U is for Umbrella

After being stuck on T for weeks...it was exciting to move on to U is for umbrella. Although, I must admit, it was hard to get back into the routine. We forgot to do any U foods, for example, but I think we managed to focus on the basics and enjoyed a good week!

Our book for the week was The Umbrella by Jan Brett. This author has a unique style with beautiful artwork. We've enjoyed her Gingerbread Baby and Noah's Ark. Each page has not only the main picture but smaller drawings in the margins that give you a different angle or a hidden view to aid in the story.

The Umbrella is the story of a boy who goes into the cloud forest to search for animals. While he searches from high in the trees, all the animals he hopes to see crowd into his umbrella waiting for him at the bottom of the tree. It's a simple tale but introduces unique animals like the tapir and quetzal as well as a Spanish speaking tree frog. And the beautiful art keeps everyone staring at the pages.

We were fortunate to actually have rain during U week but wouldn't you know it, we could not find our umbrella. It's still missing...We just don't actually use an umbrella very often here in sunny southern California...we did observe the rain and talk about the water cycle while catching raindrops.

Occasionally on our daily walks, we'll hunt for the letter of the week. For example, for P we were hunting for pots. Well this week on our walk Adam found this U-shaped bush. I would never have even noticed but yep, it's a U. He was very proud and without hesitating said, "take a picture of me with the U."

One more thing I want to share about what we do every week...Beth, my proud first grader, reads the "Sound Box" books to Adam. There's a book for every letter and a character for every letter. "Little U" for example fills up her sound box with things that begin with her sound like umbrellas, ugly ducklings, and an umpire. They are silly and often non-sensical but Adam loves this part of the week because Beth reads to him. He asks and she proudly reads to him. And every week as I watch them together I remember one of the many reasons why I love homeschooling :) (this picture is actually taken at our library before Beth heads to gymnastics, hence the leotard :)

T is for Train and Tents

Ok, I'm a bit behind. Things in the alphabet world have slowed down. I don't know whether to blame spring fever or Adam. He's done with the alphabet. He's ready to learn to read. He wants to do what Jason and Beth are doing. He'll be 5 in one month! Sooooo...we're going to finish and we have been, but we're lagging. T took two weeks and we didn't do much. We ate tacos (Adam's idea). We visited Great Grandma Mae and played on the train in the backyard (can't believe I don't have pictures of that!) We used our body to make the letter T. We also read our book of the week, which Adam does still enjoy doing. It was Two Little Trains, a fun story of two trains, one real and one a toy, and their journey. The trains go across the prairies or across the living room. They go up a mountain or upstairs. Adam found it pretty amusing. It was simple but considering he is now happy to stay up and listen to me read chapter books like our current book On the Banks of Plum Creek, I don't mind reading him simple stories as well.

Daddy also decided that tents start with T so he erected tents in the bedrooms. These were a huge success. They slept in the tents for three weeks. Yes, three weeks of sleeping on the floor in tents. I had some cranky kids one day and decided everyone needed to return to their own bed so they finally came down this week. It also made keeping the rooms clean a challenge as most of the room was a tent! But it was fun enough and easy enough that we'll do it again...for a night or two.The girls actually slept on their bed since they have a full bed and a small tent AND a rail to keep the tent from sliding off.In other activities Adam likes these new pattern blocks we received as hand-me-downs from a friend. And he impressed me as I found them quite challenging and worried that he shouldn't even try them for fear he would be discouraged. Silly me, he had no problem. Most of the rest of his day is spent playing games with me (we love Skip-Bo, Cathedral, Uno, Dominoes, Crazy 8's, Sequence to name a few,) playing on the computer (he would do that all day if I let him. I have to use a timer to keep it under control,) and doing what Jason and Beth are doing. They color state pages and so he asks to color state pages. They copy their Bible verses and color pictures for them so he does, too. I love that I have a copier and hope I'm not breaking any copyright laws by copying their curriculum to let him play along! This transition to participating in the daily lessons is exciting as I begin preparing for next year and Kindergarten when he'll have actual real daily lessons. I'm happy to know he'll want to be learning right along with his siblings.