Winners

I am happy to announce the winners of my two giveaways.  The first one was 2 Winnie the Pooh preschool books and the winner is Erica from Life of a Redheaded Mama. The second was More Story Stretchers and the winner is Jess from Kid's Story Central. Congratulations to both of you.  I sent you both an email so please get back to me soon so you don't miss out on these wonderful giveaways.

Giveaway #2

This is the second giveaway I have for the Curriculum Clean-Out hosted by Jolanthe over at Homeschool Creations. I am doing 2 giveaways so be sure to check them both out. 

More Story Stretchers by Shirley C. Raines and Robert J. Canady gives ideas of things to do with children based on some very good books. I was given this when I was student teaching.  I have used some of the things in it but am trying to pass on things that I no longer need or use.   It has 90 different books in 18 categories such as Families, Friends, Plants, Colors, Classics and more.  It is full of fun activities to make literature come alive to your preschooler.

If you would like to win, leave a comment on this post.  For a second entry follow my blog and leave a comment telling me you did. 

This giveaway is up to US Residents only and will end on Sunday, May 1st at 10 pm.  

I will use random.org to pick a winner.  Make sure you leave a way for me to contact you.

Giveaway #1

I am participating in the Curriculum Clean-Out hosted by Jolanthe over at Homeschool Creations. I am doing 2 giveaways so be sure to check them both out. 

These are new-never used preschool books. I gave some of these away in the fall because I had two copies but I ended up not using them with my son, so it is time to pass them along to someone else.

If you would like to win, leave a comment on this post.  For a second entry follow my blog and leave a comment telling me you did.

This giveaway is open to US Residents only and will end on Sunday, May 1st at 10 pm.  I will use random.org to pick a winner.

Make sure you leave a way for me to contact you.

Almost Done With Kindergarten

It is hard to believe that we are almost done with our first year of homeschool.  Sugar Plum has grown by leaps and bounds this year.  She is reading with more confidence everyday.  Each day she reads me a new book she is so proud of herself. It is so great to see the pride on her face.

Tiger Boy has had a bit of a break with preschool.  He is learning a few things along with his big sis, but I have not been doing much with him as far as preschool is concerned.  He is not really interested, so I have not pressed it with him.  He is only 3 and has plenty of time to do school in the future.  I am looking toward next year and trying to figure out what things to do with him to help keep him interested.  I will also be doing preschool with my nephew whom I babysit three days a week. I am thinking that will help since they will be doing things together.

We are getting more and more excited about the baby growing inside me.  We found out last month that it is another boy and we are looking forward to meeting him in mid August.  I know he will put a monkey wrench into schooling as he already has in how well I feel as far as teaching and doing things.  It will be a challenge to figure out how to do school with a new baby, but we will make it work.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

We have  been celebrating Dr. Seuss this week.  We read several of his books and will keep reading more this week.  We go to the library story time each week and the kids enjoyed making a Green Eggs and Ham craft.

Here are a few that we read.

Sugar Plum did a graphing activity for One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish.

And an adding booklet for the Cat in the Hat.

She also made a journal entry about Dr. Seuss today.

I was so proud of her writing about what she drew today.  She did such a great job sounding out the words and getting quite a bit of them right.

Out of the Fog

I think I have been living in a fog for the last few months.  Ever since I had a positive pregnancy test on December 7 things have been turned upside down.  I started feeling sick a few days later and boy was I sick.  It was by far the worst of my morning sickness of any of my pregnancies. I threw up every morning with Sugar Plum but then was fine the rest of the day.  With Tiger Boy I felt sick but it was manageable.  This baby has thrown me for a loop.  I was tired and sick all day long.  There were days I could hardly do anything.

We still did school, but to a lesser degree.  I had planned on doing several fun units in January but it was a bad month.  We battled sickness and my ickiness so not much other than the basics got done.  I don't feel too bad about the lack of things we did because Sugar Plum did finally catch on with reading so good things were accomplished.

We just got back from my sister's wedding on Friday and it was a wonderful time.  Here is a picture of all of us at the wedding.  Both kids were in the wedding as were all the nieces and nephews on both sides, totaling 12 children in the wedding. It was so much fun.

I am finally feeling better and ready to get things going for school again.  I have things planned for this week and the workboxes are ready for tomorrow morning.  I am planning on a few fun units in the next month or so.  We are going to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday, learn about plants, study our digestive system and get ready for spring.  So I hope to be more consistent with writing here now that things are feeling more normal again.

Things

I have been neglecting my blog as of late.  My last post was 10 days ago and the January posts have been sparse. If you look back through them you will see that it has been a crazy month.

I am happy to say that Sugar Plum is reading.  She is doing such a good job sounding out CVC words and attempting to read all words she can see.  She reads signs, books, things on TV, it is fun.

We are getting ready to head to Iowa and Nebraska in about a week.  One of my sisters is getting married and both kids are in the wedding.  We will be making the 17 plus hour drive in two parts.  The first being 12 hours to my parents house in Iowa and then on to Nebraska the next day.  We are looking forward to celebrating with my sister.  Thankfully we won't do the drive back to back coming home as we plan to spend a few days with my parents after the wedding before coming home.

Baby number 3 is growing and things are going well, if you consider a super tired, sick mama as well.  We are getting excited for this summer when the baby makes his or her appearance.  Sugar Plum is convinced it is a girl and refers to the baby as she.  Although she is not too sure about having to share her room with the baby.  She has suggested we name the baby Casey.  We told her she can give suggestions but it is up to Mommy and Daddy to name the baby.  I don't think Tiger Boy has a clue that his world will be turned upside down in a few months.  He has been my baby for 3 years and we didn't think we would have any more.  I think he will be a good big brother though.