school lite: the one where we listened to Fiddler on the Roof and pinned the capitals

 

 

Every Fall I convince myself I’m a year round school kinda girl. 

 

 

Then every Summer…I totally change my mind!

 

 

I’m so wishy washy!

 

 

I just can’t mentally handle year round hard core school.  But.  I also can’t handle being bored.  Boredom just begs for bickering.  And I can’t handle bickering either!  And since we’re broke and can’t buy our way out of boredom…School Lite it is! 

 

 

We don’t do anything crazy heavy though.  While Trevy is off to Summer School (he goes three days a week during the month of July) for a couple hours we might…

 

 

Listen to Isaac Stern’s Fiddler on the Roof violin solo.  But don’t be too impressed cause it wasn’t my idea…it’s just something we’re reviewing!  I have to say…it was a beautiful way to start the day!

 

 

We’ve also been talking about and reviewing the 50 States.  As postcards come in from the swap we’re participating in…we talk about that State and fill in the corresponding page of a coloring book I picked up from Target in last year’s dollar bins.

 

 

The kiddos take turns reading the info on the back.

 

 

We’re hanging the postcards on the wall as we study that state.  To review, I wrote the capitals on little sticky notes and hid them around the house.  I then asked the kids review questions and if they answered correctly they could go find a sticky note and stick it on the correct state!

 

That was fun and we’ll definitely do it again!

 

 

We work on a little Math.  Toby fractions.  Bristel addition/subtraction review.

 

We might watch Lets Make a Deal and probably wear our jammies most of the day.

 

Yesterday Toby read from Character Sketches.  Bristel never did read at all.  Oops.

 

 

But she did make Miss. May May (Trevy’s school aide) a chocolate sprinkled pretzel.  An idea she gleaned from flipping through my current Tastefully Simple Magazine.  It was all her own inspiration and she even modified on her own.  I didn’t have chocolate chips to melt so she asked if she could use frosting instead.  She’s totally gonna own a bakery or something someday!

 

 

We played a super fun Solar System review game and (I wanted to read a chapter too but we) had an impromptu play date.

 

There was a lot of down time!  Which was wonderful…

 

 

 

That’s how we did Summer Lite at our house yesterday.

 

 

…danielle

 

linking up to

 

chalkboard your table tops because it’s practical, cheap and super cute

 

 

Sometimes it annoys me that almost none of our furniture matches.  The rest of the time I try to convince myself it’s because we’re cool and eclectic!

 

 

:: smile ::

 

 

The truth is…we just can’t afford to buy sets of furniture. 

 

 

So we’ve picked up pieces here and there.  Think yard sales, from family, craigslist and free cycle even!  And of course, not a stitch matches!  Weeeeell, I’ve seen all these ideas floating around Pinterest.  And I was inspired and thought of a super-cool-cheap-skate way to make at least some of my furniture match!

 

 

Allow me to introduce you to the magic powers of blackboard paint!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I convinced the Hubster to buy me a little pail at Home Depot for under ten buckaroos.  Supposedly you can find it at Walmart too.  Ours didn’t have it in stock.  Also, I really wanted the spray paint kind but I just wasn’t patient enough to order it online.  So I went old school with the primer and the brushes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In just a couple hours on a sunny Sunday afternoon (between church and Special Olympics) I worked on making our School/Play/Therapy room tables match.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I used left over warm white on the bottoms and the tops became blackboards!  Warm white looks reaaaally good against the blackboard paint.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wah-lah!

 

 

Practical and Cute!

 

 

Plus, they all match without spending a fortune to buy a new set!  Makes me feel warm n’ fuzzy on the inside.

 

 

Since chalk is wipe-from-the-walls-because-Trevy-WILL-color-on-them-friendly, I’ve been leaving a little bowl of multi-colors in the middle of the table so they can create at will.  It’ll also come in handy next school year for writing spelling lists, practicing cursive and all the other wonderful ways we can think of to play with our new blackboard tables!

 

 

The only bummer is that it needs to be washed with a wet washcloth.  A regular eraser just doesn’t do the job.  But otherwise we’re in LOVE with our new tables!

 

 

 

 

Just this morning I caught my budding ar-teest drawing an American Flag in honor of America’s Birthday!

 

 

The best news is - you’ll probably have some left over to play with too!  Here are some fun projects you can try til’ the pail runs dry:

 

• Garden Chalkboard Puppets by Nurture Store
• A New Chalkboard from a Yard Sale Find by The Artful Parent
• Re-purposed Chalk Table by Creative Playhouse
• Make Your Own Chalkboard Art Bins by The Artful Parent
• Martha Stewart’s ideas of creative ways to use chalkboard paint

 

 

…danielle

board games that Trevy can play which means I think they’re worth buying (or gifting) and I’m cheapskate, soooooo….

