Left & Right, Red, and Cinderella

Well, Nick's independent nature paid off yesterday. We were working on learning left and right... learning probably isn't an accurate word, though. Nick has known his left and right for a while now. It all started because he wanted to be able to put his shoes, by himself, on the proper feet. So, out came a big 'ole Sharpie, and we marked an 'L' on his left shoes, and an 'R' on his right shoes. So by the time we got to this lesson, I practically had nothing to do but read the directions to him!




As you can see... we are still working on writing the date. He hasn't, by any means, mastered letters let alone numbers. But it is coming along.

He'd not all that motivated today, though. Immunizations yesterday have left him a bit pooped. I don't blame him.

We are making a Color Book... the first entry is red.

Take a peek under the red crayon in this picture. He wrote 'red' without prompting. He also recognizes it on sight, now too... I think 'red' may be the first work that he has read! (lol)

We were driving the other day, and we went past a CVS. Nick read outloud "C V S, Mom? What does CVS spell?"

"C V S," I said.

"No, Mom!" he was sort of irritated at this point, "What does it say?"

"C V S." I replied.

"MOM! What does it say?" he hollered at me.

"It doesn't say anything, Nick. It's just the letters C and V and S." I replied (a bit frustrated myself.)

"Oh... Okay." he answered me.

We are goobers.

But good to know that he understands that a series of letter put together means a word. Yippee!

Also, last night, as part of Language Arts, we read Cinderella. He then had to answer some questions about the story at the end. For the most part he did well, there were some things that I had to "translate" to him, and make just a bit more understandable. For example:

"And now her two sisters knew she had been the unknown princess they had so admired. They threw themselves at her feet to beg her forgiveness for all their ill treatmens. Cinderella took them up and embraced them and said she forgave them with all her heart."

Yeah, he didn't quite get that. So... that turned into:

"And now her two sisters knew she had been the unknown princess they liked so much. They threw themselves at her feet to say they were so sorry for all the mean things they had done. Cinderella helped them up and hugged them and said that she forgave them and loved them very much."

Close enough, eh? And of course, I did read the original thoroughly... but just switched it up when he didn't quite know how to answer.

But he has alwasy been really good at recollecting stories and plots. Whether it is from a movie, a story book, or just an experience.

Good Mommy, you get a cookie. (Wheat free, of course!)

Day One Home Schooling!

Well, here we go! We started school today! It was a hectic day all around, so we didn't even try to get all of the assignments done! But the beautiful thing about the k12 system and Nevada Virtual Academy is that they don't really care if you get all of the scheduled items done for that day, just that you get 10 hours in per week, and any particular assignments that are due, turned in. And the system will automatically move the lessons ahead to the next day if they aren't completed on that first day it was scheduled.

Personally, I am making a goal to make it as fun and productive as I can with the time that we have. Of course, there are things that must get done... but I am NOT going to make this stressful, unpleasant, or crazy obsessive. No way... we have enough on our plate without any more stress, thank you very much.

But, we figured out that we can do a maximum of about 50 minutes and then we need to take a 10-15 minute break.

I am still working on how to entertain Collin while we are working. For the most part, as I expected, he want to be in the middle of it all. Unfortunately,. the workspace that I have doesn't really allow for that to happen and not impede Nick while he is working. SO... I am brainstorming... I go the super big coloring pages for Collin to color while we are having school time. That didn't work. He colored for about 5 minutes, then started tearing the paper off of the crayons and breaking them. Crap. I am thinking a) movie in the laptop with headphones and/or b) iPod.

Another thing that I am thinking of is making a reward chart of some kind for Nick when he does really well in his attitude and attention during school time, and Collin when he is good while we work on school.

But I am somewhat afflicted about it... I am taking this time to educate Nick, why can't I do some educational type things for Collin. The biggest deterrent factor to this, however, is his distructive nature. Yeah... big time. And the second biggest deterrent to this is the fact that it would demand more of my "teacher" time. Not that I am unwilling to teach another son, I just do not want it to decrease the value that I am giving Nick in his first year at school.

