Due to illness and the craziness of everyday life, I have neglected the blog more than usual over the last couple weeks it seems.  Here is a little bit of catch up of what we've been up to...

Branna has continued to excel in all her school work.  She loves to read and is currently reading through her first novel based on her favorite movie: Astro Boy.  She also got a cute book from my mom called Three Stories You Can Read to Your Dog.  She was very excited to read them to her dog, Cooper!

She has done really well with her math work and has surprised me at how quickly she catches on to things.  Recently, we started counting by 2's. (She already knows her 5's and 10's.)  After our first day, she was able to count by 2's backwards from 100!  And I didn't even prompt her to do that...I was impressed!

(A side note:  She has recently wanted to start "posing" for her pictures.  She wants to act like she's doing something and then have me take her picture.  Here she is "acting" like she is counting. :) )

Here is another pose for the family tree she put together:

For math one day, we used Easter eggs for patterning:

I used a simpler version of this with Atlie where I gave her one card and she had to find the matching egg top and bottom.

Branna loves to help out in the kitchen and I was very excited to find this easy cookie recipe we used when we talked manna.  (I replaced the egg with oil to make it for safer handling for the girls.)

Atlie has also recently become fascinated with scissors.  I think it's partly just that age and she sees Branna using them, but I also think it's due to her recent experience at the doctor's office.  Over the Christmas holiday, she ended up with nurse maid's elbow and had to get a soft cast while we waited for the diagnosis.   When she got the cast off, the nurse had to cut it off.

 Since then, she has loved to pretend to put a band aid on (usually a long sticker or piece of tape) and then cut it off.  But, I really think this has helped her cutting skills!

I also had her work with tongs to enable that coordination:

By the end of the first week with the tongs, she was able to cut paper! (See the aftermath below...)

The sticker alphabet pages we did a few weeks ago were such a success, that I made another sticker activity.  For this, I labeled a each letter with a different colored sticker (you can see in the picture E=green, F=orange, G=pink, H=yellow).  Using this legend, Atlie identified the letters in the upper portion of her worksheet with the corresponding color.

We also took some time out for a little bit of good old fashion painting.  Branna wanted something "better" than paper, so she painted a box.  I found out later that she intended me to hang it on my wall...

Aisley at 3 Months (February 17)

This month you have really become more aware of you surroundings. You laugh when Branna makes a silly face at you and give big smiles when others get your attention.  I love hearing you coo and babble and to see all the expressions that go with it!

You have continued to sleep through the night and I'm starting to see more of a schedule
in your day as opposed to a routine.

And, as I predicted you rolled over from your tummy to your back this month!  You are getting so strong and I know it's only a matter of time before you are running around, playing with your sisters.

School Success

We had  a busy week at school, mainly due to the extra work I added.  This week Branna's regular math topic was fractions.  How can you not have alot of manipulatives and hands on work when talking about fractions? Fortunately, I found a really good set of games and activities which saved me a ton of prep time.  And even better, Branna enjoyed them!

A couple of her favorite things included fraction pizzas

and making a fraction-pillar.

Atlie's "Tot School" activities went really good, too.  A few things we had for the week was a "Tame the Tiger" game, magnetic pompoms activities, and coloring sorting work.

"Tame the Tiger" was a simple activity (to do and to make), but it was a big hit.  I simply cut an opening that was big enough to fit a pompom through in an tiger-face plate.  To "tame" the tiger, she had to "feed" it pompoms.

Originally, I had corresponding color/number cards.  My thought was that she would draw a card and feed the tiger that many pompoms of the given color. (I.e. If she drew a purple 2, she would give the tiger two purple pompoms.)  She did this at first, but in the end just wanted to put as many pompoms as should into the at once.  We'll try the numbers again later.

The magnetic pompoms were pretty fun for her too.  That is after the initial fun of pulling off the magnetics...

This was also easy to put together.  I cut a magnetic strip (with an adhesive backing) into small pieces and stuck it on the pompoms.  (The adhesive ended up not being durable enough to survive Atlie, so I need to go back and use hot glue.)

I printed off pages from Making Learning Fun, placed it on a metal cooking sheet I got at the Dollar Tree, and viola!

I also made a coloring sort sheet.  It could be used for lots of activities, but since we were working with pompoms, that's what we used.

A few other short activities she did was using colored chalk on black paper,

playing with Aladdin magnets (I found these on the Disney website and printed them off on magnetic paper)

and we brought out the felt pizza from last week.

