Literacy | The Sweet Life of Reagan, Emmy, & Max

May Goodness

May 22, 2013 By Rebekah Leave a Comment

We decided to take Max along to the library story time. After testing out the program the week before, we thought it would be appropriate for him to tag along. He doesn’t always get to go everywhere with us since he can be a little rotten sometimes. haha

Reagan had the opportunity to read a story aloud to the group. Although most of the kids just continued playing, it was a good experience for her.

Here’s a short clip of her reading at storytime…

Max at his allergy checkup. He kept pointing to all his bruises and scratches and saying “Dr. fix it! Dr. fix it!”

Here he is hiding from the Dr.

Dipping strawberries in chocolate at Gran’s-

A picture for Uncle Jared-

Nightly reading with Rea-

Rolling down the hill at Gran & Papaw’s

Our early Thursday morning travel time to Knoxville- They were singing “Trading My Sorrows” with Uncle Jared on cd!

I really enjoyed my one-on-one time with Emmy every Thursday this past school year. We had lots of special experiences including zoo trips with dip n dots!

Emmy doing her thing at The Little Gym.

A quick clip from her class-

Emmy loves putting on her own lipstick. She has got pretty good at it!

Gran’s glasses-

Playing at the baseball field during the girls’ game.

Dogs interested in Reagan’s mathwork-

It has been said that I could do my own book on Max and all the crazy ways he has fell asleep! Here he is with a flashlight.

Selfie-

Emmy with Mr. Giggles at post-church Burger King stop…

Some books Rea read from the library-

I took the dogs to the vet by myself. Crazy me. Dixie was trying to put her head out my sunroof- which took me right back to college days with my dog Gracie. Anyone that knew me during college probably still has the vision of me driving my camry with Gracie coming out of the sunroof.

Emmy stays the night with my parents a lot. My dad brought her home one morning. I cracked up when I saw what she was wearing. Her favorite white dress and black tank at the same time!! Oh, this girl and her fashion!

An interesting find in Gran & Papaw’s yard-

The kids “helped” put out tomato plants.

Emmy was trying to run over Max. Priceless.

This little bird was just learning to fly (we think). It landed on this post for just a minute so we got to see it up close!

“What is Fruit? Fruit is food. Fruit is also for animals. Which is the healthiest? It is a apple.”

Rea slicked down Max’s hair.

Zoo trip-

Max’s 3 year check up-

Oh boy. This boy. I took him in for his 3 year check up. He of course was covered with bruises and scratches because he is the wildest 3 year old dude out there. The dr. came in and began to ask him questions like-

Do you know your whole name? Max replied, “Maxie”.

How old are you? Are you one? Max replied, “I’m one.” (holding up one finger).

Are you two? Max replied, “I’m two.” (adding another finger to make two).

No, you’re not two. Are you three? He said, “I’m three.” (adding another finger to make three).

Are you a boy or a girl? He smoothly replied, “A girl.”

I quickly intervened by asking, “I hope this isn’t a test we really need to pass???” haha The Dr. just laughed and didn’t seem too worried about it.

He did really well on all the active test the Dr. asked him to perform (hopping on one foot, walking on tiptoes, etc.).

This little guy really stretches me in ways that I thought I couldn’t stretch as a mom. I know this is probably just a taste of what’s to come. But seriously, he is a “corker” as I imagine my Mamaw Peggy might say if she were still here.

He can be every bit as sweet as he is rotten. Those sweet moments keep me wrapped around his finger.

He was 70% on his height and 50 % on his weight.

He got his finger poked (for blood work) and one shot. He didn’t cry or whine for either of them. TOUGH boy.

Funny clips from the Dr.’s office-

Our last rental car (my car was in the shop again for AC!)- We appropriately named this the Cool Cucumber.

Our growing, home-made chia pets from the library program-

Reagan lost her 5th tooth in her sleep! We couldn’t find it anywhere! The tooth fairy still brought her some $ even though the tooth was gone.

These two seem like twins to me sometimes.

Working on Mother’s Day gifts for all the special ladies in our family-

No breakfast in bed for me on Mother’s Day! This is what I woke up to. haha

I used the family recipe for Strawberry Shortcakes to make these up for Mother’s Day lunch.

Me and my mom on Mother’s Day!

Emmy in her other favorite dress/skirt. She wore this dress for at least 7 days straight.

My Mother’s Day gift. Daniel restored our porch swing to better condition! This is the swing that I grew up with at my Mamaw’s house. So I was really happy that he went to the trouble to do this for me. He let the girls add some color to it, too.

I asked the girls to go get dressed for Sunday night service at church. This is what I get. Maybe they’re not quite ready for the responsibility for dressing themselves for church.

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Filed Under: All Together, Emmy, Family Day Out, Holiday, Homeschool, Kindergarten, Literacy, Math, Max, Reagan, Sports, Videos

Writing in Kindergarten

May 5, 2013 By Rebekah Leave a Comment

One of my biggest challenges this year has been to teach Reagan to write on her own. She is a perfectionist at heart so it was stressful for her to learn how to “sound out” words. If she didn’t know how to spell it or couldn’t find it using the resources around her (word wall, charts, word books, etc.), she didn’t want to sound it out. She wanted me to just tell her how to spell it so she would get it right. After helping her to recognize that she can sound out words, she has been doing better. I don’t let her know that she has misspelled anything, though! 🙂 Here’s some of her latest writings-

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Filed Under: Homeschool, Kindergarten, Literacy, Reagan

Thankful for all my April blessings

May 2, 2013 By Rebekah Leave a Comment

We started off this week by going to The LaFollette Public Libary’s storytime. We have gone to Caryville’s storytime several times (which is wonderful, by the way), but thought we’d try LaFollette’s since it is more convenient. We love both libraries and visit them weekly! The girls enjoyed getting lost in crafting and creating things.

It happened to be Earth Day so I colored this while they crafted. I was also thankful that the storytime lady talked about Earth Day a little bit since I didn’t plan anything. (oops!)

I braved up and took the kids to the zoo again by myself! You might as well call me Super Mom! haha

Our hands-down favorite part of the day was some up close interactions with the baby chimpanzee George.

He pressed his mouth (full of food) against the glass for a funny face. You should have heard the laughter erupt in that moment. It was priceless.

He held the pose for me to get a shot.

And a smile-

After some playtime, he went up and began to nurse! We didn’t even know it was his mom or that he was still young enough to be nursing. It was incredibly sweet and funny altogether. The mother kissed him and groomed him while he nearly nursed himself to sleep. I’m not sure that we will ever witness anything as cool as that was ever again at the zoo. Lucky us!

Rea playing vet! The “Wee Play Zoo” is awesome for open-ended, hands-on play!

A nice evening outside at Gran & Papaw’s riding-

Meanwhile…..Reagan was enjoying some cake batter-

Online spelling test (super cool at readingeggs.com)

Me trying to figure out what curriculum I want to use with Reagan for 1st grade next year! You would never realize how many choices are out there until you start researching! I’m still not completely decided, but feel like I’m almost there…

Slowly, but surely enjoying my time reading One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp-

I found a new, fun way to help Reagan lean her blends/chunks on Pinterest. I say the sound and she throws the ball at it. She loved it.

2 kids + 2 dogs = 4 bodies altogether in the spaceship (now that’s some math!)

One things that I’ve done with Reagan to practice sight words is using this spiral bound index card book. Each card has a word. If she gets it right, she gets to add a sticker. She mastered her first book of words so we just started another one a few weeks ago. We might do this once a week. She almost knows all the 2nd list now!

One afternoon, she passed this note to me during homeschool. She said, “Mom, this is for you.”

Wow. I didn’t know whether to be offended or proud. haha

Bedtime reading-

We got each of Reagan’s teachers a fabulous cupcake from The Cup for teacher’s appreciation day! Yum. Best cupcakes EVER. These are the ones we picked out for us.

A little lipstick and blush application before we go in at the zoo-

“Hey, Mom! Take my picture!” (She’s starting to enjoy seeking out her own photo locations!)

After having this rental car that we named “The Red Tomato”, we sadly had to return it for my explorer. The girls were sad to let it go.

The Legals’ 1st win!

Who knew the trampoline made for such good pictures?!

Reagan doing some language arts on the trampline. LOTS of distractions as you can see.

Reading on the porch swing-

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Filed Under: All Together, Curriculum, Family Day Out, Homeschool, Kindergarten, Literacy, PreK, Sight Words, Sports, Themed Activities, Videos

April Showers of blessings continued…

April 30, 2013 By Rebekah Leave a Comment

Monday making pizza time-

Reagan having daily reading time with me (one of my fav parts of the day)-

I have used a pretty well-rounded approach to teaching her to read, I think. Here’s one of the tools that I have used to teach her phonics- Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons by Siegfried Engelmann. It is one of the less colorful and fun tools that I have used with her, but it has helped her a lot. She is over half way through the book and gets excited every time she successfully reads a harder/longer story.

Here’s a video of her reading the story portion of her lesson (a new story)-

I have a good friend who is teaching Kindergarten in our public school system. She has been an encouragement and good resource during my homeschooling moments of weakness! She does a “Daily Fix It” with her kids every morning to help them with simple writing rules (first letter of sentence capitalization, ending punctuation, etc.) I started doing this with Reagan to give her an opportunity to work on these skills. Keeping the skills learning time separate from her personal writing time has lessened her frustration with writing and allowed her to do her own thing. I write a sentence with mistakes and a picture. The picture is probably unnecessary, but she enjoys seeing what I have come up with! She has to re-write the sentences and fix the mistakes. Sometimes, she will color my picture or add to it (like the sad face heart in this one! haha). I have kept the sentences pretty easy and basic so she can easily read them.

Home school on a nice Spring morning on the deck-

Reading Junie B. Jones to her while she colors- she LOVES Junie B. I admit, I do, too.

Reagan on first base and Emmy playing in the dirt-

Max enjoys climbing on the bleachers at Rea & Emmy’s baseball games-

I introduced Max to abcmouse.com. He learned how to use my computer mouse.

Early AM Thursday morning- “I-75 and Hardees”

They barely stay awake to eat there breakfast-

Rea’s art from Miss Margaret’s class – “GYOTAKU”

Some things I like about this class is that Reagan learns all sorts of art methods, is exposed to a variety of materials, and learns art history! Miss Margaret crams a lot of material into a short period of time every Thursday.

Here’s the scoop from Miss Margaret on this piece-

“Gyotaku (gyo = fish, taku = rubbing) was invented in the early 1800s in Japan by fishermen who wanted to record their catch. This was their livelihood (not sport fishing as we have today) and the print allowed them to document the size and types of fish caught and still take them back to be sold or eaten. Also, because certain fish in Japan are revered, the fisherman could release these fish back into the water after taking their rubbings. Japanese fishermen took newsprint, ink and brush out to sea with them. It has also developed into an art form; many now create prints for their beauty and artistic elements.

Our artists used their choices of printmaking ink colors to paint life size fish cast from real fish. Students chose one of an assortment of species, Blue Gill, Star Fish, Flounder, Piranha, Angel Fish, Trout, Perch, Bass, or small Walleye Pike. They then placed their paper over the fish and rubbed for a monoprint.”

Emmy and I had some zoo time while Rea was in class. I like getting opportunities for one-on-one with her. I feel like she needs more of that being our middle child! Here she is putting on some lipstick before we go in at the zoo.

Girls playing DDG with friends at TC…

My air conditioner or windows wasn’t working on this super hot day so we had to make a pit stop at Walgreens to buy some of these water bottle fans. They helped, but we were still pretty much miserable.