Orr Homeschool Adventures

Days of Creation

2011-08-19T01:28:00.000-05:00

On Tuesday, we finished reading Evan and Alan's Beginner's Bible. It was priceless to see and feel Evan's sense of accomplishment! He was so proud that we had read the whole Bible! And perhaps the most exciting part of all was that he couldn't wait to start reading it all over again! Everyday when I tell the boys that it is time to go 'read Bibles,' they drop whatever they are doing and it is a mad dash for the schoolroom. They each have their own little easy chair that they jump in and sit and wait for me. The moment I sit down to read, Evan always asks, "Mommy, I wonder what we are going to learn about today."

Today, we started again at the very beginning - Creation. After we read through the creation account once, we went back through and reviewed each of the six days. By looking at the pictures, both the boys were able to tell me what God made on each day. We sang the creation song for each day too and Evan sang right along and knew all the words.

Day One, Day One, God made light when there was none.
Day Two, Day Two, God made clouds and skys of blue.
Day Three, Day Three, God made plants and flowers and trees.
Day Four, Day Four, Sun and moon and stars galore.
Day Five, Day Five, God made birds and fish alive.
Sixth Day, Sixth Day, God made animals and man that day.
Day Seven, Day Seven, God did rest in His heaven.

After studying the creation account, we did a little Bible worksheet. The boys colored the pictures that went with each day of creation, cut them out and glued them onto a piece of construction paper.

I don't know if it is a boy thing or not, but at this point, Evan just has very little desire to try to stay in the lines. When I encourage him to slow down and try he can do pretty good, but after a moment or two, he just goes right back. Hopefully he'll figure it out one of these days!

He wanted to write his name on his completed picture. He's getting a lot better at this!

We played with the number puzzle, and again reviewed the Days of Creation. They love making a little game out of who can find the correct item, whether it is puzzle pieces or flashcards or whatever. I'll say, "Evan, can you find the number 5?", "Alan, can you find the number 2?" and so on. Today, we lined the numbers all up and I taught them the 'One, Two, buckle my shoe' rhyme.

These little Dollar Tree puzzles are great! We use them ALL the time!

I reintroduced them to Timmy the Triangle. Timmy is made out of craft sticks. They played with him for awhile and then we had fun making different shapes out of pipe cleaners.

Who needs a bunch of expensive toys, when you have craft sticks and pipe cleaners?! Wish I would have known this a couple of years ago!

Aa is for Artist

2011-08-17T01:18:00.000-05:00

Today, we continued our review of the Letter Aa. Evan's writing skills are improving and he is really starting to enjoy writing! We wrote the word 'animals' on the board and then made a list of some animals that begin with the Letter Aa. Evan circled all the Aa's. He then did a Letter Aa worksheet that also had these animals plus a few additional Aa words.

Evan proud of his penmenship!

Evan finding the Aa's in all the animal words.

Completing his Aa Worksheet.

Then we moved on to the Number 1. Both the boys practiced writing the number 1. While they wrote, I recited the One Poem several times: "Down goes your line when you make a 1. It's easy and lots of fun. Just be sure your line is as straight as it can be. One's like to stand up tall like a tree!" Then I would strike a pose and ask them if my body looked like a number 1. They thought this was hilarious and wanted to do it too. We made lots of different poses, but ended by standing tall like a tree - just like the Number 1!

Evan making some ones.

Alan's attempt at making ones!

Evan posing like the Number 1!

Alan trying to stand up tall like a tree!

We reviewed the numbers 1-10 with the number flashcards. Each flashcard has animals on one side and shapes on the other that they would count for whatever number it was. The number 10 flashcard has 10 bluejays on it. This reminded Evan of one of his favorite stories that also has a bluejay in it - "Play With Me" by Marie Hall Ets. So we read it and talked more about all the different animals in the story. Then we played with the number and lowercase letter puzzles. Making tracks with the blocks came next and the boys made a really long track to look like a big number 1. They each made one and then took turns going down their newly made 'road'!

Putting the puzzle together while singing, "1-2-3, Jesus loves me..."

Alan continually impresses me with his letter recognition ability!

"Mommy! Our track looks like a number 1!"

Evan - "My track is the biggest Mommy!"

Taking a stroll down their new 'road'!

The boys then did a couple worksheets over the Number 1.

Matching worksheet. Notice how straight Evan's lines are. He really is getting a lot better! Alan - well, he's just getting started!!!

Evan cut out all of the numbers and then let Alan glue them on.

Well, until he took the glue and said, "Here Alan, let me show you how!"

To go along with our review of the Letter Aa, we started to read "I Am an Artist" by Pat Lowery Collins. This book is part of our Before Five in a Row (B4FIAR) Program. The illustrations are just beautiful and the boys really enjoy it. It is all about seeing art in nature and in objects all around us. One of the lines talks about how you are an artist when you make something from the things that you collect. The picture instantly reminded Evan of his 'nature art' that we made yesterday. He got so excited, and said, "Mommy! I am an artist too!" I was SO proud of him for making this connection! I had hoped that he would, but wasn't sure if he would or not. We spent the rest of the day doing different things from the book, proving to him that he was in fact an artist!

The book talks about you being an artist when you find a face in a cloud. Evan has been doing this a lot lately. Especially while we are driving, he'll say, "Look - that cloud looks like a dog, and that one looks like an elephant!" He's found some pretty interesting things in the clouds!

It also talks about how you are an artist when you find and/or make footprints in the sand or snow. This went perfectly with Aa is for animals. We talked about how each animal has a different footprint and how they each make different kinds of tracks. I was really impressed because on the picture in the book, there is a beach scene with tracks in the sand. I asked Evan if he knew what kind of animal made tracks like that and he knew right away that they were bird tracks! There is not a bird anywhere on the page, he just knew it! I was quite impressed and reminded him that he was an artist! We got out some play-doh and some of their toys to see what kinds of tracks they could make and to see how they were all different. They really enjoyed this! Then I stamped each of their feet so they could see their own footprint.

Making play-doh tracks with army men, dinosaurs, and various farm animals!

Alan making army men tracks.

Evan making horse tracks.

"Look at all the tracks I made!"

4 precious footprints! (Evan was trying to hold up Alan's legs because he really wanted me to see the bottom of his feet!"

While Alan took a nap, I took Evan outside and we continued to talk about different animal tracks. I had 4 different track molds - raccoon, coyote, beaver, and deer. We wet the sand a little and Evan thought it was so cool to make the different animal tracks in the sand! Then I stretched out a piece of paper and let him use fingerpaints to make all the different animal tracks. He had so much fun! Being the little artist, he couldn't wait to make his own tracks. So he got paint all over his feet and took off!

Using the Coyote Replitracks to make tracks in the sand.

He really liked the raccoon tracks!

Fingerpaints + Animal tracks = LOTS OF FUN!

The beaver's back footprint was about as big as Evan's! I never thought about a beaver's back foot being so big. You can see the webbing and everything! It was really cool! I'm learning too!

Daddy helping Evan. The plates were quite slippery with paint all over them!

Evan was so excited to make his own tracks!

Our front sidewalk is covered in little colored footprints! A part of me is wishing the rain won't wash it away!

Another part of the book talks about how you are an artist when you shoot water loops in the air with the hose. I needed to wash Evan's feet off anyways so it was the perfect opportunity for him to express his inner artist...until the little stinker thought it would be hilarious to come after me with the hose!!!

Making water loops!

A little ornery...I think so!!!

Alan woke up, and Evan wanted to go on an animal hunt. He insisted on wearing his raincoat and rainboots! He also wanted to use toilet paper rolls for binoculars - only he kept calling them his 'antlers'! We walked all around our yard and the neighbors yards in search of animals. He walked almost the entire time holding his 'antlers' to his eyes! He made sure that Alan had one and that I had two! We spotted birds, a cat, a dog, horses, a squirrel, a rabbit, lots of bugs, a butterfly, and a bear in the cave (according to Evan)!

My little animal explorers with their 'antlers'!

Evan got up in the fort and said he was going on a lion hunt! He spotted one so he came down the slide to go after it!

Whew! It wasn't a lion after all - only a bear in the cave, which Evan took care of with his stick! :)

Our animal hunt wasn't complete until we went to see Rocky!

We had such a fun day! The neighbor girls went to meet their teachers tonight and they were telling us about it when they got home. Evan looked at them and said, "My Mommy is not going to be your teacher because she is MY teacher!" Before going to bed, I asked Evan if he liked me being his teacher and he said, "YES! You are the bestest teacher and I love you so much!" Then he said, "And I am an artist and you love me so much too!" WOW!!! Talk about melting your heart! What a precious way to end such a wonderful day!

Back to (home)school!!!

