Guatmomhomeschool

reading aloud time with the Boxcar Children

2010-08-12T08:53:00.000-07:00

This week we found a new favorite book . Courtesy of the Homeschool group we belong to and the free table it was a little battered . I am glad I grabbed it sweet old fashioned story.
We even had the perfect snack to go with it coincidence. Brown bread we purchased left over from the firemens dinner . The kids loved it and paired it with milk like in the book. Loving that because The little man not a milk drinker normally. We finished the book in a couple days. Little Bird did really good sitting and listening. It was actually a fun family experience . We do quite
a bit of reading aloud but they are getting more into it.
Another Great surprising book that the kids really got into was the Matchlock Gun by Walter Edmonds great book by a local author. I enjoyed it as well. .25 cents a the curriculim sale. gotta love that. Little man so loved the Boxcar Children he had me purchase #2 and the special #3.
Homeschooling moms if you don't know already bring proof you are homeschooling and get 20%
discount card. hey it helps.
Stephanie

Little bird and reading

2010-03-09T14:48:00.000-08:00

Little bird is doing real good in Kindergarten. She loves her reading lessons.
We are using the book the Reading lesson by Micheal Levin M.D.and Charan Langton M.S. She is responding well to it. She is also doing great with a set of raceway readers I picked up at a curriculum sale for $1.00. Cool game I saw hereJan Brett Dolch Word List main
Stephanie

Birds , Birds , birds

2009-12-29T07:57:00.001-08:00

We are on break but I snuck in some Bird time yesterday by having them come over to the computer and look at what I was Looking at. We are starting a bird study Starting with the northern cardinalNorthern Cardinal, Identification, All About Birds - Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the black capped chicadee.Black-capped Chicadeehere is another great site and cosponsor of the backyard bird count cornell ornithology labBirds - Cornell Lab of Ornithology. We are going to do birds as one of our science units for January and Februaury.
Happy Birding
Stephanie

Great Christmas books

2009-12-03T08:51:00.000-08:00

My Very First Christmas words by Lois Rock and pictures by Alex Ayliffe,
Christmas in the Manger by Laura Geringer
both for the toddler set but my kids still love them we have had both atleast 3 years now and they are favorites.I love the simple but wonderful stories from the my very first Christmas book
it has eleven stories in it we call it the big red book.
Another great book is Cricket at the Manger By Edith Hope Fine Pictures by Winslow Pels
I love love love this one and so does little bird. When little bird was three she started calling her fisher price nativity toy the cricket in the manger set lol.if you could get one new Christmas picture book this year this would be my choice.
please share your favorites with me
Stephanie

2009-11-24T14:15:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Things to be thankful for

2009-11-21T06:43:00.000-08:00

My beautiful kids, Hubby, My mom and my brother. The farm , my health being somewhat better, being alive, being free. Being able to go to my church and celebrate my religion without being persecuted. Happy Thanksgiving. Remember all you have and be thankful
Stephanie

homemade playdoh and paperwork among other things

2009-11-16T08:48:00.000-08:00

Last week we made peppermint playdoh smells heavenly the kids loved it quick and cheap.
I used flour ,salt,red food coloring,and 1/2 cup cooking oil , half cup water. peppermint extract. just a pinch or else whole house smells lol worse stuff house could smell like.
we added glitter too kids loved that.
mix until right consistency.
we don't put cream of tartar in cause I never have any
store in ziplocs
throw out when gets yucky
I had seen on several blogs and wanted to try.
we will be doing cinnamom and pumkin this week.

quaterly time lots of paperwork for those that don't homeschool report time.

