In my life this week… My dishwasher is still broken. You can read about my dishwasher sagas here if you so choose. I wrote that mostly to make myself feel better. I had to vent. It just didn’t seem right to vent to any of my friends this week since most of them had bigger problems than a broken dishwasher. The one friend that I could have vented to….well, she doesn’t have a dishwasher. She probably wouldn’t be very sympathic I’m thinking. In our homeschool this week… I’m beginning to notice a trend. We are most productive after we eat and sometimes while we eat. I’m not sure how this happens but it’s working for us. We sit down to breakfast and I read her a story and one thing leads to another. Frequently, we can work for an hour or two and not even realize it. And then we have another productive moment with lunch. I like it this way actually. Missy is much too young to formally school in my opinion. It really is best when we … [Read more...]
Welcome in Fall With Some Favorite Books

Labor Day is often considered the unofficial last weekend of summer. Oftentimes, American families can be found all across the country enjoying one last trip to the lake or one last barbeque. As one season comes to an end another one begins. I find myself buried in books planning for the upcoming months on this long weekend. I'm taking advantage of this day off. My husband is off for Labor Day, therefore, I'm collecting our books for the coming weeks while my child plays Lincoln Logs with her Dad in the den. So I thought I would share my favorite top ten books for fall on... 1. Our favoritest favorite is Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper. It is about a duck, a squirrel, and a cat. They each have assigned jobs, such as adding just enough salt to the soup. Everything is peaceful in the old white cabin, until the duck decides he would like to trade jobs. The others are not open to this and so it causes conflict in the old white cabin. And no election year would be … [Read more...]
We Survived….

We're in our second week of homeschool. Which means we survived the first week. {Insert happy dance.} So now I have lots of changes and lots to do. So where to begin... We have a pretty good routine for starting our day. We eat breakfast and while we eat, we review from our index cards. At this point, we just have memory verses in there. We read a little Bible story. I found this great pack from Rod and Staff for preschool. My daughter thinks they are "real school books." I purchased them through a publishing company called Lamp and Light for a very reasonable price. (I would link to them, but they don't have a website, just a catalog.) Then we do calendar. It's a very simple version that as we go we can elaborate on. For right now, this is what works for us. Then usually she gets dressed and ready for the day. Sometimes she's ready for more school work, somedays not. But eventually, she always ends up doing more of her schoolwork. We … [Read more...]
Easy Ways to Teach Pre-Reading Skills

I made a deal with Missy that when she turned three we would start our own school. She calls it "class." So we've been doing "class" most everyday. She decides if we do or not. Sometimes she chooses to "do something at the big table." Those something's are usually letter oriented. She loves to play with magnetic words and I also have some letter tiles that seem to hold her attention for awhile. I must admit we did a lot of this before she was actually three. We just didn't give it a formal name. More for Mommies sake than for hers. It's hard to accept your child is ready for this so soon. One of her all time favorites is to make a letter from either dried beans or colored macaroni. I draw a large letter of her choosing on construction paper and then I outline it with glue. Then she puts the beans or macaroni on the glue in the shape of the chosen letter. She even gets to pick if it should be an upper or lower case letter. We talk while she's doing this … [Read more...]












