(Picture for this post is on Homeschool Life's Facebook page, blogger is not letting me upload it here for some reason.)
In Kindergarten for the girls we've now covered all the vowels and are working our way through the consonants. That means time to start blending sounds together and reading small words.
For each consonant they have learned so far we have blend flashcards and a blend "ladder" flashcard combining the consonant with each of the vowels. The blend ladders work great for reviewing how to blend, it is a 4x6(ish) inch card that has a ladder with five rungs and above each rung is one blend for whatever consonant the card is for. For example the T blend ladder has tă, tĕ, tĭ, tŏ, and tŭ; one on each rung and they can sound their way up and down the ladder. Then I use the flashcards to mix it up and play games without the blends being in any type of order.
By adding another consonant to the end of the blend they can read simple 3-4 letter words like bat, hat, ten, bib, mitt, and tell. And they are very proud of themselves when they get it right.
The have their good and bad days, but they are getting the hang of it. Some days they just don't want to put the effort in so we'll take a break or cut back a little on what was scheduled for the day.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Bread!
I have started making my own bread using a yeast starter and it is wonderful. The starter took me a few tries to get going, but now that it is all set I've made three loafs of homemade sourdough bread. I've been tweaking the recipe a bit got get it just right and each loaf has been a little bit better.
It takes some work, but I really am enjoying the process and am going to keep going with it and start making homemade noodles later on this week. Yesterday was my first day going shopping and not buying any bread, just some more flour : ) and out of a bag of flour that costs as much as one loaf of store bought bread I can make four or more loafs of my own- going to do the math on it this time around.
This is one of the first steps I'm taking at cooking, eating, and living healthier. My sister and I are both going to be adding in more homemade, organic foods and homemade, no-chemical cleaning items into our lives.
Besides being healthier for our families overall, doing things like this yourself is so rewarding emotionally. To be able to look at something and know that you made it, and that it is better for you than what you were previously doing feels great.
I'll be posting the recipe for the starter and bread in a few days once I get it all written out.
It takes some work, but I really am enjoying the process and am going to keep going with it and start making homemade noodles later on this week. Yesterday was my first day going shopping and not buying any bread, just some more flour : ) and out of a bag of flour that costs as much as one loaf of store bought bread I can make four or more loafs of my own- going to do the math on it this time around.
This is one of the first steps I'm taking at cooking, eating, and living healthier. My sister and I are both going to be adding in more homemade, organic foods and homemade, no-chemical cleaning items into our lives.
Besides being healthier for our families overall, doing things like this yourself is so rewarding emotionally. To be able to look at something and know that you made it, and that it is better for you than what you were previously doing feels great.
I'll be posting the recipe for the starter and bread in a few days once I get it all written out.
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Giving up Pop
Today I have officially gone a whole week without having any pop, and that is an accomplishment for me because...I really like pop-Coke, Pepsi, Mt Dew, and I would drink a LOT of it. But it is not good for your body, your teeth, and has a lot of empty calories. So after a bad dentist appointment(the pregnancies messed with my teeth so they are no longer as resistant to the acid as they used to be), and having a discussion with Kyla(she asks so many questions) about how it is bad for my teeth and I shouldn't drink it anymore I decided it was time to cut it out completely.
I've tried cutting back on how much I consumed before, but never wanted to give it up completely and that led to falling off the wagon. The first few days were hard because I was addicted to the caffiene so cutting it out gave me some nasty headaches. Now though I'm not craving it as much and it's worked itself out of my system so the caffiene headaches have stopped... I think I'll make it this time.
This is one of the first steps in living healthier, and I do feel better having done it. Drinking so many calories has not helped in my efforts to get to my goal weight, and combining this with eating healthier and working out again should make losing the weight go much better.
I've tried cutting back on how much I consumed before, but never wanted to give it up completely and that led to falling off the wagon. The first few days were hard because I was addicted to the caffiene so cutting it out gave me some nasty headaches. Now though I'm not craving it as much and it's worked itself out of my system so the caffiene headaches have stopped... I think I'll make it this time.
This is one of the first steps in living healthier, and I do feel better having done it. Drinking so many calories has not helped in my efforts to get to my goal weight, and combining this with eating healthier and working out again should make losing the weight go much better.
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