Organizing BFIAR. Activities.

Well, I have decided to put off doing BFIAR with Anthony for another couple of weeks (we'll be doing some Kumon books in the meantime). I have the majority of the books, but I'm going to be gathering some materials for his little activities to go with each story. I'm still going to keep it simple, but I need to keep him engaged. Here is what I am planning to go with the stories. Most of these are taken from the suggestions in the book.

Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?

• Bear dress-up paper doll.
• Cloth swatches to play with (different colors and textures)
• Potato stamps (different shapes)

Yellow Ball

• Paint a reproduction of a picture from book
• Make a collage of all the things found at a beach
• Play with a ball
• Animal classification
  

My Blue Boat

• Color matching
• Animal classification
  
• Make a boat

The Little Rabbit

• Animal classification
• Color matching (match crayons to colors in book)
• Visit a pet store to look at rabbits (we have one down the street)

Ask Mr. Bear

• Animal classification
• Lapbook

Blueberries for Sal

• Animal classification
• Blueberry picking (if available)
• Blueberry alphabet matching cards (from Homeschool Share)

Goodnight Moon

• Animal classification
• Read "Hey Diddle Diddle"
• Make "Hey Diddle Diddle" mini book (Homeschool Share)
• Goodnight cards activity(Homeschool Share)

The Big Green Pocketbook

• Animal classification
• Green pocketbook pocket (Homeschool Share)
• Lapbook
• Felt green pocketbook

The Runaway Bunny

• Animal classification
• Coloring page from HarperCollins
• Memory game using picture cards (self made)

The ABC Bunny

• Animal classification
• Alphabet flashcards
• ABC Bunny activity card (Homeschool Share)

If Jesus Came to my House

• Shadow show

Caps for Sale

• Animal classification
• Hat story kit (from library)
• Monkey art (draw tree, child puts fingerprints on tree, draw tails, arms & legs on fingerprints to make a monkey)

The Carrot Seed

• Plant bean seeds
• Sorting and matching different seeds
• Measure different vegetables
  

The Snowy Day

• Colored tissue paper art
• Make paper snowflakes
• Snowy Day activity card (Homeschool Share)

The Quiet Way Home

• Listening game
• Make list of quiet sounds

Play With Me

• Animal classification
• Nature walk
• Animal guessing game (Homeschool Share)

Prayer for a Child

• Sort and string buttons
• Make homemade prayer book
• Make a shoe box altar

I am an Artist

• Animal classification
• Nature walk

Angus Lost

• Animal classification
• Sorting legs game (Homeschool Share)
• Pretend cave

Katy No-Pocket

• Animal classification
• Memory game
• Make an apron
• Animal homes matching game (Homeschool Share)
• What's in the pocket sorting game (Homeschool Share)

We're Going on a Bear Hunt

• Animal classification
• Story cards (Homeschool Share)
• Hide a bear game

The Red Carpet

• Object recognition in book
• Follow the red carpet (using a red streamer)

Corduroy

• Animal classification
• Button sorting
• Make a piggy bank

Jenny's Surprise Summer

• Animal classification
• Cat matching game (Homeschool Share)

On top of the above activities, I'll also be doing some activities that take no preparation or planning...such as pointing out the shapes in a book or "can you find" searches using the pictures in the book. If I find something fun to do along the way, I'll just add it to the week.

I'll be organizing each week by using Anthony's bin. I plan on having all craft supplies ready and put in Ziplock bags along with the book. This way, all I have to do is open his bin and take out the bag.

Weekly Menu.

Following is the lunch, snack, and dinner menu for the week. I have been using Menus 4 Moms for almost a year and it is a really helpful resource. I usually try to map out our lunch and snack menu for the week as well. My kids are like clockwork. They will be ready for a snack at 10ish, lunch at noon, and a snack again at 3 or so.

It's so much easier to have a menu and make it a no-brainer. I usually keep the menu on my fridge or in our household notebook.

Monday
Morning Snack: pretzels and cheese
Lunch: mac n cheese, fruit
Afternoon Snack: yogurt and crackers
Dinner: roast pork tenderloin, peas, potatoes, applesauce

Tuesday
Morning Snack: popcorn, fruit snack
Lunch: turkey sandwiches, fruit
Afternoon Snack: carrots, celery with peanut butter
Dinner: tacos, black beans, Mexican rice

Wednesday
Morning Snack: bagel with cream cheese
Lunch: quesadillas, leftover rice, fruit
Afternoon Snack: apples, mini muffins
Dinner: grilled BBQ chicken, corn on cob, cornbread casserole

Thursday
Morning Snack: hard boiled egg, toast sticks
Lunch: noodles, fruit, celery
Afternoon Snack: fruit kebabs, crackers
Dinner: pork lo mein, salad

Friday
Morning Snack: Ritz crackers, lunch meat, cheese
Lunch: grilled cheese sandwich, fruit
Afternoon Snack: dry cereal, yogurt
Dinner: leftovers, salad, smoothies

Back from IHM!