2011-08-15T22:20:00.000-05:00

We were all very excited to start back to school today. We've been 'playing school' with Evan for well over a year now and he has loved it! We were excited to get Alan more into it and include him in more of the activities that we do. He's always been along for the ride but it is so fun now that he is really able to participate in the fun with us!

The boys knew that today we starting back to school and that we were going to celebrate by making special pancakes for breakfast. They were so excited and couldn't wait to get downstairs this morning for breakfast.

Evan was so excited about his E-v-a-n pancakes!

Alan - "Do my letter! Do my letter!"

Evan - "Make Mom and Dad pancakes too!"

YUMMY! Evan LOVED his pancakes!

And so did Alan!!!

After breakfast, the boys couldn't wait to start 'playing school'! I figured on a special day like this, that the dishes could just wait, so we headed straight for the school room!

Posing with their backpacks on and ready to start school!

We did our 'normal' start routine by changing the day magnets, singing the days of the week song, reciting the pledge of allegiance and all of their memory verses (which Alan now recites, "Jesus wept." So cute!), singing 'Around the circle we will go', giving airplane rides, and of course, getting dinosaur stamps! They didn't miss a beat!

Changing the day magnets.

I asked Evan last night what his favorite thing to do in school was, and he said, "Getting dinosaur stamps!" HA!

We started with our Bible Lesson talking about how God made the whole wide world for us! I figured if we were going to start school over with both the boys, that we would just start again at the very beginning! We talked about how Daddy does special things for us all the time, and that our Heavenly Father also does very special things for us. The first thing He did was create the world for us! The world is a very special gift from God. And as a matter of fact, there was something very special from God...and it was outside in the mailbox! They couldn't wait, they grabbed their shoes and we all ran outside!

The boys couldn't wait to see what special gift was waiting for them!

It was a letter from God!

The letter told each of them that God had made the whole wide world for them because He loved them so much! Inside was a picture of the world for them to color and enjoy!

After coloring the world picture, they cut it out and glued a craft stick between the 2 images so that they could carry their world that God gave them.

We talked about all the wonderful things that God created for us - the sun, moon, stars, grass, trees, flowers, clouds, etc. Then we played with our 'weather' puppets and sang songs about how all these things show us God's love.

"The rain is falling pit, pat, pit...showing us God's love!"
"The rainbow is so beautiful...reminding us of God's promises!"

We talked about different ways that Daddy shows us that he loves us. Evan said that he knew Daddy loved him because Daddy gave him presents, and helped him clean up his toys, and plays with him. Both the boys drew a picture of Daddy. Then we looked through magazines and found pictures of other Daddy's. Evan cut them all out and then glued them onto a piece of paper - he insisted on using pink paper!

Evan drawing a picture of him and Daddy.

Alan drawing a picture of him and Daddy!

Evan cutting out other Daddy's from the magazine.

And then gluing them all onto his pink paper!

The boys watched a Character Building video on Love and then Alan went down for a nap. While Alan was sleeping, I took Evan outside to play with the neighbor girls. We went on an acorn hunt and they glued them all down to spell out the word 'acorn'. They had a blast!

Going on an acorn hunt!

Gluing down the acorns to spell it out.

Proud of their finished project!

Since we had been talking about God's wonderful creation, it seemed fitting to go on a nature hunt. We pretended that we were astronauts who had landed on a new planet and were on a search to see what we could find. The 1 bucket that I had to collect our findings wasn't big enough, so conveniently, our 'helmets' doubled as buckets too! They had so much fun! We found all sorts of things! After a good hour or so of nature hunting, we dumped our new treasures out onto the driveway and created art masterpieces with them! They thought this was the coolest thing ever! The girls kept asking if we could do this every week!

My little nature explorers - Megan, Evan, and Haley.

Proud of all their nature treasures!

A couple more neighbor girls came to see what all the fun was about and helped create the art masterpieces!

Evan wanted to write his name on his - so we did our best! I didn't get a picture yet of the finished project. He added several more flowers to it.

Back inside, we reviewed the letter Aa. We talked about several Aa words and he practiced writing it. His penmenship is getting much better. He doesn't know it yet, but we are going to talk about Aa is for art this week.

Review of the Letter Aa.

Even though Evan doesn't really need a backpack, he wanted one so badly. So we told him it would be perfect to take his library books back and forth. He was so excited about this and couldn't wait to go to the library with his new backpack. So after Alan woke up, we went to the library and they found lots of books they wanted - mostly Thomas and Curious George books! But they also found a video they wanted called 'Baby Van Gogh'. Perfect! This will go great with my plans for the rest of the week!

We had such a fun first day back to school! Tonight, I asked Evan if he had a fun day. He said, "Yes! Can we make number pancakes again tomorrow?!!!"

Ee is for Elephant

2011-02-28T23:49:00.000-06:00

Today we starting learning the Letter Ee. Evan was so excited because 'E' is his letter! He's recognized the Big E for some time now and we've worked on writing it before. Whenever you press the Letter Ee on Evan's toy laptop, it says, "Let's celebrate your letter, Evan!" So throughout the day, we celebrated the Letter Ee by singing, "E chacha chacha V chacha chacha A chacha chacha N! EVAN!" I told him that the word 'Evan' was my favorite word in the whole wide world that starts with the Letter E! He felt pretty special! He practiced writing the Letter Ee on the board and on his Ee flashcard. The little e was more difficult for him. He wasn't as familiar with that one. He kept wanting to call it a 'c'. It actually worked out okay though because the way they wanted me to teach him to write it was to make a little c and then draw the line. He'll get it!

Evan celebrating his letter! E chacha chacha!

Practice makes perfect!

Then I introduced him to Elizabeth E and we read the mini book, "What Begins With E?" Of course his first question as soon as we were done reading it was, "Can we play a puppet show with the new one?!" Good thing I had the pieces ready to go! He helped assemble Elizabeth E.

Let me introduce you to, Elizabeth E.

After we were done with the introduction of the Letter Ee, we moved on to Ee is for Elephant. We talked about elephants the rest of the day - literally! He fell asleep on me tonight while sitting on the couch talking about elephants!

Ee is for Elephant!

I had made a little mini book about elephants with several elephant pictures in it. We looked at that and talked about the features that made elephants so unique. I then took him to the San Diego Zoo's website where we could watch several elephant videos, see a live Elephant Cam, and play an elephant game.

Elephant videos: http://www.elephantodyssey.com/video/
Live Elephant Cam: http://www.sandiegozoo.org/elephantcam/index.html
Elephant Odyssey Game: http://www.elephantodyssey.com/game/

Talk about mesmerized...he would have been content to play the elephant game the rest of the day! We played and played until we conquered the whole thing. The graphics really were pretty cute. However, if you were going to play it with an older child that could read, you would have to sit down and explain some things to them because evolutionary concepts were thrown in throughout. Why do they have to do that?!

"I want to play my elephant game!"

The only way I could get him away from the computer game was to entice him with Play-doh! It worked! He was so excited to make Play-doh elephants! He wanted to start with pink elephants. (You can only imagine how thrilled Daddy is that pink is his favorite color!) Nonetheless, pink elephants it was! We made a whole rainbow of elephants! By the time we were done, we had 10 Play-doh elephants. While working on the elephants we sang: "1 jumbo, 2 jumbo, 3 jumbo elephants. 4 jumbo, 5 jumbo, 6 jumbo elephants. 7 jumbo, 8 jumbo, 9 jumbo elephants. 10 jumbo elephants at the circus!"

"I want a pink elephant!"

Evan loved his Play-doh elephants!

1 jumbo, 2 jumbo, 3 jumbo elephants...

After making 10 jumbo elephants for the circus, we read, "Circus Caps For Sale" by Esphyr Slobodkina. We also later read, "Dumbo." Evan has only been to a circus once but he doesn't really remember it, and it's probably a good thing he doesn't. [Soap Box Moment: I honestly don't think that we will ever go back. First of all, it's way to expensive. Secondly, the clowns are terrifying. And more importantly, those people need to put more clothes on. YIKES! The immodesty made ME uncomfortable. I could go on and on, but I'll climb off my soap box now!] I had some circus themed stickers and Evan made a circus scene with them in his little elephant mini book.

Ladies and Gentlemen, introducing, 10 jumbo elephants!!!

Evan also got to paint a big picture of an Elephant. This time, he wanted a blue elephant!

Proud of his painting!

While his painting dried, it was Show Time! I gave him an elephant puppet and he was SO excited! We put on show after show. He even used his stuffed elephants in his show. He acted out lots of scenes from the elephant computer game - mostly the scenes from where we died by falling off a cliff or being eaten by a saber tooth tiger (acted by a stuffed lion!). I think he just liked knocking the stuffed elephants off the puppet stage!

Super excited about his elephant puppet!

Elephant puppet with her herd!

