Homer Price

The second book we read with Sonlight Core B with Grade 2 Readers is Homer Price. The kids really loved it and sat still with their quiet time activities so I could read. It wasn't a struggle and E-V-E-R-Y time I thought they were going into la la land, I would as a question about something I had just read and A-L-L my kids were able to answer them!!!!! Now the Instructor's Guide does come with a list of items to talk about, but we don't use it. Just don't have the time and reading comprehension has never been an issue so I want to keep reading fun and not make it a chore.

Speaking of fun, our activity for this book was a big winner. We even invited some friends over to enjoy the fun as well. (They homeschool too!!) A couple of things to know. We didn't give the dough the full time to rise the two times the recipe call for, time just wasn't our friend that day and I forgot the shortening. The later explains why the dough was so sticky,lol. But even with those two errors, the doughnuts still turned out great and I think everyone had a wonderful time cutting out and eating their doughnuts!!!

Our neighbor friend and JJ working on the dough.

Even princesses can get a little dirty too but hey this is Snow White so she use to the mess.

We used a spice cap to cut out the holes.

Working with LJ.

Snow White just waiting to play with the extra dough.

Frying up the doughnuts, which took almost NO time at all!!

Making our own little holes, it was cool for even me to see the dough cook.

Enjoying the fruits of our labor. 

I'm not sure what Snow White is dumping her doughnut in, lol.  This is the same child who eats ketchup with her pancakes so there is no telling!

See mom, its really good. Ahhh boys!!!!

Well that is about all the excitement we could have with Homer Price, I wasn't going to try to rob a bank or get a pet skunk and no super heroes were in the neighborhood but I think making doughnuts was a whole adventure in its self. Thanks neighbors for joining in the fun!!!!!

Busy Book

I have a couple of blogs that I try to keep up. L2L is my main blog that I just kinda blog what I'm most interested in at the moment and that just happens to be sewing right now. So for one of my posts I put together a busy book for CJ and then had to come up with some ideas of how to fill the thing up, lol.

I found these huge colored paper clips at Dollar Genenral for a $1 and decided to use them to help her learn how to recognize her color words.

So in "pockets" 1 and 2 I have the color paperclips and a calculator that I picked up at the $1 Store.( I haven't meet a Pre-Ker that doesn't like to play with a calculator!!!)

In "pockets" 3 and 4 I have a puzzle I made by printing off a colored picture, laminating it and cutting it into 6 pieces. ( You could do fewer or more depending on the ability of your child and it is an easy activity to change with the seasons.) and playing cards. I drew a 1 on the Ace card and then have her put the numbers in order from 1 to 10.

"Pockets" 5 and 6 are stuffed with a mini composition book and pencil as well as a simple bracelet craft. I picked up both at the $1 Store. The mini composition books came in a pack of 3.

And finishing up the book in "pockets" 7 and 8 are some doll magnets and a outline with CJs name laminated and a dry erase marker.

I'm pretty happy with the way this turned out and can't wait to try my hand at making a busy bag for the boys!!!

Charlotte's Web Week 1

One of the things I really like about Sonlight Core B are the readers. Our first reader of the year is Charlotte's Web and it is a great way to ease into notebooking. We have adapted notebooking, as most things, to our liking. I got each child a Composition Book and have cut and pasted different things into the books. We call them our field journals and for Charlotte's Web we have added pages on:


Embryology

parts of a chicken and what the grade of an egg is.

And we a mini study on spiders as well.

I took a break from notebooking for Homer Price but do have a fun activity to share next week!!!!

Homeschool Blogs

I found some lists of the "Best Homeschool Blogs" and thought it would be fun to share them with you. Not sure what they did to determine why they were the best but here they are none the less. Feel free to leave the link to your favorite homeschool blog as well, I would give you mine but you are already here!!!!!

Top 50 Homeschool Blogs

10 Best Homeschooling Blogs

Homeschool Blog Awards

A compliment

this morning I spent 2 and half hours in a waiting room while my husband had exams done on his eyes. Thankfully I packed up all our lessons in a basket to take with me, just in case we were there for more than 45 minutes. Cool thing was we were able to get almost all our school work done while waiting. One of my favorite lessons wasn't even planned but I was able to knock out about 5 math lessons without JJ even knowing it. In his book it has him counting from 0 to 300, in different stages. I know he can do it so I never make him count for the sake of counting. But today we decided to count the square tiles up and down the hall to see how many there were. And wouldn't you believe it was 300 and JJ counted every one. Some how I think that was more exciting than just sitting behind a desk and counting. But it gets better, the boys and I all read together, out loud..... not sure why I hadn't thought about that before. Since there was a T.V. in the waiting area it was hard for me to keep their attention, so I told them they had to follow along and when I stopped reading they better be able to pick up where I left off. This worked well because I was able to regain their attention when it started to wander. And it was fun to all read together.

After we got into the car, my husband told me how the doctor complimented us on how well behaved our children are. He said most children would have been a mess by that time. My husband said, "Well we spend alot of time with our children because we homeschool." The doctor cut in, " I could tell, we home schooled our children too!!!" I just hope we shed a good light on other parents to how well homeschooling works and how fun it is!!!!! And the cool part was when we got home we were able to enjoy the day!!!! Yes I would say that was a very successful homeschool kind of day. I'm grateful for each one of them and take them in any fashion they come!!!!! How about you, do you take school with you out and about? How have others reacted to you?

Break 1

Well we are on Break 1 for the year. It's really a catch up week but it has come at the perfect time. We don't have much to catch up on and we finished our first Read Aloud, Charlotte's Web. So this pause seemed like a natural beat in our schedule. I am hoping this will mean I can upload the chicken and spider worksheets I used. Until then here are some pics of the day we studied the egg. That was loads of fun!!!!

Here we soaked our eggs in vinegar, they were suppose to bounce after 3 days but our didn't. I've very thankful the kids insisted that we go outside to test them out!!!

Cracking open the egg

and of course touching it

and being silly with it

JJ was very serious about his observations

and what's an experiment without an accident

CJ was N-O-T very happy at this point. 

The kids are still talking about Charlotte's Web and we have even had a chance to go hunting spider webs and identify them. It's really neat to see them learning together and retaining what they are discovering!! I think to finish off our break we are going to make spider webs out of glue and glitter. CJ found a book at the library called Aarrgghh Spider that sparked this idea.  I think our next book is Homer Price and I am so looking forward to making homemade doughnuts!!!!!

Missionary Stories with the Millers

is one of my favorite books to read with the children. I remember sitting in front of our big world map with LJ and just bawling my eyes out as I read each chapter. And even as I read the 1st chapter to all three children, once again I got choked up!!! Now since the boys are a bit older and baby girl isn't so demanding I am able to expand a little in our lessons so we are doing three new things this go round with the book.

1. Making Missionary Meals each Friday to explore either the country the missionary is in or was from.
2. Notebooking the country the missionary is in and/or from.
3. Learning the meaning of each country's flag

I am keeping a running list of all the links and worksheets that I make in my right hand column so if you are using Sonlight Core B as well, you might find the notebooking pages useful!Happy Homeschooling.