Words That Begin With the Letter Aa Bingo

During Aa week, we played BINGO (sort of).  Using Microsoft Word and Microsoft clip art, I created six BINGO boards with pictures that all start with the letter A.  For example, the pictures were of things such as apricots, asparagus, apples, astronauts, astronomy, aviator, alligator, and so on.  I made a pile of "draw" cards.  Each card had one picture on it, which was also a picture on the BINGO board.  We took turns drawing a card and seeing if any of us had that picture on our board.  We did not do the traditional BINGO playing rules of B + the picture or N + the picture.  We simply looked for the picture somewhere on our boards.  We also worked to fill our cards rather than simply getting five pictures in a row.

After a while, Ella just thought it was more fun to play with the buttons, so she did some color matching instead.

Other A activities we did this week:

Artwork

Circle the letter A or a worksheet (find it here)

Other books we read this week:

Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish
American Tall Tales (we only read Johnny Appleseed from this book) by Mary Pope Osborne
The Candlewick Book of First Rhymes by Candlewick Press
I Saw an Ant in the Parking Lot by Joshua Prince

A is for Aprons

When I was little, my mom was the ultimate stay-at-home mom.  She didn't drive until she was fifty years old (I was a junior in high school by that time), so she was home all the time.  I never heard her complain about being home.  She found many projects to keep her busy.  In the '80's, when there was the Cabbage Patch Kids craze, my mom made dozens and dozens of the homemade version of that doll.  She even made the clothes for the dolls.  When I was little, she sewed dresses and other outfits for me (including a couple of matching "doll & me" outfits).  She reupholstered furniture.  She had an at home sewing business for a little while.  She only had one client at the time, but she sewed probably fifty shirts for this person.  She babysat on the side to give me someone to play with and also to earn a little extra spending money.  My mom cooked our meals everynight.  I rarely remember going out to eat as a child.  She made everything from scratch and even baked desserts and homemade bread for us.  We lived in a clean, tidy house.  It was peaceful and relaxing.  My mom was rarely idle.  She was reading, putting together puzzles, crafting, spending time with me, cooking/baking, etc. 

When I think about the skills needed to be a homemaker/mom, I think of the example that my mom set.  Unfortunately, my mom was so efficient at her "job" that I rarely had to help.  I watched, but she did most everything for me.  Maybe this is because I was the baby for 10 years before my little sister came along or maybe this is because it was just easier for her to do it herself or maybe it was because I whined enough that she just did it all or maybe by the time it was my turn she was already tired from my older siblings and the 18 foster children that she had over the years. I'm not sure the reason, but I do know I had a great childhood.  The problem is that as I grew older and moved out and into a new role in my life, as a wife and eventually a mother, I struggled (and still do at times).  I had the hardest time getting into a routine and keeping a tidy house, and what is this making dinner every night stuff all about?  I never cooked more than a box of macaroni and cheese before I moved out!  What about laundry? Don't clean clothes just show up folded and in your drawers?  They did when I lived at home with my mom!

I know that the skills that my mom demonstrated are so very important.  Because of this, we will be including homemaking/crafting/life skills lessons into our homeschool routine.  In an effort to help my children have an easier transition into their own homes one day, I hope to teach them the skills they need to have.  I want to make these skills as second nature for my children while they are living in our house, and not just something that they witness, but that they actually help with.  We will incorporate these skills with the letter of the week. 

Last week was the letter A.  The girls were introduced to sewing by helping me make aprons.  These aprons were so simple to make.  We went to the dollar store, where the girls each picked out a kitchen towel.  We brought them home and measured the towel to the girls. Then, I cut the towel to the appropriate length (some kitchen towels are already the right size for Arin, but the one she picked out needed to be shortened).  The girls handed me pins and also sat on my lap as I sewed the hem.  I folded down the top corners of the towel and sewed them and then cut off the excess fabic.  Then, I cut ribbon to go around the neck and middle of the apron.  I sewed one side of the ribbon on to the apron and added velcro to the other side so that the girls could easily put the apron on by themselves.  The girls were fascinated by the sewing machine.  They also loved sticking the pins into the pin cushion and pulling them back out.  That was also a favorite activity of mine when I was little watching my mom sew!

Of course the girls did not use the sewing machine by themselves, but there was nobody else home at the time to take pictures of them on my lap helping to sew, so they posed for sewing machine pictures!

How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World

Several times this past week, we read How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman.  After we read it the first time, the girls painted a picture of an apple.  Arin really loves to paint, so this was a favorite activity.

The story is about traveling to different parts of the world to gather the ingredients to make an apple pie (Italy for the wheat, France for the eggs, Vermont for the apples, etc.).  We put together our awesome world map floor puzzle and as I read the story for the umpteenth time, we tracked the route that we'd have to take to gather all of the ingredients throughout the world.  It would be fun to read this book again in the future and track the route again, but this time do a little study of each stop and/or each ingredient.  We'll have to remember that for next time!

We also printed a picture of the world map and tracked the route on there. 

After we finished our map lesson, and while Ella napped, Arin and I made apple pie pockets.  We followed the recipe in the back of the story book, but instead of making it into a whole pie, we made it into individual pies, which were very good!

Arin cut apples (but only while I was holding her hand).

She poured ingredients.

She stirred the ingredients.

