can I duplicate this day??

I could tell Ellie was frustrated with the way school went (or rather didn't go) yesterday.  We did a little bit of learning here and there but there was nothing formal and, as I am learning, my daughter needs formality, rigidity and structure (at least when it comes to learning).  As I tucked her in she asked why we didn't "do" school ... I reminded her of all the things which we did do, but could tell that she was not satisfied with my answers.

This morning I was pondering my conversation with Elle and my desire to do something different.  I feel like I need to invest in a curriculum, and I really hope to do that one day, but until we have the finances to do that I have to work with what I've been given.  There is a lot of free materials on the internet and a lot of good ideas ... just all of those take time, forethought, planning, all things I struggle with!!  I prayed about it and asked the Lord to guide me today.  I then wrote out my plan for the day and went to make breakfast. 

After breakfast and morning chores I pulled out Ellie's penmanship.  We spent about 20 minutes reviewing numbers and all the letters.  She did very well and I realized that sometimes I expect too much from her ... she's only 4 1/2 after all!!  I praised her a lot and we ended with her feeling good and uplifted instead of frustrated by not being able to "do it".

Penmanship was followed by math!  Josiah had fun with the number wheel (matching dots with a "number clothespin") while Ellie did her math worksheet.

penmanship pays off!  She wrote all the numerals on her own!

I worked a little bit longer of Josiah's recognition of numbers skills.  He is doing much better than he was even a week ago (that's when I found out my son didn't know all his numbers)!  Elizabeth put "dot cards" in order and then matched them up with the right numerals.

What a FUN school day!  The trade-off?  A messy house, but hey, what'cha gonna do?  My children had a good morning with mom and the dishes will get done ... as soon as I sign off on here!

A craft a day (well, kind of)

Thanksgiving week.  Thought that we would do a craft a day and make that be our school week.  Here is what it ended up REALLY looking like!

Monday we finished the cork boats that we started 2 weeks ago.  They turned out cute and a lot of fun to play with in the creek at the park near our house.  Unfortunately though there was not very much water so they kept running aground!!

 Here is our fleet - ready for action!

Found out almost immediately that I needed to make the string twice as long

Tuesday Ellie and I modge-podged her oatmeal box so it can stylishly hold all of her headbands!  She had some favorite pictures from advertisements that she had been saving that she got to glue on to the box.  My favorite was the little Santa Claus that she said was a "running snowman".  So cute!

one side

other side

finished product!

Wednesday we took a trip to the Library to sail our boat again ... the kids made some friends and shared their boats with them.  It was a lot of fun!  We also  began the "changing faces toilet roll dolls", unfortunately we did not finish them up until Sunday.  I was sick Thurs and still feeling a little under the weather on Friday.  By Saturday I felt better but not good enough to draw the toilet roll dolls ... okay, that is a bit of an excuse for my lack of artistic ability!  On Sunday Chris was around and able to help draw on the rolls ... I am just not artistically inclined ... at least not with a paper and pen!!

Royalty: King, knight, princess and queen!