Sidewalk Chalk numbers

I was feeling a bit stuck in what we were doing.  So a God-inspired idea came to me to use sidewalk chalk on the deck.  I wrote the numbers 1 through 10 on our deck, gave the kids different items to use as counters (checker pieces, bottle tops, felt stars, and the ever famous cars), and sent them to count away.  The kids really enjoyed it, with the exception of the heat, and G even look out the window whenever the Leap Frog music CD played songs with counting or numbers in them to look at our deck numbers. 

K and G working together

G working on her own

We also attempted to do some basic addition, subtraction with K like we've done with the cars and numbers I addressed in this post.  K was not really into going from number to number because he does not like the heat at all.  So I stood on the numbers giving him addition word problems, and I had him tell me what number I needed to move to.  He watched me out of the window.  That way I did all the sweating ;).

Week in Reivew (July 9th)

We've had a fun week at our little academy.  We were out a lot more than we were in, so there wasn't as much formal learning, but there was still lots of fun to be had.  I took a little extra time this week to work with the kids on staying disciplined and staying on their mats during verse time and prayer. They did much better, and I was proud of them for that. 

G got in on the action in The Ordinary Parents Guide.  She has come in while K and I are working on his lesson, and so of course, she wants to do her "blessing" as she calls it.  It was so cute when K tried to tell her that blessing was what their Poppy says over them at night, but she still calls it her blessing.  She knows the letters of the alphabet and their sounds, but I started at the beginningof the book with her, and we've worked on the vowels.  We play a little game where I say the vowels sound, and she picks up the corresponding letter.  She could do that all day.  There is also a little poem/song that goes with the vowels that we sing. 

Using the Sandpaper letters

K pulled out some cupcake baking cups from Valentine's day while I was sorting through things/cleaning, and so those came back into the rotation for two activities.  Both K and G enjoyed counting with beans, and then they brought out the muffin tin and pretended to fill the baking cups in the tin.  Good pouring practice. 

K working on cups with multiples of five in them

G working on cups with 1 to 10 on the bottom

Still working on keeping the beans in the tin ;)

We also got a second shelf!  K helped, and even G helped out this time.  They really enjoyed participating in the shelf building.  My husband was so patient with them; it was great watching them work together to build the shelf. 

K hammering a nail in

G hammering a nail in

M is learning his letters and letter sounds, and really enjoys playing with these letter magnets.

His favorite letter at the moment is O

The highlight of the week for the kids was the trip to Chick-Fil-A as it was Cow Appreciation Day on Friday.  Time to dress up like a cow!  I cut pieces of felt using the template from Chick-Fil-A's website, and I taped them to their shirts/bottoms.  I started sewing the spots on initially, but it was too time consuming.  I will have to start out a little earlier next year! 

We enjoyed time with friends, time at the park, and time at the library (we really enjoy story time and checking out books to read at home!) as well. 

Week in Review (July 2nd)

I love celebrating holidays!  There seems to be so much more excitement and anticipation leading up to them, and of course, we can't forget about the festivities.  We did a lot of 4th of July themed activities this week, many of which I address in this post.  This week, we focused on learning /beginning to memorize the pledge of allegiance, which is a work in progress.  We also counted the stars and stripes on our flag daily and talked about what they stood for. 
 The kids had fun with the new activities that were out. K didn't really want to be photographed this week, so I mostly have pictures of G with our activities. 

Water bead transfer

Do A Dot Flag

Red, white, and blue sensory tub - G counts the stars

A counting activity with homemade felt stars and number cards

 
We also spent some time reading a book we checked out from the library entitled A is for America: An American Alphabet.  I plan to continue to read this book throughout the month since it offers many opportunities to discuss our country's history with the kids. 

by Devin Scillian

K enjoyed the activities too along with some reading and a new Clifford book with a read along CD.  He's still excited about his reading "lessons" as well. 

Here is M enjoying his Melissa and Doug wooden trains.

We also had fun with hopscotch for the first time.  It was interesting, fun, and funny.  We've had a good week here at our home and out enjoying the 4th (although my husband, M and I may have been the only ones to really appreciate the fireworks)!

