Random Homeschool Bits

Wow, how has it been a month since I have blogged?  Oh wait, that's right...I have been babysitting, and homeschooling, and decluttering, and then there was swim lessons and life in general.  There simply isn't enough hours in the day to always write about what we did.  
The numbers above are my take on Rainbow Writing.  O is practicing her handwriting and working on learning site words, and this is yet another way of practicing.  We have also used pattern pieces to practice reading.  After O wrote with several colors of crayons I pulled out the glue and she traced the numbers with glue, and then sprinkled colored rice from our sensory box on top of the letters.   

A math game we have played at least a dozen times in the last week is pictured above.

It is like shut the box, without the box.  

We write out numbers 1-12 for each person playing.

Roll two dice and then the person rolling gets to decide if she wants to use each number individually or add the numbers together (Ex I rolled a 5 and a 1.  I can either cross off 5 and 1 or I can add them together and cross off 6).  The goal is to mark off all the numbers before your opponent.  Easy Peasy.  Teaching addition and strategy.  That number 12 is always difficult.  Sometimes we cheat, and cross it off without rolling 2 6s :)  

We also have been playing with Duplos with the kiddos I have been babysitting.  Last week all four kids worked together to build a tall wall using just about every Duplo we own.  It was so fun watching them all work together and encourage each other to keep building higher.  All the kiddos worked together for a good 10-15 minutes before the 1 year old lost interest.  Then the older girls worked together.  They were probably 3/4 of the way finished when the 1 year old wandered back over and knocked over the wall.  O was devastated.  Without saying a word, she got up and walked to her room and cried.  She said "I know he is just a baby and doesn't understand, but I want the kids to leave now"  Yeah, I felt bad for her.  I helped her rebuild the wall and this time we pushed it up against a wall to make sure it stayed up this time. 

After we rebuilt it we measured how tall and wide it was and tried to estimate how many blocks we used.

And in other homeschool news, I purchased my first curriculum.  I am super excited for it to arrive.  It is for Math.  With all the kiddos at our house so often, I have run out of time to make my own material.  Although I love creating my own curriculum I think this will be a nice change to our homeschool routine.  I went with Right Start Math Level B.  It is based on the Montessori approach that I have been using, so I think we will be able to transition to it easily (I hope!).