Week 11

 

 

I love this quote by Albert Einstein.

 

And we have been following his advice!  Along with reading a chapter from Charlotte's Web every night, we read several fairy tales.  Lately we've been reading

 

Little Mermaid

Cinderella

Sleeping Beauty

Beauty and the Beast

Snow White

 

♥ She is fascinated by them. ♥

 

To continue with the language/reading theme, we've also been working on learning sign language.

 

Here's a snapshot of our "Signs We Know" wall.

She's even been able to put some of them to use when we've been out in public.  I'm so impressed with how quickly she's picked this up. 

 

We are working on signing to the song,

"Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed"

 

I hope to have a video for you next week!

 

***

 

I saw this cute little red airplane on a photography site and thought... I have tons of diaper boxes waiting to be recycled. 

So my little engineer and I have been working hard on this master piece.  Just need to get to the store to get the right paint and we will have our very own cardboard airplane!

 

***

PRACTICAL LIFE

Montessori Outlet has "dressing frames"  you can buy.  But I thought, those look simple enough, I could make those!  So I grabbed so clothes that we've outgrown and had Brian cut up an old shelf.  Grabbed some brads and a hammer and Ta Daaaaa!

 

Dressing frames that didn't cost me anything I didn't already have!

 

***

 

FIELD TRIP

We LOVE the zoo.  So for this trip, I made it into a scavenger hunt!

Gave Emma a clipboard and a marker and as we visited each animal on her paper, she put a big ol' X through and said, "okay, NOW we have to go see..."

 

Super fun!

I think it got the seal of approval from both girls!  

 

Even though I did see this look on Brook-Brook's face a few times.  But she never cried, never got fussy.  Just went along for the ride and enjoyed the view!  Such a good baby!

 

For Emma, I think her favorite part of the trip was getting to run through the sprinklers with the other kids!  She was there for at least 20 minutes.  But it was warm that day, it definitely felt good.  She took a really long nap with all her animal toys when we got home. ♥

 

***

 

One of her favorite activities to do right now is play with these dot markers.  I don't know why she prefers these to her other markers, but she does.  And my hallway is filled with many dot marker master pieces.  

 

***

 

My sweet friend Ksenyia gave Emma these adorable little Russian Nesting Dolls a while back and we've been putting them to good use.  I think they are a great Montessori style toy.  It teaches Emma how to compare sizes, order them from biggest to little, and works those fine motor skills for pulling the pieces apart and back together again.  Thank you so much Ksenyia!  We love them!

 

***

Let's see, I think that is about it for us this week.

 

We are winding down our first quarter of homeschooling.  Next week, Week 12, will be our last week and last post. 

 

I'm going to take the summer off from posting on this blog since we won't be doing new stuff.  But I'll be back in September!

Week 10

 

E.B. White you sure do know how to spin a wonderful adventure from your web of the English language.

 

We are well into Charlotte's Web and I'm not sure who is enjoying it more, me or Emma!

To go along with the story, we've made some crafts.

 

Wilbur (the pig) is made out of paper plates.

 

Charlotte (the spider) is made from one of Brooklyn's baby food containers and some pipe cleaners.

 

Templeton (the rat) is made from felt.

 

And two of Charlotte's web messages "Some Pig" and "Terrific" were made out paper plates and some yarn.

 

She loves talking about this story and even likes to act out some of the scenes we've read about!

 

Such an imagination this one has!

 

***

She's also been extremely interested in learning sign language.

 

We tried to teach her when she was a baby, but she started talking so early that she never bothered with it.  However, now, she wants to know what EVERYTHING is in sign language! 

 

So we are starting to teach both girls some basic signs.  The "I love you" one is Emma's favorite.

 

***

She is so curious about dinosaurs, STILL.  So this week, we learned about the dinosaur food chain.  I took some of Brooklyn's baby food containers and labeled 5 of them in this order:

 

PLANTS

 

ANTS

 

LIZARDS

 

VELOCIRAPTOR

 

T-REX

 

And here is a video of how it works:

I love when she pauses after velociraptor, because you can almost see those wheels in her head trying to remember and figure out if T-Rex is next or not.

 

***

 

PRACTICAL LIFE 

This week's practical life lesson came from a chore that needed to be done.  Our roses bloomed and had a bunch of dead buds.  So we got out our pruning shears and learned how to Prune Roses. 

 

She did great!  I was holding my breath the entire time she used the very sharp scissors.  But I had no need to worry, she was extremely calm, careful, and focused on the task at hand.

 

***

Continuing with our outdoor time, we invented a game called ABC hopscotch!

She would start at the front door and hop on each letter till she got to the driveway!  So much fun!!!  Even Brooklyn got a kick out of watching her hop back and forth.

