Table Setting Workbox

I put a table setting activity in Caitlin's workbox today.  It was a huge hit.  She is feeding baby Caitlin(the blond) and her Am. Girl doll Molly "birthday cake"...I think she played with this simple activity for two hours today.  Then made big bub have cake with her when he got home from school!

ready set go

Well, its almost midnight, but I am ready for my first really organized day of preschool tomorrow.  We'll see how it goes.  I have workboxes set up with the activities.
1. circle time: calendar activity, creation story, song
2. table work...dots on a letter a, rubbing of a capital A, abc story, letter a coloring page
3. ball skills....all sorts of balls to toss, kick, bat...should be fun
4. our family activity...I'm going to draw a picture of our family while they dictate how it should look...might also play head, shoulders, knees and toes
5. flower pot activity and folder game......flowers on Popsicle sticks with either an A or a on them.  label pots with florist foam to push the sticks into.  folder game is simply four apples with the numbers 1-4 on them.  put the correct number and/or color of counting bears on the apples.

I also have a puzzle center and a lego center...

We are going to try to do school downstairs tomorrow so when we come up for lunch or whenever we are done I'll sit them down with playdough at the table so I can tackle kitchen chores.  I think I'll let them help me bake a loaf of banana bread too.

They are four and almost three so we'll see.  I don't know whether to think it will take all morning or we'll be through in an hour....I guess we'll see.  I'm excited though because all afternoon today they asked me when we could do school again.

Goodnight!

Justin is 12.  He is in 6th grade and an A student.  He loves WWII history and all things airplanes. We had snow on March 20th...the first day of spring, and these boys played Monopoly all weekend long!

Jake is 10.  He is my sensitive yet funny guy.  He loves jokes and he loves to help me cook.  He especially likes to help with the baking.  He too is an A student.  I am so blessed to have these guys get such good grades in school with minimal struggle.

J.R.(James Richard) is 4.  He is a busy little guy.  Early Childhood preschool on Mondays and Thursdays, Speech and OT on Tuesdays and PT every other Wednesday.  He is doing so well and progressing by leaps and bounds.

Our little Princess. Caitlin Grace.  She is 2 1/2 going on 12.  She is very eager to work with me on preschool activities but her independent spirit keeps her from listening very well sometimes.

Our very first day of preschool at home.  I want to keep a "portfolio" of sorts so I can track their progress.  Enjoy:)

our creation papers...the kids did the coloring by themselves and put the cotton balls on by themselves.  They helped to shred the cotton balls.  It was funny to watch their expressions as the tiny ball of fluff kept growing.

These are the sandpaper letters that I made for our abc Jesus loves me curriculum.  Wow...I got all the uppercase done and about midway through was wondering what affect it would have on my cricut to run sandpaper through.  It progressed more quickly as I became more experienced though and I am excited to use these.  Especially after seeing how excited his occupational therapist was today when I told her what I had made.Here is the link for the directions and templates.  The biggest thing that I changed is that I just held the printed template on top of the sandpaper and cut both out together. The total cost was $6.00 for sandpaper and whatever ink it took to print the templates out on scrap paper.
http://www.abcjesuslovesme.com/materials-to-make/73Z3mommy-tip

homeschool give aways

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I obviously don't know the proper way to post a link, but it does take you there, it just doesn't look pretty!

This is the day that the Lord has made.

I will rejoice and be glad in it.  I have been singing that silently to myself all day.  I am feeling tired today so trying to keep on keeping on.  The gluten free diet is going well for me.  Due to the expense I am going to start reintroducing gluten into the kitchen.  Justin has now been tested and is negative for celiac or any wheat allergies so I will go ahead and let he and Jake eat the gluten products.  Still trying to keep JR and I gluten free.  Caitlin is another story.  That little gal is a chow hound.  Try as I might she manages to get gluten-y foods.  Today while I was at therapy she and daddy split a pot pie....so we'll just see how it goes for now.  I still feel better than I ever have so I am pleased to say that I am firmly convinced that this is what I need to be doing right now.

I started our home preschool this week.  I am following the curriculum from ABC Jesus Loves Me as a guideline, and I love it. I am struggling a bit as the curriculum should be started at the beginning of the school year so the holidays match up but I just decided to start at week one and deal with the holiday weeks when I get there..  Last night I cut out the uppercase alphabet from sandpaper and mounted it on cardstock.  I also got the numbers 1-10 cut out and started on the lowercase....ugh...JR's OT was so excited that I had made those for him that it was worth the sore hands this morning!  I also sized up her "handwriting without tears" wooden pieces and plan to make something similar from foam or foam core board for him.  Everything is so expensive to buy.  So the kiddos are learning about the story of Creation...we learned about days one and two this morning and glued cottonball clouds over our ocean....very cute.

Feeling very blessed today!

I love that even though I am a sinner Christ died for my sins so that I may have everlasting life!!!!

I made gf cupcakes(betty crocker) and gf rolls to take to both family dinners so we didn't feel left out.  It worked like a charm!  I still got some gluten or coconut from somewhere even though I tried very hard to avoid things that might have it in them.  My joints are really hurting...esp in my hands and elbows.  I have a headache and I feel like I could sleep for a week.  Ah well...I'll bet better as time goes on I suppose.  My 7 year old niece has celiac and another niece has a peanut allergy so at least the family is allergy aware, and mine were not the only gf offerings.  Sarah made rice krispy cup cakes with frosting and several dips and things.  I think the main thing that I ate and am suspicious of is the ham...I need to look it up and see if its gf or not.

I'm going to go and enjoy my kiddos for awhile.