awn has uploaded her invaluable Themes and Plans for March.  Her well thought out, chock full of great information post and our family calendar help me to plan out what we’ll be doing in March…physicals for all the boys, a weekend hike and campout with their Scout troop, tubing, a make-up day for last month’s non-event due to inclement weather, a visit to the Baltimore Museum of Art for their annual Homeschool Family Open House, our monthly homeschool co-op class on aviation and flight which will tie in with a fieldtrip to the National Air and Space Museum in Virginia and the boys flying with the Young Eagles Program.  The twins Calvert 7th grade arrived late last week and we’ll be starting that next week. We usually start in January but due to more sick days this past year than usual we’re a bit behind but that’s okay as we homeschool all year long.  *smile*  Anyway, it looks to be a busy month as usual!

~~~ . ~~~

Quinn has been playing with his educational toys a bit more lately.  He’s also been playing with his Little People themed sets, having his stuffed toys interact with the pirate ship, farm, etc. and playing with his car sets and he sits and “reads” his books at least once a day.   A definite progression from his past play of just a belt and a stuffed animal!

Also, Cade and Connor have been a lot of help to me with Quinn.  Every week Quinn’s speech therapist, Mrs. Christine, sends home a little activity or game to do with Quinn and each day the twins (especially Cade) works on that activity with him.

For March, we’ll be doing spring things…Rain and Rainbows and New Growth on the plants (Evan-Moor printables) and of course, some St. Patrick’s Day and Easter crafts.  For everyday skills we’ll be working on washing his hair and behind his ears…which he hates.  *smile*

Five Little Leprechauns

By Jean Warren

One day out walking,

I happened to see

Five little leprechauns

Coming toward me.

They ran to a house.

They ran through the door.

I managed to catch one.

Then there were four.

Four little leprechauns

Climbed up a tree.

I caught another.

Then there were three.

Three little leprechauns

Hid in a shoe.

I caught another

Then there were two.

Two little leprechauns

Started to run.

I caught another.

Then there was one.

One little leprechaun

Ran to his gold.

He grabbed some coins—

Then stepped out bold.

“Give back my friends,

And I’ll give you this gold.”

So I set them all free.

Now my story is told!

January’s goals for Quinn are learning about the animals of winter and to practice putting on his coat.  One of Quinn’s favorite books is The Snow Bear so I decided to create a few printables for it.  Google’s image search and Jan Brett’s wonderful website came in very handy for creating the huge red mittens (holding images of characters from the story, some snowflakes and a few winter words) and his little snow bear mask.  He had a great time growling and trying to scare his brothers with it, who good-naturedly screamed and ran away from him, much to his delight. *smile*

I printed the mittens out on sturdy red cardstock and the animal images I found using Google on white cardstock.  I punched holes at the tops of the mittens and added some red ribbon and tied them together.  To create the snow bear mask I just desaturated the beautiful little bear mask (which I really hated to do because it is so pretty, but polar bears are white!) and upped the contrast so the black lines really came out, cut out the eyes, added holes to each side and twine.

We glued each piece to the mittens as I read the story to him.  It was a simple lesson/craft but it was one that he really seemed to enjoy…and he’s a tough little guy to please.  *smile*

The party was a great success! Mrs. Dee and Mrs. Christina planned a lot of fun things for the kids to do and boy did we fill Mrs. Dee’s little church up with parents and kids. The food table was loaded with pizza, finger foods, cookies and drinks. I had a wonderful time talking with my friends, catching up on the latest news and chatting about families and holiday plans.

~~~ . ~~~

Pondered in My Heart has a beautiful posting…Special Blessings, Special Vocabulary.

The twins are busy working on their Christmas lapbooks. We’re doing it a bit differently this year, instead of using standard file folders, we’re using small scrapbooks (one red, one green) that I picked up from the dollar store last year. The small booklets from the unit study fit perfectly on the pages leaving plenty of room for copy and art work. To make it a bit more colorful I went through the PDF file and using Photoshop colored some of the graphics. We’re using HOAC’s Symbols of Christmas and since it’s not written from a Catholic perspective the boys are doing the extra research to make sure it’s consistent with our faith’s teachings. To help they are using the Catholic Educator’s Resource Center and the online Catholic Encyclopedia.