After the puppet shows, Evan worked on a couple items to go in his Ee Lapbook.

Coloring an 'Ee is for Elephant' picture to go in his Lapbook.

While we were waiting for Daddy to get home, he worked on an Elephant Lacing Card.

Lacing cards are great for Hand-Eye coordination.

He could hardly wait for Daddy to get home, because he knew Daddy was bringing something special! We had read, "Horton Hears a Who" by Dr. Suess, and Daddy was bringing home the movie version. He was so excited to watch it! (Plus, I had told him that Daddy might let him eat some popcorn while he watched it!) I'm not really sure which he was more excited about. :) I had a meeting to go to, so Daddy watched the movie with the boys - twice! I told Adam that when the movie was over, I wanted Evan to compare and contrast the book and movie version and then decide which he liked best. So when I got home from my meeting, I asked Adam how it went. When he asked Evan which one he liked better, Evan said, "The elephant game. When the elephant fell in the hole and got eaten by a lion!" HA! Gotta love that little guy! From the moment I stepped in the door, Evan was asking if we could play it again!

"Angus Lost" by Marjorie Flack

2011-02-24T16:45:00.000-06:00

To complement our study of the Letter Dd, we have been reading, "Angus Lost" by Marjorie Flack. We completed its Lapbook today. Evan has really enjoyed this book and the activities associated with it.

Front and Back Cover

Inside of the "Angus Lost" Lapbook.

Dd is for...Dolls, Dog, Dinosaur, and Door.

Angus outside of the Cave.

Angus inside of the Cave.

Inside the "Angus Lost" Lapbook with the flap opened.

Sorting game - dogs with long legs and short legs.

Dog Matching Game.

Templates for the "Angus Lost" Lapbook can be downloaded from http://www.homeschoolshare.com/.

Letter Dd Lapbook

2011-02-24T16:32:00.000-06:00

We finished our review of the Letter Dd and completed the Letter Dd Lapbook.

Front and Back Cover

Inside of the Letter Dd Lapbook.

Showing the 'Words that Begin with the Letter Dd' Pinwheel, the Dancing Dogs Puzzle Pieces, and the Little Donkey book.

Letter Dd Manipulatives - Doctor Doggy and Dolphin.

Templates for the materials seen above can be downloaded from http://www.homeschoolshare.com/ and http://www.dltk-teach.com/.

The Tower of Babel and Review of the Letter Dd

2011-02-24T15:34:00.000-06:00

Today's Bible Story was about the Tower of Babel. Natually, both of the boys then wanted to play with blocks and build towers! Evan would build a tower and Alan would attempt to put a piece on and more often than not, he would accidentally knock it over. Evan was patient with him...at first, but then he didn't want Alan 'helping' anymore! So he decided to get his Number Bucket and build a tower out of that on the table, where Alan couldn't reach as easy. He would build it and then knock it over and build it again. (It's okay if it falls, as long as he was the one that knocked it over!) But then he decided his tower wasn't high enough. He kept saying, "Build it as high as the walls, Mommy!" So I added a few blocks to it and went as high as I could. Both boys thought this was amazing! While building our towers, we sang a song that I made up. It's to the tune of "The B-I-B-L-E". It goes: "The B-A-B-E-L, the B-A-B-E-L, the people built the Tower of Babel, B-A-B-E-L." We sang it enough that Evan could sing along with me. Both Evan and Alan recognized the tune, and after one time we sang "The B-A-B-E-L", Evan starting singing "The B-I-B-L-E". So then everytime we sang the Babel version, we went ahead and sang the Bible version too.

Alan 'helping' Evan build his tower.

Evan building an even bigger tower on the table.

Evan wanted a tower as high as the walls!

After everyone was tired of building towers, we reviewed the Letter Dd. We read, "Angus Lost" and looked through Evan's lapbook that he had made. We put a few finishing touches on it and played the different games in it. Evan loves the Dog Matching Game. We played it over and over. Then I wrote the word 'dog' on the board and we talked about the letters in it. Evan wanted to write it too. He did a great job! His 'g' looked like a 'q', but I was still really impressed. We haven't talked about the Letter Gg yet and he had never attempted to write it before, so all things considered, he did GREAT!

Evan's first attempt at writing the word 'dog'. TERRIFIC!

Alan loves playing with the Letter Flashcards. So we matched the big cards to the small cards. Alan loves cats, so he always wants to the hold the Cc Flashcard. He looks at it and meows! Here lately, he has been talking cat a lot. He just walks around meowing! He sleeps with a cat too and when I put him to bed, he lays there and talks and meows to his cat. It's hilarious! Sometimes, when I say a word and ask what letter it starts with, I emphasize the starting sound. For example, I might say, "B B Bumblebee." Today, while holding the Letter Cc flashcard, Alan looks at me and says, "B B Cat!" He's so precious! Evan thought it was hilarious!

Matching the flashcards.

We practiced writing the Letter Dd on the flashcard and then got out our Letter Dd puppets - Doctor Doggy and Dolphin. We put on puppet shows for each other. We had a few things to glue into the Letter Dd Lapbook and a few pictures to color. So we finished that up and Alan helped Evan color the pictures.

Writing the Letter Dd.

Evan putting on a puppet show with Doctor Doggy and Dolphin.

The boys put some finishing touches on the Letter Dd Lapbook.

Colors

2011-02-15T23:34:00.000-06:00

Both boys have just loved playing with the pop blocks (which I discovered are really called snap cubes - I like my name better!). They have been perfect for sorting and sequence exercises with Evan and color recognition with Alan.

I guess Alan wanted Tigris to help him sort the colors! Or maybe he just wanted to tackle her!

Alan made a snake!

Evan wanted to make Adam and Eve out of the pop blocks! I did my best, and he LOVED them!

When we started playing school today, Evan got out a book called, "My Colors." He couldn't wait to read it! So I decided we would go ahead and have a color day. We talked about the different letters in the word color. According to Evan, you spell the word 'color' (this is what he said as I pointed to each letter), "C - O - #1 - circle - say it with me!" As mentioned in a previous post, Evan says, "say it with me," when he is unsure or doesn't know the answer. I wrote the word 'Color' on the board and he copied it. I was really impressed! He did a great job!

"C - O - #1 - circle - say it with me!"

After we read "My Colors," I thought it would be fun to paint a picture. At the front of this book, it has a picture of a set of watercolors and paint blobs for each color. Evan had fun trying to copy the picture. When he was done, he wanted me to paint a picture of Thomas and Percy.

My little artist.

We used the bucket of Transportation counters to do some sorting and sequencing exercises. Old egg flats work great for this sort of thing!

Evan sorted them all by color.

I was going to do a simple pattern exercise by making a train out of constuction paper and putting circle stickers on it, but then I couldn't find my circle stickers. Our Bible story for the day was about Noah's ark, so instead of circle stickers, we put animal stickers (2 by 2) on the freight cars. Evan has a computer game where James transports animals to the zoo. He uses 3 freight cars to help him. So our little exercise turned into the perfect opportunity to act out his computer game!

Cutting out his freight cars.

Putting animals on his train.

Since I couldn't find my circle stickers, I thought we would just do some sticker games from a sticker book.

Matching the stickers to the right color.

Pop Blocks

2011-02-10T21:14:00.000-06:00

We didn't have a lot of time to play school today, but Evan loved the little bit that we did! I have a bag of a bunch of Math manipulatives in the cabinet and Evan kept seeing them and wanting to get them out. He thought it was a game. Since I wanted to review numbers today, I thought it would be perfect to get out a 'Math game' to play.

We reviewed the number flashcards and did some counting exercises. In the process he practiced drawing several shapes and we would count them. His favorite thing to draw right now is Mike (the little green monster off Monsters, Inc - the one with 1 eye.) Drawing circles ended up drawing Mike. I didn't get a picture of it before he scribbled all over it, but it really was pretty good!

We practiced writing the Number 1 and 2 and then got out the Pop Blocks. I'm sure these have a real, much more official name, but Pop Blocks work for us! Evan thought they were awesome. They come in a set of 10 little blocks per color that all pop together. We played several sequencing games, and then just had fun building different things with them. Evan first wanted to build a snake, then a train, a house, and we ended with a couple of dogs. He had so much fun and did not want to put them away. We had some things we had to go do this evening and the second we got back home and through the door, he was begging to go play school some more. He just wanted to play with the Pop Blocks! Who says school has to be boring?! The Orr Homeschool Adventures sure aren't! We have a lot of fun, and he doesn't even realize that he is learning a lot! That's what it's all about.

Evan told me that #1 was his favorite number!

An old egg carton made the perfect base for our game.

Evan had fun making snakes and would have them 'slither' off the table!

Building a train using sequencing skills.

Evan loved making dogs with the Pop Blocks.

