The Best of Our New Stuff

We had lots of fun over break and the kids received way too many toys, as usual.  There were a few things they received that are going to be a wonderful addition to our school days. 

First of these are My First Mosaics. 

The kids received these from Grandpa Charlie and were eager to play with them right away.  They were each given a different set – Georgie had vehicles and Vicki had pets.  They came with a colorful board and lots (and lots and lots) of foam stickers in different colors and shapes.  The idea is to place the stickers over their corresponding spot on the board.   Even Vicki was able to do these with just a little bit of help peeling the stickers from their backing.   There are plenty of extra stickers so they can mix it up rather than following the layout and peeling and placing the stickers was a great fine motor activity.    The kids played with their pictures after they finished them.    The kitten went for a ride on the rocket.

Unfortunately we lost track of them after that and Vicki decided to remove the stickers from her picture and stick them on everything in her room.  Two weeks later and I’m still finding these little stickers everywhere (especially in my washing machine).

The kids received the Very Silly Sentences game from Granny Franny.

This game is a lot of fun, has all different levels to play and teaches the parts of speech.   We are currently doing the easiest level since Georgie is just learning to read (although so far he’s been able to read most of the cards) so each game lasts about 15 minutes.

We started back with “real” school today.  For details on how wonderfully that is going, check back on Friday for our weekly wrap-up.

Two Great Giveaways at Secular Homeschool

Secular Homeschool has two great giveaways for January.

First is Arithmetic Village:
"These brand new, beautiful books introduce simple math concepts through whimsical rhymes and light-hearted characters. Polly Plus collects jewels slowly and methodically. Linus Minus is carefree and careless, losing jewels throughout the village. Tina times discovered the trick that adding in groups can make counting quick. King David Divide is obsessively fair. He always makes sure all people receive their fair share. If a group of jewels cannot be divided equally, the left over jewels go to his dog, Rover (who represents remainder.)"



and the other is Learning At Home:  A Mother's Guide to Homeschooling.
"This book offers honest, insightful observations about children, learning, and family relationships. Marty Layne has drawn on her experience of homeschooling her four children to provide a warm and delightful book, filled with obvious affection and love."

Check out Secular Homeschool for more information and to enter to win.

See you in the New Year

Playing around with the blog

I'm going to apologize now for what will probably seem like constant changes to the blog format over the next few days.   I'm trying to find something that goes well with the "Universe" part of the title while still giving a "homeschool" feel.  Since I'm not the most artistic person there will probably be quite a few misses before I hit on something I like. ;->

Weekly Wrap-Up: A Book About Santa and Toys

We spent this week doing some crafts, reading some stories and counting down the days until Christmas.  Georgie was playing with some fun Christmas foam stickers I bought from Oriental Trading and decided to write a story.  He did the actual writing of the first page himself (with some help on the spelling).  This is way more writing than he usually will do so I wasn’t too surprised when he asked to dictate the rest of the book for me to write.   I wrote down exactly what he said word for word.
 
This is A Book About Santa and Toys by Georgie.

Snowflakes were falling from the sky carrying a stocking when Santa Claus was coming on a train.

But a big storm was coming this way so Santa hopped on a airplane to see what was causing all the trouble.   (this page didn’t make it into the book because there was no airplane stickers but he did write it so here it is)

Up Santa goes saving the jack-in-a-box stuck on a cloud.  Then Santa and the jack-in-the-box went down, down, down.  The End. (not really)

So Santa decided to fight the evil big dolls and he had help.  The good guys won.  And Santa was one of them.  So the good guys decided to have a party.

But then the 3 bad guys came but the toys came to help Santa Claus by getting back his train.  He didn’t think of what he could do but then he drove the train over the 3 bad guys. (????)

Then a magician came and disappeared.  Before that he made Santa and his toy friends that were there float in mid-air.  Thanks to that magician.  The End.

I don’t think creative writing is ever going to be a problem for this kid.

Weekly Wrap-Up/Teddy Bear Tea

We didn’t do much in the way of school this week since Georgie was on vacation with Granny Franny.  But, Vicki and I did attend a special Teddy Bear Tea at the museum.

First we enjoyed tea and sandwiches.  Vicki very politely shared hers with Cedric the Bear.

After eating, there was a dress-up area with lots of fun hats, glasses, beads and a nice big mirror to gaze into.

Next, there was a fun Magic Show with lots of singing and audience participation.  Vicki loved watching the show with Cedric.

At the very end of the show, Santa Claus arrived!  Vicki told him what a good girl she was all year and got a special present that she named Cedric Jr.

After visiting with Santa we went to see the beautiful Christmas Trees on display in the museum.

Vicki’s favorite was a butterfly tree that even had some hidden caterpillars to find.

Vicki just loves the Museum and we’re definitely going to be visiting there often.

Wordless Wednesday – Big Sis Moments