Flour Writing

K has been working on his letter writing, and as is the case with most children, has a few letters in particular that cause him trouble.  I wanted to find more creative, fun ways for him to work on his writing, and I remembered my friend Debbie telling me about how she let her girls write in the leftover flour from baking.  So K has been working on his e's and w's in flour using unsharpened pencils and the handle of some measuring spoons as his writing utensils.  Of course, this is something he enjoys. 

Working on my lowercase e

I did it!

I thought this would be something fun for G to do to, and M even got involved. Inevitably, it went from letter/number writing to drawing to playing in the flour.  They all had a ball, and flour clean up isn't so bad. 

 

 

 

Building Patience and K's writing

Yesterday, a friend told me about a book which references kids raising us as parents, addressing how our children give us the opportunity to grow as we spend time with them.  I have seen this lately during my time with K (and with each of the children) as he has been working. 

About a month ago,when we were working on the deck, I felt like K was dillydallying while he wrote his letters from his board.  He wanted to erase the chalk off the deck when the letters did not look exactly as he wished and hewas just moving slowly, and I admit that I was getting frustrated. After some time, I remembered that he was simply doing his best and I relaxed, giving him the space, time and encouragment he needed.  In the end, he did a great job.  He wrote the entire alphabet, upper and lower case, and stuck with it until he finished.




Starting out

Some of his final work

A similar scenario occurred this week.  K begin using a regular pencil as he began a new workbook. It was a new experience for him and frustrating for him sometimes (and for me too), and he wanted to give up (i.e., stop working in the workbook). Of course, with the transition and adjustment, his writing fell off some. I had to keep reminding myself to give him the time and encouragement he needed (even though, at times, I was not). There was more erasing and rewriting than usual, but he has gotten so much better just over the course of three or four days of practicing. He also recognizes and takes joy in the fact that his writing has improved. Additionally, I was amazed at how neat his handwriting was when he wrote some numbers on his magnetic board after working with the pencil all week.  When compared with other things, writing takes a great deal of focus and concentration for K.  I am very proud of him!

Some of K's work from the end of the week

These are only two situations of many involving learning with the children.  As a parent and my children's teacher, I feel I am working on my patience, more often than not.  But it is a blessing.  I am grateful (usually after the fact) that I have the opportunity to learn and grow along with them. 

Happy Birthday G!

A special girl celebrated a birthday this week! Our G turned three years old, and she was excited. Almost everyday this week, she wanted to thank God for her birthday. Her Poppy took her out on their traditional daddy/daughter birthday date. He took her to her favorite restaurant, Chick-Fil-A, and took her to Toys R Us to get her a birthday ballon; he also bought her a princess purse. When they came back, the family had cupcakes and opened her gift. She was most excited about the cupcakes and has been telling everyone all week about getting to have "cake." She is a sweetie and our precious princess. We thank God for her everyday and for giving us the last three years with her and prayerfully many, many more. Happy Birthday sweet girl!!!



Before going out with Poppy

Singing Happy Birthday

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 (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.