Creating thank-you notes for children

I think teaching children how to write thank-you notes and show appreciation for the gifts they receive is an important quality. I like to write thank-you notes immediately upon receiving the gift and I intend to teach that trait to my children.

Of course it's easier to do when your child is able to write and spell without your assistance.
I think I've come up with a good solution though.

One thing we started doing last year was have each child draw a picture and simply write "Thank-you." I then photo copy the note to create our Thank-You stationery.

Next, they dictate their note to me and I write it on the back.
This is a good time to talk to them about proper wording. I think the dictation method is better than the fill-in the blank style stationery because they don't learn about proper wording.

You could also do this for grandparents and have your children (or all of the grandchildren collectively) create stationery cards as a gift. Just have the children draw generic pictures for stationery or themed pictures for cards such as Birthday or your favorite holidays and color copy them onto card stock paper.

Fish

by G-man

By Pumpkin

by Bear

How we use dry erase boards in our homeschool

At the FPEA convention this year I bought a couple dry erase lapboard sets from Miller Pads and Paper. They work perfectly for us to practice our handwriting, spelling and work on our word families----all at once!

If your kids complain about practicing their handwriting, try dry-erase boards. They are easy on the hands (they don't get tired as easily) and are so much fun. We also enjoy using mini magnetic boards and mini chalkboards.

Language Arts Learning Centers

This year I started using Learning Centers in our homeschool. It has been a wonderful transitional activity for me in between subjects, or when I have to attend to the baby (Cutie Pie). It has also been a great way for the boys to help Pumpkin with her own schoolwork. They take great pride in helping her and I think it is also helping to foster a close sibling relationship; something that I think is particularly important when your siblings are twins.

This month our center focus is Language Arts. Learning Resources had a great sale where I was able to snag an Early Reading first classroom kit for $160 (originally $400).





It's great to not have to sit at a desk (or kitchen table) all the time to learn. When I find myself getting into a routine where the majority of our schoolwork is done at the desk I make a conscious effort to pull myself out of it, and get us up and moving around. Learning should be fun and one of the benefits of homeschooling is that we are not confined to a single room (or table) for our learning.


We have found some wonderful file folder games from File Folder Fun.
They are free and I cannot thank Valerie enough for being willing to share her talent and resources. She inspires me to try to give back to the homeschooling community too.

Bear is working on Shamrock Phonics (left).

Read Alouds: The Library by Sarah Stewart

Elizabeth Brown
entered the world
dropping straight down from the sky.

Elizabeth Brown
entered the world
skinny, near-sighted and shy.

Shy didn't like to play with dolls
She didn't like to skate
She learned to read quite early
and at an incredible rate.

The Library by Sarah Stewart is our latest favorite read aloud. I particularly like the rhyming text but am equally drawn to the wonderful illustrations. We were sad that we were unable to find an author's website or video interview of Sarah Stewart or her husband, illustrator David Small. We did learn that Sarah Stewart and illustrator David Small are married and their first book together was The Money Tree. It is on our book list.

Other library themed favorites include:
Library Lil by Suzanne Williams
Library Lion by Michelle Knudson
Library Mouse by Daniel Kirk

Lepidopterists

What is a Lepidopterist?

Someone who collects butterflies, of course!