New Year

We kicked off our new school year this week. Our home is now enjoying a third grader and a preschooler. Both kiddos are very busy, loving their lessons and growing up all to quickly! We have some fun projects planned for the year, outings and field trips, extra curricular activities, experiments and challenges for the year ahead.... we are all excited!!

Swimming

The kids are back in swim lessons, filling up two evenings a week! Holly has really missed our small break from swimming and Hudson has finally aged into being in his own class -- perfect timing to start back up. Each are finding their way in their lessons. Hudson is building up courage and confidence with his instructors and Holly is working on getting her strength and endurance back up to her tested level. Best of all, they are having fun with it!

Rock Hound Discovery Kit

Bryan and Holly picked up this neat little Rock Hound Discovery Kit from a place called Rock Solid Learning website. This was a fun bag of sandy dirt filled with a large variety of rocks and fossil bits. She loved it!!!

We placed the contents into a bin and she then sifted through and found items - using a magnifying glass, loupe, brushes and a card to identify her findings this kept her entertained for some time. Rocks and fossils are right up her alley so Holly adored this project kit! We also got a bag of rocks to add to her tumbler mix in which she cannot wait to get started!

Fishing

Holly enjoyed a bit of fishing with Dad this week! We visited two different lakes for her to drop her line in. She is interested in learning more on fishing and Bryan is ready to take this on as he would love to see her enjoy this hobby... I would love to see her enjoy this hobby!

Spelling Fun

With Holly's spelling each week I try to mix it up a bit. Typically I will set her up with an art project focused on her spelling words or a secret code game, maybe a scavenger hunt or riddles to solve. This week I broke out our little word tiles that are linked with coins. She spelled each word on her list, added up the total and wrote it next to that work in her book. After she was all done, I paid her for the most expensive word. Before she started she made a prediction as to which word would be the winning word... she learned her prediction was wrong. This was a fun lesson that tied in both math and spelling!!

Saturday Singers

Holly participated in a chorus program called Saturday Singers with the instructors from the Tacoma Youth Chorus. This was a great introduction class to see if Holly enjoyed the program. My hope is that she will audition well enough to join the second grade choir for next school year. Having a solid music program is very important to me and I know this would be a great fit for her.

This past weekend the Saturday Singers program wrapped up and the kids put on a small showing of the songs they learned. Some included the use of an instrument and they even did one song with a small dance... that led to parent participation. It was a lot of fun and very sweet to watch!

Spelling & Art

This week for spelling a fun project has included a Christmas Tree - a very simple and easy project!

I cut the pieces so that Holly would have to sort them by size correctly. I wrote all of her spelling words, one on each branch for her to copy. Then she had to organize them correctly before finishing her project. She loved doing this one and it is very easy to accomplish!

Her words for this week are:

• kinder
• kindest
• longer
• longest
• faster
• fastest
• softer
• softest
• higher
• highest
• some
• more

Nature Exchange

A blog that I really enjoy reading called The Magnifying Glass is hosting a Nature Exchange this fall season. This will be Holly's first time participating but she is rather excited about it. The gal paired us up with a family from Alabama.... a different region than us. The idea is you collect safe items from nature in your area and package them up to mail to our partners across the country. When I mean safe, I mean baking seeds so they are not able to reseed and ensuring you are not sending invasive species.

We have spent the past couple of weeks collecting little bits from our time in nature - while on walks, while at the beach, from our yard, while on a Nature Club outing and even a treasure collected earlier in the year from Holly's personal collection. This morning Holly made her final selections and packaged up the box to mail out later this afternoon. Soon we should receive her box to learn with. When it arrives I will share!

Secret Code Fall Words

Our Fall Words list has been posted on the learning wall, we have done some Read, Build & Write mats with them and of course read them a lot. However today I used this great little secret code sheet I found online here: Mrs. Gilchrist's Class - Secret Code Word Sheet We have used this for fun work or spelling words, but today Holly created a small booklet of fall words we are focusing on this month.

To do this we have a laminated version of this Secret Code Words sheet and then I created small sheets with the codes to spell out her fall words. I put blanks down to write the letters on. She had the figure them out, read them to me and then draw them. When all finished she stapled them together as a mini-booklet. It was a lot of fun!

I am amazed how adding a Secret Code element can change the whole concept of learning new words... makes learning a lot of fun!

Activities for Holly - Soccer

Holly has finished up her second year of soccer! She grew a lot this year, her skills improved immensely even though her comedic act still is in full play while on the field. She is a happy girl who gallops across the field with a smile... instead of getting on the ball and taking it back. Part of me wants her to get in there to get the ball the other part of me wants her to remain the happy girl skipping down the field... as those moments are passing so quickly, she is growing up and slowly replacing those little 'kid moments' with adult ones. It is going to quickly!

Here are a few photos from her final game!