Friday, February 28, 2014

Lesson Thirteen: Finding Our Way

Only a little, it might be. But if every man did the little he could — what a different world!
The Friends of Voltaire (1906)
 
We're starting upon month THREE of our new homeschooling schedule. Of course, it's not even the same schedule we started with in January! My sidekick is no longer in a preschool program {it's okay, his teacher was close to having her baby and needed to close down early}. So, we spent half of January and all of February fumbling around each other, trying find a good schedule. It hasn't happened. Maybe the word "schedule" just isn't meant for us! That's okay. I like our "fly by the seat of our pants" days. We can wake up and cuddle {And we've been singing songs lately. I'm not a good singer even when I'm at my most awake, much less first thing in the morning!}, make a yummy breakfast, do some schooling, and then get dressed and do some errands or just get outside. Some days, the errands take precedence over schooling. Not really by my choice, more out of necessity.
 
Of course, come next week, our "schedule" is thrown completely out the window because my sidekick is starting swim lessons and music class! I'm so excited! I can't even explain it to him because he would want to go right then and then it would just be a problem. Toddlers, after all, don't wait very well. So, he's in for a big surprise next week!
 
With our days becoming crowded with outside-the-house activities, I'm going to have to really step up our schooling time and days. I'm glad I cut back a little with the planning because it seems that every day schooling, just isn't going to happen. I do plan to put us a more pre-k stricter schooling schedule {say that 5 times fast!} after summer, before he turns four. I think he's ready but there is just too much coming up to even try to start something like that now.
 
So, we shall continue to fumble, happily, along. Doing schooling when we can and enjoying the coming of Spring. I hope you stick with us. I'm really trying to bring some new ideas (and/or borrowed ones with our own twist from Pinterest) to our blog. I love teaching my sidekick and learning new things daily. I can't wait to see where this adventure of ours takes us!
 
Thanks to all of you, for stopping by. Hopefully, you've found some useful ideas and good advice along the way. I'll check in again soon!
 
~Mandy

Week 5.2: Lost Some Time But, Forgot To Miss It

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not.
Essays: First Series (1841) Essay XII, "Art"
Ralph Waldo Emerson
 
How did I miss a whole week? What did we do? Where was I? Please tell me I'm not the only momma who has day{s} like this?
 
Anyway! Here we are! Back with some new art projects in the books and some new life lessons learned, as well.
 
Take a look:
 
 
 "K" is for kite! I, of course, found my inspiration on Pinterest but I took it a step further with my sidekick and made the diamond part into a puzzle! He had zero difficulty with it, the little smarty!
 
 "L" is for lion. {another Pinterest find} This was a roaring success! He loved the finished project and was quick to show Daddy when he came home from work!
 
 We found love for a new sport this week. BOWLING! It was so much fun to watch him "bowl" and to see all the excitement that a little person could have just explode out of him!
 
 It's Carnivale time in Venezia again! Since it's our last year in Italy, we had to make the trip! Gorgeous costumes, lots of birds, lots of water, and lots of fun!
 
 Daddy has recently taken up snowboarding. It's given us a chance to explore even more of this beautiful country. This past weekend, while Daddy was on the slopes, we spent many fun hours in toddler-waist deep snow! There were also cappuccinos for Mommy and hot chocolates and pastries for my sidekick. This family definitely loves the mountains!
 
One extra "K" picture. This kid is so sweet. I wanted to send a picture to Daddy during some down time in our snow playing. My little sidekick says, "Here Mommy. I kiss you. Say cheese!". My heart melted into the snow right then and there. I love every day with him. More and more.
 
Enjoy your kids this week. Thanks for stopping by. See you soon!
 
Remember to follow my Homeschooling ideas on Pinterest! http://www.pinterest.com/mandycarol/homeschooling/
 

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Week 4.2: Love and a little bit of snot

Oh the things you can find
If you don’t stay behind!
On Beyond Zebra! (1955)
-Dr. Seuss
 
So, we ended up getting sick again! Blech! Lots of coughing, sneezing, snotty noses, and long nights. We're finally on the downhill of it all, thank goodness! Finally getting out of the house again and getting things back in order is why this week's post is so late. We're still working on a good schedule; haven't quite found one yet.
 
