Alpha Builders and the Tongue Face

Sometimes we try something out during school time that doesn't really click. For example, I really liked the idea of these Alpha Builders that were posted by Confessions of a Homeschooler, so I printed some out (I didn't make mine magnetic, though), and I was pretty excited about them.

Little Boy didn't really "get" them.

So I put them away for a couple months. When I got them back out, he did a lot better. So we practiced forming some letters, and then I handed the Alpha Builders over to him to see what he'd do with them...



...yeah. He organized them. Have I mentioned that Little Boy is sometimes a little bit...different from other little boys?

Ha, I love this kid.

Anyway, check out this picture of the face Little Boy makes when he concentrates:



The tongue face. He's done that since he was a tiny little thing. It makes me laugh every time.

Drawing! Finally!

Little Boy almost never draws pictures. He loves to scribble...with every single color available. But drawing, not so much.

Turns out, he was just waiting for an invitation.


This is a write-and-wipe book. Most of the activities are tracing (which Little Boy loves right now), but there are a few places to draw pictures.

We only have four colors of dry-erase pens, so he decided to make an all-green rainbow.



And this...is a dog. I didn't know he could draw a face, let alone a dog. (See...it's a little face with two legs and two little paws.)

So, I was really surprised. He still doesn't like to draw, except for in these books. I think he's just a worksheet kind of kid.

Impossible to Overestimate the Influence of Parents

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“It is impossible to overestimate the influence of parents who understand the hearts of their children. Research shows that during the most important transitions of life—including those periods when youth are most likely to drift away from the Church—the greatest influence does not come from an interview with the bishop or some other leader but from the regular, warm, friendly, caring interaction with parents.”

-Robert D. Hales

A Froggy

I don't know what it is with me and tiny animals lately...but last night I posted about baby snails on my personal blog, and now there's this, from my mom's front porch:



I don't think this frog is actually a baby; I've never seen them get much bigger than this. Of course, maybe I just never see the adult frogs.

Anyway, I like pointing out animals to Little Boy in the "wild" (yeah, my mom's front porch is really wild) because, while zoos and aquariums are great, I think it's even better for him to see animals in their natural habitat.

Tip: Remove Old Dry-Erase Marks

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Sometimes I put Little Boy's worksheets in page protectors (the smooth kind), so he can do them over and over again with dry erase markers. Works great.

Except when you forget to erase it. And discover it several days later.

Then it's stuck.

So I turned to good ol' Google and started working my way through suggestions for removing dry erase marker.

Vinegar: didn't work much better than water.

90% rubbing alcohol or hand sanitizer: I'm pretty sure that would've worked, but we were fresh out of both.

White toothpaste: worked like a charm.


You do have to wipe the toothpaste off with a little water, of course. I don't know whether toothpaste will work on other surfaces, but it does work on Little Boy skin--he managed to get a little bit of dry erase marker on his chin while I was working on toothpaste-ing his page protectors.

{cross-posted at Teach Me to Walk}