Caterpillars and Butterflies

We started our Insect Study last week and began with a favorite bug book The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Our first activity came from Homeschool Share. Since The Very Hungry Caterpillar talks about the days of the week, we worked on the days of the week by printing these sequence cards. I then made up my own days of the week cards and printed them. M and I had fun going through the story and talking about what the caterpillar ate each day of the week

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.

M with his new friend, Mr. Reading Bug.

Mr. Reading Bug ate his first word.

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

I have always loved fresh bread (who doesn't?). And I love the idea of making my own fresh bread. But I have always really, really disliked kneading the dough. I guess I am just a weakling! So that is why I love the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg MD and Zoe Francois. (again, my links are messed up - I am working on this)

I am not a cookbook-girl. I have friends who LOVE cookbooks (hi Janelle!), but I have just not ever gotten into them. However, this book is different. It is definitely written so that beginners can understand it (a big plus for me!), but I think it also appeals to the more "seasoned" cooks out there (again, hi Janelle!). It contains many different bread recipes, but also other recipes as well, such as sandwiches, salads, pizzas, dips...really anything that goes with the bread.

The beauty of this book is twofold (in my opinion): 1. You don't have to knead the bread. You just mix it up in a giant bowl with a spoon and that is it; and 2. You make up a giant vat of dough and then proceed to bake a fresh loaf of bread each day for the next 3 or 4 days. You could even make your dough go longer if you wanted to make a double batch. Your dough stays fresh in your refrigerator until you are ready to use it (some recipes can stay for up to 14 days!).

I started out making the "master recipe" which is really just a boule bread (meaning ball or round). The master recipe is very simple and uses plain old white flour to make the yummy dough. Now, I have moved onto another recipe, called Light Whole Wheat Bread. Here is a pic of the loaf that I just pulled from the oven.

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.

Insect Study

Since we will be schooling year-round, my plan is to do a fun "theme" each summer. Who knows if I will actually do this, as this is my very first time homeschooling, but it is my plan just the same. So, in light of M's current obsession (actually, it has been his obsession for most of his life), this year's summer theme will be INSECTS!!!

At the top of this post you will see a bunch of insect books, as well as a few activities. First of all, those aren't ALL my books. I did get some from the library. But we do own quite a few insect books (including our new Bug Dictionary, which is a huge hit at our house!). Have I mentioned that I love books? I truly, really LOVE books. I especially love buying children's books. I could spend hours on end at Barnes and Noble. But really my favorite way to buy books is to get a deal. I love my library's semi-annual sale...I love Half-Price Books and I even love a local consignment shop that sales kids toys and books. I have gotten tons of great deals there!

Back to school, because we enjoy doing literature studies so much, we are going to use several picture books as our way to study insects this summer. Here are the books that we will be using:

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.

Little Mommy

From the time that she could sit up, O has always loved babies. When she wants her baby, she will seriously say "baby, baby, baby" over and over again until you find her baby for her. And she HAS to sleep with her baby (the Leigh Middleton one that Grandma got her). We have spent countless hours searching for Baby so that O could go "night night".

This morning, after eating her own breakfast, O decided that she needed to feed her baby too. The baby that she chose to feed is the one that we affectionately call the "Naked Baby" because for some reason O refuses to allow us to put clothes on her.

(Side note: What is it with little girls and taking the clothes off of dolls??? I had heard that they would do this, but I had no idea that it would be so frequently - and at such a young age!)

Here is O at her play kitchen getting everything ready for baby's breakfast.

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?

A Boy and His Dog

The other day while I was working, Brendt walked into the living room to find this sweet site.

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!

Potty Training...Here We Come!

Well, I decided it was time to get the little potty out for O. She is 22 months old today and is showing lots of "readiness signs". She often pulls at her diaper when she is wet and she loves to put on her big brother's underwear (I think she is partial to Diego!). She also keeps getting diaper rashes, which is driving me nuts (her too, probably).

So over the weekend, Brendt got the little potty out, I cleaned it up and O couldn't wait to sit on it. My plan is to let her spend this week getting used to it. If she desires to actually try to use it, great! If not, she can just sit on it with her clothes on.

I am going to buy her a girlie going-to-the-potty book and I will get out our potty video. We may even go shopping for underwear!

Over the weekend, while Brendt and M are camping, we may really try to do the potty-training thing. If she wants to do it, we will go for it. If not, I will put the potty away for another day.

Keep your fingers crossed for us. I think that potty-training is the hardest part of parenting so far (I know, wait till the teenage years, right?).

First Day of Kindergarten!!!

Today was the BIG day...M started Kindergarten! Before I start describing our day, I have to say those words that all moms out there say when their babies start Kindergarten...Where did the time go? Honestly, it seems like only yesterday that M was a tiny little baby. Just in case you don't remember, here are a few pics of him.

First bottle -

First food (rice cereal) -

First Halloween (I picked this one because I am in it too!)-

First Christmas -

I just can't believe that he is even old enough for school yet!!! Now for those of you who are wondering why in the world we are starting Kindergarten at the end of May when most kids are getting ready to be finished with school for the summer, here goes. I work part-time, so I don't have the normal Monday - Friday available for school. We will be doing a lot of school over the weekends, which is fine since M doesn't know any difference. I know that lots of "life" happens over the weekends and there will probably be many times when we will have to put school on the back burner. Therefore, if we start now and school year-round, I am confident that we can get in a full school year, even with my schedule.

So back to today, we started the morning by giving M some special books for school. He received a Big Bug Book and a Bug Dictionary. As you can see, he was thrilled!

Of course, O got a book too and she also had to have her pic taken (by the way, we normally do put shirts on our daughter...she was being a bit difficult this morning and was refusing to wear one - she was also refusing to relinquish the paci, but that is another story).

Next, Brendt and I decided to start a tradition and we took the kids to Bob Evans to celebrate the first day of school. Here is M waiting on his pancakes to arrive...

...and O trying to master the art of drinking from a straw (we did this A LOT today).When we arrived back home, we started our first exciting day, which was actually a little on the short side since we were all tired from seeing Peter Pan last night (thanks Janelle for the tickets!) and from our fabulous breakfast.

We started our school day with our Bible Memory Verse (Acts 9:20b Jesus is the Son of God) and then we moved on to our Five in a Row (FIAR) selection, The Salamander Room. Finally, we did some handwriting practice and our ETC workbook and called it a day!

At dinner tonight, M told us that he enjoyed his first day of Kindergarten but he was wondering if tomorrow will be his last day. This is going to be a long 13 years!!!