 

***

 

SENSORY RUG 

Speaking of Brooklyn.  I made her a sensory rug using my scrap yarn and an old carpet leftover.  This is very bright, colorful, and soft.  I was afraid she was just going to destroy it, but just the opposite happened actually.  This rug is so soft and comfy, it seems to act as a calming rug.  Who knew???

 

MORE SENSORY PLAY

And since my yarn basket was out, she helped her self to a ball of yarn.  She must be part cat or just following in her grandmothers' fascination with yarn.  (She gets it on both sides of the family!)  That ball of yarn is permanently a knot of yarn. 

 

Reminds of the scene from Christmas Vacation where Clark hands Rusty the ball of lights and says, "Whoop, got a little knot here... you work on that."

 

BAHWHAHAHA - Oh I love that movie!

 

Yeah, that ball of yarn is probably never getting untangled.  Oh well, did you see how much fun she was having with it?  Totally worth it.

 

***

When she's not playing with my yarn she's pretty busy with any thing she can shove in her mouth...

 

 

Or at least smack herself in the face with.

 

Yep, got another tooth coming in.  Working on #3.

 

Hope you all enjoyed our week at school.

Thanks for stopping by and feel free to leave lots of comments! :)

Emma and I love reading them.

 

Please check out our sidebar, we are participating in the Walk to End Lupus and would appreciate any donation you could spare.  I know times are tough and we are all very busy, but this charity is so near and dear to us.  Please, if you haven't committed to a charity yet this year, I beg you to consider supporting us find a cure for lupus.

 

This LUPIE (me) would definitely be grateful.

♥

 

Week 9

"Education is not the filling of a pail,

but the lighting of a fire."

 

-William Butler Yeats-

 

***

SCIENCE

 

This week's science lesson was all about osmosis. 

 

I absolutely love the top middle picture.  Getting to see that moment of wonder on her face is incredible.

 

She was so into this experiment.  When I let her drop the egg that had not sat in vinegar for 2 days, she said, "Are you serious??" 

 

I said, "Go ahead.  See what happens when you drop it."

 

She giggled and said, "Oookay."

Drops it.  It cracks and oozes out the yolk.

 

Then I said, "Okay, now drop the other egg." 

 

She giggled again, expecting it to crack.  Instead it BOUNCED right out of the bowl and onto the table! 

 

I didn't catch it on camera, but the look of shock on her face was hilarious.

 

Then she repeated that a couple of times.  Until she decided to see just how high she could drop it.  Then it broke.

 

Our egg fun was over.

 

But overall she thought this experiment was pretty cool!

 

***

PRACTICAL LIFE

I love this age where "chores" are fun.  So while I was giving Brooklyn a bath, Emma learned a very practical lesson of how to clean windows!  My shower sparkles now.

 

***

BATH FUN

It's not all work and no play around here.  I had an extra pool noodle just lying around.  So I made it into a basketball hoop for the tub!

 

***

MYSTERY BASKET

To keep Brooklyn entertained, I usually give her a basket of random objects and let her explore.  She loves digging everything out, then putting it all back in. And repeat.

 

***

COOKING

We made potato mice from this awesome mom-kid cookbook:

 

Oh she thought this was just the greatest!  And when she was eating her "mice" she kept saying,

 

"I'm sorry mouse, but now I'm going to eat your nose/eyes/ears/etc"

 

So cute.

 

***

FIELD TRIP:

Natural History Museum

in

Los Angeles

I thought since Emma is SO into dinosaurs we'd go check them out at the museum!

 

Even Brooklyn enjoyed it!  She stayed awake the whole time.  Just taking it all in.

 

And as we were leaving Emma asked if she could get a dinosaur claw.  Silly mommy bought a dinosaur tooth instead, but as you can tell, she's still pretty happy with it.

 

Perhaps we'll just have to go back and get a dinosaur claw.

And apparently a dinosaur must have came home with us.  Because the next morning, we found dino tracks outsides Emma's bedroom and down the hallway!

 

So Emma went around the house on a dino hunt.  She kept saying, "Here T-Rex.  I'm not going to hurt you.  Want to come play with me?"

 

About the cutest thing ever.

With her love of facts, we decided to make us some "Fact Folders" to keep it all straight.  We currently have made a T-Rex folder and a Triceratops folder.  Lucky for me, the internet has all the information we need at the click of a button.  Because I have/had very little knowledge of dinosaurs... well that was until about a week ago.  Emma is making sure she changes that.

 

***

RUBIK'S CUBE

 

 

I found this awesome soft Rubik's cube at Toys R Us today and had to get it for Brooklyn... okay, okay... partly for myself!

 

I love it.  It actually moves like a real Rubik's cube.  Won't be long before she is challenging her Uncle Aaron to see who can solve it the fastest!

 

***

READING

 

Ever since the girls were born, we have read to them. 

 

Constantly. 

 

Almost nonstop.  

 

Most of the time they are kids books with lots of pictures.  Occasionally, they have been books that I or Brian wanted to read and they happened to be sitting on our laps, so we would just read out loud. 

