Our Homeschool, Week 20: "Flowers"

This is almost a 2 week long theme, because the two themes are very similar. Next week, we are doing Spring themed activities, and this week, we learned about flowers.

He was really engaged in Signing Time this week, so we watched a LOT of that, plus the Treeschoolers episode on Flowers and Trees. I'm planning to do an actual review on the Treeschoolers series in an upcoming post. Some of the other activities we did included sorting flowers and magnets by color, building a flower out of shapes, and sorting the letter F (for Flower) by uppercase and lowercase. Lastly, we introduced the Melissa & Doug Spelling Game and Bu LOVED it! He got the hang of placing the puzzle pieces in order really quickly, which is useful as a basis for spelling later. 

UPCOMING THEMES:

Feb 29 - Spring

Mar 7 - Ocean

Mar 14 - St. Patrick's Day

Mar 21 - Easter

Mar 28 - Circus

Our Homeschool, Week 19: "Pets"

We just finished our "Pets" week! There were lots of fun pet-themed activities that we found on Pinterest, here are a few of the ones we did!

 

Bu practiced shape recognition with his OT...she asked him questions like "where is the triangle?" and then Bu would put a sticker in the triangle shape. This helped his fine motor control and was also sensory (he hates stickers), plus it obviously helped with his shapes and vocabulary. We practiced color recognition and matching by putting "puppies" in their matching "dog houses". And of course, Bu played with his Pets puzzle a LOT, it's one of his favorites!

He did some sight word flashcards this week on his iPad. We did an activity where we practiced differentiating between upper and lowercase letters. I don't think this was a great choice of letter (P is so similar in both variations that it wasn't very interesting) but I really like the idea of the activity. We did some color sorting in "goldfish bowls" and even more puzzles!

We also just signed up for ABC Mouse. I'm looking forward to getting Bu interested in doing computer work, and I like that the activities start at "toddler level" so we can build from basics.

UPCOMING THEMES:

Feb 22 - Flowers
Feb 29 - Spring 

#SelfLoveSunday

As many of you know, I've been a HAES advocate and blogger forEVER. When I was pregnant with my son, I was interviewed by NBC for a news story regarding OBs refusing to take patients strictly based on BMI. I argued that weight & health are not always linked, and that these practices were discriminatory. One of the comments my story later received was "good luck keeping up with your kid at a playground at that weight"

Here we are, almost 5 years later. I weigh exactly what I weighed when I got pregnant, and yet here I am, playing with my son and having a blast. This weekend we ran, climbed ropes and slid down slides for hours together. We had a great time!

Long story short, don't ever let anyone tell you "you can't"...especially because of your weight! 

Our Homeschool, Week 18: "Valentine's Day"

It took a while, but I'm here to tell you about our Valentine's week! We've been busy, so I haven't really gotten a chance to blog. We had a lot of fun this week, there's such a wealth of ideas for activities that have a Valentine's theme online.

Bu did a lot of crafts this week, making Valentine's for me with his therapists and vice versa. We also had a LOT of fun sorting colors on hearts, matching uppercase with lowercase letters, and especially sorting chocolate shapes! He insisted on doing that last one over and over, he really liked it! We rounded out our Valentine's week with Signing Time videos that showed us signs for different feelings, and also signs for friends and family members.

UPCOMING THEMES:

Feb 15 - Pets

Feb 22 - Flowers
Feb 29 - Spring 

Our Homeschool, Week 17: "Zoo"

We just did our Zoo themed week...I'd been looking forward to this for a month, because I knew it meant a field trip was in order! Unfortunately, Bu caught a cold from one of his therapists, so we had to take it easy this week. We did our usual puzzles, sing-a-longs and Signing Time. We also used a new toy to strengthen our counting.

Thankfully, he was feeling better by the end of the week, so we were able to do our field trip after all! We had such a great time, pointing out all the animals and running around. It was a perfect (and rare) 65 degree day, so it was nice out for us AND the animals!

UPCOMING THEMES:

Feb 8 - Valentine's Day

Feb 15 - Pets

Feb 22 - Flowers
Feb 29 - Spring 

Currently...

Reading: about to start on "Disconnected Kids"...I have a book in mind to read each month for the rest of the year, but I want to read the autism-specific ones ASAP so I can discuss them with our specialist in April

Working on: roasting a chicken

Watching: "Meet the Phonics: Blends" per Bu's request...but when I'm able, I'm on season 2 of Sherlock and hubs and I are on season 3 of Star Trek: TNG

Thinking about: how I wish my son felt better. He's had a bad cold for days and it's starting to look like I might be next

Eating: so much chicken. I'm a little over chicken.

Looking Forward To: DAPPER DAY AT DISNEY! FLORIDA SUPER CON! COCOA BEACH! SEA WORLD! But most urgently, Bu being well again!!!

Our Homeschool, Week 16: "Birds"

This week, we did activities from our Birds board. We watched an episode of Magic School Bus that taught us about cold-blooded animals, and reviewed our ASL alphabet. We also continued our uppercase/lowercase letter recognition.

My friend Rachel brought us some pine cones from up north, so we could do this bird craft! I cut the eyes, beak and wings from felt and hot-glued them onto the pine cone. Bu then helped me pick up small pom-poms (working on pincer grip for fine motor and also sensory tolerance) and pushing them into the crevices. It wasn't his favorite thing lol but it's cute!

Next week, we're doing a Zoo theme! I'm very excited because if the weather permits, we're going to have a field trip!

UPCOMING THEMES:

Feb 1 - Zoo

Feb 8 - Valentine's Day

Feb 15 - Pets

Feb 22 - Flowers