By the way, I purchased my own ice cream sandwiches the other night from Kroger, as the Ice Cream Truck is a bit too expensive for us. It was a fun treat though!
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
I Scream, You Scream...
From Caterpillar to Butterfly
This has been a great project for us this summer. I made M a Butterfly Journal (found here) and we have been using this to mark the progress of our caterpillars. We spent a few days measuring our caterpillars and watching them eat (boy do they eat a lot!) and now that they have formed their chrysalides, we are just waiting.
I will take some more pics when our butterflies emerge.
I wanted to add that this Butterfly Garden, along with all kinds of other insect things, can be purchased online at Insect Lore.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Potty Time
Big brother was in the bath tonight and O found a 4 pack of toilet paper that she started carrying around. I explained to her what big kids use toilet paper for and told her that if she would take her diaper off, she could try it out. She immediately took her diaper off and sat on the potty! I was so proud...I thought that maybe this was the beginning of something. But no big deal.
After M got out of his bath, he was putting on his underwear and O kept saying that she wanted underwear (she has a thing for her big brother's underwear!). I told her that big kids who pee pee in the potty wear underwear. You will never believe what this kid did (well, you probably have an idea). She got off of her big brother's bed, walked to the little potty, sat down and peed in it! M and I were amazed. We clapped and clapped for her (she was quite proud too).
After her amazing feat, she went back into M's room and proceeded to put on two pair of Diego underwear. She kept pulling more underwear out of his drawer and tried to put more on, but I made her stop at two.
And that's not the end of it...this all happened pretty late (about 9 pm or so - we were out playing later tonight) and for the next hour or so, she kept asking to go potty. She probably ended up peeing on the potty about 10 times tonight!!! Every time she sat on the potty, she would go a little.
So I finally put her to bed with promises that she can use the potty again first thing in the morning. Oh and I can't forget to add, she fell asleep with two pair of size 6 boys Diego underwear over top of her diaper. What a sweetie!!!
Friday, June 12, 2009
Caterpillars and Butterflies
The next activity will be ongoing as M learns to read. I got this idea from the Five in a Row Message Boards. By myself, I created Mr. Reading Bug. I introduced Mr. Reading Bug to M by telling him that I had a HUGE surprise for him. Of course, M is only 5, so he was extremely excited by my HUGE surprise. I brought out Mr. Reading Bug and told M that Mr. Reading Bug is a very special bug. Right now, he is small. But he has a very big mouth. I told M that Mr. Reading Bug will need M's help to grow big and strong. Did M want to help Mr. Reading Bug? Yes, Yes!!! The only way that Mr. Reading Bug can grow big and strong is to eat the words that M knows how to read. So far, M has only read one word on his own...that word is BUG (is this a surprise to anyone?). So I wrote bug on a small circle and attatched it to Mr. Reading Bug. Slowly but surely, Mr. Reading Bug is growing.
Next, with our new-found understanding of the word BUG, we worked on reading this book together - Zug the Bug. This book is part of a series of books by Dorling Kindersley. Each book in the series focuses on one of the short vowel sounds. The entire series can be found here. Once M figured out how to read the word bug, he realized that he could also read the words: tug, lug and hug. Lots of fun! So next, we will move on to another vowel sound.
We finished our day with a combination of the two things that M loves most - crafts and painting! I found a very cute wooden butterfly at the Dollar Tree (LOVE that place!) and I gave it to M, along with a small pack of paints and a paintbrush. For those of you who know M in real-life, you won't be surprised to see that he painted the entire butterfly purple!
Making Bread
No, it is not beautiful (I am working on it!), but it is yummy. As I continue going through the book, I am going to work on my bread "presentation". Maybe I will have a prettier picture to show soon.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Insect Study
I found ideas for how to use these books all over the web, but my starting point was http://www.homeschoolshare.com/. This site is fabulous...and best of all, it is FREE! Definitely check it out if you are interested in trying literature-based unit studies. Truman's Aunt Farm is a Five in a Row book, so most everything we do for that book will come from my FIAR manual. And if you Google "insect unit studies" - boy will you be overwhelmed! There is so much information out there. I really had trouble narrowing it down.
As we do each book, I will post and talk about the specific things we are doing. I also hope to post pictures of our Insect Notebook, which we should have completed by the end of summer.
Before I go, I want to mention that I am just learning how to post pics of things in my blog. As you can see, the links for the books above aren't working (when you click on the picture, it should take you directly to that book at Amazon). I am not computer savy and frankly, I am proud of myself for having a blog at all! Hopefully, I will figure this out and fix the links in this post and going forward.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Little Mommy
And here is Naked Baby...ready to chow down!
And finally O is going to feed her baby. She really is a little mommy, isn't she?
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
A Boy and His Dog
Brendt and the kids (Bernie the dog too!) had a busy morning that day. When Brendt came downstairs from putting O down for her nap, he found M asleep with Bernie.
It is so funny because M is always talking about how he wants a pet. Since Bernie was already here when M was born, I don't think M considers him to really be a pet, but instead just another member of the family. Too cute!