Friday, May 25, 2012

Hardware Store Bling

When I first saw this bracelet on Pinterest, I instantly fell in love!  How could you not?!  It is cute, stylish, and something you probably wouldn't find out and about in the jewelry department.  So you could imagine my surprise that when I did follow the link to Centsational Girl, I was baffled that it was made from decorative chain found at a hardware store!

"Have you ever seen such nice bling from a hardware store?!"
(-- paraphrasing Centsational Girl)

One night while the boys were relaxing, Abby and I had some good ol' girl time at the hardware store!  I finally find the aisle I need and I see zero decorative chains that look like the one I was trying to imitate, so I went with what I thought was comparable.  I purchased a foot for under $2, and the guy says, "You could buy the whole roll for $$$$."  I just nodded and smiled.  Should I have told him what it was for?!  : )  

At the craft store I picked up some beads, lobster clasps, and jump rings.  I had a hard time finding beads I liked with a big enough hole.  In the end it wasn't a perfect fit, but it worked out.  Oh, and because the chain I picked out was so dang thick, my hubby had to use some heavy duty metal cutter thing!

  
 Check out my new bling!!!



Head on over to Censtational Girl for more details and pictures on how to put it all together!   

Feel free to check out other craft projects I would love to do at some point on my Pinterest Board, too!


you are talking too much  Photobucket See Vanessa Craft

Monday, May 21, 2012

Summer "School" Plans

Tyler's spelling of "summer school"
Ahhhhhh.... Summer!!  Love, love, love it!  But surprisingly, it is not Tyler's favorite season!  He loves winter-- a true Midwest baby.  I am sure I loved Winter at one point too, but my old bones would rather stay bundled up inside nowadays!

Anyways....

We started our school year in the beginning of August and have completed 34 weeks of unit studies-- combinations of FIAR and ones I put together myself.  Crazy, crazy.  With 34 weeks of school under our belt, we are still short of our State's minimum school year by 6 days.  The great thing about homeschooling is that you don't necessarily have to stop schooling just because the local school year has ended!  Or do it the way they do...  And so that is our plan, to keep on keepin' on!  Albeit, it will be much different.  So after "summer" school, we'll have reached our State's requirement and then some....  We'll start his 5K year in the beginning of August.

When I posted our row on The Salamander Room, I mentioned that our daily schedule was up in the air.  And it still is...   I know what I want us to do, it is just a matter of how and when.  I am not sure yet if he will be partaking in activities through a park district, and if so.... that changes our days a little bit. 

So, here is what I am planning on doing this summer:

Daily Summer Activities Calendar-- from Fun in First.  This is such a great idea!  Each day of the week is an activity to complete; for example, "find an object around your house that starts with each letter," "count by 2's, 5's, 10's to 100" and "make a list of as many animals as you can."  Some things Tyler will definitely need my help with, but other's he'll be able to do on his own.

Poetry Pack-- from Preschool Powol Packets.  Using "Where the Sidewalk Ends," the Poetry Pack includes an activity and writing project for 10 poems from the book.  To make it last all summer, we'd do one poem a week.

Explode the Code 1 1/2-- Tyler has been working on this book since January and we'll continue to do at least one page a day to reinforce phonics and reading skills.

Life of Fred: Butterflies-- We checked out Life of Fred: Apples after we finished Math U See- Primer back in December, and Tyler really enjoyed the stories enough to request the next book.  We'll also do simple math drills of 5-10 addition/ subtraction problems throughout the week.

State Study-- I had lofty goals to incorporate this into our 4K year, and just had too much on our plate with FIAR, math, and phonics that I let it slide.  Confessions of a Homeschooler made a Road Trip USA Geography Curriculum that I may look into, or I may just come up with one myself by using Crayola's State coloring pages, books, and maps.  We'll see!! 

And I may or may not pull our All About Spelling program and begin from the beginning....

We'll also play outside, go to the library, explore "bunny trail" topics, go on "field trips," and whatever else!! 

Sounds like a busier summer than I planned!  But with the exception of the State Study, everything else has been put together for me (thank goodness), nor will we do everything every day!!