But, I think Atlie's favorite activity and the one that held her attention the longest was using circle stickers on alphabet pages.

She still has lots free play (coloring, reading books, etc), but I'm excited that I'm finally getting an arsenal of activities for Atlie.  This week's tot school includes matching games and more letter letter identification.

Lastly, Branna has been working on time.  I introduced it a few weeks ago in school and her and Branyon have continued practicing during their morning lessons. To help her get a better grasp on the subject, I made this flower clock.  I came across the idea and thought it was a great idea for our classroom!

Tot School Time

We've started back to school again after our Christmas break.  One of my goals during this semester of school was to find things more constructive and learning activities for Atlie.

I've taken a few ideas from other homeschooling blogs, but haven't been consistent with it.  Another issue for me is time.  I don't mind spending some time getting things together for Atlie, but it's frustrating to spend an afternoon on something that she ends up not being interested in or only spends 5 minutes doing.  So, I've been collecting ideas that are easy for me to construct and that I think will keep Atlie busy... at least for a little bit.

This week, we had felt pizzas and button snakes.  The felt pizzas were super easy to make.  First I cut out a dough-colored circle and glued it to a firm piece of paper.  Next I cut out toppings: tomato sauce, mushrooms, ham, pepperoni, black olives, and green peppers.  As you can see, Branna enjoyed it just as much (if not more than) Atlie.

The button snakes took a little more time to make than the pizzas, mainly because there was alot cutting, but they were still relatively easy to make.  After cutting out shapes (I did squares, rectangles, and triangles) and cutting a slit in the middle of each, I sewed one felt piece to the end of a piece of ribbon and a button to the other end.
The ideas is to thread each felt piece on the button and down the ribbon.  This activity didn't interest Atlie quite as much, but I think it was because I called them "snakes".  Maybe I'll bring them back out in a few weeks and call them "worms" instead.

And of course, we still fall back on the usual free play.  Here is Dr. Atlie making a very careful examination...

... and the girls painting.  (Branna's picture is of her dog, Cooper.)

My projects for next week's Atlie Tot School include magnetic letter fishing and color matching activities.  What are your favorite Tot activities?

December 6

I struggled this December about what to say in Saige's memory.  No words can ever really describe my grief of losing her, but at the same time no words can really describe my happiness in knowing that she is safe for eternity.  In the end, after a few attempts of trying to write something, December 6 came and went and I decided to not post anything this year.

And then I came across this picture and poem.

Memorial Of Unborn Children by Martin Hudack of Slovokia

“Do not judge the bereaved mother. She comes in many forms.
She is breathing, but she is dying.
She may look young, but inside she has become ancient.
She smiles, but her heart sobs.
She walks, she talks, she cooks, she cleans, she works, she IS,
but she IS NOT, all at once.
She is here, but part of her is elsewhere for eternity.”

-Author Unknown-

50 Days of School

This week we completed our 50th day of school!  To celebrate it we had a 1950s party!  I found a small lesson plan to go along with 50s theme that had word searches, math, and other fun things for Branna to do:

Atlie also joined in on the fun and added to '50s theme by dressing up in her poodle skirt...

At the end of the school day, Branna wrote a how-to book about making a root beer float...

...and I surprised her by letting her make her own!  She was VERY happy.

Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving was a little different this year... not just because of a new baby, it was also the first time that our family hosted it at our house.  Usually we alternate years between my family and Branyon's family and we travel to someone's house.  However, this year that we knew we wouldn't be able to travel, and asked if the party could come to us.

Things were a little crazy at times...

but we were so glad to have everyone with us and to have the additional help.

This picture was taken a few days after Thanksgiving, but I wanted to throw it in.  I love the zebra print and footies!

Aisley Jade

Born November 17, 2012 12:41 am

8 lbs 4 oz, 21 inches

Fall Festival 2012

The girls had so much fun at our church's Fall Festival!  Along with playing all the carnival games, getting candy, and taking a hayride, the girls loved their Halloween costumes.  Branna was Simba and of course, Atlie was Mickey Mouse.

In true Branna fashion, she certainly got into character and roared at everyone she could in the first 15 minutes...

Then it was off to play some games...

The girls also decorated pumpkins.  So that they could be part of the process, we didn't carve them but painted and glued instead.  With our help, Branna made a penguin and Atlie made Elmo.  (Branna's won "Coolest Pumpkin" and Atlie's won "Most Lalala-lalala... Lovely" :) )

It's always fun to look back on previous years and I'm very excited to see what next year hold in store for us, too!