Preschool Corner: Letter E

We are starting to get back on track this week and it feels good to get into somewhat of a routine. We didn't get as much done as I would have liked, but it was a whole lot more than we did the last few weeks. So, I am pleased! Here are some of the highlights for the big boys! We were working with the letter E this week. So, they completed and added their E collages and our E penmanship worksheets to their Alphabet Book.

They played with their E file folder game, called Ears Hear. Basically, you put the cards with pictures of things you can hear on the left side and the cards with pictures of things you cannot hear on the right side. It was interesting to see where they put some of the cards. So, I made them explain their reasoning. This idea came from our Hands On Homeschooling curriculum.

I made a discovery with JJ. He does MUCH better writing his letters in our salt box than he does on paper. For some strange reason, I really just used the salt box for KJ when she was first learning cursive, but I now see that JJ can benefit greatly from it as well! Besides, he LOVES using it! (I plan on making a post about how we made ours.)

The boys also had a blast using an egg carton to sort buttons. They sorted by both color and by size. We talked about other ways that they could sort the buttons...plain buttons vs. "not plain buttons" and by the number of holes.


Going along with the ears theme, we talked about the fact that some people cannot hear and we practiced some sign language. KJ became the "lil teacher" as she worked with the boys on their sign language file folder game that I printed from File Folder Fun.

Extending on the ears theme, we played doctor. While leaving the hospital after my second surgery, I grabbed a few of the masks that they have at the hospital entrance. The kids LOVED using these as the doctored on each other. Of course we check the ears, but I also used the time to remind the kids about germs and how not to spread them!

Be sure to check out Preschool Corner for more great preschool ideas as well as my other website for free online preschool/kindergarten resources.

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B is for Butterfly

Alright, so I am FINALLY starting to get back into the swing of things. Although it was far from a normal week, we were able to accomplish alot more than we have in the past few weeks!

My Father's World Kindergarten
(B is for Butterfly)
So, I have been waiting to complete KJ's butterfly unit so that I could post about it. We kind of jumped ahead to the Butterfly unit once we got our live butterfly garden. Hands down, that was the best part. I highly recommend that you get one if you have never done it! I think I was just as amused with it as the kids were! It was just amazing to see the transformation from caterpillars to beautiful butterflies. You can see pics of the kiddos enjoying the butterflies from our butterfly garden here and here.

The kids were able to hold one of the butterflies in their hands before it flew away. They thought that was the coolest ever!!!! (This is actually a picture of one of the big boys holding the butterfly.) Notice the wings?!?!? One of the differences between a butterfly and a moth is that when a butterfly lands, its wings are together. When a moth lands, its wings are apart! Did you know that? I sure didn't!!!

In honor of our butterflies, we made a few butterfly snacks. KJ had fun playing with the butterfly file folder game that we made. She loves it because it is made from photos of real butterflies!

We also made lots of butterfly crafts. Here you can see our crafts about the stages of a butterfly. Below are a few other simple butterfly crafts that we made.
We made the butterfly above by gluing tissue paper to a file folder and added sparkly Mod Podge. Once dry, we cut it out to a butterfly shape and added the popsicle stick, googly eyes, and pipe cleaner. KJ LOVED the sparkles!

This butterfly was made from two coffee filters and food coloring. We folded the filter in half (to get the symmetrical effect) and added drops of food coloring and watched the color spread. Then we repeated it for the second filter. Once dry we opened them up and attached a pipe cleaner.

I also compiled KJ's work into a lapbook. I had to add a middle insert to the lapbook so that all her work could fit inside. The links for the printables are below.

Cover page from Homeschool Share

Page 1: Butterfly Anatomy from Lapbook Lessons

Page 2: Photos of some of KJ crafts

Page 3: Butterfly/Moth Venn Diagram from Homeschool Share, Life Cycle Wheel from Lapbook Lessons, Life Cycle Book from Worksheet Place

Page 4: KJ "words to remember" and a tissue paper butterfly (stapled behind the page are some of the worksheets that she did throughout the week)

We read LOTS of books about butterflies. One taught us how to make her own origami butterfly. However, the highlight was The Butterfly Alphabet.This book was AMAZING!!! We were able to "discover" every letter of the alphabet hidden in the patterns on butterfly wings. Simply amazing!!! I extended the idea and asked KJ which letters she could find in the first picture of the butterfly above. She found B, D, N, O, S, and Z. Do you see them? Do you see others?