Bits and Pieces Advent Christmas Unit Study and Homeschooling for Free: Christmas/Advent Links have a lot of great links.

Free Christmas lapbooks/notebooks/unit studies…

Homeschool Helpers Free Christmas Symbols Lapbook

Advent Lapbook

Nativity Lapbook

Create a Christmas Notebook

A Blessed Christmas - A Unit Study Approach to Studying the Symbols of Christmas

Christmas Unit Study for ages 13 and up

~~~ . ~~~

Quinn and I watched a Christmas DVD yesterday.  For the month of December we’re working on “Christmas is the Baby Jesus’ Birthday” and germs/washing your hands to stay well.  He actually likes to wash his hands so this makes this one much easier than previously taught (and still being taught) life skills. 

One is For the Manger

One is for the manger
Where Baby Jesus lay.
Two is for Mary and Joseph
On that Christmas Day.
Three is for the wise men
Who brought three gifts of love.
Four is for the shepherds
And angel songs above.
Five is for the animals
Who stood guard in the shed
Over Baby Jesus
In His manger bed.

We spent a wonderful (but very hot and humid) weekend at Tuckahoe State Park with our boys and friends. Michael, Quinn and I stayed in one of the park’s little one room camper cabins (because we’re just too old and fat to rough it! *smile*) but the twins slept with their troop in tents…as did the rest of the parents, that is until Saturday night when a fantastic thunderstorm rolled through the area and sent most scurrying to the relative safety and dryness of their vehicles.

~~~ . ~~~

Trying to catch up on some blogs, I ran across this posting at Emma Sage’s…read it all.

I am not angry anymore, I am humbled.

At how God used my son, the least of these in the worlds eyes, to
teach me a most valuable lesson that all the beautiful, smart, rich,
degreed, important, initialed people in this world, could not ever
have taught me.

He taught me that all I have to do to define worth, is to look in the
special rear-view mirror of my car - and see what is worthy in God’s
eyes. To see what’s beautiful, rich, and intelligent in God’s eyes.
My son’s worth is that he is simply a child of God. Not enabled, not
disabled. Just a child. An individual. My worth is further defined
by knowing that in loving and respecting that individual that God
thought important enough to create, I am doing what is most important
in God’s eyes as well.

Caring for him.
~
And that is something I will never let society take away from me again.

Ever.
~
Yes my son, if caring for you is all I ever get to do, it is worth
it; and I’m honored to do it.

Please forgive me for the times I ever felt otherwise.

Written by Michelle M. Guppy
For all the Brandon’s of the world and those who care for them …….

Letter to Society - h/t Emma Sage

“Never Say Never,” a beautiful article.

h/t Emma Sage

Summertime here in the Herring household is mostly filled with days spent swimming, eating ice cream cones, syrup-y snowballs with marshmallow, and fishing…just enjoying living on the water. Since we spend so much time outside I’ve decided to focus on some Montessori concepts for Quinn this summer. Inspired by the Dear Ladies on the 4RealLearning Forums, I’m starting to put together a list of simple things we will cover this summer. I’m not ruling out creating a Summer Lapbook and probably will get one finished before the first tree starts to turn to autumn gold but I want to focus more on trying to expand Quinn’s fine motor skills, speech and learning in ways that will catch his interest.

At least we’re going to try to…Quinn may very well (and probably will) have different ideas. To help him develop the fine motor skills that he needs to put on his shoes and socks, I’ve been giving him my socks to put on. First off, he thinks it’s funny to wear Momma’s socks and second, he can actually pull them on, which he can’t do with his own socks. To further develop those finger and hand muscles, I also love the little lock box but am afraid it’s out of our price range so I did a quick search on Amazon and found a peek-a-zoo lock box and a Ravensburger lock and key puzzle that we can afford. The Farm Yard Hammering set is another item that I have on my wish list. Of course, Michael has questioned if we really want him to learn how to unlock and hammer things. *smile*

To work on his memory and cognitive skills I created a simple Summer Matching Cards created using the template (and some of the photos) from Montessori for Everyone. I saved the PDF document and then opened it up in Photoshop and customized it with half of our own summer photos. I’ve printed them (shown below) and all I need to do now is laminate and cut them out.

