The Letter G: Part 2

If you missed the first part of this unit, you can see what we did over here.

Our G unit consisted of learning about the letter G and the sound it makes, but it was also unit about goats and one of three units on farm animals.

After reading several books about goats to Banana Bear and Princess, I had Banana Bear draw a picture of something she learned about goats.  I also had her write a sentence about her picture.  I love seeing how she spells phonetically! (You can see my translation below her sentence.)

Since our Letter G and goat unit is one of three units about farm animals, the MFW curriculum had us make stick puppets of farm animals.  I thought it would be really fun for Banana Bear to put on a puppet show to Old MacDonald.  She had a blast!  

While learning about goats and farm animals, we practiced the names of baby farm animals.  Banana Bear made a book using a worksheet from MFW.  On each page, she paired the adult with the baby. And (with much drama) she wrote a simple sentence on each page: "A _______ is  a baby ________."

Since we were learning about goats, I thought we would try some goat's milk cheese.  I gave the children some goats milk cheese and a little bit of mozzarella for comparison.  They loved it!  It was a really fun way for them to compare and contract items.

Our unit would not have been complete with out another tactile activity for the girls to partake in!  So we made glitter G's.  I chose to use glitter because glitter starts with G and helps to solidify the sound that G makes, especially for Princess.

On our last day of the unit, we read The Year At Maple Hill Farm by Alice and Martin Provensen.  It was a really great book, and we were able to use it as the starting place for a lot of different topics.  After we read the book, we went through the book for a second time and listed off all of the animals that we saw in the book.  Then we separated the animals into two different groups: farm animals and wild animals.

After discussing the animals, we discussed the different months of the year. Banana Bear had a really fun time when I got down my calendar and we went through the year month by month discussing the holidays.  

After we discussed the holidays and months of the year, Banana Bear painted a picture from the book.  She had the most fun painting.  She loves to paint!

And that concluded our G-g-goat unit.  We had so much fun, and the girls learned so much!

Busy Bag Wednesday: Endless Tissue Box

Ok, so this activity isn't really a bag but it is still a great way to keep little ones occupied!  The other thing that I love about this activity is that it cost me absolutely nothing to make! I got the original idea from here.

To make this activity, you will need an empty tissue box or an empty baby wipes container.  I used an empty wipes container.  If you have one I would suggest using a wipes container, as it is sturdier than a tissue box.

Next, you are going to want to get your hands on some fabric.  If you scraps from an old sewing project, this is a perfect time to use them!  If you don't have fabric scraps, you could cut up raggedy clothes that is beyond repair.  Or check your thrift store!  One of our local thrift shops has fabric all the time!  I had some fabric scraps that a friend had given me a while ago, and thought this would be a great project to use some of it for.  

Take your fabric and cut it up.  I cut mine into strips that were about 12 inches long.  As you can see in the picture, my fabric strips to vary in length and width.  I wasn't not exact about this at all!  And while I was cutting, I thought varying the width and length would provide more interest to Lil' Man.

The fabric I used was all cotton and one knit.  It would be really fun to mix up the types of fabric to add different textures to the box: some knit, some flannel, some fleece.

After I cut up my pieces, I tied them together.  I ended up using 25 strips of cloth to fill my container.  (Obviously, I cut way too much!)  Stuff the tied pieces of fabric into your box, and let your little one play!*

*Obviously, we are talking about a very large length of fabric here.  This activity should be used under adult supervision to prevent strangulation.  

The Letter G: Part 1

Last week we finished up our Gg-Goats unit.  I thought I would share a review of what we did during this unit. Because it was six days' worth of learning, I am going to break this up into two posts! We really did have a great time learning.

On the first day, I introduced the letter G and the sound it makes.  This is review for Banana Bear, but it really helps Princess out.  After introducing the letter and the sound, I give the girls textured letters from our letter puzzle.  Banana Bear tells me the sound each letter makes and tells me a word that starts with each letter.  For Princess, I name the sound and she gives me the appropriate letter.

Lil' Man appears very interested.  Maybe he's learning by osmosis! ;)

After I introduced the sound, Banana Bear worked on her picture cards.  These cards are part of her My Father's World Curriculum.  After she colored all her pictures, she cut them out and glued the letter to an envelope.  Then she says the name of each picture, the sound it starts with and traces the textured letter with her finger.  One of the sentences she did for the letter G unit was "Grass starts with /g/." Then she traced the letter g with her index finger as if she were writing it. 

