Wordless Wednesday: Venus

 The speck in the upper left corner of the photo is Venus...

Another shot, zooming in, which completely changed the look of the sky:

This post is linked to 5 Minutes for Mom, In the Moment with Sarah Halstead, and Teresa at NanaHood for Wordless Wednesday.

WFMW: Homemade Bingo Games for Learning

Today I made a Bingo game for my kids to help them memorize the most common prepositions (which is how Easy Grammar Plus, a multi-grade level grammar curriculum we recently began using, starts out).  My oldest two (11th and 6th grades) are the ones who will need to memorize the prepositions right now, but I figured it wouldn't hurt for my youngest (2nd grade) to play along, too.  (The challenge will be getting my 11th grade son to play the game with us...but if he does, he will learn the most common prepositions the easiest way.)  

I looked online and found a list of prepositions that matched the list that Easy Grammar uses, and it already had each word in small blocks...perfect for the calling cards for a Bingo game.  I used Microsoft Publisher to create very simple Bingo cards with randomly placed prepositions, printed them on brightly colored (and already used on one side) paper, and this is how it all turned out:

When a player gets BINGO, he/she tells the other players a sentence using each of the prepositions in the row correctly.  Also, when I drew the prepositions from the pile of calling cards, I used each preposition in a sentence.  

Previously I made a Bingo game for learning how to tell time to five minutes using templates a teacher friend gave me:

Since the Time Bingo game was meant for a younger crowd, I printed the Bingo cards and calling cards on (already used on one side) card stock for durability.

Here's a close-up of one of the Bingo cards so you can see that each column has all the times that belong to either the 12, 3, 6, 8, or 10 o'clock hour.  I put Grace to work gluing on the small, randomly placed (except for the hour) clocks in each of the squares on each of the cards.

Many years ago, before I was so fancy with printing out Bingo cards on the computer, I made them by hand using cereal boxes for the cards and construction paper for the calling cards.  This set of cards is for number recognition--11 through 20--that I used when my oldest was little.  I drew a couple of "sample" calling cards on the envelope so I knew which set they belonged to.  (If I had it to do over again, I would have done 11-19 instead, assuming that 10 is readily recognized by the child.)

Here's the next set of cards I made way back when...for number recognition of the 20s.   I drew a couple of "sample" calling cards on the envelope so I knew which set they belonged to, too.  I didn't make a set for the 30s because by the time we played the 20s set, my son had the hang of number recognition.

These are the BINGO chips I made way back when...and still use now.  They are just pieces of construction paper and I keep them in an envelope.  If one (or a dozen) get lost, it's no big deal.

I keep all Bingo card sets together in one manila envelope so I only have to keep up with one set of Bingo chips.  Plus, I've found that sometimes one game of Bingo leads to wanting to play other Bingo games, so this keeps it all together for an easy transition.

And that works for me!  Click over to We Are THAT Family for more Works For Me Wednesday ideas.

Perhaps the best part of today was a few hours after I had played the preposition Bingo game for the first time with my youngest two children (6th and 2nd grades).  I had Josiah, my 6th grader, write down as many prepositions as he could remember; he remembered 16 today.  I thought I, too, would write down as many as I remembered; I remembered 20 today.  Grace, my 2nd grader, walked in the room, and I asked her if she remembered any prepositions from playing the game...she remembered 19. NINETEEN...and this was after possibly never having heard the term "preposition" before today.  She was tickled with these results, and I was, too.  :)

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

This week's scavenger hunt items are:

1. Pattern
2. Sunglasses
3. Round
4. Looking in
5. Crunchy

Pattern

This was an awesome pattern to see tonight at our church:  Operation Christmas Child boxes ready to be filled at the packing party.

The boxes looked even better filled...

(So far, our church has collected at least 120 boxes for Operation Christmas Child.  November 25th is the deadline for dropping off boxes--It's not too late to put together a box that will make a difference in the life of a child!  Click over for more information on drop off locations, or make a donation to help cover shipping costs.  You can find a video of Si Robertson packing an OCC box at that link, too.)

