Math Blessing

Tonight when we got to church, a friend told me she had something for me.  She handed me a bag with a math curriculum inside.  I was overjoyed.  It has 12 mini student books, a manipulatives packet, a large pocket chart, a teachers graphing guide, a cd with math jingles, 3 computer math games K-3, 3 books, 6 cassette tapes with math stories (I need to find an old tape player), and a large mat for games.  I think I got it all.

I am really excited about the manipulatives.

I am not sure how I am going to use all of this or if I will save it for my son.  We are using Singapore math right now an enjoying it.  I need to go through all of it and figure it out.  My  friend is a teacher at a local elementary school and this was laying around for anyone to have so she got it for me.  There is not a teachers guide but she will be watching for one and get it if it turns up.

I feel so blessed.

Beginning Workboxes

I had a wonderful day homeschooling my children today.   I got my book on Saturday about Sue Patrick's Workbox System. I read all of it in less than 24 hours.  I had already purchased the cart system to use for my daughter and I bought some baskets for my son to use.  I was eager to get this system up and running. I knew it would help our day go more smoothly.

Sugar Plum was happy to use the boxes today.  She set the order of the drawer colors herself and I am just glad they are not all wildly mixed up and it has a nice flow to the colors.  Purple is her favorite so it got top billing.

Sugar Plum cart only has 10 drawers, but it works great for us for now.

 Drawer #1  Daily Journal Writing & Drawing

Drawer #2 Beginning Sounds Worksheet

Drawer #3 Phonics Game 

Drawer #4 Explode the Code Book

Drawer #5 Math Teaching Workbook Page

Drawer #6 Which Is Bigger? Dice Game

Drawer # 7 Do It Carefully Page (fine motor skills)  

Drawer # 8 Pom Pom Sort in Groups of 10

Drawer #9 Piano Book Practice 10 minutes

Drawer #10 Read Book With Mom

Tiger Boy was thrilled to have boxes like his big sister.  He worked quietly and even asked for more boxes when he finished them.  I only got 4 because they were on clearance at Wal-Mart.  I think I will have to check fore more since he loves them.

Here is a picture of the 4 workboxes I set up for Tiger Boy.

Box #1 Marble Sorting with a Spoon

Box #2 Coloring Sheet of our weekly theme

Box #3 How Many Dump Trucks Counting Game

Box #4 Paper, Scissors & Glue

(He could do whatever he wanted with them.)

Overall, it was a super successful day.  

Tiger Boy did his work at the coffee table and had a blast with the marbles.

Sugar Plum really enjoys playing the games and has no clue that she is learning while playing.

So there you have it.  Our first official day with workboxes. It was wonderful and I am looking forward to using them again tomorrow. 

20 Days of School

It is hard to believe that we have had 20 days of school.  It is going well.  I am learning how to balance it all.  Sugar Plum continues to love it. She asks to do school on Saturdays sometimes too.  I have been trying to come up with a way to keep things organized and moving along as we do school each day. I have read a lot about Sue Patrick's Workbox System.  I purchased her book from Amazon today and anxious to read it.  I think it is the exact thing I am looking for.

Learning Games

I spent some time this week working on learning games for the kids. I am hoping to add them into our daily schedule to make sure the learning time is fun for both of them.

I made a salt box for practicing writing in.  I also made a car cut out to lace with yarn.  I created my own counting blocks file folder game and I made two games I found online.

The kids love the salt box and the animal sorting is a big hit already. We will be using the others in the near future and I hope they like them too.

Apple Orchard

On Tuesday we went to the apple orchard with our friends.  We got to have a tour of the orchard, eat apples and donuts, and drink fresh apple cider.  It was a fun day.  The kids both had a good time learning and playing.

Playing on the playground.

Eating donuts and drinking apple cider.

This was at the end and they were both tired.

Egypt & Apples

Today we read the story about Joseph and how he was a slave in Egypt.  We read how God used him to save the people and his own family from starvation.  Then we made collars to look like Egyptian kings and queens.

Later we talked about apples.  We are going to an apple orchard tomorrow with our newly formed homeschool group.  I am so excited about it. So today we made apple trees.  

First we traced our hands on green paper to make the leaves.  Then we glued them onto a paper plate and them we painted on the apples.  I cut slits into paper towel tubes for the plates to slide into for the trunk.

The kids had a lot of fun today with all the art things we did.  I am hoping to have more apple themed things the rest of the week too.

Tiger Boy & Sugar Plum

The Tooth

We had a nice relaxing day at home today.  Everything was nice and calm until right before supper.  Tiger Boy was playing on the couch and decided to bite one of the pillows.  His bottom front tooth somehow managed to get stuck in the fabric.  He yanked the pillow out of his mouth and his tooth came with it.  The whole tooth came out root and all.  It was bleeding pretty badly as I carried him to the sink to clean him up.

You can kind of see the gap.

My husband found the tooth and I called the doctor to see what we should to.  The doctor said that since it was a baby tooth there is not much they would do if we took him to the ER.  She said to use pressure and cold to stop the bleeding.  Once we got the bleeding under control he enjoyed a popsicle.  He seems fine and even ate a great supper.  Later he told me that we should not bite pillows.  It is rather funny that biting a pillow made his tooth come out.

My boy with his tooth.