Birthday Party Fun!

Despite being a drizzly, chilly day, Preston's birthday party went well.  I know he had a blast getting to play with the kids, do puzzles and eat cake!

This year he wanted an "All Disney Characters" party.  Apparently, the only characters that are "in" right now are from Cars, Toy Story and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  So, that's what we went with.  Plus, I had some leftover Bolt stuff from his 4th birthday!  We "decorated" the living room with most of our Disney movies (my goodness, we have a lot!) and Preston and Callen's Disney "guys."

The two had a lot of fun "quizzing" each other with math problems.  Lol!  They're both homeschooled First Graders.  So funny.

Preston received so many wonderful gifts.  Thank you to everyone who came!

Homeschool Recap, Dec 2nd (Wk 12)...

In my life this week...

I had my mom's car again this week, and so we stayed pretty busy!  We went to a kid's Christmas play, visited the Homeschool Bookstore one last time before they close their doors for good, ran around doing errands... and I even had a little break all to myself to do some Christmas shopping thanks to "Grandma Jill" taking the boys off my hands.  That was certainly a nice treat!  I am also getting ready for Preston's birthday party on Saturday.  He wanted an All-Disney Character Party Theme.  That was harder than I thought it'd be, because really the only easily-available party-wear is Toy Story, Cars and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  So that's what I went with.  Initially, I figured I could make whatever we wanted for decor, favors, etc... but I ran out of time, and motivation... sorry, kid!  He'll be 6 on Sunday, yikes!

Handsome young man!

Oh, and we had Thanksgiving since the last Homeschool Recap, here are a few pix:

Callen asks, "Where's my feast?"

Yay, it's dinner time!

A picture to share...

Olive Fingers!

Favorite thing this week...Michael received free tickets to Disney On Ice last week, and we got to take the boys to it on Saturday morning.  We all had the best time!  We ended up with super-close seats.  And frozen toes!  But, both Preston and Callen were enthralled with it the entire time.  It was so much fun!  I'm totally kicking myself for not taking my camera... none of the pictures of the action came out with my phone.  But here's a cute one of the boys watching the show:

Watching Mickey on Ice!

In our homeschool this week...

Tot School:  Callen is slightly obsessed with coloring lately.  He loves using the crayons and ColorWonder markers, and sometimes even the dry-erase markers.  In fact, he's had a scribble of green dry-erase marker on his head for the past three weeks.  For some reason, I can't wash it off for anything no matter how many times I scrub it.  =/

I call him "Old Man Baby!"

Bible: Proverbs 19:17, "He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and He will reward him for what he has done."  This one was tricky for Preston to understand and memorize because of all times it says "he."  Got kinda confusing.  We also learned more books of the Bible, so far he has the first 12 down!  Good job, Preston!  And we finished up the days of Creation, and started onto the Garden of Eden.

Reading the Days of Creation

Reading/Writing: Worked on the "ng" and "ea" sounds. Nothing too exciting there.  And, of course, he's doing tons of independent reading.  The boy certainly has no shortage of books at his disposal.  Lol!

Math: This week's theme was Place Value.  Since we have the place value elements on our Morning Board, this subject was pretty easy! 

Science: This week we talked about Volcanoes and read lots of fact books about them.  Kaboom! I was planning on finding a video for Preston to watch of an erupting volcano, but never got around to it.  I will try to do that before this day is over, though!  We used a few lapbook elements from here to add to his Science Notebook.  Oh, and on our Exploration Day on Wednesday, we did two volcano experiments.  We did the 'ole baking soda and vinegar trick to make the "lava" boil over.  We also used a tube of tooth paste, squeezed it up into the bottom of a cup full of dirt to show how magma builds up pressure and then pushes the Earth's crust up to form a volcano.  That was pretty fun.  I took a video, but it didn't come out very good so... oops!

Music/Art:  Our new hymn this week was "O For A Thousand Tongues to Sing" from Charles Wesley.  We also learned about the claves and tim-toms.  And for art we looked at a landscape (uh... I already forgot which one, bad Mommy!).

Spanish:  La Ropa!  Clothes words this week.

Advent/Seasonal activity: We started our Advent/Christmas Countdown activities on Thursday.  We are doing the Names of Jesus Countdown Chain from Spell Out Loud.  Each day we take off a chain link, learn about that particular name for Jesus, color an ornament from here and put it up on our tree branch.  Preston is also doing the Advent Calendar to Color from Usborne each day as well.

