writing

homemade back-to-school lunchbox notes

August 15, 2011

I have been on a major cleaning kick lately, trying to get our family (and home) ready for the new school year. I want to begin on the right foot so that we’re organized, efficient, and sane. When I hit our work room, I noticed that one major piece of overflowing madness was our Card [...]

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playing with pixie–poem-writing, picture-creating

August 4, 2011

Maddy has loved using Pixie ever since Kindergarten. Her school has it installed on all of the computers in the lab, and when I asked her what she wanted to do on our computer early this summer, she said, Pixie! Pixie is ‘creativity’ software by Tech4Learing that can be used to share ideas, imagination, and [...]

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gettting ready for kindergarten: summertime prep

July 16, 2011

We’re almost exactly at the mid-summer point, and before we know it, the new school year will be upon us. Ahhhhhhh! So with my sweet Owen heading off to the wilds of Kindergarten this year (wah!), I thought it would be worthwhile to share a few things we’re doing over here to get our big [...]

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making writing fun with a mini-me collage

June 28, 2011

Today, after lunch and before we went back to the pool for the afternoon, I hit the craft room with Maddy, Owen, and Cora to do something I always loved doing as a kid. We took their Everyday Name Books from last summer and upped the fun factor a bit by partnering it with this [...]

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a game for practicing spelling, sight words, or letters: WORDO!

May 26, 2011

With the end of the school year quickly approaching, we’re all getting antsy for summer. So I’ve had to be super crafty during our work time in order to keep Maddy, Owen, and Cora engaged and excited.  As I’ve said before, most days I go with whatever Owen and Cora are up for doing, but [...]

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how kids can–and should–help with gardening

May 23, 2011

It’s been a different kind of weekend over here; our littlest one has been under the weather for the greater part of the last four days, and the wedding shower I was supposed to attend on Saturday in Pennsylvania never happened because I had to stay here with Cora while my husband coached Maddy and [...]

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playing with numbers: counting, matching, spelling, and more!

May 10, 2011

My Owen has been enamored with numbers from the time he was teeny. He’s got a brain for numbers, he’s got a thing number puzzles, and he’s got a way of looking at numbers that I cannot understand. But I do understand that though his math skeeeels will far surpass mine most likely by the [...]

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easy, super-cute homemade valentines (with tattoos!)

February 11, 2011

One of my favorite holidays is right around the corner–Valentine’s Day!  I’m totally not into it for the lovey-dovey stuff; that should happen every day if you ask me, and the drugstore boxes of candy, cards, and roses I can do without. I love Valentine’s Day because the big, nerdy teacher in me knows that [...]

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getting kids to write: write around the room

January 26, 2011

Finding interesting and meaningful activities for Owen and Cora during Maddy’s homework time has kept me busy lately, but I’ve found tons of great things for these two to do.  Finally, it’s a natural part of our day for everyone to sit down for ‘work time’ after snacks. Recently, I pulled out an oldie but [...]

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wiggly words: wild, crazy practice with spelling and sight words

January 20, 2011

We’re always trying to mix things up over here–get a little crazy, even–when it comes to playing with those spelling and sight words. So before Maddy’s long i spelling test last week, after she TCR’d the words and after we played a few simple games with them, we wiggly-worded it. Very simple. Very wiggly.  Very [...]

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three cheers for an awesome cheerleading birthday party!

January 15, 2011

Maddy celebrated her big #7 last month, and we rang in her birthday with a cheerleading birthday party, complete with expert cheerleaders, homemade pom-poms, megaphones, and dance routines. It was a blast, but we couldn’t have done it without a ton of help from Aunt Katie (who led the pom-pom making team) and our amazing [...]

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