The Past Couple of Weeks

I have been trying to document our home school activities more frequently. Here are some things we have done the past several weeks.

For a family home evening night ( Monday nights) we talked about putting on the armor of God as stated in Ephesians. The boys had all the costume pieces in the dress up box so we let them take turns putting on the Armor of God piece by piece as we discussed what each represented. This FHE was a hit!

Here the boys are placing squares inside the shapes I drew on card stock. They really enjoyed this activity/puzzle. I found that they sorted the square tiles by colors too.

Making strawberry, yogurt smoothies. A favorite treat in our home.

Lincoln sorting colored counting bears and placing them in muffin tin with small tongs.

Where have I been in the schooling world?! A girlfriend told me she places worksheets she prints off for her kids in clear paper protector covers and puts them in their own binders. That way the kids can use a dry erase marker to do the work sheets and the covers wipe clean. It save on printing and paper!

I let the boys decorate their own cover for their binders with things that they like.

I wish I had gotten a better picture of this activity. I put a little water in a zip lock bag after drawing a line down the middle. For Alexander I placed 10 beads and William and Lincoln 5 bead. It is a sensory math bag for addition. I wrote math problems on a piece of paper and they would answer by moving the beads accordingly and counting. Such as 3 beads on the left side of the line and 7 on the other. Anyway Alexander moved the beads they always equaled 10.

For mom school my dear friend and I want to the ballet west performance of the Jewels series. It was beautiful!

Here is a counting super hero game. They took turns rolling a dice, counting and placing square tiles on the super heros. The first to cover all the characters wins. They have loved this game. This is one we will keep for a long time.

Here I put a little paint in a zip lock bag. Then I gave them q-tips to draw with. We practiced writing letters, numbers and pictures.

Below Alexander and William do a color matching activity made from the free color samples.

We are still working on the concept of money, that 4 quarters is the same as a dollar bill, etc.

Lincoln placing large lacing buttons through a slit on the lid of the bucket.

I finally put together a sensory tub for the boys. I ordered the mini objects from Time for Tots. The boys LOVE this tub. They love to sort by colors.

Of course for Lincoln there is the fun pick up pom poms with salad tongs.

And play dough.

We have 30 baby chickens and baby kitten on the farm now.

Lincoln dropping marbles through a small hole of the jar. Another favorite activity.

I got a salt shake and tooth picks at the dollar store. I cut the sharp tips of the tooth picks. Lincoln places the tooth picks through the small holes. When he is done he can shake the container up side down and the picks come out!

All time favorite activity for the boys, LEGOS!

The boys have always wanted to try my make up so I let them have fun with it this week. Here are the results.

I bought tub markers the other day to try. So far the kids really like them. I wonder how long they will last.

Search and find small objects. There are one of more object for each letter in the alphabet. This gives me good phonic learning time with William.

The always loved wooden train set.

Working on naming body parts with Lincoln. All three boys are enjoying this magnet Mr Potato head I made.

Lincoln working on had control trying to catch the magnet, puzzle bugs with a little magnet hanging on a string from his wooden net. A great Melissa and Doug puzzle.

This was my favorite kitchen "tool" growing up. After my hand held electric mixer died 5 months ago I purchased this beauty. It has become the kids's new favorite toy too.

Lately

I have not done so well at keeping the camera close for homeschool activities. This second semester we decided to make the theme of RESPECT in our home. We are making our main focus in our homeschooling about respecting others people's time, space, objects and USING OUR WORDS. Gordon and I are trying to help our kids express themselves through verbal communication, but also art, dance and music. The boys have music school at Miss Nans home once a week and are loving it. 

We have also shifted our homeschooling to the Book of Mormon. Really studying the stories and implementing lessons learned. 

Of course we are always working on our home responsibilities of keeping rooms clean and toys put away at proper times. 

Below are pictures of some the activities since October.

Carving Pumpkins

We have done a lot of baking. The boys really love to cook so they having cooking lesson about once a week. William loves to make his own scrambled eggs.

Ginger Bread Houses. Grandpa Alan even joined in on the fun activity!

I took Alexander and William to the Nutcracker Ballet in December. Alexander loved it. He turned to me and said, "Sign me up. I want to do that!"

William has drawn tons of pictures. He loves to draw. Here is one of his latest spring pictures. Flowers and bees.

The kids love sensory tubs. Here they are pouring and scooping beans. I hide little objects for them to find.

Working on spelling with word cards and cloths pens with the alphabet written on them.

For Lincoln, sewing large buttons and matching colors and shapes. For Alexander and William patterns and placing the buttons through the slit on top of the bucket.

The kids LOVE Yahtzee which is great for counting and math.

Math manipulatives.

A big book full of questions for preschool through Kindergarten. The boys love to just sit and answer questions with me.

Alexander and William have been learning about the human body in more detail. We have an educational cd they use on the computer that is interactive. Alexander knows the names for different parts of the brain and other informations about the body. I am amazed at how much he remembers. For an activity we traced an outline of the boys' bodies on large paper. Then they drew in the organs and bones.

It has been a very cold winter so we have mostly done inside activities. I tried to take us to other indoor activity locations. We continue to take gymnastics but we have also done the jumpzone, which is wall to wall trampolines and the Kangaroo Zoo.

Bowling with a ball to knock down the cans.

Lincoln working on grabbing different sized pom poms with salad tongs.

Building and painting bird houses.

Dying Easter Eggs.

Making Elephant toothpaste (foam).

Putting on the Nativity and other plays.

Playing out side when weather and health of the family permits.