Toys on Rotation

I’m not sure what your toy stash looks like but at my house, my kids are blessed to the max with toys.  😉  I’m pretty particular about the type toys my kids receive- toys that promote violence or contradict our family’s moral code are out.  I prefer to buy my kids toys that are fun and educational, so when people ask about gifts for my boys, I try to steer them in that direction.  🙂

And it just so happens that we receive a lot of cool hand-me-down toys from family members whose children have outgrown them.  One of the perks of being the ‘baby’ in the family, I suppose.  😉

I love having so many people who love gifting my children….that’s a huge blessing (to say the least)  but I got tired of seeing toys all over the house long after playtime was over.  So I had to come up with a system that would work in our little house.  That’s when ‘toys on rotation’ was born.

Here’s how it works:  we store a certain amount of toys in the kids’ room, all others are placed in containers and stored in the basement.  After 6 months or so, we pull out a couple containers and switch things out.  That’s it.  It’s that simple.

And honestly, my kids seem to play so much better with less.  And clean-up time isn’t near as overwhelming now that we’ve cutback on how much we have out at a time.

Take our wooden train set, for example.  I considered giving it away. I felt like my boys were starting to outgrow it and they hadn’t played with that particular set in about a year.  But Sunshine asked about it one day out-of-the-blue and voila! It’s like Christmas time at our house!  I love it when that happens!   😉

Where We’ve Been

Oh what a busy, wonderful, blessed life we live.  😉

We Added Sign Language

Bible History– The boys colored the timeline figures (that coincide with the Mystery of History) while I read the lesson on Adam and Eve.  Then we added the pieces to our timeline board.

Sign Language– Sunshine has been asking me to teach him sign language, so I purchased a set of these flash cards and hung the alphabet symbols above the letter it represents.  When we discuss the alphabet, I have Buckaroo name the letter and Sunshine shows the sign for it.  Aside from the alphabet, I wasn’t real impressed with the packaged set and just decided to look online for other basic words.  A quick Google search  usually provides us with a [short] video so the boys just mimic what they see on the clip.  And from there, we practice that sign several times throughout the day.  So far Sunny has a sign vocabulary of about 15 words.

Science– We discussed the type environments animals live in and how God provided a home suitable for all of His creation.  Then we played a game from this book called ‘Animal Homes.’

Math– Buckaroo worked on matching objects to numbers and <, >, =.  The alligator signs were a free download from here.  He did really well with numbers 0-10.  Sunshine did a lesson in his workbook and then reviewed patterns for fun.

Here my little [left-handed soldier] man is working on identifying and circling items that are the same/different.

Practicing how to cut on the lines.

Geography–  The boys completed the first lesson in their Geography books.  We learned what a map is and how to use one.  Then they had to draw a map of their bedroom.  Buckaroo drew a picture of his bed and decided he was done.

Don’t you just love how he pulls the hat so far down on his head that it smooshes his ears?  That’s my boy.  😉

Sunny took his time and drew every piece of furniture that is in his room.

This kid loves to draw!  And he’s really good at it too.  Another skill he must of inherited from his dad! 😉

Incorporating Games

Another busy day in homeschool land.  Aren’t they all?  😉  We began with our Morning Board [as always] and then we jumped right into the school towers.

Language Arts/Grammar– Sunshine is working on nouns/pronouns.  When we moved over to his Grammar lesson, I asked him if he remembered the name for the symbol we use that shows possession of something.  He thought about it a second, grinned and said “APPOFACY!” [apostrophe].  Yep, that’s pretty close.  Good job, Sunny, good job.  😉

We are honing in on Buckaroo’s fine motor skills.  This child LOVES costumes and imaginative play…. oh and sucking his thumb!  Sitting down for more than 5 minutes and writing/drawing/coloring….. not so much.  

Check out the third picture [below], he told me he was being “coorative” [creative] by using two crayons at once.  Yeah, uh-huh…. or  maybe *someone* was in a hurry to get done and move on to some rough and tumble play.  😉  😉

Math– Buckaroo worked on number recognition and tracing/writing his numbers.  We also discussed <, >, and =.  He can use the symbols correctly [b/c ‘the alligator’s mouth always chomps the larger number’] but we’re still working on identifying/naming the symbols.  😉

After the boys finished their ‘book’ work, we played a game together.  We use LOTS of games during school.  Another perk of teaching [young] kiddos.  😉  And both boys enjoy this game.  It’s a fun and interactive way to teach parts of speech.  The object of the game is to be the first person to complete a [silly] sentence by obtaining nouns, adjectives, articles and verbs.  The boys love reading their sentences at the end:

Sunshine’s sentence:  “The scary dinosaur cooks a banana.”
Buckaroo’s sentence:  “The shiny sandwich crawls a squirrel.”
Mommy’s sentence:  “The funny hat looks a leaf.”

Sunshine’s expression in the second picture [above] cracks me up.  “Now what’s a verb again?”  Look at Buckaroo’s grin in the next to last shot.  The sillier his sentence, the better he likes it! That’s my boy.  😉

In an effort to stretch my 5yr old’s ability to sit still and complete a task, we played Memory Match together.  I just went through the box and grabbed all the animal matches b/c I wanted it to tie in with what we’ve been learning. Besides the whole set is too big for my littles to play at once anyway.  And this seemed like the easiest way to review our land/sea/sky concepts from yesterday.  I happen to like ‘easy’…. a lot.  😉

Bible/Science– We reviewed the Creation story and sorted the animals by which day they were created.  And discussed more animal facts.

And that wraps up our second day of school.

Guess What Tomorrow Is?

Here’s a little hint:

Yep, it’s our ‘First Day of School.’  I think of this scene from Finding Nemo at the start of every [school] year.

Where did the Summer go?  I’m off to fill some towers.  Wish me luck.  😉