Spanish, Dinosaurs, and Plants

Welcome to my homeschooling blog!  We have been busy homeschooling; so busy that  I have forgotten to update our blog on a daily basis!  Oops!  So here are some of the highlights from the last couple of days :)

We have been practicing our Spanish specifically using Whistlefritz DVDs from the public library and the free lessons from the Whistlefritz website.   In the picture below, we played a game in which we moved the paper cutout mouse "Fritzi" and the "cheese" cutout to discuss location.  We rolled the paper dice to decide where Fritzi and the cheese should go.   We also ate some cheese and practiced using the cheese in relation to myself and my son.  It was a fun lesson and we ate a lot of cheese :)

My son is obsessed with dinosaurs (if you have been following my blog you probably figured that out already).  We started the Magic School Bus Kit on Dinosaurs a long time ago and he pulls it out from time-to-time to do more in it.  It's not our "official" curriculum, but it's a great supplement. :)  Here is a picture of my son proudly standing next to his Magic School Bus Dinosaur Kit.  On this day we cut out some paper dinosaurs and discussed each one.

Another activity we did lately was to discuss how plants drink water.   We took some celery and placed it in a glass with blue food coloring and then discussed what happened to the celery.   My husband also got involved with this activity.  Here are some pictures:

Today we continued our discussion on plants by using the Dinosaur Train PBS Lesson called "Flowers the Last Forever".   We watched the relevant Dinosaur Train clips (multiple times because my son kept asking for more).   We discussed the development of flowers over time periods and that bees pollenate the flowers and drink the nectar.  And then we went outside to collect some flowers.   My son then glued the flowers onto a piece of paper and then drew his own flowers.   When I asked him who he wanted to give the "card" to, he immediately answered "Gigi!", which is his grandmother.  So that will be going into the mail tomorrow. :)   Here are some pictures:

As I just looked through my camera photos, I just realized that I have two more homeschooling related ones that were never posted :)   Here is a picture of my son painting at his art easle:

And here is a picture of the National Geographic Little Kids magazine that we finished reading the other day :)

Ok, now I think I am down getting caught up on our homeschooling blog :)  I'm going to try to stay more on top of this!  Have a good evening everyone! :)

The Letter B

Today we learned about the letter "B."   We are using Catholic Icing Preschool Curriculum.  We practiced recognizing the letter "B", the sound that it makes, and drawing the letter "B."  Then we made a craft about "Baptism".   We also practiced our prayers including praying the rosary.   Here are some pictures:

Herbivore, Omnivore, and Carnivore

Today we did the PBS Lesson "Hungry, Hungry Herbivore".   We watched the Dinosaur Train videos via the PBS website, sang the song using the lyric handout, and then we used LO's toy dinosaurs and animals to sort and categorize them based on "plant eaters", "plant and meat eaters," and "meat eaters."   We practiced the terms "herbivore", "omnivore," and "carnivore."  LO did really well with the concept :) We did not make the collage because I didn't have any magazines sitting around for it (oops on the planning part of this).   Maybe we will come back to that part later.

Mango Languages

I just found a very cool feature of my public library and I had to share :)  My public library has an account with Mango Languages.  It's a totally free (through the library) language program offered in loads of different languages :)   Maybe I will use it to learn a new language myself ;)  I was searching for language programs to use for  homeschooling my LO.  He is currently 3 years old, so Mango seems pretty advanced for him.   I am going to bookmark this to use later down the road.  

So check out your local public library to see if you have access to this program.  :)

Whistlefritz Spanish

Today we had a productive day of homeschooling :)   We started with practicing our Spanish by watching Whistlefritz.   It's a Spanish immersion DVD program that I borrowed from the public library.    The episode we watched today was "Adentro y Afuera (Inside and Out)".  The program is geared for ages 2 to7.  It has fluent speakers, songs, and cute story plot about a mouse named "Fritz". They also have free downloads on their website.   I saved those to my computer and plan to print them tomorrow.  

 The other week we went to a Language Stars trial class for Spanish.   LO loved the class but it was far from our house and quite expensive to enroll.   So we decided against actually enrolling in the class.   They did give us a worksheet to go with the lesson from the trial class, which we completed today.   I was pretty excited that LO actually was able to trace the lines on the worksheet.  This is the first time he has successfully followed directions on a worksheet.   See the picture below of his completed worksheet.

After our Spanish portion of our day we moved on to our math lesson.   Today we did Lesson 2 of Right Start Math Level A which focused on "Quantities 1 to 4 and sorting."  We used craft sticks to practice making patterns.   Then we used toy cars to practice ordinal numbers.  We did things like "which car is first?"  "Which car is last?"  "Which car is in the middle?"  etc.   We also practiced sorting by shapes using some Tangrams.  Here is a picture of LO sorting his triangle shaped Tangrams.

After our math portion of the day, we curled up on the couch and read through his latest National Geographic Little Kids magazine.   We did all the articles and activities.   Then LO was tired (and mommy too!), so we both went to bed for our naps ;)

In the evening, LO had his Gymboree Sports class.   Tonight they learned how to play golf.  Here is a picture of LO during the warm-up portion of class reviewing his shapes and numbers.

And now it is bedtime :)

Making a Hypothesis

Last week was a pretty good homeschooling week.  We did our Dinosaur Train PBS Lesson.   The lesson was on making a hypothesis and then using colored water in droppers to "test" our color making hypothesis.   Here are some pictures:

We also did a lot of activities on the Wii for our "fitness" and we practiced our Spanish by watching some DVDs that we borrowed from the library.