Letter A Activities

Due to weeks of sicknesses and little interruptions, we just finished with our Letter A activities from all the various resources I mentioned here.  Here are a few pictures from our work.  

Sweetpea loved that she could use the dry erase marker like Buddy and of course chose her favorite color: purple.

Buddy practiced writing letter A's.  He is proficient at capital letter A but is still working on the lower case a.

Tracing lines to his sight words.

Sweetpea "dotting" or circling A's.  Then she colored all over the apple.

Sweetpea and Buddy memorized their "A" verses and I was proud that Buddy managed to learn both with no problem.  Here is a video of Buddy saying his two verses.  Hope you enjoy!  Now on to the Letter B!



Letter Recognition

Sweetpea and I are currently working on her letter recognition skills through several different activities.  The most simple and her favorite is our letter wall.  I typed up the alphabet in a pattern of colors, four letters to a sheet.  After they were printed and cut, I covered them in contact paper to hopefully make them more durable.  Sweetpea helped to hang them in our classroom area as I told her each letter. 
Today we sang the Alphabet Song several times while pointing to each letter as we sang.  Then Sweetpea pushed my hand away and proceeded to point on her own. 

 For the most part, she would point to the right letter as I sang fairly slowly.  But she was so proud of herself when we finished.

Here is a picture of our ABC wall.  It is underneath Buddy's sight words because Sweetpea has loved to pull his words off the wall in the past.  This caused lots of fussing in our household so having her own letters on the wall has actually kept her from touching Buddy's words as much. 

Our ABC wall may be simple but it is effective.  I'm confident that this will help Sweetpea begin to recognize letters quickly.

ABC Coloring Sheets

Sweetpea and I are currently focusing on letter recognition in our times while Buddy is at preschool.  Since she has a shorter attention span, I've been looking for various alphabet activities and came across Pondered in My Heart's Alphabet Coloring Pages. 

While the virtue words are above Sweetpea's head, she loves to color and I thought these would be perfect.  I love that the pictures focus in on a virtue and give a concrete example of how to live out that virtue.  Both Buddy and Sweetpea are coloring these pages and I plan to put them together into a construction paper book for each of them for letter review. 
I think even older children will enjoy these coloring pages and it is a great way to introduce vocabulary about various virtuous character traits.  I hope y'all enjoy these as much as we will! 

A Lesson on Germs

Jon and I have been trying to teach Buddy how to properly wash his hands, especially with cold and flu season arriving soon.  The hardest line to refute is, "I don't see any germs on my hands" and Buddy often rushes washing.  Totally Tots had a great idea today of how to teach children how to properly wash their hands.  I'm looking forward to trying it out this week with Buddy!  Check out Healthy Habits from Totally Tots!

Cookie Sheet Letters

One of the newest items in our classroom is an old cookie sheet and the refrigerator letter magnets.  I was tired of tripping over those small letters in our kitchen so I moved them in here.  An old cookie sheet serves as a fun magnetic surface.  

Sweetpea loves putting the letters on and carrying the tray around the room. 

I love how these letters can be used for color recognition as well.  Buddy has fun today spelling his sight words.  I would call out a sight word and he would find it on the wall and spell it out.  We have two sets so we can spell more words.  He kept refusing to take a picture but I hope to have one in the future.  Buddy did such a great job with the spelling and I know this will be a go-to thing for us from now on.  The best part is that two such simple things like a cookie sheet and magnetic letters could keep my children learning and entertained?

Our Clean Classroom

This weekend, I finally got our office/classroom completely organized and set up!  Our calendar came in and we began to use it on the 1st of October and Buddy really loved it.  My plan is to be able to help reinforce his knowledge of the days of the week and how a calendar works.  I've added a cookie sheet by Sweetpea's things to work with letter recognition.  Our weekly memory verse is in sight for a reminder for me and for Buddy and of course, we still have our sight word wall. 

 All of our craft supplies are organized and labeled so there is no more guessing on my part when we want to have craft time.  I had thought I would have Jon hang up the mirror until I saw Sweetpea looking at herself in the mirror.  I decided to leave it where she can more easily see and I'm sure I'll find other uses for learning with it.

All in all, I was very happy to have it organized and ready to go.  We really enjoyed our classroom time this morning with less clutter and mess!

Parents and Teachers

As a former teacher I found the article, What Teachers Really Want to Tell Parents by Ron Clark very interesting.  I dreaded Parent Teacher Conferences because I never knew what to expect from parents and I wish some of the parents of my students had read this article.  So parents of school children, please take the time to read this article by Ron Clark and be reminded of your child's teacher's perspective.

