Friday Creative School!!!

Ok - so I tried something new today that I think we will continue to do as the school year progresses!  :-) We were actually home today with no plans!  We don't normally school on Fridays because we have co-op classes every other Friday so I thought it would be just easier to schedule all Fridays off.  But there are some of the non co-op Fridays that we don't have any other plans...so why not have some FUN school, right?!?!

Today we focused on Reading!  I have ideas for math days, science days and even history days in the future!  :-)

I gave the kids different challenges and got pictures (YAY!) of them doing these challenges.  When I went to take the first picture I realized my camera was on creative mode (takes several shots - using different creative filters for each shot).  I went "oh no! It is on creative mode!"  and Seth replied "well, it is creative school...maybe we need creative pictures!".   Oh how I like how that boys thinks!  So all the pictures were taken on creative mode and I chose the best one for each picture to put on here!

So I will explain each of the challenges below and then post the creative pictures taken for those challenges!

BOYS CHALLENGE #1
The first challenge I gave the boys was to find a short book to read and then when they were done to create one of the scenes with their legos!

The first picture shows them reading their books!

The next pictures show their lego creations.

ALYSSA'S CHALLENGE #1:

So Alyssa's first challenge was to spell all the sight words she has learned so far using her flashcards and letter tiles.  (oh and we set up a table outside for her to do this on).

When Seth finished his Lego challenge he came out and helped her finish her challenge.

BOYS CHALLENGE #2:
For the boys second challenge I made a book title scavenger hunt!  I came up with 6 different words to find in book titles (boy's name, animal, a place, a color, a number and a verb).  They could look on any of the bookcases in the school house or in their bedroom to find book titles that fit these categories!  And I got the excitement I was hoping this caused.  When Seth yelled out "OH WOW!  I didn't know we had this book!!"  I realized that my goal was accomplished.  I wanted the boys to look and see and remember all the different fun books that we have to choose from!  :-)

ALYSSA'S CHALLENGE #2:

For Alyssa's second challenge we set out a letter tile for every letter of the alphabet on the table set up outside.  She had to go on a scavenger hunt to find items that had beginning sounds of as many letters as she could find!

I was really impressed with her creativity.  She used a little crocheted blanket that she had as a 'quilt' for Q.  You can also see in this picture her piece of broken plastic for P and rope and rock for R.

In this picture you can see her ball for B, cup for C, doll for D and flip-flop for F.

When the boys got done with their scavenger hunt they came and helped her finish.  They finally decided to spell words for the letters they couldn't find anything for.  They spelled 'egg' for E, 'up' for U, 'x-ray' for X and 'zoom' for Z.  Oh - and Alyssa also found a yellow cup for Y.

CHALLENGE #3
Ok for the last challenge I told the boys to get a book and their timer (they each now have a timer that they use for school) and to find 4 different places outside to read at for 10 minutes.  This gave them 40 minutes of reading!  :-)
Alyssa was just told to take her books she likes to look at and find several different places outside to look at them at.

Spot #1

Spot #2

Spot #3

 (this is on the porch coming off the side door...can't really tell in this pic...but I LOVE this pic!!)

Spot #4

And I also got a couple of pictures of Seth reading with Anna!!  It just melts my heart to see a boy reading with his dog!

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Our creative school day isn't quite finished.  We are going to finish it tonight with star gazing!!!  :-)  We had a cold front come through last night so we are going to have a super clear night tonight - on a Friday night when we don't have to worry about waking up early tomorrow!!  The kids are so excited about this!

So I am going to rest for now...my allergies are still giving me fits!  It didn't help to be outside all morning but it was just too pretty to NOT be outside!!  And I wasn't going to let allergies get in the way of memories being made today!!!  :-)

Until next time,
Kellie

So it has been two weeks since last update...

So, I didn't get an update in last week.  It was a busy week!  We had a super busy Thursday getting ready for a super busy Friday that consisted of our homeschool co-op classes and then leaving from there for our trip to Huntsville for the weekend to meet my new nephew!  :-)

This week hasn't been normal either.  I ended up back at the doctor yesterday :-( - I still had a sinus infection hanging on due to allergy complications.  In fact we didn't even have school yesterday.  After my appointment I came home and napped and took it easy for the afternoon.  After a month of this junk I am just ready for it to go away!

Anyways - but we did get some stuff done this week!  Here are some photo highlights from the last two weeks.

The first picture is showing the inside of our doors.  This is where we have set up a new spot for our biblical character building morning discussion!  I have gotten several character building items from Doorposts.  I have had them for a while but just haven't figured out how to work them in yet (and yes I will admit that they got put in a drawer and forgotten about for a while).  But I have taken them out and have decided to put them into practice :-)

The first one we are doing is the 'Go to the Ant' chart.  I have put each trait on an ant with each question for that trait from the chart.  We are talking about a different trait each week.  We look at the scriptures and discuss how we should answer the questions.  Then as we finish the trait I am also starting an If-Then chart (right side of door) - for any items of disciplinary nature.  If I see that negative action happening then there is a stated disciplinary action that will result.  (for example - our first trait was 'Serving God'.  One of the questions were 'Are you only working when someone is watching you?'  so on the If-Then Chart we have added 'If you are slacking on your work and suddenly spring into action when you see person in authority (Mom, Dad, Granny) watching you THEN you will have to do extra work'. )    I got the If-Then idea from Doorpost's If-Then chart - just making ones that are applicable to the character study we are learning.

