*HALLOWEEN!!!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! We strayed from a structured lesson day and just had fun. We started the day by decorating cookies!

Everyone had fun with that, and Babe was very careful in her decorating. Very cute.

After I cleaned up, I had a little matching game with pumpkin faces that was more for Bubs, but Babe got a kick out of it too. I thought for sure Bubs would be able to do this activity, but she had a little trouble with it. It wasn't until I walked her through each facial feature that she got what she had to do.

I cut shapes out of foam and made a face on my own foam pumpkin. Then I gave Babe and Bubs their own pumpkin and had them match up the shapes to make their pumpkin face identical to mine. I knew Babe would be able to do this but she still had fun, and she even wanted to make one for me to match. Bubs was either not interested or just really didn't know how to do it, but like I said, once I walked her through each feature, she kind of started to get it.

After we did a ton of those faces, Bubs and Z were off to play and I gave Babe a book to read. One she read very well. I asked her to try to read it with a rhythm, and that completely changed her reading tone.

"It all rhymes! It's kind of like a song!"

She totally got it and I was excited to listen to her really read it so smoothly. When she was all done, I handed her her reading log and she gasped so loud.

"I'M ON TWENTY!"

She is. Babe read 20 books all by herself this month. It was cool seeing her so proud of herself.

The rest of the day was spent baking goodies and relaxing for trick-or-treating tonight. I had so much fun and I know the kids did too. Woohoo for holidays! A little break from structure every now and then just feels so good!

2nd Month, LAST DAY!

Halloween! It's oh so close. And today all of us had some more fun!

We started with Math and to reinforce Babe reading the numbers a bit, I had her put the number cards in order just by looking at their spelling. I didn't think it'd be too tough but I thought it would take her longer than it did! She very much surprised me.

After her worksheets, Math was done and it was time to set up some Halloween crafts.

The first one we did were the footprint ghosts. These always turn out so cute and what kid doesn't love the chance to get paint all over themselves?! But before I brought out the paint, I had Babe read us all "Ten Timid Ghosts" by Jennifer O'Connell. We all love this book and Bubs knows it by heart. It's so cute hearing her recite it.

Babe had to flip to a THIRD PAGE to add this book to her log. She couldn't believe it!

Anyway, after the craft, and after their feet were washed I gave them some white, orange, and black chalk to decorate their ghosts. Here they are in order of age, youngest to oldest.

They all had a blast with this. Z refused to give up his chalk until I showed him the next activity...pumpkins! They each got their own to decorate.

I gave Z and Bubs some stickers to decorate their pumpkin with, and I handed Babe some golf tees and a hammer to do something different with hers. I had her draw me a pumpkin face on a sheet of paper, a face that she wanted on her pumpkin. Then I drew that face on the pumpkin and showed her how to hammer in the tees. She was so giddy she didn't know what to do with herself.

"Hey! I'm using my gross motor skills!"

WHAT THE HECK! Literally. Out of nowhere. I told her it was amazing that she knew that and I couldn't stop encouraging her.

Babe loved decorating her pumpkin this way. When she was all done with the face, she saw how many tees were left and asked me to draw a tiara on the top of the pumpkin so she could hammer even more tees in! Awesome! I forgot to get a picture of her complete pumpkin without her in it, so I'll get one Monday. Just know it is AWESOME.

We finished the pumpkins in time for lunch, so after we ate and Z and Bubs were put to bed, I had Babe read "Spooky, Spooky, Spooky!" by Cathy MacLennan. I was completely amazed at how well and smooth she read this book. Her only hiccup was with the word "meander", which is completely understandable. But after I told her what it meant, she breezed over it during her second reading. I was so proud of her. And when she got to the last page, she laughed out loud and said, "Ohh! They were all pretending!"

Talk about reading comprehension. How cute that she laughed out loud!

When everyone woke up from their naps, it was time to decorate a Halloween cake. I dyed some frosting orange, iced the cake, then let the kids go to town with the sprinkles.

I have no plans to incorporate Calvert into Monday's festivities. I may do a bit of Math, but for the most part, we will be cooking treats and doing little school work.

But that doesn't mean I don't plan on teaching!

2nd Month, 19th Day

We are getting closer to Halloween! Can you feel it?! I can. And so can all three kids, especially after today!

I had Babe do her Math first thing this morning so we could do more Halloweeny stuff, and she was able to breeze through it just fine, with enough time before our trip to the library to do a fun craft.

I gathered the kids at the table and asked Babe to read "Skeleton Hiccups" by Margery Cuyler. Have you read this book? It's hysterical and adorable at the same time. We all love this book and Z belly laughs so hard when Babe does the hiccup sound effects herself. She read this so well that she added it to her reading log.

After she read it, I surprised the kids with real skeleton bones and piled them on the table. And by real, I mean dog treats I painted white. But they are real enough! Babe even asked if they were real bones! Z was the first to notice they were cookies, then Bubs said they smelled like my dog, Rocket. Then Babe made an off-the-wall poop joke. Normalcy at its finest.

Anyway, I saw this craft on, can you guess? Pinterest. Love this site for craft ideas.