cleaning. out kids closets and toys lol that is a couple week job hehe

Stephanie

Secrets in the maple tree

2009-09-28T14:51:00.000-07:00

I love this Abeka reader. Little man is almost done with this one.
Great book he loved it.
Stephanie

tons of stuff

2009-09-19T08:01:00.000-07:00

I must confess I love Kate Gosselin Yes I think she can be witchy but what mother of eight
busy working mom with a hubby like that couldnt be. how many of us moms would come out angelic if a film crew followed you around all the time. lol I wouldn't do well snarky hubby comments would be abounding lol.
Anyways So I can't believe September is half gone . ugh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love the fall and Halloween and yes I am religious and yes I love pumpkins and Halloween.
The first two weeks of school have went well.
Little bird getting the hang of it.
http://www.kinderprintables.com/apples/appleemergentreader.pdf
above is little birds current practice book. nice fall k read.
big boy is loving secrets in the maple tree an Abeka book
Math much better with big boy no saxon no tantrums yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
we are doing ancient Egypt in history and seabird for geography
Holling c holling books are great we finished Paddle to the sea.
and starting seabird
Have a great weekend
Stephanie

Birthday and book a day

2009-09-07T16:24:00.000-07:00

well I am 37 ooh lol

I am starting a new project a seasonal childrens book a day
Starting tommorow, which is also our first day of school.
little bird starts k and ds grade 3
Stephanie

little birds big day

2009-08-20T09:47:00.000-07:00

tonight is little birds big night. the fashion show as part of our loggers field days. this is her second year and she loves loves loves it.
some great books to check out especially for the younger crowd
Katie and the Mona Lisa
By James Mayhew

and
Katie and the Sunflowers
also by James Mayhew
engaging story kept the little man at 9
intrigued also.

showed the art work and upclose in the picture as well as used some language from artist country italian in the mona lisa book french in the sunflower book
cute plan to check out whole set from library more posts as we do them

real frog math lol
the other day we were doing some math problems and the minute I introduced the frogs it was fun.

Stephanie

little bird lost her first tooth

2009-08-18T07:41:00.000-07:00

On Sunday little bird lost her first tooth.
She was so very excited. My baby lost her first tooth Little man was alos 51/2 when he lost his first tooth.
well she is almost 6 so shes a few months older. she looks so cute with the whole in her mouth she is so proud of it.
Stephanie

great use for those plastic aniamls you get that grow in the water.

2009-08-16T08:16:00.000-07:00

We bought a dino one this weekend for $3. cause little man had to have lol we have had others before.
this time i have learned they can have a little educational value lol. so we measured with ruler before water and each step of way the kids loved it and you can reuse.
Stephanie

Magic rocks

2009-08-16T08:10:00.002-07:00

I remember these from when I was a kid so I had to buy these for little bird
and little man they liked them hubby helped with mixing the solution so little people wouldnt get burned we learned a little about water volume and thye loved how they grew so fast at 9 and 5 they want instant results. we didnt throw the left over away we made another jar they loved that good idea hubby.
great fun good price under 8 dollars
Stephanie

2009-08-16T08:10:00.001-07:00

Summer where have you gone

2009-08-16T08:04:00.000-07:00

One of the online groups I belong to has been having a what you did this summer running update.
I at first was dissappointed with what I had done this summer but htan I got thinking about it and we have had a good summer so it doesnt matter that we havent done 5 billion things lol.
What we did for our summer so far.
Lots of trampoline and summer walks to pond on our property. hermit crab fun with our new one. grew magic rocks. little one has begun math in small doses , played games five state rummy . lots of outdoor play . Its finally warm enough for pool. playdates with friends. didn't get as much done as wanted too but hey its summer. hope to take field trip to museum planetarium.
Stephanie

Little Birds package and 5 state rummy

2009-08-11T15:08:00.000-07:00

I am glad little birds package gramma ordered finally arrived . The funtastic frogs stuff a pattern card pack the matching card pack the logs the small frogs with laces and the addition subtraction book liitle bird loves them, loves them. she wants to do her frog math.
did you know you can outline your foot with frogs? yes you can little birds foot is 20 frogs around lol!!!! every day before they came she was waiting and asking and looking for the mail lol.
also you can see how many frogs fit inside a log triangle.
more frog posts in future im sure lol.

