Field Trip Friday Blog Hop -The Announcement….

Field Trip Friday!

A Blog Hop designed to share 'FIELD TRIP' related Blog Posts

(does not have to be a 'home school field trip', can be any trip to any place with your children!)

 

Okay, so no field trip this week since my kiddos were all sick with snotty noses and coughs   Boo!  But, I thought this would be a good time to come clean and explain why I’ve been such a slacker on the blog lately! 

If you’ve bee following me for awhile, you may remember that last August I lost a pregnancy at 17wks gestation. 

Well I just had my 17 wk sonogram on my current pregnancy, and all looks good, so I’m ready to make the official announcement.  First trimesters are really rough on me, so we had a LONG Spring break and are just getting back into the swing of things!  I hope to have preschool workboxes back and running on a normal basis in the near future.

Excited to say that after 3 boys, we are expecting a girl!  I’m due October 28th!

Would love to see where you guys went this week though!   

 

 

**NOTE:  Before linking up please review guidelines HERE

 

Leaf and Flower Pounding on Fabric

We had a really great nature study in co-op the other day that I wanted to share with all of you (with permission from the mom that taught, of course).
We talked about Trees, how they get their nourishment and how they help the environment.  Then we had snack of sweet potatoes (roots) and cauliflower (flowers). 
Our art project then consisted of collecting leaves and flowers from the yard.  The children each received a canvas/cloth tote in which to pound those items.  This was our first time doing this, so we did learn a few tricks for the future which I’ll share with you.
The cloth was pretreated in a water and alum solution.  We placed the plant materials on the inside of the bags and pounded the outside, but decided that having them on the outside would have been better.  It also would have been beneficial to stick the items in place with either tape or contact paper, they tended to move around a lot.  The larger surface mallets made the better product, and it seemed to come out better if the cloth was slightly damp.
Despite these few after the fact realizations, the kids still had a lot of fun and they turned out cute. 

The bags were bought online from Oriental Trading, they have a variety of choices. 

Review: Joyce Herzog- Scaredy Cat Reading System Express (TOS Review)

This review is for Joyce Herzog’s 

Scaredy Cat Reading System Express

Our favorite features of the Joyce Herzog’s Scaredy Cat Reading System Express are The Letter Master Story and the Game Board!
The Letter Master Story is a great way to introduce the sounds of the letters, and the analogy of ‘scared vowels’ builds a great picture for kids to remember when vowels make short sounds and when they make long sounds! 
I don’t know any child that doesn’t like to play games!  Games makes learning more fun (and sometimes they do not even know they are learning!) 
This curriculum is very versatile, it’s easy to jump ahead if your child is further along in his his/her reading.  The games can even be used outside of the base curriculum, with spelling lists or vocabulary lists, etc…
Reading programs are hard to review because every child is different, and what works for one child, may not work with another.  This curriculum would be great for children who need some hands-on activity, but can be used with or without the games.  It also contains a CD with songs for the various reading rules.  These factors make it a very versatile program for a variety of learning styles. 
This program is available for $30 online.  It includes the 122 – page book, two multi-use board games, all the word lists, sentence lists, and stories for practice, the SRCS Rules Songs CD with songs for each of the rules, The Story of LetterMaster MINI, and Using LetterMaster as a Teaching Tool and also has a downloadable sample.
Scaredy Cat Reading System Express is the last in a 4 part phonics/reading learning series.  You can take a placement test to determine where in the series your child should start.