...And the New Year Begins

We've settled back into a nice rhythm for school since taking some time off around the holidays. I think we were all ready to get back to a regular routine. It was definitely good to have a few weeks to read as much as I wanted and for the girls to play as much as they wanted. I feel like all three of us have renewed creativity and excitement to learn again.

Sophie wants to do her "math facts" every day...which currently means learning to write her numbers.

We count random stuff all the time, and she counts to about 20 independently now. I am reading a book called "Dr. Wright's Kitchen Table Math", which has ways to integrate math into every day activities for ages 2-8. It's a little dry when "Divergent" is calling to me from the next room, but back to school, right? :)

Delaney is on her fifteenth math facts set, working hard to learn all her addition facts. I try to mix it up a little. Sometimes she writes the answers, some days she tells me the answers, some days she uses the Mathtopia app to practice instead.

Delaney is still enjoying Dreambox. She is getting much better at the problem solving section, and her favorite game is Frog Race. She is about 1/3 through the second grade section, and she amazes me every day with the concepts she picks up with relative ease.


We've been playing lots of board games...Scrambled States of America, Princess Monopoloy, Connect Four, etc. Delaney used Connect Four to teach Sophie about patterns this week. Big sisters are the best.

 

Delaney continues to learn how to be a chess master with Cullen in the evenings.

I love listening to Sophie's commentary during the games. Last night while "helping" them play, she said, "Wow. Looks like I winning!" and "Aaaargh, don't put me in check!"

Sophie has been practicing initial sound recognition. Her stack of sight words that she knows is getting bigger, and we've started playing with sounding out small words.

Our new year has begun quite nicely, and I am so pleased with my girls and their excitement to learn!

Inspired

There have been bounds of creativity running around here lately.

Delaney has been filling her days with art. She gets even more creative and full of ideas when I mention that we should probably work on some math...haha.

I had some art picked out for the girls to do for Thanksgiving, but instead they created their own turkeys. Delaney made hers independently, and Sophie just needed a little help drawing her feathers before she cut them, and a little bit of gluing assistance.

Delaney drew the Mayflower.

Over the weekend, Delaney wrote several "word" books, to "teach Sophie how to read". They start out easy and then increase in difficulty.

I especially like that she included "barf" and "puke" on her "words to know" list, as well as the girls' favorite word to yell, "gaggle". Who doesn't laugh hysterically when yelling that silly word?

She also made some visual math problems, several crowns and some rings...This equation has something to do with the time at which Delaney is hungry.

A game, in which we have to jump over lollipops and only land on the safe spike...

And a self-portrait...

I found the "What Shall I Draw" book, and Delaney spent the morning drawing a princess and a sea monster, and writing a little story to go with it.

"Once upon a time, there was  sea monster who said the next one to touch him would be his dinner. No one ever touched him ever though."

We go to the library most Monday mornings, and I encourage Delaney to chat with the librarians in the kids' section and practice her "speaking with grown ups" skills. She brought her picture to the library to read to them, and they hung it on the wall. She was so proud. I am a bit annoyed at my self for forgetting to take a picture...it was a good drawing and a cute story!

Sophie watched Delaney drawing all of her fun pictures with the drawing book, and wanted to try to draw her own creation. With just a little help, she made this cute little tiger.

Sophie also made an owl with me. She liked him so much that she asked me to hang him up in her room.

Delaney has been experimenting with fashion design. She made Sophie this dress out of some flannel and yarn...

And a belt out of craft foam for me.

Next, I will get out the sewing kit and teach her how to stitch a little bit. She will probably surpass my sewing abilities pretty quickly, since I know how to sew on a button and that's about it. :)

I taught her how to play checkers a few weeks ago, and Cullen is now teaching her to play chess. Sophie likes to help Cullen, and she knows the names of all of the chess pieces now. Delaney is learning to play Battleship with me, and is picking it up pretty quickly.

Now we have to get planning and working on all of our December crafts and goodies. I love the holiday months!

Gone Fishin'

When I first began teaching at public school, a fellow teacher told me that if you turn practicing ANY skill into a fishing game, kids will play it over and over again without complaint.

It's totally true.

I took some dowel rods, some yarn, some magnets and some tape (I should use glue, and will adjust this soon, but I was in a hurry :) ) and in less than 3 minutes was the proud owner of two fishing rods.

I attached large paper clips to Sophie's sight word cards and some addition flash cards I found in a box, set them out on a blue bin lid (because water is blue, right?) and taught the kids how to "fish".

