Flags

"Can I make more flags for school today?"
"Yes, yes you can."

Kid created worksheets

Princess Sparkley wrote a math worksheet for Little Guy the other day.  In return, Little Guy created a panda math worksheet for her.  He sounded out the words on his own.

First Day of School

    5th                     3rd                Kindergarten

 

 

 

I forgot to take Buddy's first day of school picture until this week.  We "started" our school year the day after Labor Day like the rest of Virginia this year.  We're still slowly getting into it, having the new baby and all.  We decided that since Little Guy can read (he's working his way through Princess Sparkley's first grade phonics books) that we'd start him with Kindergarten this year even though he'd have to wait a year for public school.  And even picking out Kindergarten workbooks for him was difficult because he knows all his numbers and letters.  He does a great job with school too.  He knows when it's "school time" and rather than disappearing every chance he gets like the big kids (especially Buddy) he finds books to read, brings me the workbooks and has me read him the directions, ets.  Basically, he's going to teach himself Kindergarten while I'm holding a sleeping newborn whom I can't set down.

Valentines

Our LDS Homeschool group had a Valentine's party the Friday before Valentine's Day.  Little Guy gave out Darth Vader cookies, which everyone loved.  PS gave out the googley eyes ones and Buddy gave out Swedish Fish.  This is what B wanted Buddy to do for the Swedish Fish Valentines... we made one for him with the leftover Swedish Fish.

We decorated cookies.

We decorated bags and then put them in a big circle and broke into groups by age to deliver our Valentines.  There was a HUGE turn out this year.

We checked out our look when we got home.

When they woke up on Valentine's morning, this note was on the table with a box of donut holes.  

Virginia Capitol

A few weekends ago we went to Richmond to visit Mollie Doodle (and the cousins/aunt/uncle).  We have been studying Virginia history this year for Princess Sparkley's 4th grade curriculum, and just read about the capital moving from Jamestown to Williamsburg and finally to Richmond, so we decided to head to the capitol in between our cousins' basketball games. 

Little Guy didn't want me to take his picture, but he was laughing and being so cute as I tried to capture him.

And of course we saw Mollie Doodle.

President's Day Book Club

We belong to a little homeschool book club that changes location and topic each month, meeting at a different family's home.  In early February we had a President's Day book club and talked about Lincoln and Washington.  They made hats, and they had a log cabin building contest.  One of the other moms took pictures.

The Sky

 We've been studying constellations, the moon and the sun for science lately, here are some of our projects.  I got all my ideas from Pinterest.

Buddy (above) and Princess Sparkley (below) each chose six constellations they wanted to learn about.  We painted little pieces of paper, researched, created rough drafts, and then created this final project.  We used a hole punch to make the constellations, then glued them to a bright yellow sheet of cardstock and labeled them.  

We typed up information about the constellations and glued them on back.  Buddy (above) and Princess Sparkley (below).  I ended up doing a lot of Buddy's research, it was fun and he helped me decide what we wanted to include.

 Then we studied about the earth's rotation and seasons.  They had to glue these earths on so that the correct hemisphere was closest to the sun for the correct season drawn on the back corner.  Buddy (above) and Princess Sparkley (below).

 Then, with Oreos, we created the phases of the moon.

Little Guy's Birthday List

With help from Princess Sparkley (writing and spelling) and Mom (spelling), Little Guy wrote (!) out his bithday list today.  He was super proudof himself for soumding out ambulance.  In three weeks he turns four!

Hot Chocolate Art

The kids decorated these mugs the other day and wrote something about winter or cold weather on the back.  Princess Sparkley helped Little Guy by writing "Tomorrow I start with a Clean Blanket" which is a quote from Charlie Brown since in real life, Little Guy's hot chocolate cup is Charlie Brown cartoon that I believe says, "Happiness is a clean blanket."

Baby Genius!

We like to declare our kids baby geniuses at various points of their babyhood.  And granted, Little Guy is nearly four and not quite a baby anymore, but I like Baby Genius better than Child Genius or Child Prodigy.  Although all are fitting.  :)

We checked out these Bob books from the library a few months ago.  He already knew all the sounds the letters make thanks to this video.  B sat down with him and the first few times, Little Guy would sound out the word but was unable to put the sounds together to read the word.  If B sounded it out, he could figure out the word.  Eventually he's gotten to where he sounds out the letters and then knows the word.  He's worked his way through the Bob books mostly and the other day started reading some of our K12 Kindergarten phonics books with B.  This video is the first time he's ever read this particular story.  He read the title and the first line and then B ran and got the camera.  We have some earlier footage of him reading the Bob books, but it looks as though B uploaded them to his computer, and his computer isn't home right now. 

Our little reader:
http://youtu.be/A-fExDb84fg

Decorating Cupcakes

Our homeschool family book club book this month was My Monster Mama Loves Me.  And it worked out perfectly that we had to change the date of book club and ended up with it being on Halloween so the kids could have a Halloween party and decorate cupcakes to look like monsters.  Except the family who was hosting came down with a case of lice and had to cancel.  Instead, we invited one of the other families (the As) who lives in town (the host family lives about 35 minutes away) to decorate cupcakes with us.  She made little chocolate train cupcakes and I made orange frosting.  The kids had a great time.

Br. is a year younger than Princess Sparkley and they are also in the same Girl Scout troop (except Br. is a Brownie and PS is a Junior this year).  A is maybe 6 years old.  And there are two little boys not pictured, Be. is 4 and J is 2.

First Day of School

Our month long California/Utah trip mixed with moving at the end of August made it so our school year got off to a crazy start. We kept up with handwriting, reading and math over the summer (except for the trip) so we started that back up a few days after we returned home, early September. We gave ourselves a week or two of that before we were unpacked and organized enough to start the other subjects. And then I just never got around to taking our First Day of School pictures, which are already super nontraditional since the kids are homeschooled and could do school in their PJs if they so desired (and sometimes do, as does their teacher). Oh well. And have I mentioned that the lighting in our living room is horrible?

Princess Sparkley - 4th grade

Buddy - 2nd grade

Little Guy - pre-pre-school

Dioramas: Take 2

 Click to see bigger.

Buddy's diorama this time was about hockey.  We had recently looked at this year's Washington Post Peeps Diorama contest entrants, so he wanted his diorama to be Peeps doing something.  He decided to have the teams by the Washington Capitals and the Pittsburgh Penguins.  Then he decided to have the game tied at two, but with the Capitals about to hit the puck (a button) in to score.  He mostly did this to infuriate his dad, a Penguins fan.



Here's what he said, sort of, in a very hyper whisper:

My name is [Buddy].  I turn 7 next week.

Ice hockey is one of the four most popular sports in our country.  There are 30 professional hockey teams in the NHL (National Hockey League) which covers the U.S. and Canada.

In a hockey game there are three 20 minute periods.  Each team has 6 players on the ice.  One of those players is a goalie protecting the goal.  The other players use hockey sticks to hit a puck around on the ice and try to score.

I like the Washington Capitals, the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Detroit Red Wings.*


*Which he refers to as the Fire Tires because that's what their logo looks like (to him).  

Princess Sparkly did a sort of biography of Charles Schulz/Peanuts diorama.  We made it sort of a museum of characters.

Here's what she said:
Charles Monroe Schulz was born on November 26, 1922 in Minnesota.  Before he was a week old hi uncle nicknamed him Sparky.  Charles loved to draw.  A picture of his dog Spike was published in Ripley's Believe It or Not in 1937.  Charles's father owned a barber shop.  Sometimes when an "important" customer came in, Charles would wait, even if he only had half a haircut.  Charles was a good artist.  Once, his kindergarten teacher ever said "Someday Charles, you're going to be an artist."  Charles's best friend was Shermy Peper.  Sparky was also a good athlete.  He played hockey and baseball.  Charles went to drawing school for awhile.  Then Charles joined the army.  While he was in the army, his mother died.  After he left the army, Charles started to try to find a job.  Finally, he found a job lettering a Catholic comic strip and he found a job at his old drawing school.  Then he got a letter from New York.  They liked his comics!  But they changed the name from Lil' Folks to Peanuts.  Charles did not like it but what could he do?  Peanuts started with four characters: Charlie Brown, Shermy, Patty and Violet.  Then he added baby Schroeder.  Gradually he added Lucy and Linus.  Charles Schulz was the first to win the Reuben Cartoonist Award twice in a row.  Peanuts became famous!  Charles even received a Hollywood Walk of Fame star.  Peanuts is still very popular.  Plus, Charles Schulz has his own museum in California.  I wan to draw a comic when I grow up like Charles.  The End.

The back of her written report.

Other dioramas:

 Left to right: rainforest shelves, mosques, the human organs, snakes

Peanuts, Manta Rays, hockey and I missed getting a picture of a desert one.

100th Day!

Okay, so we're a little behind as far as the typical 100th day of school celebrations... it seems like those fall in mid to late February.  But we started late because grandparents were in town in September and then we follow B's college schedule and had about a month off for Christmas.  So Tuesday was our 100th day of school and for the first year ever (and I told the kids not to expect this celebration to happen EVERY year now) we celebrated!

 First we made 100 day of school "glasses."

 Then we read:

here

One Hundred Hungry Ants by Elinor J. Pinszes

here

Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of Kindergarten by Joseph Slate

here

Counting Our Way to the 100th Day! by Betsy Franco

Then the kids drew pictures of what they think they'll look like when they are 100 years old.

I love Princess Sparkley's drawing.

I love that Buddy's drawing looks exactly the same as his normal self-portraits, only with a mustache.

We counted out 100 Fruit Loops (although we used the fruity Cheerios... I'd recommend Fruit Loops, I think they have a bigger hole).  And by "we," I mean Princesss Sparkley.  Buddy strung up about 15 and Little Guy just ate his.

Then we made a trail mix: 20 peanuts, 20 raisins, 20 peanut butter chips, 20 chocolate chips and 20 M&Ms.  Little Guy was off on his numbers and somehow ended up with most of the M&Ms.  

Buddy gathered up 100 Lego pieces.  Princess Sparkley drew 100 stars on a paper.  I didn't get pictures.