The Friendship Bracelet

There are some days when I think my child things are going to drive me bonkers. But then there are days that they are so sweet they bring me to tears.

Case in point

Her: Mommy, I made a bracelet in Sunday School today.

Me: What a nice bracelet!

Her: It's for Thomas.

Me: That's very sweet, but are you sure you want to give it away?

Her: Yes, it's a friendship bracelet. The teacher said I should give it to my best friend. So it's for Thomas.

Me: sniff sniff sniff SOB sniff sniff

Science: What We're Learning

When I decided to give pre-k homeschool a shot this year, I knew I did not want to spend a ton of money. And you can drop A LOT of money on books and curriculums designed specifically for homeschoolers. A LOT! The only subject I bought a full curriculum for is reading (I had no clue how to go about teaching someone to read). Everything else, I'm just kinda winging it. For science, I am using this book called What Your Preschooler Needs to Know. It's certainly not a complete school curriculum, but it's working great for our purposes.

We read a chapter (which is really only a paragraph or two) once a week, and then read library books and do activities that correspond with that chapter throughout the week. Right now we're working on animals. We just finished learning about insects and spiders. After learning about them, we of course had to make our own out of pipe cleaners and egg cartons and go on an insect hunt in our backyard.

I know I'm supposed to be the teacher, but I'm learning new things, too. For instance: holding a giant grasshopper with your bare hands does not make a 4-year-old squeamish a bit. In fact, a 4-year-old may even think it's "so cute" and want to keep it as a pet! :)

Soccer!

I'm so excited to announce that we're playing soccer now!! The first game was this weekend, and let me just say that preschooler soccer is SO cute! Especially when all the kids are wearing shorts that hang down way below their knees and soccer socks that could be used as tights they are so long.

So far, Katherine hasn't shown that super competitive spirit. In fact, she seems to think soccer games are more social than competitive. She's usually the kid chatting it up to all the other players as the ball rolls by. :) But at least she's not just standing in the middle of the field picking her nose or something. But, even if she were, it would just be part of the cuteness. :) She may not chase the ball, but she at least picks out another kid she wants to talk to and chases them! It's exercise all the same, right?

Off to a great start!

Two weeks of homeschooling down! And they have gone really well! I am having lots of fun being a teacher again, and apparently the child thing is enjoying being a student so much that she asks to do school on weekends, and some days she wants to do "double school."

This is where we have set up our school area. Lucky for us, the house we are in right now has this awesome built-in desk in the breakfast area. It gives us plenty of space to work and store our supplies. Our dining table is right in front of it, so we can spread out and work on projects there. Add a Clifford calendar and a cool tree, and you've got a school room! I have lots of plans for this tree, but so far we have only used it as a reward. We have been focusing on learning vowels, so anytime my pupil got a question right about a vowel, she got to attach a leaf or acorn to the tree.

And who knew how exciting that would be for a 4-year-old? But she really likes it. The first day of fall is in just a couple of weeks, so then we will start letting the leaves fall to the ground. I hope that will be just as much fun!

So far I am feeling very positive about our homeschooling experiment. At this point, I can definitely envision myself teaching my kid at home instead of sending her to a public school next year. It's only two weeks in, though, so I'm not going to commit to anything yet. :) I'll keep you posted.

These Boots

Are these boots awesome, or what? The child thing's aunt welcomed her to Texas with a pair of cowgirl boots. Silvery, sparkly cowgirl boots, no less. And we have worn them EVERYWHERE! And we get compliments on them everywhere, too. Some adults have even asked if the store carries them in grown up sizes! Advice for anyone looking for a gift for a pre-school aged girl: get the silvery, sparkly cowgirl boots! :)