 

I don't think it really matters (within reason of course) what you read to your kids, just that you are reading to them and with them.  It really helps build their vocabulary and get a good understanding of the English language, both written and spoken. 

 

I also think it's important for them to see US reading for fun. 

 

 I shared this photo with my mom and thought it would be good to put on here as well.

 

What a difference in reading 1 minute a day versus 20 minutes a day.  I found the photo on this homeschooling blog and really loved her viewpoint on reading as well.

 

***

 

So that brings me to our

 

SUMMER PROJECT:

 

Books that have been made into movies reading series. 

 

After we finish the reading part we will have a slumber party in the living room (with lots of popcorn) and watch the movie of that book.

 

 

Our first one we did backwards. 

We watched the movie, The Crood's

THEN read the book.

She liked both of them. And with this story not being familiar, I actually think it helped that she'd seen the movie first.  Accidental success.

 

 

And our second book is working out that way too.

 

She wanted to read Charlotte's Web and we've already watched the movie.  But I love that she wants to read the book.  So we are on chapter 4.

 

 

 

Our next book (hopefully she'll let me pick this one... heheehh) will be Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  (Thank you Doug for your suggestion!)  And I have the original version of this movie on DVD.  Which she has NOT seen. 

 

 

 

So what other book/movie combinations would you recommend?

 

I have the following on our shelves and imagine these will take us to about the middle of the summer.

 

 

If you have time to leave a suggestion in the comment section for other books I could add to our list, I'd greatly appreciate it. 

 

And it would help me answer my friend Megan's question too of what book/movie combination to read. :)

 

Thank you!!!

 

 

Hope you all have a great week!

Week 8

Emma wants to know if you like her new "look"?

 

heheheh

 

***

 

PRACTICAL LIFE

 

This week's Practical Life activity was learning how to polish and sort silverware!

 

I didn't want to use any sort of harmful polish so I searched online and found a very easy solution.

 

1.  Line your sink with aluminum foil

2.  Pour boiling hot water in and add about 1 cup of baking soda

3.  Let your silverware soak for at least 30 min

4.  Rinse and polish with a clean rag

 

Super easy.  We didn't have a lot of tarnish so ours came off without much effort.

 

Emma enjoyed sorting more so than polishing... can't say that I blame her.  But she did great, even with Brooklyn looking over her shoulder.

 

***

 

STORY TIME

Oh how we love to read in this house.  And do crafts.  So what better combination than felt board stories!  We've now added "The Napping House" and "Polar Bear, Polar Bear" to our collection of felt story pieces.

 

Emma loves this.  She happily will read to Brooklyn if it's a book she can play with the felt pieces!

 

I love that Emma will grab a book and go lay on the couch to read.  I can't think of a better way to spend the afternoon and apparently, she can't either.

 

Her recent topic of interest has been dinosaurs!

I found these little plastic guys in the $1 aisle at Target.  Which is great because these were the same kinds that she made flashcards from.  Here's the video of that, incase you didn't see our family blog post.

 

 

***

 MATH FUN

 

I bought these wooden geometric solids a while back and hadn't really done anything with them.  Then I thought I could make it like a puzzle.  So I grabbed some felt and cut out the shape of the *bases* for each solid.  Then asked her to match them up.  She did terrific!  We even talked about their names and some of their other properties. 

 

And when we were done, she built "Rapunzel's" tower and kept asking her to throw down her long, yellow hair.  :)

 

***

OUTSIDE FUN

Recently, we bought a stainless steel refrigerator which took away our big magnetic surface for playing with magnets.  But since our weather has been so nice lately, I thought, duh! Our garage door is metal, let's go outside!

 

So Brook-Brook and I hung out on a blanket in the grass, while Emma played with magnets on the garage door!

 

***

 

SHAPES

Brooklyn is sitting up very well by herself now, so I can do more activities with her.  I love this stage of exploration.  Because everything is new and fascinating!

 

 

 

She gets a little frustrated with this toy, but only because she can't take the beads off and shove them in her mouth! bwhahahah.  Other than that, she will play with this for at least 15 minutes. 

 

***

 

I've been working on a texture rug for Brooklyn.  I'm using up all my leftover yarn and making pom-poms.  I'll sew them down on this piece of scrap carpet to create a very soft, fluffy, tickly rug that Brooklyn can sit or lay on and explore.  I'll post a photo when I'm finished!

 

***

 

Other than that we've just been hanging out.  With all the tragedies in the news this week, it was nice to take a moment to reflect and appreciate all that is good in our lives.  Sending prayers to all those who are suffering from the events of this week.

 

***

Thank you for all your comments last week about summer time.

 

I think what I'd like to do is focus on reading chapter books and doing fun cooking projects.  Other than that I'm just going to follow Emma's lead.  And see where her curiosity takes us.

 

 

Hope you all have a great week!

Thank you for checking in!