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. 

Week in Review (October 8th)

Last week was a good one at the academy.  We have continued to work on Colossians 3:23 and apply it to our work. 

K has been doing a great deal of writing work.  We used flour this week to write in (I discuss this more here).  We also worked on drawing.  Once we started our workbook, I realized that he doesn't really draw much, so I created some homemade stencils using old file folders, shapes from our Melissa and Doug shape sorter, and a box cutter/pair of scissors.  K and I drew some people and a house and wrote captions for them.  He has enjoyed doing this on his own for the past week. 

While we were drawing at the table, M was drew on some paper as he sat in his high chair.  He loves drawing.

K and G also did a fun sunscreen activity with construction paper.  After watching an episode of Sid the Science Kid where they talk about the sun and why we need to wear sunscreen, we put sunscreen on our construction paper and set it out in the sun for a while to see if how the sunscreen "protected" the paper and briefly talked about how sunscreen does this for our skin (just like the characters did in the episode).  It was quick and easy, and we got a little science in (yay!).

K, G, and M enjoyed  some time outside at our book picnic (I talk more about this here).

We spent some time at the park, some time with friends, and enjoyed the library too.  All in all, a great week with the chickadees!

A Book Picnic

Last week, I took the kids on a book picnic.  I was inspired by my friend Jenni.  The kids and I went out to a local parks and read books together on a blanket.  K and G both chose three books, and I chose three for M.  We didn't get to them all, but it was nice to be outside and read together while it lasted. Another benefit is that M had space to run around when he was done with the blanket. 

Some of the books we brought

Reading time

 

M  on the move

 

We also did some acorn colleccting and even counted a few and talked about fall/autumn.  It was fun! 

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.