Wednesday, May 25, 2011

New Blogs...check this out!

I have been browsing and saving blogs tonight. Yipee! I have found a lot of great resources that I will link you to when we get a chance to incorporate the ideas/lesson plans/etc into our homeschooling days. :) In the mean time, check out and follow this new blog! I'm pretty impressed already!

Check out and follow this new blog! http://lessonplandiva.blogspot.com/


Until Next Time....

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Flat Fish!

About a week or so ago, I found these amazing learning kits while shopping at Ross. They were marked down from nearly $30 to about $5!!! I snagged the two up that they had. I could hardly wait to get home to try them out.
 









They were a huge hit with Chyenne and Cohen! My goodness they LOVED them. I cannot wait to use them more and more this summer (and for a while). This kept them busy for at least 2 hours. I was tired of snapping pics with my phone. Chyenne did SO well with matching her flat fish to the cards. Cohen preferred to make more of a puzzle/pattern deal and that's OKAY! He had a blast and we practiced colors, some numbers and some letters.

I encourage you to look for some at your local discount stores like Ross, Marshall's, TJ Maxx, etc. If not, they have them for roughly $20 at amazon. Here are the two we got: Numbers and Letters/Phonics.

Summer's Coming!

This spring/beginning of summer has been fun for us. It has been quite hectic, as usual, but we have still managed to have a blast.

First off, we have COHEN who is POTTY TRAINING! EEEP! Yes, my son sits to use the potty...for now. Wait until daddy is back in town, that boy will be a pee-standing machine. :) (and yes, I WILL save this pic and any other embarrassing pics for his girlfriends in the future).


Next, we took my nephew (Malaki, age 7) to school for the last month or two of his school year... he wanted us to attend his first grade field day, so we did. They had a blast! I'm hoping to purchase a similar parachute from orientaltrading.com SOON!

 My two little munchkins did SO well following directions from Malaki's teacher. His teacher actually commented many times on how well behaved they were and how smart they are! Every mom loves to hear good things about her children!
 We recently bought Cohen a BIG BOY BED! *toddler bed* and he LOVES it. Of course he still loves Mommy and Daddy's bed better, but he is doing SO well. He has been refusing his crib for months and months, but he goes to sleep with ease in his new bed! We put it next to sister's for the first night, just to adjust him.
 and when I got back from the gym just 3 hours after laying him down, I found him like this! Apparently, Chyenne's bed is better. LOL!
 Of course I placed him back in his bed and he did well... until he woke and wandered downstairs to cuddle and get milk from mommy.

Next up? Chyenne's second dental check-up. She was SO exicted and picked out her outfit to impress.
 Cohen was a good sport, as usual and played with his laptop. Chyenne passed the time in the waiting room with her mobigo...
 She was a bit nervous when they called her back. She used humor to cover up her nervousness. When the dentist came back, he asked her for her name and she said, "Curious George!" haha. She giggled loudly and said, "no really, I'm just silly, my name is Chyenne (middle and last name)!" The dentist sure got a kick out of that.
 But she did AMAZING.
 I was so proud of how well she did. Especially since she hasn't always had pleasing dentist visits. She chipped a tooth and pushed a couple of teeth back when she was 28 months old. It was quite traumatic. She had to see an emergency dentist to push her teeth back into place and make sure there was no nerve damage on her chipped tooth. Shortly after that, we started routine dentist visits, every 6 months. She did well during her first real check-up, but she did FABULOUS at this one!
 She said, "ohh, that tickles my teeth!" Sweet girl.
 ALL CLEAN! The dentist said her teeth look perfect. Absolutely no cavities and we're doing a perfect job caring for her mouth.
 She was sent home with a new toothbrush, a sticker, some new flossers, a little mirror and pick, and a balloon. Such a special trip!  Cohen received all of the same items! He goes sometime around his 2nd birthday for his next check up. I *try* to NOT schedule them on the same days. It makes things a little bit easier for me.
 My two love doing their Melissa and Doug word puzzles. They can do this for HOURS!
 Below is a picture of my oldest sister and myself... we were headed to our middle sister's college graduation. I'm quite proud of her! :)
 We have started a vegetable garden in a box... the kids had a blast planting (and PULLING, ahem COHEN) our new plants and seeds.
 We have also been swimming a lot lately. Gotta love having a pool when it's 90 degrees out!
 Chyenne is a mermaid. She LOVES the water.
 Here's a blackmail pic for Chyenne's future boyfriends! Gotta keep dirt on them. LOL
 Stamping Fun! They LOVE to use their stamps!
 Mommy and Cohen!

Long Overdue B Week (part I)

This whole blogger is giving me a hard time uploading pics from my camera, so here is a bit of pics (mostly cell pics). We successfully wrapped up our 'B LOTW'... and then Chyenne wanted to do more worksheets, writing practice, math, science, etc NOT about a specific letter. Since I am following her (and Cohen's) lead, I decided to do exactly what she wanted. So we are still working on C week, on HER time. Ehh, whatever... the last several years have been on her time, why end that now?! :)
Below is a bit of our B week work... we did SO much more (hopefully I'll be able to get the other pictures downsized and uploaded soon!)







 Both of them really enjoyed this activity... baskets of B stuff... Cohen's basket had an assortment of items that start with the letter B. He had to name off the items. :) He is using his words so much more now!


 Miss Chyenne is getting AWESOME at writing her name!
 Little Bear aka Cohen, is also getting really good at coloring specific items/places. He is paying a lot more attention to what he's doing and developing more hand-eye coordination. :)

 Bb's! ahhh!

 Lacing with a pipe cleaner... always more fun to do after baby brother rips one! LOL
 My independent guy is pretty good with the glue.

 So proud of herself!
 Cohen's butterfly! I am IMPRESSED!
 Chyenne's butterfly who just HAD to wear a BOW like her! Such a diva!
 Chyenne's B basket had several items in it... most of which started with the letter B, but some stuff did not. She did fantastic with this.