Fun with EGGS!

So Chris & I are seriously thinking about  home schooling Liam. Chris has always been an advocate for home schooling and I was not sure but now I'm leaning towards going the home schooling route. There are a lot of reasons. Although Chris & I both were not home schooled we like the freedom it will give Liam. We've really noticed how smart Liam is. We're both shocked that at the age of 3 1/2 he can count to 250, add, subtract, count by 5s & 2s. can say the alphabet & knows all his letter sounds, and can even read. He is already advanced in math doing grade school level math. I really think he would be bored in kindergarden. Also with Chris' work schedule he would never see Liam or Blake. He works evenings and when the boys would be getting home from school Chris would be leaving for work. His day off is Monday and the boys would be in school all day. So there is still a lot to think about and I hope we make the right decision for both the boys. There are so many resources and tools now for home schooling and Texas is a state that really supports home schooling and makes it easy to do. I guess my only concern is that Liam gets to socialize with other kids, and even though Chris will be teaching too, I just hope  I will be confident enough to teach him. 

I decided to do a trial run of home schooling to just see what it would be like for both of us. So  I decided to start the first week in April for 5 days. With Easter coming I thought it would be an easy time to come up with ideas for themed lessons etc. I decided to do a Spring/Easter theme.  It was lots of fun. I found Liam really enjoyed learning and all the activities we did. Down side is that it does take a lot of preparation to plan each day's lesson but it was worth it. It gave me the confidence now that yes I can do this.

Here are some pictures of what Liam learned during his home school trial run week. Please note that a lot of these ideas are my own mixed in with ideas I got from others from Pinterest. I'm still learning how to post links up on my blog. So please check out my Pinterest page to see where I got my ideas from. I want to give credit to those wonderful teachers who are so generous to shares their ideas. I don't know how I would have been able to do this without looking to others for inspiration so a BIG THANK YOU :)

First we learned about Eggs. I had  Liam cut out an egg shape with blue construction paper. Then I cut out different animals that lay eggs and let him glue them on his big egg. I had this cute poem I found on pinterest about animals who lay eggs and he also glued it on his  egg.

We also sang a cute song about different animals who lay eggs. Liam really loves to sing so he enjoyed this one. It was to the tune of farmer in the dell. We just filled in the names of different animals who lay eggs and sang.


                                               EGG SONG  (Tune of Farmer in the Dell)

The Chickens give us eggs 
The Chickens give us eggs
Hi Ho The Derry O
The Chicken gives us Eggs

Add different animals such as penguin, spider, duck,  turtle etc.

I threw this together quickly with things I had on hand. I made it an easter/spring sensory tub. I added  rice, beans, plastic eggs, tongs, measuring cups, bunnies, sheep,  & stickers, Liam loved it!

Next up was color recognition. I knew Liam knew all his colors but I wanted to see him practice reading the color names on his own.  He had a worksheet with different easter eggs on it.  Under each egg had the name of a color. He had to read what the color was and color the egg that specific color. He did an awesome job.  He got 100%

Next was a fun game using sounds, and listening skills.

I grabbed some plastic easter eggs and filled them with different objects that made noise like rice, paper clips, coins etc. The trick was that two eggs had the same objects inside.

So Liam had to shake the eggs and see which two eggs made the same sound. For example the eggs that were filled with rice sounded different than the eggs filled with coins etc.

This was lots of fun for Liam. But I wish I taped the eggs shut because he did open some of the eggs up to see what was inside. But I made him start over. Ha Ha!

Next we did  a little science experiment called Sink or Float

I filled plastic easter eggs with different object and had Liam see if they would sink or float

Liam then checked off which colored plastic eggs would float or sink

Here's another song we sang too about Easter Eggs.

Easter Eggs

tune: Jingle Bells

Easter eggs, Easter eggs,

Eggs of orange and blue.

Here are lots of colored eggs

All for me and you.

Chocolate eggs, colored eggs,

Jelly beans bright green

Aren't these the most

beautiful eggs

That you have ever seen?

Next was learning patterns with colored eggs.  I knew this was a skill I had not worked with Liam too much on so I thought this would be an fun way to teach him about patterns & sequence with color.