"The Red Carpet" by Rex Parkin

2011-02-09T22:29:00.000-06:00

Today, we finished "The Red Carpet" Lapbook by Rex Parkin.

The front cover.

The inside.

The inside with the flaps open.

Close up view of the 'What is Red' fold up.

Close up view of the town map covered with 'red carpet'.

Templates for "The Red Carpet" Lapbook can be downloaded at http://www.homeschoolshare.com/.

Getting Back on Track - Part 2

2011-02-09T22:22:00.000-06:00

We continued our 'getting back on track' review today. Both of the boys have been so excited each day to play school. They love having a routine and schedule (as do I!). We do the same thing each morning when we start school so that they know exactly what to expect. 1. Evan gets all of the day magnets off the board. 2. We line them up in order on the table. 3. We sing the "Days of the Week" song. 4. Evan puts up the Today is, Yesterday was, and Tomorrow will be magnets and then he always makes some sort of design on the board with the remaining 4 magnets. 5. We say the Pledge of Allegiance. 6. Evan recites all of his verses as I point to each sticker on his Bible Chart and give the scripture reference. 7. We sing "Around the Circle we will go..." while running around the table. 8. Song ends with me falling on the floor and both boys dog piling me. 9. Then they both want airplane rides since I am already on the ground. 10. Then they get to put dinosaur stamps on their hands and legs. And that's all in about the first 10 minutes!

They both love the dinosaur stamp part! I sure hope I can find more of these when the ink runs out! I can't believe it hasn't by now.

Alan finally figured out today how to stamp himself. He normally just wants to suck on them! He was so proud of himself and ran into the other room to show Daddy. From the school room, I could hear, "Daddy Daddy, ook, ook, my onsaur!"

After getting dinosaur stamps, we read our Bible Story for the day. Today, we read about the Garden of Eden. They both liked the evil hissing voice that I used for 'Satan the snake' so we had to read it a couple of times! Tonight during Family Bible Time, Daddy didn't know about the evil hissing voice, so Mommy had to read the story again and show him how it was done! The more animated you get, the more they love it! As soon as I started to read the story tonight, Alan was pointing at the page and saying "Snake, snake!" and we weren't even to that page yet! Evan found a big picture of a snake in one of his coloring books and wanted to paint it. So now we have a huge picture of 'Satan the snake' on our refrigerator.

Evan was so proud of his picture and thought it was really cool, so everytime he went to look at it I had to remind him that 'Satan the snake' is very bad and mean and tempted Adam and Eve. After dinner I was reminding him of this, and he said, "Yeah, Adam and Eve had to leave the garden and there are angels with fire." He was listening!

After Bible Story time, each of the boys picked a story that they wanted to read. Today Evan wanted to read "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats (very appropriate for today!!!) and "Curious George". Alan picked a book from the "Your Baby Can Read" program. While reading Alan's book, he identified his first written word - nose! He was so proud of himself and kept grabbing his nose and then mine. But then he kept saying that all the words were 'nose'. Oh well! At least he knows that one! Since we were already looking at the vocabulary words in Alan's book, we went ahead and played a matching game with the flashcards.

Finding the matching words.

After playing this game, Evan wanted to play more games, so we played Hungry Hungry Hippo and then the Fishing Game. The Fishing Game was perfect to work with Alan on color identification. It worked well with Evan too since we had been talking about Red, Yellow, and Green on the stoplight.

Evan caught all the green fish!

In reviewing our letters today, we focused primarily on the Letter C. In doing so, I realized that we had never finished "The Red Carpet" Lapbook. We spent the rest of our time talking about that book and putting the finishing touches on the lapbook.

Gluing 'red carpet' all over the town map.

Covering all the streets with 'red carpet'.

Painting some other things that are red.

Tonight before bed, Evan wanted Daddy to read "The Red Carpet"! I'm so glad that both the boys love to read. Even more glad that they love to cuddle while we read! I sure hope they don't grow out of that anytime soon!

Getting Back on Track!

2011-02-07T22:11:00.000-06:00

Whew...it's been way too long! Taking the month of December off from school ended up being December and January and the first week of February. YIKES! We just had one thing after another come up and it was just getting out of control. So I sat down and created a Family Schedule to help us get back on track and to help us manage our time more effectively. Today was our first day to implement my new schedule and it worked PERFECTLY! I felt like I was in my element again, and ended up getting more done than was even on the schedule. It felt great and we had a blast.

I was amazed at how much Alan has changed in just the past couple of months. He was always interested and wanted to be with us while we were 'playing school', but he would just kind of do his own thing. Well, now he wants to be involved in everything and participate in all of the activities. It made it extra fun and interesting at times!

Evan jumped right back in like we had never taken a break. I was impressed at how little he had forgotten. The child remembers EVERYTHING! We sang our 'Days of the Week' song and the boys changed the magnets on the board.

Evan patiently reaching over Alan to change the Day Magnets.

We had a lot of reviewing to do so we started at the beginning. We reviewed the letters that we have worked on so far and then focused primarily on the Letter A and B. We practiced our writing (Alan included!) and went through the Lapbooks for each letter reviewing all the things we had done. We also read through the B4FIAR books that went with each letter. A: Play With Me. B: Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear; Blueberries for Sal. C: The Carrot Seed; The Red Carpet. Evan was so excited to get these books back out! He just kept saying, "Let's read another one of those!"

After Evan practiced writing the Letter A, Alan wanted to also.

"Which word starts with the Letter A?"

Evan couldn't wait to put on puppet shows! A lady from church made a really cute puppet theater and gave it to us. Both the boys thought it was just the best thing in the whole world! We put on show after show after show. Buzz and Woody even got involved at one point! They had so much fun! It's like the puppets are alive to them - even if they are just paper on a wooden stick! They love them! It's so precious to watch!

Evan super excited about his new puppet theater!

Evan putting on a show with Angie A.

Alan getting in on the action with Al the Alligator!

Evan and Alan's puppet show version of Toy Story!

We did some vocabulary / reading practice using the "Your Baby Can Read" program. Both the boys enjoy watching these videos and looking at the books and flashcards. It's amazing how Alan is even picking up on some of the word recognition. We got out our AlphaMat and played on it for awhile too. They love when we get this out and set it all up. Normally we just have a couple of letters out at a time, so when we do the whole thing, it is quite a treat!

Having fun on the AlphaMat!

As soon as Alan sees a camera, he immediately says, "CHEESE!"

For our Bible Story and Family Bible Time, we reviewed the Creation Account and talked about what God made on each of the six days. Evan was able to answer most of the questions about the story on his own and just needed a little prompting on a couple of them. Whenever he doesn't know the answer to something, he says, "Say it with me!"

Evan is now up to having 6 verses memorized. We are so proud of him and he loves to recite them! He knows (in the order he learned them) Genesis 1:1, Luke 2:52, Genesis 2:19, John 14:15, Genesis 1:3, and Ephesians 6:1.

It was good for all of us to get back on track today. It was a good day in the Orr home!

Turkeys

2010-11-25T00:44:00.000-06:00

In preparation for Thanksgiving, we have talked about Indians, Pilgrims, and today Turkeys. Evan knew that we were going to talk about turkeys today and he kept asking if we were going to talk about ducks and roosters too! We were given a turkey craft kit by a dear friend (thanks Nanny!!!), and Evan just loved it! It is going to be our centerpiece for tomorrow's feast. While making the turkey, I taught Evan a little turkey rhyme. It goes like this:

The turkey is a silly bird, it's head goes bobble, bobble.
And all it knows is just one word - Gobble, gobble, gobble!

Evan loves glue. His turkey had so much glue on it, I didn't think it was ever going to dry!

Putting on the body feathers.

Putting on the wing feathers.

Putting on the tail feathers.

He was so excited to see it all coming together!

Evan and his turkey. He kept pretending to feed it the corn.

Evan also made a turkey using his handprints. He kept calling it the baby turkey and wanted it next to the mommy turkey. He kept being silly and wouldn't hold it upright for me to take a picture (hence the upside turkey!)

Red handprints for the turkey wings.

Silly turkey boy!

Mommy and Baby Turkey as our centerpiece! He was so proud of his turkeys!

Pilgrims

2010-11-23T22:54:00.000-06:00

Today we continued with Thanksgiving adventures. The library storyhour theme was all about Thanksgiving too. They read several Thanksgiving books and then made Indians. Evan was so excited! In the middle of one of the stories, he said, "Evan has Indians too! I have Indian puppets at my house!" When making his Indian craft, he kept calling it Squanto!

When we got home from storyhour, we read through "The First Thanksgiving" book that we had made yesterday. Evan followed along with his mini book. He knew that we were going to talk about Pilgrims today. As soon as we were done reading, he was begging to make Pilgrim puppets.

Evan piecing together the Pilgrim puppets.