Below are some of the books, etc that we used for our butterfly unit.

We spent the majority of our time focusing on butterflies. We didn't get nearly as much done in her other subjects, but like I said, we are in the process of getting back to normal.

Singapore Math Essentials
We began her math unit on capacity. I will try to post pics next week.

Spell to Write and Read (SWR)
She took a phonogram test on the first 31 sounds and did great!!! She got them all correct...even the cursive...except for putting a dot on her cursive j. I also made a phonogram book for her that has all 70 phonograms in it.

She listened to the phonogram CD while flipping through the first 31 sounds.



Cursive First
I am utterly amazed at how well KJ has picked up on cursive! She LOVES writing in cursive. In fact, that is all she uses now!!! We continue to learn the capital letters as needed.

Well, those were the highlights for this week!!! Hopefully I will have even more to share next week as we go back to Z for zebra.



Be sure to check out more Weekly Homeschool Highlights at Mishmash Maggie.

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Stages of a Butterfly {CRAFTS}

We had lots of fun making butterfly crafts this week. One of the craft highlights was making the stages of a butterfly.

Stage 1~egg: For this first stage we cut a leaf out of construction paper and used a hole punch to make tiny eggs to glue onto the leaf.

Stage 2~caterpillar: For this stage we cut an egg carton and painted it green. We added googly eyes and pipe cleaners for feelers.

Stage 3~chrysalis: For this stage we cut two pieces of an egg carton, painted the brown, and glued them together. We finished it off by using DMC floss to attach it to a twig.

Stage 4~butterfly: For this last stage we used wax paper and crayon shavings. {Iron the crayon shaving between two pieces of wax paper.} I got the idea from Susana at My Family My Forever. We added a large popsicle stick, googly eyes, and pipe cleaner.

We played around some more and decided to take and index card and put drops of paint on it. We folded it in half and then opened it up to dry. Once dry we cut out a butterfly shape and stapled it to a popsicle stick. We tucked it into a toilet paper tube, which we pretended was its chrysalis. Once the butterfly was out of the chrysalis, we flew it all over the house!

Be sure to check out Kid Friendly Friday, and We Made It! Friday Showcase for more great ideas!

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FREE Homeschool Resources

Do you homeschool?
Are you interested in FREE homeschool resources?
Have you checked out the Homeschool Resource List?
If not, just click the graphic below to take a peek!

It is a list of the FREE resources that I have found online. I have made it easy to search by dividing the list up into subject matters. So, feel free to head over and check it out! Of course, if you have sites that you think should be added, please let me know!!!

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stART~Butterflies for Kiri {origami}

A Story + Art = A Great stART

This week we read Butterflies for Kiri,which my daughter, especially, loved because we were finishing up our butterfly unit. After reading the book, I KNEW that our stART project would be origami butterflies.

This was a cute book about a little girl who received a gift (an origami book) with a beautiful paper butterfly attached to it. The book follows her attempts at making the origami butterfly and provides step by step instructions for creating your own! I just love the bright, vibrant colors on the cover of {and throughout} this book!

Once we read this book, I thought I knew exactly what our stART project was going to be! But, KJ had other plans. I thought we would stop at the butterflies, but she wanted to make the same picture that Kiri made in the book. So, we pulled out the watercolors for the sky and grass and paper scraps for the flowers. Lastly, she attached one of her butterflies.

For more stART projects, be sure to check out A Mommy's Adventures.

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"What Makes the Seasons?" by Megan Montague Cash

What Makes the Seasons?

by Megan Montague Cash

This is a great book about the weather and seasons. The rhyming story features a little girl who discovers how the weather changes through the different seasons. I wish we would have had this book when we learned about the seasons. I will definitely would have used it!

You can find this book and many others at:

The "Brown Like Me" Bookstore.

Want to know more about the "Brown Like Me" Book Review and how it got started? Click here!

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Kiddos Create Challenge: BUTTONS

Welcome to the Kiddos Create Weekly carnival!!! This is our very first week and I am super excited!!! This week our challenge item was buttons. I can't wait to check out your links and see how you used this weeks item to create something by, for, or with your kiddos!! If you are new here and would like more info about the Kiddos Create Challenge of the Week and how to join in, please click here.

Next weeks challenge item is leaves. So, be sure to collect some (real or fake) and get creative! For my/your convenience (and for planning purposes) I have also added a button on the sidebar that lists the upcoming challenge items...which I will continually update.

