New beginnings

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. We have been really busy over the past few weeks, and have not been getting much of our programs done. We have only just finished the winter program (been going for almost 3 weeks now!) and are almost done with the Gg and Grey program.

I have also been busy organising the start of my teaching degree. I have always wanted to do this, and feel that now is a good time to start. Not quite sure how it is all going to work yet, but we'll work it out. Time-wise, I am not sure if I am going to be able to fit it all in. I am so excited to get started, but at the same time, very daunted about the commitment to 4 years of study. My husband is more confident about my ability to do this that I am...but slowly he is convincing me! :)

R and I will still do our school stuff. I love sharing what R and I have been up too, and hope that I will have enough time to continue to share with anyone who is interested. Thanks for reading.

5 A day Books - Gg Books

We have had a really exciting week with books. R seems to have recaptured the magic that he used to show when reading books when he was younger. He looks at books a lot through the day, remembers characters/phrases and talks about the pictures. Its such a joy to watch!

This week we are learning about the letter Gg, so these are the books we chose.

1. Where Is The Green Sheep by Mem Fox. (This would have to be #1 on R's list of favourite books.)
2. Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andreae. (We have this on a CD, so R can sit and listen on his own. R enjoys this for a while, but with the addition of music to the story, it takes quite a while to listen to, and he often moves onto something else before the story is finished.)
3. Geraldine's Blanket by Holly Keller. (I loved this book as a child!)
4. Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Seuss.
5. Goodness Gracious! by Phil Cummings.

Linking up to The Imagination Tree.

Letter Ff and Square

R is 27 months old.

We had a great week last week. We had a bit of sunshine, and although it was still cold, we managed to get outside almost everyday. R has been recognising letters when we read books. So excitied by that.

Craft

R did a foot painting. I saved the paper that my deli goods were wrapped in when I last went shopping. The paper is large and quite thick. I just drizzled some paint on the paper and R walked on it. I had to hold his hands so he didnt slip, but he loved it. He did 2 paintings.

R printed with our square stacking cups. He wasn't so keen on this, doing it for a short time only.

 

Fine Motor and Sensory

Many years ago, I made a face where you can velcro the pieces in place. I got it out for R because he loves velcro, and he loved it. He did it so many times, first it was Daddy, then Grandad. Before we did it we looked in the mirror to see where all the parts of our face are located, then R began to stick the parts on. As he did, I talked about where parts are located on the face, and he got everything in place. I am not sure where I got the face from.

R did the Square Magnet Page from Home Grown Hearts and the F is for Fish magnet page from Confessions Of A Homeschooler. We tried with marbles, but they kept rolling off the page, so I got out the sparkly pom poms.

I got out the felt food that I made a few weeks ago. I made a sandwich with fillings and a pizza with toppings. Both ideas were seen at Serving Pink Lemonade. R had a great time, especially making a sandwich and pretending to eat it!

I gave R some feathers to explore. He enjoyed this, and kept trying to tickle me and M with the feathers.

I put some flour into a tub for R to explore. He absolutely loved it and spend over 1/2 a hour playing with the flour. He moved it around, drew in it and sprinkled onto his and my hands.

We used the Main Letter Page from Tot School Printables again as a playdough mat. I also put out the F and fish cookie cutters.

We also used the Ff lacing card and puzzle from Tot School Printables. R is getting good at putting the puzzles together, but still only laces the card a few times.  

I got out our magnetic fishing game to play with R. He did not like this last time I got it out, but this time he loved it. He played with it so much that it is still out on our shelves now. He gets this look of intent concentration on his face when he is trying to 'catch' the fish with the fishing rod.

Language and Letters

You can see the books we read here.

R is still right into drawing and tracing at the moment. I gave him the Ff tracing from Confessions Of A Homeschooler. He is getting so good at this now.

R did a finger painting on a letter F.

R stamped with Ff stamps on the foot from Tot School Printables. He really got into this more so than usual.

