Chore Charts

I finally have excel on my computer. I can't express how happy this makes me. Spreadsheets just makes my world feel so much more pulled together.
Since my girls have been in school this year, I have noticed a major lack in what we get done at home. For the past few weeks, I have been trying out to-do lists with them and they have been loving them. Apparently they take after their mother and enjoyed being able to check things off as they go and have control over what they get done first. I have also been struggling to get them going in the mornings and felt as though I had to stand over them in order for them to get the smallest task accomplished. So I put it all together in a spreadsheet. I call them chore charts but they are really just lists of their basic tasks everyday. For each item they complete, they get to color in the box. Monday through Friday are listed on the chart. Weekends will be different so I just wanted something for the weekdays. Butterfly thought it was the best thing in the world and popped right up out of bed and got to work. Ladybug wasn't really motivated by the chart and still dragged on but I am thinking as the week goes on she will get into it.

This is Dragonfly's basic chart.

We decided tonight that each colored box will earn them a penny. All of their special privileges will have a price (playing at the park, going to see a movie, having special snack, having a friend over...we are going to come up with a full list tomorrow). Hopefully this will giving them a little more motivation to fill in their boxes. I have also already seen tasks that I need to add to the list so I believe the lists will be edited often.

Nothing Creative

So the past week of preschool has been on the boring side. At least when it comes to blogging about it, it has been boring. We have done nothing worth taking pictures of.....nothing creative. There has been a lot of business that I have had to take care of this past week so Dragonfly has been working on worksheets and watching the following educational movies: Leapfrog Words, Leapfrog Letters, Number Circus and Dolch Sight Words. She has also been playing with a lot of the manipulatives that we have as well. Her favorites are pop-beads, magnet dolls, counting bears and building links.

Dragonfly has also been learning a lot about just life in general. We have had some really beautiful days which we spent playing outside. Warm weather after the cold days of winter is such a treat and we like to enjoy every minute of them. Today Dragonfly went with me as I stocked up at the Commissary. We got to talk about fruits and veggies. This carried us into a conversation of what is healthy and what is not (This is a huge topic at our house right now). She loved being my big helper. Then we came home and prepared dinner for a friend. She loved watching but wasn't as interested in helping me cook.

So although, I haven't been overly creative with her education this past week, she has not lacked educational experiences.

Princess Flower's sketches

I made these sketches because I felt like drawing. I really like fairies because they can fly. The trick to making the eyes is to make them almond shape and then erase the points on either side. Draw a line through the middle and darken it and then draw parentheses around the darken line and fill it in. Then make a little dot on each eye at the same point to give the eye the appearance of light shining off the eye.

B is for Bear

Last night I got everything together to work on the letter B. I wanted it to go along with a book or two. I decided on Goldilocks and the Three Bears and Corduroy. Then I found some worksheets at First School.

Dragonfly's big bear.

Goldilocks patterns. She did well cutting each of the squares out and pasting them on the page in the correct order.

Letter B. She traced each letter and then made a few of her own at the bottom.

We made little puppets for the Goldilocks story. While I read the story, she moved the pieces around.

Daddy read her the Corduroy story and she watched a felt story on youtube of Goldilocks. She also had strips of paper with the letter B on them that she cut between. In the midst of this I was making bows and bread and boxes for ship off to people. It made me laugh that my morning was full of B's as well.

Two weeks of Valentine fun!

I have had fun these last two weeks celebrating Valentine's Day. I think Dragonfly really enjoyed the activities and her sisters were eager to jump in when they were home. I decided to do one long post to bring all our activities together in one spot plus I included those we did today. I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day!

Raccoon made with hearts.

"H" is for hearts!

Counting with hearts.

Sorting the hearts.

Dragonfly then made her own "H" and put stickers on it.

Links

Heart Dinosaur

Counting with links

Heart sugar cookies.

Valentine's boxes.

"V" is for Valentine

graphing

toothpick hearts.

Size order

Heart sensory bucket

Counting with red pony beads. I added tweezers to this activity.

