Telling Time

K and I started some time telling work this week with a traditional clock.  He knows the days of the week and the months of the year, and since we've put up our calendar, he's gotten a pretty good concept of time in regards to days and even months.  He also has begun learning to read a digital clock.  After some time trying to determine how I was going to introdue the concept, we have finally started.  I got some of my ideas from this blog (Making Montessori Ours).

K was really excited about the activity when he saw it on the shelf.  We started our work with the on the hour time.  I used 3x5 index cards to write the time and the words on, and I decided I would write the hours and minutes in different colors to help K with his time telling.  The clock was a Christmas gift from his aunt and uncle last Christmas.  It's great for what we are doing right now, though I do realize we will probably need a clock with all the minute tick marks on it eventually.

Our tray

This is a photo of the partial setup.  So far, we have been placing all twelve hours on the mat for whichever increment of time we are working on.

Here is K at work!  After we go through each of the time cards together once (or however many times it takes for him to understand the particular increment of time we are working on), I allow him to choose the numerical time card on his own, find the corresponding words and set the correct time on the clock. 

We have also checked out several books about telling time, which he enjoys hearing/reading.  He's having fun!

Week in Review (September 3rd)

We enjoyed Labor Day and getting to see Grammy and Paw Paw Monday and had a great rest of the week.  We are still reciting Deuteronomy 6:5 and talking about what the verse means. 

K began working on writing his numbers this week in the Fun with Numbers book I bought some time ago at Dollar Tree.  Can I say I just love write on-wipe off books, boards, etc., such a money saver.  He has been doing pretty well with the numbers, and I believe his foundation in letter writing is helping him along. 

To switch things up a bit, I let him write his uppercase and lowercase letters on the deck.  He did a good job, and it showed me the importance of patience in regards to his writing.

Some of the final work

While K worked on his letters, I wrote some of G's sight words on the deck, and she told me what they were and kept coming back to them and repeating them.

M wanted to write some too, so he wrote over the sight words.  He likes for me to write letters, and then, he tries to write over them.  He wants to be like big brother and sister.  He even knows a couple of sight words himself. 

We also incorporated a new activity with our number flashcards for K.  I ask him to bring me all the numbers that end in 5 and 10 (or any other number we want to use).  Then he puts them in numberic order, and we skip count by that number, in this case, we did skip counting by five.  I see this as an activity that can easily be extended. 

G is loving K's sticker book and has really taken to looking at it daily.  It is great for her because it reinforces colors, shapes, numbers, and counting.  And for me, we talk through it, so we can think through different things together as we talk and extend on what the book offers.

These are just a few of the things we enjoyed this week.  We had fun!

Week in Review (August 27th)

We've had a good week at our casa this week, despite the 24 hour bug that hit K and G.  Thank God it was in and out quickly.  We continued reciting Deuteronomy 6:5 with our hand motions and working on self-control during our mat time.

This week we checked out Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading (I discuss this book here) from the library again.  Both K and G were really excited about starting their "lessons" again.  K is working on the long vowel sounds made with the silent e, and G is working on the letter sounds themselves and a little song that goes with it. Even though M isn't quite big enough for lessons from the book, he has with his own special lessons.  Sometimes, he brings me the magnetic board because he likes for me to write letters there so he can say the letters/sounds =).

K has also been working on a counting activity using a set of flashcards my parents gave us along with our hundreds board.  This activity is not only good for his counting to 100 but for recognizing the numbers themselves (particularly the higher ones) and the order in which they go.

K's work up to 31

We also had some fun with an activity my friend Flo made for us.  I talk more about this activity in this post.

Count those beads G!

K and G also painted with their do-a-dot paints (thank you Publix for the pictures, which came from their free coloring books). They love art time, and I really should incorporate it more often. I have some finger paints and hope to use those soon.

K painting fruit

G painting a little bear putting some food away

Here is little M having some fun with the bead maze at my parents' church.  He did come home after that and play with our smaller bead maze some, too =).

Some fun in the rain, reading, and writing work rounded out our week; lots of fun was had and looking forward to more next week.