 

 

We have gobs of board games. Too many if you ask me! But the Hubs is a fan…and he’s encouraging the development of little board game fans. The thing that’s tricky about board games though – is that it’s often really hard to include Trevy. A little Trevy backstory: He was diagnosed with catastrophic epilepsy at 7 months, lived with hundreds of uncountable seizures daily until he had almost his entire left hemisphere removed at 2 1/2 and is doing extraordinary now – but still struggles with developmental delays. He is chronologically 5 but functionally closer to 3. While it’s not realistic that he gets to do every.single.thing his siblings do - at the same time I like to have options that work for all of us. Many board game rules are too complicated. Also, those dang ants in his pants. If you think ADD is an imaginary disorder…I dare ya to keep Trevy for a day! He’ll convince ya!

 

 

:: wink ::

 

 

So I know this post would be great at Christmas time but I figured we’ve had lots of rainy days around here and maybe you have too. These games have been sanity savers while we’ve been stuck inside! Plus, we’ve used all three of these games during in home therapy sessions. I just know I’d love to stumble across a post like this…so I wrote one instead! Oh…and Trevy needs lots of supervision and help while playing these games. I usually don’t play myself but function as his helper…verbally coaching him and physically helping him participate. The great thing is – with help he totally can play these games!

 

 

Where is Sock Monkey

 

(photo credit)

 

Uncle Nathan and Aunt Tiffany bought the sock monkey game (at Target, I think?) just for Trevy and it’s so great that I would totally spend the mulah myself!  We all have fun with this one!  One person hides the monkey and the rest of us draw cards with picture prompts.  Example:  Picture of a couch means you ask “is the monkey in a room with a couch?”  There are yes (green) and no (red) spots to put the card to help you remember what is in the room where the monkey is hiding.  If you draw a Go Look card you get to race the sand timer to find the monkey!  Bonus goodie – no small pieces just beggin’ to be chewed!  Trevy is addicted to chewing things and he has chewed the sock monkey!  This is a great game for sibling bonding, problem solving, answering yes and no questions, remembering, following directions and just plain ol’ having fun!

 

 

Don’t Break the Ice

 

(photo credit)

 

I snagged it at Target on Black Friday for, like, three bucks or something crazy like that.  Don’t Break the Ice is a great turn taking, fine motor and problem solving game.  If you’ve never played it before, the idea is pretty simple.  Hammer out chunks of “ice” while trying NOT to knock down the skating bear.  While Trevy does enjoy this game, he also needs hand over hand help to be gentle with his hammer.  Otherwise he’s gonna crash the whole sha-bang in a blink!  He doesn’t really get (or like) the idea of NOT making everything go boom…but he does enjoy the hammering and even the setting up.  Bonus goodie – while these pieces do beg to be chewed they’re all plastic and non-choking hazard sized!

 

 

I Can Do That! 

(photo credit)

 

I get all sappy whenever we break this game out.  That’s because a very sweet-special friend bought it for Trevy as a get well gift after his surgery.  (If you’re curious about Trevy click here)  This is a great game for sibling bonding, wiggle worms (lots of movement), turn taking, following directions, simple math, problem solving, fine and gross motor play!  You have to pick three cards.  Each card has a prompt (direction) to follow. 

 

 

Example:  Put the cake, behind your back and hop on one foot

 

 

It’s fun and silly and we love it!

 

 

Hint:  could be a great gift for a speech therapist – especially if that speech therapist happens to practice therapy with your child!

 

 

If you have a Trevy in your house, I totally recommend adding these games to your toy closet!

 

…danielle

how to charm your grounding rods

 

 

You know those nasty looking metal rods that stick out of the ground around your house?

 

 

Supposedly the purpose is legit.  Grounding rods or something like that, says the Hubs.  Which I guess is important. 

 

 

 

 

But they look like they’re suited for more ominous ends.

 

 

Gouging out eyes.

 

 

Impaling unsuspecting little running with abandon bodies.

 

 

Before you start panicking– the kids are fine.

 

 

But those stinkin’ rods send  my worry wart into over drive.  My kids are addicted to running around with abandon.  We have 3 metal poles sticking above ground around the perimeter of our cape cod.  I like to emphasize cape cod because I think it’s the most charming of house styles.  We have an older fixer upper-ish house…I emphasize the charm where I can so I don’t get overwhelmed by the still-need-to-do list!

 

 

  :: smile ::

 

 

Those rods are anything but charming, though.  And my clever Hubster came up with a great idea to make them safe and maybe…just maybe…even charming too!

