Practical writing

Since K oftentimes does not want to write, I decided I would try to find some practical ways for him to work on his writing.  After his birthday, I decided we would write thank you letters to those who gave him gifts.  I wrote the letters and he would copy them.  At first, it took about 4-5 days for us to complete one letter (we worked on them for about 15 minutes a day).  By the time he finished the last letter, he could write a letter in about a day and a half.  And, since he was writing the same letters and words repeatedly, his writing of the letters themselves improved.  His letter writing also gave us a chance to talk about parts of a letter (greeting, body, and closing).

He really enjoyed mailing some and hand delivering others.  It was also great for him to see the joy on the face of people like his Grandparents and to hear the encouragement they gave him.  Though writing is not his favorite thing, he is becoming more receptive to the task.  I am proud of how he is growing in that area. 

 

Hard at work

A trip to the Junior Museum

We were so fortunate to see most of our extended family over the past month and a half.  While my sister-in-law, mother-in-law and niece were in town, we took a field trip to the Junior Museum.  The kids had a blast and the opportunity to see many different animals and even saw a tiger (the visiting exhibit)!  One great thing about this place is that they have tried to place the animals in their natural habitats, so the kids are out on what is, in effect, a nature trail. 

Checking out the otters in the water

I think the kids were looking at the black bear here

Hello Mr. Crocodile

Looking at the tiger (I believe Siberian) through the window

The Siberian tiger

 

Fun, fun, fun!

Country Living

I have been gone for a while; life has gotten busy with the holidays, and quite frankly, I am also trying to decided what direction we will go into with our learning, but that does not mean the learning has stopped :).  The kids enjoyed some time with my parents in November and in December.  It's great when they get to go visit them because my parents have some open land with tractors, a four wheeler, and a couple of horses (Knight and Dreamer), something we don't have here at home. 

K riding the tractor with Paw Paw
 

K and G get to learn about feeding and taking care of animals and, occassionally, they have the opportunity to ride the horses.  Right now, they simply ride while my Dad leads the horse, but before we know it, they will be riding on their own.  K, G, and M also have lots of open space to run around and explore.

 

Enjoying Dreamer

K helps Grammy feed Knight

Riding Dreamer

M in the leaves

 It is awesome.  Thank God for grandparents!

M's learning colors

Sometimes I feel badly for my little M because I spend most of our "learning time" with the older two while he just runs and plays in the living area (though most of the time, he is content doing that).  I know he is learning too, but I decided to find something new for us to work on together and decided to start with color identification.  I found this great book at the library when G was learning her colors entitled Go! Go! BoBo: Colors.  It's bright and vibrant and G loved it, and now, M does too.  It focuses on 6 colors: red, yellow, blue, green, orange, and pink.

At first, I just identified the color of on the page.  After a few days, he stared identifying the colors in the book, saying the colors (from the repetition).  Then, I found legos in the corresponding colors, and as we turned the pages, I would say the color and hold up the corresponding lego.  Recently, he started picking up the corresponding lego in addition to saying the colors. 

Our little M

As I said before, he really enjoys the book, and if I am not near, he will turn to a page, find me and tell me the color.  It is so cute! 

Statue painting

K's aunt bought him a Lightening McQueen and Mater statue for him to paint.  I must admit, at first, I didn't know if I wanted to deal with the mess of painting, but I knew it would be something great for him to do being that it was art related, an area I am not as strong in.  This ended up being a great project.  It was something K and I got to work on together, and it provided us with some one on one time together, which is hard to get with two other little ones running around.  Additionally, K absolutely loved doing this!  He asked everyday if we could work on it.  Here are some photos of the fun we had. 

What the statues look like before painting

Early work - painting Mater

Almost done - painting Lightning

Finished product - Yay!

Note: These statues can be purchased at Walgreen's.  They are a part of the toys that are buy 2, get 1 free at 6.98 each, and some weeks over the holidays, you can get them buy 1 get 1 free at 6.98 each, making it a pretty nice deal.  Walgreen's also has toy story and princess statues for painting.  The instructions, paint, and paint brushes are included. 

Happy Birthday K!

I am a little late with this post =).  Our big boy turned 5 at the end of October, and he had a blast on his birthday.  Mommy and K had a date, took a trip to Toys R Us and had a little fun at the park before returning home to his "cake" and birthday gift from the family.  We love our champion!

Enjoying the park

K's "cake."  He does not like cupcakes, cookies, etc. So we made something out of things he does like -- chips, lollipops and soda (interesting bottle, I know; it's an all natural soda, free of refined sugar and high fructose corn syrup)

Poppy and K playing with his new soccer goal and ball

Adding with beads

I created a new addition activity for K using beads and index cards cut into pieces.  The index cards have number sentences, and then there are answer cards for him to place in the blank.  The beads are color coordinated with the numbers and he counts the beads in order to see how many there are all together.  At first, I had him use an adding straw (pipe cleaner) to put the beads on (an incorporation of fine motor skills).  Now, he only uses it some of the time, but that is ok.  After he determines the correct answer and places it on the card, I have him read me the number sentence.

 

 

K is not yet to the point of determining totals in his head outside of adding one or two objects, so he counts them.  Right now, I only have sums for 5 and under, but soon plan to move up to 10.  I also would like to come up with a little song so that he can memorize these math facts.  K enjoys this activity.  If you have any additional ideas, please send them our way.