After checking out a ton of homeschool blogs this summer I was looking for an alphabet activity for Oliver to do, I came across an idea at totallytots.homestead.com. It is called Now I Know My ABC’s and it shows pictures of animals made from each letter in the alphabet. Here is what Oliver has made so far:
He is keeping them inside of clear sleeves in his very own ABS’s book… he likes it so much!
I love to laminate and with a Mardel store right down the street it is so easy and economical at .25/foot. 
Laminating flash cards, lapbook materials and charts will ensure they will last a long time, ideally throughout the homeschool years in our family.
This week is Lamination Week at Mardel. They even have a cute video series called “Will it Laminate?”, where they run Facebook followers suggestions on putting random items through the laminator.
Head to Mardel now through September 11th for 25 feet for FREE, that’s right 25 FEET OF LAMINATION FOR FREE! Thanks Mardel! I went this morning and acutally used 42 FEET, only had to pay for 17′.
Happy Laminating! And don’t forget to check out “Will It Laminate”
We did it! We went on our first official Field Trip for school. We have been studying flowers and how things grow, what more perfect place to go then the Denver Botanic Gardens. We went in the afternoon and the weather was perfect! We started by strolling the grounds and looking at all the native plants to Colorado. Then we headed into the Tropical Forest Greenhouse, WOW! The boys noticed the climate right away, Preston said it was “hot and wet”, perfect opportunity to explain humidity. I had the boys bring their science journals and some colored pencils, they each picked something they wanted to draw, both chose flowers they liked.
The greenhouse is a beautiful place with huge palms, almost fairy-tale like vines and flowers everywhere, waterfalls and a treehouse (sort of) to climb up and get a bird’s eye-view.
After exploring the grounds we headed across the street to the top of the parking garage. That is where they have put an extrodinary kids area, just recently built over the Summer. What an awesome place!!
Some features of the Mordecai Children’s Garden:
-Scavenger Hunt Cards
-Binocular Station with a lookout over the Gardens and the city.
-A bear cave
-A Mountain complete with bring and more binoculars
-A garden to dig and play in
-A stream that you can build a dam in
-Mini-interactive stations, rock stacking, smelly flowers,wood stacking
-Mini magnifying glasses throughout
-So much more!
What an awesome start to our year!
I have not made any lapbooks but I am researching them and a super-sweet friend is going to give me a tutoiral. For practice I decided to try a Tot Book, it’s a mini-version of lapbooks. We tried this one today it’s another great idea from the 1+1+1=1 blog. It is a Hermie Tot Book from the Tot Section of the blog. I intially had my youngest in mind but as I was going through it I think my 4 year will have fun with it too, I will try after I laminate the pieces. My 2 year old jumped right in and was super eager, we must LAMINATE. He liked it a lot and played with it for about 10 minutes! Thanks Carissa!
Top Left – Bug book, Bottom Left – Accordion Counting Book, Bottom Right – Colors
Oliver liked the lapbook so I’d say it was a success!
These were for a book that shows the names of the characters and then has a blank one for the child. I improvised and laid them all out and glued them to the inside. Sam liked seeing all of them, he was excited… it was so cute. Thanks again to 1+1+1=1, I have been so inspired and motivated!
This is a great idea from one of my favorite blogs, the
1+1+1=1 Blog
When I was learning to count my teacher showed me this method, not sure what it is called but it helped me tremendously when learning to add and subtract. I saw this and thought it would be great for Oliver. I hand wrote the numbers and he is using cylinder shapes from the Dollar Spot at Target. On a side note, the Dollar Spot also had packs of squares and triangles, great manipulatives!
Each number has the corresponding # of dots on it.
We rarely eat out, that includes fast food too. We go out to eat with my family for special occasions so we get our fill. Recently, we received a gift card as a thank you. It was to a local American fare restaurant called Merle’s it is located in the super-cute, Downtown Littleton area. The decor is modern and cozy and fun! Plenty of seating, the first level has huge garage doors slide open for an open, outdoor feel, the upstairs is all patio overlooking the downtown strip. The menu has a wide variety of salads, sandwiches, burgers and yummy entrees. We went for lunch and our kids ate off the kids menu ($4 each includes drink).
