it's all fun and games: March 2016

girls!

we had some t.v time the other day. love joey's goofy smile when she sees the camera

love this bonus baby

tues night, i had to run errands, so i took nate with me and rewarded him with a hot dog, then took him to his class...while i grabbed a coffee and caught up with a friend!

so happy about this bad boy

i didnt eat it, but instead went home and had.....chicken! i know, shocking isn't it!

yesterday i went to grab a snack for jo and saw the back of her head. the first thought popped in my head was....WHERE DID MY BABY GO???????" she's totally a toddler now

eating her snack. all by herself

and pleased as punch by it

see! she doesnt need me anymore!

sob sob

we hit up the library before school got out. i was able to meet some home schoolers, its nice to go to the library at 2 and know they home school and strike up a conversation with them...i ended up meeting a nice couple

joey played puzzles, ellie played with everything else

see

and put on a show for some of the kids

shadows

grrrrr

johana doing the perfect squat

and making friends with the other ladies there

and played until it was time to take nate to chris. nate played with some other home school kids and read while his sisters played. i can not wait for SPRING and parks!!!!

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Posted by mel at 7:35 PM

more school

ellie's preschool is def play based. when she wants to do book work she knows where to find it and voila...we work on it....while I'm teaching nate. some days it's smooth as butter, some days its like a crazy storm...yesterday ellie decided she wanted to make her letters, at my right she worked...at my left nate worked

then my eyes settled on my energy. my cup of java. oh how I adore you coffee!!!!

this is a random sample of ellie's work book

some m's and e's, we are working on writing her name

then cutting and gluing...

then I found her like this....hahahaha.... turkey ellie!

her school drawer is AWESOME. its still a huge hit with her. I opened the drawer and snapped a pic

here is a sample of what she plays with. she takes a tray out and a bag. when she is done she can choose another bag to play with. most bags keep her busy long enough for me to teach nate

showing me what she wanted to play with. I do not force this on her, she's only 3. I let her choose what she wants

and when she doesn't want to do anything, she curls up in my lap and helps me teach nate. she actually loves helping with the flash cards. ha

when joey wakes up, ellie is with her. its cool too see how close they are. here they are playing "marco-jojo" ellie was hiding under joey's chair calling "joey!" and jo would respond with a giggle

for independent reading, nate is reading this book and is really enjoying it. he's not impressed that I'm gonna have him write a book report on it. haha. he reads 30 mins a day

1 comments

Posted by mel at 7:26 PM

nates school round up

its been a long time since ive updated nates school progress. and after having a smashing 3 week vacy! why not do it this week? ive made the habit to NOT bring my phone into the school room, during school. it was a huge distraction. so i didnt take many pics...i brought it up the other day and snapped a bunch of pics....

above. nate's desk, at his break time. i can not imagine working in such a MESS!!!
look at his drawer stack?!?/!?!??! its a disaster. but he likes it this way! i do how ever INSIST that he cleans up his work area at the end of every day....for my sanity!

and then we have miss ellie. and her constant cutting paper messes!!!! im in the process of training her to clean up after EACH mess...this is a work in progress

nate's b.board area. this is 'his' i do hang up things that he needs for school but for the most part he hangs what means a lot to him on it....i giggle when i see quinn's preschool pic....from 5 yrs ago!

nate working away...
for the most part, we have a routine each day
i wake up at 7:30, when chris leaves, then ellie comes in my bed for snuggles
8:00-i get up and shower
8:30 wake jo up!
head down for breaky around 9...then chill to 9:30
9:30-11 we do what ever. go for a walk, bath the girls, go to the park, library, do house work...what ever
11-lunch or snack
11:30- jo goes to bed!
11:30-1:30 we head up to the school room for nate's school. ellie for the most part keeps herself busy, on the days she is randy i pull out my pre-planned lessons and try to keep her busy....cough....

we are heading into nate's final quarter for school. so far, we re on schedule! yea for me!
we LOVE all about spelling!
i follow the teacher's guide, and teach nate the lessons. he doesnt like the white board/moving the word cards around so i skip that. we work at his pace. sometimes covering a lesson a wk or maybe 2? each day i give him a list of words to work on and once he's mastered 8/10 we move on....i also throw in some sentence practice too....

nate LOVES the card box, he is a visual learner so it's totally worth the money to buy this program for the spell box alone

we started just write, and we work together on it. nate loves the one on one aspect. i LOVE the 10.00 cost. haha i am SO sad to discover that they no longer make just write book 4 and more...so very sad....

i photo copy each page. just to save money to reuse it with the girls

we are still LOVING math u see. i love, love, love this program

we are starting chapter 21 next week

using the flash cards only this week to fresh up his mind

for history we are using the discover canada series and finished black history today. i read, we talk and i write notes on the board for him to copy.....for penmanship practise alone....haha

i did not buy a language arts program this yr but instead made up lesson each week on ares that he was weak on. i wasnt sure what to buy for him last yr, so i decided to save a few hundred and just wing it. so far so good....it does take me 30 mins a week to make up lessons....

some old stuff

what he did today

we also started a new geography book on tues. i bought it used for .50....so far i really like it!

there is a lot of great reusable/laminate pages im going to save for the girls BUT i am at a loss as to what to get him for next yr....help!!!!

we also started a new homophones lessons, written by all about spelling/all about reading. we LOVE it!!!!!

we look up the words in a dictionary, nate makes notes and works on the work sheet. again, i am photocopying the pages to re use with the girls. i paid 20.00 3 yrs ago and i think it's worth the money. they have lessons right up to grade 10

bible is rod and staff. nate HATES it. but im making him do it cause i bought it brand new.. haha

we finished science. and we LOVE apologia. i just ordered next yr's books this week. again, its worth the money to me... i am having nate work on a 'project'

he has to do a front and back page write up for each chapter. he spends 40 mins a day on it. awesome! he does i page a day until he's done....then im not sure what to do....lalalala