Summer Time!

With only a week left of school we have been caught up in all the nice weather we have been having and just exploring our 11acre yard. Searching in the creeks in our front and back yard in search of newts, crawfish, frogs and anything else interesting. Dylan has always been fascinated with insects so every day he will go "exploring" and look for a new bug that he hasn't seen before. Most times he comes back with flies, ants, beetles and worms, but every now and then we get to see a pretty butterfly ;)
Well I have to cut this short because I have kids calling for me ... go figure lol.

What to do now ?

My husband and I have been discussing whether or not to let Dylan go into first grade or hold him back and have him repeat Kindergarten. I am close to tears anytime we discuss it because I never thought one of my kids would be in this situation, let alone have medical issues that holds them back. In a sense I wonder why am I putting so much effort into homeschooling him to only have him repeat K again? and then I am like well it could be good for him, he will have matured a lil more and may be more prepared and ready for school and he will have already done it all before so he shouldn't have any problems with stress since its all familiar. Then the topic of do I enroll him back in Public school or continue homeschooling next fall? Since I have been homeschooling Dylan we have not had one trip to the ER or even a trip to our pediatrician. He hasn't had any problems at all. So I am very worried about letting him go back to public schools and have the overwhelming stress take its toll on him again. I guess we will never know unless we try, but to add to our stress is the fact that my husbands job is stationing us in Florida in October. School starts early August here in Kentucky so they will have been in school a few months before transferring to another school which also really bothers me. I try to keep our life as simple and normal as possible for them because we do relocate a lot and my husband is gone a lot. The kids know that Daddy is in the military and its his job, but it doesn't make it any easier. So my fear is with all the changes happening Dylan may not adjust well and end up having more ER visits. There are days when I focus on this one problem and try to figure out ways to get around it. I even suggested staying here in Kentucky to keep a sense of normalcy until the summer when the kids get out of school them move so they aren't leaving after school has already started. I can go through multiple reasons why its best to stay, but I know we need to stay together as a family for as long as we can because with Mike's job we never know when we will have time with him.
I just hope that this summer I can make a decision that works best for all of us.

Activities outside of schools

Awhile back Dylan mentioned wanting to do Karate so we looked into a local class and didnt feel that it fit our needs for Dylan and he did not seem to be all that interested after seeing what they really do. Could have just been that particular class who knows?
I need help! What other types of activities can I get my son into for confidence building and socialization?
He spends literally all day and night with me and sometimes he gets to play with other kids when I babysit for friends but they are usually younger than him and he wants to do BOY things.
Suggestions?

Paper Mache

So we took a break from hitting the books and did some art. My youngest sons birthday was yesterday (april 25th) and we are celebrating it this weekend on the 30th so as an art project we are doing a paper mache pinata in the shape of a koala. The kids LOVED doing this but it surely was messy. So far we only have 2 layers on it and are waiting for them to dry up a bit before adding the last 2 layers.
We used a balloon, lots of newspaper cut into 2in x 5in strips, and for the paper mache we used 2 cups water and 1 cup flour. I heard you can use glue and lots of other stuff, but this happened to be the tutorial we found first and just went with it so flour and water it was. So far so good ;)
My dinning room floor is still covered in newspapers until we can finish the other layers which Im hoping will get done today. Then we will paint him gray and add the candy =D
Pictures to come soon.

Share your pinata ideas, recipes and photos if you can =)

Giveaway!

So with me homeschooling Dylan it has put my sewing and my business on the back burner .... and I would like to say a big thank you to all of my fans and customers for being so awesome to me these past few years.
I would like to do a giveaway through this blog.

RULES: 3 ways to get entries. Leave a comment when doing one or all of these =)
1.) Post this blog on your page
2.) Share one Kindergarten level learning activity in my comments
3.) "Like" my etsy store http://www.etsy.com/shop/BippityBoppityBibs
4.) also note you must be a "follower" of this blog to participate in the giveaway

One Lucky winner will be picked randomly and announced on May 29th =)


Giveaway Items!
One Winner Will receive : My new "Blazin Blueberries" OR  "B-A-N-A-N-A-S" bib from my Yummy Bib line WINNER will pick which bib they would like as their prize!

