Home school Math

I have a friend who uses saxon math and she loves it! So I picked up a copy at a home school conference that i went to with her this summer. I love this set of lessons because they are directed and simple. Some of the activites include.. graphing, counting, patterns etc.





Based on the concepts being taught I supplement with fun activities. Our most recent adventure was The M& M graph it was a hit! She sorted all the candies by color and counted them.. she had a harder time graphing so mommy helped.

Home school Part2

For part 2 I want to focus on reading. As of right now I am using Phonics and the concepts in the book Ordinary Parents Guide to teaching reading I supplement these lessons with Art activities.




Currently Lily loves puppets so we create a puppet for each letter of the alphabet(Alley the Alligator)using templates from DLTK. I also love the No Time for flashcard. She has great art activities for kids of various ages and also does a craft for each letter of the alphabet. In addition,I also love the following websites for inspiration:

1+1+1=1

Totally Tots

As mentioned in my previous posts I also use the literacy resources from Hubbard's Cupboard

To reinforce the concepts of Phonics and letter recgonation we will play games outdoors. One of Lily's favorite activites is to create Sidewalk paint and write her letters and then I usually shot a letter or sound and she steps on the letter.

As a review I use simple poems/ or ryhems such as these to have Lily cirlce the letter being focused on and as she does she practices the sound they make. I also complete a directed draw activity based on the poem.. In wich I draw and lily copies.



Ranibow Letters is also another fun activity. In this activity Lily takes a coloring page and traces it with different coloring crayons from her coloring box.

I also plan on implementing lap books from 1+1+1=1

Tot School Part 1

I have been so busy I have not had a chance to update the blog..I have had many adventures in educating my kiddos at home. It is such a joy and a pleasure to be able to share in their educational experiences. I am not a full time home school mom, but as I have previously worked in a kindergarten classroom I want to make sure that my kiddos are well prepared! I have recently had a few friends ask me what my return looks like so I have decided to describe it using pictures and website links to help all those interested.

I have a semi circle time routine. Most of the time the majority of this routine is done in the car on the way to summer because it involves a lot of signing which is great for the car!
So below is a picture of our circle area from home...





During circle time we review the calendar and weather graph. We sing the days of the week song... an online favorite can be found here or a CD with many of the morning circle songs can be purchased here. We also sing a days of the month song (here) and then I always throw in a kids favorite or religious song! We also recite our numbers to 20 and sing our ABC's using charts to guide us! Lily loves this activity especially if she gets to hold the pointer.

During this time or throughout the day we also use our easel and white board to practice shapes and letters. I will choose letters we are working on or review letters and ask her to place them in a particular shape (circles/Square) as she places them in the shape she is to say the name of the letter. Then she must put all the letters away and make their sound. She loves using her magnetic letters and the white board. Pictures below (Please excuse the crayon on the white board...our little guy did that earlier this week and I have not gotten to the store to get magical eraser:





Another thing that we love to do is right before bed is to read a story. I have recently started chapter book read alouds. We are currently reading Charollet's Web. We review concepts about print whenever we read a book... Title page, front cover, back cover,authour, illustrator, reading left to right etc. I also have had Lily anwer "WH" questions or summarize the chapters. In addition to being read to Lily practices reading books to Mommy. These books are from Hubbards cubboard and include a variety of sight words. From this we are also working on concepts about print as well as recgonizing sight words.





I will post more about our adventures tomorrow as for now it is time to go to bed!

Tot school

~Liliana is 28 months old~
So it was our first week back from our Tot school break! I am hoping to continue with Tot school until our newest bundle of joy arrives in november/december. We were able to introduce the Cootie game this week. We also played on the computer this week. Currently her favorite site is Seasmestreet.org We also read nightly!









At the school carnival Liliana was able to go fishing and play a sorting game with fish and shells. We also made it to go see her first movie this week. We saw Cloudy with a chance of meatballs.

Semi tot school!

Liliana 28 months old

We have not been doing formal tot school for a while now. Its been hard but this week we started with coloring and memory game. I was amazed at how well she played the Memory matching game. We also have been singing a lot, her favorite song this week is "I am taking home a baby bumble bee" I can not wait to get started again in full swing!

Tot School

Liliana is 24 months old
We finally got back into tot school! We had fun playing with play-doh, playing pretend and using the easel to draw. We also were able to play a few outdoor games!
Here are a few pictures:

Tot school week 9

Liliana is 23 months old

Monday: We were able to go to Portuguese Bullfights! Liliana really enjoyed watching the first set of bulls. She would see the horse and the cow and make their animal sounds! So cute

Tuesday: It was very warm so we went out and got Ice Cream! She had a great time, and is really doing well at feeding herself!

Wednesday: We went to the library and to the park!

Thursday: Liliana and I had a book-a-thon, we were able to read several of her books with her. This was a great experience because up until today, she had not shared a common interest in what I was reading she would flip through her own book as I read.
This week we read:
Eating the Alphabet(worked on naming foods)
Carl goes Shopping(worked on finding the dog and girl)
Jamberry(numbers)
Good morning Chick
Little Birds ABC(She repeated the sounds)
Where is my friend(a flip book)
Zoo parade( Copied the actions with mommy)

Sorry for the lack of pictures! I'll work on having my camera out more this week!

Tot School Week 9

~Liliana is 23 months old~
I was on Spring break this week, so we took an easy week! This week Liliana had her 2 year old pictures taken click here for more!





We also went to her first dentist appointment click here to find out more


We spent some time outdoors! We took 1 trip to the park, spent time playing with our friend Sophie, and went for daily walks!
In addition, Liliana enjoyed playing pretend with her dolls and her kitchen set. We also practiced building with building blocks, Lego's and unfix cubes!
We also were able to complete this craft project
Lastly she received her first haircut this week! Here are a few pictures:

Tot School Week 8

Liliana is 22 months old

In order to try to organize my thoughts and ideas better I think I am going to try posting this weeks activities by the day of the week.

On Sunday we didn't do any formal tot school but I do have these great pictures to share from breakfast at Ihop. She had such a great time stacking and lining up the creamers! Any moment can truly be a TOT school moment.



Then on Monday I took a few minutes after I got off work and ran to the dollar store and found some great supplies! We didn't get to use them much since we had to go to my parents house and where there till 8. We did get to play this Fisher price online game and play ball outside with grandma and grandpa. Then at bath time I gave Liliana a bottle and she worked on filling it with water and then spilling it! (Sorry No pictures I didn't take my camera)

Tuesday we worked on placing pom poms and craft sticks in a parmasan cheese container.( same concept different manipulatives) I think it helps keep it. interesting! We also worked on apple shaker for the letter of the week, which was A. Ideas found here And found magnetic numbers in noodles idea from Rocker Tot.





On Wednesday Liliana enjoyed her Easter/Valentines Day package that arrived from Canada. We worked on the Pop out Easter Egg puzzles that came in a book, read the cards, and another set of books.


On Thursday we worked on our letter A by creating the letter A out of popsicle sticks!We also finally completed the spaghettie and Metballs tub and continuted to find magnatic letters and numbers in pasta, except we introduced utentensils today!



Lastly this week we did a few Easter Egg hunts and died Eggs!


As this coming week is Spring Break, I am unsure how much tot school we will be able to complete! I have booked us solid with checkups and play dates!