C is for Charity

One of my goals for this homeschool year is to find small and big ways to involve the girls more in charity. It is something that is important to our family in word but not always in deed.  The last time we were at Freebirds (yum) I noticed a box where they were collecting diapers through the month of August.  I pointed it out to Zoe and we decided that would be a good thing for us to do.  Well, every time we were at the store, I managed to forget it, and today was the last day of August.  But our day was SO full - homeschool, dance class, lunch date, dropping off stuff at a consignment sale, and ice skating.  But we cut homeschool short so we could swing by Target before dance class and made our lunch date at Freebirds so we could drop them off.  Zoe loved dropping them in the box and talking about who might use them.  It was a good lesson for the girls, but a good lesson for me too, that things like that fall off the radar if we're not careful.

Zoe had a few worksheets to do and I told her that one of the cool things about homeschool was that she could go anywhere in the house she wanted to while she did them.  She loved this idea and headed straight to bed - my favorite place to work too!  I think Dad just shuddered (both mine and hers).

Lucy's letter of the week is C.  I found out that cutting something out at the end is a great incentive to write a little something!  We don't worry too much about writing yet - she does lots of this at preschool.

We made patterns with pattern blocks

We are taking the blue parrot (school mascot) with us this week and we write about his adventures - here Lucy's dance class poses with him.  This was after she got 4 fingers shut in the door at dance.  It hurt so badly - she told everyone she saw today "Mommy hurt my fingers in the door!"

Lunch at Freebirds

We found another kid from Spanish Schoolhouse in Frisco who was also taking his parrot to ice skate!  We better get extra credit for the rare double parrot sighting!

Fresh Pickins!

 We were excited to find an email from Aunt Debora this morning answering all of our questions about living in Brazil!  Thanks Aunt Debora!  We loved hearing that you too, had an angel on top of your tree but it was hard for us to imagine Christmas in summertime.  Zoe thought Santa would be very hot in his beard and suit!  Must investigate more on this...

We made Brazilian flags

...and cleaned up our mess.

We explored all our passports (6 total for the family)

And loved looking at the baby pictures (fond memories of hauling infants through Mexican summer heat to wait at the US consulate came rushing back)

We examined all the stamps in Mommy's passport.  Those were the days...

And then we checked out the new ones ready for our trip around the world.

We got our first stamp!  Zoe colored and cut this one out herself.

Looking at Brazil and rainforest books.  Carnival dresses were examined in depth.

Ready for the farmer's market.  Can't explain the flower but the size is not due to the perpsective of the picture.  Sigh.

Watching lemonade being made

Refreshing!

Hard decisions!  We finally decided on peaches, cherries, and cherry tomatoes.
They were delicious and we ate a bunch for lunch!

So big!

See?  Now that's an old friend!

Models of Literacy

We had a busy day today...

We count to 100 every morning and I can already tell they're getting the hang of it.  Counting (in English) is one thing that I think has suffered being in a Spanish speaking preschool.  But really, how can you not count well when you have a tiara? 

We worked on the letters E and F

Zoe teaching Lucy her (Zoe's) sight words.  This was hilarious.

We played a counting math game - one to one correlation is something everyone needs to practice!

Montessori fun!  Moving pom poms from one bowl to another - this was a hit!

Our buddy Avery came to see what we were doing in school!  Avery can't go to preschool because she needs to stay healthy so we were happy to show her around our little school!  It quickly turned into some crazy princess giggle pom pom affair...

We are starting to learn about our 5 senses.  Today, Zoe, Lucy, and Avery took turns feeling objects in a bag without looking and guessing what the object was based only our the sense of touch!  

Lucy's  results sheet:  The jewels on her shoe tricked her into thinking it was a crown in the bag.  Understandable.

After lunch with Avery, we went to the library and loaded up on Brazil books.  They were fascinated by this sculpture.  When a library employee saw them, he asked if he could take a picture for the library promotional materials!  With a Grana Librarian, we of course said yes (and I snapped one too!)

How cute are they???

B is for Brrrrrrrr!

Tuesdays are turning out to be busy days!  It's our dance class and today, we added an evening ice skating class for a few weeks.  Zoe has been really wanting to do it since the Olympics and we got a super deal on a trial class.  They had SO much fun!  Yes they.  There are people crazy enough to teach 3 year olds to ice skate.  Hey, I would rather pay for it than deal with Lucy watching it all from the sidelines!

Here's a sneak peek (because I can't get these pictures to go in the right order!)

This morning, we worked on our suitcase for our upcoming trip around the world.  The girls loved painting it and we will add stickers from each place we visit and use it to keep up with special projects.

B is the letter of the week for Lucy - and I'm adding just a few sight words for Zoe each week in addition to her reading - we will see how that goes.

Stamping is a big hit!  Time to invest in the lowercase set.

Finished suitcases!

During rest time, Lucy called to me and said "Mommy, it's not snowing yet!"  I realized I hadn't explained the concept of an ice arena!  I think we need to focus on seasons this week!

Lucy's buddy Ava (whose back is to the camera) is taking the classes too.  They had  SO much fun!

Zoe was very nervous and a little disappointed she wasn't able to twirl, but in the end, she said she loved it. 

Lucy got the hang of it a little bit.

Not too much official schoolwork got done today, but we are enjoying having so much time to explore interests and not be run ragged doing activities after a full day away at school.  I am working on finding the balance of not being frantic and enjoying going at their pace while still pushing us forward.  For the most part, I think we are doing OK.

PE Class

We have been doing lots of PE...  Zoe is getting so good at riding her bike - those of you who know her know what a BIG deal this finally is for her to be able to and want to do this!  Yea!  We had a shorter school morning today and then went swimming and out to lunch with Carson.

So proud of herself!

"Please I cut paper again?"

Poking holes in A's - she loved this!

I printed a dictated letter to Carson using handwriting software (LOVE IT) for Zoe to trace and then she wrote another one using "zig-zags."  No interest yet in trying to sound out words while writing even though her reading is coming along so well.

After a full day and a milkshake run with Daddy, they still ran in tonight and asked if we could do "just a little bit more school" so Zoe is writing a letter to Daddy.

Get the passports out...

We had a relaxed day today and even got to have lunch with Daddy - a rare treat!

We worked on a fun puzzle together (harder than it looks!)

...and we found the 3 year olds limits (about 2 minutes after this picture)

We started our handwriting books

We went on a scavenger hunt/adventure in the front yard

We found different amounts of the same things...and then put flowers in our hair!

We looked at our kids around the world cards I found yesterday for $1!  They were perfect to help us find the places we were most interested in learning more about.

We found them on a globe

And on a map

In the end, Brazil won out as the first place we will visit.  The girl's dress was very beautiful and she wore lots of necklaces.  Get ready, Aunt Debora!  Lots of questions coming your way!  Will you come cook for us?