Of course, then it was show time! At first he just wanted his 2 Pilgrims, but then he said, "They need their friends. Where is Squanto?" So then he put on puppet shows with the whole gang. Alan wanted to play too!

Meet Mr. and Mrs. Pilgrim.

Both boys putting on a show with the Indians and Pilgrims.

We had checked out several books from the library about the First Thanksgiving. We read through all of those and talked about what it may have been like living back then. We made lots contrasts from what was shown in the pictures and what it is like today - things like the clothes, the houses, the way they cooked, etc. Then we did a 'Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful!" worksheet (courtesy of Nanny!). It had a neat Pilgrim poem on it with little pictures for Evan to glue on. The poem went like this:

Pilgrim, Pilgrim by: M. Hubbard
Pilgrim, Pilgrim, what do you see? I see the king refusing my plea.
Pilgrim, Pilgrim, what do you see?  I see the Mayflower ready for sea.
Pilgrim, Pilgrim, what do you see?  I see a new land to set me free.
Pilgrim, Pilgrim, what do you see?  I see a hard winter, tough as can be.
Pilgrim, Pilgrim, what do you see?  I see a green bud on a spring tree.
Pilgrim, Pilgrim, what do you see?  I see an Indian helping me.
Pilgrim, Pilgrim, what do you see?  I see corn growing 1, 2, 3!
Pilgrim, Pilgrim, what do you see?  I see praise, for thankful are we!

Bible Words Say to be Thankful! Ephesians 5:20

Nanny had given us another worksheet about how the Indians worked very hard to raise their food. This was perfect because we had just noticed in the library books how the Indians and Pilgrims gathered, prepared, and cooked their food much different than we do today. We talked about how their tools were not like the tools we use today. They used tools made of stone and wood. They would use a heavy round rock to crush nuts and corn into meal. Their bowls were made from hewn rock and they baked on big flat rocks in an open fire pit. The Indians raised corn that was multicolored. It was very hardy and made delicious cornbread. God also provided them with deer, elk and turkeys. Evan glued pieces of corn all over the worksheet.

Gluing corn onto the worksheet.

While we were outside playing, I found a couple of rocks that Evan could use to try to make corn meal like the Indians and Pilgrims. He really enjoyed this. We talked about how much time it would have taken them to prepare their food. We sure have it easy today. I pulled out some Jiffy corn meal mix and he dumped it into a bowl. Then he mixed in an egg and some milk to make some corn bread. While the corn bread was baking, I made Evan a pilgrim hat. He loved it! He said that he liked Pilgrims better than Indians! We then enjoyed some warm corn bread together.

Making corn meal like the Indians and Pilgrims.

We sure are blessed today! We have so much to be thankful for!

Dumping his corn bread mixture into the pan.

My little Pilgrim!

My little Pilgrim made some great corn bread!

Indians

2010-11-22T23:02:00.000-06:00

Since Thanksgiving is on Thursday, I thought I would spend this week teaching Evan about the first Thanksgiving and do lots of little Thanksgiving projects. I made a coloring book for him titled "The First Thanksgiving." We read it together a couple of times and talked about the Indians, the Pilgrims, the Mayflower, Squanto, etc. He really liked Squanto, which was great because I had planned to focus on the Indians today. I had miniature pictures of the images in the coloring book for him to cut out and make his own book. After he cut them all out, he matched the pictures to the images in the book and glued them onto some construction paper (which he had just cut out too). Then we read back through the book and he followed along in his own book.

Cutting out the mini 'Thanksgiving story' pictures.

Matching the mini pictures with the big pictures to create his own book.

Proud of his completed 'Thanksgiving' book.

Then we made some Indian puppets. Evan was so excited to make Squanto. We named the girl Indian, Squanta, and we called the baby Indian, Squantito. Evan just kept saying, "Ohhhhhh, those are cool names!"

Piecing together Squanto.

After we got the Indians put together, it was show time! We made lots of Indian chanting sounds together. When it was my turn to put on shows, I talked a lot about seeing the Mayflower approaching in the ocean and about watching the Pilgrims. I talked about how Squanto was a big help to the Pilgrims. Evan would then talk about all of this too in his shows.

Putting on a puppet show with Squanto and Squanta.

Evan wanted to put Baby Squantito down for a nap in a bed of leaves.

Alan wanted to put on a show too! He wanted to play the part of Squantito!

Daddy and Alan put on a show for me and Evan.

We talked a little bit about what Indians lived in and then made a little teepee for Squanto and Squanta. This then became a new prop in our puppet shows.

Squanto and Squanta are going to lay down in their teepee.

Evan liked Squanto so much, that I made him his very own Indian headdress so that he could look like Squanto.

My little Squanto!

My evening ended by watching all three of my boys put on an Indian puppet show for me. If only I had my video camera! You can only imagine all the Indian sounds coming from our schoolroom!!!

One little, Two little, Three little Indians!

Dd is for Donut

2010-11-20T22:07:00.000-06:00

Today, Evan learned that Dd is for Donut. So what do you think we made for breakfast?! Evan was so excited to make donuts. He used a cookie cutter to make the donut holes. He like watching the donuts float in the fry daddy. I asked him what color of frosting he wanted on his donuts, and he wanted blue. So he dunked the donuts in the blue frosting. He had to lick his fingers in between each dunk too! After his first bite, he said, "UMMMMM, this is my favorite!" They were good too. My dad used to make donuts like this when I was a kid. We had never done it before and the smell and taste brought back a lot of fond memories. I hope that when Evan and Alan grow up they have lots of fond memories like this too!

Cutting out the donut holes.

"Look at them floating!"

"These are all Evan's!"

Evan wanted blue frosting on his donuts!

Better lick the frosting off my fingers!

"UMMMMM, this is my favorite!!!"

Marvel Cave

2010-11-20T00:00:00.000-06:00

"And Angus ran to find his house. But SNOW came, and WIND came, and into a CAVE crawled Angus, and he waited and waited and waited until -- DAY came." From "Angus Lost" by Marjorie Flack

One of Evan's favorite parts of "Angus Lost" is when Angus has to wait in the cave all night long until morning comes. There is a cave in Evan's "Angus Lost" Lapbook, and he loves to put Angus in and out of the cave. This has brought up some discussion about what caves are and what there is inside of caves. So today, we took a field trip to Silver Dollar City to visit the Marvel Cave attraction. Evan was so excited. We probably talked about Angus at least 20 times while we were walking through the cave. He thought it was so neat to be in a cave, just like Angus.

To get down into the cave, we walked over 600 stairs, and went through lots of deep tunnels and narrow passageways. Marvel Cave is a wet limestone cave, and we were able to see lots of formations that are still alive and growing! When you first go in, you travel 300 feet below the surface and enter what they call the Cathedral Room - the largest cave entrance room in the United States. You can see a virtual tour of the Cathedral Room at this link: http://www.bransonsilverdollarcity.com/rides-attractions/index.html Since the whole park is decorated for Christmas, they had a huge tree made out of lights. The guide turned all the lights off, making it pitch black, and then she turned on the Christmas Tree. Evan thought that was really neat. But then he decided he didn't like the dark, and started shouting, "I don't want it to be dark anymore!" The guide quickly turned the lights back on! At the end of the tour, they have a train that takes you up out of the cave, so both boys loved that! It was red so Evan kept saying that we were riding on James. It was a really neat experience. I'm anxious to read "Angus Lost" with Evan tomorrow to see the new appreciation he has for the cave in the story. He'll remember "the cave" for a long time!

Evan waiting to go on his first Cave Tour.

Diagram of Marvel Cave. Sure glad we didn't have to walk back up!

I think cave formations are some of the neatest looking things there are!

Cave tunnel.

Evan thought it was really neat to be in a cave, "just like Angus!"

Christmas tree in the Cathedral Room - this picture doesn't do it justice. It was huge!

Evan was eager to see what was around every corner.

"Come on Mom! Are you coming Dad?!"

All three of my boys!

Another amazing cave formation.

