Week in Review (August 13th) - Let's fold clothes

We had a great week here at the academy. We are going to walk in lots of power as we are still working on our verse about God not giving us a spirit of fear.  The kids enjoy it, and K is able to talk about what the verse means in relation to not being afraid.

Our new activity brings joy to my soul.  As a stay at home mom/homeschooling mom or any mom for that matter, at times, I feel like all I do is clean and do laundry.  So now, it's time for me to give the kids the opportunity to help out, and of course, at this age, they are ready to help :).  And thus, after inspiration from Counting Coconuts, we created a practical life activity in the form of a clothes folding basket.  Both K and G have used the activity, and they both like it.  In our basket are some of M's shorts, M's onesies, and K's t-shirts.  I would like to continue to incorporate different clothing items as folding of each is mastered.

Items in our basket

G working on folding a t-shirt...I helped her with the sleeves :)

We also worked on our phonics with our letter mat; G worked on her beginning word sounds, and K added forming his blends to our work as well as spelling various words.  M absolutely loves the mat as well (and anything else that has to do with letters), and takes letters out and says their sounds.  Now, he's starting to say the names of the letters as well as saying the sounds they make. 

K and G also had fun buliding puzzles; they really love them and enjoy putting them together all the time.  K also had the opportunity to do some water color painting.  He's getting so much better at understanding and implementing the concept of covering the whole picture in color, which is nice to see.

K painting Owl from Winnie the Pooh

The kids also had fun outside with our diy water table.  They played for about an hour and fifteen minutes outside; it's been a bit rainy here lately, so the kids haven't had the opportunity to play outside as much.  It was a lot of fun for them and low maintenance for me. 

I took this picture through the screen

An enjoyable week!

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. 

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!

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