Come Learn with Me

When it comes to homeschooling, one of our biggest challenges so far has been keeping the younger kids busy while I work with Rhiannon. For a while, handing the boys coloring books would keep them occupied long enough for me to get Rhi situated and then I could keep them playing while working with her whenever she needs me.

We came to the point recently that Talon just wants to learn with her. He knows that a coloring book is not the same way. I can't complain. I mean who can complain about a child simply wanting to learn. I just had to get creative. He is too distracted to sit and do workbooks or any type of curriculum. We have a few manipulatives already that he could work with, such as patternables, but adding to our collection to keep him busy all day would get expensive.

Our solution? Dollar store items turned into learning tools. Our main focuses right now are fine motor skills, colors and letters. Here are some of the fun ways we are learning. 

For our fine motor skills, I have Talon use tongs to move cotton balls to and from different cups and bowls. Some of them are easy, simply squeezing the cotton ball and lifting it out of a bowl. Others are a little more challenging, having to close the tongs to fit into a cup before opening and closing trying to pick up the cotton balls. We also do this activity with tweezers and smaller items.

For our colors, I have Talon and Little Man find items around the house to put into the properly marked muffin tins. We start off with basic colors and move onto different shades. Talon is only allowed to bring me items small enough to fit into the tin. This is helping him with recognizing not only the colors but size relativity too. This activity also keeps him busy during times that I really need to focus on helping his big sister.

When it comes to letters, our main focus, we have a lot of activities, like using our fingers to write in rice. Our favorite activity as of lately is using pipe cleaners to make letters. We have pipe cleaners that are full size, cut in half and some cut in fourths. Talon simply has to manipulate them and make them fit onto the sheets that I have written on. 

I know this picture is not relevant to the post but he's stinkin' cute.

We are having a lot of fun with learning around here. Even little man, who is almost two is able to get in on some of the learning. He is pretty good about just playing while we work though. Now if I can just find something to keep this one occupied. You know when he's not posing for pictures.

Mommy and Me

I have mentioned here before how important we find it to have one on one time with each of our kids. Especially now that there are four of them. We make an effort daily to spend a little time together which each of them. Every now and then we will even take them on little dates.

This month, I got some time to take Talon to his favorite place. Pretend City. I think I have told you all about this boys love for Pretend City. Being able to run around, explore and use his imagination is where I see him thrive. I can not express how much I love seeing his face light up and his brain work. Is there anything cooler than being able to see the wheels turning in their little heads?

Pretend City just opened their new Bayou Cafe and so it was a perfect time for my boy and I to stop by and have some fun. To top it off, they had a little Mardi Gras celebration for the opening. We were able to have our usual fun and also get some extra crafting in while making floats and masks. Ritter's Steam Kettle Cooking served us up some amazing food and we were able to just sit and talk to each other about the day.

As usual, Talon's favorite part was fishing and shooting the water guns. It's always where he spends majority of our time and he made sure to tell me all about it over lunch.

After punching in his time card at all the different areas and cashing out at the Pretend City ATM, we hit up the sand one last time (close second to the water) and headed back to the rest of the kids.

He told Rhiannon all about everything he had done and that they had a new place for her to be a cooker. The Cafe is her favorite part of Pretend City. She has insisted that she gets the next mommy date and we head there to check it out. I won't complain.

Pretend City

29 Hubble

Irvine CA 92618

949-428-3900

Hours:

Monday: 10AM - 1PM

Tuesday - Sunday 10AM - 5PM

Adults & Children: $12.50

Infant to 12 months: FREE

Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood

"My turn to pick" 

 "No, my turn to pick"

 "MOMMMMYYY!!!!"

This conversation goes down a lot at our house. My kiddos love tv. They are only allowed an hour or so of television a day. Most days. So when it comes to who chooses the shows, they take it serious. One is two, one is four. One a girl, one a boy. So as you can imagine, their tastes in t.v. are a bit different.


This mom needed some relief. A break from the remote control battles. So you can imagine my excitement when they found a show they both love. You can not even begin to imagine how much more excited I was when I found that the show taught great character traits and had education benefits. Insert big happy mommy face her. Woo Hoo!!!!!!

Homeschool; Curriculum

The countdown has begun and our preschool year is quickly approaching. Rhi could not be more excited, she reminds me daily that I need to change the number on the chalkboard. I on the other hand could not be more nervous. This is her education. What if I mess up? What if I fall short? What if I fail her causing her to fail at everything? AH!

I know I am over doing it a bit. I know I am freaking out a little too much. This is important stuff though. And I want to do the best I can to provide my children the best education possible.

I did a ton of research on what curriculum to use. We wanted a bible centered curriculum for sure. Something that was structured enough for me but fun enough for the kids. There were so many options. So many reviews. So many things to read and look at and touch.

We finally decided to go with SonLight. I know many of you had questions about what we chose and what we think of it. I can't say too much at this point, as we haven't dove in yet. What I can say is that it eases my mind and my racing heart. My days are laid out for me but because there is so much included that is not "required", I have the freedom to pick and chose what will work best for us and what will meet our needs.

Biggest negative so far? The price. I saw it and saw dollar signs instantly. We are on a budget. A very strict budget. $300 plus did not please me. In fact, it made me nauseous. We are working around it though. We purchased the teachers guide and activity books first, figuring if we couldn't work out the finances we could always hit up the library...a lot. But God provides. This week we purchased the books for Week 1 - Week 15. When the time comes we will see where we stand on the next set of books. If we can't do it we will pull out our handy dandy library card.

We are all excited about starting up with SonLight and adding in field trips to match up with what we are learning. We have a long road ahead of us but I am starting to feel like we are on the right path.

Pre-School Eve

Last year I stumbled upon this post. I didn't know Erin yet or how amazing she was, I just knew that one day I wanted to have a back to school eve celebration, to make it a tradition. I hadn't thought about school or when we would start but I knew that these dinners would take place.

Fast forward to today. It is Rhiannon's first day of pre-school. She has been excited for the last two weeks about this day but last night really seemed to prep her. Her excitement has exscalated. She has not stopped asking questions about what school will be like...and I am pretty sure my name is forever changed to Teacher.

I knew the dinner would be fun. It is always fun to celebrate milestones, I did not know how huge of an impact it would have on my soon to be student. For that I am especially grateful for Erin and her sharing this idea (as well as some decor) with me. You need to check out all of her back to school eves. 2008, 2010, and 2011.

Oh yes, and here is a recap of our night.

We set the dining area up all cutesy. I wanted Rhi to feel really special. It was her night to celebrate after all.

We borrowed this super cute map and a crown from Erin and I also borrowed the idea of a bookpage table runner from her.

 

Here is our table all done up. Simple Table cloth, bookpage runner and little centerpieces. I kept it east, tissue poms (left over from Talon's birthday party) on top of some glass bowls filled with crayons. Finished the look off with some old books and flashcards with Rhiannon's initials. Simple but cute.

 For dinner, I asked Rhi what she wanted for dinner. Salad and Cake was her answer. I went with that and added her favorite pasta dish and garlic bread. She insisted that we have yummy drinks, which means Cherry Limeaid. So we had that out of twirly straws of course.

Now to let the classes begin...AH!