To see more pictures from our tour of Marvel Cave, visit:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=33581&id=1707958162&l=4218cf620e

Dd is for Dairy Farm

2010-11-15T21:38:00.000-06:00

To complement our study of the Letter Dd, we have been reading "Angus Lost" by Marjorie Flack. Throughout this book, Angus, the little Scottish terrier, wonders where the milk man came from. So today, we set out to answer that question. We took the boys to a local dairy farm so they could see first hand where the milk man comes from. The farmer told us to be there at 5:00pm for the milking, so Evan was excited and full of anticipation all day long. He kept asking if it was almost time to go see the cows. And for some reason, he kept saying that we were going to see snakes there too! Fortunately, we did NOT! When we arrived, we were greeted warmly by Kevin Wilkerson, the dairy farmer. He is a 6th generation dairy farmer and they have worked the same homestead since (I believe he said) 1856. His 14 year old son was helping him and told us that he planned to continue in the family business. They currently have 45 cows that they are milking. He milks them twice a day and each cow produces approximately 5 gallons of milk a day. The milk is all pumped into a 500 gallon tank which is picked up every other day. He told us that he sells the milk for $1.50 a gallon. He said he couldn't understand why it was so much in the store! He and his family just always drink the raw milk. He said, contrary to popular belief, it won't hurt you! He said that when the milk sits, the cream will separate to the top. They take the "good stuff" (what he called it) and turn it into ice cream, cheese, cottage cheese, etc. and use the remaining milk on the bottom to actually make milk. He said once they homogenize it, it will no longer separate like that. He dipped a carton into the tank and filled it with some raw milk for us to bring home and try. We were naturally a bit hesitant to try it, so we had the boys drink it first!!! The whole way home, Evan kept saying he wanted to drink the milk the milk man had given us. Both Evan and Alan downed it, so we went ahead and gave it a shot. It really just tasted like milk, maybe just a little richer and thicker. Adam said he actually liked it better. The farmer told us that it was probably about the equivalent of 4% milk. It was a really neat experience. We read "Angus Lost" when we got home, and Evan had a whole new appreciation for the milk man! There is a flip chart in his "Angus Lost" Lapbook that goes through the whole milk process. We reviewed that and talked about what we had seen at the Dairy Farm. It was very helpful that we had seen it all first. It made it much easier for him to understand. Evan glued little pictures of the process onto each step in the book. It's so fun that we get to go on all of these field trips and create so many memories together as a family. I know that he won't soon forget going to the Dairy Farm. I'm so thankful that we are homeschooling our boys!

Farmer Kevin telling us all about the Dairy operation.

Evan checking out all the cows.

Changing the pump.

He said cows are just like people, some are more "endowed" than others and they all hang differently!

Looking at all the milk in the tank. They had just picked it up earlier in the day so it wasn't very full.

Excited to get home to try "milk from the milk man."

Yummy milk!

Alan was a big fan too!

Dd is for Dog

2010-11-14T14:24:00.000-06:00

Yesterday we continued our study of the Days of Creation. We are on Day 1 - God made light. I had made a number 1 that we covered in tin foil to represent light. We hung it on the wall. By the time we are done, we will have 7 numbers up there showing what was made on each day. We made another memory verse craft today. I had 2 circles - a black circle and a white circle. Evan folded each of them in half and then cut them across. He matched up one black half and one white half to make a circle. He glued them onto a blue piece of construction paper. We recited the verse together, Genesis 1:3, and he said it by himself.

Evan cutting the circles in half.

"Dark and light. Dark and light. They're opposites!"

The memory verse craft was great because we have also started to learn about circles. Evan already knows all of his shapes, but the curriculum we are using, Answers for Preschoolers, spends time on each shape individually. Evan traced a big circle on a worksheet and I gave him a bunch of little circle stickers to put all over it. I gave him 3 of each color (since we are also working on the Number 3) and we counted each of them as he put them on. When he was done, I wrote his name for him on his paper. As mentioned in an older post, I am trying to teach him to write the first letter of his name, so I have been writing it with dashes and he traces it. I was pretty impressed with his 'E'. He didn't want to trace mine this time, he wanted to make his own, and I thought he did a great job!

Putting circle stickers on his circle worksheet.

Evan's E!

We continued learning about the Letter Dd. The next Dd word in his Lapbook was Dog, so Evan glued a picture of a dog into his book. He then practiced writing the Letter Dd and then made a Dd on the cover of his Lapbook. I am really proud of him. His writing skills have really improved. He seems to have much more control over his writing utensil now and he is holding it much better too.

Dd is for Dog.

Making a Dd on the cover of his Dd Lapbook.

Since Dd is for Dog, we started on a new B4FIAR book - "Angus Lost" by Marjorie Flack. It is a really cute book about a dog, Angus, who gets tired of the same old things and is curious what else is out there. He runs away to seek new adventures but ends up longing for home. He meets several new animals that aren't very nice and even scare him and he ends up spending the night in a cave. He finds the milkman and follows him from door to door until he finds his home again. He is relieved to be back in his same old house with the same old cat. Evan loved this book and we read it over and over again. We spent the rest of the day working on the "Angus Lost" Lapbook.

Evan loved putting the magnetized Angus in and out of the cave.

Playing a classification game - dogs with short legs and dogs with long legs.

Playing a dog matching game. Evan won!

Putting the other pets in their appropriate place.

Painting the pictures in the "Dog Breeds" book.

Painting the front of his Dd Lapbook.

What color is Angus? Black!

Painting all the other little pets.

I had several old National Geographic type books that were all about Dogs and Puppies. Evan enjoyed looking through those at all the different types of dog.

The Three Little Pigs

2010-11-12T16:28:00.000-06:00

Some of our good friends have a couple of pigs and they had 2 sows that just had babies. Since we have been reading (and watching) "The Three Little Pigs," we thought we would take the boys over to see them. Evan was so excited to go to "Mr. David's house to see the pigs!" We have gone before when he had some baby pigs, but today we got to see 21 babies! One sow had 10 and the other had 11 piglets. They were so cute! The two litters were about a week apart, with the youngest just being born on Wednesday. I don't think I'd ever seen 2 day old piglets before. They still had their umbilical cords! Both the boys thought it was really neat and they wanted to touch them. So Daddy reached over and grabbed a couple for them to pet. Boy could those little piglets squeal loud. It was amazing! We kept the mamas distracted by feeding them pumpkins. Evan wanted to go out and see the "Daddy pig" too. Talk about a huge boar! It was the biggest and meanest looking pig I've been up close to! After seeing the "Daddy pig" Evan wanted to pet a "black baby pig", so Adam grabbed one for him to pet. He was so excited and kept saying, "I got to touch a pink pig and a black pig. They were so cute and soft!" Before we left it was feeding time and we watched all the piglets nurse. It was really cute! I think Evan will have a new appreciation for "The Three Little Pigs"!

Mama pig and her babies.

They were so cute and cuddly!

Say bacon! Oh, I mean cheese!

"I got to pet a pink pig!"

Daddy pig.

"I want to pet a black baby pig too."

Time to eat! Yummy milk!

The Number 3 and Dd is for Dinosaur

2010-11-11T20:37:00.000-06:00

Today we continued discussing the fact that God made light. I was so proud of Evan. He is now able to say Genesis 1:3 all by himself - "And God said, Let there be light and there was light." He was really proud too and got to put another sticker on his memory verse chart. He is now up to 5 verses! He recites them all every day after we say the Pledge of Allegiance. To go along with our discussion of the creation of light, Evan colored, cut out and glued together a candlestick. I wrote Genesis 1:3 on his paper and we hung it up on the bulletin board.

Coloring his candlestick.

Gluing the candlestick pieces on. He wanted a blue candle on blue paper.

I am working on getting Evan to write the first letter of his name, so I started writing the E with dashes and letting him trace it. Here he is tracing his name.

Writing his name on his paper.

We started to learn about the Number 3 today. We got out the number puzzle and sang "1-2-3, Jesus Loves Me." We practiced counting 3 things and Evan attempted to write the number 3. I'm not so concerned about writing the numbers right now. We mainly work on recognition. Writing numbers is a skill that we'll work on more later. To go along with the Number 3, we read "The Three Little Pigs" and "The Three Silly Billies" (a retold version of "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" - the library didn't have that one in!) I had also checked out a video version of "The Three Little Pigs" and "The Three Billy Goats Gruff". Evan had already been watching this video before today, so he practically had the story memorized. At one point during the story, I said (in my deep mean wolf voice) "Then I'll huff and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house down." Evan stopped me and said, "No Mommy, that's not how it goes. It goes like this: [in his deep mean wolf voice] 'Then I'll huff and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house in.'" Oh sorry, Evan. Silly kid! But he was right. Sure enough, the book said 'in' not 'down'. I'll know better next time! :)

Putting the number puzzle back together.

Counting to and writing the Number 3.

Evan did a worksheet matching items in groups of 1, 2, and 3. Then we made another foot print. He loves when we make hand and foot prints. After we made the print, I made 3 dots and wrote the number 3 on one foot. He then did the same on the other foot.

Counting worksheet.

Proud of his Number 3 footprint!

Evan then made a Number 3 Train. Alan always wants to help Evan color, so they colored the train together. Then he decorated his train with Number 3 Henry stickers. He loves his trains and wanted this one up with his Thomas and Edward train too.

Alan helping Evan color the Number 3 Train.

"Look, here's Mommy Henry, Evan Henry, and Alan Henry!"

Thomas, Edward, and Henry Trains hanging on the board.