Remember: MckLinky will close this coming Saturday night at midnight. So, you've got all week to link up!

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Button Rainbows

For our very first Kiddos Create Challenge of the Week, the challenge item was buttons. We decided to make button rainbows.First, I let the kids sort my {many} buttons by color. We used blue paper and I drew rainbow lines on the paper as a guide for the kids. Of course we had to add cotton ball clouds!

For more creative ideas using buttons, be sure to click graphic above!

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Update on ME

Again, I would like to thank all of you who have prayed and continue to pray for me. I am recovering from this last surgery much better than the first one. But, the recovery process is taking longer than I would have liked. I went in to have the stitches removed earlier this week and found out that I now have lymphangitis, which is restricting my arm movement. I can only lift my arm a little past 90 degrees. Plus, I have a small mound where my incision is that keeps me from being able to put my arm completely down.

As for the lymphangitis, I have to use a heat pack on it (which feels great) and I have to massage the area (which does NOT feel great at all). The whole area from the underside of my arm to my armpit to the side of my body is all very sore. If I am unable to make progress doing the heat and massaging on my own, I will have to go to physical therapy. But, needless to say, I am thankful that the lumps were not what they could have been, so I can definitely endure!!!

Now, I know that I tend to rave and ramble on here, but can I rant for a little bit???? This has been a very difficult week for me. This was my first week back as mom...full time (except for dinner). Ever since the first surgery I have had regular help throughout the day with everything from the kids to laundry to meals. This week I was back on my own (except for a few people who continued to bring dinner over.) I didn't expect it to be so hard. I feel so unmotivated. I feel so tired. Everything has been a battle for me. It has been a battle to get out of bed in the mornings. It has been a battle to get the kids dressed and fed. It has been a battle to be productive...period; granted each day has gotten a bit better.

So, in hopes of getting out of this funk that I am in, I am going to take a little break so that I can encourage myself, plan, rest, pray, whatever I need to do to get myself together so that next week will be tons better. Hence, I will not be making/posting any Tot School, Preschool Corner, Weekly Homeschool Highlight posts...or any other posts this weekend (besides, we really didn't get that much school accomplished to blog about anyway!) {smile}. But, I will be back on Monday for the Kiddos Create Challenge of the Week.

Thanks for letting me rant for a bit. Believe it or not, I feel a little bit better already! {smile}

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One-legged Twin Sleepers!!!

I just had to share this photo. A few weeks ago I went in to check on the little boys after they had fallen asleep for the night. (Yes, they do have beds, but this is how I found them this particular night.) Do you notice anything different about this picture? Does the title give it away? Well, this is what I presume happened. They took off their pajama pants and then tried to put them back on...only to put both legs in one hole. See, look at their ankles. Both of their legs are in one side of the pants. I thought is was pure comedy that they were BOTH like this!!! It must be a "twin" thing!!!

Be sure to check out Thousand Words Thursday for more great pics that are worth a thousand words!

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Happy Birthday to the Princess!!!

Amidst all of my health drama (which, by the way is continuing), KJ celebrated her 6th birthday. It is hard to believe that my little girl, my princess is growing up! Since I was sort of out of commission, we decided to have a very small party and some special time for KJ with Mommy and Daddy. (She LOVED being out with just me and Husby. She thinks she is one of us anyhow...she was probably happy that all the "children" were left at home with a babysitter while the "three adults" were out together. I keep telling her to stop trying to grow up so fast and to enjoy being a kid!) Anyhow, I owe a big thanks to my friends Susan and Sabrina for taking care of EVERYTHING for KJ's party. They did EVERYTHING from making the cake to doing the decorations; from the party activities to the gift bags. {Thank you so much girls! It means the world to me!}

So, for KJ's birthday, she couldn't decide whether she wanted an American Girl Doll or a sewing machine ("like mommy's...but smaller"). I made that one REAL easy, because I refuse to pay $100+ for a doll. So, we were able to find her a doll at KMart that she LOVES and the best part is that it was only $12.80!!! In fact, she has told me that she likes it better than the American Girl doll. Now, you can't beat that, huh?!?!?! {smile}(While the three of us were spending special time together, we went to Joanns to pick out fabric to make clothes for KJ and her doll. So, she ended up getting the doll as an early birthday present. You can check out a picture of her doll here. (The denim jumper that she is wearing is the very first outfit that we made for her.) And, would you believe I found a cute little pink sewing machine at a garage sale for $3!!! So, here is a pic of the birthday girl sewing a pillow for her new doll with her "new" sewing machine! Awh, she reminds me of me!!!

