Indestructibles Giveaway

Yes I found out about another giveaway. I found this one at Giveaways 4 Mommy. Unlike the last giveaway I posted about, this one is not going to end until the end of the month.

Anyhow, Indestructibles are durable wordless picture books by Kaaren Pixton. You can check them out on Amazon here. There are several to chose from and they are supposed to be extremely durable and safe for baby. They look adorable to me. Go check them out for yourself.

Wilton Baking Prize Pack Giveaway

I just found out about this giveaway at The Bragging Mommy. Though this is cutting it close as it closes March 4 (wow, that is today, what am I still doing up) at 10 am. So if you get a chance, head on over and check it out. It's been quite awhile since I've done any decent baking, so when I checked out Wilton.com I was overwhelmed by all the neat stuff they have now. Check it out here.

Tribe Talk

Through my blog hopping today I discovered another neat idea over at Fun With Little Mouse. Gay, at It's a Hodgepodge Life, has a great way to meet new blog friends. She calls it Tribe Talk:

Here is how it works:

*It begins here every Saturday...(the McLinky will be up for 5 days, so you can link up anytime during the week but it begins Saturdays.)

*Grab the Tribe Talk Button to the right on her site and Share on your Blog ~ Share with everyone that this is a FREE way to increase traffic to their blogs and find some interesting blogs to follow.

*List 5 bloggers that you want to spotlight. Try and choose those that comment on your blog on a regular basis, but it's not a requirement.

*Make a list of them on your blog or write a post featuring them. It can be an old or new post.

*Then link-up your post to this blog, and let everyone share your picks and "meet" your tribe as well as others.

Think of it as a "meet and greet" for bloggers, increase your Tribe and let others do the same.

My 5 picks for the week are:

Ticia at Adventures in Mommydom

Debbie at Children Grow, Children Explore, Children Learn

Lindsay at Bytes of Memory

Kylie at Our Worldwide Classroom

Jolanthe at Homeschool Creations

I hope you will take time to visit my picks, comment on them,
link-up and discover some great new blogs.

Have fun!

Homeschool Hop #4

Welcome to another week of Homeschool Hopping, an idea and blog hop started by Kylie at Our Worldwide Classroom. There is no theme this week. Just a chance to discover other's homeschool blogs. Let's get to know one another. If you want to join in just follow the instructions below:

This is the perfect to join up if you haven't done so before as all you need to do is get the McLinky code added to your post, no need for a theme related post.

Please note: You must create a post that inlcudes the current McLInky Blog Hope Code (below) and have it pasted into your post. ALL links added that do not adhere to this will be removed from the list.

Time to Read?

I've been thinking about having some sort of poster on the wall to show Tabitha's accomplishments with reading. To showcase the words she knows how to read. I've been thinking about it since I read that Debbie over at Children Grow, Children Explore, Children Learn does something similar with the words from the Progressive Phonics books they use. As we were eating breakfast I decided to see if Tabitha really knew any words. I am actually a little disappointed. I was hoping to avoid the problem of blending sounds to make words. After reading the book Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons I knew the importance of starting with the continuous sounds like "mmmmm," "ssssssss," "aaaaaaa," etc. Tabitha knows her sounds, but she says each sound separately when sounding out a word, what I was trying to avoid, because that is the way they do it on Starfall.com. Words I thought would be easier for her, because of the continuous sound, like "mat," she struggles with. She seems to have "cat" memorized though.

Anyway, during breakfast, I wrote a list of words, one at a time, on a piece of white computer paper. When she was able to sound it out, with or without help, I attempted to draw a picture of it on the opposite side of the paper. This was all spur of the moment. These are the words I used: cat, can, mat, (Matt is also included because when she finally figured mat out she thought instantly of a friend's brother at church, so I wanted to show her the difference), sand (daddy's contribution) and rat.

Then I separated the words from the pictures by tearing the paper in half.

I separated each word and mixed them up. Tabitha needed to sound the words out and place them next to the correct picture. She needed help with a few. Then I took the pictures away and asked her to hand me the words one at a time as I said them to her.

