Oo is for Owl and Ocean

I am trying to get back to it.  Here is what we did for the letter Oo!

Box #1: some Oo is for Ocean lapbook pages from Homeschool Share along with some pages from the Oo section of Letter of the Week from Confessions of a Homeschooler.

Box #2: Beginning sounds bingo!  I have three versions of this game that all work a little differently and it really helps Logan to see all the different words so that he pronounces and spells them with the right letters.  In young kids you often see Rr sounds turn to Ww sounds and sometimes Ffs or Tts are left out entirely… this way, he gets gentle, fun reinforcement for his letter sounds without really having to be corrected.  I have found it a wonderful tool!

Box #3 was patterning beads.

Box #4 handwriting practice on some dollar store writing strips.

Box #5 we added his lapbook things to his letter notebook… which is getting REALLY full!

Box #6 were 1 - 10 number, word, and picture card puzzle.  He still needs help with the word, but I can reinforce the beginning sounds at the same time.

Box #7 I added a sand garden and some shells.  He played with it for about an hour after he was done with school.

Box #9 was an owl pattern block picture I printed on cardstock.  He just LOVES these!  They are like puzzles to him and he has fun every time he works with them.    Idea from here.

Box #10 was the book Hello Ocean.  We read that and then he asked to go back and play with the sand garden again. 

Super Treats for our Superbowl

For this Superbowl it is not who is playing but what special treats are we making. All beef hotdogs from George's Meat Market in Nicollet.....freash ground flour....... Mini Pretzel Dogs!

Pretzel Dogsmakes 16 pretzel dogs (made from cutting hot dogs in half)recipe adapted from Alton BrownPrint this Recipe!1 ½ cups warm water (between 110 and 115 degrees F)1 tablespoon granulated sugar2 ¼ teaspoons (1 package) active dry yeast22 ounces all-purpose flour (about 4 1/2 cups)2 teaspoons salt2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooledabout 14 cups of water1 cup baking soda1 large egg, beaten, with a splash of watersalt and pepper for toppingIn the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine warm water and sugar. Sprinkle the yeast on top of the water and set aside for 5 minutes. The mixture will begin to foam and froth. If it doesn’t, throw the mixture away and start again with new yeast.Once the yeast and water is frothy, add the flour, salt, and melted butter. Using the dough hook, mix on low speed until well combined. Increase the speed to medium and knead the dough until it is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, creating a ball of dough around the dough hook. Beat on medium speed for approximately 4 minutes.Remove the dough from the bowl. The dough will be soft, pliable, and just a bit sticky. That’s perfect. Scrape any residue out of the bowl and coat the bowl with a bit of vegetable oil. Place the dough back in the bowl, sprinkle with flour, cover with plastic wrap, and store in a warm place to rise. Allow dough to rise, until doubled in size, about 1 hour.Place baking racks in the center and upper third of the oven. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, and lightly brush the paper with oil. It’s important to brush the parchment paper or the pretzels will stick!Combine water and baking soda in a large pan (8 quart is fine) saucepan and bring to a boil.While the water comes to a boil, turn the dough out onto a clean, slightly oiled work surface. Divide dough into 8 or 16 pieces, depending on how large you’d like your pretzel dogs. 8 pieces of dough for whole hot dogs. 16

The Team

The boyz had a great showing on Saturday at our home tourney! Tanner had 2 pins and won the 3rd by a tech. Dalton got his "50th " career win and was listed on the Guillotine as a career milestone for a freshman. He was all excited until he saw the wrestler above him was a senior who has 200 wins. Tabor was a trooper and came home to work the score clock for the tourney.

7 lies about homeschoolers - debunked!

More Pic's

Finals week can you tell the boyz are stressed out?

More time on the Mat

This week we hosted a tri and the boyz did well on the wrestling mat! Trying to save on Tanner's knee until sections he will be taking some time off from competition. Best decision made but Tanner does NOT agree. Oh well.........Dalton still healthy and on a tear! 21-4 for the season and took home the championship medal this past Saturday in St. Croix. This is the last week of the quarter so the boyz are loaded with homework and studies for finals. 1/21 and 1/28 we host a 6 team tourney in Nicollet that will keep us pretty busy. Papa Cargil sent Tabor on a trip to Lake City to do some CAD work for the mill there. He really enjoys the hands on drafting and its fun to see your children so passionate about something.

Ll is for Lego and Mm is for Monsters

I haven’t been taking pictures of our preschool curriculum through the holidays.  Things just got overwhelming and keeping up with the pictures was just more than I could do for a while.  We have been plugging along through the alphabet and we are now happily on Ll and Mm just in time for Logan’s Monster 5th birthday party! 

There are SO many resources for curriculum that has to do with Legos and Monsters for the letters Ll and Mm that I couldn’t help but post for your enjoyment, even if I didn’t take pictures of our lego and monster adventures for this week. 

Ll is for Lego resources:

Lego Lapbook from Walking by the Way

A great lego counting idea from Pinterest

This great starting early addition and subtraction worksheet from The Kent Chronicles (If your child isn’t there yet, you could possibly make your own using lego blocks and a scanner.)

Here is an awesome set of Lego Bingo cards from BigDandMe.

Lego.com has a new set of instructions for a cool project that they post each month! 

Mm is for Monsters resources:

Blow paint monster idea from Pinterest.

We used a ton of the pages from this free Monster unit study pack at Oopsy Daisy.

Here are some instructions on how to make your own monster toy from Fiskar Crafts.

How to make a Monster Bean Bag Toss from Lil Luna.

Wonderful ideas from Primary Graffiti for having the kids make their own monster and working with descriptive words.

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Enjoy!