MeMe and PawPaw's Sea /Sh/ore trip

On Wednesday, September 29 we ate an early dinner and then hopped in our packed  mini van to head to Corpus.  With PJs on and blankies and animals in hand we started our long journey South.  The big kids we fine because they had their movie to watch, but Rebekah won the best traveler award hands down.  We stopped so that I could nurse around 8:00pm, although we had not heard a peep.  She rode in silent slumber for the rest of the drive.  We pulled into Mom and Dad's driveway at about 11:30pm with 4 wide eyed children. We had several fun days ahead of us so, Trey took the little ones out to our room and It wasn't t long before the big girls were ready to settle into MeMe's sheets.

It just so happened, whom I kidding? I planned it, that this particular  week of school was the /sh/ sound.
Fish
Sea Shell
Sea Shore
Well you get my drift....

So, our geography lesson was on the Oceans. The girls colored all the oceans blue on the map in their Geography notebook. We also went on 2 boat rides where they touched and looked at the water.  I did try to explain that we were actually in the bay while on the boat and not the Ocean but honestly I was just happy that they learned the Gulf of Mexico.  Pre-K people Pre-K.

You guessed it, Science was about Fish and Sea Shell. So, beach pails in hand we headed off to the National Sea Shore on Padre Island.

Here are just a few pictures of our adventures with by the Sea /Sh/ore at MeMe and PawPaw's

our sand dollar/sea shell

A helping fly PawPaw's kite

Abigail, with her Daddy's help, actually caught a little fish

Hannah, MeMe, Samuel, and Abigail checking out the water on one of our boat rides

Daddy's Little Helper

These pictures are several weeks old now but thought they were too cute not to share.  

The last week in September, before we drove down to Corpus. Trey mowed the grass at our place.  After our yard he walked down to the neighbors to mow for them and a little helper followed right behind him.  It was ADORABLE :) I sure do love my boys! They are both such hard workers :)

 

 

School week #2 Science - Lima Bean

We had a great time with Science this week.  We did the Lima bean experiment on Monday and the girls were so excited to be able to use the magnifying glasses.  We started out by "looking inside a seed" in our Usborne First book of Nature.  Then the girls spent some time observing their beans then made some drawings of what they saw in their journal.  They helped me wet a paper towel and wrap it around their bean.  We made predictions about what we thought would happen to the bean and then I taped it onto the window.  It has not been really sunny here this week but i did peak inside today during nap and the shoot is starting to appear.  So I think that we will record another entry in our journal either tonight or tomorrow.  I am looking forward to many more fun science adventures.  This next week we head to the ocean to MeMe and Pawpaw's where the fish and shells are. Lots of fun science is in store.

School Week 1 Sept 13-16

School week 1:

handwriting

Geography introduction


Making maps


Abigail's Map



Pictures from the "Get it Game"










We had a great first week of school. Well it is actually our second, we did a review week before last. Abigail was very excited and READY start. Getting back into a routine and having more structure has been very nice. This is how our morning goes so far.

• breakfast
  
• girls dress, make beds and have prayer time in their room while I get Samuel set up(he watches Sesame Street and eats his breakfast while we do our school)
• School

We start with Prayer and then do our Bible lesson. Then we move to our Calender and Clock. After Calender we do our L.A. which includes our sound of the week, poetry and handwritting. Some days, depending on how writting goes, they have a small break and I get Samuel cleaned up and he joins us for the additional lesson that we will be doing for the day. Our extra lessons are as follows.

Monday-Science
Tuesday- Geography
Wednesday- Math
Thursday- Math

This week for science I introduced them to their Science journals and science terms they also drew in their journal something that they wanted to learn about. I got some very interesting requests :)

Our First Geography lesson went very well! I introduced them to the Globe and Atlas then I read them a book about maps. After the story they were supposed to draw a map from our house to the neighbors. I was very impressed with Abigail's work. I didn't really know what to expect but hers was GREAT :)

For Math the first day we did some counting with counters and then on Thursday we played a game I called the " get game" (ex. Abigail, go get 4 pillows, Hannah, go get 10 baby dolls) They had to remember the number, count out the objects and bring the correct number back to me. This seemed more of a challenge for Hannah then just counting out counters. They both thought it was really fun! I think they liked looking for and then carrying all the objects back to me, so we will def. be playing this again. Oh, and yes we have 10 baby dolls, we actually have more than that :)

We had some challenges and I have already had to readjust some things but over all we had a great week!

Rebekah 4 months old

Rebekah May turned 4 months old today. She is such a happy baby. She is now laughing and officially rolls from both her back to tummy and tummy to back. Her brother and sisters love to kiss her and play with her. The girls really love to take turns picking out her clothes. She is much smaller than our other babies, she seems more petite. Maybe she's small boned :) but not sure where she could have possibly gotten that from. Whatever we want to called it, she is definitely small. She is still wearing 0-3 month clothes and wears a size 2 diaper. Her eyes are still blue, bright beautiful crystal blue. Oh, and have I mentioned that I LOVE her... I LOVE her so much!

I want to share some really cute pictures of her but sadly they are hard to get. I use my cell phone camera during the day and she closes her eyes due to the flash almost every time. Here are some pics I got of Samuel playing with her yesterday. They are in reverse order but frankly I am too tired to spend the time to switch them around. She started with only the ball and them Samuel started bringing her more toys. It was really cute to watch. He really does love her he is a great BIG brother :)

Book report

The title of this post is definitely an inaccurate description of what is about to take place. But I didn't know what else to call it :) I will not write a book report at this time. I actually remember the first book report that I ever wrote. It was about the white rabbit with the red eyes, sounds scary. I think it may have been Mrs. Dwyers class. Weird that I remember that. Maybe because I was terrified and did not like to read. Honestly it was a struggle for me.
Anywho... I did finish another book. I know, long time coming! I really missed the mark on one book a month.

I have started another Grisham, The Appeal. So maybe you will get another "report" in the future. No pressure though.

Our School room

Several of my homeschool blogging friends have given tours of their school room or area. This motivated me to finish organizing ours. It is all finished and ready for our 2010-2011 school year at the Krum Campus. So... here is a tour of our little learning space.

Our Globe. I am really excited about having a globe as we start our journey of Geography, The World that GOD made. I will share more about our lessons later. Behind "Gary the Globe"

This bookcase stores most of our school stuff.

Here is a glimpse of our great table. Trey had this beautiful solid wood table hand crafted at his work several years ago. We LOVE it and use it all the time. It is currently outfitted with a number line taped to the top for math.

Calender and clock. I also love these two items. I know they are very early childhood. But they serve us well. I have been collecting stuff for years and purchased both of these items from Lillian Vernon
Our Bookcase, which Trey also had made at work. I have an obsession with books looking straight on a bookcase. As a child I straightened my bookcase OFTEN. So, it is hard for me not to straighten it all the time, but I am trying to teach my kids to re-shelve correctly.
Now back to our main school shelves. I still have more I need to get from storage but for now I have boxes full of crayons, marker, colored pencils and regular pencils on the second shelf from the bottom. I also have our white boards and dry erase markers here. The white boards are from my 2nd grade teaching days.
Really cheap way to get a set of white boards- go to your local home improvement store. Buy a piece of shower board and cut into squares. Our Home Depot did it for me and the cutting service was free.

My reused coffee cans that hold marker my kids CAN NOT have. stickers and all our art and craft supplies.
Also on top of the bookcase are magazine files full of supplies, curriculum binders and reference books.

I am very excited about our school year! I will post updated shots of our space. I am sure it will grow and change as we learn. HAPPY HOMESCHOOLING :)