Homeschool Fun: Birthday

I thought a birthday themed week would be an excellent build up to Jayne's birthday party, which will be on Sunday. He had so much fun with it too. He loved playing keep the balloons off the floor, classic game. He really liked the birthday pack from Homeschool Creations. His favorite was the find the cake game. We played it every day during school, taking turns and having fun. He did the size cards very well and played with the 3 part cards too. The find the cake game definitely took the cake this week.

Jayne reveals the cake

His sensory bin was very cute too this week. He liked using the tweezers to pick out the beads (cake sprinkles) and tried to pick up everything he could with them. We took this fun little tweezers from his bug collecting kit. It worked out great and it will help him work the muscles he needs to hold a pencil correctly. We somehow ended up not having any art time this week! We have been busy preparing for his birthday party.

Jayne picks up an extra friend

Next week we start school! Not that we haven't been doing school anyway, but this will be full swing. It also means getting into our routine. It is going to be a great way to make sure everything is accomplished and that we make time for the important things like spending time together as a family and getting enough rest.

Homeschool Fun: Hot Dogs

It was a light week since I didn't make many pages (the computer issue). It turned out to be good timing though. Jayne had a nasty cold most of the week and my allergies hit hard toward the end. Jayne really loved the sheets that I did make and I think I will add more to the collection and make it one of his school year packs. Jayne liked the cut and paste sheets the best. That boy loves cutting! He did a great job of cutting on the lines. We also had a line tracer and pattern cards, oh and a hot dog colors book. The sensory bin this time around was another big success. This week we had red beans. I put in Barbie hot dogs, hamburgers, steaks, buns, and grill. Jayne got to dig through and find all the meat and grill it. We also measured how many beans his measuring spoons and cups could hold. I discovered that while he isn't good at his teens, he can count the 20s perfectly! His tiny root beer mug held 61 beans and he enjoyed getting to know some higher numbers.

I plan to share my hot dog pack with all my fans and followers once I reach 50 followers on the blog or 300 fans on our facebook page (http://facebook.com/thecrazyelephant). So, make sure to share!

Homeschool Fun: Ocean



Jayne size sorts



We had an awesome ocean week! We did so much, especially since Adam had the week off. We worked with the preschool pack from homeschool creations. Jayne played with the size sorting whales the most and the puzzle. He is getting really good at sorting, that has always been a good "subject" for him. If I could only get him to put that sorting talent to work in his bedroom, I would be one happy Meme! We didn't do many of the worksheet this time around, but we had a very busy week.

Caught a  fish

Jayne's favorite at home activity was his sensory bin. I put water in it with a Barbie fish tank. Jayne had to fill the fish tank with water and then catch the fish to put inside. He really liked using different things to fill it up with and leaned toward the quicker items. He was so excited when we had the big bin reveal and it was the only thing he wanted to do all week. Thant is until...

A South African Penguin

We went on our big field trip! We went up to the Minnesota Zoo. It was a great as ever, though considerably busier than we are used to. Their new entrance threw us off a bit as it moved near the discovery bay area. It was beautiful though. They also opened up a new penguin exhibit. They were great showmen! You would think the penguins were performing. They were very active and they swam right in front of us. We spent lots of time looking at all the ocean animals and took lots of pictures. Jayne also fed the goats and got lots of practice taking his own pictures. I do believe we could have a little photographer on our hands.

With less than 3 weeks till the official start of school, we are nearly ready. Are you?

Homeschool Fun: Monster Trucks

Jayne works on word cards

We had a great monster truck week! Jayne could have spent all day every day in his classroom doing monster truck stuff. We based our week on the monster truck preschool pack from 1+1+1=1. It was a great pack to work with. Jayne enjoyed the worksheets and activities. He liked the mini book, color matching game, and word cards the best. The word cards are going to be a great tool for school. I didn't know what they were until this week and now that we have figured them out, I love them! It is a 3 part matching game. There is one card with a picture and a word, one with just the picture, and one with just the word. By the end of the week he was getting pretty quick at getting all the sets together.

Jayne paints with his car

We had a lot of fun with art time this week. Jayne loved painting with his car. We put the paint in a small paper plate and he got to run his car through the paint and then drive the car on the paper. The car was fairly easy to clean with a scrub brush. We decided to let the picture and the plate dry. The painting is hanging in his classroom and the plate became a mud pit for him to drive his cars in. He really liked getting a toy out of the deal.

Sculpting with Bendaroos

We spent the rest of the week's art time working with his new bendaroo set (same as wiki sticks). This was an amazing find. We went to a couple of stores looking for manipulatives for his sensory bin and ended up finding a set of 500 bendaroos for $2 at the thrift store in town. They were virtually unused and while I haven't actually counted them, and won't, it was an excelent deal for something I wanted to get for his classroom anyway. Jayne had a lot of fun with them. He started out doing flat line pictures and then he moved into some 3-dimentional sculpture. Once he went 3-D there was no turning back. I think he likes the bendaroos more than play-doh!

Sensory bin time

His sensory box this week had sand and cars. Jayne spent a good portion of his time building the sand into fun monster truck tracks and racing the cars all over. He added to the box a little too by putting in a cup and marble. Toward the end of the week he was making ponds and filling his cup with sand. Ironically enough, the cars were not even in the equation by the last day. He also enjoyed the Modern Marvels: Monster Trucks show on our netflix que. He hasn't actually been introduced to the idea of monster trucks before and the film was great. It was educational and exciting. He used the film (watched at least 5 or 6 times over the week) to build his sand tracks.

Mud mountain cake

Last but not least, Food Friday! We actually had our special treat on wednesday, Adam's day off. Adam baked Jayne a chocolate monster truck mud hill. They even built a lego monster truck to go on it. The cake was delisous and we made the descition that it will be the cake for Jayne's birthday. I especially like that it doesn't need frosting. It was so flavorful and good. Adam said it tastes almost like a brownie and I think he is right.

We had such a fun week for school. It was deffinately his favorite so far. He is so excited to get busy on next week and the week after and the week after that. I am really happy that he is so excited to do school each day. He has a lot of great ideas about what he wants to learn about and I am letting him help get the room ready each week. He loves being able to stock the room with all of his ideas.