Muffin Tin Monday

I've joined Muffing Tin Monday.

This week didn't have a theme, so I just put a snack tin together for Jasmine so she could snack throughout the day. I swear I'm not feeding her rabbit food, she actually likes these foods.



We have from left to right on the top row: Orange juice (really half orange juice, half water), goldfish crackers, cucumber spears. Bottom row: carrot sticks (this is a second refill, Jasmine ate them all while I finished putting the rest of the tin together), celery sticks, beans sprouts.

Oops!

Week 3 will be late, not because we didn't finish, but because I ran out of ink for our printer for one project. The ink is the only think holding us back, we also can't start week 4 because I can't print out the activities.

Our homeschool setup

I asked some fellow homeschoolers, and did some searches to see how people organize their classrooms and supplies. I thought I would share what I've done for our stuff.

Starting on the left side of our dining area (we have an open floor plan for the kitchen/dining room/living room.)

Here is Jasmine's easel with her project "Caterpillar C," from No Time for Flashcards.


Here are the new days of the week and weather for our calendar.

I put them on the wall between our two windows to keep them out of the way and so Jasmine wouldn't mess them up.

Here is our right-side window. I added some Autumn leaves that I got from Michael's craft store for about $1.49 (I think, I'm not positive on the price,) they have little bits of gold glitter on them.

I ordered some Autumn/Halloween/Christmas crafts from Oriental Trading Company so we will be adding to this window and maybe the left-side window. I maybe rearrange this window because Jasmine's easel sits in front of the left-side window, making it impossible to see the window.

I lowered Jasmine's Learning Poster so I could fit this number poster where she could reach it. For some reason Jasmine has decided to skip 3 and 8 in her counting, even though she previously counted 3, but never 8.


I got this five drawer unit from Wal-Mart. I wish one of the two bottom draws had been file folder size, that would have made it perfect.


In the bottom drawer I put our large packages of craft supplies, crinkle grass and multi-color feathers.


In the second large drawer I put our paint supplies and glue.

There should be some dot-to-dot paint dabbers, but they were on the easel to use on the caterpillar.

In the bottom small drawer I put all of our scrapes, paper and felt.


The middle small drawer holds my glue gun, glitter glue, paint wheel and paints that Jasmine isn't ready to use.


The top small drawer has triangle crayons, jumbo crayons and word strips that I use for Jasmine's Learning Poster.


Underneath that is two packages of pipe cleaners (one white and the other multi-colored,) glue gel pens, goggly eyes, more word strips and some cheap paint brushes.


I got this file folder crate from Wal-Mart.


It holds 26 pocket folders, in rainbow colors also from Wal-Mart, for Jasmine's Letter of the Week work.


I keep the print-outs and instructions on one side, and finished crafts on the other.


I also made seasonal folders.

Most of the crafts I ordered from Oriental Trading came in sets of 12. I figured we could do 6 this year and I will put the extras in the folders to save for next year. I also plan on making folders for holidays (e.g. Halloween) since I did get separate crafts for Autumn and Halloween, Winter and Christmas.

Ballet update

So, this weeks ballet class was bad. Not as bad as the first week, but Jasmine was totally not interested. I am going to admit defeat. We are pulling her out of the class and will try again in a year.

Swim class is starting next week and that class is easier if she isn't interested, she can walk the ledge in the water if she doesn't want to participate in the class. Working against the water is good exercise for her legs.

Back home

Well, we didn't get any school work done. I'm not surprised, and I know you aren't either. We got to Kentucky late Monday night, and I was sick all of Tuesday. I slept all day. We were busy the other days and didn't get any school work done, so we are doing it this week and I'll try to get the post up this weekend.

Taking a small vacation

This week dance went better. I told the teacher about Jasmine's hypotonia, so the teacher understands why Jasmine can't hop (Jasmine only just learned how to jump in July.) I think the homeschool co-op's preschool has also helped Jasmine pay attention better and to follow directions better. Unfortunately we are leaving tomorrow, Monday, to visit family in Kentucky, so Jasmine will miss next week's ballet and preschool class. Hopefully, when we get back she will remember though and not have a disastrous week at ballet again.

I am going to take our Letter of the Week things with us, and hopefully (I use that word a lot) we will have finished week three by the time we get back and I'll have a new post for it.

What we are currently reading:
Jasmine's selection: Hippos go Berserk by Sandra Boynton


This is one of the few books that Jasmine will actually let me read to her. Her other books she will flip through the pages, but she wants to turn the pages, and normally in the wrong order, without any time for me to read the words.


My selection: What Happens in London by Julia Quinn


I don't normally read romance novels, but my husband left for Nashville, TN on the 10th and I have had trouble sleeping. Reading a chapter or two of a romance novel helps so down my brain so I can get to sleep more easily.

Week Two

This weeks theme is Jungle, but I changed it to Monkey because I don't think Jasmine would have grasped the concept.

Monday: I tried to get Jasmine to pretend to be a monkey, but it ended up being a tickle fest. That's okay. I unfortunately do not remember where I got the image of the monkeys from for this week.

Tuesday: we took the square from last week and covered it with two different green glitter glues. Jasmine already know the word "green" from her green foam soap that we use at bath time.