Suggestions are very very very welcome!

Anyhow, I have posted his Math Unit 1 Lesson 1 assessment below! He did a great job! 100%!

I am such a proud Mommy/teacher!

Back To School!

In an effort to maintain my (delusional and false) sense of sanity and organization... I am going to list all the books that k12 sent for Nick for his Kindergarten homeschooling.

Here we go:
Progress In Mathematics
k12 Math K Student Pages
The Complete Adventures of Peter Rabbit
Handwriting Without Tears Letters & Numbers For Me
Ox-Cart Man
Tikki Tikki Tembo
A Chair For My Mother
Mike Mulligan & His Steam Shovel
Rhyme Time
The Snowy Day
The Velveteen Rabbit
Caps For Sale
Millions of Cats
The Rooster Crows
Read Aloud Program, Junior Great Books:
Green Volumes 1, 2, & 3
Red Volumes 1, 2, & 3
The Random House Book of Fairy Tales
Phonics K k12 Teacher Guide Semester 1/Semester 2
Phonics K k12 Student Guide Semester 1/Semester 2
Language Arts K k12 Student Pages Semester 1&2
The Runaway Bunny
A Story-A Story
Tom Thumb
Make Way For Ducklings
Handwriting Without Tears Teacher Guide
History K k12 Student Pages Semester 1&2
Madeline
The Great Kapok Tree
Follow The Drinking Gourd
Possum Magic
When Clay Sings
The Story of Ferdinand
Bringing The Rain To Kapiti Plain
The Story About Ping
Science K k12 Student Pages Semester 1&2
What's Alive?
Animals In Winter
My Five Senses
The Big Dipper
PhonicWorks Kit

That's it! There is also a ton of supplemental items like the blow-up globe, laminated map, science kit, stacking counting blocks, counting discs, wooden shapes, shape sorter... I'll have to make a catalog of the supplemental items.

So excited!

Now off to Chuck E Cheeses!

More Christmas Pictures!

First Group of Christmas Pix!

Pictures With Santa

Well, we want and had pictures taken with Santa Clause today. The line was atrocious. The people infont of and behind were obnoxious, and of course we showed up right when Santa was scheduled to get his fill of milk and cookies. Anyhow, Chuck was able to walk through the mall with the boys while I waited in line for what seemed an eternity. Thak God for a large purse, and the forethought to bring a book (go Mommy!).

Once it was our turn, Nicholas jumped right up wihtout a problem and told Saint Nick what he wanted. Collin, on the other hand, well... you caqn see the pictures. It didn't go over so well.

And Christopher, much to our dismay, is too "cool" and too "old" to sit on Santa's lap. :(

At the end of the day, Nicholas was satisfied... and I got the pictures taken.

~*~SNOW~*~

Highway 95 & Durango
Crazy Snow!

The Lodge at Mt.Charleston
Look at all that snow!
Nicholas jumped right in, he was so eager to play in that
funny white stuff that he so rarely sees!

Nick getting a feel for the snow!


Nicholas and Collin ran for the deck at the lodge.
They really didn't know what to make of the cold!

Snow Angel!
(Snow Imp would be more accurate!)

Nick's Snow Angel

Collin getting up from making his snow angel.
It's not very thorough, but it was 21 degrees up there,
so I really don't blame him!

The two little boys' snow angels.

Collin on his way to the truck.

Look at all that snow!

I didn't show all the times that they ran back into the
lodge and sat by the fire just long enough to slightly defrost,
then ran back outside again.
I am sure that the employees at the lodge loved the
tracks of snow that we left in and out!

While the little boys had fun playing outside in the snow,
the big boy had fun playing in his truck in the snow.
It was a huge toll on my nerves, but the truck proved to be *very* capable.
Thank goodness.

We should have brought a tow strap.
We could have made some quick cash
by pulling the idiot drivers out of the ditches!

It really was fun to point and laugh!
(I know that's evil, but I really don't have any sympathy for morons.)

Next time, tow strap... for sure!

Hope you like the pictures!