AND THE WINNER IS : TANYA MARIE

Thank you to everyone who participated. Tanya let me know which bib you would like Blazzin Blueberries or B-A-N-A-N-A-S. Also let me know you address. =)

Bernheim Forest

It was too beautiful out this morning to sit inside and work on paperwork, so I dropped off Gavin (3) at Preschool and headed out to Bernheim Forest. Dylan was very excited to explore. We have gone plenty of times in the past but this time we were taking the time to learn about everything that this great park has to offer. Check out the pictures we took this morning =)

We got to check out Bees.

Even learned about Mushrooms!

Dylan's Favorite part of the day ... the Beetle Exhibits.

He pieced together a Turtle shell.

Had to check out the types of critters and fish in the lake.

Check out Bernheim here : http://www.bernheim.org/arboretum.html

Buttons

So with Math on IXL getting harder Dylan has been pretty frustrated with the idea of even getting back on to try. So I thought of trying something else. I printed off some pattern worksheets for him to do this morning as a warm up and then broke into my sewing stash where I have a ton of buttons in various sizes and colors. I dumped some out and we started working on patterns and counting into the teens and he seems to have a much easier time doing it hands on than counting photos on the computer. I even got Gavin (3) to join in and they had a blast sorting by color and counting each. Maybe tomorrow I will have him do a color graph for the buttons ;)

He has also read the Dick and Jane book so much I need to find him some more so hopefully the library has more to offer tonight when he goes to story hour. He has been doing really well with the sight words but spelling them later has been a little rough. So We need to practice more on seeing the word then writing it.
Hope you all are having a great Tuesday =)

Dick and Jane

So all last week we worked on the Simple Read with Dick and Jane books, one in particular "Go Away, Spot"
By Friday Dylan was able to read the whole book and proudly read it to his Daddy and Grammie. He even took it to bed with him last night and read in twice! =) I am beyond excited to see him so proud of himself.
When he was in public school I had to fight with him to read any material that was sent home and it often ended in crying fits so this is a huge improvement.
We have also been pulling words from the books to spell randomly through out the days and he knows about 80% of them. However there are a few words like "Mother" "Cookies" and "down" and "find" he struggles with, but hey its still better than not knowing any. And the ones he hasn't got yet are bigger words for beginners and he will get them soon ;)

Today Dylan is working on the letter "G" and will be doing all "g" spelling words.
Math on IXL was a bit of a struggle on Friday. I think its getting harder for him which is good b/c then I know he is ready to move on and learn whats up next. I think if we have time before I babysit today I will take him to the library to drop off last weeks books and get more. hmm Maybe Ill just wait til he goes to story hour at the library tomorrow evening lol... yeah that may work better. And I forgot to mention I found another place to get some Kindergarten worksheets. So far Dylan has done 9 ... just today. I also got a printable sight word dice. and a book. yay! check it out!
http://www.kindergartenworksheets.net/

E's are not so easy

This morning Dylan started the letter "E" which he has done already in public school, but since he hasn't caught on to much he already learned we are going over the basic letters. Capital and lowercase E's were the letter of the day. He struggled pretty bad with lowercase, they were getting more sloppy the more he did and then ended up turning backwards near the end. He couldn't spell any of the "E" words we discussed from his work book and refused to sound them out. So today E's are not so easy!
We put our E's on hold to try and read the simple Dick and Jane books. He actually did really well, the only words he didn't know were "Mother" and "Down" not too bad if you ask me ;) I asked him to spell the words from the book later and he only got a few wrong but he was pretty excited to see that majority of them were correct! yay!
He also did an hour of IXL, struggled when it came to spelling out and recognizing the numbers. But he finished and won an award ;) He blew through tally marks and completing sequences. Thank Goodness this program has virtual awards for each level completed, otherwise I'm sure he would have no interest in doing the math.
We are taking a break at noon to join our friends at the park for lunch and play. Both Dylan and Gavin are excited ;) I'll update later with the rest of his lessons for the day!

Back from Spring Break

As I mentioned before I follow our cities school schedule since my other 2 kids are in public schools. And well this monday was our first day back from spring break. although we did small stuff each day it wasnt the work load he would have on a normal day of home school and today he was feeling overwhelmed.

Yesterday we had to go to the store to get supplies to make a cake for my husbands birthday. Dylan would read the labels... well some, he's still learning to read ;) and so he helped pick out all the cake supplies and he could pick out a card for his Dad as long as he could read it. Well he found what seemed like the only card with no words on the front haha. a simple card with a flying cat is what he chose. He was beyond excited because it stated that he would fly up and hug the recipient of the card which was his Daddy ;) He also insisted on getting flowers from the garden section so we went through ALL the plants and flowers reading each label and discussing what each plant/flower looked like, how many petals or leaves etc. He settled on the red tulips and also thought we needed to grow something for home school so we picked up a raspberry plant. each day we will document what we see and measure its height for any progress. and of course when raspberries sprout we will have to explore them too ;) yum!

