Sharing ...

It's time for me to really buckle down and figure out what we are going to do the first couple of months.

There are a couple things I want to share - as much for me - for record - and for my readers ......

Readers?


(knock:::knock)  Is anyone out there?

First, does your kids love Legos?  I know my boys do.  Even my little ones who really aren't into Legos, they just like them because their brother's think it's cool! 

Lego Magazine is giving away 2-Year Subscriptions for free....  I signed all my boys up (minus the teen) ...  There is a JR version of the magazine for those under 7 and I know all my boys would like to get mail, and upon getting their own magazine, it'll reduce fighting over them. 

(Click the pictures to take you to the link, same link for both)

Also - I saw this fun little thing on Facebook .... 

For a mom with a child, who has (had) a cleft palate .... It thought this was great!!!  It can control the little bit of air they can get through ....

Sometimes preschoolers have a hard time blowing bubbles with traditional bubble wands. The wands can get slippery and difficult for little hands to hold and blow.

Cut a small hole at the bottom edge of the water bottle (single serving size), this will become a mouthpiece for blowing bubbles. Make sure there are no sharp edges! 

Dip the bottle mouth into the bubble solution and then blow through the hole you created.

 We haven't tried it out yet.  Will definitely share - when we do :)


And this has been meandering around Facebook .... 

For camping or late nights at the beach? Leave 1/4 of Mountain dew in bottle (just dont drink it all), add a tiny bit of baking soda and 3 caps of peroxide. Put the lid on and shake - walla! Homemade glow stick (bottle) solution. kids

 I want to save you a little bit of trouble ....   this doesn't work.  I have had friends try it and no luck.  Dennis had looked it up and found out it doesn't work.  One of my friends left this comment on my facebook when I shared it... 

ok, thought this looked cool, tried it with the kids just now and it's such a dud!!! Didn't work, even tried doubling the baking soda and peroxide after it didn't work the first time. Still no glow...so I believe this has been BUSTED!! (Myth Busters comment)

So I want to save everyone the trouble of trying (unless you want to try it for a science experiment that fails!) ...    

 

Daily 5

Have you all heard of this?   I hadn't.....   I'm perusing Pinterest .............

PINTEREST SHOUT OUT .............. 

Anyway - and I see this "Daily 5" stuff..........

I'm thinking ............ what the heck is Daily 5??????  

So I try looking it up and I find an explanation on a school website.........  here it is... incase anyone else is wondering....  

Daily Five

This year, students will be participating in a program called Daily Five during the reading block. In addition to using our regular basal curriculum we will also be incorporating Daily Five.  This framework title refers to the five parts of literacy centers. The Daily Five consists of:

Read to Self

Read to Someone

Listen to Reading

Work on Writing

Word on Word Work

Daily Five Components:

Read to Self-               Students must read daily on their “just right” level to become better readers.

Read to Someone-    Reading to someone helps students practice strategies.  Students become more fluent and check for understanding.

Listen to Reading-   Listening to reading allows you to hear fluent reading and learn new words, building vocabulary knowledge.

Work on Writing-    Students build writing and reading skills by practicing writing on daily topics that interest them.

Work on Word Work- Students work on word building activities to improve spelling, writing, and reading skills.

We have gotten off to a wonderful start with Daily Five. The students are enjoying the variety of activities and becoming better readers and writers.  Thanks for your support as we learn together!

Excitement ...

Noah is getting excited about homeschooling.  Tonight, we had a little discussion about what he had been doing in public school and what he wanted to learn about while homeschooling.   Because this is going to be our first hard-core year...  I think it's an important question to ask. 

First I asked him if he was learning multiplication .......  remembering the several times where we played "what is ? x ? equal?"

His response......    HUH?

::: Sigh :::

Then we talked about other stuff ....  I asked him what he was working on in school when it ended and he said ...  "I always did my own work" .... this really makes me sad.   He goes on to explain to me that he would always just work on the folder of stuff he had while he was in the classroom.  When he did participate - although he was interested - he always had to ask his classmates for help.  And then he says "I would go into Mrs. G's room and we'd work on stuff and then we'd go in another room and work on stuff, but when I was in my classroom I would just work on my stuff."  Mrs. G - btw - was his reading and math teacher (special education) ... so ... yeah, I feel bad.

I asked him if he was excited to homeschool .....

YES!!

Then he says .... "Daddy is going to be my computer teacher and my cooking teacher..." and I confirmed it.  Told him Daddy would probably handle science stuff, too.   I'm going to be doing reading and math, art ...  we're going to both be doing history and other stuff.  We're both going to be involved with ALL of it - but ....  that's how the break-down is for the most part.

So when I asked him what he wanted to learn about ....  first thing he said was ...

"Making stuff and seeing how it works."

That's pretty good answer!

In addition to that,  he is really interested in dinosaurs, animals, archeology....  when I asked him if he wanted to learn about the stars and space he said .... "but I'm not going to be an astronaut." ... to which I answered, "that doesn't mean you can't learn about space!" ....  So I'm glad that he's excited!  Sounds like he's really looking forward to the science part of it :)