Maybe a little too ambitious

Zoe can say all of her colors in English. She can not quite "identify" them, however. (Zoe is 21 months, but has only been in the United States 6 months) I set up her Tot Tray with 4 pieces of paper (blue, green, yellow and red) and gave her a few blocks of those same colors.

I think she had a lot of fun, but I don't think she quite got the concept. I think we'll back up and start with "putting the blocks on the paper" and then do one color at a time and then go to two. I think four colors might've been a little ambitious on my part.

I think she had fun though; that's really what it's all about anyway! She threw the blocks at the tray, she put them on the paper. She needed a lot of help getting them to the correct color though. When we finally finished the boys clapped and said "yay" and she grinned ear to ear. She thought she really did something great.

To learn more about Tot Trays or to see other ideas for fun learning with your tot, you should check out 1+1+1=1. Other moms from all over the globe link up and share their ideas.

We'll be trying another one today. I'll let you know how it goes.

~Paula

The First Day of School

Sloan Academy began school for the year on August 1, 2011. We had a great first day together! I can't believe my boys are in Kindergarten and 2nd Grade!

A little morning playtime

First day of second grade

First day of kindergarten

brothers, best buddies and double-trouble

Morning meeting

The Pledge of Allegiance

Singing their Spanish colors

A fun morning together

Zoe decided to wake up and join us.

Sticker Activity for the letter A!

Apple number activity

Math

Taking a Walk

This girl loves her a book!

Taking a break to watch "Word Factory"

Playdough while Robert did English

History Notebook activities

Mummifying Apples - Apologia Science

It was a great first day! Thank you, Lord for my little blessings and busy days.

~Paula

School Room Tour 2011

I've been meaning to share pictures of our homeschool room on here, but keep getting distracted. Oh, look! Something shiny. ;-) I'll start this tour from the door and go clock-wise.

Our School Room Door. I cut the letters with from vinyl.

We've chosen a "monster theme" for the year. This is on the school door too.

This is just inside the door on the wall as you enter the room.

This puppet theater is in the doorway of a little closet in the room. This closet houses all of our family DVDs, my teacher's manuals, other teacher resources and supplies. The doorway is the perfect place to put on a puppet show!

Just beyond the puppet show, I've set up a desk and chair as our "computer station". We have the laptop and an iPad there. This is the boys' VERY favorite spot in the room.

We have our large bulletin board with a lot of our daily stuff on them. The flip-chart has our CC Memory work for the entire 24 weeks. It's easy to flip through to review. You can see we have a couch there to divide the room although I do not have a good picture of it.

above that, I've taken advantage of those sloped ceilings to hang the kids' artwork. Simple, easy and cute!

Once you turn past the couch, we have our bookshelves, our alphabet (which is new and a little larger than I thought and it didn't fit where I had originally planned). I take full-advantage of the tops of bookshelves as valuable storage space.

We have a small tv with DVD and VCR hookups and I've used a row of desks that we aren't using to hold some of our daily stuff and things like our puzzles, globe, pencil sharpener, etc.

Under the desks, we have some storage for some files, blocks, manipulatives, playdough toys, and flashcards. Gotta make use of a small space in every way you can!

The front corner of the room has our laser printer and that's where all the internet hook-ups for the house are. It's not optimal placement, but it's where it has to be. I have a white-board, our calendar on this wall. This is my main teaching area.

I just had to have this monster club-house. We've decided to put Andrew's "sight-words" up there as he learns them this year. We'll call them his "club words".

I have another white-board and our morning meeting board at the front of the room too.

This view is from the front of the room. You can see my craft area and work area is behind the couch. No little people are allowed back there. It's all mine! (insert evil laugh here.)

This is in that little closet (behind the puppet theater) and I keep all of my Teacher's Manuals on this shelf. A big thanks to my friend Sarah for this shelf!

This is my folder system. Each folder is numbered by 6 weeks. (weeks 1-6, 7-12, 13-18, 19-24, 25-30 and 31-36) It has their printables for those 6 weeks and paper-clipped by week. All of Robert's folders are green and Andrew's are blue. I actually added the 3rd color this year for "together". We do Science, Bible and History together, so the red folders are for "together" work.

This is actually in my craft area, but I couldn't live without my paper sorter! The grey and red bins have art supplies. The wire carts have some things for the boys stored on them.