Banana Bear coloring her picture cards.

While Banana Bear worked on her picture cards, Princess colored a worksheet with the letter G and three pictures of things that start with the letter G.  

Here, notice Princess coloring with her left hand.

Princess also did a dry erase sheet tracing the letter G while Banana Bear made letter G's in a container of salt. 

And here, notice her writing with her right hand.  It makes my head spin!

My girls love tactile experiences, and this little salt container is one of their favorite things to get out and practice making letters in!

One of Princess's favorite things to do each unit is a size sorting activity!  For our G unit, she got to cut out gumball machines of various sizes and put them in order from smallest to largest.

And that was all in the first day! We did so much more, and I can't wait to share it with you in my next post!

Busy Bag Wednesday: Sight Words

What is a busy bag, you ask? A busy bag is a life saver for me!  Busy bags are activities that I can give the children to keep them occupied while working one on one with another child.  Busy bags keep them busy while I'm busy!  :)

I am currently in the process of making up a whole bunch busy bags in order to help my days run a little smoother!  Since they are so helpful to me, I will be sharing my busy bags to spread the helpfulness! 

I created this busy bag for Banana Bear to use. This busy bag is to help reinforce the sight words she is learning.

I created a set of thirty-two cards with sight words.  And since I said I wanted to share, you can find my sight word cards here. I printed them out on card stock, and then laminated. If you don't have a laminator, you can use clear contact paper to cover the cards.

Then I made some kool-aid play dough from the recipe found here.  I actually kind of regret choosing that specific recipe because I found Banana Bear eating the play dough while working on her busy bag!  If you don't want to make play dough, you can just through a can of the store bought stuff into your bag.  

Download Sight Word Cards HERE

Put the play dough and cards into a gallon sized zip-topped bag.  Ta-da! Busy Bag!

Now when Banana Bear finishes a task early, she can work on her sight words! (And hopefully, she won't eat anymore play dough! ;) ) 

A Case of the Mondays

It was Monday today. And boy, could I tell!  For some reason, Monday's are just difficult.  Maybe it's because we don't have school on the weekend, and my girls just think they are supposed to play My Little Pony all day. Whatever the reason, we had a serious case of the Mondays today!

Our morning started off with a fit from Princess.  She cried for a half an hour because I had made a new busy bag for Banana Bear, but I haven't had time to make a new one for her yet.  Throughout the morning she would let out this small whimper, "I want a new busy bag." 

At one point this morning, Banana Bear read the word "dad" then burst into tears because she missed her daddy.  We spent a good deal of time calming down, comforting, and discussing that daddy would be home in the evening.  Eventually, we got back on track...for a little bit at least!

After lunch the meltdowns returned.  Princess did not want to cut her paper.  And apparently, she thought this an appropriate thing to do with it.

Since Princess is a preschooler, I do not require that she finishes a set amount of school work each day.  At her age, learning should be through play.  She and I did however discuss the appropriate thing to do with a worksheet or project that she doesn't want to do. 

While Banana Bear was working to make a baby animal book, she declared the project was too hard.  She refused to work it. 

What was I to do?  The task was appropriate for her, but she was having a case of the Mondays.  We all get them, so what did Banana Bear and I do?

We sat down and prayed together. We first asked God to give me some grace and patience.  (I was in dire need of both of those things!)  We asked God to help her improve her attitude. We asked Him to help her learn, even when a task seems hard. 

And God listened.  He granted me the grace and patience I desperately needed.  Banana Bear pulled through and finished her task.  She even found it wasn't as hard as she was making it.

Banana Bear finishing her project.

As soon as our afternoon seemed to be getting back on track, I could hear little whimpers coming from upstairs.  Lil' Man decided that a forty-five minute nap was enough for the day! Graciously, he woke up all smiles, and we made it through to the end of our school day!

By God's grace, we made it through our homeschool day.  And even though it was a difficult one, I'm so glad that I get to be at home with my children, helping them to learn and grow!

An Ant Hill

There are ants in my kitchen.  They are making a home.  And I am not freaking out!

Actually, I did freak out a little bit when the ants came, and I had to dump them from the little vial the arrived in into the Ant Hill.  I knew that I had gotten every single ant into the hill, but I couldn't get the creepy-crawly feeling off of my skin. 

