Week 1!

This was our first week with everything added in. Our kids were pretty excited to start "school."

Our first day went really well!

I picked up a bell for the kids to ring after their rooms are clean to signify that it's school time. Each morning this week they've raced to see who could get their rooms cleaned and dressed fastest so they could ring the school bell.

And just a warning...I do actually fix my girls' hair, but in the mornings (which is when school takes place), we're a lot more relaxed. So, you're about to see a whole lotta' bedhead. :)

ABCs:

Emmett is really getting passed this, but we haven't finished our coconut tree! So, we're still lightly reviewing our letters. When we finish, then we'll let the coconut tree be for a bit and then go back and do lowercase letters for Ellie.

This week we did letter F. We pulled out some rice and wrote in it, did a bit of tracing of the letter, and then made a letter craft. I did this craft with Abby when she was little. It's a nice way to illustrate the /f/ sound when we use it to blow it off our hands!

Of course, with my kids anything where you get to use school glue like this is the neatest craft!

PreK:

Emmett is working through the first What Your Preschooler Needs to Know Activity Book. We did some comparing work, sang "I'm A Little Teapot" and did a coordinating activity. I love this activity book because it has all of the cutouts and things in the back of the book already perforated. I don't even have to worry about cutting them out! Just punch out and go!

Emmett loves having his own separate lesson. Abby has a "free folder" that she can choose an activity from while she's waiting. On this particular day, Abby chose to do the Tangoes.

Reading:

For read-aloud we have moved on to Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. And, of course, we are still reading aloud our fair share of picture books.

Abby isn't doing any formal reading lessons, but she is still reading aloud to me. This week, she read The Lighthouse Children, Caps for Sale, Counting Sheep, and a few others that escape me.

Spelling:

All About Spelling has been a big hit! At first Abby didn't care for it, but we were just reviewing phonograms. The only phonogram that she hasn't passed off is o because she hasn't consistently told me all four sounds. Admittedly, though, I'm being a bit strict about it. She can, however, point to whichever tile or spell whatever phonogram when I'm dictating it.

When I introduced the white board, though, in step 3, she decided that it was pretty neat. (Probably because she gets to draw on the big whiteboard after her lesson, but whatever makes it exciting is fine by me.)

We worked through 5 lessons this week. Abby has a great memory and typically I only have to tell her something once and she can parrot it back. This is good and bad. I really have to make sure she is digesting the information rather than just parroting it back. Here, she's just replaced the blank red tile with the "i" after I had dictated the word. She occasionally mixes up the short e and short i sounds. I'm not concerned about it because I think that's fairly typical. They can sound a bit like one another!

Math:

Until I sat down to write this post, I wasn't sure we did a whole lot for math. Now that I look back, though, we did a ton! At the start of the week, it was her favorite lesson. Now she says she likes both spelling AND math.

We worked with Miquon this week and probably will until we hit either a block or decide we need a change. I really am enjoying Miquon. I think it is the type of program that encourages a love for math.

We pulled out some candies and did work with those. I placed five on the table and asked her how many were there. "Five." Then I had her close her eyes and pulled away two. When asked how many I pulled away, she looked at the three left and quickly replied that I took away two. She was able to work that type of problem for about five minutes. Then, it was like her brain short-circuited and she started wildly guessing. When that happened, I knew she was just overwhelmed and processing it all and we moved on for that day.

This week, we worked through the counting section of the Orange Book. For our lessons, though, I'm trying to do some non-sheet things as well as some of the lab sheets at the end. We went over counting with one-to-one correspondence. The lotto sheets at the beginning of the section were fun to count with candies!

We measured our other rods with the white rods. I pulled out random number cards, had her finger trace the number and then guess the rod that would coordinate with it before she made her train of white rods. She told me every single color rod without hesitation. I guess our pre-book play has been beneficial!

Here she is showing that the brown rod is equal to eight white rods. And, yes, she made the pattern herself. LOL

When she first chose to do this worksheet she looked really confused. I had her turn it over and then explained the concept to her. I had her close her eyes, covered a few numbers on our number line with some index cards and then had her open her eyes and tell me which numbers were covered up. She likes games like that and did it easily. Then I had her flip her sheet over and see if she could do it then. I could see the recognition on her face and she went and completely filled this sheet and the one after it.

