Wiggles goes to Day School!

We have decided to put Wiggles in Day School.  Home school and co-op is working beautiful for our bigger kids, but the offerings at the co-op for preschool is not what Wiggles or I need.  Wiggles has also been demanding more attention during schooling the biggers.  This is more often “bad” attention.

I didn’t think that we would find a spot for him, but we did.  The director is also Big Sis’ previous pre-k teacher.  I am very excited for him as he loves having something all his own.  It is also helping him to be around kids his age.  He is the youngest of 4 and everyone else is well past the preschool years.

He goes M-F for 3 hours.  You would be amazed at how much schooling I can do with my 2nd, 4th, and 5th grader during this time.  It has made a big difference in our home school.

I plan to start back our home school with him next week in the afternoon after he has relaxed and rested from day school.  This is what we need for this season in our lives. 

   

The fire dept. came and talked to them and gave them these wonderful hats.  He is enjoying day school. 

Next week, we will add back in our LHTH in the afternoon. 

Week in Review 10/02/2010

Well, we have been super busy lately as a family.  We are selling popcorn with scouts on the weekends as well as playing soccer 2 days a week and practicing soccer 3 days a week.  We also go to co-op one afternoon a week.  As you can imagine, school has suffered.

We have completed about a week’s worth of work in 2 weeks.

 

Wiggles on his first day of co-op

Painting with watercolors

Cutting out pictures for our number page for LHTH.

Name activity for LHTH

All done!

There was more to our weeks than this, but we have really been pushing to finish school.  There hasn’t been a lot of picture taking as much as just being glad we got through the day.

Week in Review 9/11/2010

Wiggles has been sick a lot this week.  From Wednesday on, he has been ill.  Since Tuesdays are our first day of the school week that means he only did 1 day of school.

I am going to try again next week with him and just pick back up Unit 2.

Here are some pictures of some  work he did last weekend to finish out Unit 1.

Tracing the letter Aa with a piece of ice.

Gluing…

adding Cheerios…

Voila!  A perfect Aa!

Hopefully, next week goes better and Wiggles feels better soon.

Week in Review 9/4/2010

 

We had a very good week.  We are using HOD’s Little Hands to Heaven along with some extras.  We did some color association, letter A, number 1, and read about Creation in our first Bible.

Color Association

Letter A

Sandpaper Letters and Wiki Stix

  

Math

  

Singapore Earlybird 1a

 

Gluing 1 tree onto our LHTH No. 1 sheet.

Bible

Pretending the scarf is a slithering snake.

Just for fun

Wiggles working on an old computer with his “tools”.

We had a pretty good first week.

First Day of School k-3

Wiggles had a pretty good first day.  We did the first day of LHTH.  Then I schooled the biggers and then we went to a back to school party for our home school group.

  

I promised the kids french toast for breakfast and they enjoyed it.

Wiggles sitting prepared to start the day. 

Saying A-A-Adam

His painting.  He drew with white crayon and then painted over it with black tempera paint.  I didn’t dilute it very well though so you really couldn’t see his shapes he drew.

 

Playing play-doh with Bubba while waiting for breakfast.

Thinking putty from Timberdoodle.  This is really cool to let big ones fiddle with during read-alouds….

or letting little ones fiddle with while schooling biggers. :)

Getting wet at the party.

Eating at the party.

Scaling the climbing rock.

Finally playing in the sand.

He was exhausted after such a busy day.  It all went well.  Hopefully tomorrow goes just as well.

Getting Ready for School!

We are doing Little Hands to Heaven with Wiggles this year.  I consider this year his k-3 year.  We have tried LHTH a few times and stall out each time.  This year is going to be different.

Why is it going to be different?  To put it simply, me.  I am going to be organized and I am going to be prepared.  Wiggles will school before the biggers and then he can do Montessori activities that I will have on trays set up for him. 

The biggers will also rotate time spent helping with Wiggles during school.  I am going to use Managers of their Homes and create a MOTH schedule.

I am also using something called the File Crate System.  I have butchered my book and spiral bound it to be able to copy like a crazy person.  Plus, I have put together a weekly supply list needed for LHTH. 

Now for some pictures to back up my bold claim that this year will indeed be different.

 

My super organized bookcase.

This is the beginning of my file crate system.  I have the hanging folders labeled at this point.  Ultimately, I made 3 crates (Language Arts, Math, and Unit Studies/History/Science).  Note-these are not the large size crates.  These are the locker crates Walmart had been selling with 2 mini baskets inside them.  I am teaching 4 kids this year.

This is my crate for Unit Studies, History, and Science.  I have added my manila folders labeled by Unit for HOD. 

My guide with the spine cut off and spiral bound.  This is the best thing I could have ever done.  I made my copies all in one sitting and it was super simple.

 

Here is my supply list for LHTH for Unit 2.  I have stapled it to the top left of the inside of my manila folder.

Here it is with my copies inside as well as a ziploc bag filled with some of the necessary supplies for that week.

The ziploc bag is stapled to the bottom left hand corner of the manila folder.

We start tomorrow.  Wish us luck!

Earth Day

We went to Earth Day at the rec center.  There was a local elementary school there.  Wiggle’s Big Bubba was there for the Boy/Cub Scouts booth.

 

Wiggles is imitating the big kids.  The teachers were trying to get the kids to sit and be quiet for lunch and a historian to speak.  Wiggles did this in about 5 seconds…the 5th graders…well, the historian had to get on to them a lot.

Wiggles petting a gigantic snake and a ferret. 

 

Wiggles also got to tour a fire truck. 

We are on a break from school work with the big kids…so our reports are mainly life school for now with lots of field trips.

Weekly Report 4/16/2010

Wiggles worked with his sandpaper letters this week.  The big kids took their CAT test on Monday.  The rest of the week has been super laid back.

Cubaree

Bubba is in cub scouts and cubaree was a few weekends ago.  Wiggles got to go during the day and really enjoyed himself.

He is tickled pink learning to shoot a bow and arrow.

 

This is our lunch break at the camp site.  Bubba was still at the bb range fulfilling his requirements for his bb pin.

It was a fun time.  I can’t wait until Wiggles is a scout too.  Our pack is very family friendly and all the siblings are included.