The verdict: DELICIOUS!
The service: Fast and Friendly
The Atmosphere: A+
They have a live band on the weekends plus a Saturday and Sunday brunch.
I am participating in a blog hop hosted by heartofthematteronline.com – this week’s subject is …. A DAY IN THE LIFE – we started today, perfect timing.
YAY! We did it, we really actually did it! We completed our first official day of Homeschool! I really had no clue about how it would go, I even expected the worst, but I was pleasantly surprised. We started off with French Toast, OJ and Yogurt – yum!
Then off to the school table… I will list our schedule below (not really a schedule, just a list of things we did). I didn’t time subjects or even look at the clock, I didn’t want to stress about time. Oliver, my preschooler, sat right down and was ready to go to work, I was so impressed. I showed him his workbox and schedule he pulled out his first worksheet and completed it! I would love to say that he moved on to the next folder with worksheets, but that was just about for him.
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We did call him back for calendar time. We did it all together, which went really well. They checked the weather and recorded it, colored in Day 1 of the 100 Days of School chart, Oliver had to find items with the color of the day while my 1st Grader recorded the date. After that the preschooler went on his way. I decided I wouldn’t over-worry about him sticking to it… He is only 4.
Preston and I sat down and I showed him his workbox and schedule. Then we jumped right in, together. It flowed, it worked, it was really enjoyable! I am thankful to God that it went so well. When we finished I thought I missed something because it was fast and smooth – but we covered everything! The toddler went about his business almost the entire time, playing with centers all around us.
We started at 8:30 and finished at 11:30. We had Calendar, Bible, Character training, History, Geography, Reading, Spelling, Phonics, Math, Lego Center, Art. For Art we bought the boys their own mug to color, they loved them!
Thanks for stopping by!
I have to admit I had no idea about this phenomenon we are embarking upon. Since my oldest is now 7, he has graduated to new toys. In particular, he has gone completely, crazy-overboard over LEGOS! He can’t get enough, he builds and builds and then builds some more. I love to see his imagination stirring, the things he has come up with are so inventive, I love the outlet LEGOS provide. Creatively, scientifically, they are awesome. After he got his first set and loved it, I set out to find used Legos. I am a huge believer in buying toys on craigslist, eBay, etc. However, it seems that this has proven to be not as easy of a task as I thought. Before, any toy, really anything the kids wanted I have been able to find used at an awesome price. No so with Legos. If you can find any used they are only slightly less than retail. It’s really intriguing. Talking with other moms who have boys, they have all chimed in with their Lego stories- BOYS LOVE LEGOS!`
I also just found this way cool organizer, holder thingy-bob … Definitely on the wish list! It’s called Box4Blox, it’s a fantastic idea.
The clock is ticking. Can you hear it? I couldn’t either until this week, now the ticking is getting louder and louder. I am getting very excited and very nervous. So today I am going to just blog about my 1st graders desk, that’s easy. Hope you like. I would have loved this setup when I was young.
Who doesn’t love a good Heath bar or Skor? Yummy toffee-nutty-ness, covered with delicious chocolate and a hint of salt. I love chocolate and salt, ever since my mom introduced me to popcorn and M&M’s – wow!
You are only 4 simple ingredients away from amazing scrumptious-ness.
I found this recipe on a MOPS forum one time and let me just tell you – It is easy, cheap to make and sooooo, sooooo very good!
Homemade Heath Bar
40 soda crackers (saltine)
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. butter
12 oz. chocolate chips
Line cake pan with aluminum foil. Place crackers over entire bottom of pan. Boil brown sugar and butter for 3 minutes. Pour over the crackers. Bake at 350 degrees for 6 minutes. Immediately sprinkle chocolate chips over the pan, wait 3 minutes and then spread the melted chips. Cut when cool.
You will LOVE IT! Enjoy!