I also want to work on the Bug theme unit that I put together last year…the one that Quinn absolutely refused to even look at. *smile* Since we got the feeder crickets their own little house, Quinn really loves watching them so I’m hoping to be able to interest him with learning about insects, talk about their colors, body parts, and where they live. At Amazon I found an adorable little Klutz (Chicken Socks) book, “Tree House Bugs.” We have Usborne and DK books on insects and of course, a visit to our library will quickly add many more to our collection.

I’m going to hit the dollar stores and pick up items for the pool…plastic pouring utensils, brightly colored animals and sea creatures, small containers so he can sort his collections on the pool cap and a large container to store everything when it’s time to come out and dry off.

Catching lightning bugs, having ice cream runs (gathering the kids up at dusk and heading out to our favorite ice cream place), sleeping out in the tent in the yard, being in our local 4th of July parade, fireworks and cookouts…looks like it’s going to be a great summer. *smile*

Confessions of a Pioneer Woman has become another favorite blog of mine.  I found her through Kim’s blog.  I loved today’s posting. Make sure you read down to the bottom of the post…there’s a photo. Made me think of and appreciate how everyone in our homeschool co-op loves Quinn and looks out for him. *smile*

Watch.

I used a small scrapbook that I picked up at the Dollar Store. I decorated with a spring title I created and printed out on vellum and some stickers (used throughout the book) that I bought at Michael’s. The bugs (and a frog), created out of rocks from our driveway and other bits and pieces, were part of our spring curriculum (though I enjoyed creating them much more than did Quinn).

To see any image larger…just click on it.

Spring sentiments in a spring-y frame and photos of the boys planting their seeds.

I created a nature journal page from one of my blog entries.

A little tree I made with the critters that live there and the rainbook that I made for Quinn.

A little sequence printable and bits and pieces from our robin/sparrow nest.

Animal and plant life cycles.

Photo of Quinn having breakfast and doing his bug catching on the back porch and a graphic that I created with the parts of a plant and a little poem/song that I found online.

Quinn’s butterfly and thumbprint flower that he made with some spring poems.

Photos of his lamb and the bugs we (mostly I) created.

Photos of the fairy house his brothers created for him and a pressed flower from it.

A footprint that we made (he hated it!) and a photo of him doing schoolwork.

Sounds and smells of spring and another spring poem.

The back with two laminated printable books from Evan-Moor and our rock creatures…again!

Watch.

h/t Emma Sage.

and it is still winter!!! yea! *smile*

I covered several concepts so this is a long post.

Lapbook
(I picked up a bunch of these little scrapbooks in different colors at a dollar store.)

Title
(Created in Photoshop with brushes and a winter-y looking font and printed on vellum…I’m going to have to find the trick to glueing vellum as it is a bit bumpy.)

Cover Photo
(I always have to have a photo of Quinn!)

Printables
(One of several that I downloaded and printed out from Evan-Moor.com.)

Winter Birds’ Page
~click to view larger image~
(Created using a beautiful background paper from Jaguarwoman.com and b&w images from the bird coloring book, link posted Wednesday. I added photos to the bottom, a ribbon and a little bird feet font finished it off.)

Winter Book List
~click to view larger image~
(Quinn sitting in front of his avalanche of books on a snowy, winter’s day.)

Snowflake Match Game
Large and Small
(A graphic that I drew in Photoshop and then added on glue-on snowflakes.)

Winter Blues - Music Page
~click to view larger image~
(Hap Palmer’s, “Rhythms on Parade,” one of Quinn’s favorite cd’s, provided the inspiration for this Winter Blue’s page on Music.)

Jack Frost
~click to view larger image~
(Some more winter poems and images.)

Blues
(Using paint sample strips, I created a page showing variations of blues.)

Last Page - Winter Poems
~click to view larger image~
(More winter poetry…last one is about the promise of Spring.)