Why We Don't Do Santa

Here is the link to my other blog about this topic. Why We Don't Do Santa. I hope you enjoy!

Pumpkin Patch 2011

This year was by far my favorite trip to our local pumpkin patch! I'm not sure why I enjoyed this year so much more than the last ones, but we had a great time with out homeschool group.

 This time last year I was EXTREMELY preggo with Keller & thanks to a very bumpy hayride & a 2 year old stuck to my lap I ended up going into early labor!!! I spent the night & the entire next two days still as could be in the bed or in a warm bath guzzling water & taking Tylenol & Benadryl every few hours. Thankfully he stayed in a few more weeks! Now a year later, all 3 of my precious boys got to enjoy the hayride with me.

 Once we got the pumpkin patch they did not want to cooperate with me to get a good picture! They were only interested in finding their pumpkins!

 Rylan had a blast in the hay maze! Though instead of turning around he would just climb over the walls :)

 Every year Brady races to the pumpkin rope swings as soon as he picks his pumpkin. And every year he lets go & wipes out! No worries though, he never gets really hurt!

 Another huge hit this year was what the kids called "Hay Mountain."

Here's a video of the boys sliding down Hay Mountain.             

 I think this may the most decent picture of me with all 3 boys! I'm usually the one taking the pics so I'm never in them :/ That must change!

 Keller enjoyed the hay as well! He kept pulling it out with a look of sheer amazement. I wonder what he couldve been thinking!?

 The boys played with their friends pushing the pumpkin swing back forth to each other trying to hit one another with it. Their own version of dodge ball.

 After we finished at the pumpkin patch, hay mazes, & sunflower field we hopped back on the hay ride to see the many farm animals. They even have a Zedonk which is half donkey half zebra! Unfortunately Keller was cranky by this point so I missed that picture.

 HEre are the boys with their carved pumpkins. They liked the cutting, but didn't care for cleaning out the gooey stuff inside. Rylan goes outside everyday to talk to his pumpkin & asks if he can bring it inside to sleep with him. Of course I tell him no, but everynight after we read through our pumpkin prayer cards I let him go back outside to tell his pumpkin goodnight :) Got to love 3 year olds!

Did you go to the pumpkin patch or a corn maze with your family & blog about it? If so, feel free to link it up here! I would love to see all the pumpkin adventures!!



Leaves, Scarecrows, & Pumpkins oh my!!!!!

I love fall! I mean it! I absolutely love it! I love the cooler weather, the leaves changing colors, putting out my cute scarecrows, pumpkins, & sunflowers in the front yard. Of course living in the South some days will still be hot & the leaves don't change as quickly as I like, but nonetheless, I LOVE FALL!! This blog post is a combination of what I had planned to do over three weeks, but we all kept getting sick with colds & coughs, then I got a stomach bug, then the baby got pneumonia :/ So we did what we could, when we could, & still had a lot of fun with all of it!

We started out reading these books about leaves. My favorite was Autumn's 1st Leaf! One of my favorite lines was near the end when one leaf says something to the effect of, "It doesn't matter what color we are, we are all the same." I was also only able to find one scarecrow book which leads me to believe we weren't the only ones having some Fall fun! :)

Rylan practiced sorting leaves from apples, shadow matching leaves, sorting the leaves by size, & tracing lines to "rake the leaves to the pile,"

One Saturday morning the big boys went outside to play, ran in quickly to grab some bags, then bolted back out the door. I knew something had to up. To my great surprise they were acorn hunting! They desperately wanted to feed a squirrel & were very sadden that one wouldn't just come up to them no matter how many acorns they had :) But I let them add the acorns to our fall sensory bin.

 He also LOVED playing in the sensory bin I made for him! Uncooked rice, beans, stale cheerios, twigs, leaves, fake berries from an old fall wreath, acorns the boys found, & a paper squirrel & owl as well :) Rylan enjoyed searching for all his acorns time & time again. I really wonder what's so amusing about this, but I am glad he likes it!

