Saturday, April 2, 2011

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Thursday, December 3, 2009

A Word Family Christmas

Look what we did today!


We've been having fun with word families and rhyming lately and I thought I'd step it up a bit with a holiday themed wall game. I love wall games. More importantly, so do the kids!




Here's a side view where you can see the brads sticking out from the surface of the poster board. We just barely pushed them through. Just enough that we could bend a portion of the back over and then we taped over the back to keep the brads standing proud.






I gave the kids a tag punch that I found in my craft supplies and let them go to town with some scrap paper and some white card stock. I then glued the pretty tags to the white ones to make them good and sturdy. Putting those strings on 60+ tags took the longest and, if I were to do this again, I would probably purchase pre-strung tags to save about an hours work.








I programmed the back (white) side of each tag with a word that matched the word endings that I put on the presents (also cut from scrap patterned paper).







I ended up with a bit over 60 tags for eight different endings. I hung them just above the poster with cup hooks. Those things come in handy all over the house.






Here you can see the game in progress. With three children, I expect it will take us a few days or maybe even longer to finish this game. I'll have them each take three turns a day for a while and see how that goes. They certainly had fun today!

The presents are a simple shape cut from patterned paper and then I drew just three lines to give them dimension. I used a bow shape to program the presents with the word endings. If we want to, we can change up the endings or even the purpose of this game by putting new bows on with numbers as answers to math problems on the tags, or really any kind of matching game you can think of!





Here you see a correct match being made . . . by Mommy! The kids were in bed when I took the photo, but I'll try and shoot a few of them playing tomorrow. :)

Monday, November 23, 2009

Our Daily Organizer

We love workboxes, a system created by Sue Patrick.

If you have little ones, or even bigger ones, that you are working with at home, you should visit her site, then google 'workboxes' and check out all the blogs with loads of information about how various people have morphed the system to work better for them. It's a delightfully simple and exciting way to make sure you are prepared for the day in advance.

Before we switched to this system, I was planning, but not pulling materials together until we were ready to do the activity. I'd have to go and get our history book, or gather all the supplies for the art project while the kids were waiting. Now, we get twice as much done in a day because everything is pulled together the night before and neatly scheduled in our workboxes.

Do you use workboxes? If not, how do you organize your day?

Friday, November 20, 2009

On The Fence

My three children are all very young. The twins, my oldest children, are just about to turn old enough to attend public school next fall. And if I were like most other mothers on my street, I would have already checked into the formalities of getting them enrolled. I would have already scoped out the school, talked with a teacher or two, found out about their curriculum and what I could do at home now to get the children ready for their first day of school.

I'm not like most moms on my street though. I haven't set one foot in the school. In fact, I'm not sure I even know which school in town is the elementary school. Hows that for avoidance? I haven't spoken to any teachers and I don't know who I would have to get in touch with to sign my children up for school. Why? Because I don't want to send my children away. Every fiber of my very being is recoiling against the idea and has been for quite some time.

I want to homeschool.

I want to wake up in the morning, hug my children close, cook them a nice breakfast and talk with them, not as if I'm a stranger trying to crack the shell of their lives so I can claim to know them, but as their mother, the one person in the world who knows them better than anyone else, except maybe for their father. I have enjoyed every discovery, every wonder, every 'first step' from their first step to their first realization that letters make words and words mean something. I love that look, you know the one, when your child has just made a connection, a discovery, when the light has just shown them another piece of this lifelong puzzle.

In some respects, I do want to shelter them, as some might suggest. I do want to be their safe harbor. I am their mother, after all. More than that, though, I want to open up their world in ways that no institution can do because they don't have time enough, resources enough or love enough to actually care about all the children they are charged with teaching.

I want to develop a tight bond with my children, built on love, respect and trust that can't be built in the few moments left after school, homework, and extra activities pushed on children. I want my children to feel loved. I want them to feel confident. I want them to know that when they spread their wings to fly away, they are doing it because they are actually ready, not because they are 18 and the failing system has offered its last.

I am writing this tonight mostly for my husband, who is on the fence on this issue. I want him to know what it is that first brought me to this decision. Much has recently happened that has added to my desire to keep my children away from public school and I may take some time soon to write about it. But for tonight, I lay my heart out for you. Maybe my words can not only help my husband find his way to the place I'm in, but help you find the confidence to make your choice.

Until next time,

Sandie