R did some Ff Sorting from Confessions Of A Homeschooler.

Shapes and Colours

R traced a square from the shape tracers that I printed from Home Grown Hearts.

We got out our wooden blocks to sort the squares. We also looked at squares and rectangles to see the differences. I showed R the longer sides on the rectangles.

I had intended to make squares out of straws with R, but when I went to get out the straws, I discovered that we only had 3 straws left, so I got out the craft sticks instead. I quickly made some little mats to help R with the constuction of the squares. He really like this activity and made the shapes several times. I saw this idea at Shannons Tot School. Once R had made the squares, we counted the sides.

R did Do-A-Dot Painting on a square, from Childcareland. He did this quickly, and is getting much more accurate each time he does this.

When R was about 18 months old, I made some squares from sandpaper. I got these out and R matched the differet grits of sandpaper. I also got R to trace the edges to feel the shape of the square.

R made a little shape man from squares, and of course, had to put some wiggly eyes on it! I cut out the squares and a mouth for R and then he completed the rest on his own. The final product is kinda cute!

Music and Movement/Gross Motor

We sang "Five Speckled Frogs" this week.

We kicked a football around when we were outside.

I used masking tape to make a square on the floor. R walked around the lines and jumped in and out of the square.

Cooking

We made fairy bread this week. It was simple thing that R could complete on his own with little help from me. He spread the butter on his bread, then sprinkled the 100's and 1000's over. He loved this.

Maths

I got out our small plastic fruits and coloured bowls for R to do some sorting. R was so excited when he saw these. He loves these sets, we have transport, bears, fruit, farm animals and dinosaurs.

Next Week Program: Winter.

Thanks for reading.

5 A Day Books - Winter

R has got such an amazing memory, and he surprised me this week when we were reading a book at bedtime. I was reading it when my husband came in. I stopped reading and R started "reading" the words almost perfectly. So, I started reading the next sentence, and stopped after a couple of words. R continued on. He can remember the words to about 3/4 of the book. He gets a bit fuzzy in the last few pages. Since this happened, we have pulled out a few of R's favourite books to 'read'.

These are the books we chose for our winter week. You can see the winter post here.

1. The Smallest Snowflake by Bernadette Watts.

2. Snow Bears by Martin Waddell. (This is such a cute story, R loves it!)

3. Fuzzy Bear by Dawn Bentley. (This is an interactive book about a bear who gets dressed to go outside and jump in puddles! It has pull tabs, a button, a zip and velcro parts - great for fine motor development too. Another favourite in our house.)

4. Seasons Of The Year by Jilly Attwood.

5. Seasons With Pooh by Nancy Parent. (This is a basic story with magnets that relate to each season.)

Linking up to The Imagination Tree.

Ping Pong Transferring

I set out some ping pong balls, tongs and 2 yoghurt containers. R used the tongs to transfer the ping pong balls into the containers. I thought this would develop his muscle strength. Usually when we do this type of activity, we use pom poms, which are soft and easy to hold in the tongs. I thought the ping pong balls would offer a challenge, because R would have to apply the right amount of pressure to keep the ping pong ball in the tongs.

He repeated this activity heaps and went back to it several times. The balls were used as props for many other types of play.

Another good thing about ping pong balls is that R can throw them in the house with little fear of him hurting M with a stray ball or something getting broken.



Teddy Bear Cut and Paste

This was not a planned activity, but R really enjoyed it. I found some old worksheets and was looking through them one morning. R picked up the one of the bear and asked to do it. Why not, I thought, so we gave it a go.

R drew all over it with brown texta's. I tried to get him to trace the letters of the word 'teddy'. Once he was finished drawing, he cut out the circle and glued it onto the teddy's tummy.

When he was finished, he asked to do more. He really enjoyed the activity, I think because it had 3 elements that he really enjoys - texta's, cutting and gluing!