Balloon Surprise Gift

Our niece turned 8 a few weeks ago, and I wanted to make something special and exciting for her.  It's harder and harder to think of handmade gifts for as she gets older, so when I saw this balloon surprise idea on Pinterest I was very excited!



To make this gift, you need balloons, a small gift (money or coupons for activities), and confetti.




The girls LOVED participating in making this special gift for their cousin!  E(2) and I worked on it while O(5) was at school one morning.

First, E(2) pushed confetti into the balloon using a funnel and a pen.  She was SO proud!



We put a dollar or a coupon for an activity into each balloon with the confetti.  After E put the confetti and money (or coupon) in the balloon, I blew up the balloon and tied it.



O(5) and I finished putting the surprise gift balloons together after she got home from school.  She also loved making the balloons.  We forgot to bring the confetti with us (we were at the girls' grandparents house), so we put sprinkles in each balloon along with money or a coupon for an activity.

O rolled each dollar before sliding it into the balloon.



She had fun pouring in LOTS of sprinkles into each balloon!



Here is our finished gift...a bag full of balloons!



The birthday girl and her cousins had SO much fun popping the balloons to find the surprises inside!


This gift was a huge hit, and I'm looking forward to making a slightly modified version for my girls' birthdays this summer!!!

Monet Inspired Art Project

My mom, E(2), and I joined O(5) and her friends at her school last week to complete a Monet inspired art project.  The idea for the project came from this book.

On the night before the project, my mom and I spent about an hour tearing strips of blue, green, and purple tissure paper to represent the water in the project.  We also tore green and pink tissue paper into circles to use for lily pads and flowers. 



When we got to the school, we put out a piece of blue construction paper at each child's place along with a bunch of strips of tisue paper and several circles of tissue paper.  They had cups of glue and q-tips for spreading the glue.  The q-tips didn't work that well, so we switched to paintbrushes.





The children glued down the strips to represent water and then glued the lily pads and flowers on top of the water.  This was a simple and fun project. 

Here's is E(2)'s masterpiece.






E(2) REALLY enjoyed this project, and she worked on her art longer than most of the Montessori students. She said that the bigger lily pads were the mamas and the smaller ones were the babies. That night at supper, when I asked her what her "treasure" of the day was, she said "making lily pads." When I asked which artist we studied, she quickly said "Monet!"

Here is O(5)'s masterpiece.   O also loved this activity...I think it's one of the most successful art projects we've done at O's school this year!



We have really enjoyed studying famous artists with O and her friends at school, and we are looking forward to continuing these projects with the Montessori children next school year!


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The "School" Plan for E(2)

I realized as I was writing the post about O(5)'s first grade curriculum that I should also share my plan for E(2).  Then after getting countless emails and a few comments asking about it, I realized I should write it sooner rather than later!  So, here is the plan for E(2)...


I will have several Montessori shelves set up for E...practical life, sensorial, math, reading, etc.  The girls will have some shelves with shared items (science, art, music), and some shelves that are just for one or the other (although I'm sure they'll go back and forth with them).  I'll give E lessons on any new "work" and she will be able to choose the work that interest her.  I plan to put out lots of work involving animals since she really loves animals.  (I'm hoping that she'll work independently while O and I do her math and reading lessons.  If not, she can join us and we'll make it work.)


E will participate in the art lessons and projects and the composers study.  She has REALLY enjoyed studying the various artist each month so far, and I think she has enjoyed it as much (or more) than O!  I am anticipating that she will LOVE the composer study and will probably dance her way through the study.  (she instantly becomes "Clara" from The Nutcracker anytime she hears classical music).


E will participate in all of the Spanish lessons and Sign Language lessons.  She LOVES Little Pim, and she loves learning sign language.  She stands in front of our ASL ABC poster and tries to make the hand signs for the various letters. 