These spur of the moment "lessons" seem to go over better than ones I plan.

Today I also printed out the first book in the Beginning Phonics section of Progressive Phonics. After thinking about it this morning I decided to take a closer look. It looks quite interesting, but I am not sure now if Tabitha is ready. We got two sentences into it and sometimes she would get the word right other times she didn't. I don't want to push her, and I get frustrated when I think she should be able to do things and she can't (I can feel the old emotions getting ready to burst forth as when the older kids were younger and I tried to work with them. So I backed off quick, as I don't want to frustrate/discourage her.) I will continue to try as long as she is interested.

On a side note, we did spend quite a bit of time on her new Brain Quest cards, at her request. I purchased the 4-5 year old cards as that was the youngest age group the store I bought them at had available. She was able to answer most of the questions on the first 13 cards with virtually no help. I was awed that she remember that 5 pennies equals a nickel, she didn't even have to think about it. She was so upset when MOMMY needed to quit because I needed a break.

Our Montessori Activities: Fine-Motor Counting Activities

I introduced a couple of slightly new activities this week. I did leave the spooning cottonballs on the shelf as they still remind me of snow, but they didn't seem interested in it. I replaced the heart picks with red chenille stems for the girls to place in the cheese shaker.

I added a new dimension to this activity by having the girls place pony beads or cheerios on the stems.

I had Tabitha sort 5 different color beads onto the stems, making it a color sorting activity for her.

In addition, each color represented a different number of beads. When she was finished putting them on the stems she got to count them and place them on a number mat I made.

I only went to 5 because I didn't want to overwhelm her. I think it was a little simple for her (She picked them right out of the shaker and put them in the correct spot), so I am going to make a mat representing the numbers 0-10. I didn't allow Amelia to use the beads because I had found her trying to eat them earlier in the week when I was setting up the activity. So she got to use cheerios. No pictures of her putting the cheerios on though.

I also changed the tonging activity again, to go with the theme. I call this the build-a-snowman tonging activity.

I am also linking to

Carnival of Maths Play

Winter

I decided, as it was taking me so long to get the Rr projects ready, that we would focus on winter this week. Our Montessori work included some activities that fit the winter theme, I will share those in my Montessori post.

In addition to the Montessori work, the girls made 2 winter crafts. We made a snowman family:

I cut out 3 different size circles. I used felt scraps (from the scraps left from trying to make the felt roses I saw at Counting Coconuts) and beads.

I put white glue on the paper in the shape of circles and let them place the circles on the glue. Then I put glue on for the scarves and noses.

I let them draw the eyes and mouths on.

And then I put glue on for the buttons (we used pony beads).

This evening we talked about winter, we looked at some winter trees on google images. It seemed like an appropriate day to do so. Lots of snow, older kids home because of school closing. Unfortunately we didn't have a chance to take them outside as I had a non-stress test to go take. But we made our own winter scene:

I taped two light blue pieces of construction paper together, then cut a piece of white construction paper in half to glue underneath it. I then stapled the paper towel roll to the middle. We used markers, cotton balls, glue and white paint.

The girls drew branches on the tree.

Then they pulled cotton balls apart and placed them on the glue.

I cut apart an egg carton and let the girls each have their own cup filled part way with white paint. They finger painted the snow.

Here is the finished product. We are going to hang them on the wall and surround them with pictures of them playing outside in the snow and the picture I took of River Road in the winter. I spent the spring and summer last year taking pictures of the buds coming out and blooming on one particular bush on River Rd. This year I decided to start again with how it looks in the winter. We will do a winter tree scene for each season throughout the year. I did this once before with Tabitha (2 years ago, she was 13 months old when we started) and I had a nice lineup on the wall of each season. This time we will take pictures outside as well and make a season scrapbook.

And here is the very faded winter tree Tabitha made 2 years ago. It was hanging so long in the sun it faded quite bit. Wouldn't have noticed how much if I didn't put it up against the new ones.

To see what others are doing with their preschoolers and tots head on over to:

Homeschool Creations

And 1+1+1=1