More School Fun

I haven't had a chance to blog much, but I have a few gems rattling around in my brain that are too precious not to share. Here are a few highlights from our last couple of weeks: 

Last week we memorized Hebrews 11:1 "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Our character trait was "Faith: I believe and act on God's promises." I thought that was pretty weighty for preschoolers, but then again, I almost daily underestimate their capacity to catch things I deem way above their heads!

Last week we read lots more stories together and learned (reviewed) the letter Bb. One of the kids' favorite stories of the week, "Uncle Wiggly and the Skates," produced some fun learning activities. In the story a boy goes ice skating, even though he suspects the ice might be too thin, falls in, and is rescued (incognito) by a fine old gentleman who happens to be a rabbit. At the end of the story the boy goes home and has hot lemonade (???) in order to prevent himself from catching cold, which I'm sorry to say, does not work. The activity suggestion was to make lemonade which you may serve either cold or hot. Benj and I opted for the cold, but Talia forged ahead into the unknown realm of hot lemonade. She claims to have enjoyed it. We also had great fun "skating" on the kitchen floor in our socks. :)

 Looking for pictures to complete their Bb sheets

 Benjamin working hard at his cutting

We reviewed the full name of every member of our family and along with that both kids learned what they should do if they ever got lost. Benj knew that he should look for a policeman or a fireman, but we also learned that store employees (identified by the name of the store on their shirt) or another mommy would also be good people to ask for help. Both kids know now what information they should give to someone who is helping them, including Daddy and/or Mommy's first name and our last name. Benj is working this week on memorizing our address.

We did a really fun activity for handwriting on Tuesday. It is meant for a classroom full of students, but we adapted it. I had the kids gather a bunch of their "friends" (stuffed animals & dolls) and line them up on our sofa chairs in the living room. Along with Benj & Talia I had a classroom full of students. I wrote the alphabet along the top of our chalkboard (a few letters at a time) and drew a long line across the bottom of the board. I began to call out each letter and whoever had a name that began with that letter was to come up to the board and draw a vertical line from the letter to the horizontal line across the bottom of the board (to develop control and the ability to stop on a line, which we will need for handwriting). We called this "signing in." In our scenario the kids also had to think about which names began with which letters, since they had to "sign in" on behalf of their inanimate friends.

My "class" all lined up and waiting to sign in

Benjamin signs in for Giraffe

Benjamin's "creative expression" assignment was to write an invitation. I gave him several options for who to invite to do something with him and what activities might be an appropriate choice. He chose to invite his friend Jesse over to play. We wrote out the invitation, focusing on what details Jesse would need to know. We talked about the "5 W's & an H" to make sure we covered all the information. Benj was so proud of his finished invitation and reminded me about a hundred times to remember to deliver it when I saw "Miss Christy" on Friday night. Of course when Talia saw that Benj had written a letter to Jesse (whom she also claims as a best friend), she had to write one too. :)

Benjamin proudly displays his invitation

Finally, I wanted to share a moment of triumph for Benj last week. He has really struggled with learning how to ride his tricycle. It has been a combination of physical ability and emotional willingness to persevere in learning this new skill. He doesn't like to do anything unless he "knows how" to do it and do it "right" (his words)! It has taken a ton of coaxing and (sometimes unwilling) practice, but last week he was finally able to ride his tricycle around in a full circle in our driveway, including the slightly uphill part. I was so proud of him!

Benjamin rides his tricycle!

This week we memorized 2 Corinthians 9:7, "God loves a cheerful giver." Our character trait, as you may guess, was "Generosity: I share my things with a cheerful spirit." I really wanted to incorporate sorting through our toys for the purpose of giving some away this week, but it didn't happen. We were able, however, to bring in the idea of generosity toward each other as we continued in our never-ending instruction on sharing.

Our letter of the week was Mm. The kids had a great time gluing cut out pictures of milk, Mini Wheats, mommies, and makeup to their weekly letter sheets. Later on in the week we did a review of the letters we have learned so far by making a pretend shopping list, which included items such as: books, milk, frog, movie, fish, bracelet, broccoli, meat, fruit, bag, bubble bath, beans, bread, markers, flowers, and money.

One of our Bible lessons this week was about the tower of Babel. I started out school that day telling the kids to pick up toys ... in total gibberish. It was a really fun way to teach the story. Later I heard them in the living room, building a block tower and talking to each other in gobbeldy-gook. :)

We are continuing to learn about the seasons in our science book. This week we learned about summer, which lent itself to a picnic lunch outside one day. An added bonus was that Daddy made an impromptu appearance just before lunchtime. (Unfortunately it was as a result of my need for an urgent and unexpected trip to the doctor for a UTI. Grr.)

One element I added to our school day this week was a shapes workbook for Talia to work through while Benjamin works on a skills development workbook. She is really loving being a big girl with a big, important job to do in her workbook. I might add that she is doing very well tracing and identifying her shapes.

Benjamin & Talia work on a cool morning

One area in which we have already progressed tremendously is art. Several months ago both Benj and Talia wanted nothing to do with art projects I might suggest. Since we have started school they have actually had fun with various creative projects. Hurray!




drawn by Benjamin
This is his first attempt at drawing hands.

drawn by Talia
Her first drawing of a person.
 

Top: "My Rainbow"
watercolor by Benjamin 

Bottom: "My Rainbow"
watercolor by Talia

One final notable element of this school week was that we finally began learning letters in our handwriting book! I was up late (very late!) the night before, putting together a sample alphabet for the wall as well as knock-off versions of some of the materials I needed which I did not purchase from the company. Unfortunately our handwriting program does not have a "font" available for download so I spent several hours modifying the best substitute font I could find so that my model would be consistent with what Benj would be learning. It was a lot of work, but I was pleased with the result. And now I have something to use for other projects, which should be handy. Thursday we started learning our "Frog Jump Capitals." In the Handwriting Without Tears system, the student learns to write capital letters inside a gray box, using the outline of the box as a guideline for the placement of the letters. They first learn letters that start in the "starting corner," which is consistently identified by a smiley face in the upper left-hand corner. The "Frog Jump Capitals" are a group of letters (F, E, D, P, B, R, N & M) which begin in the "starting corner." You make a "big line" down and then "frog jump" back to the "starting corner" to finish the letter. Using this vocabulary consistently helps them remember the steps of forming each letter. Our first "Frog Jump Capital" was F ("big line, ribbit, little line, little line.") Benj is now forming beautiful capital F's. :)

An exciting moment: we finally opened our handwriting book! (You can see the "sample alphabet" I created on the wall in the background. Can you believe THAT took me several hours?)

Benjamin is excited about his F's

We have worked out some of the kinks in our schedule and things are running a little more smoothly. I still daily encounter challenges which I feel totally inadequate to meet (like how to motivate my humming, spaced-out, little day-dreamer to pay attention to his handwriting), but I'm pretty sure that will continue to be the case no matter how much experience I gain. Teaching is definitely not for the faint of heart!

Oh! And just so it is perfectly clear, though I would love to have come up with all these wonderfully creative activities on my own, not a single one of them was my idea. They are all in our curriculum. While I would love to be the creative mastermind behind all this fun, I *am* glad that I found the Sonlight curriculum to help us "love learning!"