Then we continued learning about the Letter Dd. Evan did a worksheet and practiced writing the Letter Dd. He circled the Dd's at the beginning of each word. One of the Dd words on his sheet was dinosaur. We focused on Dd is for Dinosaur the rest of the day. He glued a picture of a dinosaur in his Dd Lapbook. One of his favorite movies to watch (at Nana and Papa's house) is "The Land Before Time." I thought it would be neat to make Little Foot and Cera. He had seen the pieces in the Dd Lapbook yesterday and woke up this morning asking if we could make Little Foot today. He loved his little dinosaur characters and put on a little puppet show with them. I couldn't make out all that he was saying, but I did hear him say something like, "Cera, will you come to the Great Valley with me? Little Foot and Cera are friends. They are going to find more tree stars and eat and eat. AHHHHH, here comes Sharp Tooth." I guess he pretty much summed up the movie right there! After the puppet show, he wanted to get out all of his toy dinosaurs and play. Alan wanted in on this and quickly grabbed onto Little Foot. The boys have been playing with dinosaurs all night. When I asked Evan who made the dinosaurs, he said, "God, and Adam named them!" YEAH! I was so proud of him. We read lots of dinosaur books, but I especially like "God Made Dinosaurs" by Brad Harrub. It has several pictures with dinosaurs and people together and talks about how it would have been fun to have a dinosaur as a pet and seeing them run across your yard. I'm glad that my 3 year old can understand that dinosaurs and people were created on the same day and lived together. Too bad most of the extremely intelligent scientists and well, most people in general, don't know this. Or won't accept it. I don't know which!

Practicing writing the Letter Dd.

Dd is for Dinosaur.

Piecing together Little Foot and Cera.

"Come on Cera, let's go to the Great Valley."

Alan playing with Little Foot.

Evan lining up a bunch of his dinosaurs.

You may have noticed in the pictures, but I dressed Evan in his dinosaur outfit today too, to go along with our theme Dd is for Dinosaur!

Dd is for Duck

2010-11-11T00:15:00.000-06:00

I think our schedule is finally going to settle down so that we can get back into our normal routine. Evan was excited to play school again today. Since we started playing school, we have been talking a lot about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. We have talked about how God is made up of these 3 different 'people', and how all 3 of them were there when they created the world. Today, we started to talk about how everything was created. We started with Day 1. God made light. We talked about how in the very beginning, everything was dark. We talked about how powerful God is and that all He had to say was, "Let there be light," and light appeared. I taught Evan Genesis 1:3. We will use this as our new memory verse. Evan can almost say it by himself. It says, "And God said, Let there be light and there was light." I took Evan into our bathroom with a flashlight and a lighter. We sat there in the dark (and he held my hand). I told him that it was dark, but that in the very beginning, it would have been much darker than even this. We said Genesis 1:3 over and over and Evan loved "making light" when God said, "Let there be light." We compared the difference between the light that the flashlight and the lighter made. Evan discovered that the light from the fire was brighter. And he enjoyed blowing it out time and time again!

God said, "Let there be light." (picture using no flash)

God said, "Let there be light." (this time using a flash)

I took the opportunity to explain to Evan that light comes in waves. I showed Evan how to draw waves and he did a worksheet where he traced a bunch of different kinds of waves. I told him that light comes from God to us by a lot of squiggly lines. We call those squiggly lines light waves. We read a book called, "My Light" by Molly Bang. In this book, the sun is the narrator and explains how electricity can be traced back to its light and energy. Throughout the book tiny yellow dots represent the sun's power as it streams from light, wind, water, and electricity.

Tracing waves.

Later this evening, Evan was telling Daddy how he learned about light in school. His explanation went like this: "Daddy. Me and Mommy went in the bathroom and it was dark and scary. But you don't need to be scared because God made light. We don't live in a dark house."

Today, we started to learn about the Letter Dd. We sang the ABC's and Evan pointed out the letters that he knows. We noticed what was represented on our Alphabet train by the Letter Dd - dog and dish. This was perfect because our Dd card has a dog on it. I taught Evan how to write the Letter Dd and he practiced writing it on the card.

Evan learning how to write the Letter Dd. Pretty good for his first time!

Then I got out the pieces for our Letter Dd Alphabuddy - Doctor Doggy. Evan pieced him together and was excited to get a new puppet. Of course we then had to get out Angie A, Bobby B, and Cathy C too! We took turns putting on puppet shows with the Alphabuddies.

Putting together Doctor Doggy.

Excited to have a new puppet!

Putting on a show with Cathy C and Doctor Doggy.

Proud of his performance! Encore, Encore!

There is a Dancing Dogs puzzle in Evan's Dd Lapbook, and he enjoyed matching the pieces to make the picture.

Dd is for Dogs - Dancing Dogs!

There is also a spin wheel of Dd words in his Dd Lapbook. The first word is duck. Evan glued a picture of a duck onto the book. We read several duck books that we had checked out from the library. I taught him a nursery rhyme called, "The Duck". It goes like this: "Behold the duck. It does not cluck. A cluck it lacks. It quacks. 'Tis especially fond of a puddle or pond. When it dines or sups, it bottoms up." We were in Branson yesterday and knowing that we would be learning that Dd is for duck, we took the boys to 'Ride the Ducks'. We each got a "quacker" and Evan hasn't stopped "quacking" since he got it! He hasn't wanted to take it off from around his neck and even wanted to sleep with it! Needless to say, he was thrilled that we were talking about ducks and wanted to "quack" even more all afternoon! We put on lots of puppet shows with the Rubber Duck family and "quacked" a lot.

Papa Duck says, "Quack, quack, quack, quack!"

The following pictures are from yesterday when we Rode the Ducks. When the Duck went out on the water, Evan got to drive. He loved this! He got an Honorary Duck Captain Certificate. He thought he was pretty cool!

Getting ready to Ride the Ducks.

Alan and Adam with their "Quackers."

I felt sorry for the people sitting in front of Evan! They probably heard quacking in their sleep last night!

Honorary Duck Captain Evan steering on the water.

This quarter at church, Evan's Bible class topic has been all about how God made everything special. Tonight, they happened to learn that God made ducks special. Evan came out of Bible class with a duck necklace and duck stickers! I told his teacher that we had been talking about ducks all day! Evan was so excited. He's sleeping with his duck necklace tonight!

Autumn is Awesome!

2010-10-30T00:38:00.000-05:00

Today was all about Autumn. We had such a full fun fall day! We did so much today that I feel like I am going to fall over myself! But we sure had a blast. Since we picked and carved our pumpkin yesterday, I thought we would start with some pumpkin activities. We started by making a pumpkin pal. I had a cutout of a pumpkin man and Evan drew a face on it. I asked him what he wanted to name his pumpkin pal and he thought about it for a second and then said, "Fire in it." So that's what we called it! After he drew the face he asked if we could put a stick on it, so we did. He took it into the kitchen where our pumpkin was and got up on the kitchen chair so that he could introduce Fire in it to our pumpkin. He sat there and had a little conversation with them. It was so cute!

Evan drawing a face on his pumpkin pal.

"Pumpkin, this is Fire in it."

I taught Evan a little song called, "I'm a Little Pumpkin" (sung to "I'm a Little Teapot"). It goes like this:

"I'm a little pumpkin plump and round.

Here is my smile, Here is my frown.

When you take my top off, you will see,

All the seeds inside of me!"

I got out 10 orange plastic eggs that we pretended to be pumpkins. The boys enjoyed hiding them around the room and then finding them. I used the 10 pumpkins to review counting. We sang "10 Little Pumpkins" while we gathered them and put them in the bucket.

"One little, two little, three little pumpkins,

Four little, five little, six little pumpkins,

Seven little, eight little, nine little pumpkins,

Ten little pumpkins in the pumpkin patch.

Come on Evan, let's go pick one.

Come on Alan, let's go pick one.

Come on boys, let's go pick one.

Nine little pumpkins in the pumpkin patch."

After there were "No more pumpkins in the pumpkin patch," Evan decided that he would just throw all of the pumpkins out of the bucket. Both the boys of course thought this was hilarious and he just had to do it several more times!

One little, Two little, Three little pumpkins...

Heads up! Pumpkins pumpkins everywhere!

We read several books about Autumn and talked about all the beautiful colors that we saw in the pictures. This turned into a good lesson about colors. We were getting ready to finger paint a pumpkin so I had Evan mix red and yellow paint together so that he could see what would happen.

Red

Plus yellow

Makes orange!

After his finger painted pumpkin dried, I stapled the edges shut and Evan stuffed it full of wadded up paper towel. He was so proud of his stuffed pumpkin that we hung it from the fan.

Stuffing his pumpkin.

Proud of his stuffed pumpkin on display!