This shelf is outside the schoolroom and Zoe's room. It has a lot of toddler books, board books, etc.

This shelf is in the hall because we are bursting at the seams. It has a lot of learning games, activities, etc.

This shelf (and usually the cat) are in the dining room. It is full of teacher resource materials.

This cube shelf thing is in the entry-way of our house. It has a lot of art supplies and some other random stuff! I love those storage cubes! Hides the "mess".

Well, there it is! School-room 2011. Happy schooling, y'all!

~Paula

Window on the World

One of the things I love about my friend Jewel is that she loves to talk homeschool and share ideas, books and tips she's picked up along the way. She's really a wealth of knowledge! Just recently her friend told her about a book called Window on the World: When we Pray God Works by Daphne Spraggett and Jill Johnstone. Jewel ordered one for herself and when I saw this stunning book: I had to have one for myself!

This beautiful book features a country or people group on each two-page spread. It's full of captivating pictures, information about that country (or people group) and how we can pray for them and the missionaries in that area. It's a book that will be loved by all the members of your family regardless of age. Short stories about featured countries or people groups help relate foreign lands and people to children (and adults) in the West. Each page includes a small map putting the country into perspective with neighboring countries, a fact box with essential country, and people information and prayer points that children can ask God for as well as thank God for.

Description (from Amazon): "Window on the World is your ticket to travel around the world! Find out how God is changing the lives of families everywhere through prayer-from the frozen arctic to the hottest desert, on the highest mountains and in crowded cities. Window on the World brings alive the culture, history, and traditions of all sorts of different people. With ‘Fact Files’ and ‘Do You Know?’ features, each section brings you information, true stories, maps, and easy-to-use prayer points that take you into homes around the world. See how children live, what they like to do, what they eat and wear and what they hope and dream."

We have many missionary friends all over the Earth and we pray for them often. I would like to do this more for missionaries all over the globe. We'll be integrating this into our Bible curriculum this year. I think it'll be great to help the kids to be more 'mission-minded' and have global missions fresh in their minds. We will study people groups and countries and we see how they live, what they believe and we learn about the mission efforts in that area, but most importantly: we'll be praying for God to work in the lives of those people in that area.

I picked this book up from Amazon for about $13 (paperback and hardback are both available).

Thanks for telling me about this book Jewel!

~Paula

Tot School

Plans are underway for Zoe to begin "Tot School". Basically the idea behind Tot School is intentional, fun, learning-centered time with your tot. I think back to my time when Robert and Andrew were little. I'd sit on the floor and sing them songs, talk about colors, letters, numbers, shapes and read a ton of books. We'd work puzzles, sort objects by shape, color, type, etc. Now that I have two big boys and a little tot, I've noticed that my intentional "learning" time with Zoe is significantly less because I'm busy teaching math or science to my two older boys the majority of the day. I want to spend this time focused completely on Zoe and having fun as we focus on early-learning skills.

You can head over to 1+1+1=1 and learn more about Tot School. A bunch of moms and tots all over the globe participate in Tot School and share their ideas. The power of the online community never ceases to amaze me. As a homeschooling mom, I don't feel like I have to re-invent the wheel or come up with a million ideas all on my own. We can come together to share with other moms who are homeschooling or doing Tot School too.

One of the ideas that several moms doing Tot School is "tot trays". You put the activity on a tray. This tray provides the place to do many of the activities, and is easy for them to clean-up. I had originally planned on purchasing trays like these,

but they've proven hard to find. Oriental Trading is no longer carrying them and I found some online (in really ugly colors) and they are still expensive and the shipping was outrageous.

Never underestimate the power of the Wal-Mart clearance isle. I found these for $1 each. These will definitely hold us over for a while and if I can score some of the other kind for a decent price, great, but for now, I think these will be just fine!





Some ideas for Tot School may include: pouring, transferring, beading, spooning, hiding items in uncooked pasta or beans, sorting, matching, counting, cutting, gluing, simple arts and crafts, fine motor skills, stickers, etc.

These are things to do WITH your child. If you're looking for Tot Tray ideas, you should head over to 1+1+1=1 and check them out. There are lots of activities for a variety of ages. Most importantly, it should be FUN!

I'm off to make some Tot School plans for this cute girlie!

~Paula