Every good chef should taste their creations :)

Arin measured wheat.

And she ground it into flour (and even though we supposedly have the quietest electric mill on the market, it is still pretty loud!)

Arin got her hands dirty and at this point she thought I was pretty much the coolest mom ever and this was the greatest activity!

She kneaded the dough and she helped roll out the crust and filled each pie, but I didn't take pictures of all of that since I was giving much more assistance at that time.

Served with vanilla frozen yogurt, these pies made the perfect afternoon treat for the girls!

To complete the apple activities, Arin also practiced tracing and writing the letter Aa with this worksheet.

A is for Animal Families

In continuing with the letter A for our first week of school, I read Mother and Baby Zoo Animals by Caroline Arnold to Ella.  It was a fairly short book and she seemed to really enjoy looking at all of the animal pictures.  I printed a set of Animal Families matching cards from here.

Along with a little help from Arin, Ella matched the members of the animal families.  I really like giving Ella activities that Arin has already mastered, because it gives Arin the opportunity to help teach and encourage her little sister. 

Once Ella matched all of the animal families, we randomly spread the cards out in front her her.  Then, Arin and I took turns asking her to find certain things, such as, "Where's the baby duckling?" or "Where's the mama sheep?"  She did pretty well at this game, except the male and female bears look similiar and the male sheep does not look like the typical sheep that children first learn to recognize.

Letter of the Week: A

Hooray for the Amazingly, Awesome, letter A!

We had been anxiously anticipating the arrival of the new school year which began on July 26th.  In order to ease into our new routine, we purposely did only three days of school and we did not cover all of our subjects.  Arin worked in her Math Skills Sharpening book, her Lollipop Logic, her Explode the Code and she read two of her Bob Books.  Other than that, our main focus was on our Letter of the Week Curriculum.  We chose to ease into our new school year this way because it was a good review for Arin, we were easily able to introduce Ella to new acitivities and more than anything just because it was fun and who doesn't want learning to be fun???

A is for many awesome words, such as Arin, airplanes, and aunts.  A is for appetizing words such as apricots, asparagus, and apples.  A is even for annoying and aggrevating words that make you angry such as aches, aging, and ant bites.  However, for us, A is for Animals!  My girls share an affection for animals, so this was the most obvious choice for us for this week.

I printed out an uppercase letter A (found here) for each of the girls to fill with animal stickers.  The amusing thing is that Ella loves stickers, (again and again, I find her placing stickers on her body, the furniture and other assessories, appliances, books, etc.) however, she did not appear to adore this activity.  Arin seemed to appreciate this activity, so we will still consider it to be an achievement.

While the girls were adding animal adhesives to their letter A, I was reading to them.  They paid attention to the following books:

Daytime and Nightime Animals by Barbara J. Behm

Prickly and Soft Animals by Barbara J. Behm
Sleepy and Busy Animals by Barbara J. Behm

Next, I had arranged an assignment for Arin.  I started by reading these books to her:

Whose Feet Are These? by Peg Hall (this was one of Arin's favorite books this week)

Amazing Animal Feet by Linda Bozzo

After reading these books, Arin worked on matching animals to their tracks, an activity which can be found here. This activity was quite a challenge for her (understandably so), and at last she just matched the two cards with the same animal name.

Other animal books that we read this week were:


Deep in the Jungle by Dan Yaccarino
Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm by Alice and Martin Provensen
Camouflage by Terry Jennings (Arin's other favorite book for the week)
Red Eyes or Blue Feathers by Patricia M. Stockland
The Aesops for Children illustrated by Milo Winters (we didn't read this whole book, but we did read many of stories, which use animals as the main characters)

To end the week we took a mini field trip to Petco to see the animals. This is one of my girls favorite free activities. (On a side note, if you have a group of 10-30 kids, Petco does a formal field trip presentation. You can get more information and see if it is available in your area, by clicking on this link.) Since, it was just the three of us, we simply walked around the store and looked at all the animals on our own.

While we were at Petco, we saw the gourmet dog treat selection, which intrigued the girls. Our neighbor has a dog that the girls love to pet, so we bought the pooch some of the goodies. Each of the girls selected the treats to buy. Arin chose colorful vegetable-shaped treats and Ella chose heart-shaped and bone-shaped treats.

To go along with our animal theme, we watched two videos.  The first was Animal Life for Children: All About Mammals.  The second was We Sign: Animals.  The girls seem to enjoy both of these videos.

Check back tomorrow for more of our Letter A activities!

Our Homeschool Alphabet: A

A is for...

...Arin, of course, because we wouldn't have homeschool without her!

...azul. We are starting to add Spanish words into Arin's vocabulary.

...acorns.

She's learned that they acorns come from oak trees and that squirrels like to eat them. They also come in handy when making crafts and games like...

acorn cap bracelets

and an acorn cap memory/matching game.

...America. Arin learned which state she lives in, which state Aunt Sheila lives in, which state Great-Grandma lives in and where Aunt Katie is moving to.

...apples. We love to eat apples, bake with apples, eat applesauce, and make apple stamp paintings.

...avocados. A favorite lunchtime food and

a science project - growing an avocado tree!

...alligators (and other "a" animals).

...art. That's Arin's favorite hobby. She could draw, paint & color all day long!

...addition and...



...the alphabet!