I would start a color pattern or he would and then he would finish the pattern.  It took  him a few tries in the beginnin but once he got it he was off flying with it. So easy to practice with these eggs.

Then we finished the Egg theme with decorating real easter eggs for Easter.


Some other activities we did that I didn't get a chance to take pictures of were:
Alphabet Scavenger Hunt - It was like playing Bingo. I had a chart with all the letters of the alphabet in lower case. I then hid eggs that were filled with one of each letter in the alphabet in upper case. Liam had to find the eggs and match the upper case letter with the lower case letter on the bingo chart.
We also played Animal Charades using the pictures we had of animals who laid eggs.
We had fun playing with eggs during a Egg Relay Race. We used  plastic easter eggs & a spoon and went outside with Daddy and tried to balance our eggs on our spoons. Fun Fun!

Who thought you could have so much fun with eggs but we sure did!

Happy Easter 2012

We had a very busy Easter this year with lots of fun activities planned.  First was the annual Easter Egg Hunt with my Mom group  KinderMoms.  I just love how well it's put together and all the kids don't push and the organizers make sure there are plenty of eggs for all the kids. Liam had lots of fun. I bought these cute matching t-shirs for the boys from etsy they were so cute! If anyone wants the info please let me know.

Daddy & Liam getting in a little fun on the playground before the hunt.

Liam on the hunt with his new Lightning McQueen Easter basket he loved it.

The grass was a little wet but Liam found plenty of eggs

  

Here's a video of Liam on the hunt. He's too cute!

Okay so we tried to get a family pic but it didn't work so well.  They had a photo area to take family pictures which was so sweet. Do you Like the bunnies? 
They're mine! I let KinderMoms use them for pictures. 
There's a girl bunny behind Chris.

Okay Chris tried again but another bad one. But the boy's t-shirts were 
so cute though. I hope to get another picture soon of them together wearing the
 t-shirts before they grow out of them.

When we got home Liam had fun looking to see what was inside his eggs.

On the Saturday before Easter Sunday we went to another Easter Egg Hunt and Easter Party at John Newcombe Country Club. We just recently joined and it is beautiful! So excited to start working out again. They are a tennis club with several tennis courts, a pool, fitness center, lots of fun for the kids. Liam is taking tennis and swimming lessons there this summer. Hope Chris and I will be able to take some lessons too. 

I hardly have any pictures of me and the boys. I know sad but true. My friend Paige was there and took our picture right before both kids had a horrible meltdown. Thanks Paige for the sweet pic :) Blake was teething and Liam was just so moody that day. They even had the Easter come but Liam just did not want his picture taken and Blake was crying with his teething. I was so disappointed but that's kids for ya.

Liam hunting for easter eggs by the tennis courts. But he was not so into it instead he kept watching the tennis players and saying " I want to play tennis please." 

I love Easter pictures. Liam had fun playing with the camera and with these
  bunny ears

This is one of several adorable pictures of Blake. I could not believe how much he enjoyed getting his picture taken! Plus Liam was trying to get him to laugh so here he's really looking to the side at Liam.

Baby Blake's 1st Easter 5 months old!

So far the best picture I have the silly boys. It's so hard to get them together. 
Love how this came out.

My favorite outfit I bought for Blake for Easter. So adorable! 

Chris was so great helping Liam color easter eggs for the first time this year. I thought 3 years would be a good age to start. Liam had a blast watching 
the eggs turn colors.

Resurrection Eggs are so popular now. They basically teach kids about Jesus and how he died for our sins. You can buy them in the stores but I found some ideas on pinterest and decided to make my own for the boys. It was fun. You are suppose to have 12 and open one up every day leading up to Easter Sunday. Each egg contains a bible verse with an object to go along with it. I decided to do a shorter version that I saw on pinterest. I had Easter eggs filled with different things, like a rock, bandaid, a heart, clay for the tomb etc. Liam really enjoyed it and liked looking at them all the time and it helped him to understand in a simple way why Jesus died on the cross for him and what Easter really is about. I hope to keep this a tradition each Easter.

Blake's Easter Basket

Liam's Easter Basket

The boys Easter Baskets

I think Liam liked getting the peeps the most 

Blake checking out his 1st Easter Basket !