 

 

Here’s what we did…

 

 

 

Most outdoor garden pots have a perfectly grounding rod sized hole in the bottom.  If you have the right equipment, you can always drill a hole yourself.  We actually did that last year with plastic pots.  But we wanted something a little easier on the eye.

 

 

So we bought new pots at Christmas Tree Shop for just $7ish bucks each.

 

 

 

Fill the pot with soil.

 

 

Depending on how creative and/or green your thumb is…

 

 

choose plants to fill them.

 

 

I opted for a mature tomato and zucchini plant.  They were just $10 bucks each at Walmart.  And since I’m not gifted with growing things I thought my luck would be better if I opted for plants that are flowering already.

 

 

Enlist the help of any little people you might have on hand.

 

 

I assure you, they will LOVE getting dirty!

 

 

Wah-lah!

 

 

No more nasty metal rods just waiting for a 911 moment to happen.  Replaced now with what I hope will be some yummy home grown veggies!

 

 

It’s the perfect solution for us!

 

 

I also convinced the Hubby that we needed to plant flowers in the old mailbox that still lives, no longer used for mail, by our front door.

 

 

Cute…don’t you think?

 

 

 

…danielle

printable spring movement cards

 

 

My kids loooove movement cards and it’s a fun way to use word banks for different Seasons or Holidays too!

 

(click the image to download)

 

I whipped up these cute little movement cards tonight after Trevy’s school aide wished out loud for newbies (they’re still using Christmas movement cards).  Some things to keep in mind:

 

 

• I have NO computer graphic programs or training.  This was done with good old fashioned Open Office, copy & paste and lots of Action Alert-able muttering.
• Even my “work” is interrupted so I couldn’t take the time to perfect positioning. 
• Most of the actions are self explanatory but when in doubt use your imagination.
•   Annnnd…all of the clip art came from free sites.  If I have accidentally borrowed your art please let me know so I can remove it. 

 

 

Enjoy!

 

 

…danielle

 

 

Linked to…Montessori Mondays, Little Wonders’ Days Afterschool Linky Party and Thrifty Thursday

peek at a homeschooling moment in our house

 

 

I like to consider myself an eclectic homeschooler. 

 

 

We have some structured learning.  Hence the passion for workboxes.  I’m addicted to anything that smacks of  Montessori .  I like to sprinkle in some Read Aloud-ing.  Cause really, is there any such thing as too much couch cuddling?

 

 

And of course there’s some un-schooling-ish…or kid imagined…things happening here on a daily basis as well. 

 

 

For instance, I walked into the therapy/school room to find Bristel.  Armed with the iPod Touch.  Trying like crazy to catch a clip of Trevy playing with his puzzle.  The trouble with Trevy is that he needs a lot of assistance to complete a task from start to finish.  She was getting a little frustrated.  So I stepped in to help her accomplish her goal – create a “documentary” to help give other parents “good ideas on how to work with their special needs kids”.  Her real life words are in the quotes.    

 

 

I keep telling her she’s going to make an amazing therapist or teacher someday!  Or maybe pediatric specialist of some kind…like neurology? 

 

 

Anywho…

 

 

We were finally successful!  So it’s a two for one clip. 

 

 

1) You get to see me working with Trevy.  I like to get him on his tummy as much as possible.  This clip is an example of an extended attention span moment. 

 

 

2) Bristel working on her producing and editing (you did hear her whisper coaching at me?) skills for some (un)school learning.

 

 

 

 

…danielle

microphones are yummy

 

I caught Trevy rockin’ out with one of his fave Christmas gifts.  Please pardon my messy Therapy/School Room.  That’s what happens when it gets used. 

 

  :: smile :: 

 

 

 

I love how he pats his chest when he sings “me”.

 

Also, how he turns his head away so he can keep chomping on the microphone.  Cheeky.  But smarty too.

 

I do think it’s super cool that Allison Cruz thinks he’s cute.  She doesn’t just have a smashing voice…but super good taste too. 

 

 

…danielle

unschooling”ish” moment of the day (er…weekend :)

I was unashamedly spying on the Daddy-Daughter project taking place in our backyard this weekend…

Our pretty new patio is ready just in time for Smores Season!

…danielle

unschooling(ish) moment of the week

 

Bristel decided she wanted to create a cardboard box car for Trevy while he was away at school & therapies for a couple hours…

 

 

 

I let her imagination run wild…

 

 

 

She wanted a wheel that really moved.  Thankfully I had some brads left over from another project. 

 

Don’t miss the seat!  It’s the black rectangle…

 

 

 

 

It was a really sweet idea and Trevy liked it a lot. 

 

 

Although…

 

 

Not as much as a certain little girl I know!   

 

 

…danielle