summer school time Week 1

Monday we did the letter A and we talked about Happy and Sad.
I used an old family home evening lesson picture it says Happy when I choose the right and Sad - Uh-Oh. Grayson thought the uh-oh part was funny.


Tuesday we did the letter B. We played a thumbs up and thumbs down game - I would say a word, and they had to do thumbs up if it started with B, or thumbs down if it didn't. We also taked about the emotion SLEEPY.


The loved this picture of sleepy the dwarf.



And they loved my surprize activty - we rolled out some sleeping bags in Graysons room. They played in those ALL Day long :)




On Wed was the letter C - and since there was a picture of cookies, Thomas demanded that we make oatmeal cookies. The emotion for the day was anger (switched from my original plan, cuz I was so exhausted I hadn't prepared well for school time, so we just winged it). I just talked about angry faces and how we can talk thru things when we get mad to make things better.






Thursday's letter was D and the emotion was Excited. The lesson was a little bumpy because I didn't get to school time until after I had run morning errands and finished up with lunch. So I didn't have their attention. But I put their surprize (little Cars) in bags, and they got to open their presents and they were very excited! They played with those cars all night long, and wanted to take them to bed with them.



Today we did the letter E and the emotion was confused and frustrated. We did a treasure hunt so that if they were confused they had to say "I don't understand" and if they were frustrated they had to say "Help please".





I had a "map" of our house, and Thomas figured it out quickly. They had to hunt around and find the X's. There he found one of the 4 pieces of a puzzle to put together to reveal the "surprize". They loved putting the puzzle together over and over. And later Grayson went around hiding all the pieces again, so we could hunt for them again.








oh yeah, and their surprize was an icecream cone :)

quick update

No I am not pregnant. We are trying - but after another weird month - well, we're not pregnant. I just wanted to tell everyone, because I have had 3 people ask, and it's kinda hard to have to say no when it's so fresh - like a little salt in the wound.

on a happier note, our summer school time is working out really well. Both boys are liking it. And I LOVE watching Thomas write his name and work on his letters each day.

and if any other Hansen cousins are reading this - the Hansen reunion - at Bear Lake - first weekend of Aug -- you should come! Several of us Anderson's will be there.

free educational helps

http://www.theheadoftheclass.com/

I found this link from LDS Living Magazine, and got worksheets for writing every letter! I was just going to try to make my own - but now I don't have to!

Summer schooling

Thomas's therapist said that I should start working Thomas into a routine before school starts. I have been putting it off, but now there are just 6 weeks of summer left, so it is a perfect time to start.
Starting next monday this is what our schedule is going to look like:
each day he will write his name and work on the letter of the day.

Emotions -
A--happy/sad - sing "if you chance to meet a frown", make paper plate happy and sad faces
B--sleepy/tired - play with sleeping bags maybe make a fort or set up the tent
C--excited - a present or treat
D--angry - I don't know what I will do yet, but this is going to be an important one to cover with Thomas
E--confused/frustrated - I want him to learn that he can say "I don't understand" and "help please" - treasure hunt with a map

Opposites
F-- hard/soft - rocks and playdough
G-- loud/quiet - drums
H-- yes/no - playing a clifford matching game
I-- up/down - if we can we'll fly a kite - tape measure activity or jumping on trampoline
J-- left/right - trace hands, then cut out

Book of Mormon characters
K-- Nephi
L-- Enos
M-- Ammon
N-- Captain Moroni
O-- Mormon

Songs --- this is a week we will be camping the first half of the week, so I picked something that wouldn't require a desk or any tools - and I added an extra day
where is Thumbkin
Apples and Bananas
Hinges
P--If your happy and you know it
Q-- Old McDonald
R-- Head shoulders knees and toes

"School stuff"
S -- letters - sing the alphabet songs -
T -- numbers - play a goldfish counting game with goldfish crackers
U -- shapes - playdough again
V -- colors - doing a color treasure hunt around the house - and making a poster with cut up magazines
W -- exclusively working on writing his Name.

BOOKS --
X-- taking a trip to the local library
Y-- haven't decided on which books to use yet for this week - will update...
Z --

So there is the agenda -
\when I told my fabulous friend Tracie that I was going to be starting this, she loaned me a huge file box full of teaching tools and ideas for me to look thru. So as we do each week, I will keep posting about what else we did and how Thomas (and Grayson too) are liking this plan I have come up with. :)
-

and finally an update from today

We got a pine tree from Shelly and Jared - straight from the forests of WY.

so we slaved away all day to make it a good home in our front yard!



We discovered that our yard is made up of 1 inch of topsoil, 2 feet of rock, and then ya find the clay. So needless to say, it was a TOUGH dig. I just hope that he can grow in such bad soil.



We figured we could use the rocks - so we washed as many as we could and put them in the front rock bed.

I had planned to cement a large area here in the front, but we decided that if we follow the Dave Ramsey Total Money Makeover, that this was a project that could wait. It was a want and not a need. So for now I will fill it with as many rocks as I can collect.

The 4th of July

We had such a great 4th of July this year! I hope I helped the boys make some good memories!

We started out with our small town parade. It consisted of a few firetrucks, floats, tractors and kids on bikes! The boys had a great time getting candy.









Later, after we all got to take a nap, we played outside with the neighbors.

They played "parade" - where they threw the candy all around and then picked it back up again :)




We went to a new spot to watch the fireworks in Brigham this year. When we lived in town, we would just go on the south side, on the high school lawn. But this year we wanted to be able to get out of town quickly. So we went to the north side of the parks. We got a great parking place. And it was just a short walk. We got there in plenty of time to get a great spot. You can see in this picture that the area was pretty clear when we got there.

and in this picture you can sorta see how many people came after us. but it was still not even crowded.


We had our chairs, and blankets. Even with a nap, Grayson was already tired by 9:30 when it finally got dark.

We kept the boys entertained until the show started with juice boxes, cheetos, music on our phones, and these flags - which after the novelty wore off a bit, we snapped them and the glow sticks added even more fun. I was glad I was prepared this year. Everytime I pulled out the next surprize, and they would smile, it made me feel so good that I was able to make this a great experience for them.

Grandpa's Semi

Tom and Lori stopped in for a visit, and let the boys see the truck! Hoo, boy! They thought that was the coolest!

summer storms

ah, is there anything as cool as a nice summer rain :)

My silly, cute little Grayson

I sure get a kick out of Grayson as his fun little personality is developing.



Here he's playing with the neighbor's kitty. He LOVES animals. I made him the toy, so he could keep the kitty's attention.


he loves his Lightning McQueen hat - even if it's for cold winter weather, he insisted on wearing it. AND he has stunningly handsome wellie boots that he tries to wear around 24/7


He loves helping me vacuum!