FineTune

New tunes on music player to the right. I still kept some of the previous playlist. Enjoy! :)

Trains Lapbook

Here's some pictures of our Trains Lapbook from HSS. This has been by far Caleb's favorite lapbook.

2 components that did not make it to the lapbook are the Circus Train Counting Cards & the Train Craft. The boys wanted to display these on the wall instead.

Here's the back of the lapbook. A trains lapbook would not be complete without Thomas the Tank Engine somewhere in it...hehe.

Here's a clip showing the inside of the lapbook. Sorry for the siren background!

Train Fun

More train titles we enjoy...

#1 The Little Engine that Could


#2 Choo-Choo the Runaway Engine


#3 The Little Red Caboose


#4 Trains (Usborne Discovery Series)


#5 Tootle


A fun train board game for your family is Ticket to Ride. The box says ages 8+ but we use it with our boys to practice counting to 100, matching colors, learning sequence and map reading. We'll still have to wait a few years before they actually play the game.

Links....





Railway Safety


Old Steam Trains Pictures



Huge Collection of Train Printouts

Steam Train Sounds

Caleb's 5th birthday

Caleb turned 5 this week! Noah and Mami were at work early in the morning preparing a birthday pancake for him.

There's no better way to celebrate a birthday for a train lover than riding on one, right?

So that's what we did. ;-)

Then we ate lunch at The Choo-Choo Diner. A Santa Fe-diesel engine delivered us the food!

"I love trains!"

Our Window View -Spring

Tiny yellow-green flowers blossom on the trees. We love spring! We just have one more season to complete our season's album. Here's the views of Fall & Winter.

Blog to Win

The HSB Front Porch is having a contest and you can win a $50 gift certificate just for blogging about The Old Schoolhouse Magazine Spring Promo before midnight April 30, 2008. Subscribe now to The Old Schoolhouse Magazine and receive 25 BONUS gifts valued at over $550! The Winter Promo sold out, don't miss out on the free gifts this time!They are also giving away a $150 gift certificate to the Schoolhouse Store. All print subscribers (new or renewing) between April 3 - 30, 2008 will be automatically entered into a drawing. No purchase neccessary to win.

To enter without subscribing, please send a postcard with your name, address, telephone number, and email address to:The Old Schoolhouse Magazine Spring Promo ContestPO BOX 8426Gray, TN 37615

Today in the Chicago Tribune

You know I had to post this here. ;-)

Check out this article about a homeschool family in Evanston.

T is for Trains

This week we are reading lots of train books and working on a simple lapbook from HSS. You can see lessons ideas and the printouts here.

I'll be posting pictures of our finished lapbook, list of train-related books that we love and activities.

Caleb's prayer

This morning during breakfast....."Jesus, please, Lord, help Noah to pray a looonger prayer. He always says Jesus, thank you for this day. Amen. and I think it's too short and you don't like that. So help Noah pray a longer prayer next time". LOL!

Dad went on to explain Caleb the Lord looks at our heart and not just the words that we say, so He could be very pleased with Noah's simple prayer.

It made me wonder if our prayers are so long that he feels that's how it should be...hummmm.

I've been busy!

I've been busy decluttering!! Thanks to the fabulous tips and "baby steps" over at flylady.net I am on my way to move from a SHE to FLY! (you'll have to check the site to know what it's all about).

After a few weeks I'm starting to see big improvements in our home. Even my husband asked "what book did you read recently about cleaning?". ;-)

Starting to Measure

Our theme for this week is "Starting to Measure".

I wanted to keep things simple since this week I'm starting "Reading Made Easy" with Caleb.

We are reading Inch by Inch by Leonni

A simple storyline that follows an inchworm measuring different birds.

I introduced Caleb to what an "inch" is. I showed him how it looks in the ruler. After reading the story I had him go and find 5 things he wanted to measure. His picks: sword, eraser, Lightning McQueen Car, wooden train & small slate. After showing him how to measure with the ruler I got these out....

How fun!! They come in four different sizes from 1 inch to 4. We went back and measured his chosen items this time with the worms. I got these at a bargain price at the local school supplies store. Our tub is not as big as this one but it was more than enough for the 2 boys.

Another resource we are using is this workbook from Usborne's First Learning Series. We will be slowly working through it for the next two weeks.

This workbook gives other fun ways to measure by using "blocks", "cans", "newspapers", "hands", "steps". I'm planning to use a different one every day.

For a break from all the measuring, today we found all the birds in the story in our bird's field guide book.

Inside our Ziploc Bags

I'm organizing a Preschool Activity Bags Swap. Here's a sample of some of the bags I prepared last year and still using today.

Beads and Straws: copy patterns made or create your own.

Match cards: objects in black/white with correct color cards

Sorting paper clips: 1 clip is taped to the index card. Place or clip them to the correct card.

It's working!

I am so happy with "Handwriting Without Tears" (HWT)! Caleb has improved so much on his handwriting and with the help of the wonderful capital letters wood pieces and the "wet-dry-try" method he can recall now the correct sequence of strokes for each letter!

There's nothing like looking into my little boys and see the smile on their faces and spark in their eyes when they know they "got it"!

Today we played our first "Mystery Letter Game". I had Caleb draw a line on his white board and I call out a letter from the "jump frog letters" for him to write ( I know some of this won't make sense if you have not seen the program).

When Noah saw us playing, he ran to his room to get his white board and guess what??? he can write the letters too!

We give HWT two big thumbs up!

HSS Blast 2008

Homeschool Share is hosting their Annual Back to School Blast!

You can submit unit studies, lapbooks, FIAR resources and more.

GREAT PRIZES.

This is my first year to be part of the Blast and I'll be submitting 4 units! I'm so glad to be able to contribute units for this site and community of homeschooling moms.

Click on the button for all the details.