Stickers and Fine Motor Skills

Recently, I have introduced stickers to Sweetpea's craft time and she loves them!  The added bonus for letting her peel and stick the stickers onto paper is the development of fine motor skills. 

When I first gave her the sheet of stickers, she was very excited but had no idea how to remove them and was content to just stick them to the paper.  (I have set boundaries with my children's use of stickers after finding stickers on every surface with Buddy.  Stickers can only be placed on paper or people with permission.)  After a few tries, Sweetpea was able to remove and place the stickers on her own.  Now when we start to pull out crayons and paper, she points to our sticker bin as well.  Here are a few more pictures of Sweetpea working on her fine motor skills while making beautiful art!

I love the concentration on her face in this photo!

Yes, occasionally she will taste the stickers.

Sweetpea is placing her stickers very carefully!



Final Update on our Hummingbirds

For those of you who missed it, we had the privilege of housing a hummingbird nest on our wind chimes for about a month or so.  The eggs finally hatched late July but the babies were too small to photograph clearly.  It took about a week for their beaks to be visible from the nest.

After about two weeks of growing, they were full size and ready to take off! 

Buddy and Sweetpea loved watching them through our screen door once we could see the two little beaks poking up from the nest. 

The hummingbirds took off from their nest around August 10th and we've kept our hummingbird feeder stocked with food.  To be honest, I probably most enjoyed watching this process and I secretly hope that the hummingbirds using our bird feeder today are the momma bird and her two babies!

Water Sensory Bin aka "a bucket o' water"

Buddy has officially started back to preschool as of Tuesday so Sweetpea and I have been enjoying some time together.  One of the things I am looking forward to doing with her on a regular basis is sensory bins.  Sweetpea absolutely hates touching sand and other gritty things and my goal is to work her up to a sand bin. 

Today we started with something I knew she would love to see how she would handle the bins.  Sweetpea loves to take baths and swim so I knew that a "bucket o' water", as my Dad called it, would be perfect for her. 

I found my largest tubberware and filled it with about two inches of water and gave Sweetpea a few scoops, toys, and a smaller tubberware.  I did not want to overload her with things so I kept it simple. 

She had a blast scooping and pouring water from one container to the next.

The water sensory bin kept her occupied for an entire hour and, of course, by then the entire towel was soaked and so was Sweetpea.  She cried when I told her that she was all done and I know that this will be something she'll enjoy again!

Homemade Hummingbird Food

Today we made homemade hummingbird food and I am looking forward to watching the hummingbirds come and enjoy.  It was such an easy thing to make so I thought I would share how.

Homemade Hummingbird Food
4 cups of water
1 cup of sugar
hummingbird food container

Place water into a pot.  Buddy loves measuring things and the water was no exception.

Bring the 4 cups of water to boil.  I did this part and kept Buddy and Sweetpea out of the kitchen.  Once the water is boiling, turn off the heat to keep too much water from boiling out of the pot and messing up the 4 to 1 ratio. 

Pull the pot off the heat and measure 1 cup of sugar into the water.  Stir until the sugar is dissolved.

Cool completely in the refrigerator and pour into the hummingbird feeder.

Hang up and enjoy!

Life Science Lesson

First off, I have to apologize for my absence from blogging this past week.  Our church had our Vacation Bible School last week and, between preparing for each night and VBS itself, I decided to take a small break.

This past week though, our family made the awesome discovery that a hummingbird has made a nest on our wind chimes and is currently waiting on eggs to hatch.  Buddy has loved watching the momma bird sit on the nest from inside our front door and wanted to know why she flies away when we go outside.  I can't wait for little baby hummingbirds to hatch and to show Buddy as they grow.  Sweetpea is even fascinated by the birds as well.  Here is a close up picture of the nest.

 We couldn't get any pictures of the eggs since the nest is too close to our roof to get the correct angle but, trust me, there are very small eggs inside the nest.  I have to laugh at this photo though because as Jon was taking the up close photo, the mama hummingbird came swooping in towards Jon and almost flew into his head.  We all went back inside fairly quickly and she immediately sat back down on her nest.

I think this is such a great life science lesson as we get to watch this nest first hand.  Hopefully Buddy and Sweetpea enjoy this as much as I will!  I promise to update when we have baby hummingbirds!

You Can Read

Buddy has recently shown signs of being ready to read and so I began looking for various ways to teach him.  Buddy has already been picture reading, retelling stories, recognizing environmental print, and recognizes all of our family names written. What finally convinced me to begin looking for a reading program was when Buddy made the statement, "When I can read, I can read this whole book to you" to Sweetpea. I came upon the program You Can Read from 1+1+1=1 and thought this would be a great place to start.

