Holiday Festivities, Teaching Tools and Yay it's Thursday!

Ohhh what fun we had last year making up these snow filled ornaments! The children put their fingerprint on each one so that the 3 snowmen were each a different child. We used a funnel to fill it with salt and then added on a hat and buttons and a face with a sharpie and we were done! Simple and sooo cute! Now I am trying to think of what we will do this year! 

As I am preparing for our neighborhood Gingerbread House party, I have lists all over the place and stuff everywhere. My children seem oblivious to it all as they sit with a puzzle and helping the youngest learn his 50 states. No wonder they never hear me calling them, they are oblivious to chaos. 

I have been lucky to have found a group on Facebook that allows me to sell my older manipulatives as my youngest moves up and on. As I find them to photograph them, I realize just how much fun we have learning around here. These frogs are a dime a dozen and usually just end up in the trash, but pair them with some sight word flashcards and you have a serious game of learning on your hands! Do this with math flashcards, or anything that needs to be learned! I will have to update this post with where the Elf on the Shelf is today as my children have not found him yet and they are getting quite impatient! 

Enjoy every minute my friends and remember to aim high!

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Custom Flashcards!

Happy Sunday! A quick post with something I do often around here. Flashcards tend to get pretty boring over here with the kids studying them daily. When kids outgrow certain games (go fish, memory, matching games, etc.) I go save them in a small shoe box type bin. When the time comes, I take a game and add mailing labels to create something new! I create a new matching game, using Sight Words, Math Problems, Words in Books that are difficult to read, Spelling Words, Vocab Words...anything at all that I feel needs additional practice that isn't a flashcard. NOW its a GAME! The kids love seeing their old games used in a new way and I feel like I am saving a game that may be missing a pair or may be a bit warped, from the trash a little longer.

And play we do! We certainly love homeschooling!! Enjoy every minute of our ever fading weekend my friends!

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Go Fish!

Why can't it be Friday yet? I've been so busy with little things that I just keep waiting for something gigantic to take me over next. I try so hard to be that person that always sees the silver lining in things, but do you ever get that feeling that in some cases there just is NO silver lining? I want to pray and bring peace to all situations but I am dealing with difficult people that know they are in the wrong but still choose to be those kind of people. I pray for them more than anything but well, sometimes I just want to throw my hands in the air and hope I hit them while I'm doing it! hahaha! 

As we tackle sight words this week, I wanted to do something that shows how you can teach and learn at home without spending any money! A washed out container of Cool Whip holds cereal box letters that are then used to spell Sight Words! This is a fun activity that all can help out with. Manipulatives don't have to break the bank. 

A game of Sight Word Bingo helped out the little guy and gave the big kids a break in the day! This was a lot of fun for everyone, that he didn't even take notice of the sight words he didn't know, just sounded them out and kept going. 

GO FISH! This is the latest of our Sight Words games. It requires foam letters and filling a tub with water. I added them all in and tossed in a few bath buddies that they had all become too old for. This is a great way to get use of toys that are almost ready to be retired. I also used our handy game piece that I wrote about TUESDAY! Roman just had to slide the game piece to be given a two letter word and then he has to say it and spell it. If he has this correct, he needs to FISH for the pieces used to spell the word. Next, he must stick them to the wall of the box and say it and spell it again. 

These tiles are better to use than flashcards here, because they tend to get a bit wet! Do this with just letters if your child is just beginning or shapes, numbers for math...anything you can think of! There are so many variations to the things I post that all ages can and do benefit from them. I have children of 3 different ages and they all have fun doing the different activities as I adjust them for their levels. 

I have to keep reminding myself of this! When I deal with difficult people, I must remember that it is something within themselves that makes them who they are. The battle they are fighting is one they are fighting with themselves. It's too bad that they suffer so much, for this I pray for them that they don't continue to prey on other people for their benefit. Enjoy every minute readers, because we won't get any of these back.

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2 Letter Sight Words

Life is all about learning and I am of the firm belief that you learn something new everyday. It's amazing how this new adventure we have taken into homeschooling has helped me learn so much about myself along with my children. I hope that with each new adventure you all take on, you learn something from it. 

Today's reading worksheet is tackling to 2 letter sight words. I started out just making a list and I was going to have him spell them out with letter tiles but then I got thinking about how easy it would be to make it fun. These raindrops have words on them that have 2 letters. First have your student cut out each rain drop or you can do it for them if you are pressed for time. Go through each raindrop as though it were a flashcard, to familiarize your student with the words.

 

Once your raindrops are cut out and you have read through them, have your student glue them on to the matching umbrella. This repetition will help the child remember these words. As they are attempting to match up each word, they will also work on spelling the words to double check the match. For a copy of these worksheets GO HERE. Please feel free to use my worksheets or share them, but link back to me if you use them online anywhere.

Thank you everyone out there that checks in with me daily, remember to enjoy every minute!

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Happy Scrabble Day!

Today is Scrabble Day
April 13th, 2012
The official game of rainy days spent stuck in the hotel during a beach vacation, Scrabble is sold in 121 countries, with 29 different language versions. The highest recorded single word score was 365 points for quixotry. Coincidentally, quixotry is a word that describes Don Quixote-like impractical quests, like the one you'd be on if you ever tried to beat that score.

We love to use games in so many ways, not just the way they were intended for. This allows us so much more creativity. Scrabble is more difficult for my younger two still, so we make it easier. Add in sight word cards and it allows everyone to join in. The older people play as normal and then the younger guys pull a car, find the tiles they need from a tile bowl and put them on the card to match them up. NEXT, they find a spot to put their word. The scoring remains the same and it becomes a game that everyone can play. For our version, we use  the Scrabble Tiles from 3 games, this way the little ones can always find what they need out of 2 games worth of tiles and the older people use 1 set and pull 5 blindly as required.