 I found a Count by 5s page at Making Learning Fun. Brady had to trace the #s & use the Do A Dot Markers to stamp the leaves to make a beautiful fall tree. This was one of his work box activities. 

 One of our art projects was tear pieces of fall colored construction paper to glue over the word FALL & then to glue some paper leaves around it. Brady did an excellent job, but I must admit Rylan got bored halfway through the letter A. So being the good momma I am I sat there & helped him, but when it came to gluing the leaves he no longer wanted my participation!

 They turned out SUPER cute!!

 Rylan did MUCH better when it came to the scarecrow craft. We got this from Making Learning Fun as well. We talked about the different shapes & colors as we went along. Rylan isn't very good at cutting yet so I cut out his pieces for him while he got to practice snipping away at the scrap paper & Brady cut his own.

 After the pieces were all cut out, the boys glued them to their papers per my instructions. I was pleasantly surprised at how well they did this. I asked them to name their scarecrows & they each thought they should be named after themselves & Scarecrow would be their last name LoL!!

 Rylan also used his magnetic pom poms to do a S is for Scarecrow page.

We finally began our pumpkin fun by heading out to the pumpkin patch with our homeschool group. You'll have to stay tuned to the next blog post about it :) It was hard finding books about pumpkins that weren't Halloweenish. So we only ended up with three. I hope to get the Pumpkin Patch Parable by next year! Here are our books with the boys' carved pumpkins. 

I found an AWESOME prayer book at Christian Preschool Printables that you can pray with your kids while you carve your pumpkins. I totally forgot about it when we actually carved them, but we did go back outside & I read the prayer to them as we went over our pumpkin with the face. We continued to go over that prayer for the rest of out pumpkin unit. I HIGHLY recommend you printing one out!!

I found these cute color pumpkins at 1+1+1=1. Brady had to trace his color words then color the pumpkin accordingly, while Rylan had to tell me what color the words were then he colored his pumpkin to match. They really enjoyed this activity. I have NEVER seen them take so much time to color. Rylan kept telling me pumpkins were his favorite :) 

Ryaln also practiced counting to 10 with these printables from COAH P is for Pumpkin. 

 I was GREATLY surprised at how well he traced his Ps!! As he did this we sang the Leap Frog jingle, "P says puh, P says puh. Every letter makes a sound. P says puh."

 I later caught Brady teaching Rylan the difference between a big P & a little p. He kept reviewing him til Rylan got them all right! I guess I found a lil teacher's assistant! :)

Many of the printables I used came from 2 Teaching Mommies Leaves Pack & Homeschool Creations Fall Fun Pack. The others are linked above. Be sure to check them all out!! We had a blast with them! We used a lot more than what I showed. I try to take pictures of everything we do, but let's face it, it isn't always possible! I do the best I can to record the fun we have so some day the boys can look back on their schoolin' adventures & I can look back & cry at how little they used to be ;P

I pray you all have a blessed week!!



Fun @ the State Fair

A couple of weeks ago we hit up our state fair & had a GREAT time! Click this link to my other blog & check out all the great pictures!!!

What's In The Box?

I finally began using our workboxes & I must say I LOVE them!! It has helped Brady work more independently so I can work with Rylan, tend to Keller, or clean. If he gets stuck on anything he can come & ask me, but for the most part he knows he has to try & figure it out on his own. The boxes are full of things he's familiar with so he knows how to do them already without further instruction. Before he begins them I go over each one briefly to make sure he knows what's expected of him.

Here is how our 1st run at workboxes went:

Box 1: Brady's new list of spelling words. He had to say the word then write it 3x.

Box 2: Read the book as he listens along to the tape. I have a tape player set up beside his desk so it's easy for him to use.

 

Box 3: Math sheet with counters (if needed).


Box 4: Roll A Graph (from Fall Fun Pack at Homeschool Creations).


Box 5: SNACK!!


Box 6: Practice sight words.


Box 7: Practice sound cards for blends.



Box 8: Read words on marked pages. These are words we've already gone over before.

 

Box 9: Count by 5s & use Do A Dot markers to decorate the fall tree.

Box 10: Cut out pictures & paste them under noun or verb.