Acorns

We live in the woods so we are completely overtaken with acorns everywhere! We decided there had to be something we could use them for, or at least a few of them. So we went out and gathered a bucket full and got busy. Here are some pics of the boys at work.

Jared's drawings

I wanted to do a quick entry about Jared's interest in drawing. I really never knew he would enjoy it so much. I got him several step-by-step drawing books but the monster on I am posting is his favorite right now. Anyway, I am very proud of him and wanted to share what he's done.

More Mcruffy

Jared really likes his Mcruffy Math. I feel like he is learning a lot and having fun with it which is really important. Most lessons have activities or games. He has been working with measuring with rods and cubes and recording his measurements on a grid. He has been using counter bears to help with his addition. He has been learning to tell time, to make patterns and to count money. Below is a picture of him copying the patterns on his worksheet. I thought they were pretty hard but he loved it and did very well. I will post about some other things we have been working on later.

Beach Vacation

I've been really bad about keeping up with posting lately. There was so much going on in preparation for our trip to Myrtle Beach that I just didn't take the time. Hopefully, I will be able to get back into the groove and post semi-regularly at least.

We had a wonderful vacation although it was over way too fast. It was much more educational that I could have expected too. There seemed to be more to see and do this year. We saw massive amounts of sharks pretty up close and personal. On the end of one of the piers people were throwing their fish left-overs and the sharks were going wild. I've never seen anything like it. We were told some were called sand sharks and the others were lemon sharks. Someone also handed me a fish to show the boys which actually didn't look like a fish at all. It looked like a ball with porcupine needles coming out. The guy told me it was called a toothpick fish. We made a list of several things to look up but haven't done it yet. Today was our first day getting back on schedule and we just tried to catch up with our reading, writing and math.

We did start a new book today, Little House in the Big Woods. I'm excited about it because it was one of my favorites when I was a kid. I'm thinking about having him do a lap-book along with it.

Anyway, we're back and hopefully will have lots of new stuff to post.

Activity bag

I was looking up ideas for preschoolers and came across some great ideas. I am still working on many but here are two that I have completed. The first one is just 4 little Glad plastic cups that I glued colored construction paper in. I had a bunch of these colored teddy bears that I got at a yard sale that work perfectly. I just keep everything in a large plastic zipper bag and he can pull them out whenever he wants. They are also great for learning to count. The magnetic color chart is just a chart I made with colors at the top. I got a bunch of paint chips and cut them to the right size. I got a cookie sheet and put magnets on everything so it would be easier to use. So far the first two activities have been a success. I got the ideas for these here.
I will post more as I get them done.



Magnetic color chart


Sorting colors

Outside for school

We were having issues with Jared being bored doing school so I decided to change things up a bit. We spent one day just doing stuff outside. Jared did his writing in the dirt which he loved. He wrote words and did math problems using sticks and rocks if he needed to count. As we were walking we would talk about different vowels sound and he would tell me words that had those vowel sounds. I must say, it was a much more relaxing way of doing things and I believe we got a lot accomplished.


Time for the cowboys to pose!


I love watching them walk together


A little playtime


Observing!


This is way more fun than writing on paper!



Jared writing math problem in the dirt

Field trip to Cincinnati Museum Center

Friday we took our first official field trip to the Cincinnati Museum Center. We have never been there before and we were all really impressed. I would have a membership there for sure if we lived close. There was so much to see and do and learn. The Natural History part was great. They had tunnels and caves that the boys loved. Actually we did too! The Children's Museum part had sooooo many activities for kids to do. They had a section where they had pictures and homes of children from other cultures. It was really interesting. They had little grocery stores for kids to play. They had a section where kids could build things and work construction. The list goes on. This was seriously a great place to visit. We will be going back sometime for sure. Here are just a FEW of the MANY pictures I took.