I am also using my 'Instructions in Righteousness' as another resource to help learn these traits.

I am excited about this character building lessons for the kids!

We added seals to our ocean box last week!

And Alyssa has completed 3 more letters in her alphabet book over the past two weeks.

Well that's it for this update!  :-)

Until next time,
Kellie

Another Week Completed

Well we have finished another week of school!!  :-)

We had an exciting week this week!  We had our first field trip of the new year.  We went to the Perot museum on Wednesday!

We also finished 'The Silver Chair'!  We have two books left in the Narnia series.  We will start 'The Magician's Nephew' on Monday.  After much research and gathering information from many others who have read the series, the general consensus seems to be that if you don't read 'The Magician's Nephew' first to read it before reading 'The Last Battle'.  So that is what we are going to do!  I even made a Narnia timeline to give the kids a visual of where we are going with this next book to help them see that we are stepping back to the very beginning.  I am excited about this book!  We have all loved this series!

Alyssa made another letter craft. (looks like something was on my lens...)

We talked about walruses and added a walrus to our ocean box.

Here are some pictures from the Perot field trip!  Of course I was too busy play most of the time to get pictures...so once again we don't have too many pictures from our day.

Ever since we started reading the Narnia series all three of my kids have become completely infatuated with lions!  They said I HAD to get their picture with this lion!

We had fun playing with a computer program where you design a picture and it sent it to this wheel of LED lights and when you spin the wheel it makes the picture!   I wrote the kids names for them and they loved it!

And then Aaron went to the computer and wrote mom :-)

And then Alyssa wrote a g for Granny.  :-)

Aaron had fun building a robot car and then figuring out how to control its clamps and movements to play a tic tac toe game.

Today was a complete OFF day for us!!  WHOO HOO!!  We don't school on Fridays - mainly because every other Friday we have our classes with our homeschool group so we decided a long time back to just not school any Friday!  And today we had NO PLANS!!  I even was able to sleep in this morning (I am still battling this head cold/sinus/allergy - whatever this crap is - so the sleep felt SOOOO good for me!)  Anyways after lunch the boys and I had fun tearing up some broken electronics (toys, remotes, phones, etc) to remove the circuit boards.  We are going to use them in the Snap Circuits class I am teaching!  I am showing the kids the correlation between their snap circuit parts and the parts on actual circuit boards!  SO COOL!!  :-)

Well - that's it for this week!  I hope everyone has a good weekend!

Until next time,
Kellie

Another Week Upon Us Already??? WOW!

WOW!  It's been another full week since I last posted!!  

We had a good week of school...despite this momma having a bad allergy flare up that developed into a sinus infection (went to dr today so meds should be kicking in soon and I should be feeling a lot better)!!  But I didn't let that stop us from getting our school done!  We trucked right along!

The kids are doing awesome.  Seth is doing well with his 4th grade vocabulary work and reading!  We have had some issues with him not wanting to concentrate on his work...so he has had to continue school in the afternoon when the others are off and playing...but he is getting better.  We will get through this :-)!  He is becoming SUCH a big helper though at night after supper!  All the kids have been given nightly chores to do after supper.  His is to do the dishes and clean the kitchen.  He does it most nights without even asking!  

Aaron is almost halfway through his LAST 2nd Grade reader and then he will move right into 3rd grade reading!!!  This boy reads like a CHAMP!  I am so proud of him!  He does very well on staying on task and works to get all his items checked off so he can go enjoy his day!

Alyssa is ROCKING Kindergarten!  Her sight word caterpillar grew by two more words this week (yes and no).  She is doing very well writing her letters too!  She also completed two more letters for her alphabet book!

And I guess I am going to go ahead and make the announcement!  We have a new family member!!  We have another 4 legged member!  

Our sweet Anna (Alyssa named her - from Frozen of course) showed up at our house Tuesday night of last week.  She had no collar and it was obvious she had not eaten in a few days at least.  We were not looking at keeping her at first (I swore I did NOT need another mouth to feed!).  We even called Animal Control on Wednesday morning to come get her (we are almost on first name basis with them...we get a lot of dumps out here).  The animal control officer called later that morning and said he was delayed due to another call and it would probably be the next morning before he made it out.  By the time Daniel got home from work we we were realizing what a good dog we had. She sat outside at the door of the schoolhouse the whole time we were in there!  The kids were riding her like a horse and she wasn't caring one bit about it!!  She is so gentle!  

Anyways - Daniel convinced me that maybe it would be a good idea to have a big dog on the property...she might be a good guard dog and she seems like such a good dog!

So..... we called animal control back and cancelled our request  :-)

And she has so far proven to be an AWESOME dog!!  She is very lovable, gentle, even tempered!  She seems to adore the kids!

We haven't let her in the house yet because she is HUGE!  But I have let her in the school room.  She comes in and sniffs around a bit and then lays down and takes a nap LOL!

She HATES baths so in attempt of her first bath I got as wet as she did trying to hold on to her.

She is a sweetie though!  :-)  

So...introducing... Anna - our gentle giant!

Oh - and Daisy is not real happy about this new family member but she is adapting :-)  I have a feeling they will be great friends before long. :-)

Tomorrow is guitar practice again :-)  And then Friday is our first enrichment class for the next semester!!!  We are so excited about that!!!  I am teaching all 4 periods again!  :-)  The kids are super excited about their classes and hanging out with their friends again.

I guess that is it for now!

Until next time,
Kellie