It's like Christmas in...err..MAY!

I finally made a decision about the curriculum we will use next year for Turbo and Tank. Although Tank will not quite be 2 yet, I wanted to start implementing "school" time, or TOT School, which is just a concentrated time with him on 1-2 activities.

With Turbo; however, I needed to go back to square one. As the months went on and I continued to bump him up to the next level, I found that he was getting frustrated with the work, because we didn't spend the needed time focusing and building his foundation on the previous grade level.

After speaking with many others, including my sister-in-law, I decided to keep him on the Kindergarten level until I was completely confident of his mastery of the skills needed for 1st Grade work.

I decided to go with My Father's World It includes Reading, Math, Science, Bible, Creative Thinking, Character Development, Children's Literature and Art. Everything I need is sent to me. I decided to not get the package that included books. I figured I could supplement those with library books. If I find that it is inconvenient, I will purchase that package at a later date.



We have grown caterpillars into butterflies before and we get to do it again! We are, right now, growing tadpoles into frogs (ick!) and now we get to have an ant farm! Joyous sounds erupt from my body as I think about have bugs and insects and a freak of nature crustacean in my home! (For those of you familiar with our hermit crab, Spidey, who is living beyond his "guaranteed" months without much care or nurture.)

For Tank, I purchased the Toddler package which introduces numbers 1 to 5, activities that help to develop concentration and attention span, sorting by color and shape, and to help develop fine motor and visual discrimination skills. (obviously taken from the catalog description!)


Apparently, Tank thinks that these school toys are just for sitting on as he is completely unaware that his freedom will be lost inside of 4 months!

While we won't start this until August and Turbo will probably be done with it by January or so, and Tank bored of the toys by oh...OCTOBER! LOL! I think this will be a great way to introduced all the subjects I want for the boys but in a Biblical-sound way.

During the summer, I will be using Five In A Row (Turbo) and Before Five In A Row (for Tank), with some unit studies such as space and marine life animals. We will begin space next week as I have some fun ideas to make this summer a blast!

"Mommy, can we do some school?"

All weekend, I reminded Turbo that school was going to start again on Monday. And all day Sunday he continually whined about starting school again! Monday morning came, and we sunk, ever so slowly, into our morning routine. When Tank went to sleep for his morning nap, only after he emptied the dishs, cups and plastic ware that the boys use out onto the kitchen floor, dumped all the blocks out of the school box on the shelf and proceeded to "stack" blocks on Turbo's beloved Hot Wheel Battle Force 5 Car, Turbo and I snuggled on the couch together. We talked about the day, his toys, and his friends, when he looked up at me, touched my face and asked, "Mommy, can we do some school now?" WHEW! Going back was a lot easier than I had expected!

We worked on the Letter G, and used our window crayons from Crayola to review some of our past letters. His lightbulb has gone on now that he realizes that the sounds of letters put together actually make a words, so he is hooked on writing and "reading" words. So instead of pencil and paper, we used window crayons and my sliding glass door. It really keeps his attention too! When I couple that with his Nerf Gun with suction cups, by asking him to shoot the specific letter/sound/number/word/color/or shape, I could keep him working for hours!

I have been compiling flashcards of all the words that are presented to him with HWOT, and quizzing him on them, and he is doing rather well. Although his impulsivity is still there by just blurting out words, he is beginning to look at the beginning and ending sounds and working through each word. P-R-O-G-R-E-S-S!!!! (can you hear me singing?)

We have challenged him to try 10 new foods. With each new food he gets a happy face. After 10 happy faces he gets a new Battle Force 5 Car. Today, he had 2 bites of cucumber! YEAHH!!! He didn't spit it out and go into covulsions either! He looked at me and said it was good but not great and that it wasn't his favorite! I wasn't going to push it, he ate a cucumber!!! YIPPEEE!!!!

In Tot School, Tank has been responding really well to multiple step commands, and as always is a joy! He recently found out that being pulled on a blanket is a rather exhilerating experience...thank you Nana... He also is doing great with the concept of block building.

I will begin more with Tank in the afternoons after nap, but for now, he just interested in remote controls, cell phones, mp3 players and my mouse...if it has a button, he wants it!!!!

Letter X

X-Ray, Xylephone. Two new words learned today.

Letter L

The Letter L was worked on this morning.

Using the Wet, Dry, Try method of Handwriting Without Tears:

Letters R and N

This past week has been really good for us to get into a school groove. I'm really excited about actually digging in and planning school once therapy is done (5 more time), rather than throw things together at the last minute, or while Turbo is working. I also can't wait to get started planning Tot School...well not plan, but you get the idea - you know document Tot School!

We worked on the letters R and N.

Here is his workbook in Handwriting Without Tears for the letter R.


Here is his art project:


His workbook page for the letter N:


His artwork for the Letter N:


Usually, I write the word for the art project object, but today, Turbo did! He, with help, sounded it out, and using my writing as a visual. But still! He wrote it, and I believe, understood what he was writing other than doing copywork!

My First EVER Curriculum

On Friday, a fantabulous package was delivered! Turbo's, and subsequently Tank's, Handwriting Without Tears for Kindergarten has arrived!

I couldn't wait to go through it and begin to use it with Turbo! When he woke up from his nap, I showed it to him, and he looked at me, and with a sigh said, "I knew you were going to get this." Kind of like, Mom, seriously...get with it!

Anyways, this week we have therapy MWF, so we are gettin' our groove on! I'm so excited!

Book Review: God Made the World and Me & Charlie and Trike: Grand Canyon

The curriculum for the Preschool Level of God Made The World and Me is a fantastic resource for a mom who is just starting out homeschooling. I enjoy all of the suggestions for the Learning Centers and how they can be involved or simple. The music suggestions are cute and creative.

I look forward to using this curriculum to help my son learn more about the world around him. This offers a great scope and sequence as well as supplemental learning activities that I can use to supplement my own ideas and lessons. I only wish that The Creation Story for Children was included in my review package as I was not able to look at the stories that were suggested for Circle Time.

The second book that was included in my review package was Charlie and Trike in the Grand Canyon Adventure. This is such a cute book! Author Ken Ham did an excellent job in explaining the World Wide Flood using interesting characters and a great story line. I believe it will go well when we look to find out more of the story of Noah and the Great Flood. The pullouts and the maps that are offered for kiddos to look at are intriguing to little kiddos.

Above all, both of these resources will be an excellent addition to my curriculum and my family.