Thursday, May 26, 2011

Z is for Zoo!!!

Our last letter, the end of the alphabet, Z is for Zoo! We celebrated and went...can you guess...to the zoo! The threat of rain took away our plans for going to THE zoo, the San Diego Zoo, but that's ok because we went to our local, much smaller Santa Ana Zoo and had a blast! We hadn't been to this tiny zoo in years, and it was fun to revisit remembering the old and enjoying the new. We were a bit disappointed that one of their animals is no longer with them - the capybara. Our book this week was Capyboppy, the true story of a family that adopts a capybara. It was a fun book to read and a bit different then most of our books as it is loooooong. We read it as a chapter book taking the entire week to complete it. It's a fun book that had everyone laughing out loud. I just wish we had seen an actual capybara. This is where the capybara used to live:Oh well, we did see a cast of its feet :)


In other Z words, we made zucchini bread. Adam did not want to make it because he doesn't like zucchini so Beth made the bread. And everyone enjoyed eating it because, "it's green bread that tastes like banana bread!"


Next week we will wrap up the alphabet with a bunch of fun ABC books. And then summer, here we come!!!

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Y is for Yes, it is Yellow!

Soooo...Y week came and I couldn't ignore it because we only have a few weeks of school left. I HAVE to finish the alphabet BUT I didn't have a Y book and hadn't settled on the theme...ugh! I'd feel bad but I was coming off a weekend of Jill breaking her leg. Truly, Monday was at the doctor's office and was a continuation of X week as we looked at x-rays. Tuesday came and I asked the family...what should Y be? Yellow? Yarn? Year? Hmmm...maybe I should have planned many weeks ago :) Wednesday snack came and I handed everybody alphabet cookies. These were Adam's:I asked him to read the word. We reviewed the sounds and then he sheepishly declared, "yes." He was so proud that he could read it. So fun to see him realize that he is going to be reading very soon! Can Yes be our theme? Yes!
Our other Y theme was yellow. Adam drew and colored a yellow boat with a yellow sun (sing with me - We all live in a Yellow Submarine!) And note the "yes" he wrote on his paper. He was so proud of that word that he wrote it to show Daddy later. The picture was drawn the next day to add decoration to his "yes."

When we took walks we looked for yellow. It turns out there are many yellow flowers and yellow leaves out there! There are also some unique yellows like these yellow pizzas (yes, that's what my children call them.)

We also spent time blowing bubbles (finding fun outside activities that entertain Jill stuck in a stroller!) Adam took on the challenge of catching them. He did this everyday!
Jill continued her move into the world of preschool practicing her cutting (take note of the pretty pink cast there :) I realized after I took the picture that she was cutting with her left hand. I'm pretty sure that she is right handed so I switched the scissors into her right hand. She didn't mind and just continued right on cutting her paper into tiny pieces. Hmmmm...Next week we will finish the alphabet with Z...

Monday, May 9, 2011

X is for X-ray

X is a challenging letter because really, it doesn't start any words with it's most common sound - "ks." It starts words with the "z" sound as in xylophone or xerus. Thi is why I am a big proponent of teaching x by using words such as fox or box. That said, I did x is for x-ray. We did fox last year and I considered ox but settled on x-ray. I found a fun book: You Can't See Your Bones with Binoculars. It has simple hand-drawn sketches with actual real x-ray films placed over parts of the body as it moves from the skull down to the toes. I'm thinking I want to own this book!And we enjoyed learning about our bones and the amazing way x-rays are used to take pictures of our bones and our teeth! I didn't plan too much for x-ray week, only a craft where we used chalk to draw x-rays of our arms on black paper, but life's circumstances gave us many opportunities to learn about x-rays this week.

Here's a picture of Adam with his x-ray craft:

And then, here is Adam at the Discovery Science Center where they have x-ray samples of different bones. We went to say goodbye to the Elmo exhibit and finding this exhibit was bonus! I love how Adam stood there studying the arm and holding it over his arm. He was truly deep in thought, so fun to watch :)

Then we had a dentist appointment where I could show Adam the x-ray machine that the dentist uses to take pictures of our teeth. (no pictures of that experience :)

And finally, we experienced an all-too-real example of an x-ray and it's purpose as Jill, Adam's sister, broke her leg. She slipped on some mulch and twisted it.It's a very unfortunate situation, although she's a trooper and doing alright, but what an opportunity to show Adam (and the whole family) actual x-rays of Jill's leg, and an example of a broken bone and what that looks like on the x-ray. I explained to the doctor that we just finished x is for x-ray week (he didn't seem to care and just wanted to move on...he's missing out!) Wish I could post a picture of the break. It's a spiral fracture and looks almost like a figure 8, very interesting (just wish it weren't so painful!)

So although it didn't end fabulously, X week turned out to be quite educational. We won't forget this one anytime soon :)

Monday, April 11, 2011

W is for Whale

This week we measured things. We read a book about how big blue whales are but that they are not the biggest thing. Mount Everest is bigger. And Earth is bigger. And the universe is even bigger. Imagine how proud I was when Adam then says, "but God is bigger." So rather than focusing on whales, we focused on measuring. We measured our height. We measured our weight. We measured food and made banana bread.

We did still read books about whales and dolphins, and Adam even constructed this mobile. In other activities, Adam is growing out of many of our preschool tools and instead teaching Jill how to use them. Here he shows her how to trace the letters in the rice. He kept reminding her to start at the happy face :) This is just another sign to me confirming that he is ready for kindergarten. This is exciting and scary all at the same time. But for now, we've still got X, Y, and Z...here we go!

Monday, March 28, 2011

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 :)

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

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.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

V is for Valentine

I know I've been doing alphabetical order and I'm not one to stray from such patterns but it's Valentine's Day, and I wanted to do V is for Valentine so I did it!
On Valentine's Day, Adam chose this shirt all on his own saying, "This is my Valentine shirt."

Unfortunately, starting the day before, the flu hit our family. One at a time, it took a good 10 days of our life. Oh well...at least it was cold and rainy. We spent the week watching videos, being read to, and taking many naps! As the one week concluded and I was preparing for the next, I realized we did very little for V because of the flu, yet I was preparing to move on. But then I realized I don't have to move on, I can stay on V for another week, I have freedom! So V is for Valentine lasted two weeks :)
My main focus for Valentine was love and the heart shape. Adam learned to draw hearts (mine are pointed his have more of a rounded edge on the bottom :) We had heart shaped pancakes on Valentine's Day (this flu bug did not involve the stomach, just fevers, achy, and congestion) and heart shaped sandwiches later in the week. We jumped up and down and felt our hearts beating. We made valentine's cards and crafts for family and friends sending literal hugs across the country. Our "cards" where our handprints cut out and stapled to a piece of string as long as our arms - a hug :) Adam really impressed me cutting out his own hands. I wish I had taken a picture of his but his got mailed off to Anja (happy birthday!) Here's one of Beth's, which is going to Grandma Mae, to give you an idea... Our books for the week were Clifford's Valentine and Winnie the Pooh's Valentine's Day. They are both easy readers, not high quality content but simply friends making cards to share their love for each other.
One of my favorite aspects of V week was our Bible connection. Jason and Beth's memory verse this week happened to be "I am the vine, you are the branches." V is for Vine! So we ate grapes and colored our Bible verse Vine pictures. We then talked about how when we remain in Jesus, we produce fruit. What fruit - the Fruits of the Spirit. And what is one of the fruits - Love! So we talked about love :)

Happy Valentine's Day...or weeks as it may be!