I haven't done well in posting consistently about school, so let's do a brief catch up from the last several days.
A couple of weeks ago, I rearranged my living room ever-so-slightly in order to create a very small "learning zone." I still don't have a work table, which is a huge bummer. Hopefully we can find a reasonable one soon. We are working more on a morning routine, but I have found myself consistently dropping the ball on this. *see previous post* I know that I have to be better about establishing a routine! Moving on...
We try and begin our mornings with our pledges (we have no flags :) ), prayer, a Bible story, and our ABeka ABC Song. We're also working on learning to recognize the written names of several family members! After our short routine one Monday, I introduced Lorelai to the Letter B. I'm still working on her excitement for the alphabet! (She's a little like her Mom when it comes to school.) We played a super easy and super cute game. We called it "The Bb Hunt." The night before, I made small cards with random letters of the alphabet written on each, sticking with A, B, L, and T, while still throwing in a few "unknowns." All I did was cut a piece of cardstock into fourths, write the letters on both sides (I did uppercase on one, lowercase on the other), and you're ready to play!
I started by letting Lorelai throw the stack of letters in the air. They didn't really fly as well as I had hoped, so I ended up scattering them around a bit. She absolutely LOVED this game! We had a B hanging up on the wall for reference, but she never needed to look at it. Each time she picked up a letter, we talked about its phonic sound and investigated both the upper and lowercase sides of the card.
We've played this game several times in the last couple of weeks. Since it's such a big hit, I think I'll keep adding letters as we learn them!
Later in the week (I think...it's been a while) we went on an all-things-fall hunt in the front yard. I'm teaching Lorelai and Trek about the changing seasons, and doing my best to point them to the Creator as we admire His creation. We just wandered around in the front yard, enjoying the weather and trying to find pretty leaves and pine cones. Admittedly, I did this way too early in the season. NOW would be a perfect time for this kind of activity, so we'll probably do this again in the next few weeks. My goal is to have them find things that we can use for craft projects and display in the house. Even though it was a bit of a fall failure, it was a lot of fun to get out of the house and enjoy the cool weather we had that week.
We also attempted a fall sensory bin. I filled a bowl with popcorn kernels and things to fill and pour and such. Honestly, it was a pretty big failure. I don't know what it is with my kids and sensory bins, but they don't really do too well. I'm still trying to figure out what we're going to do about that...
So since that didn't go well, we opted for a fun and simple science experiment. I filled a couple of disposable pie pans with baking soda. Just enough to cover the bottom with a shallow layer. Then, I put vinegar in some plastic cups, added a little food coloring, and let the kids go to town with 2 turkey basters from the Dollar Tree.
I was a little surprised that the colors didn't actually mix in this little experiment. I loved how this worked on Lorelai's fine motor skills, as well as sparking her imagination and critical thinking. And it was no surprise to me that she quickly took my little experiment and made it her own. It wasn't long before she figured out that she could pick up the baking soda from the pan and put it into the cups. She REALLY thought that was cool!
She absolutely loved this experiment. We will definitely be doing this one again. Maybe next time we will practice mixing the food coloring and exploring how colors change.
We were obviously really busy this day (judging by the clothing in every picture). While Trek was napping, Lorelai decorated Besty Bee with glitter glue. She really enjoys this stuff, and I don't mind the mess. Lo does great, and this kept her very busy for a very long time, which freed me up to clean...probably :)
She also helped me cook lunch. I know, you're totally impressed with my cooking skills. Please hold your applause. We practiced counting and measuring, and of course stirring.
We're doing our best around here to mix learning with playing and socializing. Some weeks I really drop the ball in more than one of those areas. But, for the most part, I feel like we're quite successful. My kids are learning, both academic and practical things. They're learning how to love each other and solve problems. They're learning their ABC's and 123's. They're learning about the love of Jesus and His heart for the nations. I'm always prayerful that I'm doing them justice. And when I begin to feel inadequate, I am reminded that of course I am inadequate! But my God is not. And He will equip me to complete the work to which He has called me.
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