We threw out our first pumpkin today. Arizona weather is not kind to any living thing, including pumpkins. I was so excited for the holiday season that I bought a pumpkin the second I saw them out. And as a result, we’ve already had to throw out our first pumpkin. It reminded me of how…
Do you ever feel like your kids need a small review of previous lessons? I was reading with Royal the other day and he just plain forgot what sound -sh makes. He’s a great reader so I was a bit confused. I think he might have been having a brain fart, if you will, but…
We have a tradition on Thanksgiving where I print out activities (like this Thanksgiving Addition Game) and the boys have something to entertain them for that hectic 15 minutes while we are finishing the food and putting it on the table. The challenge for me is to create something that is entertaining enough that they…
I am excited for Thanksgiving this year. Honestly, holidays can be really hard for me, as they are for many people. I’ve found that by focusing on the kids and new traditions, the holidays seem easier. They are so full of wonder at this age and I find it easy to get enraptured in their…
Have you ever thought about how arbitrary measurements are? I find it kind of interesting that we use systems of measurement every day but they’re really just standardized systems we made up! Of course, it makes sense to have a standardized system. I still remember the first time I realized that humans made up our…
When learning to read, it’s all about the tricks. They’re not really tricks, of course, more like little chunks of information to build upon. Digraphs are a chunk of their own, and quite an important chunk! After all, if you don’t learn that ‘sh’ doesn’t say sss-ha, you’ll never be able to figured out that…
What do you do with a child who thinks reading is amazing, pretends to read constantly, yet isn’t quite ready for sounding out words? You teach them sight words! I’m pretty much on board with teaching phonics and that’s how we taught both Royal and Baloo, primarily. We limit sight words and push through with…
Learning math is really a series of understanding numbers and how they relate to each other, right? There are some people who just ‘see’ the patterns in numbers and it clicks. But I don’t think they just “see it”. I think they are taught in a way that promotes understanding of umbers and math and…
Turkey’s are just too much fun. There are endless options for turkey crafts, activities, etc. I love turkeys! This year we decided to do a sorting turkey. I cut out the turkey body and feathers. Then I added shapes to each feather. I did either one, two, or three of each shape. Then we had…
There have been a LOT of changes in our household recently. We finally back in our own place and not living with family (how lucky we are to have such supportive family! It’s nice to be back in our own place though). We have all of our school supplies back which has been a lot…