All About Me

This year, we are going through the alphabet one letter at a time.  Each week we work on activities that correspond with our letter of the week, and we also have a weekly theme based on our letter.  Here are some skills we are practicing this year: recognition of lowercase letters, pre-handwriting, letter sounds, basic math, basic science,Bible concepts, shapes, etc. 

Since we started at the beginning of the alphabet and will continue on through, our first letter, of course, was A.  The Theme for that week was "All About Me."  Here are some of the things T worked on:

Apple Jack letter collage
Cut and paste-things that begin with A
Letter A Do a Dot pages (he LOVES these)
Trace Letter A on worksheet
Writing practice on Expo board (he does try to write the letter A)
Completed and colored All About Me poster
Bible verse-"As For me and my house, we will serve the Lord" (Joshua 24:15)
Did worksheet on small families and large families

Other things we did included:
Alphabet picture match puzzles
Bead Sorting
Put racecar drivers in their appropriate cars (by number)
Lined up cars in numerical order 1-10

Playing with his number cars

We started out pretty easy.  This year, I plan to use lots of printables from my favorite websites (Confessions of a Homeschooler, Making Learning Fun, Homeschool Creations, 1+1+1=1, and Totally Tots).  T still is not into crafts all that much, but he does enjoy cutting, gluing, painting, and do a dot markers, so I plan on doing lots of these type of crafts!!

Thanksgiving

I finally have some time to catch up on my blog!! 

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year and hope you did too!!   T worked on some fun educational Thanksgiving activities and printables throughout that week.  Here is a glimpse at what he worked on:

Bible verse: Be thankful to Him and bless His name (Psalm 100:4)

Turkey color matching file folder game

Thanksgiving matchng game

Colored Thanksgiving pages

"Is it all about the Turkey" sheet

Thankful color, cut, and paste Cornucopia

Painted Colors of Salvation Indian Corn

Made Thanksgiving Dinner Collage from grocery ad

Made Turkey handprint t-shirt



T modeling the shirt we made with our handprints



Every Thanksgiving, our church hosts "Thanksgiving in the Park."  It's intended for people who don't have family nearby or for people who want to eat Thanksgiving dinner with a large group of believers.  We enjoyed it so much last year that we decided to go again!  Like last year, there was a ton of delicious food there, more than enough for the 60 or so people who came out.  T was not very interested in eating and just wanted to play, as there were lots of other kids there.  As always, one of the older kids really took to him and played with him the whole time.

"Be thankful to Him and bless His name"!!!!!

Cuddling with a new friend!

Operation Christmas Child

One of our favorite holiday outreaches to support is Operation Christmas Child.  The mission of OCC is to demonstrate God's love in a tangible way by providing gifts to needy children around the world.  Participants choose the age and gender of the child they would like to help, and then fill a shoebox full of age and gender appropraite gifts for that child. 

This year, we opted to buy for a two year old boy and a two year girl.  We filled our boxes with coloring books and crayons, stuffed animals, dolls, kid toothbrushes and toothpaste, stickers, and more!  Once our boxes were filled, we downloaded some cute "all about me" coloring sheets designed to send with the boxes.  I helped T fill in his answers.  My favorite fill in the blank was "I love Jesus because..."  Participants also have the option of listing their address, in case the family that receives your gift is able to write back.  How neat would that be!!  Even if we never get a letter back ,we will at least know what country our box was shipped to.

I love this ministry for many reasons.  One, because it provides gifts to children who probably have never, ever received a gift before and who literally have nothing.  However, the main reason why I love this outreach is because it is an evangelical effort.  The gospel of Jesus Christ is shared with all children and families who receive a gift through this ministry.  I can't think of a better gift to give than Jesus!

Buddy Walk

Today T and I participated in the Buddy Walk, an event which recognizes and celebrates the many wonderful people living with Down Syndrome.  The walk officially started at 11:00, but I was glad we got there at 10:00 because there was plenty to do!!  There were bounce houses, horseback rides, face painting, and much more!  T had a blast jumping around in the bounce houses, but wanted nothing to do with face painting.  They also had live entertainment and presented awards to local residents who have made a difference in the lives of people with disabilities.  When it was time to start the walk, I couldn't believe how long the line was..there must have been a few thousand people there!  It was really great to see all this support out there for these special people.  When the walk was over, T played on the playground for a few minutes before we left.  It was neat to see him interacting with children with Down Syndrome..he didn't see them as any different from him..he was just thrilled to be playing with other kids.  I pray he will always keep the same gentle, kind nature he has now.  We had a fun morning and look forward to participating in this event again next year!

Some of the walkers lined up

Jumping in the bounce house

Trip to Aquarium

Yesterday, our local Aquarium held a homeschool day.  Because we are now members of a large county-wide homeschool group, we got to take part in this event, which was deeply discounted in price.  We got to see lots of different creatures including stingrays, sharks, river otters, alligators, many types of fish, and much more!  Daddy and I got to touch the stingrays in the touch tank.  T wanted to touch one but none of them came close enough for him to reach.  We had alot of fun and were glad that Daddy was able to spend the morning out with us!!

Checking out some starfish

Pretty Jellyfish!

Playing in a shell

We all loved the river otters the best!

Let's make some noise!

Yesterday T and I went to a place where children can play all sorts of different insturments.  We have been there a few times before and are going to start going more often.  It costs $5.00 for one hour of play time.  The instructor is very nice and really interactive with the kids.  T is always really shy around him at first but then warms up.

I assumed that T would mostly play with the guitar yesterday.  He dabbled a little with the various guitars, piano, and keyboard, but he actually spent most of the hour playing the drums!!  The instructor showed T some patterns, such as several bangs on the snare drum, one bang on the cymbal, and T was able to follow.  He even kept up as the patterns got more and more difficult!

T is very interested in music, and I really want to be sure to encourage participation in activities that he loves!!!                                  

July 12-18

On Monday, we just stayed home!!

On Tuesday, my sister-in-law told me about an elementary school that was closing and selling everything they had, so we went and got some great books, games, two desks and a chair for a grand total of $12.00

On Wednesday, 5 of T's cousins came over and went swimming in the pool. T loves that he can be in the intertube by himself now, and he just floats around the pool contentedly!

On Thursday, we spent a while at the library playground, and then went inside for an hour to get books. T loves going to the library and always askes to go.

On Friday, we went over to see some of T's cousins for a while, and then we had lunch with daddy at the Cuban Delight. Friday evening, we went see Daddy's friends' new house, and after that we took T to see his first theater movie: Toy Story 3. T loved the movie (so did we) and he made it through the whole thing! We did the whole movie experience and got popcorn and nachos too:)

On Saturday, we just hung out around the house and went swimming while daddy went out on the boat. That night, we went to church and then to Panera Bread with some of our family.

On Sunday morning, a friend came over to help me with the website that we are trying to get up for the ministry. We worked on it for about 3 hours and then had to call it quits because our brains were turning to mush. This afternoon, T's friend E had her 2nd birthday party at Chuck E Cheese, and we had a good time there. T loved everything, but especially a car racing game where he and Daddy raced each other, and he also loved the game where you roll the balls up into the slots for points (he just walked up and put the balls in).