Counting with hearts.

Matching

Cutting between the Love stamps.

Stamping the "V"

Busy Saturday

We started our morning very early with a cheer leading game.

Waiting for PF's game. I brought workbooks/worksheets to keep the girls minds busy. Butterfly and Ladybug are excited that they are nearing the end of their phonics books.

Dragonfly's 10. I am so excited that she is starting to understand writing numbers and letters.

PF's cheer leading game.

We came home to an awesome surprise. Grammy and Papa sent a valentine box for us all. I got a CFA gift card (a night off from cooking!). The girls received panties (always a plus), socks, hairbrushes, some heart die cuts and some snacks. Surprises boxes are so much fun!

Then we headed to a friend's house to make Valentine's and decorate heart cookies. We have such a great community where we live and I love that we all take turns hosting a fun event for our kids.

Time to Bowl

I love to do fun things with my kids on Fridays! This week we decided to meet up with our friends and go bowling. We all had such a great time. This was by far my favorite time bowling ever.

Dragonfly didn't bowl but was an excellent spectator.

We played two games. This is our final score for both games. PF bowled my first two frames of the second game....I think this is why we tied. :)

Snow Day=Homeschool Day

The girls came home yesterday, saying they had a two hour delay because it was suppose to snow. I love two hour delays because that means there is no rushing in the morning and the girls can get some of their chores done before school. Well at 7am, I got the call that school was cancelled for the day. I really didn't think it had snowed much but was thrilled for a day to have my girls home. I was just saying to my friend yesterday how frustrated I was with the school and what is going on with my girls and how much I am ready to have them back home. God is so good to answer the desires of my heart and gave me the opportunity to have them home. I made the most of it and we got a lot of schoolwork accomplished.

For writing, the girls used Writing Prompts. It gives them a setting, character and plot. I had them flip randomly. PF ended up with what is shown in the picture. Her story was:
Castle of a Pilot
Once upon a time there lived a pilot named Joe. He lived in a beautiful castle. He was very poor and unhappy. He had bad luck building planes. When he tried to make a plane the wings would usually be up and down instead of side to side or the engine would be in front instead of in back. He was so unhappy in his work that one night he made a wish on a star. He wished he could own a plane company. The next day his wish came true. Workers came with plane parts and started making beautiful planes. His planes sold beautifully. His company became the most famous plane company in the world. He became very rich and very happy. The End!
Butterfly's story was about a lost, talking dog in the zoo.
The Lost Dog
Once upon a time there was a mother dog. She was about to have a pup but something happened to the dog. She got lost in a cage at the zoo. They took the pup and the pup got lost. He could not find his mother. He was really sad. He did not know who his mother was. He wanted his mother. The mother dog broke out of the cage and she found her pup. He was really happy to find his mother. The End.

Dragonfly playing with pop beads.

I gave them each math wrap-ups to work on so they can start getting faster at their math facts. Butterfly seems to be struggling with memorizing math facts right now.

The manipulative table.

A new one for today...thread pony beads onto pile cleaners. Dragonfly will need to work on this one a few more times.

Math work. PF worked on reviewing fractions while Ladybug and Butterfly did another lesson in Math-U-See Alpha.

Each of the girls did at least one lesson in Hand Writing Without Tears. Ladybug and Butterfly love their book so much I think they did 6 or 7 lessons. I am certainly seeing improvements. Then Ladybug and Butterfly worked on their Star Fall Phonics and Writing workbooks. I also had them each read me a few books, practice piano, and work on spelling. It was a busy morning but I am glad I had this time to see how things are going to work in a few weeks when they return home. We did not use our full curriculum today but I do have an idea now of how long other things are going to take so I can plan accordingly.

When we were completely finished. I made the girls some popcorn. Our new favorite is drizzled with a honey cinnamon syrup. It is very simple just heat honey and cinnamon in a pan with a little coconut oil. Salt the popcorn and drizzle with the syrup. It gives you that great salty sweet taste!