February highlights

 

It's been a while since I've posted a blog.  I have been under the weather a bit, but now that I am back, I thought I would just show some of the things the children did in February. 

Scripture

As far as scripture memory goes, K has been working on his verse for church, which is Psalm 46:10.  The kids and I have revisited Exodus 20:12, and I believe we will stay there for a bit.  In conjunction with that, we play a game called the "Obey Right Away" game, where I ask the children to perform a task, and they say yes ma'am and do it right away.  It has been helping with greater first time obedience because I was definitely slacking on enforcing that while I wasn't at 100%. 

The Mag Lab

We took the kids to what is like a science open house, which is designed to show kids of all ages fun things about science.  Here are the kids holding bubbles made using dry ice and dish soap.  They had a blast!  They loved it even  more because some of our best friends joined us.

K with his bubble

G with hers

 

 Valentine's Activities

We also made valentine's cards for their Dad, but I didn't take any pictures of those.  Additionally, we used the hearts in the photo below to work on addition and subtraction with K's ten frame. 

Counting activity using foam hearts, cupcke tins and numbers

Red sensory tub

 

M having fun with sensory tub



M and G having fun together

Other Activities

K and G building with blocks

 

K's writing work
 

 K has been doing a lot more writing and also writes one or two letters a month to his friend or family members.  Of course, we are always reading and visiting the library, which the children thoroughly enjoy.

Week in Review (September 24th)

Last week was a good week here at our casa.  We continued to work on our verse about loving your neighbor as yourself.  I love the way the children come and tell me that they are loving their neighbor as theirself when they do something nice for a sibling.  I am glad to see them actively applying one of the verses they've learned. 

K continued his work with the analog and digital clock this week.  We moved into working on half past the hour.  A great feature of his clock is the game that is on it.  The quiz game, as it is called, asks him to find a particular time on the clock and gives him three chances to do so before moving on to the next question.  During his rest time, he takes the clock and plays the game.  Initially, he rarely got the time correct, but now he does much better. 



We also worked on understanding more about seconds and minutes using the library books we checked out on as well as some online timers.  First we watched the second hand move all the way around an analog clock and then we watched the numbers move from zero to sixty on the digital timer.  Then we used the digital timer to see how long it took us to do various things.  K and G really enjoyed that. 

 


Watching digital timer

We did a good deal of reading and used our lettter mat and worked on beginning letter sounds for G and letter sounds and spelling for K.

Just a scrabble word as some say.  We were making the short u in the word shut into a long u by adding the silent e =)

We had some fun outside.  At the park, and the kids had the opportunity to see one of the big trees trimmed. K was absolutely engaged, and M tried to "catch" the truck as it was driving parallel to where we were.  Additionally, there is some construction going on behind our house, and the kids enjoy going on the deck or in the backyard to watch. 

Fun in the mist maker



Watching the men trim the tree

Backyard construction

All in all, a great week!

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 (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 (August 20th)

This week was a good one at our house.  The kids have a new memory verse, Deuternomy 6:5, which talks about loving the Lord your God completely.  I found the suggestion of this verse along with the actions that go along with it here.

K asked me if he could work with his coin actvity (I discuss this activity here), so I brought that back out.  He enjoyed sorting the coins and has improved in his knowledge of the names of the coins and how much they are worth.  K has also continued his work with his letters and continues to improve there.

G has really gotten into puzzles and enjoys many of the puzzles we have available.  We also continued our sight word work; it's been some time since we worked on this.  She's doing well and knows about 20 words.  She uses the cards below, and we also check out the Sight Words DVDs from the library, which we watch occassionally (the sight words DVD series is by a company called Preschool Prep)  While we are reading, I allow her to tell me the name of a various sight words when we come across them, and she is even beginning to find them on her own in books and when we are out and about. 

I have a ring of cards (from my parents) and a set of unringed cards (I believe I purchased these at walmart some time ago)

M is doing more talking, and he loves music.  We have two leap frog drums and some simple an instrument tub from Toys R Us that he truly enjoys.  Here he is playing our little keyboard. 

With one of his favorite trucks in hand =)

A great week for us her at the academy!  Hopefully next week I will have more pictures to share!

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 (July 23rd)

We spent this week out of town - a little getaway for the family. We had a fantastic time.  We had the opporunity to visit with family the weekend we left - Grandma, Aunts, Uncle and cousin - and celebrate our neice's birthday. From there, we headed to Orlando (my husband had to work there for a week, and we tagged along this time).

We took our travel boxes with us, which had activities for the K, G, and M to do while we were hanging out at the hotel. K's box had his Sesame street books, crayons (dry erase and traditional), letter magnets, a hot wheel eraser set (which is like a puzzle; you can put the 2 different cars together and take them apart); I also brought his phonics book.  G's box had a Pooh Number Match Cars, a Melissa and Doug 4 puzzle set (this was a hit with both K and G), lacing beads, and a her counting stars actvity from this post.  M's box had his shape stacker, a couple of zoomer cars and some items from our sensory tub I thought he might like.  I brought a couple of books for all of the kids, which came in handy, particularyly during the car ride. Sorry for the lack of pictures, but some of the items are the same ones from this post. 

I also printed out the rain packet from here, mostly for G. She liked it a lot asking for them almost everyday, but went through the activities pretty quickly. Here are a few pictures.

Shadow matching

Counting

K and G's aunt bought them some flashcards - alpahbet and addition/subtraction. K, once again, was eager to use the cards and was the most engaged with addition (without cars involved) as I've ever seen him. Score for Auntie Betty!

K used bottle tops as counters

G also loved the letter cards, said the sounds, and put them in alphabetical order.

M played with his leap frog letter drum and his melissa and doug shape stacker.  We spent time at the pool, a nearby playground, and got to visit with some friends we don't see often. It was a wonderful week!

G and M at the park

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!

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!