This poor, neglected blog

I have really neglected this blog lately, but I think I'll do better in the new year. We've only been home for just a few days at a time since December 1, so O's homeschool has been on hold. We've done lots of traveling, and O really enjoyed her 1st cruise. Since December 1 we've gone to Charleston, Columbia, St. Matthews, Orangeburg, Grand Cayman, Key West, Cozumel, Playa del Carmen, Florence, Lake City, Myrtle Beach, Garden City, Surfside, etc. O is one traveling baby!!! We have had a fantastic month of traveling and Christmas fun, but we are ready to get back into our routine. We have lots of new activities to add to our homeschool thanks to the generosity of our family and Santa Claus. I have lots of things that I'll be working on for O's homeschool, including: phonics pouches, 3 part cards and holders, velcro block and velcro toys, cardboard puzzles, etc. (I'm hoping that listing these things here will help me stay motivated to get them made.) Elliott bought me a laminator for Christmas which I am super excited about. You know you are a homeschooling mommy when all you want for Christmas are a few homeschooling books and a laminator!

Bubble Wrap Fun!

I think I need to get O some bubble wrap for Christmas! We had so much fun stomping on this sheet today. Who knew that something so simple could be so much fun?!!

Tree Blocks

One of my goals for Christmas is to make Tree Blocks for some of our favorite monkeys. We've gotten off to a good start, and hopefully they'll be finished in time for Christmas. I'll post the finished products in a few days (I hope!).

Making Caramel Popcorn

O, Elliott, and I have been making caramel popcorn for Ell to take to a few of his coworkers. O loves to help shake the popcorn in the bag! She's a great little helper!

Playsilks

I've been admiring the beautiful playsilks that I've seen in toy catalogs and online toy stores for a while, but I wasn't willing to pay 10 to 15 dollars for one, and I really liked the idea of making my own. I was excited when I found 100% silk scarves that are perfect for playsilks at Dharma Trading Company. I bought lots and lots of several different sized scarves, and my mom and I dyed them with kool-aid. We had lots of fun dyeing them, and they've turned out great so far. We have several more colors that we are going to try next week.

Ta-da!

We did it! We really did it! My mom and I finished O's I Spy quilt in time for Christmas. We still can't believe that its finished. I have to admit that my mom did the vast majority of the work towards the end. I did most of the cutting and ironing, and she did most of the sewing. We decided that I'm in the management position and she does the menial labor :) For the back of the quilt we used the curtains from mine and Melanie's room from when we were very little (they were made out of Holly Hobby sheets), and a Strawberry Shortcake sheet that I used when I was little. We are both in love with this quilt, and I'm sure O is going to love it, too. I can't wait to spend hours and hours labeling animals, objects, letters, colors, shapes, etc and eventually playing endless games of "I Spy." I'm already planning a matching quilt for the baby doll cradle that I'm trying to talk Ell into building for O's 2nd birthday.

This week's activity kit...

has not been a big hit. I made a bad choice, and its really not adaptable for toddlers (all the kits are for preschool age and older children, but most are adaptable). O gets excited and wants to open it and see everything, but there is really not much we can do. Its all about air, so it has a windsock, windchimes, and a tornado. I need to get 2 2-liter bottles so we can make a tornado because she would probably really like that. I didn't take a picture of it since I was so unimpressed with it. I also didn't get any books from the library this week since O has so many great new books from Sabrina. Thanks again, Sabrina!

Yoga for Toddlers

We started doing yoga with O this week, and it is so much fun. Its sleepy time yoga, so we do it before nap and at bedtime. Last night, O's daddy joined us, and she thought that was great. We are so glad that Aunt Bobby ordered this great book for the library, but I think we may have to get a copy for ourselves.

Homemade Christmas Gifts

I love making homemade gifts for Christmas, and I am getting off to a good start this year. I finished a counting book for O today, and Guh-guh and I made this pouch sling for O to carry her babies. We are planning on making a matching one for Marg. I couldn't believe how easy it was to make and how good it looked! What gifts are you making this Christmas? (I'm always looking for more good ideas!)

Color Matching

Guh-guh is enjoying teaching in O's homeschool, too! She came up with this creative way to teach colors. She turned an oversized medicine container into a color matching activity. She covered the doors with felt and put hairbands in them. O LOVES to wear the hairbands as bracelets, and we have all had lots of fun with this activity. Thanks, Guh-guh!

This week in O's homeschool

I've not been keeping up with this blog very well, but things have been very busy in O's homeschool. Our activity kit this week has a train track and trains that we have had a great time playing with, so O has been learning all about trains this week. She loves to sit in the center of the track after we have it set up. She gotten good about keeping everything on her mat, and she even tries to roll it up by herself when we are finished playing. We have lots of library books this week, too, but she only likes a couple of them.

Homeschooling Update

O and I have been very busy in our homeschool this week. We are getting back into a routine after being gone last week. We've ready lots and lots of books, played "Where is it?", put the plastic coins in the container, listened to lots of music, practiced our signs (we're working on tiger and monkey), listened to Spanish music and rhymes, threaded spools onto pipe cleaner, played with her library activity kit, smelled and labeled the scent jars, shook and labeled the listening jars, and taken lots of nature walks.

We spent last week at G & G's house. O had so much fun playing with Marg. I've never seen her more excited than she is when she sees Marg for the 1st time. I love that they love each other so much!

Learning About Fruit

O loves fake fruit, so I was really excited when I found some good quality fake fruit for a low price. I've been doing the 3 period lessons to teach her the fruit. She knew what they all were except the lemon and lime, and she learned those quickly. She won't say the names for them (except banana), but she signs apple (and banana), and she knows them receptively. The Montessori 3 part lessons are very similar to the discrete trial training that I used to do when I was an ABA therapist, so its a fun way for me to teach O.

Questions for O

We've been asking O lots of questions lately, and she loves answering us. This is one of her favorite new activities. I started asking her "What is on the outside of trees?" after she started talking about bark all of the time. She knew exactly what I was talking about and said, "bahk." I told my dad about it, and he implied that she didn't know what she was saying and that she would say "bahk" to any question that we asked her. Of course, I had to prove him wrong, so I asked her, "What do we see in the sky at night?" She said, "moon," the 1st time I ever asked her! I was shocked. We were walking in the woods with Melanie, Marg, and my dad, and they didn't hear her the 1st time, but she's kept on answering the questions correctly. Since then I've added a few more questions. "What do we read? book," "What do we throw? ball," "What do we smell with? nose," and "What animal says meow? cat." She answered book and ball correctly the 2nd time I asked. When I ask the smell question she sniffes, but she won't say nose. She's answered the meow question once, but usually she just meows back at us. This is a fun activity, and I am going to continue adding more questions because O loves this so much.

Library Finds

These are O's library books for this week.
This is O's activity kit for the week. We are going to learn all about shapes and colors.