I'm sure that E will also want to join in when we are reading the books that go along with O's Ancient History and American History curriculum.  She enjoys listening to chapter books and asks tons of questions as I read (which is sometimes frustrating for O).   I'm sure she will also participate in our science experiments and nature study.  I'll adapt the materials for her and give her a nature notebook and crayons so that she can do her own work while O is working. 


E has been receiving ABC Fun Packs this year (a subscription that I put together as part of her 2nd bday gift), and next year she will receive a weekly or bi-weekly book and activity in the "mail."  I'll use the books and activities from BFIAR, Peak with Books, and FIAR Volume 2.


I'll use Montessori at Home by John Bowman as a guide for activities for E, and I'll also look back to Chasing Cheerios 2009 for activities (unfortunately a lot of the pics are missing from that year, but maybe I'll get them restored this summer...). 


E will spend the vast majority of her time listening to books read aloud, playing outside and digging in the dirt, and playing pretend with whatever she chooses  (boxes, straws, dress-up clothes, play food, blocks, etc. ).   Although there are so many tempting printables out in blogland, I am going to try to avoid worksheet type activities for E as much as possible.

1st Grade Homeschooling Curriculum...Tentative

I have had such fun researching curriculum and planning for O(5)'s first grade homeschooled year.  She will graduate from her Montessori Preschool in May  in 2 weeks (I just realized that it IS May....I keep thinking it's February...you'd think I was the one with the brain tumor!), and I'd like to start our first grade year in June.  She is VERY excited, but probably not as excited as I am!  


I've been writing out the lists of our curriculum subjects and materials on my private blog just to help me organize my thoughts, but I thought it might be beneficial to some of you if I shared it here, too.  After I typed it out, I realized that it looks rather daunting.  I don't plan to "school" O all day.  In fact, one of the reasons I want to homeschool her is to provide her with the freedom to play and explore and spend as much time as possible outside rather than inside a school room doing "work" (even fun work). 


We are going to have (hopefully) a school room that is separate from our house (located in our detached garage).  I'm hoping to set up the room similarly to a Montessori school room...I want to have a shelf for each subject and have the materials neatly displayed on the shelves.  I don't like the cluttered walls and rooms that I typically see in public and private typical (not Montessori) schools, so I am going to try to avoid that as much as possible.


During the summer, I plan to spend the first 4 to 5 hours of the day outside playing and exploring, and then we'll have our "school" time during the afternoon (when it will be too hot to be outside anyway).  I am anticipating spending 2 to 3 hours in our school room each day, but we will spend less time during the summer and more time in the fall and winter.  When we have nice weather, I plan to have "school" outside on our deck, on the boat, in the woods, etc. 


So, here it is...it's probably too much, but it's a start and we can add/delete programs and subjects as we go in order to make our school the perfect fit for our 1st grader.


Art Appreciation- twice weekly

Meet the Masters (via Homeschool Buyer's Co-op)
Usborne Art Treasury
World's Greatest Artist from Confessions of a Homeschooler


Music Appreciation- twice weekly

World's Famous Composers (Confessions of a Homeschooler)
Classical kids Cds
Maestro Classics
Orchestra book


World History- twice weekly

History Odyssey (Ancients) includes SOTW


Science- twice weekly

Science Odyssey (Life)
Science work from Montessori Print Shop
Magic School Bus Young Scientist Monthly subscription (via Homeschool Buyer's Co-op)


Spanish- daily

Elementary Spanish on United Streaming (links via Satori Smiles)
Spanish books from Reading A to Z
Spanish games (Zingo, bingo, beanbags, etc)
Spanish books
Spanish flashcards
Hooked on Spanish
Little Pim dvds
Boca Beth dvd, cd, and puppets

American History- weekly

American Girl books (1 AG per 4 to 6 weeks)
AG lapbooks via homeschoolshare
history books relative to AG girls timeline
Beautiful feet books guide