Today has been a challenge because I had a Dr. appt. and I had both boys. They would fight over the one v. reader since the other batteries died on us =P But Dylan did some reading and vocabulary on it while we waited on my Dr. to get in. As soon as lunch was done we started on letters A & B. reading them in words and writing them. He thought Bobby the Bear was hilarious but he actually wrote out sentences ... yay! Sometimes I feel like its just not enough but its the simple things I should reward right now, especially with his enthusiasm about what he has done. Hopefully by the beginning of next fall he will be caught up and ready to start 1st grade! =) I really do worry that his previous teacher may be right and may need to take Kindergarten again, BUT I am determined to at least get his confidence up and do my best to ensure he wont be held back.

DAY 4

4 Days in and he is doing great. Dylan loves Math so the IXL program online has been wonderful. It records his progress and when he achieves certain goals he gets rewarded with virtual prizes and such. He gets pretty excited about that. It did cost me $9.99/month but so far I think its worth it.
We have a packet of 100 sight words and he knows 3/4 of them and can almost do the others by sounding them out. yay!
I would say our only set back right now is when his brother gets home at noon from preschool he thinks we are done with school, thats its all about play time lol. It may take awhile for him to get used to that. Today is actually spring break and I follow our cities school schedule and our spring break will be from 3/23 - 4/4. BUT Dyl will still be doing some small tasks each day like reading and them working on IXL.

Happy Spring Break Everyone!

Day 1

So far this morning we had to go on a hunt for a stool that would fit his desk. Luckily we found one at the Peddlers Mall. He was excited to be on a hunt for something just for him, he even read me all the price tags ;)
We came home and got right to work. He seems very excited for everything we have planned today so I hope his enthusiasm stays high for the remainder of the school year.
Todays Plans is to review the basics so I know what exactly he needs more one on one with and try to focus on that. We will also have a book a week that we read and do projects around ... it will also let us go to the library which he loves!
-Go over sight words : red, can, see, foot, they, mine, to, in (read and write)
-Colors : red, yellow & green (cut and paste project)
-Story : Monsters Eat Whiny Children by Bruce  Kaplan (read & questions)
-Numbers :  1-20 (read, write, simple addition and subtraction)
-Computer time : 30min. of computer testing on IXL

Getting Ready

Mike and I went to talk to the schools Guidance counselor this morning. She pointed us in the right direction to get us going with Home Schooling Dylan our 5yr old son. We do have two other children who currently attend public schools in our area and they have been doing very well and I feel no need to pull them out to home school them. Natalie is 7 and in first grade. She has scored the highest out of all first graders in her school for reading. I couldn't be more proud of her. She really is one smart cookie. Gavin is 3 and attends the cities Preschool program for 3yr olds. He is making progress but would def. rather be home snuggling MaMa all day. I like him to continue going for social reasons, not sure he is really learning the basics just yet =/ But since he only goes 1/2 day from 9am to noon he will have lots of learning going on when he comes home.

Dylan is our 5yr old shy little boy. He tends to keep to himself and is pretty reserved while around people he doesn't know well. Right now he is considered above average according to this cities/state ranking. I don't feel that is accurate. To top of all other issues we have been having, he has some medical problems causing him to miss a lot of school. I feel that he may just need an extra year of nurturing before he is ready for public school and with his health, I would def. feel better knowing what is causing him all the pain he is in. We have been to the Dr. and ER back to back for months over his constipation. He has been battling this since he was 3, and we have gone to the extreme to help him. We are now being sent to a specialist to see if he needs a new special diet or if there is something else they can tell us or diagnose. I am worn out from seeing him in pain and I am ready for him to get relief. This has affected him in so many ways that it has almost taken over his life as well as ours. Our other kids have even missed school b/c of appt.'s for Dylan that are out of our area. So hopefully by homeschooling my lil man he will become more confident in his studies and we can seek the medical attention at any time with out worries of him falling behind in school.

So here it is I just finished filling out the paper stating he starts home school next monday. 3-21-11 yeah it will be a good day, a sigh of relief that will come from both Dylan and I. lol. Our Home school is now known as "Terkawi Home School" yeah so I may not be too creative in the naming department but hey it works right ;)