another new favorite I had picked up a while ago at kinneys drug store it's made by school zone.
It's Five state Rummy the kids and gramma and I had a blast playing . little birds pronounceation of bismarck was hysterical . subsitute p for b / hey shes only 5 lol.

your supposed to get 5 bordering states but that was too hard for the kids so we tried and than we took turns reading off our cards capital and bird and flour they really enjoyed it.
didn't realize so many states had cardinal and mockingbird .
they were learning and didn't even know it sneaky mama as little bird says when I get them to like something lol.

Stephanie

one more day til little mans birthday

2009-08-03T05:01:00.000-07:00

one more day til little man will be nine I cant believe it. 9 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Stephanie

little birds word book

2009-07-31T09:55:00.000-07:00

Today little bird and I made a word book .
A simple notebook Walmart has them on sale for .15 cents .
and I wrote in large black letters some of the words we have been working with and as we gain words we will add them to her book than work on them .
she is really into it.
so far :cat,hat ,fat, sat , the, a, I , dad, mom . she knows all of them.

poem I thought was nice

2009-07-17T14:50:00.000-07:00

Oriole
See my pretty little nest,
Built of bits of string;
When the breezes whisper near,
You should see it swing!
There are four wee babies there,
In that silken cradle,
They’ll sing grown-up Oriole songs,
Soon as they are able.

-------Marion Mitchell Walker

why we do what we do

2009-07-13T05:03:00.000-07:00

Make sure to take time to answer the whys ? I was at a meeting recently when a young girl about 14 ish spoke up and replied that she wouldnt be doing any of that when she got older and she was all proud of herself . before you say oh thats good heres the kicker what she wouldn't be doing was volunteering for church. her father was doing it but begrudgingly I have known her mom for a long time I don't think she would have been happy. Dad never said anything to her.
Ok soap box time let's teach our kids why we do the things we do . If mommy or daddy don't fight to preserve the historical church or whatever it is you are doing it won't get done.

I definately do that with little man and baby bird but sometimes I am in a hurry its a reminder how important what we teach them is if we dont do it who will teach them what we find important/ another reason I love homeschooling
Stephanie

comments welcome

2009-07-12T09:51:00.000-07:00

please feel free to comment
or link to my blog

Stephanie

comments welcome

2009-07-12T09:50:00.000-07:00

please feel free to comment,
as well as link to blog.
Stephanie

Manipulatives part 1

2009-07-12T09:13:00.000-07:00

The fancy bought manipulative's are fun and there are some on my list but
there are many things you can use.
here's a list of some.
1 gummy worms measure your heart out
all you need is a ruler.
2 gold fish crackers ten fish swimming song after each verse eat one count whats left and next verse .
3 pennies non edible of course make sure child gets that !

4 marbles appeals to ds
5 tic tacs
6 M and M's
7 lifesavers
8 Hershey bars good for fractions
9 as are apples
10 little match box cars
11 the smaller little horse figures if you have quite a few as we do
12 the little dinosaur figures
13 the little green army men (dollar store cheap) and toy when your done.
14 stickers they have have put on index cards and cut out (also good for stick and cut out activity)

Stephanie

some ideas for little bird and kindergarten

2009-07-12T09:00:00.000-07:00

I have not posted in quite a while.
I have been looking at the new school years curriculum .
here is one clear pick for little bird the Reading Lesson the intelligent reading program for young children teach your children to read in twenty easy lessons
by Michael Levin and Charan Langton we have done three lessons so far . so good. We checked out from Library will purchase.

I also have done some math activities with her lately that I really like also simple and cheap.

math cards and counters
take ten or twenty index cards label numbers 1-10 or 1-20
give appropriate number of counters we used dried beans for this as had been given an old bag.
have child match number with amount of counters
little bird loves this game

will post more later.

