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 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. 

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