Advent 2015

A friend had asked me this week for the link to a blog I did a few years ago about our advent traditions. Click here:

http://teachacademyhomeschool.blogspot.com/2012/12/advent.html?m=0

if you'd like to see some of them!

I couldn't believe how little the kids looked! Ellie and Fionn also weren't in any pictures, well, Fionn wasn't even conceived, lol! I decided to take a few pictures today on the first Sunday of Advent to include those little cuties!

Here is Ellie and Zoe at our church's Advent wreath this morning:

Miss Ellie, who has a little purple obsession, is pretty excited during Advent. Each of the oldest 4 get a week of Advent to be in charge of the candles. Ellie went first and lit the first candle:

I took a group pic of the kids in front of the tree:

However, we don't turn the lights on until the 2nd Sunday of Advent so it'll remain like this except for our quick picture cheat. Lol. 

We also keep an empty manger below the tree. The kids have Mary and Joseph starting on their journey on our piano this year. ;-)

My favorite photo, that inspired this blog post, was this photo! Zoe showed me this when I woke up Sunday morning. She had drawn the order of the candles for Ellie so she'd know the order and which kid in our house would light them. 

O come, O come, Emmanuel

Oh no! Not the splatter paint guy! Jackson Pollock inspired art day

The title was my reaction when I figured out what artist we were on this section of the World's Greatest Artists by COAH. In full disclosure, I had heard the name Jackson Pollock, but couldn't remember his art style. When we opened the reading part and saw this:

Galaxy by Jackson Pollock

I panicked! Lol! I'm not a big messy person so upon seeing his splattering and throwing paint paintings I was dreading the make your own project. 

Thankfully, we had a beautiful day and took our project outside!

Here's a closer look:

The finished projects:

Van Gogh Week

The past week, our artist study has been on Van Gogh. I loved how the kids paintings turned out and had to share them. 

Cian chose The Starry Night:

Cian's:

Van Gogh's:

The girls chose Sunflowers:

Van Gogh's:

Grace's:

Zoe's:

Ellie's:

I love that she gave them faces! I didn't help her at all either!

This was the first time the kids all sat down to do art and Fionn got jealous! Luckily, I had just bought a My 1st Crayola on clearance! So Fionn got to "paint" too:

They all did a great job and had a lot of fun! I'm also happy to report they all still have both ears.

Metal Science Drawing

Cian's metal drawing was too cute not to share. I shared a story of when I was in High School and a girl broke a mercury thermometer and went to clean it up with her hand and the teacher shouted, "no!" 

Our New Chore Chart- Electronics Jail

I have been pinning chore charts for probably about a year now. I wanted something easy and practical. I also don't want to have to keep track of them earning a quarter here or there, nor do I want to motivate them only to help for money. I believe being part of a family is helping that family. Nothing I found seemed to "fit" what I was looking for in a chore chart. Then, I had a brainstorm! The kids have many things they enjoy such as watching t.v. in the evening or playing their Kindle when done with school work. Our behavior chart I made a few years ago (see it here) works SO well that I decided to model the chore chart after the same idea. The kids know they have to finish school before they can use their devices or watch a t.v. show, so why not the same understanding regarding chores?

When chores need to be done, they will be the "key" to unlocking their electronics from "Electronic Jail." 

Each chore can be added to the chart as needed. If something is blocking them from the devices, it must be done before they can watch t.v. or play devices. 

Here is a closer look at the chart:

The finished chore side says, "I did my part and did this chore, it's like the bail for electronics jail. I moved it here because it's done, when we work together we can all have fun."

I used the little sticky Velcro coins to attach the chores:

I made almost all the chores yellow so the kids could chose which one they want to do. I also made "clean your room" and "put away your laundry" in their favorite colors and they each have one of those. 

Here it is hanging up by our behavior chart:

We just started it this morning, but we are off to a great start. These two had already cleaned their room to "get Kindle out of jail" by 8:05 this morning. That NEVER happens! They are my worst messy room offenders. So, fingers crossed it's going to work well!

(Zoe found that while cleaning!)

Two minutes later:

It's reading time!

Ellie has been working on sight words and CVC words both since her K4 started 3 weeks ago.

Today she did the -at family week of Reading the Alphabet from This Reading Mama. Of all the bits and pieces I've put together for Ellie's K4 I think it's my favorite. (Blog on her K4 pieces I put together for this year still to come!) Half of the Reading the Alphabet week is letter review which we just skip and half is a new sight word. (We are doing 2 weeks each week except for the review weeks like this week's.)

Here's what she did today:

We talked about how her sight word at was in lots of words. Then we talked about how at was actually one we could sound out. Then we sounded it out. Then we took the provided letters and made the words and sounded them out. 

Then I mixed them up and she did it again all on her own! She is great at identifying the beginning sounds, so the picture clues were a great aid.

So excited for this cute little emergent reader!

Picasso time!

We are using Confession of a Homeschoolers "World's Greatest Artists" this school year. I really like the books it uses! Even better, the kids like them too! Today was our first art project and I couldn't help but take some photos.

I made them all use crayola watercolor paints so the oldest two weren't super excited about that, but I was impressed with what they all did! Especially with the cheapo little kid paints! Lol!

I asked them to create their own version of Boy in Sailor Suit with Butterfly Net or Bather with a Beach Ball. My oldest two picked the first, and littler two the later!

Grace's:

Cian's:

Then the little girls':

Zoe's:

Ellie's:

Too Much Glue!

I tried to get this book at the start of last school year, but our library system didn't have it yet. I didn't see it on Scholastic yet either and think it was just too new?! However, when I tried at the start of this school year, the library system had it! YAY! The kids really enjoyed it!

I also got these "Just a Dot" worksheets back out from last year and had the girls practice "glue raindrops not puddles" like they say in the book. These worksheets are from pocket full of kinders (that's where I heard about the book first also!). The link is here. We don't use the alphabet ones since we use D'Nealian, but I use her dot and lines ones. (We also have the Q-tip painting from 1+1+1=1, but haven't used them for glue before either.)

Ellie loves to glue!

Look how I did!

Ellie's

And Zoe's:

Zoe loves anything arts and crafts related!

Zoe's