Week in Review (June 25th)

Last week was a great, but challenging, week.  We have a two year old, who is wonderful, but is still two years old.  Nonetheless, much was accomplished.  We did a kind of verse review during the week, reciting Psalm 23, Titus 2:12, and Exodus 20:12, the scriptures we have memorized thus far. 

Since Debby came to visit us, the kids also enjoyed some time on the deck splashing in their rain boots.

K and G in the rain

K did a good bit of math work. For a while, I've wanted to work with K on adding and subtracting, but he just has not been interested.  After praying and some trial and error, we've finally found something to interest K.  We call it the garage game.  We take all his little cars/trucks and put them out; we use our window sill as a garage and add and take away cars from the "garage" with him counting and telling me how many cars we have all together or how many cars we have left.  He asks to play this "game" virtually everyday.  We also use the big numbers that I made some time ago, which I accessed from here. 

K excited to add

K also continued working on his reading with the Ordinary Parents Guide book and his phonics CD and booklet.  G is still enjoying working on her oversized number and alphabet puzzle, "reading" her books from the library, and doing whatever big brother is doing.  M has really taken to stacking things (like the spices in our lazy susan) and trying to place the tops on things. 

K, G and M got to have some more water fun this week with a storage tub, some stacking cups with holes in them, and other bowls and transferring items.  This evolved into a "swimming pool" for G's little people and so much more.  The kids really enjoyed playing with our homemade water table.  My husband has since taken down the old baby bathtub, an idea I read about on another blog, and the kids now use that along with the other clear storage tub. 

My chickadees having fun together

I am grateful for another week with my little ones!

4th of July (Independence Day) activities

Here are some of the activities we are doing this week as we celebrate our country:

A transferring activity using some star shaped ice trays and blue water beads

A pouring activity using navy beans

Printable do a dot american flag, from Simply Montessori. 


Play with a Red, white and blue sensory bin

This tub contains the following:
whtie and blue poms
star shaped ice tray (came in a pack of two from walmart)
Red, white and silver bead necklaces (from Michael's)
Felt red stars (I cut out of red felt I had on hand)
Clear and blue bottle tops
A red plastic spoon
Red small cup
Applesauce cup

I would like to get some more poms for this tub.

I will post pictures of the kids and these activities inour weekly wrap up. 

Happy 4th of July!

Our Reading Lessons - The Ordinary Parent's Guide

K has been working out of a book entitled The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. This book has been wonderful for us. It teaches reading phonetically and starts with the sounds of the letters of the alphabet. Because K already knows the letter sounds and how to sound out short vowel words, we skipped to the section on consonant blends. We worked through that section doing one to two lessons a day.

The lessons usually begin with a short review and an introduction to the concept. For example, in the consonant blend section, you review the two letters that make up the consonant blend, and then introduce the blend. Then you and the child work through words with that particular consonant blend and a short story with words containing the blend. Most lessons contain multiple blends.

There are many aspects of this book/work that I like. First, I like the fact that this is self-paced. You don't need to feel like you have to go through an entire lesson at a time nor do you have to limit yourself to only one lesson if your child is ready to move on. Additionally, going through these lessons has helped me to see where K is having issues. For instance, sometimes he doesn't read the words/letters that are on the page. So now, I am more intentional with making sure he is reading what is there. We also go back and review any blends, etc. he is having difficulty with. Another benefit is that this work also requires concentration and focus from K. Some days we do more, and on others, we do less, but we usually work around 15-20 minutes at a time.

Here is a picture drom the day we worked on the addition of s to words and a discussion of singular and plural. On this particular day, I got multiples of items around the house show him the difference between the two.

the letter tiles and book

K really enjoys this book and asks almost everyday to do a "lesson" out of it. He is moving along well, and we adapt the instructions to fit our needs. It is a wonderful tool to use in addition to the other things we have.

The suggested materials are magnetic letter tiles (these can be ordered from a website the book mentions), 3x5 index cards, scissors, pens, pencils, drawing supplies, paperclips, yarn, magnets, and a couple of other items. Some of these items are for optional activies. The items we have used so far are the moveable alphabet (instead of the magnetic letter tiles) that I printed from here and a magnetic writing board. Sometimes, I use other miscellaneous items depending on the lesson.

Our magnetic board - I usually use this when K is having a hard time sounding out words to isolate sounds