But Banana Bear and Princess have been so excited to have this little ant farm.  Though their excitement has dwindled from the first twenty-four hours of having the Ant Hill, they still spend a good deal of time looking at it every single day.  They are always amazed to see the work the ants have done since the last time they looked.

This little Ant Hill has been a great teaching tool to solidify all that we learned about insects during our last unit!  The night the ants arrived, Banana Bear was rattling off insect facts to her daddy.

"Daddy, did you know all those ants are girls? They are worker ants, and the workers are all girls!"

"Daddy, the ants are insects.  They have six legs and three body parts!"

"They have a head, a thorax, and an abdomen."

Even last night, Princess exclaimed, "Daddy, the ants are all girls!"  (She picks a lot up from her big sister!)

I am so glad that this Ant Hill was included in our kindergarten curriculum.  The girls have had so much fun with it, and it has help to reinforce all that they learned during our last unit!

A Fun Day with Insects!

Yesterday, we finished up our unit on the letter "I" and insects.  We had so much fun, and I just couldn't wait to share what we did!

We started our morning with our normal routine.  We did calendar time and our daily notebooks.  Even Lil' Man got in on our notebook time!  He and the table were covered with blue WASHABLE ;) marker!

Banana Bear worked with her Cuisenaire Rods.  She loves working with these!  The last day of every unit we do the corresponding letter from this book.  It's a great way get for her to get some hands on math.

After lunch, while Lil' Man napped, the girls got to listen to some music.  We listened to Flight of the Bumblebee while Banana Bear and Princess danced around pretending to be bees collecting nectar!  They had so much fun!  You might notice, Banana Bear "filling her pockets" while doing her dance.  She remembered that bees fill their "pockets" with pollen to take back to the hive.

After dancing, we had our reading time.  One of the books we read was The Bee Tree by Patricia Polacco.  It was a great story, in which a grandfather and granddaughter chase after bees to find a honey tree because the granddaughter is tired of studying her books.   Several people from the town join them. After they collect the honey from the tree, everyone goes back to the house and enjoys baking soda biscuits, tea and of course, the honey!  There was great moral, too.  The grandfather uses the difficulty of chasing bees to get the reward of honey as an analogy to how we chase through books to gain the reward of knowledge.  In the spirit of the book, we made baking soda biscuits to enjoy with tea and honey.

Mixing our biscuits

While we waited for our biscuits to bake, Banana Bear and I did some "ant" math.  I made up word problems to practice addition and subtraction, and Banana Bear used the raisins as ants to act out the problems.

When the biscuits finished baking, we all sat down and enjoyed tea, honey and our biscuits!   I could definitely get use to sitting down for tea with my kids every day!

And that was our extremely awesome and fun day!

The Week Ahead

It's Monday, and time to start another week!  I thought I'd share some of the things we are going to be tackling during the course of the week.

We are going to be finishing up our unit on the letter "I" and insects today.  One of the activities scheduled in our curriculum is a bug hunt.  However, being the middle of winter, we are swapping that activity for some bug math.  I have created some word problems, and Banana Bear can act them out with raisins (the bugs, you know!)  And of course that will end in eating the bugs, which is super awesome if you are a kid. 

The last day of a unit always has a fun activity planned to go along with a story.  Today we are going to read "The Bee Tree."  We are going to make baking powder biscuits, and serve them with honey and tee.  I think the Banana Bear and Princess will really enjoy our little tea party, though I'm not sure if they will actually enjoy the tea!

On Tuesday, we will be starting a new unit.  We will be learning about the letter "G" and goats.  Each unit has "Words to Remember," which is Biblical theme that unit focuses on.  Our words for this unit are "Jesus died for my sins."  My Father's World tied these words to goats because goats were used to for sacrifices during the Old Testament, but Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice to God.

One of the activities I think Banana Bear is really going to enjoy this week is making stick puppets of farm animals.  She loves making stick puppets, so I really think she is going to enjoy this activity and acting out "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" with stick puppets! 

We are also participating in a reading contest for the next seven weeks! Our public library has a winter reading contest that Banana Bear and Princess are participating in.  By reading books, they can earn "Dragon Dollars." Their Dragon Dollars can be used to buy prizes.  I have challenged the girls to earn a Dragon Dollar a day.  For their age group, this means reading (or listening to) nine books each day.  I think I have set myself up a challenge!

That's a look ahead at our week!  What does your week look like?