What are your summer plans???

learning laboratory at mama smiles Preschool Powol Packets abc button   I Heart Crafty Things     Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers    PhotobucketI Can Teach My ChildClassified:MomNo Time For Flash Cards 

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

FIAR: The Salamander Room

Once a little boy finds a Salamander in the woods, a lively and imaginative dialogue takes place between the boy and his mother.  I could tell Tyler enjoyed "The Salamander Room," by Anne Mazer, because he not only requested that I read it, but he sat quietly through the whole thing every time!  It was a wonderful story illustrating a child's endless imagination.  I chuckle though, because if I had asked Tyler those questions, I would get a one or two word response!  He's a man of a few words : ) 

On another note, we have completed 33 weeks of school!  Wo-hoo!!!  Our state requires a minimum of 176 days, so we are just about 2 weeks shy of the "school year."  I do plan on doing some type of "school" work this summer... I sort of have it planned out, but still need to figure out our daily schedule; it will definitely be less planning intensive for me!  We will not be "rowing" this summer;  I need a break and look forward to taking time to plan and gather materials for Tyler's 5K year.

Needless to say, I am getting restless and you will definitely notice that my posts are less involved.  We still have been learning a lot, but have done more conversationally and/or I have neglected to take pictures!  Bare with me!!

Social Studies:
  • Relationships: Mother/Son time: I am ashamed to say that besides doing school type stuff with Tyler, I realized that we haven't played together in quite some time.  I think I've gotten too caught up in all the day-to-day stuff.... cooking, cleaning, cleaning, more cooking and add in a one year old, and I am beat!  However, as we did more conversationally this week, it gave us a chance to play.  He so happened to be all about Monster Trucks this week, too; so using packing tape and cardboard boxes, we set up some ramps and let them rock n' roll!   


Language Arts:
  • Copywork:
  • Along with verbal list making and talking about setting, we used blocks to illustrate "parallel construction" in the story.  Simply put, "parallel construction" means the same thing on both sides-- in this story, there is a mother side and a son side.  To show this to Tyler, I would say the mother part and put a block on the table and then Tyler would say the son part and put a block on the table.  Although the replies are not even, in the end we both used the same number of blocks.


Math:
  • Buggy Multiplication/ Grouping:  Brian's mom once comments that the bugs he will use to feed his salamanders will multiply, so I used this opportunity to talk about grouping.


Art:
  • Salt Dough Salamanders:   We used the recipe found at Satori Smiles...
2 C Flour
1/2 C Salt
3/4 C Water (plus a teeny splash)
1 T Veg. Oil
Mix it all together until it is smooth and mold away.  Next, bake them at 300* for an hour.  Let them cool and paint away!  We used metallic paint and glitter glue.. Tyler loved this!
You will notice that Tyler's Salamander has MONSTER fingers and toes!  His salamander is looking at my reddish one-- see the yellow and green eyes? The body is a backwards "S" and then all those long "rolls" are fingers and toes.  Mind you, I did have a book open so Tyler could see body proportions, but obviously he didn't notice : )  The one on the left, we did together.  They are very fragile... mine had to see Dr. Glue Gun a couple of times!
    
  • We also took time to look through the book and examine color scheme and shadows.

Science:
  • Animal Classification Graphing : Specifically, we talked about Vertebraes-- mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and fish.  I found the Animal Classification Graph at Homeschool Share and used it along with some classification cards that I found somewhere online...
  • What Doesn't Belong?  Using cards from this Animal Classification website, I lined four animals under each group and Tyler had to pick which one didn't belong.  He got the hang of it after a while!

  • Insect Vs. Non-Insect Sort from Homeschool Creations:  While insects are not amphibians, I thought is was cute and decided to use it!  There are many more pages in the Pond Preschool Pack you might want to check out, too!

This row set us off on a couple of bunny trails as we have since learned about frogs and turtles (posts to come)!!
Ideas and Inspiration:
The Salamander Room @ Satori Smiles
The Salamander Room @ TinderBox
Archives for The Salamander Room @ FIAR Forums
All About Amphibians @ KidZone



learning laboratory at mama smilesMontessori Monday Preschool Powol Packets abc button   I Heart Crafty Things    Playing With Words 365 Photobucket  Preschool TeacherFor the Kids Friday  Funfrugalmommy  Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers    Fun Stuff Fridays  Shibley Smiles PhotobucketI Can Teach My ChildClassified:MomNo Time For Flash Cards   
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...