Extras- bits and pieces from our day today

NOT just for Homeschooling, this "Therapeutic sketch book notebook" can be used in any school setting or just for fun.  It has a place where a doctor can sign it showing that a student is allowed to color in this when they need to if they start to feel overwhelmed or something in a school setting.

I gave this to my 9 year old and got to talking about what sorts of things I was thinking of getting them for Christmas the idea of "Something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read" as a guide and mentioned how I wasn't sure I should get them a school book for a present. 

 My oldest (9) says, "Well, if it's as awesome as THIS IS, then it would be a great Christmas present!"  So there you go.  I thought I'd take the opportunity to take her picture with her enthusiasm about this as well.

 And her favorite picture in the book is pictured above as she's into all things cats.  ;)

 Here she is working on a drawing with all sorts of art supplies.. we do mixed media around here. 

 My 7 year old today working on her "Fun-school" with the usual craft mess and art supplies and books all over our tiny living room.  ;)  If it seems like I'm obsessed with "The Thinking Trees" books it's because I am.  I went from dreading homeschooling each day to looking forward to it!  The older I get the more I understand my artistic personality.  While, yes, the kids and I need structure, I've noticed that I get bored and frustrated if there isn't room for spontaneity and something different each day in some way.  Finding a way to have structure and consistency WITH variety is not an easy thing I think.  At least not until these.

 Random learning moment.  We've been measuring our Amaryllis plant each day and keeping track (a different person has written our findings down each day) and we've discovered that it's been growing an inch a day!!!  Very exciting for everyone.  :)

 My 4 year old has the journal above (it can be found here) it's very much like her older sisters except that the coloring pages are different.  But because she is younger I've modified.. or sort of added to how I help her learn with it and thought I'd give you all some of my ideas for using the above pages with a very young child.

On the math page on the left above I showed her how I could make dots and then use a ruler to connect the dots to make the square.  I then let her play with trying to do that on her own to make different shapes and use a ruler.  Then I asked her to highlight the zero and eight with purple.  She needed reminding what an eight looked like so I showed her with hand shapes (I didn't want to point to it I wanted to remind her just enough so she could find it on her own), then I told her to color the 1 orange and the 2 yellow.  Then I said "Color the 3 and the 6 green" --- and, you get the idea.  Working on recognition and colors in an easy friendly way that she enjoyed as well.

Now the right hand page with the letters.  I first wrote each letter capital and lower case with a pencil while she watched and I said what they were.  Then she turned the letters pink with a gel pen with some reminders of where to start the letters.  (Note, she's really interested in writing and loves to copy over words and letters.  I would do fewer letters if she wasn't so into this!)  Then I asked her to find the letters of her name as I spelled it out loud and she highlighted them yellow.  Then I wrote her name at the bottom and asked her to find the letters of her name in the top part with ALL the letters and she was supposed to circle each letter of her name this time.  She kept looking back at her name that I wrote at the bottom to help her remember what letter she was supposed to look for and circle next at the top.

What do you think!?  You could totally use that right hand page to make other words that they want to know how to write or have a "letter hunt" of any kind that you come up with, and of course it can all be colored, but by this point she was ready to go run around with her sisters so we were suddenly finished for the day. 

My 7 year old saw me taking pictures and asked me to take a picture of her math page as well.  Her big sister was watching "Peg + Cat" for her "Movie Time" and the 7 year old is into bunnies so she said it was her and her bunny.. "Me + Bunny"

My 9 year old's "Math time" page.  She did some dots and then connected them using a ruler and then I suggested that she turn the shape she'd made into something.. "like a house or a boat or a hat?" I say.  And she decides to make it this eye!  I thought that was fun and creative to come up with that.  Why not right?

Another fun thing we did today was doing a nature walk (in the parking lot of our apartment complex!) with duct tape bracelets!  Here they are after I cut them off of their wrists, and the middle child labeled each so they could show their Daddy when he got home all the fun things they found.

 

 They picked some herb leaves that I have growing in some containers as well and were very impressed at how well their bracelets smelled!  *sniff sniff* "Do we use this one in pizza?"  yes.

And, randomly, my little art supply tub and journals.  Doing a Bible study on the Names of God which has been lovely.  :)

And there you have it, just some extra random stuff in our day today that I thought would be fun to Blog about.  Other things from today that I didn't take pictures of were the books that we read and how funny it was to hear my 7 year old saying that "Romeo and Juliet" that she'd wanted me to read was "too dramatic" as she kept rolling her eyes at the mushy parts.  It DOES sound a bit more silly just reading the story when it's not in the original language.

Hearing the giggles as I read "Fashion Kitty" to them.  Another silly story!  More laughter when the oldest read a little story called "Pinky Ponky the Shonky Wonky Bonky Donkey" .. which now might be an inside joke.  ;)

Then the oohs and ahhs as we watched "Design on a Dime" while I did some exercising this morning (we like seeing how they "steal a look" and make stuff!)

Sliding across the floor in socks to hug Daddy when he gets home!

I'm cleverly trying to NOT remember all the whining my 4 year old managed to do today asking for perfectly normal things that really shouldn't have whining attached to them.  I imitated back to her at one point how it sounds to whine and she looked a little taken aback and told me, "You aren't supposed to whine, it's just me and my girls that can whine."
"What?  Why can't I whine?"  I ask.
"Because you are a grown-up."   hmm... ;)

Tonight was "movie night Monday" so the oldest picked out "The Princess Bride" = classic.  And the 4 year old didn't remember it at all so she kept getting up to snuggle at all the "scary parts" -
"Rats are that big?"
"No, it's a little person inside a costume" says the Daddy.
"Oh.." and later when the rat got burned and stabbed.  "Won't that hurt the person inside?"
"No, the costume is protecting him..."
"Okay."