Banana Bear's Kindergarten

It seems like just yesterday we started this adventure in homeschooling.  And while we haven't been doing this for that long at all, the fears and concerns that I had when we started have dissipated.  My fears and concerns have been replaced by seeing first-hand the benefits of homeschooling.  And all thanks to Banana Bear starting to Kindergarten.

Banana Bear in September 

I'll admit, the first few weeks of homeschooling was a difficult adjustment for myself and Banana Bear.  I heard a lot of things like "But that's not how we did it in 4K."  Or "Ms. Tania (her 4K teacher) did it this way."  Honestly, I think Banana Bear believed homeschooling meant she was going to get to hang out in her room and play My Little Pony all day long!  Thankfully, we both adjusted to our new routine!

One of the greatest joys that has come to me through homeschooling is getting to build my relationship with Banana Bear and her siblings.  Banana Bear and I are both very strong willed, and we don't always see eye-to-eye.  She has always been closer to her Daddy, and that is something that, though hard to admit, has always made me a little jealous.  However, because of homeschooling our relationship has grown tremendously! We have grown so much closer in the last four months, and that brings such joy to my heart!

Banana Bear has also built her relationship with her siblings.  She used to fight with Princess all the time. There was constantly bickering and battling.  Now, the two of them can often play for hours peacefully. Don't get me wrong, they still have their days where they fight constantly.  Banana Bear has learned how to deal with the disagreement and solve the conflict.

Banana Bear has also learned to read.  And while this is a typical accomplishment for a Kindergartner, there is something strangely awesome about this accomplishment when it's you teaching your child this skill.  Let me compare it to this: For anyone who has children, do you remember that pride you felt for your baby when he took his first steps?  You were elated and you were in awe!  That's exactly how it felt the first time I heard Banana Bear read a book.  She had no idea I was listening, but I could hear her reading to her little sister.  I knew all the hard work we were doing was paying off.

Banana Bear at Christmas time

Now, of course we still have a long road in front of us.  We aren't even a full year into our homeschool experience.  I'm sure there will be many, many more challenges.  But I can't wait to see how much more Banana Bear grows!

Princess in Preschool

My Princess.....where to begin?  She really has grown so much since September.  Princess celebrated her third birthday in September. I am finally starting to see the end of that "Terrible Two" phase.  :)

Princess on her third birthday with her birthday present.

Her language skill have developed so much. She is able to clearly communicate her desires and needs.  In fact the other day, we were talking about letters and the sounds they make. She was having trouble remember one of the letters. Instead of just saying "I don't know" like she usually does, she said, "I need to think about it, Mama."  That is a huge step for her! 


She has learned so much in the last few months.  When we started school, she could barely name all of her colors and really struggled with shapes.  She can now name all of her colors. She knows all the basic shapes (square, circle, triangle, rectangle, star, diamond, and oval.) She has been learning the names of letters and the sounds they make.  She is better at naming the sound of a letter than she is at remember its name.  But I take that!  That should make reading a whole bunch easier for her when we start to tackle that.  (She is really interested in learning to read. She will often sit with Banana Bear and mimic her while we do reading lessons.)

Her math and counting skills have taken off!  My little girl who used to struggle to count more than three objects, can now count and graph up to ten objects!  It amazes me how much a little brain can grow in such a short period of time! 


Princess has presented me with a unique set of challenges.  The first being that she is ambidextrous.  And if she is not ambidextrous, she is a lefty-trapped in a right handed world and can't decide how to proceed with that, and therefore has decided it is best to use both hands!   And while this skill is a huge advantage to her, I have a really hard time with it.  I am right-handed, strictly!  And so her constant back and forth of hand use while trying to help her build handwriting and scissor skills is an incredibly difficult processes for my brain.  It definitely requires me to concentrate!  :) 


I have learned that because of her handedness (or lack thereof!) also means that her brain is wired differently than mine.  Princess processes her surroundings much differently than I do.  This is also a great asset to her!  She is quite the little problem solver, and seems to have an innate understanding of math concepts!  It just takes me a bit longer to figure how she is seeing a problem or situation. 


Princess is my princess.  She is an attention seeker and loves cuddles!  (Which is a good thing because she is the middle child, and anyone who is the middle child or has a middle child, knows how they can inadvertently get left out--she reminds me she needs me if she been left out too much lately.  I'm definitely not a perfect parent!)  But she is also independent, and loves to do her own thing!  It should be interesting as the next few years progress, and we start kindergarten with her.  That very independent, I'll do as I want nature, may provide a difficult challenge!

