I love Pinterest!

Pinterest is a wonderful website where people from all walks of life (mostly women) come together to share what interests them. In other words, it's a bigger time killer than Facebook. I have a few boards that I update: Classroom, My Style, Homeschool... and I love finding ideas of things that would make my life easier.

Remember how I was complaining in a previous post about how we never know where the mail is in our house? I found a solution, and I found it on Pinterest!

Another blog did this activity first and shared a tutorial. Basically, she turned a cereal box and some scrapbook paper into a handy-dandy mail holder for the fridge! Here's mine!




Cute, huh? I tried using magnet clips, but the box ended up being too heavy. I found a strip of magnet tape and glued it on the back instead.

While bragging about my new crafty side at school today, the new first grade teacher (male) stated that Pinterest was a wasteland of married women who have turned their backs on their husbands in order to stay glued to their computers.

I didn't appreciate the accurate comparison, so I stole his Cheerios box from his classroom and turned it into something useful.



Tee-hee. I did make sure to use masculine colors!



Ta-da! His wife is going to love it! :)

That will teach him to mess with General Delk!

Homeschool Day 2- Isaac

Isaac's turn! Putting his verse in order, sport sort, following directions and free play.

Memory Verse: "A soft answer turns away wrath." Proverbs 15:1 (thanks to 1+1+1=1 website!)






I really need a verse to teach Abby about not being a pain in Mommy's butt. (other than just Exodus 20:12) If you know one off the top of your head, let me know!

Sport sort:



He sorted just like Abby! He only did one sport at a time. He counted the balls and wrote the numbers next to them . (he needed help with the #4) We talked about which one had the most and the least.

Following directions: This activity came with the Memory verse lesson.



Click on the picture of Isaac and watch the video of the activity!

For Free Play (I know it sounds stupid since he's been playing freely all morning, but this was "school time" free play) Isaac chose the fabulous felt board! (Aunt Beth- you really hit on something big!)



All in all, I think this morning was a success! Now, on to laundry!

Homeschool Day 2- Abby and Andy

I don't know if you've noticed, but Abby is a bossy piece of goods. We are still working on sorting with the twins. (mostly by color, but we moved into sorting by picture today) I visit so many homeschooling and teaching blog sites, I'm not sure where I got this activity. I saved the sport sorting activity for Isaac.



Abby sorted pictures of plants. I noticed that she only focused on one picture at a time. All the leaves first, then trees, then flowers.



Andy sorted by whatever he grabbed first. He wouldn't let me get a picture of his face. When he showed his face he said he was a dinosaur and growled. When he's not being a dino, he's a pirate. What an imagination!



Abby informed me that she was not done gluing, she wanted more. Maybe it's the teacher in me, (or the pack rat) but I never throw anything away. So, I still had scrapbook paper scraps from my wreath making kick. Cut them up in squares and voila! Color sorting!



The memory card on my camera became full after she finished the pink squares. I downloaded, deleted, and took the picture of the finished product.



Andy finished his sorting activity, moved on to drawing, then moved on to the Nook. The Nook got sleepy (the battery died) so it is now taking a nap with the charger. Andy is playing with Abby's fairy tree house.

You might be wondering where Isaac is. Well, he went with Daddy to the recycling place, so it was nice and quiet for school. Now he is back and I have to get the twins doing something so I can work with Ike uninterrupted.

We'll see how it goes...

Go, Dog! Go!

Isaac's teacher sent home one of their Literacy Bags this week. We were supposed to get it last weekend, but Isaac forgot it. The book is Go, Dog! Go! and it is not a book we have at home. I don't know if they have read it at school, but Isaac knew it.

I mean... Isaac read it to me. Not the whole book, because he got tired of it after a while. And some words he needed help with. But for the most part he read it to me! I grabbed my camera and got most of it on video. (honestly, it is not the most gripping book in the world. It was a little...yawn.)



Click on the picture, and Isaac will read the book to you too! (of course you'll hear his siblings in the background. It couldn't be avoided.)

Homeschool Day 1

I refused to let the kids turn on the tv when we got home today. I expected more complaining than I actually received. No one cared! Hmmmm... I'll have to remember that.
Isaac did try to escape upstairs, where he knows how to get past the child-proof door knobs, to get into my bedroom to watch tv, but he came back down when I called.

