Fun with please and thank you

This week we focused on manners and the boys had a blast with Richard Scarry's "Please and Thank You". I found this book at the Thrift store, it looked in perfect condition and I paid only 15 cents for it. I had no idea it was actually part of some homeschool curriculums!

Very funny book in the same style of the other "Scarry" book. My boys had so much fun reading listening to the lessons on being polite, manners and safety rules. We have read this book every day at least twice from cover to cover. We acted out many of the scenarios in the book. And I'm trying to come up with a lapbook for it...any ideas???

Along with it, we read "If Jesus Came to my House" (BFIAR book) since this story talks about being kind towards others.

Right Choices

I purchased this devotional book last year (recommended by many fabulous FIAR moms)and finally got it out to share with the boys.

It's just perfect for my boys (almost 3 and almost 5), the length, the illustrations and the topics.

The book covers behaviors (right and wrong) for children to learn what the Bible says about that and for them to determine if it's a right or wrong choice to make.

We've been reading this one before bedtime and it seems like every night the topic fits just right with attitudes the boys are experiencing and things we are teaching them!

I love that it shows little children that the Bible CAN speak to their everyday situations and they can learn from it a lot.

The books ends with an entry on how sometimes we make wrong choices but that God has provided a way for us through Jesus Christ to make it right.

This one is moving to my top choices for books to give away to preschoolers.

Our Trip to Puerto Rico Feb '08

Valentine's Day lapbook-part 3

Inside the book is words that rhyme with "fine" and "blue"...another dictation. And below is a pocket holding Caleb's first Valentine Poem. This was...to my surprise his favorite activity. After dictating his poem I gave him the paper with the written form and he walked around the house reciting it to everybody!

A coloring/labeling page from Enchanted Learning

Valentine lapbook-part 2

The back side of the middle flap has our animal facts. We added a wheel with life cycle of ants, a coloring picture with different types of bears. And a dictation from Caleb with the names of bears.

Another dictation was Mrs. Bear's preparation list. We also glued an envelope to keep all the Valentine's they received inside!

Inside the red book we glued our chart from the counting lesson.

The Valentine Bear's Lapbook

We had a lot of fun making this simple lapbook. It's based on the story "The Valentine Bears". You can find the lesson and templates here.

Here's the cover...our sweet Noah decorated with stickers as usual. Caleb and Paola traced the hearts using a large "heart-shaped" cookie cutter.

The first opening shows John 3:16 and the word "valentine" spelled. The bottom matchbox have 1John 4:7-11. We read this passage several times during Valentine's Day week and Caleb memorized verses 10 & 11.

This time I wanted to try having Caleb dictate to me answers (since his writing is not there yet) and I would copy them for him into our lapbook. We did a few of these dictations and Caleb enjoyed very much to see his words written out.

I asked Caleb what are some things people gifts people give on Valentine's Day and here's his answer.

Loved this add-on from the HSS lesson! Vocabulary words with pictures. We talked about what a synonym is.

Newbie homeschooling mom...lesson learned

...Don't schedule school time during vacation!!!! ;-)

I had a wonderful week of learning planned for us but of course with grandma's house full of visits and places for us to go there's very little time for school, right?

The boys did enjoy reading Valentine's Day stories this week and we have been working slowly on a lapbook that I am hoping to finish this weekend with the help of all the cousins. ;-)

Yesterday we did some fun math with valentine's candy (I was inspired by Candace idea). The enjoyed this very much. Here's some pictures.

We made it safe....after a very looooong travel day

We are having a wonderful time here in Puerto Rico with my family. We haven't taken as many pictures yet I will post some later.

Our trip here was very long. We missed our original flight, had to take another 2 hours to Boston, wait there 3 hours, then take another 5 hours flight to San Juan.

When we arrived in San Juan our luggage had arrived in our original flight at 2:44pm (it was now 9:30 pm) but the baggage claim office was closed for the day.

So we went to our car rental company, got our van and drove another 2 hours to my mom's house in Aguadilla. Arrived there past midnight.

Next day Friday we drove back to San Juan to get our luggage. Thank God everything was there!

We officially started our vacation on Saturday. ;-)

I've been tagged

I've been tagged by Molly so here it goes.






7 Random Things About Me






#1 As a child I wanted to be an astronaut and a translator to the United Nations...I did manage as an adult to become bilingual (working on a third one) and I do "space out" a lot these days.

# 2 I LOVE to make lists and schedules....I rarely follow them.



#3 Music is a HUGE part of my life....but I am not a hard core fan of any band, singer, style of music. I have a new favorite all the time.


#4 I've experienced 2 huge hurricanes in my life....very scary!


#5 I am a dreamer...so is my husband.


#6 I am guilty of "yo-yo" diets....in the past 4 years I've gone up and down and back again 5 different sizes.



#7 Noise really bothers me...I cannot concentrate when there's too much noise...ironically I talk loud and laugh loud. ;-)






Ok....here it goes... I tag...HEATHER, JENNIFER, KATE, CELIA, ERICA, JANELLE, LISA

We are off to the Enchanted Island

Yipeee!! For the next 2 weeks our family will be vacationing in Puerto Rico. I am so thankful for us to be able to take a break and visit my family there. The weather here in Chicago has been so COLD and SNOWY these past few weeks that I just can't wait to skip 2 weeks of winter!



I hope to get some blogging/bragging done from the beach. hehehe

First Snowman

Well I guess we picked the wrong week to go on our Caribbean vacation because we once again have to go another weekend of snowy-cold weather.

So of course we made the best use of our day and went out to play in the snow. The boys were busy for long time working on this...

They worked hard searching for the right size of "branch-arms" & "acorn-face". And for the final touch...let's spray the snowman with colored water to make sure that it sticks out from all of the snow around it.

What you cannot see too well on this pictures is that there is a huge footprint on the right side of the snowman...that's because he is only around 8 inches tall!! hehehe

Black History Month

If you are not familiar with Kadir Nelson's illustration you might want to add some of his titles to read during this month to celebrate Black History Month.

Our 2 favorites are...

Both books are beautifully illustrated and fun to read!