Here’s another simple little game to practice those math facts …

Addition Memory – Take the Aces-nines out of a deck of cards (to make it easier and/or quicker just take 2 of each).  Shuffle the cards and lay them face down and play like regular memory but instead of finding matches you are trying to find two cards that total 10.  I learned about this game from the Right Start math curriculum that we have and it suggests that the child uses the abacus if needed.  They have this suggestion to deter the children from counting on their fingers.

Parker, like most boys his age loves to build with blocks.  However, before he can start building anything, he has to do this first:

Finally!  Permission to be messy!  Read more: Messy homes are good for kids

One of Sophie’s favorite things to do is draw.  I recently got her the book I Can Draw Animals – she loves it!  This book shows the child step by step how to draw different animals.  Here are some of her results. (I’m including the final picture of the animal from the book as well).

FISH

FLAMINGO

FROG

HORSE

MONKEY

RABBIT

TIGER

TURTLE

Teddy Bear

Children love to be silly and the center of attention.  What better way to accomplish both then to put on a play?  Introducing the Davis Clan dramatic reenactment of the Three Little Pigs …

PS. The Big Bad Wolf was played by Hilda Davis (the dog).

Yesterday we decorated our Christmas tree for the birds!  We spread peanut butter on pinecones and then dipped them into birdseed and used them as decorations for the tree.  The kids seemed really excited about this but after two pinecones they stopped and started digging in the dirt.  They found a worm and played with that for a while and then they came to me all excited over a ‘discovery’ they found.  It looked like a cocoon  – Daddy helped them put it in a jar and researched to see what it was.  It turned out to be the cocoon of a Tobacco Hornworm – which Mommy is NOT thrilled about – those darn things ruined our tomato plants this summer!

So Parker has been learning about sentences recently. What makes a complete sentence, what a fragment is, what is a noun, etc… He seemed to pick up the differences between nouns and verbs pretty quick, but has trouble sometimes distinguishing between complete sentences and sentence fragments. So we had a little project to do to help learn about sentences. We cut out sentences from a magazine and then a picture to go with the sentence. I had hoped to get Parker to make a story with this project but he did 2 sentences and then lost interest!

The kids starting their project:

Sarah learning to use scissors:

Sophie was all about the animal pictures:

Parker’s completed project:

Mommy’s reward:

Sophie adores animals and the one she adores the most is our cat, Max. Why does she adore Max so much? Well, she discovered that she can pick him up and carry him! It’s a common site in our house to see her lugging poor Max around. She takes him to his food dish, she carries him to the bed, sometimes she even carries him upside down. And through it all, Max takes it. He might try to escape, and I’ve seen him hiding in various places but he never hisses or scratches at Sophie. He’s a good kitty!

The Virginia Air and Space Museum had a robot workshop last week for homeschoolers. Dan took Parker and they had a great time learning about robots. Parker proudly showed off his handiwork:

The kids really enjoyed decorating the Christmas tree.  Sophie, I think, enjoyed it more than anyone and everyday she asks me what else we can decorate.

Hopefully by the time Christmas is over we will have some ornaments left!