Dog Unit

Kanani wanted to learn about dogs this week.  She is so much like me, her love for animals only grows more each day.  We went around the house looking for all the dogs we could find, we soon realized we had a lot more than we imagined.  

Placed a couple of things that deal with dogs in a bucket for her.  When she woke up she went straight to the bucket and got excited.  She quickly knew that we were dedicating the week to dogs just like she wanted.  

WASH & CLEAN

We had done this water and clean sensory play in our horse unit and it was a big hit.  She requested that this be one of the things she gets to do in this unit.  I'm so happy she has enjoyed this. 

WORD PUZZLES

I always like finding things for her to do that involves the family.  She really loves placing these puzzles correctly, and it helps with her learning to read.

FEED & WATER

One of Kanani's responsibilites is to make sure that Zeus is always feed and has plenty of water.  Most of the time she does it on her own and proceeds to give him a treat right after she is done.  Like how Zeus waits patiently watching for Kanani to finish.

BOOKS

We all love books and especially the ones that come with a toy or stuffed animal with it.  

PLAY-DOH

I set a tray of play-doh and some cookie cutters and utensils.  We used the left over play-doh we had saved from our Earth Unit.  I love how much she concentrates when she gets involved in a project.  She was very happy with her finished work.  

PLAY-DOH AND SPELLING

Since we already had the play-doh out we decided to practice our spelling.  She was so happy to find out that she could also spell GOD by switching two letters.  Couldn't wait to tell daddy about it once he got home. 

BLOCK PUZZLES

I bought this block puzzle from Avon when Kanani was younger.  Even though it's made for babies she still enjoys playing with it.

PUZZLE

I also bought this puzzle from Avon, it actually comes with 3 other animal puzzles and in a mesh bag.  These are actually Puzzle Tiles to be used in the bath tub.  

KINETIC SAND

A very dear friend of mine whom I consider family got me this Kinetic Sand kit for my birthday.  Even though it's made for younger kids I enjoy playing with it just as much.  I definitely enjoy it more with my kids.  

This was Dartanian's first time touching Kinetic Sand, he didn't know what to make it of it at first.  

BOOK GAMES

I always enjoy being able to incorporate games with books.  Makes learning so much fun.  

TRACE AND LACE 

Now that Kanani is older he has enjoyed the lace and trace by Melissa and Doug more.  She used to play with it but would get frustrated when she couldn't get it right.  It's a great hand eye coordination game.

BABY-SITTING

It so happens that this is the week we were in charge of baby-sitting three loving babies.  The kids really enjoyed helping me care for them, especially Dartanian.  He loved petting them and getting puppy kisses.

Our name

K has been working on learning her last name, she already knows her first and middle name.  Poor thing has a very long name.  I believe in her and know she will learn it in no time.  

SPELLING

Divided our last name and she actually was able to spell the first half of her last name with no help.  She then matched the letters on the paper I made her, almost like a puzzle.  

BANANAGRAMS

We love using our Bananagrams tiles, they are so useful.  Use them to spell all sorts of words.  

LITTLE HELPER

Our little helper wanted to clean the chalk board after we were done with the day's lesson.  

Horse Unit

This week Kanani has asked to learn about Horses.  To be honest I actually thought we were done with the unit lessons for the summer, but she asked so of course I was more than happy to continue with our lesson plans.  She's even picked the topics she wants for the rest of the month.  As long as she has the desire to learn I am more than willing to help keep alive any way possible.  

Here is our HORSE UNIT of the week.

Love the bond these two have, just looking at this picture you can see and feel the love.

COWGIRL KANANI AND COWBOY DARTANIAN

Kanani used to say that she wanted to be a Cowgirl when she grows up, now she wants to be a veterinarian.  

OBSERVATION

Love how whenever he gets something new to look at he will observe from inch to inch.

PLAY TIME

At times they play nice together.

IDENTIFICATION

Taped several different cards to a horse so when Kanani woke up she could learn the horse parts.

She was very excited when she saw the horse waiting for her on the table.  We quickly dove right in identifying the different parts.  Once we identified each part I took the cards off then read them to her and she would place them where she believe they went, got to say she did outstanding.  She got 14 out of 16 right.

  

PUZZLE BLOCKS

We always enjoy our Melissa & Doug block puzzles.  I scrambled the blocks then had her arrange them correctly.  She did it faster than I thought.  

POOL NOODLE HORSE

I saw online a picture of a pool noodle horse and figured to give it a try since I had an extra pool noodle.  Got to say it came out pretty good for something I made at the last minute.  

SERIOUS COWGIRL

She has enjoyed her pool noodle horse, hasn't stopped thanking me for making it for her.  Tried to get her to smile but she said she couldn't because she was chasing some bad guys.

