Workin Hard? Or Hardly Working?

Well!  We have been busy.  Too busy to be specific.  Auggie is learning the letters of the alphabet, Leo is LOVING Montessori.  We're gearing up for the holidays and have tons of fun planned.

Color Mixing in the Shower!

Halloween and all the comes with it!

Art projects, printables, and learning the letters

Leo works on math, Auggie on the letter T

Cloud Dough:  kind of a bust

A is for Apple!

We started on Letter A.  Auggie sat very nicely at the table and did the multitude of printables I had for him.  Most of the were, of course from 1+1+1=1.  I have to say I was impressed with his self regulation. Here are a few of the things he did.

This Do-a-Dot activity was his FAVORITE!

Leo, meanwhile worked on a sticker mosaic and some mazes.

Then over the weekend we picked APPLES!

This week I have a few random activities for Auggie, some sight word games for Leo, and an apple pie in the works!

"Back" to school!

Leo is attending school this year.  He is going 5 afternoons a week to a local Montessori.  It has been bittersweet for me... I miss him and I wish he was staying with me.  But I also acknowledge that this is a great opportunity for him.  I also miss teaching him at home.  I don't want to overwhelm him with work at home in addition to the wonderful activities he has at Montessori- and I also don't want to overwhelm myself.  I really don't want to overwhelm my printer, my paper supply, ink, and the dining room with STUFF.  The biggest relief has been the Putting Away of Stuff.  

I started school this fall, AUGGIE started school this fall.  We are having a new baby in the winter.  There is just a lot on my plate and I needed to outsource this one thing.  I will reassess over the summer and will most likely keep him with me for first grade.

I am, however looking for small paper and art type activities for Leo to do at home while I work with Auggie on his letters.  I am still not sure if Auggie knows his letters or is just kind of being a jerk about it.  Meanwhile, Auggie LOVES school.  Loves it.  There are 4 children in his class and two of them are named August.  WTH!


We are also moving our playroom up to the attic and I hope hope hope I can have space to set up a school "area" of sort.  Hope.  Please Jesus yes!  That would be so wonderful.  I have a million billion things I am Pinterested in, but sadly the reality is that we have -43 dollars and very little workable space and storage.

A girl can dream....

Goals and Planning

We still have no idea what we're going to do with Leo next year.  Will he go to school?  Will he go to the Montessori?  Will he stay with  me?  Because of this it's difficult to say what my goals for him will be.  So from now until Sept here is what I would like:

Leo:
I'd like him reading. Solidly.
Recognize number from 10+

Auggie:
Recognize Letters.
Recognize Numbers 1-10. 

Pond Life

We are doing a mini unit on pond life right now.  Mostly that means we've been reading LOTS of books and visiting any small body of water we can find.

The BIG oh so SUPER EXCITING thing was our newest sensory bin.  It was all stuff I got from the Dollar Tree and/or had laying around the house.

The boys helped me figure out which animals belonged in a pond and which didn't.

Lost in Space!

Back in Feb/March we worked on a Space theme.  I downloaded and printed tons of materials from 1+1+1=3 and Homeschool Creations.  Those combined with tons, and I really mean TONS, of books from the library ended up being a lot of fun. 

The next plan is to move onto cowboys!

Catching Up

We're been taking some time "off" from doing so much.  We're trying very  hard to declutter the house, keep it clean, and do some organizing.  Of course we're failing miserably, but all of these school supplies do take up so much space and they certainly are NOT neat. 

No matter what, we keep busy.  :)  Always learning.

Building Weekend

Marble Painting

Baltimore Aquarium!

Cooking Class

Ice Melting Game

Today, just for fun and to kind of finish up the polar "unit" we played a Melt the Ice Game.  I found it here on My Montessori Journey.  Leo LOVED it!

Leo and I each had an ice cube and took turns rolling the die.  Depending on what you rolled, you either put salt on the cube, floated it for 10 seconds, blew on it, dropped it, or held it in your hand.  Beset of ALL, if you rolled a 2, you dropped it down your shirt.  Oh the hilarity that ensued. 

This would  be a fun game to play when it's hot outside too!

Space Oddity

Auggie's Cutting Activity from 1+1+1=3

We started our space unit today!  Well, technically last night since we let the boys stare at the Magic School Bus Space Adventures DVD for over an hour.  I've been looking around for the Mother of the Year Award Committee ALL morning. 

Leo took it upon himself to create the solar system out of art materials while I was making waffles this morning.  Sadly I did not get a picture before Aug Dog ruined it.  It was pretty cool though, he used marbles, ball bearings, pipe cleaners and puff balls.  He couldn't find a good earth one so he made that out of paper.  :)

The 8 Plants.  I just can't get used to there only being 8.

I picked some solar system window clings at Staples for .99.  I let the boys stick them on the window willy-nilly.  Then Leo and I used a printable from Coloring Castle to set them up in order they are from the sun.  That didn't last long... thanks to Auggie.  :) 

Sorry for the Bum Shot!

We used window markers to make the sun.  Eventually we had to move it to the other side of the window. 

Polar Bear Polar Bear...

We spent a few days learning about animals of the arctic.  I saw a really cool activity on My Montessori Journey and wanted to try it out. 

My mother had given us a GIANT chicken pot pie that came in a pretty decent sized plastic container.  I figured this would be perfect!  I froze water in a small bowl(think: iceberg), and set it up with the boy's Arctic Planimals.

I was wrong.  In typical Leo fashion we had to add a blue towel for water, a dolphin (that he was pretending was a whale) was snow, etc.  In the end I had to  bring out the big guns.

It was a super cool activity that they really enjoyed.  Leo would have played with it all day if his hands hadn't gotten so cold.

We rounded it out with a Magic Tree House book and a sorting game.  I have a few more ideas and activities to get to before we do Space!