Stephanie

Disney earth movie

2009-04-26T17:40:00.000-07:00

We took little bird and Little man friday evening to The disney movie planet earth they loved it.
wonderful animal footage. one of those movies mom and dad enjoyed as much as kids.
Stephanie

playdoh and other fun

2009-04-14T17:28:00.000-07:00

little bird got sick she had the barfs her word not mine gross but cute . Lottle man and I made playdoh today. I have never made homemade before was alot of fun.
1/4 cup salt
1 and 1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup water

I made pink for little bird he made blue fun
he made blue pizzas they looked real but blue red pepperonis and all
too cute.

last night we went down to the pond some kind of eggs in there.
havent matched them up yet tried havent found match.

my fav living uncle died this weekend he was young 56

I love this quote

2009-04-06T16:19:00.000-07:00

"Yes, there are countless tocks to be ticked, but there will always be a second of time to tick in, and no more than one tick is expected in any one second."
Charlotte Mason

snowing again

2009-04-04T15:08:00.000-07:00

I woke up and its blowing and snowing and the first surprise was a white ground again dang it lol.
It has been storming all day long where is Spring?
Stephanie

Owl Puke and other fun lol

2009-04-03T15:33:00.000-07:00

Owl puke lol yes owl puke (also known as an owl pellet)
Yes it was sanitized . they heat sterilize it.
All I can say is Yucky dirty nasty ooh! But we did it and Little man loved it.
Even though we used gloves and tools I still made him change and shower lol.
The book that came with the kit was well worth the money.
Very informative our owl had ate a rodent wouldnt that be my luck ooh lol
The things one mom does for kids lol it was very educational. Thank goodness we did it yesterday so we could do it outside.
It was very windy today and rainy.
Hard to believe this weekend is Palm Sunday
Stephanie

If you lived in colonial times

2009-04-01T06:36:00.000-07:00

We read the book If you lived In Colonial times by Ann McGovern yesterday awesome book.

He colored in the house servant shepherd and farmer and farmers wife in his colonial period coloring book .

We have started Johnny Tremain

2009-04-01T06:35:00.000-07:00

I loved this book in school and little man and I started it yesterday.
He was getting right into it.

A little maple syrup fun

2009-04-01T06:21:00.000-07:00

Since our weekend visit to the sugar shantys I have been incorporating our fresh syrup into some recipes these were big hits with my family.

Little man said this was the best rice ever.

Regular minute rice with maple butter stirred in .
delicious quick and simple

Maple ham.

Put a little real maple syrup right in the pan with a ham steak and fry like normal.
Yum

Maple carrots
apply a little maple syrup to regular sliced carrots cooking. kids loved it.

happy maple time lol
Stephanie

snow and wind

2009-03-30T16:14:00.000-07:00

the snow was back today just flurries and wind a little stuck
Stephanie

Great products

2009-03-30T09:38:00.000-07:00

I love the wee sing America cd and song book.
The kids love it too all the patriotic favorites.

Everyday dress of the American colonial period coloring book by
Peter f. Copeland Dover coloring book$3.95
I love this book the three careers and outfits we did today were a lamplighter,broom seller,and navigator. and it gives a brief description.

The If you history series
We have the colonial times one we will be starting in a few mins.
If you grew up with Abe Lincoln
" " George Washington
"" you sailed on the Mayflower
""" covered wagon
And prairie All hits in our house
Gramma is bring the American revolution one today
thank you gram .

They are a wonderful series
It doesn't matter if you are a homeschooler or a public school family or grandparents history is great for your kids.

Stephanie

Great book for easter

2009-03-27T12:35:00.000-07:00

Great book
A Resurrection Story Benjamin's Box
Story Melody Carlson

Excellent book Can use with the resurrection eggs we bought those a couple of years ago we just discovered the book.
Really tells the story of jesus's death and resurrection. using symbols such as the cup and nail etc.
Great tool for helping them understand.

