Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.

We will be starting our second semester of school next week and I am looking forward to getting back on schedule. LittleBit is not excited about starting back, he mentioned he really does not like handwriting. I did tell him if he worked hard next week, on Saturday we would go the the Adventure Science Center. He told me he would try his very best.

We have several new projects to do this semester, he received several very cool Christmas gifts that will fun to do. We have electronic snap circuits, a tin can robot and a motor generator to work with. These will be great science projects for us.

Wordless Wednesday - Helping

Melted Snowman Cookes

Today we made Christmas cookies, melted snowman sugar cookies. They are so easy and cute. I got the idea from http://staceyssweetshop.blogspot.com/2009/12/melted-snowman-cookie-tutorial-part-1.html
You can get detailed instructions on her blog.

We used sugar cookies and I let him form and smash down the cookie dough. The more misshapen they are the better. After they baked and cooled we added royal icing and one slightly melted marshmallow. After the icing set up, we used orange sprinkles for a nose(I just picked out the orange ones from a multicolor bottle of sprinkle) and then with a food writer pen, I let LittleBit add eyes and hands.

It was so easy and a fun time for him. This could be used all winter long since it is snowmen. I am sure we will make them again this winter.

Small Update and Birthday

I am sorry I have not posted in a couple of weeks. Hubby and LittleBit were in a small wreck, nobody was hurt, but it totaled the car. Right before Thanksgiving the alternator on our other car went out, and it took a few days to get it fixed with the holiday and all. I have been trying to plan our vacation and the weather is not working with me at all.

I am working on an end of first semester update. We have finished our first semester this week. We will officially start back after the new year. This month we will do several craft projects for Christmas, work in our math books and read. I will try to get the post up by early next week.

In the meantime, it is LittleBit's birthday. Happy Birthday!

Deconstructing

Singapore Math Practice Books 1A and 1B

This week we started working from the Singapore Math Practice books. We have been working with the Singapore Workbook 1B and we came to point in the textbook where you begin to add 3 or more numbers together. I feel he does not have a completely solid understanding of basic math facts and want to have more of them memorized before we move on. In order to help, I ordered the extra practice books from amazon.com. The books are 9.99 and are part of Amazon's buy 4 pay for 3 promotion. I ordered the 2 practice books plus a book for Christmas and the book Bible Heroes and Bad Guys for less than 25.00 with free shipping.

So far, I like the extra practice books, they have perforated pages so you can tear out the number of pages you want to use for the day. We are working through book 1A, we have finished Unit 1 and he enjoyed the sheets, there was adding, matching, coloring and writing involved. Between the extra practice and his new Cosmic Math game on Leapster he is getting a lot of extra math practice.

Weekly review - 16 Student became the teacher

I can't believe we are near the end of our first semester this year. We will be finished the last week on November and then we will do some light things through December and start back in January. Last year we did not do anything through December and when it was time to start back in January, it not go well we both had a rough time getting back into the swing of things.

I am planning on Christmas themed activities for December and we will continue to work on math and reading.

This week we did a lot of "playing" he tried to teach me how to play chess. As I have mentioned before he has learned to play chess with the No Stress Chess game. This week he decided I needed to learn how to play. Let me just say, I don't like chess and I have no desire to learn how to play chess but since he wanted to show me how I had no option but to play. When my husband and I were first married he tried to teach me how to play and we decided that me learning how to play chess was not in the best interest of our marriage. This shows how much I don't get chess.



It was amazingly easy and if someone (not me) would like to learn how to play chess this is a great way. With the board having the placement of the pieces printed for you and the cards telling you who to move and how, it made for an easy way to learn chess. While I still have no desire to learn chess, it was a good time.

This week we also played scrabble both working on spelling and counting the points.

One other thing he did this week was, he earned a new game for his leapster, cosmic math. I have has this game for a while and was holding it back because it is math for grades 1 through 4 and I was worried it would be too difficult and frustrating for him. Boy, was I wrong, he loves the game he has played it non stop, the first level is simple addition and he was so excited to get enough points to get to do subtraction. I offered to help with any problems he did not know the answer to and he said no he wanted to do it all by himself. He has memorized more math facts playing that game than in two weeks of worksheets.


As a quick review of the leapster and games, I love them. He has had the leapster since he was 2 and still plays with it, I think we have every game there is out there. I like the learning aspect of the games, it is perfect for car trips and doctor appointments.

Muffin Tin Monday - Breakfast

I finally made it back to muffin tin Monday. I have not done a muffin tin the last few weeks, after all of us being sick and me just plain forgetting last week. Last week LittleBit was asking when is muffin tin Monday again and couldn't we do muffin tin Wednesday. So I had to remember this week, all be it 10pm on Sunday night, but I remembered.