SPELLING

I spelled out the word H-O-R-S-E on the dry erase board and then scrambled our Leap Frog magnetic letters.  Once I scrambled the letters I went ahead and took the spelling down and had her place it in correct order.  She got it the first try and then took the letters I took of the board and placed them under the ones she spelled out.  Little man couldn't help himself, something about the Leap Frog letters he loves.  He kept placing in the container to hear the sound of each letter.

WASH & CLEAN HORSE STATION

I placed a wash and clean water station on the floor while little man took his nap.  Kanani was so excited to quickly begin.  She first dipped the horses in a bowl of soapy water and then used a sponge to clean the horse.  Afterwards she used a toothbrush to get in the hard to reach areas, and then sprayed them with water to get most of the soap off before placing it into the bowl of water.  Last step she dried them off with the towel I provided for her.

SIZING HORSES

We went around her room and grabbed all the horses we could find, as you can tell Kanani loves horses.  I asked to please line them up from either smallest to biggest or biggest to smallest.  

DRAWING

Last thing we did for Horse week was follow instructions on how to draw a horse.  I love her version of a horse, it's so cute.  She also used some stencils we had of horses.  This has been a very fun and informative week learning all about horses.  

Level 5

Congratulations to our Princess for completing Level 5 on ABC Mouse.  

I like how she is still excited to work on her school work like she was when she first started.  

Starting young

UKanani has always enjoyed helping me out in any way possible.  She's always telling me "I want to help".   She has such a helpful spirit about her,  God has truly blessed me with her, she is such an awesome help.  No matter what I need she is always willing to lend a hand.  

SWEEPING

MOPPING

Even little man likes to mop 

CAR WASH

Anything dealing with water is always fun.  Don't need much convincing her when it comes to washing the car just because she knows she will get soaked.  

I love finding ways to get her involved in things around the house.  We believe in giving her responsibilities around the house and not paying her for it.   In other words not paying her to do chorus.  We believe that everyone should do their part in the house.   Kanani gets an allowance but for other things: for example doing things without being told, good grades, and good behavior.  She gets a monthly amount of $20 and it gets divided into 3 tins.  First tin: Tithes (10% of her allowance $2), Second tin: Savings ($10),  and Third tin: Spending ($8).  

We first started when she turned 4 but realized that she wasn't quite ready to grasp the concept of it, so we decided to wait another year.  Now that she is 5 she understands more and gets very excited each time she gets her allowance and any extra money.  She quickly divides the money into each tin.  She's learned to save her money when she sees something she wants to buy.  It has also helped stop her for always asking if she could have something whenever we go out.  She now knows that if she really wants it mami or daddy aren't going to buy it for it she has to save her money for it.  

Field Day

Today was Field Day at our Homeschool Co-op.  Got to say our leaders did an amazing job in organizing everything and making sure everything ran smoothly.  It was so much fun being able to enjoy everything with my princess and her friends.

Our group of beautiful girls.  On the back of the card was the order of events in which we were to go too.

BEAN BAG TOSS

Our first station was the bean bag toss.  Each one had to throw 3 bean bags to different steps of the ladder.  From the bottom up numbers 100-500.  These girls have great throwing arms.

RELAY RACE

This station was a lot of fun with different types of obstacles for the girls to do.  First they had to hula hoop 5 times, then bounce a basketball to the bat, once at the bat they had to place their head on it and run around in circle 5 times.  After which they had to try to run to where their were some crackers.  They had to chew some crackers and try to whistle.  Finally they had to run back with a beach ball and hand it to the next person to go.  

TUG OF WAR

Here is your basic tug of war game which had these girls full of giggles.  

3-LEGGED RACE

The girls had to work together during this station of 3-legged race, it was so cute to watch them work as a team.

POTATO SACK RACE

They had such a blast with the potato sack race, of course by the time we got to this station they were already a bit worn out.  The girls only went once.

EGG-ON-A-SPOON RACE

First the girls had to walk back and forth with an egg on a spoon, then they tossed an egg to a teammate trying not to break it.

WATER RELAY

This one helped the girls cool off a little bit, having fun with water.  They had to run to a bucket with a cup that had holes on the bottom and dump the water out.  First they had to run to the bucket then they had to hop on one foot. They had such a blast.

BEACH BALL GOLF

Each child had to stand by a cone and then they had to toss a rubber ball to each other.  Once they got to the end the final person had to run to the front of the line and do this all over again.  

AWARDS/RIBBON

Each child had received a ribbon of participant.  Loved how they made this event based on fun instead of a competition.  

H.E.A.R.T. OF RAEFORD GROUP

Some of our great group of kids in our co-op.

LITTLE MAN

He loved touching the tree and looking at the details on it.

SO SERIOUS

He has such a serious look on his face.