St. Patricks Day Fun

St. Patricks Day we kept it simple. I always try to celebrate the day because I am part Irish even if it's just a little I still want the boys to celebrate the holiday. Since they're so young right now I keep it simple. I found this cute Shamrock game on pinterest. If you'd like to check it out go to my St. Patricks Day pinterest board you'll find it there. I like to give credit to these wonderful people who have these amazing blogs that like to share free print outs. This game was perfect for preschoolers. You roll a dice count the number of spaces from the dice on the board. If you land on a shamrock you get to keep a shamrock card. The player with the most shamrock cards wins the game! We also had a little treasure hunt where Liam had to find gold coins which he received a quarter for each one he found.  Liam loves starfall.com. a website that has educational games for kids. He will play all day if I let him. I had to use it for a reward because it got to be too much. But I let him go on starfall.com today to play their St. Patrick's Day educational games.  I highly recommend them here's their link  www.starfall.com

Here's a little video of the game in action. Liam I think was tired that morning he wasn't really "with it" if you know what I mean. He's 3 but sometimes I forget because he usually is so quick but sometimes he has his slow days like us all. He's so smart and he really enjoyed playing we played most of the 

morning while Blake took his morning nap.

Valentines Day Fun!

 Valentines Day has become such a fun holiday for us. Lots of fun Valentine parties this year. We first hosted a Valentines Day cookie decorating play date for our KinderMoms group. The kids were so sweet they had fun decorating their cookies but loved eating them of course. It was wonderful to have some company and chat with some Moms too. I was so surprised that Blake slept in his swing during the entire time.

Liam had two Valentines Day parties. The first one was for our KinderMom group. Every year they hold one and the kids exchange valentines. These have been a hit the past two years so I decided to make them again. These are Teddy Gram crackers and Gummy Bears wrapped in a treat bag labeled "You're Beary Special From Liam Hoffman." Liam brought these to school also for his party there too. He had so much fun!

One of a ton of valentines Liam received from his friends at school I thought this was a cute one

Baby  Blake's 1st Valentines Day!

Blake was such a sweetheart! He's my little Valentine. He went out to lunch with Chris & I  at our new favorite spot The Red Rooster while Liam was at school. Chris had to work at 3 p.m. so we had our Valentines Day lunch to celebrate. It was such a beautiful day out.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2012

We celebrated the New Year with Liam first. Liam & I went to a "Noon Year" party with friends from our Moms group here in town. We've gone every years since we moved here ( 3 years now) and its so much fun. All the kids get together have snacks and at 12 noon on New Years Eve they count down and have a party! Since most kids are in bed during the real New Year's Eve this lets them be a part of the celebration earlier in the day. We love it. The video of Liam is when we came back home. He kept counting down and saying Happy "Noon" Year. He had a blast. Later in the evening Chris & I attempted to have some kind of celebration. I had some of my favorite clam dip and special spritzers since I'm nursing no alcohol for me. We also were up with Blake who has colic so badly. He cried from 8 pm - 5 am so it was a rough new years. It's always great just to hang out together. We're so blessed to have Blake though. This year some New Year's resolutions I have are to try to keep positive, become more organized with making dinner & cleaning, spending more time with family, having more celebrations and being more social hosting parties etc. Looking forward to lots of fun in 2012.

Kiss Me It's My Birthday! The Big 35

I enjoyed celebrating my 35th (UGH!) Birthday with my favorite guys. I was so happy I was able to sleep in. I woke up only to nurse Blake then Chris got up with both boys. While I was sleeping Chris & Liam baked me a delicious strawberry fun fetti cake. It was so sweet. I really appreciated Chris taking the time to make a cake with Liam. It is such a challenge cooking with a 3 year old I give him props for even attempting. He's an awesome Dad Liam had so much. We then went out for a birthday lunch. Later I went out for coffee with a friend in my Sunday School class that shares the same birthday as me ( January 21st) It was great to get out of the house and have some adult conversation. Is it just me or does receiving birthday checks in the mail still give you a smile on your face? My aunts always sent me a birthday check usually $25 or so. Now that I'm in my 30's I still look forward to receiving them and so blessed they still think of me. They're so sweet.javascript:void(0)