Happy Halloween

 What a great neighborhood we live in!  At 5:00 there was a neighborhood Halloween block party, everyone brought a dish and they had a fire pit in the culdesac for kids to roast marshmallows.  They also had games for the kids.  Then around 6:30 the trick or treating began.  We went the the girls' friend Ellie from down the street.

 One more thing we did for the Jesse Bear book was to have a teddy bear picnic.  I have a mini bear cookie cutter, so we had bear bread with honey to dip it in, teddy grahams, yogurt, bear apple slices with peanut butter to dip.

Jesse Bear

We spent a week on the book Jesse Bear.

We started the day with bear pancakes.

 Sienna did a beginning sound sheet.

 Inside the B Rylie chose from a group of pictures, things that started with the "buh" sound and glued them inside the B.  Then I hid the bears all over the house and they had to find them with my clues.

 Sienna's drawing.

Rylie chose from several foods the foods that Jesse Bear at for lunch to glue on the plate.

 For lunch they had Jesse Bear's lunch: "Carrots and peas and a little more please.  Celery with crunch and sprouts in a bunch.  An apple to bite and a moustache of white.  Juice from a pear and rice in his hair."  We didn't have any apples left so we substituted peaches.  And believe it or not the kids didn't complain about the alfalfa sprouts on the celery!  

 Sienna had her first experience measuring with a ruler.

 Rylie did some patterns.

 Rylie did the proper clothing worksheet.

 Matching rhyming cards.

 She always shows me the answer before she places the number in the box to check if she's correct.

 We talked about patterns and they each colored the US flag for an example of a pattern.

"Jesse Bear ate the rice.  Jesse Bear, Jesse Bear, what will you wear, what will you wear at noon?  I'll wear my chair.  You'll wear your chair?  Cause I'm stuck in my chair at noon.  He went to bed. A rose between his toes.  Wear sand on his arm."  - Narrated by Sienna 9/14/12

Ft Belvior Fall Festival

When it got dark they showed "It's a Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" on the lawn.  The girls totally loved watching a movie outside.

The next night we had Monster Milkshakes and watched a Halloween movie at home.  My 3rd eye is sinking on the shake :)

Some random recent things

 During our co-op's park day the park police came around with their horses.  And we got a little lesson on what all park police do and also on some basic horse care.  Notice none of the boys are in the picture, all the girls ran for the horses, but the boys didn't care as much.

We read about Moses and the parting of the Red Sea and then we put vinegar in the bottle and baking soda in the balloon and attached it and watched the balloon blow up by itself.  We talked about how this was a trick, but that God doesn't need any tricks, etc.

Skye Chase photo

Finally got around to getting a photo of the girls in their uniforms for our homeschool co-op on Fridays.  They have Montessori items for the 3 & 4 year olds and Sienna has the following classes this semester:  Creative Art, Storybook Cooking (they read a story and cook something that relates to the story), Handwriting Without Tears, and Little Mathematicians.

Sienna's favorite class is "cooking because I get to eat food."

Rylie's favorite thing is "counting and learning my numbers."

I so love the women in the co-op they are very welcoming and nice and the girls love the classes, but not sure if I'll do it or not next year.  It is taking up more time than I had thought and they don't really need co-op classes at this age.  I would like something where there is just field trips and park days.  Also, with co-op you have to take your turn teaching and although I love teaching my kids I am not loving the idea of coming up with lesson plans to teach a whole bunch of kids.  I am committed this year so we will finish it out, but not sure about next year.  Flexibility was one of the many reasons we chose to homeschool and being committed to the co-op for 9 months doesn't really allow us as much flexibility as I was hoping to have.  I was also hoping being it was Kindergarten I would have more time for crafts, baking, nature walks, and some travel with the girls.  I wish I would've stuck with my promise to myself to not do a co-op this year, but the women at church were so nice they swayed me to try it out.  Hopefully they will understand if I decide to not do it next year.  

Sienna teaching Rylie the Plegde of Allegiance

School pictures

Just got around to taking our "1st day of school" pictures today....way late!  I am looking forward to seeing how what they want to be when they grow up will change over the years.

 Rylie just wants to be herself when she grows up.....smart girl!

   We read a little about Columbus today and then found this website:    http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/famouspeople/christopher_columbus/ 

There was fun stuff for young kids under games.  Both girls loved playing the games, where they also learned about Columbus. 

Our Columbus Day boat in a bottle.

What happened?

Me:  "What happened?

Ry:  "I don't know the marker just accidenty fell onto my hands."

Me:  "Really?  It did?  And it just happened to fall and draw circles on both of your hands and lines on all of  your fingers?"

Ry(very serious):  "Yeah."

Liturgical Wheel & a few other things

This was done by an 11 yr old in our co-op.  She does a way better job than I do!

 Good motor skills with the tongs along with an introduction to the color wheel. 

The girls each made a Liturgical Season Wheel to help them learn about the different seasons of the Church year.  I precut everything and they just had to glue it on.  This idea was from http://catholicicing.com/.  That website has lots of great ideas, I'm sure we will be borrowing some more in the future.

 Not sure why when I posted the next 2 photos blogger kept turning them sideways.

Our homeschool room

We use the back 1/2 of an L-shaped family room downstairs for our school area.  Paul built the 2 long shelves for me and we use the large TV cabinet at the end for storage of all the supplies.  Carpet remnant & pad underneath the carpet (also remnant) from Home Depot.  You can buy the leftover remnants for a fairly good price.

 This is Ry's shelf.

 This shelf has some fun extras for them.

 This is Sienna's shelf. 

Technically Montessori should have 5 shelves 1 for practical life, 1 for language, 1 for math, 1 for culture & science, and 1 for sensorial, however I don't have room for all of that plus a separate art area.  So I will just be rotating things on and off the 3 shelves as they are using them.