The Taters and Their Tots: January 2009

Homeschool Bargain Turned Phonics Lesson

After Halloween this year, I found this box of foam adhesive-backed letters on clearance at Wal Mart. $1.21 for 1,000 letters! What a deal! I snatched them up and Nathan and I have been using them ever since.

Today, I dumped out a pile of them on the table, and handed Nate a piece of paper. He was pretty excited when I told him we would be spelling words.

First, HAT. What's the beginning sound, Nate?
By the way, I would be fired as Nate's official photographer if I did not point out to you his cool Spidey "ajama" shirt. He is quite proud of this hand-me-down from big brother, Kole!

Next, FAT. I realize it's not very PC, but it did help me remember that I need to workout again this afternoon, haha!

After spelling 6 whole words, we had fun illustrating them with crayons.

We had to have a small discussion about our illustrations needing to wear clothes! Mr. Fat Man promised to show up with his pants on next time :) For today, though, Mr. Fat Man was miraculously transformed into the Fat Lady.

We had a tongue roll instead of a drum roll, and we were all done. Ta-da!!!

Another Milestone

Today marked yet another remarkable moment that I was privileged to witness while at home with my 3 sweeties. Nathan has recently jumped the hurdle with his letters, recognizing both capital and lowercase of all, as well as writing them on his own. So today, I pulled out The Phonics Game. Thanks, by the way, Mom and Dad, for lending this to me - remember buying it for Drew all those years ago? We're putting it to good use!

After a short instructional session on video covering the sound or sounds that each letter makes, we played a card game called In The Beginning. Basically, it's just a deck of cards with a short word to sound out on each of them. I was absolutely THRILLED when Nathan was able to sound out the words all by himself! Of course, this does mean he's growing up way too fast, but it's very exciting, too!

Miss Granny

The lovely lady in the picture above is affectionately known to my children as "Miss Geneva" or "Miss Granny". She is the woman who graciously opens her home to 4 SAHMs, and all their children, on Thursdays. She has taught us all how to sew, and passed on her particular love for quilting to us, too. She is a rare gem, talented, generous, hospitable, and loving. She not only has us all over, she cooks for us. She not only has us over and cooks for us, she loves on our kids and entertains them while we work on our various projects. She not only does all those things, she does it with kindness, love, and grace.

She was even gracious to me 2 weeks ago in the face of one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. I had moved my car out of the driveway so some men could have room to trim her trees. As I walked back toward her house, I decided to loop through the back yard where she was watching all the kids play. Somehow, along the way, I stepped in a large pile of dog poo, and unbeknownst to me at the moment, tracked it ALL OVER HER LIVING ROOM!! It wasn't until my youngest son Nathan and his friend Abigail began noticing the smell and pinching their noses that I discovered my faux pas. I could not believe the mess I had made. I went out to tell her and she simply said, "Well, I bet we can clean it up!" No big deal. No frustration, irritation, or shaming me. Of course, I probably seemed pretty well shamed already, beet red face and all.

People like Geneva probably have no idea what a blessing they are to people like me. I think I'd better tell her today. You just never know about tomorrow.

Just for my pal, Diane

Diane, I've finally decided to honor your kind requests to see current photos of me. Disclaimer: I will not be held responsible for any kind of computer malfunction or meltdown that occurs as a result of viewing the following photos!

Enjoy :)

Introducing Taterbot !

Hi, everyone. A big event has taken place at our house. Riley received an AWESOME birthday present this year - a Lego NXT Mindstorms Robotics kit!! She's already an expert, of course, thanks to her sweet Gran and Pock (You rock, Gran and Pock!!).

Tonight, she and I (mostly SHE) built a Tribot. We decided his name should be Taterbot. The first mission was simple, but successful. The first of many to come, I'm sure.

Enjoy!

New Beginnings

I hope this finds everyone who reads my mumbo-jumbo enjoying a great start to 2009!

We at the Tatum household have started off with a bang! Not literally, but figuratively, of course. Having had close to 3 weeks off from school, I , for one, was anxious to get started again this morning.

I spent the past few days writing out lesson plans and gathering materials for the next few weeks' assignments. We're working on lots of new concepts already, including gathering data and discussing probabilities in math, punctuation and singular and plural possessive nouns in language arts, and simple machines in science. We have lots of fun experiments coming up and we are all looking forward to the hands-on lessons.

Today, Kole and I did some work at the dry erase board in our home classroom. His assignment was to punctuate and capitalize where appropriate. I had written several sentences on the board, all in lowercase letters, and with no punctuation. It was a great feeling for both of us when he completed the assignment. He did such a great job! Way to go, Kole !!!!