A day in the life of...

Well, Today was quit an interesting day. I had so much to do today. The day started with the kids learning some life skills. They helped me clear the table and load the dishwasher before going to get ready for school.

We decided that since we needed to go to the library and grocery store that we would kinda have a light school day. The girls started off by looking up some Christmas vocabulary words as Garrett and I worked on the Christmas alphabet book. He is really trying to learn his his sounds. We are so proud that he has learned what they all are. We went to The Dollar Tree on Saturday night and picked up some alphabet window clings he is going to put up in our classroom.

From there Garrett wanted to watch the Leap Frog Letter factory so... that is what he did. The girls and I started reading about the start of Christmas cards and presents. Alyssa was fascinated with John Horsley (who was the first person to make a Christmas card). She loved that he had the word Horse in his name. I don't think she will ever forget what he did.

The kids decided that they wanted to make gifts since they had now learned about why we had Christmas gift. So I guess we have our own three wise men in our house. LOL!!! We went to this website and the kids designed their own coupon books.
http://www.dltk-cards.com/coupon/

They were getting really antsie with school so we went outside and played for a little bit. We played some hiding go seek. Just some plain old fun!!

Then we headed in to do some handwriting sheets. I wasn't sure where Neleh needed the work so I just printed up some sentences to practice. Alyssa had her first day of Cursive. We started with the letter A and she came into me and asked if she could write her whole name in cursive. I told her sure and she did FANTASTIC!! Garrett is still working on his name, but I see so much improvment every day.

Then the last thing we did before heading out was a math sheet. Both of the girls are doing Mammoth Math 1a. It is a review for Alyssa and she did great!!! This is new for Neleh. I was so proud of her. She had completed half the workshet in the same amount it took Alyssa to do the whole thing. We are so proud!!!!

Erupting Snow

So, Today we learned about weather in Science. They made a weather observation chart and the made some snow.

We started off by all three of them working together. (Which in itself was an expirement) It took them some time to work together. In the end though they did well. My wonderful sister sent us a link with an observation sheet wich garrett glued to our posterboard. Alyssa made a pocket to stick our weather clipings in and neleh cut them out. We also added some information about the months of the year to it. In the end they learned to work together a little.

Afterwards we read two books about snow. The kids really liked to just lay down and listen to the stories. Alyssa thought it was nice to not have to read it herself for once.

The kids were all so excited about hearing about snow, but were bursting with excitment when they heard we were going to make some snow. At the kids old school they had a book fair and i bought a test tube kit which included insta snow so we got to use it today.

We made four badges. The first was a regular batch. The second one after it was made they added salt to it. They found this caused their snow to get slushy. The third batch we stuck in the freezer. (we are still waiting on this one. The last one we disected one of Lorelai's diaper and removed some of the chemicals from inside. We then added water to this. It also made a snow like substance.

The kids had a blast learning today!

Finally Chosen

After many long weeks of struggling with my kids school we made the decision that they would be coming home. The kids have been really excited and energetic this week as we have become adjusted to not leaving the house at 7:30 every morning. They love that they can get up and work in their pjs., take a break when THEY feel they need it, and lunch is when their belly's grumble and not when the school has assigned them. Also what is better than having mommy as a teacher, hot lunches, and a classroom as big as your backyard?!

It took us awhile to figure out what we would call our school. We had suggestions from all three kids: FCA (which was the name of the school they were attending), Dowdy Academy, God's School and Learning in our Backyard Academy. We decided to go with the last one.

Now for what we have decided to use:

For Alyssa, who is 7 we will be using the prairie primer http://www.cadroncreek.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=CCCC&Product_Code=Pioneer_001

and for math we are using mamoth math for money and alpha omega math chef


and for handwriting we are using a reason for handwriting T



For Neleh, who is 6 we will be using the My Little Primer

and for math, the play and find out about math book
http://www.amazon.com/Janice-VanCleaves-Play-Find-about/dp/0471129380/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227500653&sr=8-1
, mamoth math for money and clock

for handwriting we will be using A Reason for Handwriting A

100 Easy Lessons for Reading


As for Garrett...we are using several different things as we begin to tackle our ABC's and 123's.
~ Hooked on Phonics for PreK, Kumron, Flash Cards and the ABC Game


As for my little Lorelai, we will be working on coloring skills using Crayola Beginnings. Also she will learn to have table time using blocks, board books, puzzles, stacking toys and a few other undetermined items. Along with learning some things with her sisters and brother