We embarked on letter E and had an eggcellent time! Eric enjoys the dot paints,
but does tend to get a little excited and looses concentration after a bit. It's all fun though!
He is doing awesome at tracing! He was doing so well with tracing lines, that we have now advanced to more shapes. He likes using the dry erase markers on the worksheets I print. I put them in a page protector sleeve and it allows us to use them again and again.
Magnets are fun, but can be hit or miss with Eric. He will usually put the magnets on quickly and then turn them into snakes across the board.
I had him put magnets on all the upper and lower case E's in the eggs, saying the E sound with each one.
He really didn't want his picture taken, so he shared his "cheesy" smile.
Stamping the letter E, he really went to town with this. These stampers were a dollar at Target, so I couldn't resist. The only problem is that they are so small, his little hands are always covered in ink when he uses these.
Eric had lots of fun with our letter E craft! I found this idea from DLTK , we crushed up egg shells and glued them to the upper and lower case E's.
The school room is fun, but getting our hands dirty in the kitchen is a blast! We do lots of hands on learning too! The kids love to cook with Daddy (the chef)! We will work on their counting, measuring, and they learn how to read directions too.
Ella can read and make simple recipe's now from start to finish, while Mom and Dad help with any major heating elements.
The kids had a wonderful time playing together with Insta-Snow ! We brought the sand/water table inside and filled it with "Snow" and the kids went right for it. I always enjoy watching the kids playing together, so nicely.
A side benefit, the kids didn't have to put their snow gear on and freeze their toes off outside in this snow!
We had a few snow days this month, as this month has turned into one of the snowiest. Although, we don't have snow days, I do try to change things up a bit ever once in awhile. Ella enjoyed trying Math-U-See's online drills, while Eric decided to play Starfall on the iPad.
Ella was working on weights & measurements this month, so we broke out the scales for the kids. They compared weights with everything from bear counters to stuffed animals.
We created a nice little reading nook in our living room, which Ella absolutely loves. You can always find her in her reading chair first thing in the morning, even before breakfast. We have a small basket full of books right next to it and she just goes to town, reading to her little hearts content.
Ella is an avid reader, but spelling is another story. We've struggled with finding a good spelling program, until we found All About Spelling. It's a quick lesson each day, very hands on and great for kids who don't always like writing. It uses letter tiles, but also has the kids spell the words as well. It's simple to teach and so easy for the kids to grasp.
Some days we use the white board, or chalkboard to write and other days we use the iPad, utilizing the Real Chalkboard app. We change it up, based on her preference that day.
It's so nice to have found All About Spelling, we are already finishing our last lesson in our 1st book this week. We've decided to continue on to Level 2 and have ordered their new preschool reading program for Eric. It's so multi-sensory in it's teaching style, I thought it would work well for Eric. We'll let you know how our very active boy, likes it!
Ella has spent much of February learning about Venus! She loves science and I will often use it as a motivator to get some of her other (writing work) done. The Apologia science books present such a refreshing hands-on approach to learning. There are lots of activities and projects to complete, we just can't do them all. We always try at least 1-2 and I imagine we will be using the books again when Eric is older.
Studying Venus, she learned that Volcanoes are found heavily across the surface of the planet. Our activity utilized flour and melted butter, to represent the lava that flowed. We watched it cool and turn hard, just like the lava on Venus creating rocks.
She had the most fun, creating her own comic strip about Venus. She usually doesn't like writing, but really enjoyed putting this comic strip together. (Double Click to Read)
We enjoyed a presentation with our homeschool group from SpaceTime , learning about NASA and how they prepare astronauts for space travel. We even learned that they are building the first spaceport in New Mexico, where Ella is looking forward to visiting someday. At the end of the presentation, he showed us how to make fizzy rockets and of course we had to give this a try at home.
The kids had so much fun with our rocket launch!