Since there was no theme this week (thank goodness) I did a breakfast theme. He had apple slices, raisins, yogurt, juice, rice krispies(his new favorite cereal) and part of a Krispy Kreme donut.

Weekly Review - 15

This week we got back into the swing of things. We went back to working in our Singapore Math book finished with the review and I have decided to order an extra practice book. The next section is adding 3 or more numbers together to begin learning multiplication. I feel he is not ready for that yet and we need more practice with adding/subtracting and basic facts. He is completely enjoying working in the Singapore math word problems book, he loves them. He brought me the book one day last week and asked if we could do some word problems. I seriously have to wonder if he is my kiddo or not!

We are sailing right through the First Language lessons, it is so repetitive we are both tired of it but we keep moving on. I am positive you could wake him out of a dead sleep and ask, "what is a noun?" and he could tell you verbatim the definition according to the book.

We read three more chapters in our Story of the World history book and of course did as much map work as I could find. He loves his maps worksheets.

He is enjoying moving onto copy work and in order to get more handwriting out of him I am letting him copy work from his lego catalogs or lego comics. He thinks its great and doesn't mind practicing as much.

While working on some coloring sheets he told me, "coloring is like watching paint dry, it is so boring". Funny funny boy.

Besides school this week, he studied and practiced for his next belt in TaeKwonDo, he did great.

He and Dad deconstructed a cooling fan for a laptop computer that has met an untimely end. He was a big help in replacing the speakers in the truck, he learned all about removing a door panel, how speakers work, how it important to have the right tools so you finish faster and with less headaches, how the door locks work etc. It was a fun time with Dad and a little learning too.

Scavenger Hunt with pictures

Today for something fun and different to do we had a scavenger hunt with pictures. I gave LittleBit the digital camera and sent him on a hunt for things. Here are a just a few pictures he took 5 letter "T"s and 5 animals. I did find it funny I asked for 5 things that began with the letter T and he found 5 letter "T"s.







The Animals

Weekly Review - 14

This was a bit of a slow week, while I have gotten over the flu I am still coughing every time I talk, or move much. Feeling like you are coughing up a lung does not go well with reading and school work but we did have good week. Mostly this week we caught up on worksheets and history reading. We were behind on a few maps sheets and a Columbus Day word search.

Math with Monopoly and other board games

Dad and Little Bit usually enjoy a game of chess at night before bed. Last year for Christmas we purchased No Stress Chess, http://www.amazon.com/Winning-Moves-1091-Stress-Chess/dp/B0007Q1IO4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1256765036&sr=8-1

It has been great, if you are looking for a easy way to teach Chess to your kids, I would recommend this set. You play with cards, which tell you which piece to move and how they move. This way by using the cards you learn how each piece can move and when. Little Bit has recently started playing without the cards and is doing great at playing a regular game of chess.

Recently he wanted to play Monopoly, it has been a great way to work on his math skills. We use the dice to add and it he loves to help you add your dice and count the moves for the pieces around the board. He enjoys collecting properties and adding the rent money.

Scrabble is also a great game to play and you can work on spelling skills. We when we play scrabble usually it is me and Little Bit against Dad. It is always fun and interesting to see what words Little Bit tries to make. I just purchased the new Scrabble Slam card game, I hope it will be fun.

Board games are a great family night activity and make an excellent Christmas gift.

Weekly Review - The Flu

This has been a long week. Dad got the flu last week and I came down with it on Sunday night. Little Bit was given Tamiflu as soon as Dad got sick hoping he would not get it, with his heart condition this flu could be dangerous for him. So far it has worked, he has had the sniffles and a cough all week but it has not gotten any worse.

We are behind very little school was done last week although Dad did try for a couple of days. I am behind on school, housework and everything else. This upcoming week will be catch up week for all of us. I was hoping to be done with this semester of school by Thanksgiving but we will be going into December now.

Little Bit and Dad did a little handwriting and he did work with him on his math. He also finished a 100 piece Spiderman puzzle this week. He also got a good bit further in the Wii Star Wars Lego game and had a great time building all kinds of lego creations, I am sure there is a learning application in there somewhere:)



I look forward to getting back to our schedule and getting caught up this week.

Weekly Review

Sorry I have been MIA, the past several days. Little Bit and Dad are both sick. Dad has the flu and Little Bit is is having sinus trouble(I think that is all it is). Little Bit is taking Tamiflu and I am hoping that will keep him from getting sicker.

