Sensory Beads

I recently saw people using aqua beads for a fun sensory experience with their little ones so we just had to try them! I found some for a great price here http://www.etsy.com/shop/StephiiShop I just asked them to send mixed bag so we could have lots of colors! We have only used half what we were sent and we are still having lots of fun with them!

 

If you don't know what aqua beads are they come as little hard beads and you add water to them and they grow and grow and grow! You can see the before size and after above (we added more water and found that they actually get bigger than the one above)

 

They are non toxic (though I still don't let Colten eat them) they are squishy after they grow and can be broken. You can add them to your plants and they will continue to fill with water and then slowly release it and dry out until more water is added. 

We have had lots of fun with them transferring them from pans to cups.

Scooping them and using funnels

Here is what we got with half of what we got (after adding more water this container was full! And I have about 1 tablespoon or less of little beads to start with)

Both my 3 1/2 year old and 1 yr old loved these (again watch for eating but after a few times of telling him not to it wasn't a big deal)

This was not sponsored by anyone, we just had so much fun we had to share!

Week 4 and 5 Letter Ii

Well last week I was feeling a bit behind with everything I hadn't planned any future weeks and was hoping to stay a month ahead, so we took half the week off so I could plan, print, laminate and cut out everything for the next two weeks.

So over the last week and a half we worked on the letter Ii (I had a lot of material of I and its a letter Sam struggles with so it worked out to do it longer)

While I was laminating all my work at Lake Shore Learning I saw some dot markers I have been wanting to get Sam some and I have a 25% off coupon, so I splurged! Sam LOVES them.

The first day I brought them out he found any excuse to use them, here he is using it to dot the different ice cream cone

Cutting his scripture

One of his all time favorites this week was our science experiment, we used 2 Teaching Mommies ice cream observations sheets and tested chocolate and vanilla ice cream.

Yum

Inch worm graphing

Dot coloring an igloo

We also got out our sample of Sticky Yuck, because its "icky" you can order your free sample from http://www.buckets-o-fun.com/. Sadly the smallest amount they sell yuck is 20lbs (way more than I would ever need!) you can email them for a free sample of the different types of yuck.

Sam didn't really like it at first but after getting in and trying it he loved it. I didn't read what the yuck really was before working with it (don't ask me why) but I was worried it was some bad chemical or something so I was freaked about getting it everywhere so Sam didn't really get to play much with it. After reading on the website the yuck is actually biodegradable, next time we will play with it outside and let Sam have a big more fun gushing and mushing it.

I really wanted a way to display Sam's work he has been doing, and was thinking about setting up another magnet board like our school board, then I realized our front door is metal, and so the back of our front door has turned into Sam art/school work display. He loves seeing his work.

Blogs/websites I use to help make our weeks successful:

1+1+1=1

2 Teaching Mommies

Homeschool Creations

Confessions of a Homeschooler (I bought her letter of the week download and I really love it!)

Week 2 Letter T

We start our morning now with prayer and the pledge of allegiance, Sam really loves this part, and after just two weeks of doing it he is already memorizing parts of the pledge. He always makes sure to remind me if we have forgotten the flag!

Our home school routine is pretty relaxed at this point, we tend to wear pjs a lot and many days now we start school with calender then wait until Colten takes a nap to do our work boxes that way Sam isn't distracted by the silly baby!

This week was letter T, Sam's favorites still are cutting, gluing, stapling, and puff balls. Here he is sorting big T and little t.

Our life skill this week was folding pants and shorts, he still needs more practice with this but is getting really good and was SO excited when I let him fold all the towels and shorts in our last load of laundry, and I loved the help!

I had tried putting numbers on baby food jars and having him count them as he put them in the jar. Lets just say it was a very frustrating day, and I knew he wasn't ready for it, I changed it up and put colored post its on the jar that matched his pompoms and he scooped or used his tweezers to put them in the right jar. He loved it!

Don't mind the binki and Cheerios on the table those are my tools to keeping the crabby baby happy when he wont take a nap.

Sam doing clip letters again, he is getting really good at them!

This week the scripture is Exodus 20:15, here Sam is making the stone plates, we worked on all the commandments this week a little, he has been happily running around saying "thou shall not steal!" especially when Colten tries to take his toy.

Some days Dad is there to help tame the wild baby (who is now crawling!) but that silly little guy never takes his eyes off us!

Blogs/websites I used to help make this week successful:

1+1+1=1

2 Teaching Mommies

Homeschool Creations

Confessions of a Homeschooler (I bought her letter of the week download and I really love it!)

First Week Of School

YAY we started our first week of school! I was very nervous and anxious for this day but I enjoyed it so much, and so did Sam!

Here is our Calender board where we start our day at. My dad made it for me its a big metal sheet attached to some wood, Sam loves using the magnets on it!

We do Calender, Weather, Scripture, Days of the Week, Color, Letter and Sight Word of the week.

My method is a big mix of different homeschooling styles, right now we are doing a little of Montessori, Work Box, and Thomas Jefferson. Here is our work box system each box has a number with Velcro that when Sam is done he takes it off and puts it on his chart (this is one of his favorite things to do!).

For each work box Sam takes the entire drawer out and uses it for a tray, here Sam is learning how to fold wash cloths, he has gotten really good at this!

Sam loved the rice play, we did pouring rice and scooping rice, this did get rice all over my floor but the drawer with the tall sides did help hold in some of the rice.

This week our letter was L l I am following 1+1+1=1 outline for letters, it goes by easiest to write to harder. I signed up for her members only sight and have really found it and her printable to be very useful!

Sam really loves the cutting box each box is set up ready with everything Sam needs to finish it.

After getting tired of rice everywhere I decided part way through the week to change out the rice for pom poms using tweezers and using a tablespoon for scooping

Matching colors

It has been a great week, very busy, I have really learned what Sam is really confident in and what he needs lots of help with. I am excited for the week to come.

Blogs/websites I used to help make this week successful:

1+1+1=1

2 Teaching Mommies

Homeschool Creations

Confessions of a Homeschooler (I bought her letter of the week download and I really love it!)

Family Friday: Fun in the Sand/Rocks and more

On our last beach trip I really wanted to collect some sand from the beach to make a sand box for Sam. Well the beach we went to had small little rocks instead of sand but Sam still loves his little box.

I put an empty tums bottle, an empty Easter egg, and tongue depressor in with his rocks and let him borrow a garden shovel and funnel.

 

He found some small twigs and was pretending they were plants and kept planting them.

The grey lid is to catch the rocks he misses (which is a lot!) we just pour it back in when he is done playing.

I am also really excited that we have our cloths line set up again! It saves us so much money not having to dry everything, even though these diapers got rained on twice (random thunderstorms) so I did end up just drying them because I needed a diaper for Sam to go to bed.

My last big news is I have really been wanting to get back in shape, and I really enjoy running but I don't feel comfortable going by myself and we can't afford to pay someone to stay with the boys if we went together. Well I found a great deal on craigslist last night and we got this double jogging stroller! We took it for a nice walk today and the boys loved it! Can't wait to take it for a jog tomorrow!!