A Day in the Life...

It is difficult to post EVERYTHING we do EVERYDAY for our schooling. It is really quite boring. We use games, windows, computer, pencil & paper work, and crafts.



Practicing handwriting in a book that Tank must have thought was a coloring book.



Using the window for our math problems of the day (of note: this is out of a book for 1st/2nd graders). Turbo could not sit still and asked if he could write on the windows instead to help him keep focused....THANK YOU THERAPY!!!



Spelling is not his favorite thing. The workbook we have offers super small lines for him to write on. Instead, we take it to the window. I copy a bigger version of his lesson onto the window for him to work on. Here, he is focusing on ending sounds. It is funny how the maintenance people who are working outside will often wave to him through the window. He gets a kick out of that!


When we first started using Boggle Jr., he wasn't at all happy about it. He didn't like it. Mostly because he struggled doing it. We walked away from it for awhile and worked more on his letters and their sounds. He began using Hooked on Spelling and found that he COULD do spelling. When we came back to the game just yesterday, he did fantastic and mostly without any help!


This is his workbook that he has been working out of for math. Turbo has a brain for math. He just "gets" it. He gets the patterns, the numbers, the grouping, the spacial aspect...oi...I'm gonna have to learn some higher math here shortly just so I can teach him!!

LAND AHOY!!!

In addition to our daily school work, Turbo and I have been studying about pirates. We are fortunate enough to have the local Nature and Science Museum offer a fantastic exhibit featuring a REAL LIVE PIRATE STORY! So of course, we had to visit!

So this week we have been building pirate ships from a cardboard box, battling over treasure using our homemade treasure maps and fighting with a cutlass. One morning we even took the day off of school to watch Muppet Treasure Island! Seriously, it is the best movie EVER!!! The only thing that would make it better would be to eat a Pirate Hat Cake!

Enjoy our week of PIRATES!!!

Make a scrapbooking design

Geometry

Working on Geometry this morning with patterns and shapes, Turbo became frustrated as he didn't have enough squares to finish a picture. When he realized that other shapes put together would achieve the same shape! He was amazed that his mama knew something...(insert sarcasm here...)

TOT School: FISH

Today during school time, Tank joined us. I brought out some ZooBooks for Tank to look through and for me to point out animals and name them. I have been working on sign language with him as well, and today, he signed FISH. He already signs Rabbit and when he found a rabbit in the magazine he went crazy with the sign for rabbit.






He also enjoyed a bit of coloring. His scribbles look AUH-MAZING! Kidding...they look like scribbles to me...but he could be the next Monet??!!


But then of course, he had to pose for the camera. On a side note, look how curly his hair was this morning after his morning nap! Smooches! I just wanna snuggle him!!!

Cheeky Lil' Leprechauns!

This week has been all about St. Patty's day and sneaky Leprechauns!

We began the week with coloring the flag of Ireland and using Google Earth to identify where Ireland is on the globe in respect to the U.S.A. My brother and his family live in the Czech Republic and I showed Turbo where they lived and how much closer they live to the land of Leprechauns than we do. He thought that was pretty cool.

After scouring YouTube videos of Leprechauns, I found one where a man dressed as one is dancing a few jigs...pretty hilarious, but I thought we could making a leaping leprechaun in a marionette-fashion way using brads and string. It didn't turn out spectacular, but it was entertaining.

We learned about the colors of the rainbow and what happens at the end of one. So to celebrate, I pulled a "Grammy" trick and layered Jello in the color order of the rainbow. Adding a dollop of whip cream, and you've got yourself a little rainbow, complete with a little cloud. Both the boys really enjoyed that treat.

We had some friends over for corned beef and cabbage one evening for dinner and, I have to admit, it was pretty tasty! However, those sneaky leprechauns must have scooted in the door when we weren't looking, because each time we poured ourselves a pint of beer, it turned green!! Even water coming out the tap turned green the minute it hit the glass! Not to mention the kids' apple juice turning green before our very eyes once it hit their cups! Hmmmmm!!!! Those sneaky lil' devils! (Shhhh...green food coloring hidden in glasses is a great mommy secret!)

We culminated our week with a Leprechaun party, where the boys invited some friends over to celebrate!

We began our party with a story, That's What Leprechauns Do, by Eve Bunting, where she writes about how lil' leprechauns make mischief wherever they go! While I read them their story, they ate the rainbow jello with whipped cream! It was amazing how QUIET they were!

Following that, we made a trap so that we could catch a leprechaun so that he would have to tell us where he hid his gold. Unfortunately, it didn't work. A leprechaun tried, but he was a really good jumper, we decided that, and he jumped out of the hat after the trap door was sprung! Bummer!

For a little science experiment, we put a lot of drops of food coloring into white cake batter, all 6 colors of the rainbow, and made rainbow cupcakes. They looked really psychedelic, but were very tasty!

Finally, to commemorate our party, using freshly carved potato hearts, we paint green shamrocks on t-shirts, that read, KISS ME! Many of the boys weren't happy about that, seeing how they don't like getting kisses from girls, except for their moms! Tank enjoyed a kiss or two from all the moms!

Now, the kids are napping, mom is wrapping up the party and finishing cleaning, and putting up her feet with a nice cold beer...without a touch of leprechaun green.

Another greeting card by Smilebox

Tank says "Cheese"

Okay, so not really, but his "cheesy" smile when getting his picture taken says it all!

He hasn't been feeling well recently, and the only thing he would eat that day was fresh blackberries. Smeared all over his face, I wanted to snap a picture. When I asked him to say, "Cheese", this is the face I got. We even took a video of him! He had us rolling!

1st Grade Math

Turbo has always had a mind for numbers. Unfortunately for him, his mother does not.

In each workbook and beginning math books he has whizzed through. Yesterday, I timidly bought a workbook for 1st and 2nd grade math. Today we worked a bit on it, and of course, no problems there.

Is this a sign that I should be searching out tutors for him in math past...oh I don't know...4th grade??????? (you can see my confidence level here!)

Spelling:ReTHunk

Recently, I purchased Hooked on Spelling for Turbo to use in addition to reading practice. Since it was something he could use with the computer, I thought it would be a win/win situation.

Unfortunately, it doesn't move "as fast" as other games he plays on the computer...just perfect.

He is learning, and his spelling is getting better as he realizes word families, beginning and ending sounds, but the practice work is like pulling teeth for him to do!

Today, I had finally had it. He couldn't sit in the chair, he couldn't focus and stay on task. It was like we were catching rabbits all morning long! So we took to the window. In 10 minutes flat, he did an entire page of the practice work that would have taken us 45 minutes with pencil and paper.






I guess just changing a few things up and looking at things from a different perspective is all that it takes. I think we will be doing our spelling work on the window for a bit, huh?

BOB

For our reading portion of school, we have been working through BOB Books. These books are fantastic as it allows Turbo to read an entire book by himself with using only a handful of letters to sound out.

Recently, Turbo has found a new audience! Tank loves to sit next to his big brother while he reads him a book. Turbo beams with pride as Tank snuggles up next to him to listen. Most of the time he sits for the entire book to be read; however, in the video below, he is distracted with a toy. Please don't ask about the monkey on his back. He has this infatuation with this monkey backpack and insists on wearing it daily.