Back to School

I feel like I have been MIA.  We've just been a bit busy.  The kiddos all started school this week. With one in 8th grade, one in 5th grade and one in Kindergarten we are on the go, a lot. 

I ventured into the world of homeschooling this week.  G and I have been enjoying the flexibility and the ease of learning at home.  I've really had a ton of fun with it.  He is not a newbie to the school scene, he has been in pre school since he was 2.5 and loved it.  When registration time came around I thought about it a long time and my husband and I decided that homeschooling would be best for him this year for Kinder.  He already knows plenty of his sight words for Kinder so it's been great for him to show off to Mom. 

As a self proclaimed Pinterest addict, it has gotten even worse since the homeschool decision.  I have scoured page after page and board after board of amazing ideas.  Just this week, I used probably a few of my hoarded ideas each day. 

I will leave you now with our week in pictures....

Those would be Funfetti pancakes for the 1st Day

Loving his pancakes with sprinkles

Even 8th graders like sprinkles...

and fashionistas too!

T - 8th grade

R - 5th grade

G - Kindergarten

Writing in his daily journal

 We use the question of the day to inspire him to make a sentence and drawing for the daily journal. 

My take on the Number of the Day poster

My version of the Sight Word of the Day poster

Using Play-doh to spell out the letters and numbers for the Number of the Day/Sight Word of the Day

Sight Word BINGO

Using his cool "monster reader" to track his words

Mr. Cool reading his 1st Day of school book surprise

Our Homeschool Station....using vintage office goodies

Self Portrait time!  I traced his hands and feet and drew the body and face shape. He colored everything in and created his face and hair do.

All done!

This portrait idea came from a pin that I just glanced at knew immediately I wanted to try it out.  I never even clicked on the link until just now so I could give credit where it was due.  After I went to the website, I realized it was supposed to be a Falling in Space picture, the idea is from Oodles of Art.  Very cute idea.  We just free handed and traced and created our own kind of thing, and I like it.  We say it looks like he's looking through a glass floor.  

Studying Watercolors while making an awesome butterfly

New Paints!!

I realized as I uploaded these pictures, that someday I will look back at this picture and have a hard time remembering just how tiny those hands were.

Watercolor butterfly, all finished

 You can find this beautiful watercolor butterfly idea through The Artful Parent. I loved so many ideas there and will use more, I'm sure.  With this one, we checked out watercolor paintings online before he got started so he could see the softness of the paintings and the different ways to use the brush to make certain strokes.  This was such a calming activity and really helped his artistic side sprout. He will be using watercolors again soon.

Sight Word - 4 Ways

Our portrait with labeling for the 5 Senses study we did all week.

 I got the idea for this label happy 5 senses portrait from a post on Peace, Love, and Kindergarten.  Her blog is FULL of amazing ideas.  This was just one of many I found.  I look at the idea and use it as a framework for what we want to do. 
In our version, I cut out strips of yellow "hair", a few blue "eyes", a couple of different noses, and a few mouths.  The bow tie was a must for G.  He picked out what he liked best to make his 5 senses self portrait.  A bit like Mr. Potato Head. I cut out the face shape as well, freehand, and he glued the green paper on to make it stand out.

My little man coloring super hard, trying to get the job done. After coloring these bad boys he cut them out by himself.

We had so much fun really exploring and trying out new things.  He loved the 5 Senses I introduced on Monday so I decided to make my own week long unit.  We will finish it up on Tuesday by doing a Magazine Scavenger Hunt to find things to do with our 5 senses and gluing them in the appropriate column.  His favorite activity of the week was probably the taste test we conducted where he had to pinch his nose and taste 4 different liquids.  He has since performed this "experiment" on his dad, sister and grandfather. 

It was a successful first week, everyone came home from school happy and we are trying to get back in the groove of things. 

Happy Back to School, y'all!