They were able to just do it by themselves. Mostly. It was very good practice.

Nate has been enjoying daddy’s new Nexus tablet. His current favorite game is Kid’s Shape Puzzle so we actually bought the full version for once.

Here’s the books we used this week:

This week we are only doing one day because I have a huge consignment sale to get ready (which I already mentioned in my Weekly Wrap-Up Post, but it bears repeating!) If you’re local, be sure to join us on Friday. 9/21, from 10-8 and Saturday, 9/22, from 9-2 for the biggest and best kid’s consignment sale in the area!

~S