Circle Time

Circle time is one of my favorite parts of our school day because it is something we all do together and I am not trying to split my time. It is a time for us to be silly but still learning together.

I have a list of possible activities to cover during circle time but we don’t do all of them everyday. I just pick and choose what works for us that day. Here is the list:

Pledge of allegiance, letter of the week, sign language, number of the week, songs with instruments, rhymes, show and tell, poem, read a book or short story, word wall, 100’s chart, skip counting, praying, calendar time, learning our phone number and address, reviewing states and capitals that we are learning, bible verses, frontier girls promise, Veritas cards, and feeding Rita (I will explain that in a minute).

Most of the things we are covering in circle time are posted on the wall  but anything that is not hanging up is in a box that I keep on our circle time table. The box holds all of our poems, stories, Veritas cards, flash cards and any extras. The little trash can with the eyeballs is Rita. The girls feed Rita most days during circle time. If we are working on the number two then they might feed her 2 marbles and if we are working with the letter C then they feed her things that make the “C” sound. I mainly started using Rita for Emily but Ellie loves her just as much!

I made a notebook for all of our stories and have them categorized by season so I can easily find stories that are applicable for a topic we are working on. (sorry the pictures are side ways but they wouldn’t stay turned!)

   

One of my favorite things we do I found on Mrs.. Lee’s Kindergarten blog. I will read a story and I will ask them to tell me the title, theme, characters, setting, problem, and solution. I wrote each of those things on sentence strips and put magnets on the back so whenever we are going to use them I just put them on the magnetic dry erase board and I write the answers on the board.

That pretty much sums up our circle time:)

My Frontier Girls

Both girls are doing Frontier Girls this year and I am so happy that we have found a home school troop and both girls can do it together. They just earned their fire safety badge and are working on their etiquette badge.

 

Our School Room

I don’t think I have ever posted pictures of our school room before and since a wonderful friend recently helped me rearrange some things it I thought it would be a good time to share pics.

Here is our circle time area. Our circle time area is to the right when you walk in the room and behind the door is our calendar, family mailboxes and school rules. We use the little mail boxes to put their allowance in and write notes to each other.

In the middle of the room we have our school table and up against the wall is Emily’s workboxes. Ellie is using a notebook instead of a workbox that you can see on the back of her purple chair. I will talk more about how Ellie is using her school notebook in another post.

In one of the dormers there is a cabinet that holds the curriculum that doesn’t get used as often and the baskets on top hold the curriculum that we use on a daily basis.

Also, in this dormer is our animal wall from Road Trip USA and our Mystery of History time line. 

In the other dormer we have our foam alphabet that we are working on. All of the foam letter ideas came from Totally Tots. 

My friend had the great idea of putting all of our books in file crates so the girls can easily flip through them. So they run along the back wall of the room. This has been such a huge hit! They aren’t in alphabetical order but all of the A’s are together and B’s are together etc. 

  This large Ikea shelf holds most of our games, Holiday books and manipulatives.

Our art shelf is tucked behind our chair but it wasn’t quite big enough to hold everything so there is a SMALL closet right beside it so I put a shoe holder on the back to help hold our loose items.

On our longest wall we have a sofa and chair because this is also the room where we watch TV and I have a craft nook in the corner but it was too messy to photograph:)

Sensory Bin

I love making the girls sensory bins and there are so many awesome ideas in blog land so I decided to make at least one a month and maybe 2. This month I decided to make a cutting sensory bin. I filled the tub with:

• scissors
• craft and hole punches
• beads
• tissue paper
• scrapbook paper
• foam
• straws
• thin cardboard strips
• paper in all different shapes
• paint samples

It is definitely not a “pretty” box but it has been very popular. I am not sure who is enjoying it more. Next week I am going to add glue and pipe cleaners.

Family Spa Night

We try to plan a family night once a month that is different and fun and this month it was spa night. It has been our favorite so far. We set up three stations: facial, pedicure and manicure.

For the facial station we set up a lawn chair (b/c we are classy like that) and set up a little table with homemade facemask, cucumbers, lotion, body spray, lip gloss and a pan with warm water.

For the manicure station we set up nail polish, fingernail files, lotion, pan of warm water for soaking and body spray.

For the pedicure station we set up the same as above except in the foot tub we put a body sponge and soap.

 

We started the night off by getting into our pj’s and sipping pink lemon-aide.

 We read a cute little book that came with the spa kit called Spa-di-da. Chris and I took the girls through each station first so they could know what to do when it was our turn. At the beginning of each station we sprayed the girls with body spray to help them relax (Ellie’s idea). We played classical music in the background to help set the mood:)They were so cute and into the whole thing. After Ellie’s facial she said that her skinning was soft and glowing:) We acted like the girls were our clients and they did the same for us.   