I didn't want to overwhelm Isaac on his first day. Today we simply introduced the memory verse for "A", and practiced tracing it. I could tell he works on his letters at school. He kept telling me that the letter 'a' has a belly- which I have never told him. His form while holding a pencil is getting better too!



While Ike was hard at work, the twins were working with their puffballs again. This time, we made patterns.



Andy's



Abby's

They got tired of that soon enough, and Andy wanted his puzzle (from Aunt Beth's quiet bag) and Abby wanted the picture cards. Whatever.



So, Isaac traced his memory verse while we worked on the song that goes with it. (we got it from the 1+1+1=1 website)

Here is Isaac!!



We sang that song the whole time he was writing! Abby and Andy did a little too. Getting Ike to say "soft answer" was difficult. He kept slurring his words. But, you can see he is tracking his print as he reads!

Here is the song again as he shows you his work.



Tomorrow we are going to cut and paste the verse in order. I have some cut and paste pages for Andy and Abby too. They will be working on graphing while Ike works on fluency.

* you know what I like most about this post? The fact that I KNOW that as soon as Uncle JD reads it he is going to 1. share it with his co-workers, and 2. call as soon as he gets off work to see if Isaac will sing his verse to him. Now we'll see how long it takes JD to check the blog and read it! :)

Little Einsteins

My kids might be loud (right, Aunt Boo?), and obnoxiously energetic, but they love their school time! They fight in the car over who is going to school, and who is just going to "new daycare". (They still call is "new daycare" even though they've been there almost a year now.) They all love telling me that they have a "smiley face" for their behavior! (Isaac has a behavior folder) I almost feel bad for Ms. Patty, the twins teacher, because she has to listen to Abby talk about Isaac's school all day. :)

Anyhoo- the kids will come running when I say it's time for school. Our classroom is our dining room, and one of these days, I'm going to decorate it and make it look good! (or at least clean.)

Last night I was working on my other blogsite and the twins were wanting to be entertained. Well, ok. Let me turn on my super-mommy powers and come up with a quasi-educational activity that will keep them focused for minutes on end.

Enter, the felt board. This miracle board was given to us by Aunt Beth in a Delk Quiet Bag. I keep this bag in my car for traveling emergencies and pull activities out as needed. Thanks, Aunt Beth!!





Roar!!





Now, I will admit to arranging the pieces, but the kids loved moving them around, making noises, and telling me all about the different dinos!

After the magic board, we got out the puffballs. I bought these the last time I was in M'boro and I didn't know what I was going to do with them. Now I know!



I separated the balls, made some colored circles on pieces of paper, and told them to have at it!





When the finished their paper, they traded and kept going! After a while, Abby put the balls in different circles and said, "Look, Mommy! I'm being silly!"



I know you're impressed. :)

On the Isaac front, I want you to know his teacher is very impressed with his abilities. They sat in circle time, ready to read a big book, and Isaac started reading the book to Ms. Cheri! She told me that she was very impressed and syas he's already doing Kindergarten material. :)
Now if we can only get him to follow directions the first time. *sigh*

Well, hopefully I found a solution. My new favorite website 1+1+1=1 has wonderful lessons and Pre-K packs geared towards our young learners. My favorite part is her Raising Rock Stars lessons. RRS are Bible based lessons that use Bible verses to teach ABCs, writing skills, and critical thinking skills. Perfect for Isaac!

I've downloaded everything I can get my hands on! Most of is is free! (like 99%) So, I've started a binder for Isaac's RRS lessons.



I found this picture when I was printing out his first lesson. Yea, Grammy Pat!



Nice lesson planning pages and separations.



The first lesson- letter "A".

I also printed out a camping Pre-K pack that I found at Homeschool Creations. Not sure why I chose Camping as our first theme, but it looked good! (Jenny- they have a Star Wars theme! If you look at their Read! Build! Write! boards, you'll find them)

I'll keep everyone posted on Isaac's progress!

Cute idea for Halloween

I found this cute little Pre-K pack at Over the Big Moon blog. I thought I would share it with all of my devoted fans! (this would be fun to print and have for when the Delks come visiting! Hint-hint!)



http://overthebigmoon.blogspot.com/2011/09/halloween-pre-k-pack.html?showComment=1316921533040#c1127524331425710706