Animal ABCs- Bb

Last week we worked on the Letter Bb. It was kind of a busy week, so I didn't take too many pictures, but here's a little glimpse into what we did!

Working on Bb tracing!

Oatmeal Sensory Box

Lacy-Kate with her treasure box!

We had put these away and forgotten about them. When I found them, he was SO excited!

Laken is loving stickers right now, so we used some Bug stickers!

Sweet Katherine came over to play and got to feed Lacy-Kate!

My favorite this week: the kids were standing at the door watching the snow together. I just love how she always looks up to him!

Animal ABCs- Alligator

So, you saw my post about the curriculum that we were planning on doing, but the great thing about homeschooling is that we can choose to change that if we want to! We're still doing bits and pieces of the stuff I posted on, but this is Laken's new main curriculum: ABC Animals. He had a great time doing it and I know he will continue to as he learns new animals!

Here are some pictures of our week!

Painting his letter A. You can see the alligators have been cut out and are getting ready to be glued on the A.

He had a great time cutting, cutting, cutting! He cut out the alligators and then wanted to keep cutting. So I got out his Kumon Let's Cut book and he did 4 pages!
Painting with cars. He really LOVED this!

He is such a sweet big brother! I love seeing how Lacy-Kate just adores him!

Watching Boca Beth! They both LOVE the songs. They aren't interested in watching the other parts of the DVD, but they love this! Any time we say "What's up?" now, he replies, "Que Pasa?" Such a smart little man!

I'm looking forward to starting the Letter Bb this week. I've also ordered the Alpha Tales Big Book to go along with each letter. It should be here early in the week and I think he will really enjoy it!

MIA

I know I have been MIA the last couple of weeks. Honestly, I just didn't take the time to sit down and post! If you have been following me on Facebook, you know that the entire family got the nasty stomach bug and I ended up in the hospital because of it (Lacy-Kate was close to going to the hospital as well, Laken and Micah didn't have it quite as bad). We also spent our Christmas holiday in the DC area with my family. Overall, it's been a great break, but I'm glad to be getting back into the swing of things!

I feel like the kids have grown so much over the past few weeks, so I'll just do a quick update.

Laken: 2.5 years old and thinks he's 10! He's very bright and just says some of the funniest things! He's totally into all things train, Leapfrog, and reading. He so desperately wants to read. He loves looking at letters and saying them, then asking me what it says. I love this stage. :-)

Lacy-Kate: 11 months and totally content being where she is. She's a total Mommy-magnet and is not happy when others are holding her or when I put her down. She's starting to get better because Laken is trying to get her to play and she absolutely adores him. At Laken's playgroup yesterday, we were watching him through the window in the door. She caught a glimpse of him eating his snack and started grabbing at the door saying, "Bruh-buh, Bruh-buh!" Too sweet!I can't believe that she'll be 1 in 22 days!!

Micah and I are doing great. Awana has started back up, so that will keep us busy. Micah is also getting ready to start 2 of his last 3 Master's courses. He's getting his Master's in Electrical Engineering from North Carolina State University and we can't wait for him to be done! I'm so proud of how much work he has done while having a full time job and a more than full time family!

I will write again soon and post some updated pictures of the kids and what we are doing for school!

2012 Curriculum

I hate to say that I have a curriculum for my 2 1/2 year old, but I do. Being a former teacher, I have to have everything organized and thought out if I want it to get done. So this is what I have been/will be using with Laken:

• Tot School Printables We've already completed these, but will go back if needed.
• Raising Rock Stars Preschool We've just started doing some of this, but won't be doing all of the copy work and higher level stuff.
• Letter of the Week I just got this and have started printing off some activities. Laken's favorites so far are the large letter tracers.
• Kumon: I have the first 4 of these and this. Laken LOVES them!!
• Tot Time Notebook He loves having his own binder and I love that he can color over and over again with the Expo markers!
• Theme Notebook This is what his theme notebook looks like for now, but it will change with each theme we do.
• Tot Packs and Preschool Packs A lot of these will go into his Theme Notebook.
• Boca Beth (Spanish)
• Family Time Activities We recently got this book and we've been waiting for Laken to get a bit older before starting.
  
• Puggles (Awana) Laken loves his Awana group and we love doing the family activities
• We Choose Virtues We just started this character development curriculum and really like its simplicity and Biblical base!
  
• And lots of learning toys and books!

Wow, now that I've written it out, it's a lot! Obviously we don't do everything every day, but it's nice to have options of things he likes. We'll be adding in more art projects and learning games/toys with Lacy-Kate in the next couple of months as well, so I'll be posting about that as it comes!

Little Einsteins and Truth in the Tinsel

I'm just going to do a quick update on our week so that you can see what we've done!

Laken LOVED the Little Einsteins Tot Pack from 1plus1plus1! I think he did some great work for only being 2 1/2!

I put up a new book shelf in the play room (from IKEA) and he spent a lot of time finding his favorite books and reading on his couch. Here he is enjoying his Bible book!

Here's Mary from our Truth in the Tinsel!

Working on the color book from the Little Einsteins Pack.

Here's Zechariah from Truth in the Tinsel. He had hair and a nose, but they fell off! :-)

Mary and Elizabeth from Truth in the Tinsel!

Laken LOVES to do puzzles!

He did a fabulous job coloring his keys!

Our Angel Gabriel from Truth in the Tinsel!

We had a super busy, but great week! I hope you did too!

Zhu Zhu Pets

I think these little things are hilarious! Laken and his little friend Kiley spent an afternoon chasing them once, so I thought Lacy-Kate would really like playing with one. I found them on sale at Target, so I got Laken a little raccoon one (he's into raccoons right now) and I got Lacy-Kate a pink one (anything pink or sparkly makes her happy)! At first she wasn't sure about it, but once she saw how much fun Laken was having, she didn't disappoint! Here are a few pictures of her and her Zhu Zhu Pet, Sweetie.

Toy Storage

I'm always on the lookout for the best way to organize our growing number of toys. We've been trying to get rid of novelty toys and keep more of the longer-lasting, educational toys. The problem is that a lot of those have lots of pieces! (ie. Lego's, Pegs and Peg Boards, Bristle Blocks, etc.) I had them all in their own Rubbermaid bins, but that presented the problem of where to store them in our tiny space. I tried to rotate them in and out of the basement, but it just wasn't working well. I saw online that someone kept theirs in gallon ziploc bags, but I just don't think those are sturdy enough for two little ones, so I came up with a better idea! I'm storing those toys in lingerie washing bags!! These are GREAT! They are large, sturdy, and they have a zipper! The best part is that we can keep them in the storage ottomans we have and they are easily accessible and we can fit so many more in there!