We did get in a few days of school last week. He did well on everything but math for some reason we have hit a wall with math. He is not wanting to do his practice sheets and he is getting frustrated with easy math questions he should know the answers to. I am looking at purchasing the extra practice books from Singapore for us to use. I will see how next week goes, maybe he was just having a bad week.


Here is hoping we have a better week next week and I will be able to update the blog better.

Armors of God

In TaeKwonDo he has to learn 3 of the Armors of God for his next belt testing. This week we are learning Ephesians 6:10 for our Bible verse.

Eph. 6:10

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.

He is learning about the helmet of salvation, sword of spirit and shield of faith. I was able to find some coloring pages and activities for us to do, in order to reinforce the lesson. Here are a couple of links: http://www.coloring.ws/armor.htm
and http://www.dltk-bible.com/word-search/wordsearch-armor.htm

As a side note, I am happy to see a great deal of improvement in his coloring from the beginning of the year. While he still does not like coloring at all he understands it is one of the things he has to learn to do.

Muffin Tin Monday - Kabobs

It is time for muffin tin Monday, this weeks theme is Kabobs. Click on the button above to learn more about muffin tin Mondays. I forgot all about the theme this week, I had planned on getting some cute picks, etc for today. Thank goodness I had regular toothpicks in the house, I was surprised I had them.

We are having lunch for 2 today. We are having:

1. club sandwiches
2. cheese sampler
3. fruit - cantaloupe and apples
4. chicken w/ bell pepper and pineapple( a taste of dinner - stuffed bell peppers)
5. Smore kebab
6. Peach fruit drink

White Board Easel

I completely forgot about a white/chalk board easel I had in the garage. When we redid his bedroom, I had moved it out of the way. I think it will make a great way for us to practice math and spelling words. He was excited to see it and couldn't wait to make up his own math problems on it. I am sure I will be seeing a bunch of drawings of cars, factories being torn down and space shuttles also.

Weekly Update - Week 13

This was a busy week, Daddy was travelling, TaeKwonDo classes, the dog knocking over and breaking my laptop and of course, school.

We did quite a lot of school work this week. I found several Reader Rabbit workbooks I had bought last year in some, I found a great deal on school stuff buying binge:) I am not the only one who has those, right?

Little Bit wanted to do them and so we did quite a bit in the workbooks this week. I am just letting him write in the books and do what ever pages he wants to. They are a great reinforcing tool for our lessons. He thinks they are fun and not school work so it works out great.

We also started Galloping the globe this week. He is interested in map work and the activities in the book work well with our history lessons.

We studied the continents this week, getting ready for Columbus day. He was supposed to go canoeing next week for a Columbus day celebration but it was cancelled. We will still finish our small unit study of Columbus on Monday.

We continue our daily work on math facts and he continuing to sail through Singapore Math 1B. He is getting faster on the worksheets so I feel like I am seeing improvement in his memorization of basic math facts.



We started a new book this week National Treasure the Book of Secrets. It is a book for ages 9 to 12 and is difficult enough for him he needs a little help with some of the words but interesting enough with a mystery and treasure hunt that it is interesting. It will be a fun read together book.

We have not started Kinderbach yet, see the above comment about the dog knocking over the laptop and the screen no longer working.

Muffin Tin Monday - All about Me

Good Morning! Today is Muffin Tin Monday and the theme today is All about Me. I decided to try and do food that represents some of his favorite things. Since last week, we did his favorite snack foods. We had

Apple Alphabet slices - he loves to read and learn new things
Cheddar Cheese Wii remote - he loves Wii, Leapster and board games
Yogurt w/ graham cracker - he loves playing outside in his sandbox
PB&J car - he loves all things transportation related especially Hot Wheels
Sugar Wafer Board - he loves TaeKwonDo, breaking boards and sparring
Lego Jello blocks - he loves loves loves LEGOs


In handwriting today we will also be filling out a questionnaire about his favorites.

Weekly Review - Week 12

After being sick last week it was good to get back to school work this week. We started out a little slow getting back into the swing of things and he was still a little tired.

This week there was a lot of reading, he was on a reading tear this week. He would read at rest time, ask to read before school etc. He picked mostly books from his bookcase in his room, where he has his favorite books.

We worked in the Singapore math workbook this week. He is working more independently and not asking so many questions while working on them.


He finished his first word puzzle in spelling by himself this week. He was so proud. I will have to look for some fun activity books with word puzzles and searches for our next road trip.

In history we studied about Hammurabi and Gilgamesh. He is loving the map work but not the coloring pages.

In handwriting we wrote a birthday note to Uncle Paul, practiced his spelling words, and wrote the poem he came up with.

Overall it was a good week and by the end of the week his appetite returned along with this energy. He was able to return to TaeKwonDo class. Next week should be a return to our full schedule.