Wednesday: was the letter "B." Jasmine made an Bee B using the letter "B" and some glitter glue. I got the idea from No Time For Flash Cards.


We also colored a "B" worksheet that had an upper and lower case "B" with pictures of things that started with "B" from Mommy Nature.com. Here is the worksheet.

Thursday: was number two. We added another fish to our fish bowl and counted out our food.

Friday: the nursery rhyme for Friday was I Had a Little Nut Tree. I printed out a picture and rhyme from Mama Lisa, but I also added A Little Nut-Tree by Roald Dahl.

Here is a view of our Learning Poster.

I had to recreate this, we went on vacation to Las Vegas for 4th of July weekend and while we were gone the paper fell off the wall. I didn't pick it up quickly enough when we got back home and Jasmine drew all over it. Right now it is a bit wonky, the words are all crooked, but I think I'm going to leave it that away until I need to do it over again. If you look really really hard you will see Jasmine has already drawn over a bit of it.

I also recently got new items for our calendar. We now have a section that tells us what today is, and what day it will be tomorrow, and what the weather is like. There is also new months that have photos instead of cartoons. Also there are holiday dates now that are photos (e.g. Labor Day is a construction worker with an American Flag background.) I don't know why, but I like photos better than cartoons, I think some times cartoons are still too abstract for Jasmine to understand.

Week One

I can't believe this post has been sitting in saved drafts since May 15th! I am so bad. :(


So, we've just finished our first "week" of scheduled homeschooling. Why is "week" in quotes? Well, it took us longer than a week to finish. Jasmine got sick towards the beginning of the week, Monday night, so we didn't finish until this week (that would be the week of May 15th.)

A couple of weeks ago I discovered Brightly Beaming Resources. I can't remember how I found it, but it took me a couple of days to look through the website. I wish I had discovered it before. It is great! And I'm not saying that lightly. I have been looking for some sort of guide to use with homeschooling before Jasmine was born.

The curriculum starts at three months old and goes up to eleven years of age. For those of you that are secular homeschooling, like we are, the infant and toddler sections have bible verses, but they are very easy to leave out and don't interfere with other things being taught.

There are also sections that are not complete, weeks 22-36 under Sound of the Week, Story of the Week only has one lesson, Science of the Week only has plans for 7 of the 80 books listed, (but it gives good ideas what to do when you get to that stage), only 3 of the Country of the Week (which can be used with the letter of the week) are done.

So, we started with "Steps to Reading" for ages 2-7 years old. We did week one of the "Preparatory Curriculum," (found here.)

Each week has a theme, week one's theme is cows and here is an example of the "Learning Poster" that you can build for/with your child covering the weeks ideas and activities.

Monday: I showed Jasmine pictures of cows and we practiced a bit of mooing. We read few board books that had cows in them. I printed out this image of a cow and calf for our poster.

Tuesday: the shape was square, and we ate a few square foods, like crackers and cookies.

Wednesday: was the letter "A." Jasmine made an Alien A using the letter "A" and some water colors. I got the idea from No Time For Flash Cards.


We also colored an "A" worksheet that had an upper and lower case "A" with pictures of things that started with "A" from Mommy Nature.com. Here is the worksheet.

Thursday: was number one. I found Five Fish in a Fishbowl from First-School. I colored it with crayons, and we will add a fish a week.

Friday: the nursery rhyme for Friday was Hey Diddle Diddle. I printed out a .pdf from Laura B. Smolkin, found here.

Here is a view of our Learning Poster, sorry it is so blurry.


And a picture of our bulletin board,


I do think this is a good series, but I think if we do it again I will change the themes to fit the letter we are studying that week (i.e. A is for Astronaut or something like that.)

We did week two in early July, hopefully I will post it quicker than it took me to do week one.

Doing better

Yesterday was a much better day. I was so worried about the co-op since ballet didn't go well yesterday, but Jasmine had a good time today and followed some directions. I left her in the class alone, but I peeked in the room a few times. And no one asked or talked about religion, which was a relief to me. We were supposed to go to a lunch gathering for the co-op, but I had to call out of it. Maybe with the preschool Jasmine will calm down a little for ballet.

Ballet update

So, ballet wasn't a complete disaster, but it was close. When I called to register I made sure to ask the teacher if 3 years-old was okay and she assured me that it was. Jasmine was the youngest in the class by a year, and the other girls had all taken classes before. Jasmine just wanted to dance, get up, run, jump and move around. She wouldn't sit or follow directions, she was too excited. We are paid up for the month (and they owe me money, as I over paid), so we'll give it a few more tries, but I don't think she'll be continuing, she just isn't ready to stay still for that long.

I admit I'm kind of disappointed, but I'm really trying not to be. I don't want to be the crazy dance/cheerleader/pageant mom. I really think that Jasmine will like ballet, or some other formal form of dance, eventually. She loves to dance around the living room all the time.

I guess part of me is disappointed, because I took ballet and I wanted Jasmine to like ballet.

So, trying not to be disappointed, but I'm stressed out. I was already stressed out about the co-op tomorrow, but I am even more so now, because what if Jasmine has to sit down there too, and what if she doesn't follow directions?