Lil' Man Growing Up

Lil' Man has grown up so much since we started school in September.  And all of his growing up has created so many challenges!!

At the end of September, Lil' Man celebrated his very first birthday!  And that was just the first milestone in the last few months.

Posing with his "cheesy" grin before devouring his cake

Since his birthday, Lil' Man has gone from army crawling to crawling to walking.  And now, we are on to running!  Man, is that little boy fast.  This running business can present a challenge when it come to our schooling.  Lil' Man loves to grab whatever he can get into and take off running!  So, he might grab a worksheet and take off running.  And he thinks it's hilarious!!  The current solution is to make sure that he has enough toys to keep him distracted while we are having school, and work on activities that don't require as much concentration when he is around.

That brings me to the next challenge Lil' Man has thrown my way.  Way back in September, Lil' Man was napping twice a day.  This was very convenient.  Lil' Man napped for two hours twice a day.  That was an easy four hours of school with no (well, fewer) distractions! Fast forward, and he's now only napping once a day for a couple of hours.  To deal with the greater distractions he provides, we have had to make some adjustments.  Our morning now consists of calendar time, daily notebooks, Bible lessons and story time. These activities tolerate the distractions a toddler creates pretty well!  In the afternoon, while he is napping, we focus on the activities that require more concentration: reading lesson, math, and any projects that are too messy for Lil' Man.  

And the final challenge Lil' Man has created is that he has become a toddler!  Yes, I knew that would happen, and having two other children I knew the challenges that would bring.  But this Lil' Man gets into so much more than either of his sisters did!  He is a problem solver.  If I take something away, instead of just playing with the appropriate toy I gave him, he will try to find a way to get the inappropriate object back!  He will climb, he will crawl, and he will turn laundry baskets over and drag them to the right place to climb on something.  He is one smart cookie! 

But challenges and all, he is awesome!  It's so cool to be at home with him every day.  He loves to cuddle up and read a book. He is super observant (which is why he can get into so much trouble so fast!) and I think that when the time comes for him to "officially" start school in a few years that he is going to inherently get what's going on and learning will come easy to him.  Time will tell!  Love that Lil' Man!

A New Year's Resolution

With the turn of the calendar last week, I sat down and reflected on my life the last year.  I saw the amazing things I have accomplished in my life, but I also many areas for improvement. 

One of those areas for improvement was this blog.  It has been severely neglected since we started school in September.  I want this to be a place where I can keep track of all the things we are doing in school, and that hasn't happened. And I could give several reasons why I haven't been blogging about our homeschooling experience: I'm busy, I'm tired, I have better things to do.

But if I'm completely honest with myself, it's because I don't use my time effectively.  (And that's a whole different goal that I am working on this year.) But if I can manage to make a more effective use of my time, I can and will find time to write about our homeschooling experiences.  And so, I have set a goal to write at least three times a week.  It really shouldn't be that hard if I commit myself. 

I want to be able to look back and see what we've accomplished in our little school.  And while I save the papers and projects we do, it's not the same as writing about the experience.  The feelings that come along with those papers and projects we do, don't stay with those papers and projects.  But if I write down those feelings and experiences, we suddenly have a record of how homeschooling "felt." 

So my three-times-a-week writing plan looks something like this (although it is subject to change!)

• One post about our plans for the week.  What are the goals for the week?  What are we going to be learning about?  What are the challenges and concerns for the week?  What are we excited about for the week?  Are there any special projects or trips planned for the week?
• One post about how our week actually went.  Did we accomplish our goals?  What did the kids really enjoy? What didn't they like to do as much?  What was my favorite and least favorite parts of the week?  What unexpected things came up that changed our plans? How do we feel at the end of the week?
• One "grab-bag" post.  It might be a highlight of a special project we did or maybe a trip we took.  It might be a post airing out the exhaustion of all of this plate-spinning.  It might be a post thanking God for the wonderful opportunity He has provided us in homeschooling.  You never know!

This week, I am going to deviate from the above plan and write a post about each of the kids.  I want to write an update about each of them, and get everyone back up to speed about where we are.  

And that's it. Three posts a week.  Not hard, just requires me to give it my commitment!  Here we go!