The Polar Express

Today we had classes at the site all morning but since naps were non existent for some reason we decided to do a little more "fun school" stuff. We decided to watch The Polar Express. I decided that since the advent calendar said we were going to make hot cocoa with hot cocoa stirrers maybe we could just make it an all afternoon activity. So we watched the movie and I made hot cocoa using this recipe. It was so yummy! And I made some marshmallow candy cane stirrers to make it Christmas like! I decided I could probably find some writing work online for this movie and was excited to find some freebies that were perfect. Here is our afternoon in pictures!








Watching the movie with their giant pillow pets!
















The boys did awesome on their work!





Isaac actually put the glue on and outlined the bell himself on this. I have to say I was shocked at how well he did at this!

Pirate Math

Okay so I will start by saying, I love Teachers Pay Teachers. It is a website that allows teachers to sell their ideas and cute centers and all that kind of stuff online. These people are amazing! I have purchased a couple things but there are also a lot of free stuff on the site . I printed out, cut out and laminated a couple things for the boys that would help with some hard concepts like find the missing number for Kevin and adding past 10 for Adam. The boys had so much fun that they did Math twice as long as their patience usually allows.

Pirates help Kevin as he fills the treasure chest with parts of the whole to find the missing numbers in both addition and subtraction problems. Particularly funny, Kevin spoke like a pirate through this entire activity!


Doubles! We are working on memorizing our doubles addition facts to 10.


Adding to make 10 plus some.



Here Adam is making words with the sunflower letters! He was told to make 10 words and write them down.


We are having fun finding exciting ways to learn!

Boys! Boys! Boys!

Last week we had our friends, Ethan, Caleb, and Isaiah over for the day. I had planned a lot of activities in hopes of keeping them busy. We started Out by making our own pizzas for lunch.




Then we made turkey puppets.


Then we did a turkey feather hunt and played a proper noun game. We also colored our turkey books. Luckily the hubby was home and after all this fun he took them to the park to let the baby nap.





We had such a fun day with our friends.

Aquarium Of The Pacific

Last week we had a field trip with CHEP to the Aquarium. It was such fun and the boys had a blast. They love seeing all the strange fish and sea creatures.

We started with a class in which they learned what things to check for to see if it is a fish. These included a backbone, gills, scales, and fins. The teacher was from the aquarium and was great with the kiddos!


They got their own private viewing and touching of a shark and lots of other invertebrates like sea snails, anemones and such!


Then we went to the ray and shark tank and pet some sharks and rays!


The boys thought it was hilarious trying to sound like whales. They could listen to whale sounds then record themselves mimicking the sounds and listen back. This took a lot of time to pull them away from.


Afterwards we met up with Dad for lunch since he works about 5 minutes from the aquarium. We had a picnic then set out to get a view of The Queen Mary.


And the Lion's Lighthouse!


They ran up and down this hill about 5 times and then started crawling.


And on the way home all 4 boys fell asleep!


Yup it was that good of a day!

Open House, Art Festival

Last week we attended an Open House and Art Festival and Book Fair at the CHEP site! The boys had fun doing some Greek themed art projects and picking out a book with their own allowance Money from the book fair! The best part was that Dad got to attend. This was his first time at the site and he was also able to meet our awesome teacher, Brigette! The boys decided to split the bill on their book and got this one.


They are such boys!!



Kevin created this masterpiece which gained him accolades from the art teacher based on his pattern and color choices.


Adam did this platter!


Here he is hard at work!


There were students with Education Majors from Cal-State Fullerton there to help with all of the students and their art projects. We are excited because in the new year we have signed up to get assigned two of these students to do a six week course of study based on art and literature. They will be teaching our kids and two other boys all together (4). I think the boys will love the personal attention of teachers in training!

Counting Beans

So traditionally I would say bean counters have no fun but today I was corrected. My boys had lots of fun being bean counters! We have been working with 10 frames for the last week and are getting quite good at understanding tens and place values for the first grader. Adam is just about to start counting by 10s and so he got to participate by filling his 10 frames with the number of beans I said and finding different ways to show the same number within the frame.


Making it to 96 in very little time! By golly I think he is figuring out this 10 grouping thing. Kevin has been counting to hundred by 10 for over a year but he is just now understanding what that actually means.





Adam showing the number 7 four different ways.

To The Zoo

Our boys love the zoo. Last Friday we decided on an all day zoo trip. Usually I do a couple hours since we have a membership. But since we have gone so little this year, I decided to make it a day! I wanted to make sure that we brought our science units into our trip and it was fun to see all the animal vocabulary the boys knew. They were able to look at animals and tell me what they used their claws for, why they had big or little eyes and of course what kind of foods they ate! It was fun for everyone including myself.








We did the petting zoo which we rarely do, but since it was an all day adventure we had time for everything!




We pet a Python, had lunch at a park ( we brought subway) and ate snacks!


We rested!


We got to see the new exhibit which was so cool. The boys, of course, thought this was the best part of the day!








Friday field trip days are always lots of fun!

A place for Little Guy

Today we decided little guy needed his own place! So here we go!


Adam mastered counting backwards from 20, at least visually...we will see if he can do it on his own soon!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Cubes and K'nex

Today Adam's math lesson was on Cubes we pulled out the K'nex and played!!


We discussed the differences between a square and a cube.


Then we made more shapes.





Kevin got in on the action during his free time as well. He made a 3D triangle and turned it into a swing.


Can I just say here, I love homeschooling. I love finding fun ways to teach my boys. I love seeing their little brains work and their knowledge grow each day. Everyday I feel so blessed to have this opportunity.