Claire in Kindergarten: 2nd 6-week period

We took a little "fall break" from our Abeka video program during this 6-week period (which actually made it more like a 7-week period). We also started the You Can Read program. (Unit 1 is covered in this post.)

One of the great things about homeschooling is that Claire gets to do things like "bring a friend to ballet" with our neighbors' preschooler (who is taller than Claire) in the middle of the day. They had so much fun and got to go to McDonald's for lunch and play afterwards.


We also did some Kindergarten fall printables one day. Here is Claire working on her handwriting. Sadly, her manuscript writing is not all that great since she is learning cursive in her K program. David is working a scarecrow puzzle beside her. Another great thing about homeschooling ... extra time with our siblings!


More fall printables.


We played outside a lot (we had great fall break weather) and got some extra playtime with some of our friends.


Let's go for a ride in the jeep!


Our neighbor came over one afternoon for a playdate and we made Halloween crafts. (Really, we just played with foam Halloween stickers from the dollar bin at Target.)


About 3 weeks ago, I started doing some supplemental reading activities with Claire to help her learn some sight words.


We have about 15-20 activities to do each week and we learn 4 sight words each week. She is really enjoying it so far and I enjoy actually getting to do some school with her as opposed to sitting her in front of a video.

Here are some pics of our different activities. We do 4-5 activities per day (in addition to her regular school work) and it usually takes about 10-15 minutes.






We also made a pumpkin shaker. I got the idea for this craft here.


The completed shaker.


We also read The Pumpkin Patch Parable by Liz Curtis Higgs and used these fun printables to go along with it.


More sight word activities.


Making sight words out of playdough is a big hit. We made our own playdough with this recipe.





And finally ... our little Indian princess. This was one of Claire's art projects with her Abeka program. She spent A LOT of time decorating her vest.






Find other great preschool and Kindergarten ideas here.

This post is also linked up at:

I get around ...

Guess who is walking! This little guy took his first steps on October 4, 2011.


My last and latest walker. (Luke was 12-1/2 months old. Claire walked at 11-1/2 months and David walked at 10 months.)


He seems to enjoy it. He is quite proud of himself.


It took a while before we made any real progress. It took him a few weeks to get the hang of it.


Now he can make it across the room before he falls down. And he prefers walking over crawling. Now he really is into everything.

"Delicious hot smoes"

The title is one of my favorite lines from Toy Story 2 ... from the mouth of Buzz Lightyear himself. (If you haven't seen the movie, "smoes" actually refers to SMORES, which is what this post is about.)

Our neighbors texted us over for smores one Sunday evening. It was the perfect for night for a fire.


Time to roast the marshmallows. I like mine charred and crispy. Claire was not a fan. David on the other hand, may turn into a marshmallow he eats them so much.


The smores were a hit with the kids and the adults!


Luke had fun when we finally let him out of the stroller. Three kids around the fire makes me a bit of a nervous wreck.


Coming off our smores high, I was craving more. I found these smores cookies on Pinterest. It's basically chocolate chip cookie dough with mini marshmallows placed on top of a graham cracker square.


When the cookie bakes, it bakes onto the graham cracker. They were yummy. Even picky cookie eater Claire liked them. (Take note ... they are better the next day after the graham crackers have softened.)


Thank you Pinterest for yet another AWESOME idea!

Salty and Sweet Fall Treats

We made some fun fall treats to send to school with the boys on Halloween. They could definitely carry over to Thanksgiving as well.

(1) Pumpkin Marshmallow Pops.

I found the idea here.

My helpers. Put sucker stick into marshmallow.

David snuck more than a few marshmallows into his mouth.

We dipped the marshmallows into melted white chocolate food colored orange. (I recommend buying the orange candy coating chips instead of trying to color your white chocolate. I think you can find them in the cake decorating section at Hobby Lobby or Joann.)

Cool on wax paper. Tie with green ribbon.

Package.


(2) Halloween/Fall snack mix.

I made a variation of this mix a couple of years ago. I found the recipe I used this year here.

I bought these jars for $2-3 at Hobby Lobby (half price) filled them with snack mix tied a black ribbon around the lid (that I secured with hot glue) and made a cute tag. I gave these to the boys' teachers and they were a big heat.

Preschool Corner: U is for Umbrella

(David is 3 years, 6 months old)

Most of our activities came from our Letter of the Week curriculum.

This is the first unit where I had my new laminator! So, this is our first lacing page. David called it a kite all week and pulled it around by the string.


Working on our cut/tape bible verse from RRSP. (Like how our school room also doubles as my sewing/craft room?) David actually does a pretty good job of cutting in the gray area.


Dot painting our "U" words. This printable came from here.


Hooray! Coloring our bible verse page from RRSP.


Tracing our "U" words. At the end of the week, we cut out the pictures and add them to our alphabet book.


We made a Noah's Ark tot book. You know, umbrella ... rain. It was a stretch, but gave us a fun bible story to read and a fun way to review our numbers, shapes, colors, etc.


A fun umbrella craft I found here.


We also took an umbrella walk outside ... see the sunshine? Clearly the umbrellas weren't necessary but it was still fun. (I got this idea from Claire's preschool class last year.)


Working an umbrella puzzle from LOTW.


Color matching umbrellas from LOTW.

Oh the insanity ... I just love this picture with ALL THE SILLY BANDS! I think he was just tired of me taking his picture at this point.


Uppercase/lowercase Uu matching.


Claire played with some of our matching puzzles too.


Letter matching to spell umbrella.


One family activity I really wanted us to do but never got around to was an upside down evening. I'll save this for our Pre-K letter U week next year.

Check out what other preschoolers are doing here.