Leaving the prairie heading for the colonial times and the revolution

2009-03-27T08:59:00.000-07:00

On Monday or maybe sooner . We will be headed for the colonial times and the revolutionary war next .We live in the perfect Area and many field trip ideas.
I will keep you posted as we go along.
Stephanie

P.S. If you have any suggestions for either period please comment

Friday friday tgif

2009-03-27T08:47:00.000-07:00

Well Yesterday was my mom's 71st bday . She's the greatest . And I am not saying it because I have to she doesn't even know how to turn on the computer lol. she is still great though,
The kids had play practice for our home school group play.
The little man is going to be a pirate and little bird a performer , kind of like the kiddie actors.
Today is a sunny but cold Friday. Take it easy day.
The weekend will be busy so need an easy day today. kids not cooperating lol.
peace out
Stephanie

Monday monday

2009-03-23T14:01:00.000-07:00

Its cold again here . my little man and his classmates made their first reconciliation yesterday. All but one of the kids . Please pray for him. There was a nice party with cake. He is growing so quickly . We read a cute story fromThe Baldwin Project: Among the Pond People by Clara Dillingham Pierson was cute about muskrats. It was superintendant day so they had the day off.
Grandma came today and liitle man loves her pasta salad. Gram's pasta salad recipe
Ring pastas
italian salad dressing
ham we prefer sahlems although its pricier doesnt require much
muenster cheese
green olives
black olives cucumbers

Cook ring pasta drain and cool
cut cucumbers into liilte pieces also cut ham into little pieces cheese as well also cut up olives add all in and add dressing stir up and chill
yum family fav.
first pasta salad of year we have spring fever now its under 30 degrees again boo hoo

3rd day of spring Sugar snow

2009-03-22T07:19:00.000-07:00

While today is the third day of Spring. When we woke up today there was a light blanket of snow. Sugar snow.

My little sons first reconciliation is today.
He has a big class there twelve but only eleven going today still what an awesome number for a little parish . I have really enjoyed teaching them. We still have three month till first communion.

Crocus's are up

2009-03-20T07:54:00.000-07:00

Yesterday while the kids were out playing they made a great discovery that pleased ( In the fashion of most of the blogs I have read dd will now be little bird) Little bird to no end . They discovered crocus's coming up in the side yard they were so excited . Mommy , Mommy,mommy , mommy Guess what ,Guess what? Than it was Daddy , Daddy , Daddy.
So cute.
Than Little bird and my little boy got into mommy s planter and threw dirt all over side of steps and painted on white porch wall yeah.

They are only young once she says thruough clenched teeth laugh it off mama.

Fun fun blue slimy fun

2009-03-18T15:27:00.000-07:00

The kids totally enjoyed making slime today.

We made blue slime . You can make any color you have food color for.
White glue and borax Laundry starch.
It was fun.

2009-03-18T13:46:00.000-07:00

We saw the First Robin On Monday March 16.2009 here in our liitle slice of NY!!!!!

2009-03-17T06:59:00.000-07:00

Happy St. Patricks' Day

Hubby And I been Married 8 years today!!!!!!!!

Doesnt seem like it.

Happy Anniversary Hubs.!!!!!!!!!!

I have always loved St. Patricks Day anyway.

Stephanie

yesterday

2009-03-17T06:48:00.001-07:00

We had a great day yesterday. We had field trip to an Agra business where they had a pancake breakfast kids loved it they also loved climbing on the tractor and the skid steer.
Yesterday night we saw some geese land and a few turkeys. so we decided to head down in our pasture which is still pretty laden with snow. It was ans arduous slip and slide snowy hike but worth it and fun. as we were half way there 6 geese flew right overhead.
and on the way there were the perfect tracks of Canadian geese right next to some turkey tracks on the snow the kids had so much fun checking it out. One part of the creek is open. and some of the pond is thawed out you could here the water moving . Anyhow as we got down there two geese decided to come in for a look and must of liked what they saw because they decided to land much to the delight of the kids and hubby and I. They let us watch them for quite a while.
Quite a treat.

