Pirate Resources

As I said yesterday, my son is loving studying about pirates! He has been asking to do school...gotta love that!

Here's my list of resources:
First my favorite--Jolanthe at Homeschool Creations has a very cute--I mean--hearty lapbook for free. I used her book list and found several of the books at the library. Unfortunately I didn't find "On a Pirate Ship", however the other books are serving us well.

Print Activities.com has a nice list of piratey coloring pages.

We are going to listen to some Patch the Pirate.

Homeschoolshare.com has a pirate lapbook with other resources listed.

I'm thinking of having a Pirate Party--just for fun! We'll have cheese and crackers and chicken (legs, of course!) And I'm going to make a treasure map for him to follow to find the "buried treasure". We'll end the evening by watching Veggie Tales, "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything."

I'll be sure to post pictures (as long as our camera doesn't go on the fritz again.)
See you later, matey!

Note: image from thepickards.co.uk

Piratey Post

My youngest child is a boy, 5 years old. After having two girls, raising him has been different. (I realize I'm stating the obvious!) Anyway, I'm getting ready to study pirates with him...yeah, I never studied pirates with his sisters! :)

Tonight I read him a pirate book while he colored a pirate picture. Then while I was cleaning up the kitchen, he climbed into my bed to finish his coloring. I came in the room and said (mustering up my best piratey voice), "Shiver me timbers, who is in my bed?" And without missing a beat, he said, "It's the pirate from the Seven Seas!"

Soon I'll share the resources I've found and my ideas for a pirate themed supper! Now I've got to finish swabbing the deck.

A Week of Letter H

This week we have worked on the letter "H/h".

Here are some of the resources we've used:
First School Letter H printables
Kids Zone Beginning Consonant Sound worksheet H


Here are pictures from some extra activities we did. T is working on matching upper case and lower case letters along with matching the picture with what letter it starts with. He is doing very well. I made activity from the free printable from Confessions of a Homeschooler printables. It is called the A-Z Beginning Sounds Game.



Here is A. (she comes to our house for child care/preschool two days a week. She completed the preschool activity "Shades of Color" from Walking by the Way's preschool activity bag ideas.


Some activities we did for the letter H:
Trace hand prints, cut out and make turkeys for Thanksgiving
Hopping around the living room (for a long time to make them tired!)


I had them hop on left foot, then right foot, then both feet all while saying "H" and the sound /h/ makes.

I'd intended to let them paint their hand prints, but the week got away from us.

We are so thankful for a good week! Head over to Homeschool Creations for more great preschool/kindergarten ideas!

Q & A for the Giveaway

These questions are on SarahLynn's blog for the GIVEAWAY. Have you entered yet? I sure hope so. Well, here's my answers and in the midst of reading them, you may just learn a little bit about me. :)

1. What are your first four favorite colors? green, blue, brown and orange

2. If you could go anywhere where would you go? does back to bed count??

3. iPod or mp3? I don't have either...maybe you could give one of those away next year!

4. Cake or ice cream? BOTH

5. Gum or chocolate?Chocolate

6. Write or read? Read

7. Simple or epic? both

8. If you could be anyone for a day who would it be? some days I feel like a circus leader...

9. Do you like blogs with pics or just words? both

10. Coffee or hot chocolate? hot chocolate

11. Fruits or vegetables? fruit

12. Books or magazines? books, although I like some magazines too

13. Favorite book? I don't have a favorite.

14. Favorite song? (or at least one of your favorite cd’s or something) Fernando Ortega's Hymns and Meditations CD

15. Do you like animals? yes

16. Are you casual or a total fashion freak? casual!

17. Cars or airplanes? cars

18. Video games or movies? movies

19. Are you quiet or a talker? I can be either to fit the need or occasion

20. Singer dancer or both? obviously you've never seen me dance! ha! I do like to sing, though.

A Blog GiveAway

I really enjoy reading these two blogs: samarah's sayings and just hangin' out by SarahLynn. I know both of these girls in 'real' life and they are VERY special to me!

Check out their blogs before November 29th in order to enter a terrific giveaway. They have teamed up together (how cute is that??). I'm entering and hoping to be a WINNER!

Trip to Amusement Park

Back in August some friends of ours gave us passes to a local amusement park. We'd never taken the kids before and especially the younger ones were excited to go. Here are some pictures from our day. T loved the bumper cars! Just as I thought, T loved it and Bethany enjoyed most of it...one of the bigger roller coasters I talked her into going on was a disaster. She was so afraid and I felt terrible! Overall, though we had a fun day!

Lots of blog ideas...

I have so many blogging ideas running through my head and so little time to actually write them down! I suppose I'll have to be content with a catch-up list for now...

• thanks to the generosity of a friend, we were able purchase an upgraded computer. Our friend built it and sold it to us for a VERY reasonable price. It runs faster and better...except
• the first week we had it, a new virus attacked it. ;( Thankfully, after our friend returned from vacation, he fixed it!
  
• While preparing for my first ever overseas short term ministry trip, I have been busy getting shots, folding and stuffing prayer letters, and making lists of the necessary items. Added to that, I'm gathering the items for my part of the trip and praying for those I will be working with and for myself.
  
• Both of my sweet girls need some extent of vision therapy to correct problems with their eyes. This will entail 1 hr. 15 min. drives to a nearby city every two weeks for progress checks. We are thankful for God's direction in helping improve their ability to see and do their school work with more accuracy, and less frustration and fatigue.
  
• Our annual Kids Craft Sale with our homeschool group is fast approaching (second Thursday in December.) My main little crafter, Bethany, and I need to get a move on! In a future post, I'll reveal what we are doing this year. :)
  
• My goal (and hopefully not too lofty) is to write several posts, with pictures included, of the batches of preschool/kindergarten fun we have been having here! Our camera was not downloading to the computer for a LONG time. We've managed to fix that and now I have lots of pictures to post. :)
• In our Jr/Sr High girls Literature Club we recently read The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom. Amazing story and I'm thankful that a friend let me borrow several other Corrie books...Amazing Love, Each New Day, My Father's House and Prison Letters.
  
• The above family picture was lovingly taken by our friend, Erin at Lasting Snapshots. She is talented, funny and efficient!
  

I have been challenged and encouraged by reading Corrie ten Boom's books. So many quotes and nuggets to take away from her life. I'll end this post with such a quote:

"If you look at the world, you'll be distressed. If you look within, you'll be depressed. If you look at God you'll be at rest."