Jacob is a budding Kindergartener, and pending our change in circumstances (the upcoming move to Georgia), we have decided to keep him home. He had previously been accepted into the local charter school, but we felt that with the move he'd only be in school about six weeks. That meant some kid on the waiting list would miss the first six weeks of school before Jacob's position was vacated. I felt that wouldn't be fair to the other child, so we disenrolled Jacob and ordered more books for him to use at home. The first photos are of Jacob and Katie Mei digging into Jacob's new box of books.
Then we got underway in planning some non-book activities, especially file folder games. They always come in handy and are easily found on the internet. Just print up the pages, cut them out and paste them into file folders. The kids love helping cut, and Katie Mei was the first to try the new ones out. She really enjoys matching colors.
Merrilee really loves to help keep Katie Mei occupied with games. And since Katie Mei is into colors now, we made a game with felt shapes and kitchen clips. She has to match the color of the clip to the color of the felt. Once she tires of colors, she can match the shapes. There are three shapes of each color, so it helps with her sorting skills, sorting by color or shape. Funny side note...after I downloaded this photo and got a closer look at it, I noticed Katie Mei's shorts have fallen all the way down past her butt. Her size 2T tops are always a bit snug, but her pants are always too large. Baby ain't got back!
Merrilee is in second grade now. The work load is a little harder than last year, and since my original schedule doesn't seem to be working out, we've got some revamping to do. Math tends to burn her out, so I've got to move that to later in the day and put the easier stuff up front. It's also hard for me to juggle getting one kid started on an assignment while the other kid is bored waiting for his/her turn. Jacob wasn't getting enough work with only his phonics and math, so we've had to order more books for him (The Rod and Staff curriculum, which was too much work for Merrilee in first grade, seems to be enough work for Jacob. A Beka is just too little work to keep him occupied.).
Katie Mei is also getting some fun in dexterity training. I saw an idea similar to this on another website and sure enough, Katie Mei loved it. I also let her use toy tweezers from one of Jacob's bug kits and she picks up the balls and puts them in a jar. We also let her use training chop sticks. The balls are just craft store puff balls.
And when Mommy is done washing morning dishes and have some suds left, I just plop them on Katie Mei's chair and give her a couple kitchen scoops to mess with them. Nice thing is, I don't have to clean her up afterwards, just wipe her down with the dish towel and toss it in the laundry.
And if I'm really willing to deal with a bigger mess and a little water on the counter top, I let her do this:
When Merrilee needed to work on her science planet project, Jacob wanted to paint, too. But he's just too much of a handful for me to want in the house with paint. So I got out the finger paints, sent Jacob and Katie Mei outside on a pretty cool morning, and gave them an ample supply of paper. It was Katie Mei's first finger paint experience and I thought she'd hate it. She really doesn't like getting nasty on her hands. But happily, she got right into it. They both made lots of pictures and left them in the grass to dry. But as is typical of my boy, he doesn't think ahead. He piled all of his pictures one on top of the other in the grass, and they dried all stuck together. They had to go into the trash. He was disappointed, but eh...live and learn, right?
Katie Mei is slowly learning her alphabet, too. I thought it would come faster, but unfortunately, I still tend to compare the other two to Merrilee. Merrilee knew all her letters, and their phonetic sounds, by the time she was 2.5 years old. My brain just keeps thinking this is normal, but I know it's not. So Katie Mei is at about eight letters now. She can identify A, B, C, D, M, O, S, and U. I am trying to spend one or two days a week just concentrating on one letter. This is the day she learned the letter D.
And when Mommy is done washing morning dishes and have some suds left, I just plop them on Katie Mei's chair and give her a couple kitchen scoops to mess with them. Nice thing is, I don't have to clean her up afterwards, just wipe her down with the dish towel and toss it in the laundry.
And if I'm really willing to deal with a bigger mess and a little water on the counter top, I let her do this:
When Merrilee needed to work on her science planet project, Jacob wanted to paint, too. But he's just too much of a handful for me to want in the house with paint. So I got out the finger paints, sent Jacob and Katie Mei outside on a pretty cool morning, and gave them an ample supply of paper. It was Katie Mei's first finger paint experience and I thought she'd hate it. She really doesn't like getting nasty on her hands. But happily, she got right into it. They both made lots of pictures and left them in the grass to dry. But as is typical of my boy, he doesn't think ahead. He piled all of his pictures one on top of the other in the grass, and they dried all stuck together. They had to go into the trash. He was disappointed, but eh...live and learn, right?
Katie Mei is slowly learning her alphabet, too. I thought it would come faster, but unfortunately, I still tend to compare the other two to Merrilee. Merrilee knew all her letters, and their phonetic sounds, by the time she was 2.5 years old. My brain just keeps thinking this is normal, but I know it's not. So Katie Mei is at about eight letters now. She can identify A, B, C, D, M, O, S, and U. I am trying to spend one or two days a week just concentrating on one letter. This is the day she learned the letter D.
And finally, our project for the week. Merrilee is doing a year of astronomy and the first project was to make a model of the solar system. The book's instructions were to just use balloons and blow them up to proportional sizes and stick them on the wall with thumbtacks. Nuh-uh. No thumb tacks. And I thought the pear-shape of balloons was stupid. So like any other scientist mother, I highjacked the project and bought Merrilee some styrofoam balls and got out my tempera paints. The rest was up to her. Except for using the compass to make Saturn's ring. I did that but showed Merrilee how a compass worked. Then it was her job to cut it out. Once we get all the planets set up, we'll post the final project photo.
Until then, we're off to the family reunion in Indiana. Hope you all have a great weekend!
Until then, we're off to the family reunion in Indiana. Hope you all have a great weekend!
Love,
Petrie