You Can Read is a program that focuses on sight words and it is created for children who show reading readiness between the ages 3-5. We have been working with this program for about 3-4 weeks and Buddy can identify all of his words and has been able to read short sight word books. He and I are thrilled at each step he makes toward being a confident reader. If you are interested in teaching your child to read, I highly recommend checking out more about You Can Read and visiting 1+1+1=1 to see more about this wonderful program.

Our new "classroom"

Buddy and I finally have an "organized" space to work on his Scripture memory and currently, You Can Read from 1+1+1=1.  I call this side of the office our classroom and Buddy loves it.  It is constantly a work in progress and things will change on the wall. 
The biggest addition to come soon will be a new calendar set since my old one from my teaching days has missing pieces, I guess, from our several moves. 
It isn't fancy and it isn't much but this is our learning space for now.  We are loving having a consistent place to work.

School Desk for Buddy

I am so excited about the desk for Buddy that I purchased from a friend!  It is perfect for Buddy's size, has a chalkboard top, and the top lifts up to store smaller items underneath.  I love it!

We picked it up today and, as soon as it was set up in my parents' living room, Buddy was at the desk.  He only left it to get new things to add underneath the top and to come eat supper.  In fact, I had to coerce him to come to the supper table.

I hope this desk helps keep him a little more focused as we work on activities and makes learning a little more exciting.  Here are a few pictures of Buddy enjoying his new desk. 

Buddy coloring his memory verse for the week.

He decided to read at his desk.  I love how focused he looks.

And more coloring...Buddy kept asking for more activities.

I think this desk is going to be a great addition to our house and I can't wait to get it home.  Hopefully it will fit in our van with all of our luggage...

Colossians 3:23

Buddy learned Colossians 3:23 when we started his chore chart a few weeks ago.  This verse is at the top of his chore chart and we would recite it as he would begin his chores.  I did not plan any specific activities to go with this verse but he learned it rather quickly.

Any time that we would work around the house, Buddy and I would talk about how we should work enthusiastically and work to the best of our ability.  While he may not completely understand these concepts about working hard now, I hope that by learning Colossians 3:23 he will have a right attitude when he is older about work.

Infantino Barn Shape Sorter

We have been having fun getting ready to move across town soon so we are doing a lot of free play around the house.  I've put any crafty lessons and other things that require extra attention to the side for a while and we're just exploring the toys we have around the house.  One of Buddy and Sweetpea's current favorites is the Infantino Barn Shape Sorter.

This toy is great for teaching many different concepts like animal, color, shape, and letter recognition.  The Barn Shape Sorter also is practice with hand eye coordination and problem solving as Sweetpea or Buddy places the letters in the top or the animal shapes at the bottom.  Sweetpea is loving putting the letters in the holes at the top and looking to see them fall.  She is also working on learning the words 'open' and 'close' as we play with the barn door.  There is a clock on the side that is not visible in this picture but Buddy is currently asking "What time is it?" and he'll set the clock to a time.  Unfortunately the minute hand does not move so it always has to be an "o-clock".  Buddy can make Sweetpea laugh every time that he makes animal sounds as he maneuvers each animal piece. 

Here are a few photos of Sweetpea enjoying the barn.  Buddy was at school the day I took photos.

Peering into the top to see the letters fall in.

 Trying to place the red C on top of the barn and watching it slide down.

 One of my favorites!

Playing with the blue sheep and the door.

Playing intently.

One of the best things about this toy is how the pieces store inside of the barn and how portable it is.  I had to cook church supper last week and this was the toy that I chose to bring to entertain Buddy and Sweetpea.  All in all the Infantino Barn Shape Sorter is a great toy that can be used for lots of learning opportunities.

Playtime with Blocks

Yesterday, while Buddy was at school, Sweetpea and I had fun playing with Buddy's Mega Bloks.  (Yes, it really is bloks, I did not make a typo.)  These are blocks designed like Legos to stack and build but are much larger for toddlers.  Buddy has always loved playing with blocks and Sweetpea has recently discovered these in his room.  I brought them into the living room and she and I had fun playing together.

After some free play time, I decided to turn the blocks into a learning opportunity.   Because each block is brightly colored, Sweetpea is fascinated with them.  As she would choose a block from the bin, I would name the color.  Sometimes she would hand the block to me and I would sort them according to colors.

The purple blocks quickly became her favorite to pull out and she would dig around in the bin to purposefully find a purple block.  By the time we had to go pick up Buddy from school, she was recognizing purple, red, and yellow on a consistent basis. 

Children learn best through play time and this was an easy way to add color recognition to our play with Mega bloks.  I did not push her if she acted uninterested but kept a running commentary of what she was doing.  This block playtime also became a lesson on "cleaning up" as Sweetpea helped to place the blocks back in the bin when we were finished.