Sunglasses

Here's Grace (7) sporting her sunglasses...

Round

Poor Bono has had the cone of shame for the last couple of weeks because of a wound he caused on his hip.  He gets around well with it now, and actually stands still when it has had to be put back on because of him chewing at the site again, but it was quite an adjustment for him at first.  (Think:  Large puppy...smallish house...lots of furniture.)

Looking in

Grace received her very own Bible after memorizing the books of the Bible last week!  (Yes, all of them--Old and New Testaments!)

Now she is "looking in" God's word.

Crunchy

It's crunchy leaves, of course...

Click on the link below to see others' photographs or to join in on the fun!  

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

It's time for Scavenger Hunt Sunday again!  Here are my interpretations for this week's photography prompts.

Table

This photo is from July 2012, when Bono was 4 months old and would sometimes sleep with his head underneath a chair at the kitchen table.  He can't do this anymore...he's too big!

Bono the Bouvier des Flanders

I decided to use a photo from archives, because otherwise this is all I have for "table":   pretty much my favorite thing to see on my kitchen table!  

Grace (7) has said for a while, "They spell it wrong on the label!"  I asked her what she meant, and she said it should read "Mom's Favorite Cookie."

I collect

I don't really collect anything in particular, but I do like snow globes.  In particular, I like the snow globes that my husband finds for me, like this one that is from Italy.  (There's a movie reference here...While You Were Sleeping.)

Music

We have a resident guitar player (Robert, 16) who not only plays guitar but draws 'em, too.

He also has sheets of musical things posted on his wall for reference.

Yes!

When I saw my friend Nancy's Facebook post, saying "YES!" with the image she posted, I knew I had found my photo for this prompt.

Someone I miss

I didn't want to take a picture of a picture, so here's a doll that was my mom's.  It was probably the last doll she received, and she had picked it out as a gift from her father when they went to a festival/craft fair together several years before her death.  (She passed away when my oldest, Robert, now 16, was 9 months old.)  Also, the record behind the doll was my grandfather's (her father).

Click on the link below to see others' photographs or to join in on the fun!  

High Falls State Park...Up Close

Here are a few more photos of our recent trip to High Falls...

up close...

Click here to see the rest of my photos from this trip to High Falls.

High Falls State Park

We took a little trip over to High Falls State Park (Georgia) over the weekend.  We had gorgeous weather!  I took 188 photos and somehow narrowed it down to just under 30.

In case you wonder about his absence from these photos, Robert (16) was hired out for the day so he wasn't with us.

Grace and me...This was a recreation of the (failed) photos we had done a few years ago, which you can see by clicking over here.  This time, however, Grace is actually looking at the camera.

High Falls was where Jason asked me to marry him.  Apparently, we weren't the only ones who chose that exact spot...

I got a few stares from another group on the trail with this shot...and it was worth it.

Grace the fearless hiker.  She told me Indians had left the red marks on the trees; she was at the next marked tree further down the trail.  (It was immediately after this shot that she asked me to call her by her Indian name, Indiana.)

The kids found shells in at least one area at the base of the falls.

Grace balanced...

and jumped...

 and, fortunately, didn't need a trip to the ER despite her repeated attempts to get there from here.

Jason spotted a lizard...camouflaged perfectly with the rocks.

and we spotted what appeared to be a blind boy walking across the rocks.  (That would be our Josiah with his spy glasses on and with his walking stick.)

Jason, Josiah (11), and Grace (7).  Josiah complained to Grace immediately after I took this picture, "Dad was pinching me the whole time, trying to make me mess up the picture!"

Grace's response?  "That's why I didn't stand next to him!"

Moss and ferns growing on an overhead branch...

I just like red leaves.

A sunburst through leaves.

Now we're on the other side of the falls, where the trail starts off wide and flat.

This post is linked to 5 Minutes for Mom, In the Moment with Sarah Halstead, and Teresa at NanaHood for Wordless Wednesday.

Click here to see more (close up) photos from this trip to High Falls!