the
Robins are here !!!!!!!!!!!!!

great site for nature study

2009-03-16T06:07:00.000-07:00

Handbook of Nature Study: March 2009

great site.
Jealous of the beautiful weather though lol

Great prek= k books

2009-03-15T15:24:00.000-07:00

Kumon work books
Bailey has completed two
Uppercase letters
Lowercase letters
and working on Cutting

I just purchased a coloring one

They are really easy to use yet intriguing enough they want to do .
The cutting one really got her interested
I love these books
Plus I just got a subtraction one for Jake

They are reasonable
Target, walmart, and Barnes and noble all have them

Beautiful day out

2009-03-15T14:23:00.000-07:00

We did not quite reach 50. But it felt wonderful . The kids had fun playing with toys they had not seen in a while. Like there ring toss and hoola hoop and bat and ball. Mr. Chicadee was really cute he got really close to Jake. The kids saw a new bird a finch of some sort.
We had religion this morning . First reconciliation one week away now boy time flew.
The kids really enjoyed breakfast this morning I added a couple pieces of sliced cheese into the scrambled eggs and we had maple sausage . very reasonable very easy kids loved.
A great treat from cereal.

Jacob had more fun pitching the ball to me especially if I miss lol.

How come they both want to play with mom two different games at same time. lol

Jake still loves to play army man.

Great meal around $5
Plus have leftovers for hubby
Spanish rice.
rice
Hamburg
tomato sauce
salt and pepper to taste
green bell pepper
and onion

yum

Stephanie

another super blog I love

2009-03-14T17:22:00.000-07:00

http://shannon-songofmyheart.blogspot.com/

great blog

2009-03-14T17:13:00.000-07:00

http://melissawiley.com/blog

frugal shopping latest great finds

2009-03-14T14:23:00.001-07:00

I am loving Aldi's these days.
A gallon of milk for $1.69
Also great fruit cheap. oranges on sale and tangelos .
Also really great cheap tortillas.
20 flour tortillas for a dollar.
Happy shopping
Stephanie

a few things we are into right now

2009-03-14T13:23:00.000-07:00

One of the many books we are reading is "Little House in the Big Woods " By Laura Ingalls Wilder we are almost done with it . I always liked the little house series and the book is so great for history studies because it really is such a great portrait of pioneer life with good stories into the mix so as not to be boring.
Also we are moving right along with Botany . And the apologia book as well as other interesting books I will list on here later. Both of the kids loved the DK Eyewitness Plants video. That was definitely a good purchase.
Jacob thoroughly enjoyed the cowboy unit from the Abeka history book we are using.
He loved singing some of the songs the had listed the words too." Get along little doggies."
The kids new favorite toy was a great purchase a parachute (I found a Marshall's for $16.98)
I found a couple wiffle balls at target $2 for four the kids loved putting them in the parachute. and having fun popping them up and down like a corn popper. If you want the parachute but don't have a Marshall's target had them too for a couple bucks more.
I am always looking for stuff for our gym repertoire.
The kids are big on Mrs. Frizzle and the magic school bus lately.

sorry couldnt get pic to load

2009-03-14T13:06:00.000-07:00

I am new at this and not to good at it , I couldn't load the picture I wanted too for the last post.

2009-03-14T12:17:00.001-07:00

It has been an incredibly long cold winter
But alomost over now . Yeah really greatful for Spring this year.
Here is a picture of the kids playing in the snow. With their Austrailian visiting flat Koala.
who we have to send back yet bad forgetful mommy . lol

2009-03-14T12:00:00.000-07:00

Alright my first blog post what to blog about .
It's nice and sunny out no snow falling ! yeah spring is Finally coming.
Welcome to my Blog!!!