Since we had been talking about all the beautiful fall colors, we went outside to see how many colors we could find. Evan found green, orange, red, yellow, brown, purple, blue, white, and black. He was most proud of the purple flower he found, and before I knew it he had pulled it off and carried it around the yard on the rest of our color nature hunt.

"Mommy, can I take the purple flower to my house?"

We couldn't talk about Autumn without playing in the leaves! So Evan got his rake and made a nice little pile of leaves for him and Alan to play in. They had so much fun. They would make a pile and then Evan would say, "Ready, Set, Go!" and run and slide into it. Alan just thought it was hilarious! He played in the leaves too, but was a little distracted by the friendly neighbor cat that came to see what all the laughter was about.

Evan raking together a pile of leaves.

Alan giving Stella kisses!

Evan having a blast in the leaves!

Alan enjoying the awesome autumn day.

While we played in the leaves, we sang "Autumn-Time is Coming" (sung to the tune of Frere Jacques).

"Red leaves falling, Red leaves falling,

On the ground, On the ground,

Autumn-time is coming, Autumn-time is coming,

All around, All around.

Orange leaves falling, Orange leaves falling,

On the ground, On the ground,

Autumn-time is coming, Autumn-time is coming,

All around, All around.

Brown leaves scattered, Brown leaves scattered,

On the ground, On the ground,

Autumn-time is now here, Autumn-time is now here,

All around, All around."

We used our pumpkin bucket to gather some of the beautiful colored leaves that we found. Evan was fascinated by the gumballs that had fallen off the trees, so he gathered several of those as well. When we got inside, we dumped the bucket on the table to see all the beautiful fall colors.

Admiring all of the fallen treasures that we found.

We used all of the fallen treasures that we found to do several projects. The first project we did was make leaf rubbings. We peeled a couple crayons and I showed Evan how to rub the crayon over the paper to make a rubbing of the leaf under the paper. This was a little tricky for him at first, but he got the hang of it and he made several rubbings.

Evan learning how to make a leaf rubbing.

Posing with all of his leaf rubbings.

The next project we did was making leaf prints. Evan dipped leaves in finger paint and then made prints of them. Anything that involves paint, he loves. So this was big hit. It turned into just finger painting. One of the images that he made looked a lot like a pumpkin. So after it dried, he drew a "scary face" on it just like our carved pumpkin.

Making leaf prints.

Proud that his picture looked just like our pumpkin!

The final leaf project we did was making leaf stainglass. Evan arranged several of his favorite leaves on some wax paper. Then he shaved some crayons all over the leaves and wax paper. I showed him how to iron over his project to melt the crayons and paper together. And when he was done, WA LA! He had a beautiful leaf stainglass! It didn't turn out quite like I had thought it would, but Evan thought it was awesome! So that's all that mattered!

Evan shaving crayons all over his project.

He already LOVES to vaccuum, and now this! His wife is going to thank me one day!

Evan's beautiful leaf stainglass!

A wonderful family friend, aka Nanny, gave Evan a packet of fun fall activities called, "God made the Garden Seasons! It is FALL!". It went along perfectly with what we had been talking about and doing today. We reviewed the 4 seasons and talked about what happens to the garden during each one. In the Spring, the garden soil wakes up. It's time to plant garden seeds. There are cool days and warm days. Ladybug eggs hatch. In the Summer, the garden soil is moist and warm. It's time for garden plants to bloom and grow. There are warm days and hot days. Ladybugs do their job - they eat bugs that harm the garden plants. In the Fall, it's harvest time. There are warm days and cool days. Then comes winter and the garden soil rests. There are cold days and the ladybugs sleep. Nanny had given Evan worksheets to go along with her lesson. He followed along as we talked about the seasons and then he glued some seeds onto the vine.

Gluing seeds onto the vine.

Then we talked more about Ladybugs and how God made them on Day 6. He cut out and glued some things on the worksheet and then drew a picture of a ladybug. If you look closely you can make it out. He was trying to make it look like the one on the paper. I thought he did a really good job!

Proud of his Ladybug Worksheet!

Then we made a Ladybug puppet and Evan couldn't wait to put on a puppetshow! I had checked out a book on ladybugs from the library and Evan wanted to read it to his Ladybug puppet. Before he went to bed tonight, I asked him what his favorite part of the day was. He said, "My Ladybug!" Thank-you so much Nanny for giving us these fun fall activities! You made Evan's day!

Putting on a puppet show with his new favorite puppet!

Reading a ladybug book to his new friend.

To top off the whole day, Nanny gave us the ingredients and recipe to make a delicious fall pie. Evan had so much fun making it! It is made with Cushaw squash - fresh out of this years garden. When I got the squash out for him to put in, he said, "What is it? Applesauce, or something?" He couldn't wait for it to get out of the oven. I turned the oven light on for him and he kept running into the kitchen to watch it bake. He just kept saying, "That is so cool!" When it finally got done (to him it seemed to take an eternity to bake!) he was proud of it. He got to enjoy the first piece. He liked it so much that he told me to take the coolwhip off - that he just wanted his pie! What a wonderfully sweet way to end our awesome autumn day!

Evan making the delicious Fall pie!

While rolling out the pie crust he says, "Mommy, it's kind of like making bread!"

Patting the crust down into the pie pan.

So proud of his first pie!

YUMMY!

When he finished his piece, he kept begging for more. I told him that he could have some more tomorrow. His response, "Can tomorrow be today?"

We had such a fun day! The highlight of my day was as I was tucking Evan into bed, he said, "I love you so much Mommy! Thanks for playing school with me today!" WOW! That just melted my heart! Thank-you Evan for being such a joy and blessing to my life. I am so glad that I am your Mommy and that we get to share all these moments together. I hope that you never forget them - I know I won't!

Pumpkin Fun

2010-10-28T22:55:00.000-05:00

Fall is definitely in the air. Today was cooler than it has been for awhile but the sun was shining and it made for a perfect day to go to the Pumpkin Patch. Evan was so excited to go pick a pumpkin. He was even more excited to get it home so that we could carve it and "put fire in it." He couldn't wait to "blow out the fire!"

Looking for the perfect pumpkin.

Excited to see the finished pumpkin!

Evan's favorite part of the day = "Blowing out the fire!"

We checked out several books about Autumn from the library and we've enjoyed reading those. Tomorrow we will continue to do some fun fall themed activities.

To see more pictures from our Pumpkin Fun today, visit:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=32325&id=1707958162&l=41445d7f47

Cc is for Costume

2010-10-27T00:53:00.000-05:00

We have had so much going on the past week or so that we didn't get much 'formal' school in. That's another great thing about Homeschooling though - if you need to take the week off, you just take the week off! We slowly jumped back into playing school today. This morning was the Fall Festival at Storyhour. All the kids got to wear costumes. Evan was so excited about being Bob the Builder. He's been talking about it for days! All the kids went on a little parade around the library and all the library workers gave them candy. I think Evan now prefers candy instead of tools in his toolbox! They read a couple stories and then got to run around. It was a fun little party. It worked perfectly into our school schedule so that we could do Cc is for Costume.

Cc is for Costume - Bob the Builder

We finished learning about the Letter Cc today. Evan has got it down. He is really good at writing the Letter Cc too.

Writing the Letter Cc.

One of the games in Evan's Cc Lapbook is 'Counting C's'. We hadn't played this game for awhile so we got it out and he matched up all the pictures (crocodile, cats, cows, camels, and cobras) and then practiced counting them. Then he matched up number cards with the appropriate pictures.

Counting C's.

The last B4FIAR book that we read was "The Carrot Seed" by Ruth Krauss. We had planted a carrot and have been watching it grow this whole time. Just in the last week, it has really taken off. Evan looks at it no less than 10 times a day. He gets so excited to see it and is always saying, "My carrot is huge!" We normally keep it in the kitchen, but I let him bring it in the schoolroom today while we read the story. Tigris was pretty interested in it too. I think she just wanted to eat it!

Admiring his "huge" carrot!

I had several worksheets left over that I had not spread out like I should have, so we had to do some catching up today. We will be moving on to the Letter Dd and the Number 3 soon, so I wanted to get these done before we can move on. At least Evan loves to do worksheets so he was pretty excited to do several in a row!

After the worksheets, we did some more counting. This time we used Evan's money. He keeps all his money in a tiger bank so he went and got it and dumped it all out. He lined up his pennies from 1 to 10. Then he put each line of pennies in the appropriate counting stacker cup. Once he filled up all his cups, he wanted to dump them all into the biggest one. Then we built towers with the cups. This of course turned into demolition time as he made the "walls come tumbling down." He thought this was great fun and built the tower and knocked it over again and again!

Counting out and lining up his pennies.

Filling up the counting stacker cups.

Dumping all the cups into the biggest one.

Building a tower.

"And the walls came tumbling down!"