Another Monday not going as planned...

Well it's Monday and as the kids are pouring glasses of milk...I came to realize they drank all but 1/2 cup of milk over the weekend.  They ate all of the precious "pizza rolls" that Brayden must have right now in his diet and all of the pizza that Joey must have was gone also.  Now someone might ask and start pointing their fingers at the horrible diet I allow my children to eat, but please before judging me...remember my kids special needs.  I have to be grateful somedays if I can get food into Brayden, because over the summer he would go several hours without eating.  Did I mention we were also out of the popsicles that Caty will only eat because she is cutting a molar right now?

Anyway I decided to take the girls and run to the store, since my mom was already taking our car into town, I figured I might as well do it this morning.  The only problem is that it kind of messed up my inital plans to finish schoolwork first thing in the morning so the boys could veg out before basketball practice.  The other obstacle was I needed to entertain the girls in a therapy office waiting room while my mom was getting therapy.   I had been keeping tight control of my Monday mornings the past couple weeks, but lost control this morning.  I dread the return of the Out-of-control, since I am so trying to rein in the chaos in our life right now.

Since the decision to go was so last minute I ran around and got the girls ready.  Talked to the boys about what they should finish while I was gone and then gave them permission for "free time" video games if they finished.  And then I went into my reserves.  I knew I would have to keep the girls occupied for at least an hour at the therapy office.  So I grabbed Lydia's phonics lesson for today, a Fancy Nancy book and the matching butterfly wings and a new art game I had ordered from Scholastic book clubs.  Basically it was going to be a mini-Carschooling day!

We started out reading Fancy Nancy Bonjour Butterfly.  I had found these cute butterfly outfits on clearance at Halloween.  The older people coming in for therapy thought the girls were just the cutest.

Then I pulled out a reserve item.  Something they hadn't played with yet.  I ordered this from a Scholastic Book order that Caty's teacher (she receives therapy in a group 2 times a week).  It's been put on the shelf.  When I pulled it out today, the kids fell in love!  It's from Alex Toys.

Pros:

• Bright and colorful
• Easy to understand and good storage tray
• The plastic tray that the card sits on could be used to "create" a personalized design.

Cons:

• The buttons do not snap into place and they are fairly large in size. 
• They could be a choking hazard though if a child likes to put stuff in their mouth.  
• Only 10 cards are included and I haven't found a way to purchase more.   

It did help out in occupying time today.  I would recommend this for kids up to 6, or any younger group trying to work on fine motor skills.

You can buy it from here, I found it on Amazon (and might I add a little cheaper than I paid).

We finished most of Lydia's phonics lesson.  Turns out when we are working on word syllables daily, instead of clapping the syllables, we are probably going to be jumping them.  She actually made it up to the point of her worksheet, we just ran out of time to finish it.  Another benefit of homeschooling, The Ability to adjust curriculum to benefit a student WITHOUT the hassel of getting permission from some higher up that doesn't even know who the child is!!

When I finally made it home, the grocery store was a nightmare---Caty had a meltdown and screamed most of the time and there was only 2 checkout lanes open,--I was very surprised to find out that they boys actually attempted to work independently on all assignments that did not have a "Do With Mom" tag in the box.  Yeah...maybe workboxes are gradually working!!!!!!

What Joey will be doing on Monday.....

Here's my file box that I organize the week's activities in.  A folder for each child and each day of the week.  I agree this makes the evening switchout  sooo much easier!!  It takes me a couple hours on the weekend to get ready for the next week.  I make the boy's planner in Word and just open the previous weeks.  For them the longest time is making copies and creating their worksheets for spelling and OT activities in ABC Teach.

Drawer 1 is our continued lesson on Joseph.  Tomorrow we will talk about how Joseph prepares for the famine.  We really like the Bible Study Guide for all ages.  The kids enjoy the worksheets and we use them along with our Bible.

Next is Math.  We love Teaching Textbooks!!!  There is so much review with each lesson.  They are working on long subtraction and addition and fractions. 

Next is a word search of their spelling words.  The words are easy for Joey, but due to handwriting difficulties their therapist felt it better to take him back a little. 

Free reading is next.  We got this great list from the library of book suggestions if kids like Diary of Wimpy kid books.  He loves Dave Pilkey books, the diary books and Big Nate.  He seemed to like this one too.  Joey speed reads....can read a big chapter book in no time.  He can go through 2 a week, when I make him slow down.  He can read all the diary books in one week.  I just don't know how he does it.

I found these at a Homeschool Resource sale.  Love them!!!  They are a little confusing to get started with, but once you figure the tiles out, it's a great visual perception activity.  They have math, language arts and science books for up to grade 5 at least.  From Discovery Toys.

For social skills, we do this as a Health class, we found these great dvds that the kids can use for Role playing.  There are workbooks available also.  A bit pricey, but so far I have really liked the products.  They are made by Model Me Kids.  

Language arts---Parts of speech is next.  We are working our way through the many layers of confusing rules.  Currently we are using a Harcourt Brace workbook.

I found these great grid puzzles on ABCteach.  This is a great visual perception activity. 

For geography this week, we are steering away from Expedition Earth because it's World Travelers Club week.  The countries that are being studied this week are Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe.  I spent yesterday creating worksheets for the countries.  We also have animal copywork and animals to place on our classficiation wall.  We are still working on their projects for this Friday.  Only Lydia knows for sure what she is doing.

For science this week, we were able to get an interactive unit from Simple Schooling.  We were working on the human body, but when I saw the link for this great online unit I decided to put muscles and joints off for a week.

Brayden's box is very similar to this one.  They actually do alot of the same subjects just at a very slightly different level.  Makes my life easier with the boys.

Have a great week!

Work Boxes For Children: Fun Box Activity

I was very excited to be able to submit and be posted on the new Workbox blog.  Here's the link:


Work Boxes For Children: Fun Box Activity: "What to do….the wiggles were running through the legs and arms of the kids today. My daughter’s seat had said enough and she was dancing in ..."