For the facial mask we used 1/4 cup of oatmeal, 2 T of warm water and a dollop of yogurt. It didn’t smell that great but they didn’t seem to mind.

I love the times when we all really enjoy the moment we are in. No whining, no grumpies, no complaining and not thinking about what I should be cleaning or my to do list. Just appreciating being together!! This was one of those nights and I loved it!!

1st Day of School

We had our first day of school today!! Ellie is officially a 1st grader and Emily is in Pre-K. We had a lot planned today and the girls were so excited! We started our morning off with new outfits and taking pictures. I printed their signs from here.

  Chris made one of their favorite breakfasts, egg cups and cinnamon fries and the girls each got to open up a bag of new school supplies. Their favorite things were the stapler and gel pens.

 

After breakfast we packed their lunch and headed upstairs to start school about 9:00. I don’t let them eat upstairs very often so they were happy about that! School went really good. I worked with Ellie and Chris worked with Emily. Ellie had a little bit of a melt down at the end when we were playing a game but other than that it was a success.

We were done with school right at noon and the girls ate lunch and had some down time. I called the girls down about an hour later for Sundae school. Ellie thought we were doing our family bible study and Emily was just confused on why were were doing school again. Both girls were happy to find this:

  I saw the idea here and new that I wanted to incorporate it as part of our first day excitement.

After we enjoyed our root beer floats and sundaes we set up for our family night. We are trying to do this once a month and this month we were going to have a family spa day. It was my favorite part of the day. I will post more on that later.

We finished off the day with a carpet picnic and the movie Tangled. Now I am pooped but I think the first day of school was a big success:)

Where Has The Summer Gone

I didn’t mean to take most of the summer off from blogging but I guess life happens and blogging got put on the back burner. This summer has gone by faster than most and I can’t believe fall is in just a little over a month. I am so ready:) So what have we been up to this summer? We have been sick A LOT!!!! I was sick for a month but two rounds of antibiotics and lots of homemade chicken stock and I am finally better. Both girls have been sick off and on as well and Chris has got another cold. I am not sure what is going on but I am praying that the worst of it is over!!! We did manage to do fun stuff as well.

Ellie went to sleep away camp for a 1/2 week and she loved it!!!! What is not to love about 3 nights and 4 days of swimming, lake activities, games, horseback riding, camp fires and the list goes on and on. She can’t wait to go back next year.

Both girls took swim lessons and got to go to music camp. Ellie was so excited because she had a speaking part and got to sing a duet.

We went on a family camping trip to one of the Jellystone Parks (Yogi Bear Campground) and had a blast! It was the first time we camped for 2 nights. There was so much to do at the campground and there was a creek right by our camp site that the girls had fun playing in.

That about wraps it up. We are starting school on Labor Day so I have spent the last few weeks tweaking our school room and put the finishing touches on our curriculum. I will be posting about school and our school room soon!

Curriculum 2011-2012

In May I attended our big homeschool conference and got most of what we needed for the upcoming school year.Ellie is finishing up Kindergarten and will be starting 1st grade at the beginning of Sept. Emily is over half way done with Raising Rock Star Preschool and will continue working on preschool activities throughout next year. Here is what the girls will be doing

Ellie 1st Grade: (Workboxes Monday-Wed)

Handwriting – A Reason for Handwriting Book B (she will actually be doing this 4x/week)

Reading – Just reading lots and lots to each other.

Spelling – All About Spelling 1

Math – Continue with Math Mammoth. I love that I have found something that she is happy with. I liked MUS but she did not like it at all!!

History – Mystery of History, MOH audio book and MOH coloring sheets

Language Lessons for Little Ones 3

Phonics – Continue with Explode the Code

Piano – Kinderbach (I think)

Art - Artistic Pursuits and Themes to Remember

Critical Thinking – We have several of these books that I will incorporate off and on

Emily Preschool: (Workboxes M-W) because she wants to do the same thing as big sister.

I am filling Emily’s workboxes with games, puzzles, and hands on activities. I have a membership to Kidssoup and ABC Twiggle so I will be giving her printouts and crafts based off a letter a week. I am also going to start her with Handwriting Without Tears Preschool Book. Both girls will be doing a book and a craft a couple of times a week based off the letter that we are working on. I already have most of these planned out.

Thursday – as a family we are doing Confessions of a Homeschoolers Road Trip State Study. You can read more about what we are doing here. Instead of breaking it up a little each day we are doing a state in one day but stretching it out into multiple Thursdays if needed.

Friday – Ellie is taking a science class every other Friday but we will all do science together on the weeks she is not in class.

Both girls start Frontier Girls and AWANA in Sept. as well.

Fun at the Beach

Here are a few pictures from our beach trip.

Enjoying the sand Fun at the aquarium

I think she spilled more ice cream then she ate

 

Ellie found a baby frog