Friday, January 14, 2011

School Daze.... Pp and Ss...and lots of pictures....

It has been awhile since our last official School Post...we took a nice break over the holidays...and I actually have been reading (gasp!!!)....Anyway...I had over 500 pictures to sort through and selected 21.....so it is a brief overview...very brief... but I had to do something to get us caught back up....

Some updates: We will be starting Tot School Beginnings with Braeden (plus 6 or so) in February... and we have gained another student to our "Preschool" (making it 4)... YAY!!!


Tiny Tot School
Braeden 16 & 17 Months
Braeden's personality continues to flourish and his sister continues to be the light of his life... he loves to spend all of his time with her...and luckily she thinks he is a great playmate...as long as he doesn't touch her Elmo...

On black friday, I found these great 10 drawer storage bins at Joanne's Fabric on sale...I am hoping to move toward a workbox system(ish) for the girls preschool next year... until then...Braeden thinks they are lots of fun
Super Thrilled with the Monster Feet Aunt Lisa gave him... (although the picture doesn't show it- he actually really likes his feeties and wears them/plays with them quite a bit...)
Santa stopped by our Street.... and gave out Fireman hats...
One of his favorite toys is his piggy bank...I think he likes that it sings to him when he puts the money in....
Ryleigh and Braeden playing together...they like to play with this block "town" from Leap Frog...
For Christmas Santa brought Braeden a pick up truck....he loves to drive his sister around in it...but does not like to have his sister drive it....
In a bounce house at a friend's 4th Birthday Party... I only had to jump inside once to go get him...
Braeden really likes to do "work" when Ryleigh does... here he colored a Birthday Card...
PRESCHOOL- Ryleigh is 3 1/2
Over the last 6 weeks (or so) we have covered 4 letters, worked on our Spanish, fine motor and gross motor skills...done some fun Science experiments...and had a lot of fun doing holiday crafts...

Ryleigh working on her
alphabet book... since our last "school" post we have done j,m,s and p...if the sheets aren't in my printables yet, they will be shortly...
While Aunt Laura was visiting for the Holidays, we took advantage of her love of science (she is a Veterinarian) and had her do some experiments with the girls...

Here they are making a rainbow with house hold items...you pour them in SLOWLY...and they will seperate out...we used dish detergent, rubbing alcohol, water (with food coloring), veg. oil... next time I will skip the food coloring because it kinda made the colors all blend...but the girls had a great time...
Next up was volcanoes in a jar....so much fun!!
They loved the outcome...
The girls had fun working on their fine motor skills with these worksheets from 1+1+1=1... they cut out people and animals and then had to sort them...
During our "m" week, we used these fun m&m cards for counting from Confessions of a Homeschooler... I think I may make them into a fun file folder game... perhaps use some velcro..
Ryleigh working on a styrofoam painting of a snowman...see full stART project here...
Play-dough is always a fun project...
The girls really enjoyed this Math game... there are so many different things that you can do with it, we will definitely be using it for awhile... here I called out colors and numbers...
We did an experiment with acids and bases....turning the water "magically" from purple to blue and purple to red...and lots of fizzes in between...
Letter of the Week Craft s is for snowman...
Our Letter of the Week Craft p is for penguin...
To see what others did this week check out Tot School at 1+1+1=1; Preschool Corner at Homeschool Creations; and the Weekly Wrap-up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

stART - P is for Penguin....

A story + Art = a great stART!!!!


This week we read The Little Penguin by A.J. Wood. It is a very cute story about a baby penguin who starts out with little gray feathers and worries about getting his "big boy" feathers. I had the girls make Penguins...I actually merged our letter of the week project and our stART project together...since it is supposed to snow a ton and we may not have "school" tomorrow... the kids will be out playing in the snow instead... we used shapes to make the penguin...oval, triangles, diamond, circles...and the Letter p....

The first thing I always have the kids do is take everything off the tray when we do the letter of the week craft....that way we get the big picture of where the project is going....
After putting the body of the penguin together, the girls glued on their "P's"... to make the white tummy....
Adding the googly eyes to complete the project....
Ryleigh's finished Penguin....
For more great stART posts check out A Mommy's Adventures!
For more fun projects check out My Delicious Ambiguity , ABC and 123... Red Ted Art and JDaniel4's Mom
To find more Pp projects check out the Attached Mama...

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Blog Hop Guest Hostess...




Thank you for joining the Friday Blog Hop hosted by myself (Nicole) at Mama to 4 Blessings and Melissa at Home Grown Families! We invite you to join us every Friday to make more blog friends!


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 This week's featured guest hostess is: Sarah @ The Ramblings and Adventures of a SAHM







Please also follow this week's Featured Blogger The Ramblings and Adventure's of a SAHM. Each week a new featured blogger who will be chosen at random, but you must be participate in the weekly link up - that's how we will choose a new featured blogger every week! So please come back every week & link up because you could be our next featured guest blogger!


Wednesday, January 5, 2011

stART- The Snow Day

A Story + Art = a great stART!!!For our story this week we read The Snow Day- one of Ryleigh's favorites. In it, it snows so school is canceled and the bunny gets to stay home...and waits to go play in the snow... for our project this week we made styrofoam paint snowmen....

I taped a template that I cut out of a snowman to paper and then had the girls use styrofoam to blot the paint on..giving it a snowy look...
We then removed the template after the paint had dried a little bit...so that they could decorate them.... the girls glued on a felt hat, nose, scarf and buttons...
Ryleigh's finished snowman...

For more great stART posts check out A Mommy's Adventures!
For more fun projects check out My Delicious Ambiguity , ABC and 123... and JDaniel4's Mom

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

The one in which Braeden plays in snow for the first time....

The day after Christmas we were hit with our first snow of the season...in a blizzard type fashion... I was unamused... however, Ryleigh and Braeden were so excited!!! Ryleigh has had so much fun playing in it this week... Marc has been home from work on vacation so she has gotten to go out in it every day... it did not take long before Braeden really wanted to go out and play too... after all this was the first time he has seen it (that he is aware of)...

Ryleigh stuck in a drift...and trying to move...Braeden stuck in a drift....watching Ryleigh make angels in the snow...
Braeden examining the snow...
Braeden and Ryleigh shrieking with laughter while throwing snow....
Braeden having a great time....about 2 minutes later there were tears after snow got in his face and he came inside shortly after....

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Thanksgiving 2010....how cute are these two?

You have no idea of the effort it took to get this photo.... thank you to Erin for being able to capture one!Braeden with Daddy...itching to get down and follow the puppy...
Petting Peanut.... Braeden is so in LOVE with this dog...
Continuing to chase Peanut...
And what was Miss Ryleigh doing while Braeden was running around all morning chasing the puppy? Her "projects"....here she was doing maze work...
Ryleigh snapping beans for the green bean casserole... she made the whole thing herself! She was sitting at an island in the middle of the kitchen on a tall stool...which put her at the perfect height! I may need to check out some home bar furniture for our kitchen.
Ryleigh with Mommy and Aunt Lisa...
Ryleigh putting the finishing touches on the green bean casserole...
Dancing slowly away from the picture....
More interested in Peanut...
Ryleigh pretty much giving up getting Braeden to stay still...
Ryleigh posing nicely by the fire...
Braeden....continuing to run away from the cute picture I was trying to take of the two of them in their outfits...
Ryleigh excited to see Lights on the Lake...
Braeden trying to take the camera...
Some of the lights that we saw...
Breakfast at the Eggplant... Yummy!!! Ryleigh with Aunt Lisa and Grandma...and Daisy...