On Thursday we talked about tallies and made our own tally book which I even proclicked. Abby loves it wanted to show everyone her tally book! Sometimes I'll play a game with her where I tell her to find the page with "five and two" and she searches for the corresponding tally and tells me the number.

We topped off our week by playing bingo with Daddy and Emmett with the lotto sheets. I'd pull a rod, Abby would say the number and they'd cover their square with a candy counter. Of course, though, they had to cover everything in that square. Even Emmett worked on one-to-one correspondence playing Bingo!

Five in a Row:

We rowed The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge this week.

Social Studies:

• We found New York on our map. Abby remembered a few things we had discussed about New York from rowing Mrs. Katz. This time, we talked about New York City and learned a bit about the Statue of Liberty. We read The Story of the Statue of Liberty and poked around the internet for videos of it. We also read The Top Job, which is a great read about a girl who tells of her daddy's job to change the light bulb in the top of the Empire State Building.

Language Arts:

• In the book, there is abundant personification. That was the lesson we talked about on Tuesday. We pointed out examples of it in the book (the lighthouse, the boats, the bridge, the fog, etc, etc) and then we personified our own lighthouses. I found a cute idea from Family Fun to create our own lighthouse to do it with. Abby and Emmett both did a lighthouse and loved that we let them take them to bed.

• We also read The Old House. It's a very charming story of an old house that was empty and lonely. It was also a nice go-along for the personification theme.

Science:

• We discussed bridges and the different type of bridges. We even illustrated WHY there are different types of bridges. Emmett was all into this discussion and kept wanting to drive across the bridges. It didn't interest Abby nearly as much.

Applied Math:

• The "applied math" in FIAR is fairly simple for the younger elementary set. It involves a lot of counting things on the page. We typically do this for quite a few books, not just FIAR. Hopefully, as we get further into our math curriculum and understanding we can branch out from there.

Art:

• Our art lesson talked about pictures of night. We found pictures that the illustrator had drawn of nighttime scenes and then created our own. We talked about hints we could find that would let us know if the picture was in daytime or nighttime.

Extra:

• Abby found this bag of chips at a gas station and pointed them out, "Look, Mom! A lighthouse!"

• To top off our week, this evening we are going to see the Lake Hefner Lighthouse when it's all lit up. It means we'll be up a little later than normal, but I think it will be nice for the kids to see it at night rather than during the day.

Swim:

Swim lessons started back this week. The older kids had a fairly good week of swim lessons. Emmett's form has seriously improved since his last swim lesson. Yay! Abby enjoyed being with all the girls in one of her lessons this week. LOL

We actually were permitted to enroll Ellie (just 2) in the preschool class (for 3-5 year-olds). She had her first lesson on Thursday. She was too short to stand on the tot dock they use, so she had to sit on my lap in between her turns. She did really well except for doing a back float where she would pull her legs up. Once her legs went down, her head came up. LOL We're going to be practicing "being starfish" this week.

Extra:

We are working on an all-about-me type of book for the start of the year. It is just basic information that I would hope we will remember to add to year after year. This is the first page she did. Her picture shows her and me and our house. It gives me fuzzies. :)

Life:

Our watermelons keep growing! We now have five hanging out in our garden. The trouble is, though, that I didn't plant them (my mom did it with the kids right after I had Hyrum). She doesn't remember if they're typical watermelon, or maybe smaller sized ones. We're not quite sure when to pick them. The kids are still excited that we have five, though!

I have been trying to be faithful about getting up in the morning and doing some exercise. Dan and I have a bit of healthy competition going to see who can exercise the most consistently. So far we're tied. I'm sure I'll win, though. :) The kids enjoy doing the Wii Fit after I do my morning exercises. It makes me contemplate investing in the Nickelodeon version.

Sometimes, when I'm dealing with something else, Hyrum beings to fuss. And, sometimes, I ask Emmett to talk to him. And, a majority of the time Emmett is engaging Hyrum, Hyrum stops crying and grins at his brother. This is one reason we have more than one child. :)