Caz
Give her a quality movie (Braveheart was the choice for this hs mum), a good cuppa coffee, and a pile of newly laminated montessori activities to cut out for her eager learners!   Thank goddess this was NOT on a Friday night, or I'd have to be a bit worried about mys social life ;)  But for a Monday, quite accpetable hehehe.  

We spent the weekend doing a major cleanout of the garage, and took a major load of stuff for donating & dumping, so my plans to test drive my new (el cheapo) model laminator kept getting put on hold.    But yesterday I got everything mounted on heavy paper and went to town.  It worked VERY well for a cheapie model... and I do mean cheap, this baby was 18bucks.  Hell, the laminating pouches (100) cost more than the machine did LOL.  

My big goal was to get Merry's very cool dragon activities laminated before he killed them.   He was a bit taken aback today when he asked for them and saw their new state.  'They're TRAPPED!'  he said.  LOL!    I was super surprised when he was quite ok with them being trapped when I explained that now they couldn't get destroyed and would last 'forever'.    Score one for mum.  

For Sam & Frodo, I have been geeking at This site, thanks to Kylie at Our Worldwide Classroom.  They have some great materials that you buy in pdf form, then print off & laminate yourself.  Certianly cheaper than other options for us down here!  Last night I made up the solar system nomenclature cards (although I do hate the pretentious sound of nomenclature... we're talking 6yr olds here lol) for the boys and this morning they have already been matching & defining to their hearts content.   Here' Sam busy at work :)  

 He really enjoyed matching the unlabeled picture cards & the proper label up to the control card (which has both the pic and the word).  He even sounded out a couple of the starting sounds, which we have been working on lately.  This was actually a team effort, as Frodo read the matching definition card and put it with the matches as Sam made them  :)  

They totally loved being able to work independently, which was nice for me as well!  I was able to get the laundry in without multiple trips back into the house to assist with schoolwork lol.  

I picked up several other thing from that site, a moveable alphabet (that will NOT get done until I have a paper cutter, as that is just TOO many small squares to contemplate cutting!!!), a living/ nonliving things activity, one on the layers of the Earth (as Earth is our next science unit study) and a 'research guide' for Frodo.   Each guide gives a list of questions to answer in a short 'paper' the child writes on the topic... the sun, a planet of their choice etc.   The idea is that the child can write the paper all by themselves using the guide to help them know what to put in it. Frodo is going to pick his favourite planet and have a go at that later this week.  I won't expect a thesis, but it will be one of his first attempts at independent writing, the only others have been the couple of letters he's written his pen pal.  

So lots of new, fun and independant activities for the boys to get stuck into!   

 

2 Responses
  1. Todd Says:

    Busy. You've got WAY more energy and organizational skills than I do. LOL. Sounds fun though :-)


  2. Kez Says:

    I love my laminator :) Its up there on my list of essentials for homeschooling lol.

    Will check out that site - we have a few montessori activities scattered around the house that get played with at times.