This and That

As everyone knows I am still trying to figure out what to do with Aaron and Alyssa during school time.  Well play-doh has seemed to work the past couple of days.  Both of them have enjoyed playing play-doh during Seth's reading time!  It would be nice if this trend would keep up :-)

 See the stack of blankets and pillows in the background??  I really wish our school house was just a wee bit bigger for a nice story corner...it would look so much better.  I am hoping to at least be able to get some bean bags or something for Christmas.  I know there has to be a good solution for a good story corner...I just haven't thought of it yet :-)

 See Seth in the background concentrating hard on his workbook?!?  Thank you Aaron and Alyssa for being so good and letting him concentrate!  :-)

Seth is doing really really well with his reading!!!  It is really starting to click with him and I am so excited!!  I came up with my own reading "game" to give more practice.  I have been putting all the words from the workbook on flashcards.  Well we started a "book fund" - for each word he read correctly he earned a penny towards his book fund!   In a few weeks he is hoping to have enough money to go buy a Star Wars book :-)

After we do all of the scheduled school stuff (reading, math, bible, science, art, reading corner) all three kids can choose activities that they want to do independently, like puzzles or ipad games, play-doh, etc..., while I get everything prepped for the next day, or work on a blog post for our blog (like I'm doing right now), etc... We probably spend another hour after our "school" time in independent activities.  The kids love being in the school room :-) and this allows me to get everything that needs to be done for school done while we are are still out there so once we get back in the house I can concentrate on house chores and other stuff.

Today Alyssa wanted to help me.  So I plugged in computer cool school for her while I was on the laptop.  I really think she thinks she was helping!  I think her "writing" in the picture below was what she wanted to do tomorrow (I just wish I could read her writing LOL).

It really makes me feel good when the kids wake up excited about a day of school!  I guess I must be doing something right!  :-)

Until next time,

Kellie

We love games!!

I picked up a domino game at Wal-Mart for less than $4!!  We enjoyed playing today!  Of course when I saw it I saw real quick that this will work for more than just a fun domino game!  It can also be used in math for addition and subtraction, and for Aaron and Alyssa to help with matching and counting!  That's a lot of stuff to do with a game that was less than $4!

I am also working on another game to help Seth (and eventually Aaron and Alyssa) with his reading.  I saw another wonderful idea on Pinterest (have I mentioned that I am addicted?!?!).  That link talked about using duplo building blocks and attaching word and letter labels.  I have a bunch of fish link toys that my mom gave me that I am using.  On one side of the fish I am just putting letter of the alphabet so that  we can build simple words or words that follow the rules such as "silent e tells the other vowel to say it's long vowel sound".  On the other side some of the fish will have the blends such as "ck" and "ph" to make words with those blends.

(the flash of the camera made it hard to see some of the letters in the above pic...sorry)

I also picked up a tumbling tower game (like Jenga) at Wal-Mart for less than $6.  I think I am going to write words (sight words and commonly used words) so that we can build sentence towers with that game.  Still thinking about exactly how I want to do that one though.  :-)  I will be sure to post pictures when I decide what to do.

Until next time,

Kellie