Names of Jesus Countdown Chain

Names of Jesus Ornaments

Coloring in the Advent Book

We are using My Father's World First Grade. See our curriculum here.
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Read Aloud Thursday: Dec 1st

Read-Aloud Thursday @ Hope Is the Word  is a fun weekly meme to showcase the books you are reading aloud to your children.  It is so important to continue reading to your kids, even after they've learned to read themselves!  Read to them until they move out if you can!  I read to my 20-month old at naptime and bedtime and to my 6-year-old a chapter from a book every nite at bedtime, and read to both of them all throughout the day.  Sometimes my older reads to my little, which always blesses my heart!  I also use this opportunity to highlight some of the great Usborne Books & More titles I have to offer.

Last nite my little one brought me The Poky Little Puppy to read for bedtime.  Oh my goodness, my older son made me read this particular book to him every night for nearly 6 months!  It's a good thing I love that Poky Little Puppy!  He takes me back to my childhood... I used to have a record with stories and songs on it, and this was one of them.  I still get that song stuck in my head, "Where in the world is that Poky Little Puppy?  Where in the world is he?"  Lol.  It's just a sweet little story, with a lesson to be learned.  Anyway, both Preston and Callen cuddle with me on the couch as we went through the exciting adventures of those naughty puppies!

And for Preston's bedtime last nite, I picked up a story book called Goodnight, Me!  This a book all about an adorable orangutan telling each of his body parts that it's time for bed!  This book, written by Andrew Daddo, is so sweet, I almost can't stand it.  Haha.  "Legs, get some rest.  We've got a lot of jumping to do tomorrow."  And as he progresses, he, of course, gets sleepier and sleepier.  I like this one because it can be interactive, but doesn't get my kiddo wound up... but rather, nicely wound down and ready for bed!  For each body part, I have him raise it or point to it and repeat the words so that he's telling HIS body to go to sleep.  It's pretty darn cute!

Now it's time for a spotlight on an Usborne book we looked at this week: Beauty & the Beast! This is a beautifully illustrated story book of the classic tale.  There are many versions of Beauty & the Beast, and, according to the back of the book, this one closely resembles a retelling of the story from 1765 by a French writer by the name of Marie Le Prince de Beaumont, though written down by Gabrielle Villeneuve.  It is not the same as the Disney version, just FYI.  Which, personally, I think makes it more interesting - I like hearing different versions of well-known stories like this.  My favorite thing about this particular Usborne book is the gorgeous illustrations throughout.  Every page is covered in vividly colorful scenes of what is going on in the story.  See an example here and here.  It certainly helps keep your reader's attention.  This book is part of the Usborne Young Readers Series Two.  Read more about our wonderful reading program here.

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November 2011 Tweets to Remember...

Nov 1st - Started our Thankful Tree today, Preston's 1st leaf: Power FM. I swear I didn't coax him at all! We are thankful for @powerfm!

Nov 2nd - I said Are u still sleeping? He said Yeah. http://twitpic.com/79tylz

Nov 3rd - Please tell me I'm not the only one that loves that familiar smell of the heater coming on for the first time in 9 months!?!?!

Nov 6th - Love God's sense of humor. On a morning when I'm having such trouble with my own, I get to go love on kids that belong to other people.

Nov 10th - So... someone feel free to send some chocolate my way. There wasn't nearly enough in the kids' halloween haul to last. =/

Nov 12th - Just as I was feeling human again from a killer migraine.... the toddler stepped directly on my eyeball with all of his weight. What?!?!

Nov 16th - I just spent like half an hour doodling little Snoopy and Woodstock drawings. Um... don't I have things to do? YES!!!

Nov 17th - So, my boys and I just ate a whole box of Frosted Bite Size Shredded Wheat. There are worse things to have gorged on, I suppose.

Nov 18th - Was about to make kids turn off Cat In The Hat show, but it's under the sea, which is our science theme this week. Yay #homeschool!

Nov 18th - This: http://bit.ly/uueJjC is baking in my oven right now, smelling up my kitchen. I want to bathe in it. Is that weird? Lol.

Nov 18th - My sweet little pepper! @drpepper http://twitpic.com/7g2eig

Nov 22nd - Holy heck, it looks like there's a good chance @fiveironfrenzy is gonna raise the $30,000 they need to make a new record within 60mins!

Nov 24th - Watching the parades, and being thankful for our blessings! My sweet boys & hubby, our family & friends, God's grace!

Nov 24th - Enjoying the sound of my boys, husband and bro-in-law laughing at Snoopy wrestling with a chair on tv. Thanksgiving rocks!

Nov 24th - Callen says, "Bring on the feast!" http://twitpic.com/7j5w87

Nov 30th - Dumping a bunch of butterscotch chips into my hot cocoa.... best decision today. #Nomz