So I handed them their glue bottles, black paper, and bones to make their skeletons. Then they each got a white crayon to add to their art. Babe impressed me so much with her craft! She even added the "hic"'s from the story! So cute.

Z's! He loved scribbling with the white crayon.

Bubs's! She even surprised me and wrote her name on it all by herself! Gah! Proud moment.

And here's Babe's. I laughed so hard when I saw she added the hic's. And those fingers and toes! Adorable. I can't get over it.

After this craft, we had to get into costumes for the Halloween party at the local library. Then around 10:30, I chauffeured a train conductor, a duck, and an Indian princess to the party. We all had a blast and everyone loved everyone else's costumes. The library here does a great job with the kids.

After library, lunch, and naps, I introduced Babe to the new "food pyramid" plate introduced by Michelle Obama. I asked her to look at the plate and see which kinds of foods we are supposed to eat the most of. She noticed that the vegetable and grain parts of the plate were the biggest.

"But I like fruit because they are good for me and they are sweet."

Interesting thought. I do find it weird, though, that less fruits and proteins were recommended. Anyway. I taped a paper cup to a paper plate and handed her some magazines to browse for food. Then she cut out the food and glued them on the plate and cup to mimic the "food plate." She really liked this, and even said it was the "best craft ever", but got a little distracted when Z and Bubs were done in no time.

We were done with lessons with a bit of time before the end of the day, so I asked Babe if she wanted to try adding one more book to her reading log. It didn't take long for her to answer YES! So I handed her "A Beasty Story" by Bill Martin Jr. and Steven Kellogg. This was somewhat of a smooth read for her, but she got held up on "cupboard" and "cellar" a couple of times. But during her second read, all was fixed and she read it like a pro.

Here's to FRIDAY! Lots of Halloween things planned, with a little Kindergarten on the side.

2nd Month, 18th Day

Today we went back to normal routine from yesterday and started with Math. I put a pile of Halloween erasers and pencils on the table and asked if one pencil and one eraser was a set, how many sets does she think there are?

"20."

OK then. So I had her put the sets together.

As soon as she put the sets together she had it all figured out. I didn't even ask her anything!

"There are twelve complete sets and zero incomplete sets. Can I sharpen one of these pencils and use it this week?"

After that answer, I couldn't say no.

So after her worksheets, Math was done and I prepped the area for a Halloween craft.

I saw this idea on Pinterest and totally fell in love with it. I cut the egg cartons beforehand because I knew Z and Bubs wouldn't be able to do it. And since I wanted this to be fun, I cut it for Babe since I knew she'd get frustrated at not being able to cut hers round enough. When I gave them their stuff, they started painting with black.

After we all (yes, I made one too because they are too stinkin' adorable to not have hanging in your house) placed our eyes on our bats, we set them outside to dry.

While they dried, we made Swamp Juice from the book "Wormy Apple Croissants and Other Halloween Recipes" by Brekka Hervey Larrew. All three kids helped me load the ingredients and stir.

It turned out quite delicious. Z drank his whole cup while the girls sipped theirs and never finished (they aren't keen on soda, or "spicy" drinks, as Babe calls it). Here's a photo of my juice, topped with lime sherbert!

After juice-drinking, I cleaned up during free-play. I got the bats out from outside, too!

I hung the bats in the dining room above the table and Z got a huge kick out of that. Every time he walked by the table, he screamed my name and pointed.

"BATS!"

Very cute.

After lunch and during nap, I did Reading Comprehension with Babe, only, I think it was more like grammar/vocabulary building. We read the book "I Went Walking" again and this time I had her list all the animals in the book. Then I had her turn each animal into its plural state, all by adding an 's.'

We did the same with things from around the house. I taught her about what to do with words that end in 'y' and how it's even more different with words that end in a vowel and 'y.'

Enter confusion. For me too! The more I have to take apart the English language to teach Babe, the more I realize how screwed up it all is.

Anyway, so then I had to teach her what vowels were, which she actually picked up quite quickly.

After those quick lessons, we took the same animals from "I Went Walking" and separated them as adjectives and nouns. She did VERY well with this, so I took some things from around the house and had her do the same. She's a pro already at basic grammar!

I had her take a quick nap so she could catch up with her brain. We did a lot today and I noticed her eyes were getting droopier by the minute. But after her nap, she wanted to add a book to her reading log, so I picked the one that was due to the library tomorrow, "A Color of His Own" by Leo Lionni.

This. Book.

Adorable.

I can't get over its cuteness. Even Babe, at the end, said, "Aww!"

Day done. More Halloween awesomeness tomorrow.

2nd Month, 17th Day

Today I did things a little bit differently and started the day off with Reading Comprehension. I knew the story for today was very cute and I wanted Bubs and Z in on it, so while they were freshly woken up and energized, I gathered everyone on the couch and read "How the Birds Got Their Colors".

When I introduced the wolf in the story, Babe immediately thought he was going to be the "bad guy", but when I continued reading, she was shocked that he was actually the good guy. Even Bubs understood the jyst.

"The wolf was nice! The raccoon was meeeeeeean."