They loved it. In fact, they loved it so much, we have been playing it every day. I love it too, because they can practice whatever they are individually working on, but do it together, and add an element of competition if they so desire.

 

I typically put Sophie's cards face up, and let her pick a word and read it to me. We have also played variations in which I tell her which word to find, or set the cards upside down so it is a surprise. Each version has been fun for her.

Delaney's cards have math facts on both sides, so she "catches" any card and tells me the answers.

 The girls take turns, and if any answers are incorrect, the "fish" gets thrown back in the water, a.k.a. placed nicely back on the lid.

This game has endless possibilities...For Sophie, I will probably make it into a counting game next week. Delaney's math facts will be tailored more closely to what she is currently learning, and subtraction will appear. We could practice alphabetical order, vocabulary, colors, patterns, shapes, rhymes...the list is really endless. It's inexpensive to make, too - you can fashion a fishing rod out of many things that are lying around the house...pencils, paint stirring sticks, wooden spoons, etc.

I might have to make it a little more exciting at some point, and plan to make some cards with sharks and other dangerous ocean creatures, and perhaps some nice ones too, and toss them into the mix. It's always fun to catch a surprise.

OctoberSchool

Some people name their "home schools". I haven't, but as I wrote that title, I thought if I were going to, "OctoberSchool" would be a lovely name. October is such a crisp month...beautiful days and cold nights, nature changing colors all around us. I often have a clue of the weather when I get out of bed, but the winds will change and what started out as a warm, sunshine-y day may require a thicker sweater. That describes homeschooling rather well for me. Stunning, unexpected, constantly adjusting, but slightly predictable...

We have been having a lot of fun this month with our learning. In my continued efforts to organize our time better, I made the kids chore charts, and a school chart for Delaney.

 

You can find these super cute printable cards here.

The school chart is basically a list of the things I would like to accomplish, and whatever Delaney adds that she would like to do as well. Some days we get to take everything off and put it in the finished box, some days we don't, but it gives us a good visual plan and is working well for both of us!

Sophie has continued to practice writing her name. Delaney is a big helper, and encourages her a lot.

Yay for school in pajamas!

 Sophie has also started learning some sight words. Playing Memory is her favorite way to practice.

 

Delaney learned about Georgia O'Keefe, and loved her big, vibrant paintings. The book we read about O'Keefe explained that she painted things the way she saw them, so others could see them her way. Delaney tried her hand at some Georgia-esque paintings of her own.

 

Sunset, O'Keefe style, by Delaney

Sophie painted a rainbow of h's.

We found our Halloween Pre-K pack and Sophie practiced counting, matching shadows and matching words with pictures, based on initial sounds.

 

 

The girls have been playing a game I have from when Hailey was kindergarten-sized, Penguin Math.

Sophie gets to spin, move her penguin and then count out the correct number of mini M&M's to match the number she lands on.

 

Delaney gets to spin, and has to add the number she lands on to the number on the spinner.

 

 

And then, of course they get to eat all of the M&M's afterwards. :)

Geometric Shapes and Some Drawing Fun

While Delaney was at Day Camp last week, I took the opportunity to spend some one on one time with Sophie, and begin to move us toward the habit of school time in the mornings.

I pulled out the geometric shapes first. There are a lot of things we can do with these...colors, counting, shapes, patterns, picture puzzles....the list goes on.

First, we reviewed shapes and colors. I love how she says "Hec-ca-gon" and "tap-a-ZOID!", because everyone knows those are really funny words.

I wasn't sure if she was quite ready for the picture puzzles, but she was interested in them right away, and rocked the flower.

 

I made an AB pattern for her, and she caught on to how to finish it rather quickly also.

 

 

Then we made 345809766 towers and knocked each other's over. She liked that part best.

I worked with her on spelling and tracing her name.

She made several smiley faces.

 Which are quite possibly the cutest smiley faces ever drawn.

 Ever.

I drew some shapes for her to complete. After she completed my squares, she told me that they needed a nose and a smiley mouth too.

I have a feeling that Sophie knows how to do much more than I give her credit for. She and Delaney were drawing with chalk yesterday, and Sophie proudly showed me that she can write a "P", "O" and "L".

I can't wait until she shows me what else she has hidden in her "things I know that Mom doesn't know I know" reserves...:)

When we spend fun times like this together, I remind myself how very important it is that I make time to do so. She is my last baby, and this is my last two and I need to soak it all in before I get too busy and she is three. Soph is such a funny, smart, kind little girl, and her personality is just perfect right now. I never thought I'd say this...but I love two. I hope I can figure out a way to make the next five months crawl by.