Happy Birthday Princess!!! Mommy and Daddy love you bunches!!!!

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Raising Rock Stars: The Importance of QT

Carisa at 1+1+1=1 has started a new blog carnival called Raising Rock Stars. It is based on Philippians 2:15 which says:
so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe

and Matthew 7:34 which says:
Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

Essentially, Carisa's vision is for her kids to learn to stand firm on the foundation of Jesus Christ-the SOLID ROCK and shine for the world like BRIGHT STARS for HIM!!!! I, also, want the same for my children!!!!
Hence, I am very excited to be able to finally join up with this carnival so that I will have a special place to document how my kiddos are being equipped to stand on the Rock and shine as bright starts for Christ!!

Since things have been a bit hectic for us with me being in and out of surgery the past few weeks, we haven't done as much as I would have liked. But, I have wanted to join up in the carnival so badly that I decided to share a bit about what my daughter did a few weeks ago and about the importance of your kids seeing you spend time in the Word!

Each morning I normally start my quiet time {aka QT} before I get out of bed. I usually read my Bible and then pray while in the shower...if I can keep my mind focused! {smile} Anyhow, on this particular morning, KJ came into my room with her new doll (I will have to tell you more about her later) and two Bibles. Apparently she has been paying attention to what she sees me doing most mornings, because on this particular morning she came into my room and this is what she did:


I just had to put my Bible down and grab my camera! Yes, kids do pay attention to what you do! I hope that this is something that she will always see me doing and that one day when she has children of her own, they will see her doing the same! And, by the way, yes, it is important for Mommy to read her Bible. And, yes, it is important for KJ to read her Bible too. But did you know that even little dollies need to read their Bibles!

Want to see how others are raising their Rock Stars? Just click the Raising Rock Starts button at the beginning of the post.

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"A Wild Cowboy" by Dana Kessimakis Smith

A Wild Cowboy
by Dana Kessimakis Smith

Illustrated by Laura Freeman

This is a cute little book about a little boy who likens his day headed off to grandma's house to that of a cowboy. He mounts his horse (his mother's back) and meets up out West (grandma's house). The little boy has quite an imagination, which made this a fun read!


Want to know more about the "Brown Like Me" Book Review and how it got started? Click here!

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Kiddos Create Challenge of the Week

Well, after much thought, I have decided to host a blog carnival. Around here, we love to get creative with everyday objects. So, that is why I am starting the Kiddos Create: Challenge of the Week!

The idea is that I will post a challenge item each week. Use that item to make something creative that is made by, for, or with your kiddo(s)! Make a blog post about it and then link it up here so that others can check out your creation. It's that simple!

I will put MckLinky up no later than Monday mornings, starting this coming Monday, Oct 26th. You will have all week to link up your creation. For now, I think I will plan to post mine on Mondays, but don't hold me to it! {smile} You are free to post and link any day you would like! However, MckLinky will close on Saturday night at midnight each week.

But, what is a blog carnival without a few rules...

RULES:

1) Provide a link back to here OR use the Kiddos Create button code below on each of your Kiddos Create posts. That way people can find other bloggers who are participating in the carnival and they can glean ideas by seeing other people's linked creations.

2) Be sure that your creation is made by, for, or with your kiddo(s), which also implies that it should be a very kid-friendly post. (Creations made by, for, or with kiddos of any age are acceptable...as long as they are kid-friendly!)

3) You may use old posts or posts for other carnivals as long as you provide a link back here OR add the Kiddos Create button code to the post.

4) When adding your post to MckLinky, be sure to add the permalink as your URL and NOT the main page of your blog.

5) I reserve the right to delete any links that do not comply with the above rules. However, if you feel that your link was deleted by mistake, please contact me so that we can fix it!




<center><a href="http://mama-jenn.blogspot.com/search/label/Kiddos%20Create" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8aNKYbiIQz8/StvmgnOQ6QI/AAAAAAAABmg/pq7EFj8lV1w/s320/kiddos+create.jpg" /></a></center><br /> <br />
So, enough of the formalities! Go ahead and get creative! I can't wait to see what you come up with!!! Click here to see our most recent Kiddos Create Challenge item.

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