Games

We use a lot of games for learning here. It seems like a lot of them involve beans or some other tiny thing that can be scattered around the school room by a one year old in under six seconds. Games are a great way to sneak extra practice in on a kid and hearing laughter instead of moaning. It even works on fifth graders!

I picked this magnetic hangman game up in the travel section at Target a while back. Yesterday we used it while we were at the dentist's office. Jack is getting to be a good reader, but his spelling needs a lot of work still. He got in a good twenty minutes of practice making CVC words for me to guess. It turns out those can be pretty tricky to solve. My poor man hung many, many times.

Today we played a compound word game. (I don't know how that pajama collar isn't driving him crazy. I'm twitching just looking at it.)

Each player got to turn over two cards and was trying to build the compound words they had in their pile.

Even Alice liked it.

I downloaded cards for this Chutes and Ladders game from Finally in First, which I found thanks to Amber. The math facts are good review, but Jack also got even more practice with adding and subtracting 10 and 5--and he was surprised to find it didn't work the same way as it does with a 99 or 100 chart!

We recently played The Game of Tens and Ones--printed it off and covered an old die with stickers and we had a good half hour of math practice!

This (sideways) game is from Mailbox magazine. I love their ready-made and easy to make games!

Many of our games come from the fabulous Peggy Kaye books. Tomorrow's reading practice will be from the reading games book!

And of course there are tons of great games you can buy! I picked these two up at Mardel and we'll be giving them a try soon.

What are some of your favorite learning games?

Read Across America

Lately this is a pretty common sight around here. I found Jack reading on his bed at 6:45 this morning--the perfect start for Read Across America Day.

We had our traditional green eggs and ham for breakfast. I know the eggs aren't scrambled and the ham is green in the book, but this is how my kids will eat them.

In addition to some other Dr. Seuss activities, we worked this puzzle I found on clearance at our closing Borders last week. Jack wanted to have his picture taken next to it so you could see how big it is.

Tonight we went to a Dr. Seuss celebration at the library.

Jack with the Cat in the Hat

Alice's fishbowl craft

Jack's fishbowl craft

They also had several games set up for the kids to play.

Jack was never able to balance the apples long enough to walk anywhere, but the helper had him laughing so hard, I don't think he cared.

I think this game was for Hop on Pop--they jumped on bubble wrap to try to pop it.

Not the best action shot, but Alice can jump pretty well.

I'm not sure what this game was for, but Jack had fun!

We wrapped up the evening with cupcakes!

Happy reading!

A Trip to the Vet

Last week we took a field trip to the vet. Jack was really excited!

The vet told us that the dog had eaten something and the kids got to feel around to see if they could tell what it was.

They weren't sure, so the poor dog had to get an x-ray.

Oh, no! Scissors!

It was off to the operating room next, and the dog was back to normal.

The kids all got stethoscopes, too. Alice tried hers out on herself.

Jack used his on a dog

and on a cat, too! These were the most compliant animals I've ever seen!

Our last station involved learning about blood. The kids made "blood" so they could see the different parts.

Then they tried to identify the parts on a slide.

Jack's favorite part? The giant blow-up flea he got at the end!

In the Country

In the country, the bugs are much bigger.

My Favorite Author

Jack loves to write, and last night he finished his very first whole book, a ten chapter story about a dog named Neptune. He is quite excited about his accomplishment and we are very proud of him! He would love it if you would like to read his story, so if you would like a copy, email me or leave me your email address in the comments and I will make sure you get one!

A Winter Reward

While all the school kids were in class making up snow days on President's Day, Jack got a reward for charging through all nine days that the others were out.

A friend in Oklahoma City was having a birthday party on Sunday, so we got a hotel and had a little vacation.

There was swimming,

playing with friends,

and watching King of the Hill. For some reason, Jack wants to watch it every time he's at a hotel, and I usually let him, even though he doesn't get to watch it at home.

The kids were up early enough Monday morning to watch some cartoons and still be in the pool by 7:30.

We were planning to go to the zoo, but since it was so cold, we went to the science museum instead. Jack's first stop is always the face painting!

Alice enjoyed herself, too, even if the six year olds moved a little faster than she did.

After a long lunch with friends, we headed home. It was so nice to get to take a break!

Like Brother, Like Sister

Same basket, same baby doll, but this time Boris escaped.