First Official Week Wrap Up

Our first official week homeschooling has come to a close. And boy am I glad there's a learning curve! The actual structured part of our days is taking some getting used to for Mr. T and me, and Mr. F wants to get in on all the fun so it's a bit challenging but we are working with it and I'm sure it will get easier when we are into a "rhythm". I'm very thankful God's mercies are new every morning. And I'm very thankful for coffee. :) We are easing into it so it's OK that we didn't get to everything I had planned. Learning is a constant and living thing with preschoolers so there is no need to stress.

Our first science experiment is growing an avocado seed. We just happened to have 2 since I made Mr. F's favorite avocado and banana baby food last week, so we used them both. Mr. T had a little trouble getting the toothpicks in, so I know we need to incorporate some extra fine motor and proprioceptive play into our OT at home.

We have this awesome app for Lifecycles.  It's .99. And it's got 11 different cycles including frog, butterfly and plants. Easy peasy on the science. We are using that in conjunction with our experiment. We also used it with our Butterfly Unit Study this past spring.

Mr. F still only has 2 teeth but he happily gummed his way through cut up bits of gluten free macaroni. Bless his heart, he wants real food so badly. Mr. T completed a lesson from our Artistic Pursuits curriculum. This is one of my favorite "real" curriculum pieces this year (there will be a review coming up soon). I think he did great! And he had so much fun with it. Finger painting is big fun for him, especially with his sensory seeking nature. His eyes lit up like a Christmas tree when I poured a big bunch of paint on the paper and said have fun. He's my little Picasso in training.

This post contains affiliate links. Please see the disclosure page for more information.

We did some fum workbook pages in our Kumon Uppercase Letters book and our Get Ready for the Code book. Mr. T and Mr. F watched the Talking Letter Factory together a couple times this week, too.They both seem to enjoy it. Mr. T has always loved it and we have more than one mom friend who says their little ones learned phonics watching this DVD.

Montessori practical life in action. Mr. T has a little dance of sorts when he sets the table. He also helped me put dinner on the table and when Mr. J walked through the door he brought him to the table and proudly proclaimed "I did it!". That sense of accomplishment coupled with him actually saying a phrase clearly made my mama heart near burst! We do not always give children enough freedom to accomplish big tasks and I think we do them a disservice in that. I try to remember Maria Montessori's mantra for the children, "teach me to do it myself". 

I'm making first birthday invitations. Where did this year go?!? Mr. F will be 1 on July 29th. I can't believe it! We're doing a small Raggedy Andy themed party. I thought it was perfect since he's my little red head :) I had my first big gluten free baking success this week! From scratch cinnamon rolls. They were awesome! I'm going to make another batch with one little tweak and take pictures as I go so I can share the recipe. I'm definitely Mr. T's hero this week ;)

Saturday was a big day for us! We did our usual Home Depot first Saturday build and Mr. T made a cute little wooden car from Despicable Me 2. He always has such fun building things. I love to watch him concentrate. He has such a determination.

Then we went bowling! It was Mr. T's first time and my first time since high school, however many years ago that was! Mr. J showed Mr. T his way to do it and I showed him how to roll it granny style. Thankfully there are no pictures of me doing that, but Mr. T preferred that method and did great with it and the bumpers. Mr. F wanted to play to, but as soon as I sat him on the floor out of the stroller he tried to follow the ball down the lane so back to his pen on wheels he went. Mr. T lost interest toward the end so we only played one game but I think we will be able to add that in to our homeschool PE repertoire.Yay for family activities!

What fun activities do you enjoy as a family?

Have a blessed weekend!
Lara

We are linked up here: