Week 11, All Things Fall cont.

Looking back, October was a pretty busy and “packed full” month for us! This post is for the 3rd week of Oct.!

Here’s a sweet goodnight message we sent to Uncle Jared one night- (turn off blog music on right sidebar before playing video)

No better way to start off a week than to cover yourself in Hello Kitty tattoos!

A stop by my photography studio provided Emmy with the perfect setting for her photoshoot.  She set this shot up by herself!

We did our monthly visit at the LaFollette Nursing Home.  Emmy signed herself in as a visitor-

I was starting to “itch” to put up a Christmas tree.  We decided to do the playroom tree and decorate it will fall stuff.  It was a lovely idea!  Even Max got in on hanging pumpkin ornaments!

Tuesday morning storytime at the library-  I loved that the story was on apples!  It’s nice when everything seems to work together with what we’re learning at home.

Kay Kay tagged along with us on our Tuesday adventures.  Here they are at the park for our woods loop (aka spooky trail) walk.

We had our regular visit to the animal shelter.  This day we photographed “Maggie”- a black lab female mix.  I really liked her and started to persuade myself to adopt her!  Of course, Daniel wasn’t too fond of the idea…

More backyard reading-

I had the girls use acorns as manipulatives for doing some adding.  Reagan tried to explain the concept of adding to Emmy.  I actually videoed it (but then lost it when my iphone got wet!).  It was so sweet.  At the end, Reagan said, “See mom, I am going to teach my kids like you teach us.  I’ll be a good mother like you!”  🙂

We have been working on some word families.  Here are all of her “at” words.

Matching Uppercase to Lowercase letters…..

More bathtub sleeping!  I can’t blame them… they come by this honestly.  I remember doing this even in high school.  (lol embarassing, right?)

This girl likes her lipstick!

  Emmy & I took Rea a baked potato for her lunch at Thursday Connection.  Reagan used her own money to buy Emmy a sucker from the concession stand.

In her art class, she finished up her “Clay Leaves Fired with Crystal Ceramic Overglazes”

Emmy at The Little Gym-

There is a neat playground/outside area at the Thursday Connection location.  Emmy always enjoys playing for a little bit while we wait for Reagan to get out of class!

We made a stop by the Young-Williams Animal Center in Knoxville.  Here’s the girls in the “Cat Room”!  They loved it!  I didn’t think I was going to get them out of there.

And we actually made a 2nd visit to the animal shelter that week TO ADOPT MAGGIE.  I just couldn’t bear the thoughts of her not being adopted and getting put down.  She looks like she belongs in our family, right?

First day of playing with her new sis Dixie!

“Finding the Chunks”-   I give Rea a list of words and we find familiar “chunks” in each word.  It is a decoding strategy that helps her to break down and read words quicker.

Emmy doing a little writing of her own-

It seemed like a nice fit-

The first couple nights, the kids each went to sleep cuddling with Maggie!  She is a pretty sweet girl.

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Week 10, Apples, Pumpkins, & All Things Fall

Well, here goes nothing!  I am SO behind on blogging which makes me sad since I was doing such a good job keeping everything up to date.  I had dropped my iphone in water and lost several pictures and videos (thank goodness for Instagram!) and then jumped right into my busiest season for my photography business.  I had to prioritize and personal blogging fell low on my list.  So, I’m back again to pick up the pieces where I left off and keep trudging along!  (This post is from the second week of Oct. 2012.)

One of the many reasons that Emmy would rather be at Gran & Papaw’s house…

Our regular Tuesday trip to the Caryville Public Library Storytime…

A walk at the park (chilly day) to collect leaves…

Our weekly visit to the Animal Shelter-

This little frog was taking my blood pressure in this picture.

We used our leaves from the park to talk about the parts of a plant and their functions.

We also used some to decorate the playroom-

And this date is one to go down in Stanfill history (10.16.12)-  “the day Emmy cut her own hair”!  We had all been in the playroom working on activities when I had to step upstairs for a moment (LITERALLY, Just, ONLY a moment).  When I returned, I quickly noticed first some clippings of hair in the floor and then next the green handled children’s scissors close by.  THEN, I noticed that chunks of Emmy’s beautiful hair style were missing.  It quickly went downhill from there.  Here she is after she cried herself to sleep in time-out.  Did I over-react?  Possibly.  Probably.  But at the time, I felt so mad at her for doing something that I had preached about not doing on several occasions.

No, her hair isn’t behind her ear here!  It is long gone.  A nice chunk, right?

She also cut some other chunks leaving some sections of pretty short hair.

Here we are on the way to the salon to get it “fixed”.  The guilt had set in by this point- she didn’t want to look at me for the picture!

Yep, Emmy had to do what I would imagine might be a child’s “Walk of Shame” through the salon door and into the chair.  She had her little pink leotard/dance costume on and marched right in.

She was feeling happier about herself after leaving the salon.  She later confessed that she wanted “to cut her hair like Megan does”.

Next day—-Puppet show- Emmy’s babies also attended (see them lined up on hopscotch rug?)…

Aunt Kay arrived for her visit to TN.  The kids were SOOOO happy to see her.  It was sweet to watch them greet her!

Here’s a video of the homecoming!  (Make sure you turn off blog music on right sidebar before playing!)  I would have lost this video altogether, but had thankfully sent it to my brother!  He was able to send it back to me.  It is lower resolution than the original version, but at least I still have it!

SuperMax crashes-

Here’s Reagan practicing her sight words.  I have a list of them written out in this spiral-bound index card notebook.  She gets to flip through the pages and add a sticker when she reads the word correctly.

Reagan’s writing-  She likes to write about cats and things that are red since she can spell “red” and “cat”! haha

Emmy had a “photo shoot” with my iphone and this baby and cat.  I had about 30 images (at least) that looked just like this one on my phone.

We enjoyed this pumpkin life cycle activity.

We graphed our family members’ favorite color of apple.  It was a fun, hands-on lesson!

We visited the local pumpkin patch and enjoyed their special activities.

Papaw Clear tagged along with us.  He thought the whole concept of the Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze was pretty amazing.

They came home to strawberry-dipping fun at Papaw & Gran’s.  YUM!

Reagan’s weekly artwork from Thursday Connection-

Here’s some end-of-the-week Dixie love and reading in the backyard!

We attended the Shriner’s Circus in Knoxville.  It has become a yearly tradition.  The kids had a great time!

I love this Sunday morning tub shot!  Max’s smile just says it all!

He was zapped after our Church homecoming.  He wouldn’t let me take his hat or tie off for his nap!

And late Sunday night, pillow case sleeping bags…

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Week 9, Apples

Time is going faster than I can keep up with it seems.

Reagan got to decide for herself what to write about.  I was happy to see that it coincided with our theme for the week.  I keep a box of “word books” close by so she can use them to look up spellings of words.

Emmy decided to do her own version of the drawing.

Tuesday morning-

Story time at the Caryville Public Library-

Here’s a quick clip of them doing one of their favorite songs at story time- (turn blog music off before playing)

A stop by the park while we were on that end of town-

Reagan said, “Hey mom!  Get a picture of this!”

Our weekly stop by the animal shelter turned into lots of fun!  We got to bathe this litter of puppies (10).

Max crashing mommy’s work time-

Emmy decided to hang her art on the wall-

Painting with apples-

Thursday morning-

Reagan’s school picture from Thursday Connection-

Her art projects from the week-  (she loved working with the clay!)

Max trying to start up another game of Duck Duck Goose (turn blog music off before playing video)-

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Week 7, Family

This week got off to a hectic start with me having to get my photography booth display set up at the Duck Duck Goose Consignment Sale in Knoxville.  Reagan and Daddy went with me to set up.  Here’s Reagan doing a little work on I-75.

That night we went to sing at the local nursing home.  We do this monthly, and the residents always enjoy getting to see the kids.  The girls had a request to visit this lady and sing her “Jesus Loves Me”.  It was very sweet.

I found a new site www.readingeggs.com for Reagan.  It is perfect for her and what she is learning right now.

Here’s Reagan putting the date up on the calendar.

Here’s our number chart.  We are using it to count how many days of Kindergarten we have had.  We are also using a place value chart with straws.  This is all working together to help her understand counting and place value.  She changes it everyday all by herself!

We did a poster board with her immediate family members.  She decorated each person and wrote their name.

Our weekly visit to the animal shelter-

Reagan made a friend at the shelter.  They worked together to give this pup (Sookie) a bath.

She’s always a sleepyhead on Thursday morning!  We have to get up super early to make it to Knoxville for her Thursday Connection classes.

It was “Wacky Tacky” day.

Her art project from the day-

Emmy made this picture for Reagan.  When she gave it to Reagan, Reagan said, “Ohhh Emmy!  I love it!”  Then she leaned over to me and said, “I don’t really like it that much, but I didn’t want to hurt her feelings.”  haha

I had Reagan practice writing her sight words on the white board.  She said, “Look mom!  I’m writing the word families.”  Maybe she is paying attention a little bit?!?!

Emmy plays a lot in the kitchen center of our classroom.  She keeps us well-fed.

A rhyming words puzzle-

Max found a caterpillar outside and brought it inside to further inspect…

Here’s some pictures of our “classroom”-

Reading her bible verse- John 14:14

Here’s the video of her saying the verse- (turn blog music off before playing)

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