Mat GIRL

Remember Mat Man? Miss O decided she wanted to make Mat Girl, so this past week, we did just that! Miss O needed a bit more guidance when it comes to constructing Mat Girl; overall she just needs a lot more attention from me when completing activities that aren't that open-ended. She really enjoyed this one though, and afterwards I was impressed by her rendition of Mat Girl, pictured below.

O is for Octapus

The kids brought these sweet little Octapi (?) home from Gymboree the other day. Since we have been so much busier with more formal homeschooling and Gymboree (we are there 3 times a week now), crafts have really taken a back seat in our home. But I thought I'd share this one because it is so simple to make and really turned out pretty cute!

Block City

Miss O, Little Bean and my mom spent an afternoon this week using every single block we own to build this elaborate city. I'm not sure who built most of it, the kids or my mom, but they ALL had a blast playing with it once it was finished, and it graced the floor of our living room until Friday when I had to vacuum. Good times!

Totally Excited!

Some of my homeschooler readers may have heard about the Curriculum Clean Out over at Our Homeschool Creations which was going on a few weeks ago. Jolanthe, the author of Our Homeschool Creations hosted a giveaway blog carnival, where mom bloggers hosting curriculum giveaways linked up to her blog. I entered a few of the giveaways, and (yipee!) actually won one of them! Susana, over at Our Homeschool Fun, who participated in the Curriculum Clean Out recently sent me Volume One of Five In a Row, a literature based preschool and elementary school curriculum. I can't thank Jolanthe or Susana enough for hosting this giveaway! What fun!

Puzzles, Puzzles, Everywhere!

About 5 weeks ago when I started Little Bean on Kindergarten work I put a 24 piece puzzle into one of his work alone boxes. To my surprise (we had not done many puzzles up until this point), he finished it within minutes, and was SO proud of himself. Since it seemed to be an activity of great interest to him, I began rotating our few puzzles through his boxes each week.

Then, a few weeks back, I took them to the dollar store and purchased two 50 piece puzzles (just because that was what they had). I wasn't sure if that would be too many pieces for him, but alas it wasn't. He spent the better part of an hour working on one 50 pc puzzle, but completed it without help, and with great interest and enthusiasm (read: "Mom, look how good I'm doing! You have to come and see!").

Here, he is completing a 100 piece puzzle I purchased at Toys R Us for only $1.48. This kid is INTO puzzles! In this instance, Little Bean spent about 45 minutes putting this together only to immediately take it apart again and proceed to rebuild it. :) I'm totally excited about this new, quiet hobby he has taken up!

Weekly Workboxes

Here's a tour through our workboxes from last week:

Miss O:

Fill and spill--fill the container with puff balls, then take off the lid and spill them out!

Cutting practice with foam. This was a bit challenging for her, but she is very curious about scissors, so she enjoyed it:
Diego cling stickers set:

Foam alphabet puzzle:

Explode the Code, the letter "T":

Handwriting Without Tears, Pre K, building mat man:

Little Beans boxes:

Sentence School. This is our grammar program. We do it three times a week, and Miss O can do this with us. This particular lesson was on actions words, tip and sip:

Handwriting Without Tears K (Miss O does this with us too):

Science. This was a lesson on the five senses, focusing on the sense of hearing:

100 Lessons, BOB books, and HWT workbook practice:

Making patterns with unifix cubes:

Right Start Math, making the bead stair and talking about perpendicular:

Sorting Rod:

These are tiny foam magnets and a magnet board to use in making mosaic artwork:

If you blogged about your workboxes this week and would like to link up, please use the McLinky below being sure to link directly to your workbox post, and not to your main blog. This linky will be open until the 13th.

Playing School

After school time one day last week, I caught Miss O and Little Bean at their desks, pretending to have school time. Little Bean was the teacher, handing Miss O tangram pieces and directing her where to put each piece! So cute!