ToT SCHooL Review

We've schoolin' for two months now! I used this time to get Rylan used to "doing school" at a set time & to review him.

He began an "All About Me" theme with his big brother Brady. He did fun activities from a My Discovery Book by Learning Adventures & looked at pictures of other kids doing their favorite things. I asked Rylan what his favorite thing to do was & though he gave me a long list, one was to bake with Mommy. So that's what we did! :) But as you can tell from the picture he'd much rather lick the spoon!

Rylan learned that his food goes to his tummy when he eats it, reviewed his body parts parts & what they help him do. I printed off some activities from 2 Teaching Mommies Body Pack for him to do. He colored different shapes to paste a body together & made it his self-portrait.

He also used his counting skills to put together a puzzle of a little boy. Apparently he was working hard cause his tongue was sticking out! :)

We read the book& practiced buttoning & unbuttoning shirts & zipping & unzipping pants.

I found some dry-erase puzzle pieces that I wrote his name on & he practiced spelling it by putting it together. He still can't recognize his letters, but he's getting MUCH better!

Rylan found a fun puzzle at the Resource Center on shapes & practiced lacing shapes too.


He did his 1st sensory bin. I put various colors of buttons & beads in a large bowl full of beans, rice, & Cherios. He had to dig through the bowl & then sort the colors on their matching pieces of construction paper.

Rylan loved reading Chicka Chicka 123 & Chicka Chicka Boom Boom to review his numbers & letters. He did a counting numbers puzzle that was textured & he practiced tracing the numbers & matching up the puzzle pieces to the correct number.

Rylan adores this letter foam puzzle I bought from the Dollar Tree!!! This has been one my greatest finds!!

He also read many books on the alphabet, but his favorite was a glitter ABC book that he would read to his baby brother Keller.

Now that he has been well reviewed & is used to sitting still long enough to do school, we OFFICIALLY enter Preschool next week!!! I can't wait to blog about all the fun stuff we'll be doing!! I just posted the picture below, because Rylan said this was his favorite toy he's checked out from the Resource Center so far. He thought I should add it to "HIS" blog! lol

The 1st Weeks of 1st Grade & Preschool

Well here we go! A new school year has begun. As much fun as I had planned for the summer we all ended up restless most days. So I decided we would start school back the week after July 4th & it has proved to be a wise decision! I knew I had a trip & other things planned in August which would set us back & interrupt our usual "1st Days of School" fun & with new co-ops coming up I didn't want to get behind & feel overwhelmed like I often do when things teeter too far off schedule.


The 1st few weeks have been a genuine review of what Brady learned last year with of course some fun stuff thrown in. Our theme was of course "All About Me."

Brady had to draw a self-portrait by observing what he he looked like in a mirror.



His final product :)


Brady sorted pictures that related to the 5 senses into their proper category.We reviewed the 5 senses by experimenting with different tasting packs of soy sauce, honey, relish, lemon juice, mustard, & ketchup. This was Brady's face after tasting the lemon juice.



The boys enjoyed the fruity smelly markers & ended up with a rainbow on the tips of their noses. We also had a box filled with different items & the boys had to describe how each item felt before they pulled it out to see what it was.





I found a cute 5 Senses Lotto Game at the Parent Teacher Community Resource Center in our town. I've written a whole blog dedicated to the PTCRC you can read here.


Along with studying the 5 senses we also learned about various parts of our body. After learning about our heart & lungs we took our pulse & observed how our breathing changed after doing jumping jacks, resting, & running. We learned the fun process of how our food enters our body, what the stomach does to it, & how it leaves our bodies. Of course Brady thought that was the GREATEST thing! Poo humor does seem to get good laughs from any 6 year old or male for that matter :) We also learned about how our bones protect our insides & along with our muscles help us move. We read & acted out Eric Carle's book From Head to Toe. I HIGHLY recommend it! Super cute! We did our 1st science experiment of the year. We placed chicken bones in a jar of vinegar to observe what would happen to them over a period of time.



The vinegar began to dissolve the calcium in the bones & they got smaller. Brady was relieved to know that all the milk & yogurt he consumes will keep his bones strong! He loved learning about the name of some of his bones too. I'm blaming that on the fact his daddy is a physical therapist :)





Of course we practiced our printing, counting, shapes, colors & ABCs. Rylan isn't as easy to teach as Brady was at 3 :) He loves doing school but only wants to do it his way. Which isn't surprising knowing his personality. Nonetheless, I don't force him & we always have a great time. He is absolutely in love with puzzles. This one below I bought at Target for a $1 & he wants to do it over & over & over.





We began our 1st days of school reading the classic Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Coming in September Rylan will begin the Letter of the Week curriculum by Erica from Confessions of a Homeschooler. Below the boys are playing with a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree & velcro letters we checked out from the Resource Center.






We worked on patterns, letters, & colors by making an ABC clothesline.



The boys have also enjoyed playing with these magnetic learning boards by Lakeshore that we check out from the Resource Center. Like I've said before, the Resource Center is like a homeschool momma's heaven!!





I assume many of you are back into schooling too whether it be homeschool, preschool, grade school etc. It is however that time of year again :)