The Story of Ping ~ Happy Chinese New Year!!!

We began using "Five in a Row" curriculum last week and are LOVING it!!! 

We have been "rowing" the book "The Story of Ping" for a week now 

and have had so much fun.  

 Our Ping bagbook

 Ping lived on the Yangtze River in China. 

The Yangtze River is over 4,000 miles long.

 A brief intro to animal classification.

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!!!!!

2012 is the year of the Dragon 

Our decorations

Good Luck

Our "Good Luck" streamers

Tad's Chinese writing ~ good luck, good fortune, spring, dragon

Martin Luther King, Jr.

We did our Martin Luther King, Jr. bagbook last week and I never posted it, so here it is! 

 Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on Tuesday, January 15, 1929 in a yellow house in Atlanta, GA.

I learned so much about Martin Luther King, Jr. doing this book with Tad. We read a lot of additional books and watched youtube videos of his "I Have a Dream" speech. 

I have a dream...

In honor of Martin Luther King Day quickly approaching, we started a unit yesterday to learn more about him. I have to honestly admit that other than being excited about having a day off school, I don't ever really remember learning anything specific about him as a kid in school. Tad and I are both learning a lot and will be starting a lapbook tomorrow. I will post pictures as soon as we have some of it finished.

It's a New Year!!

It's been over a year since I've blogged and my goal for 2012 is to put a fresh  & fun focus on our homeschooling journey. I have some cool things planned for school coming up soon so check back often!

We had a breakthrough.... until I left the room!

Thank you to my awesome homeschooling friends that suggested we used shaving cream to teach Tad to write his letters.

He LOVED it! He wrote those letters like a champ!

Then... I left the room for a minute!!! Big mistake :o)

And this is what I found when I came back. A little boy that looks like a Q-tip :o)

Lessons for the day:

1. Don't freak out that he doesn't write perfectly yet...

2. Don't leave the room when you give him something a little more creative (and messy) to practice with.

Some highlights from the day! (get it, hi-lites!!!)

Rebecca is such a beautiful blonde!!!

Mom's new 'do!!! Love it!!!

Mom was held at gun point by Tad to take him & Sophie to her house for a sleep-over :o) Does anyone else hear the angels shouting HALLELUJAH!!!! I get a night to myself. I don't know what to do first... Nap?!? Paint my nails?!? Nap?!? I think I might sneak away and go see a movie tonight. We'll see!!!!!

Handwriting will be the death of me!

We started the day at the library for story time! It was fun!!! The lady was dressed in a huge yellow banana costume and the kids loved her! (Can't you just see the excitment on their little faces! Just kidding, we were still waiting for it to start.) We go on Wednesday mornings at 10:30 if anyone would like to join us. You also get a craft to take home!

Todays theme was "Eating Healthy!"

I'm hoping my hiney learned a thing or two...

Then it was time to start school!

Help me Jesus!!! Handwriting is going to be the death of me... I know he's doing great, but honestly, I'm hoping he becomes a doctor so it won't matter :o) This took forever, and I'm not sure who cried more ~ me... or him...