US Geography- weekly

maybe Holling C Holling books
maybe incorporate map work into AG studies


Math- daily

Singapore Math 1A (she'll fly through this and then we'll decide whether or not to continue with Singapore or not)
Rightstart Math Level B
Montessori Math materials
Miquon Math books and cuisenaire rods
Life of Fred- Apples

ELA - daily

Leveled readers via Reading A to Z               
First Language Lessons
Writing with Ease
Literature selections via Ambleside Online
Poetry journal
Nonfiction story journal
Fiction story journal
Letter writing
read aloud
listen to audio book selections via tales 2 go app for Ipad
Five in a Row Volume 2 (occasionally)


Nature Studies- twice weekly

Little House on the Prairie Nature study guide
Burgess Bird Book (links via Satori Smiles)



Sign Language- twice weekly

Signing Time dvds
ASL ABC poster
ASL books, flashcards, games


Handwriting- daily

Cursive book via Queen Homeschool
printables via handwriting worksheet maker



World Geography- twice weekly

country studies via cultural exchange
map work with large felt map
globe work with talking globe and google earth
maybe include Expedition Earth from Confessions of a HOmeschooler


Thanks to everyone who has offered advice and suggestions!!!  Also, I'll add that O(5) had LOTS of input into this curriculum.  Her interests and personal goals were the starting point in the choosing of each book/program.

Rainbow Water Xylophone

E(2) and I had a great time making a rainbow water xylophone last weekend!  (since we hadn't done this activity in more than a year, I decided it was time...we repeat a lot of our activities around here...if it's fun, repeat!)


First, E poured water into 7 glass baby bottles (leftover from my breastmilk storage days).


She added food coloring to each bottle of water.


Then she made music!  She quickly handed the mallet to me and said "Play the music, mama, so I can dance!"




Here's a quick video of E having fun with her rainbow water xylophone!


She discovered that she can make music on the porch railing, too!


We decided to leave the rainbow water xylophone on our outdoor table as a fun centerpiece, and they girls have had fun playing with it every day at mealtimes!

Excavating Toys from Ice

Excavating toys from ice is one of our favorite Spring/Summer activities, and we do it often!


To prepare this activity, I filled a plastic container with small toys, marbles, and gems and then filled it with water.  I put the container in the freezer and forgot about it for at least a month (that always happens!).


 I finally remembered the container was there (when I was searching the freezer for something to cook), so I dumped the ice block on a pan and gave it to the girls along with salt, water droppers, a hammer, spoons, dull children's knives, and a cup of water.



We all worked together to get the toys out of the ice, and it was tons of fun...as usual!

Painting Like Monet

We studied Monet (briefly) during the month of March. We read a library book about Monet's life. Then we took O(5)'s art set and easel out to our boat and set up a floating art studio just like Monet! O was very excited and she LOVED working on her painting "just like Monet."
(The boat was actually beached and not floating which is why she is not wearing her life jacket) E(2) painted, too, and she said that she was "painting like Degas!" O painted the water and the reflection of the sunlight in the water. She used several different mediums (acrylic paint, watercolor pencils, pastels, etc.) and paintbrushes to complete her masterpiece. And here is E(2)'s masterpiece. We are making Monet inspired art at O(5)'s Montessori school this week, so I'll post about that project later this week. 

Rice Crispy Treats Fun!

Since Elliott and I were away for his brain surgery during the week before Easter, we didn't get to do many Easter activities with the girls.  Luckily, we were able to get home right in time for Easter (they told us this was unlikely, so we were very thankful that it happened), and we had some Easter fun with our loves.





After seeing the Rice Crispie's commercial where the mom makes egg shaped rice crispy treats with her kids, I thought we should try it.  It was a little harder to make the eggs than we thought, but the girls had a wonderful and messy time!





O(5) was proud of her rice crispy nest.



E(2) stuffed as many treats in her mouth as she could!  Making rice crispy treat sculptures may be a new tradition for us because this was just SO much fun, and the clean-up was relatively easy, too :)