Here's what our days were like, sickness and all! Enjoy:
 
 
 
 Pinterest, Pinterest, Pinterest. We found, yet another, fun project there. O is for owl. Fun!
 
 This is from our workbook. Since we're still working on the sounds of letters, I gave him some visuals by writing out the words for him to find the O words. Then, we put our O cereal (one cereal on, eat five) on the O words. He did great!
 
 This is his letter tracing. All by himself! I am one proud momma that he's picking up on this so well!
 
 
 O is for Orange! So we painted on orange paper, with orange paint, with...an ORANGE! :)
 
 I took a paper towel roll, cut it, and made shapes for him to paint with. Circle (didn't really have to make that one), square, and heart. Just gave the kid some paint and let him go!
 
 THE SUN CAME OUT! We have had weeks of rain, threats of floods, lots of flooding in other areas, and no sun. So, we immediately went to the park when the sun made its appearance for one day, last week.
 
 We got some handy scoopers in the mail. Here is what they look like. They are awesome! I poured some of our colored rice into a bowl and we went digging for dinosaurs! We played with this for a good 20 minutes (which is like an hour in toddler time!). So much fun! I highly recommend them for some good motor skill practice.
 
 
 Since we had already completed a "yellow yarn" project earlier in our school year, I put a new twist on it. This was a little difficult for him to grasp, and I did finish it for him in the end (no attention span, that day). The wrapping of the yarn just didn't hold his attention nor could he quite get the hang of it without getting frustrated. Good try all around though.
 
 
 We also got paint dotters! Look at them here. I loved these as a kid (playing Bingo with my Granny) so I wanted my sidekick to have the same fun! I made a letter hunt for him and a shape hunt the next day. He's also just painted with them and seems to enjoy them as much as I did.
 
One of our last projects for the week was our Valentine. We have the sweetest little friend named Eva and (on their good days) the kids just LOVE each other. Some days, not so much, but their mommies conspired to make them Valentine sweethearts anyway. :) The poem reads:
 
I like the way you call me name
And the way you play
 
I like the way you miss me
And boss me like you're "Miss Thang"
 
I like how you share your food
And the way you wear your hair
 
I like how you blow me kisses
And how together, we're a perfect pair
 
I like the way you tell me, "no"
Even though I don't always listen
 
I like the way you're small to me,
But always my biggest best friend.
 
Yes, I hit an all-time high in the cornball of it all. But I couldn't help myself! If you can name the movie that my inspiration came from, I'll give you an Internet high-five. :)
 
I hope we made you smile this week.
We sure did have lots of fun! See you soon!

Monday, February 3, 2014

Week 3.2: Rain, Rain, Won't Go Away

Carl: Let’s play “Who Can Be Quiet The Longest.”
Russell: Cool! My mom loves that game!
-Up
 
Not a very exciting week here. There has been a lot of rain here lately so our moods have been in full lazy mode. What we did was really fun but neither of us were really motivated to do much other than play with toys, read books, and watch movies. We did our letter tracing and workbook projects, as well. He's getting really good! I'll post an update about them next week.
 
Here's some of fun things we did accomplish this week:
 
 
 We did some imaginative play. We had some leftover scraps of paper out and we ended up making all kinds of things with them. This was a barn, for the pigs (aka: markers). We also made a house for Mommy, and a boat. It was fun to sit back and watch him come up with these things!
 
 
 He picked the letter R this week. So, off to Pinterest I went and found us a rocket ship (he calls it rocket space. Haha!) to make. My sidekick took it one step further by noticing the pattern in the colors of the paper and telling me the shapes as we glued them on (including the trapezoid, little smartie!). You can also see where I had dotted his name for him to trace. He did fantastic!
 
Overall, still a good week. Daddy came home over the weekend so we went out to lunch. A cookie was a must-have.
 
Our cookie routine goes like this:
S: May I have moneys, Mommy?
M: Of course! (hands him a dollar)
S: (to the cashier) One cookie, please. With chips and chocolate! (sometimes referred as a "black cookie" although I don't know why other than the chips are black. Silly kid.)
Then the money is given and a cookie is handed in return. He promptly thanks (half the time in Italian) the cashier, waves, and off we go to the seat of his choosing. It's a fun part of our day out.
 
We have more fun things planned and already done this coming week!
Thanks for stopping by and see you again soon!