I just got back from IHM Catholic Conference yesterday evening. I had such a wonderful time! It was great to drive up with friends and get the opportunity to chat about homeschooling and life. The conference itself was very good and the speakers were great! My only complaint? No strollers in the talks...that makes it difficult when you have a sleeping infant whom you don't want to wake up by picking him up.

The vendors were wonderful as well. I truly appreciated that I didn't have to worry about the materials I was looking at because I knew that they were all Catholic (or Catholic-friendly!). Luckily, I had already purchased most of my materials for our school year. That left me with plenty of time to browse all the fun stuff. I did miss that "looking for a good curriculum" feeling. But in the end, I am fully excited about Angelicum Academy and all the great books that I'll be using with them!

I am definitely coming back next year...if possible, without any children. Christian did so well while with me. However, it's nice not to have to worry about toting a baby along. For the time being, I'm getting ready to start the new year and I'll be spending the rest of the day looking through all the neat books I purchased at IHM.

Preschool Decision. BFIAR.

I finally decided on my preschool curriculum for Anthony! I'll be using Before Five in a Row. Why? Well, the fact that I've used it with Marco (successfully) is the main reason. The second reason is that it is an extremely gentle program that even a 2 year old can do. Thirdly, there is little or no prep time in what you are doing, so this make a great fit into my schedule. Lastly, the books they use are wonderful and we own most of them already.

I'll also be adding some Kumon books now and then for him to do, as well as using the Leap Frog videos. Overall, I think this combination will be perfect for him. There is still so much time before he gets to kindergarten age (2 years!), so I'm not worried about doing anything that's above being read to and getting into a structured day.

Here are a couple of websites with BFIAR stuff. Check them out!

Homeschool Share BFIAR: This is the best site with resources including lapbooks, field trip ideas, animal classification cards, and so much more!

FIAR Forums: This website is a forum with posts on what everyone else is doing with FIAR. Lots of ideas on implementing and planning.

Getting Ready for Conference.

Only 3 more days until I head out to IHM Catholic Conference in Washington, D.C.!! I'll be leaving Thursday afternoon with a couple of other friends and the conference starts on Friday morning. It will be a good weekend to reflect and get ready for our new school year. I'm excited about being able to spend some time looking over what we have without all 4 kids running around me!

We are done with choosing curriculum, although there are still some reading books I have left to buy. I'm just really excited about the sessions they have. They all sound really wonderful and I'm sure I'm going to come home inspired and recharged! I'm counting down!!

Scheduling a Perfect Day.

I have finally completed our new schedule for the new school year!! I has been about a month in the making and now I can finally say that it is done! It took a while since I had to look at all the subjects we were doing and how often. Now that I'll have more than one child doing school work, I see the challenge before me.

Let me add that my schedule is for a perfect day. I know enough to say that days can get out of control and the unexpected always seems to happen. I'm giving myself enough flexibility in that our Fridays are really open (we'll only be doing math and phonics on those days) and Saturdays are open as well. With all that said, I present you with my daily schedule. Yes...it is scary!

MasterSchedule2008-2009 - Upload a Document to Scribd

But the schedule still looks scary!

Choosing Curriculum for a 3 year old.

I know. A 3 year old should not have a curriculum. They are young, they need to explore, play, discover, etc. But after taking a good look at what our schedule is going to look like this new school year, there is no way that Anthony is going to have free play time ALL DAY LONG. He needs a little more structure to his day and I feel like I need to start introducing him to the alphabet, math, and reading. Sitting in on our read alouds will also not be sufficient anymore, especially since we'll be moving on to more difficult and mature material.

The programs I'm considering are BFIAR (Before Five in a Row), Little Hands to Heaven, Little Saints, CHC Preschool, and Letter of the Week. I'm really not sure at this point, but I'm looking for something that is more literature based with some crafty components. I also can't dedicate all day to it, but rather an hour or so a few times a week. I think that would be more than enough for a gentle introduction to "school."

Considering I own BFIAR and CHC Preschool, I will be considering those first. I'm planning on sitting down tonight and looking them over again. BFIAR worked with Marco when he was little, so I might consider that again. CHC was not a good fit for us back then, but it might work now. I'm hoping that there will be a preview of Little Saints at the IHM Catholic Conference next week, since the program looks really attractive as well.

In all, I would like to *ideally* make a decision as soon as possible. Since we'll be starting on our new schedule next week (hopefully), I want to have something ready for Anthony to do so he can feel like he gets special time with me too. He also needs a little more order and discipline to his life. He functions so much better when we have our routine and schedule in place.

Any suggestions out there are welcome!!