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.

Week in Review - Legos (August 6th)

This past week was a good one for us.  With the new (to us) legos that we received from my parents, I decided to see how many activities we could do with them.  Here are some of the things we were able to do so far.

Counting with Legos
We used our jumbo numbers that I printed from here, and used legos for one to one counting.  Both K and G enjoyed doing this. 

K counting

G is focused

K also enjoyed stacking all his smaller stacks together and counting all of the legos.  I liked this because it was a way for him to practice some higher number counting. 

Addition
We have a set of addition cards that are in nice bright colors, the same colors as our legos, so we used the legos to practice addition.  He only does about 4 or 5 problems per sitting.  Hopefully, that number will grow.

Love that K wants to add

Sorting
We sorted the legos by color and shape.

Design
Of course, K and G enjoyed simply playing and building with the legos. 

In addition to our lego play, we made very simple party hats (used white computer paper, markers, and stickers) after reading Blue's Big Parade, a story where Blue and her friends plan a parade and make party hats as a part of what they do .  K asked to do this. 


G designing her hat

 

K and his hat design

K's finished product

We also used our first words cards, which allowed us to work on beginning sounds of words with G.  We also used our giant letter mat, which K and G used for some beginning, middle, and ending sound work.

G enjoying placing her cards on the table and emphasizing the beginning sounds of the words.

M is still playing, investigating and discovering all over the house.  We had a good week here!

Week in Review (June 18th)

Another week at our house has come and gone, and we had fun.  We are still focusing on Exodus 20:12,  a verse about honoring your parents, and one day G even sang the verse, which helped her in obeying something I was asking her to do.  It's nice when that happens.

K has been working out of a book a friend referred to me entitled The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading by Jessie Wise and Sara Buffington.  This phonics book, geared to the classical approach to education, is divided into many short lessons and starts with teaching the letter sounds.  We started work with the lessons that focused on consonant blends.  Though K is able to zip through many of the lessons now, this book has helped me to see some areas where he needs extra work .  K enjoys it, and since it's something only he and I do together, he really likes that.  I talk more about this in this post.  K also did some tracing, cutting, and pasting with numbers.

Numbers on the choo choo train

G did a great deal of work with her 1-2-3 floor puzzle (which we do on the table).  She is getting so much better at putting the pieces together.  K joined in; he had fun helping her out.  G was so encouraging and gracious, telling her brother "Good job!" and thanking him for his help.  It warmed my heart. 

Team work!

K and G enjoyed some art time this week.  I finally bought some do-a-dot paints, and both kids liked painting with those.

K working on his Cars 2 picture and G on an Aerial picture

One day this week was a little hard; so, to break the monotony, we went outside for bubbles (which we play with at least a couple of times a week) and learning time.  G worked on her puzzles and K and I worked on adding using his cars, pretending different amounts of cars were going into the "garage."  It's been difficult to engage him with adding and subtracting, so I was glad this was interesting to him. 

ABC puzzle

On Saturday, the kids got the opportunity to enjoy one of our state parks with  fun in the spring and a boat tour where they got to see alligators, ducks and other birds and hear about their habitat and some facts about them.  Thanks to my friend Ra for inviting us!

M enjoying the water

An alligator on the bank

The kids also enjoyed some time at the park as well as fun with friends.  Grateful for another great week!

Week in Review (June 11th)

We have had a good, action packed week here at our little academy.  Our memory verse for this week is Exodus 20:12, a verse about honoring your father and mother. 
We also started focusing more on intentionally teaching the kids Spanish vocabulary through song.  We have a couple of Spanish children's cds that the kids love.  G asks multiple times a day to listen to the body parts song, as she calls it. And even little M tries to join in as we perform the actions of the song. 

K worked in a Hooked on Phonics book I bought at a bookstore clearance sale; we worked on the silent e.  The book had a page where he had to choose the vowel(s) that he needed to fill in the blank, so to give him a visual, I placed the vowels from the sandpaper letters on the table beside him as he worked. 

K at work

He also used his magnetic letters to spell words that contained the silent e.  I would say a word and he would spell it.  Of course, once he finished spelling his silent e words, he wanted to spell other words =).

G enjoyed playing with play doh, and did this for all of our learning time one day.  She also enjoyed more water pouring this week.  She asks to do this throughout the day.  It really engages her right now. 

G pouring away

K asked for the beans so he could pour them, so both K and G poured and played with the beans, making "breakfast" for one another.  It was so cute. 

I found out this week that M has developed a new skill.  He can stack his shapes onto the stacker pegs.  This is the first time I have seen him do this.  I was really excited. 

Go M go!

On Friday, we worked on a Father's Day activity for my wonderful husband; I am so happy and thankful that he is the Dad of our children.  Most of the cards/crafts we make seem to be a bit more labor intensive for me, but the kids enjoy it anytime we get to make things like this. 

Work in progress (it's a little messy)

Finished products from K and G

M and Mommy's card

I am a little late in getting out last week’s review out; things have been a little busy around here.  There was still lots of fun to be had and lots of learning that took place.  We continued to work on Titus 2:12, emphasizing our use of self-control during the day.

K’s reading is improving every day; he really enjoys reading and figuring out words and tries to read everything he sees.  It’s amazing to see how many words he knows how to pronounce and sound out, some words I don’t remember having taught him the “rule” for.  The idea that reading teaches kids to read is definitely playing out with him.

K reading a Bob book

K and G also enjoyed working with the water beads this week.  This was the first time G has really tried to sort the beads by color on her own, and she is so proud of herself when she finds she has a substantial (to her) amount of beads sorted.  It was also good to see the two of them working together to accomplish a goal.

M loved playing with the pom tub, which I talk more about in this post.  He is actually transferring the poms and really engages with that.  He is my very focused boy; when he gets in the zone, he is in the zone =).

Go M!

We also made birthday cards for Ms. Flo, a close friend of our family.  The kids really enjoyed that and were really excited about giving her the cards. 

K at work

G at work

One of the most memorable moments this week was simply sitting down and coloring with K and G on Friday.  It was good to spend quality time together talking as we colored. 

I stepped away for a moment to take the photo

I am glad God has given me my sweet chickadees.  They are awesome!