Tot School - 23 Months

Baby H will be a 2-year-old in less than a month!  He is such a fun little kid to play with and I find great joy in our special Tot School time when I can interact with him one-on-one.  Here are some of the learning activities he's been enjoying this month...

Ancient Egypt Unit: Building a Pyramid

A couple weeks ago, my girls learned about Ancient Egypt in our homeschool Kindergarten.  We read about Egypt in The Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer and then added additional books, videos, and hands-on projects for enrichment.  One of the activities we did for this learning unit was to build a pyramid.  L and E worked on their pyramid every day for an entire week, and it turned out great.  Here's the process we went through..

Homeschool Kindergarten Typical Daily Schedule

We don't have a strict schedule for our homeschool Kindergarten work, but we do have a basic daily rhythm that we follow.  As part of the iHomeschool Network's "Not" Back to School blog hop, homeschooling families we'll be sharing a "day in the life" posts this week.  Here's a glimpse into one of our typical days..

Pony Cake for 4th Birthday

 

With all the educational fun the kids and I have been having lately, I almost forgot to post a photo of the pony cake I made for the twins' 4th birthday.  This is about as close as I'm going to get to a Martha Stewart moment!

It's surreal to think that four years ago I was taking care of two little preemie babies and now my little girls are already school-age and constantly impressing me with all the incredible things they can do...

Kindergarten Curriculum for Our New School Year

This month I am joining other homeschool bloggers at the 5th Annual "Not" Back-to-School Blog Hop.  The topic for this week is "Curriculum".  L and E just turned 4, but they are reading at a mid-first-grade level, and have mastered about 75% of the items in Common Core for Kindergarten Math, so I'm just going to go ahead and start Kindergarten with them this year (with some first grade materials thrown in as well).  We already started our school year earlier this summer, but I think the first month was more for getting into a rhythm and seeing what will and won't work.  Here's our curriculum right now...

Tot School - 22 Months

Baby H (22 months old) has been getting lots of Tot School time every day in his high chair while his older sisters complete their worksheets.  I've been trying to provide a variety of games and learning activities for him, but I'm honestly having a hard time keeping up with this kid since he picks things up so quickly.  Here's what we've been up to...

Early Mapping Skills - Picture Copying

This simple learning activity doesn't take many materials or preparation, but it boosts all sorts of cognitive abilities in your little ones...

Releasing Our Butterflies

Last month we had the delightful experience of raising our own caterpillars and observing their amazing transformation into butterflies.  Releasing our ten Painted Lady butterflies out into the world created some magical moments for the girls..

VocabularySpellingCity

If you follow my blog, you know that my twins are now reading.  The next logical step (other than improving their reading fluency) is to work on spelling.  Thus it was quite timely to receive an invitation to review VocabularySpellingCity.com.  I'll be trying it out with my girls and then posting my feedback on this blog.. stay tuned!

Disclosure: I've been given a Premium Membership to VocabularySpellingCity.com for a candid, personal, online review. VocabularySpellingCity helps students study word lists using 25 different learning activities such as Unscramble, Hangman, WordFind, and Crossword Puzzle. Parents can create their own spelling lists, find published lists already available on the site, or use any of dozens of free teaching resources on topics such as Multiple Meaning Words and Possessive Nouns . Be sure to come back in three weeks to read about my experience.There might be more free memberships available for bloggers. If you're interested, find out how you can review VocabularySpellingCity.com.

Observing Caterpillars

Two weeks ago, we received some mail-order caterpillars.  The girls (and I) have been having a great time observing them and learning about the butterfly life cycle...

Tot School - 21 Months Old

H is 21 months old - I can't believe that 2-years-old is just around the corner! Lately, I've been really absorbed in working with H's older sisters (almost 4 years old) now that they've started reading, so getting that one-on-one Tot School time with my little boy is really special for us both.  H is such a quick learner that I often have a hard time keeping up with him and thinking up activities that are enough of a challenge for my clever little dude...

Model Building with Preschoolers

This afternoon, the twins (almost 4 years old) and I built a wooden 'model' firetruck.  Although the label said that the set was for ages 8+, my preschoolers did an excellent job (with some help, of course), and it was a neat project to work on together.  Little did my kids realize that this was a learning activity requiring math, spatial reasoning, and problem solving skills...

Hidden Words Reading Game with 3D Glasses

A couple weeks ago we got a game with 3D glasses and a workbook with objects to find in a Chick-Fil-A kids meal.  The kids enjoyed playing the game as intended, but were particularly fascinated with the glasses.  I made them a fun reading game with hidden words that could only be read using the 'magic' glasses.  You can make this game using any red tinted see-through object (color paddles, Magna-Tiles, etc..).  This game provided lots and lots of entertainment (and reading practice) for my kids. Here's how it's done..

Teach Your Preschooler to Read!

 

Today I am participating in a guest blogger series on teaching your children to read on Life & Lessons from a Country Road.   In my guest post, I describe some of the lessons I've learned as I taught my twins to read by age 3.5.  Please head over there and check it out!

Homeschool Preschool - April

The twins are 3.5 years old.  I hope some readers have stuck around through my blogging hiatus this month.  We're moving (again) so April involved a lot of sorting through all the kids' toys and homeschool activities and organizing/packing everything.  We still do Homeschool Preschool twice a day, but the packing has drained my creativity so we've stuck with activities that are already on hand.  Here are some highlights..

Tot School - 18 months

Baby H is 18 months old.  I haven't been keeping up with taking photos of all our learning activities and explorations lately, but I really want to write about all the neat thing my little boy has been doing...

Apple Peanut Butter Crunch Snacks for Kids

My kids absolutely love snacks that they can make themselves, and this apple peanut butter crunch do-it-yourself snack fits the bill perfectly!  It's really simple, fun, and tasty.  Here's how we made it..

Homeschool Preschool - Weeks 29 & 30

 

L and E are 3.5 years old.  If you follow this blog and have been wondering what has happened to my plan of doing a book-related activity every day in March, well we've actually been sticking to it.  However, my kids have been doing so great with our Homeschool Preschool sessions lately (2-3 times a day for about an hour each session), that I've kept the book activities pretty simple.  Sometimes we read a book and then watch a YouTube movie about the subject, or complete a puzzle on the theme, etc.. nothing that would be interesting enough to blog about.  Here's a little glimpse of what we've been working on in preschool over the past two weeks..

Rainbow Toast {Painting Bread}

When the girls saw Rainbow Toast in their Highlights High Five Magazine (back-issue from 2007 from Ebay), they begged me to let them try it out... so we did!  This activity was a great way to make a snack using all sorts of Montessori practical life skills and creativity.  Here's how to do it..

Indoor Penguin Snow Play! {Antarctic Antics and My Penguin Osbert}

It snowed this past weekend, but instead of bundling the kids up in layers upon layers of winter clothing, I decided to bring the snow play indoors this time!  And why not integrate it with a mini-unit on penguins?  Here's what we did..