After I read the story, I had them all sit at the table while Babe handed each of them bright colored crayons (since the birds in the story were colored brightly by the wolf). I thought this was the perfect opportunity to incorporate our color discussion from last week about bright, dull, dark, etc. Babe did a fantastic job and she couldn't believe how many bright colors there were! When they all had their crayons, I handed them a sheet with three birds for them to color.

I did not get a picture of Babe's. After I tied string at the top, she wanted to hang it from her fan immediately, and by the time the end of the day hit, I completely forgot about getting a picture.

After everyone was happy with the way their birds looked, Bubs and Z went to play and I had Babe start a chart and list some of the characters in the story. She was pretty upset when I wouldn't let her add "wolf" to the chart, but I told her I would explain why when we were done with the lesson. She added five characters, and so I asked her what we had to do to make each word mean more than one.

"I just write 'raccoon' two times."

Um. Genius. But obviously that's not what I was going for.

"If we were talking about one raccoon, we say 'the raccoon', but if we were talking a bunch of them we say, 'those...'"

"Raccoonsssss!"

"Yes! What do we add to each word to make it mean more than one?"

"An 's'!"

Yep. Incredibe.

So she completed her chart, adding an 's' to each word to make it mean more than one. When she was done, I wrote "wolf" under her words and asked her to make it mean more than one. Obviously she added an 's'. Then I showed her how to really do it and when I told her she had to change the 'f' to a 'v' and add an 'es', her face was contorted.

"Thanks for making me wait before I really did that on my work. Will I learn that when I'm 7?"

So cute.

With Reading Comp. done, we jumped into Math before lunch. I had her put the number cards in order again...

"You know this is really easy for me, right? Like, really easy."

So I had her do the numbers backwards. Didn't help much, but it got her mind thinking a different way. Then I handed her some Halloween manipulatives I got at the Dollar Tree. I had her put the same number of bugs on the corresponding cards.

She loved the bugs. Bubs did too! I was actually able to get her to do this same activity today! Awesome.

After we played with the bugs, she showed me that she remembered how to spell 'zero', then I handed her the same manuscript sheet from yesterday so she could add 'one' and '1'.

After her worksheets, Math was done.

We still had plenty of time before lunch, so I gave her another book to add to her reading log. The book, "Five Little Pumpkins", is also a song she loves, but I told her she could add it to her log only if she read it as a book, and read it slowly, and read every word. She agreed.

She caught herself a couple of times because a lyric or two was different from her song, but she read it with ease and added it with pride. She has already read more books this month than she did last month! Amazing. I love it.

And with that, Kindergarten was done for the day. Before lunch!

2nd Month, 16th Day

Today kicked off our Halloween fun, and boy did we have it! We all had a blast and I'm pretty sure we all learned a little something too.

We started the day off with Math, where Babe is supposed to start learning how to write her numbers. Drag. Babe knows all her numbers, so to make it tougher I'm incorporating the spelling of each number. I am also doubling up lessons every day this week. Today we started with number 0.

I first had her put some number cards I made in order, which she did. Then I had her put the corresponding number of connecting blocks on each card, which she did.

Now comes the fun part. I wrote out the word 'zero' and number '0' on a sheet of manuscript paper and had her copy, 'in her best handwriting', each one. She did so.

Perfectly.

I quizzed her throughout the day on how to spell 'zero', and each time she spelled it correctly. She even covered her eyes every time I asked her so I could see that she wasn't cheating.

Five-year-olds...

After her worksheets, Math was out of the way and we were ready to kick off Halloween!

I first had Babe put the family pumpkins in order from biggest to smallest. They are pretty much the same size, so she did good!

Next, we (meaning I) opened the pumpkin.

The kids had a ton of fun digging the guts out. Babe remembered from last year that we had to separate the guts from the seeds, so she was very helpful. Z was very, very hesitant in putting his hands into something so disgusting looking, but once he saw Bubs digging in, he was all game.

I couldn't help but incorporate a little Math into the activity, so I made up a simple sheet for Bubs and Babe to work on. Bubs did incredible. Her counting skills have multiplied a hundred-fold over the past couple months. The issue with her is getting her to actually want to do it!

Here is Babe's "worksheet." It's similar to Bubs's except I had Babe write her own numbers.

Here's Z's. He had too much fun "stamping" the stemmed part of the pumpkin on his paper. Then of course he practiced his gluing skills.

After the guts were cleaned out and the seeds were separated, Babe wanted to count them all! She remembered from the M&M activity that it's easiest to count things when they are in rows of ten, so her and I both did that.

We finished in no time doing it together, and Babe was getting antsy! Guess how many!

306!

There were 306 seeds in the first pumpkin of the week!

What did we do with all those seeds?

Made cinnamon sugar roasted pumpkin seeds of course! It's become a tradition. A yummy tradition!

And what did we do with that pumpkin?

We painted it of course!

During Z's and Bubs's nap, Babe read a Halloween-themed book for her reading log. "Pumpkin Eye" by Denise Fleming was a very tough read for her, but she busted through conquered it. During both reads, she tripped up on "blood" and "spirit."

Today is Monday, so after reading, we were off to dance!

More Halloween activities to come! Especially since I went shopping at Dollar Tree tonight. Woohoo!