Summer Days are Great For....

Pig Sitting

Waking up at the Cabin


to swim and


ride the four wheeler with Papaw.


Returning home to swim some more

and look silly in goggles!

Meeting all your favorite characters at PBS Kids at the Park.

Touring a Fire Engine

Going to the Zoo

Petting Sharks

Feeding Giraffes

AND playing at the park!

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

Week-in-Review: May 24-28 2010

It's been a little while since I've done a full wrap up of our preschool week. I've spent a lot of time reviewing our since and Bible, but we have been doing other things as well. Although it was a very full week, it was also a very relaxed one. This was the last week for many of our weekly activities until the Fall.

Music Recital

We started the week with Lexy's music recital. I couldn't have been more proud of my little princess. She sang loudly for everyone to hear and tried her very best!

Besides their keyboard songs, they also got to show some of the other instruments that they learned.
Afterwards, we celebrated with Mamaw and Papaw at Steak-N-Shake!

Writing/Spelling

We finished up Get Ready for the Code for phonics, and we're waiting to get our next book. In the meantime, I'm just following Lexy's lead with what she wants to do for Reading/Spelling/Writing. She loved doing the Code book, so we will definitely continue on with it.

This week, Lexy wanted to write her own book. So, we looked at some books and talked about the different parts of a book. We had a blank Little Golden Book. She brainstormed what she wanted her story to be about and then got to work.

Her story is titled, "Bell Lost Her Shoe." The basic story line is all of the princesses looking for Bell's shoe. She hasn't finished it yet, so I'm anxious to see how she ends it. So far, she has kept with the story line, which isn't always the case when she writes a story.

She has taken a big interest in how to spell all kinds of words lately. One day this week, she went to work writing on the white board. She called for me to come and see what she wrote. This is what I found...

She had written her name along with Mommy and Josiah. I didn't realize that she knew how to spell these words without any help.


Cooking

Both kids do a lot of helping in the kitchen, especially Alexis. She loves cooking! I plan to do a post soon about Math in the Kitchen. She has learned to read fractions and many other math concepts while helping me in the kitchen.

I've recently taken up cake decorating, and Lexy has been eager to decorate her own cake. So after making a cake, I saved my left over icing for her to use on her own cake.

Josiah helped make the batter.

They took turns turning the mixer on and off.

Once Josiah went down for his nap, she got to decorate it. She had so much fun...

...and was proud of her creation!

The finished product!

Science

We wrapped up our formal Human Body Unit this week by studying the brain. I'm sure we'll continue learning and talking about the human body, because her interest continues to grow. I failed to take any pictures, because there wasn't much to take pictures of. I couldn't believe how fascinated she was to look through big books about the brain. I tried to read some more on her level, but she just wanted to go through the books talking about what all the pictures were. Through our discussions she learned quite a bit...

Lessons Learned:

1. Our brains are about the size of two fists put together.

2. The brain is like the control center of our body.

3. The brain allows you to think, feel, move, etc. by sending messages through the body.

4. It sends messages through the spinal cord and nerves.

5. Different parts of the brain control different things.

6. The brain is protected by the skull.

To see our other Human Body lessons see these links: The Digestive System, Muscles, Bones and Lungs, The Five Senses, the Heart and Book List, Introduction

Experiments:

Our brain experiment wasn't much of an experiment. We combined our study of muscles with the brain and talked about how the brain allows us to feel emotions. She used the muscles in her face to show different emotions...happy, sad, surprised, angry, etc.

Random experiment: Lexy asked me why the room spins when she gets dizzy from spinning in a circle. I explained that it was because of a fluid in the ears that helps control balance. When you spin quickly the fluid in the ears moves, and when you stop the fluid keeps moving. While the fluid is still moving around your balance is off. I read somewhere that if you hold your ears after spinning around that it would help that dizzy feeling to go away. We decided to give it a try.

We both made ourselves dizzy and then held our ears. We still felt dizzy. Lexy came up with a few other ideas that she thought would work...hold your head, wrap your arms around yourself. She tried both and neither worked.

Dance Rehearsal

We wrapped up the week with a dress rehearsal for her ballet recital coming up. This will be her first dance recital. She learned that there is a whole lot of waiting, and she was very excited when it was actually almost her turn.

Weekly Update: April 12-16

We had a very random, yet busy, week this week. I was busy planning for a Mommy and Me class that we hosted at our house. The planning and the class took up several mornings, but we still fit in some "school" time in the afternoons.

Math: We finally got around to playing with our homemade Math Fries. Lexy really enjoyed this. We took turns ordering fries and counting the correct number to put in each box. We will continue using these to practice counting. I'd like to begin working on numbers above 30.



Also, I decided to try some books that were recommended over at Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns. I went to the library and checked out every MathStart Level 1 book that they had! I spent several days looking over them myself before I introduced one to Lexy. I REALLY like these books, especially since Lexy enjoys reading so much.



The first book we read together was Beep, Beep, Vroom, Vroom! This book focuses on recognizing patterns. It is about a little sister that likes to play with her big brother's cars. Throughout the book, the cars are lined up in patterns. After reading it, Lexy played with her little brother's cars. She made patterns of her own.

To continue working on patterns, we played with Sequencing and Counting Bears from Learning Resource. These come with pattern cards that have four different levels of difficulty. She enjoyed finishing the pattern.

I plan to continue with the MathStart books. I'm not sure if I'll do one a week or every few days. I'd really like to get our own copies that way they can become a part of our home library.

Another book that was recommended by Natalie was "Missing Math: A Number Mystery" by Loreen Leedy. I checked this out and added it to our library basket to read whenever she felt like it. She really enjoyed this book and asked for it several times throughout the week. I found her following Josiah around on several occassions trying to read it to him or sitting by herself reading it and talking about the missing numbers.

Science: Lexy has recently been asking a lot of questions about bodies. So, we checked out more books from the library about the human body. I'm putting together a unit as we go. I plan on doing a seperate post about the specifics. But basically, the big ideas that I'm wanting her to come away with from this unit are:



1. We were created uniquely and with wisdom by God in His image

2. Our bodies are made up of parts we can see (external) and parts we can't see (internal)

3. Each part has a specific function (We'll talk about these, but I'm not sure how much she'll retain)

4. We need to take care of our bodies by eating healthy foods, exercising, and getting lots of rest

5. Our senses help us discover the world God created



I am getting many ideas from the Human Body Unit at Refined Metals Academy. Again, I'll post more specifics in a seperate post.



Here is Lexy filling in her body that I traced with chalk on the driveway.

Phonics/Handwriting: We are continuing to work with "Get Ready for the Code." She knows all her sounds and is very good at determining beginning sounds/letters. So, most of this is review. I'm debating on whether to skip ahead to "Get Set for the Code." I've been sticking with it, because it does have a lot of handwriting practice which has been helping her.



At this point, I just want her to enjoy writing and completing the books. So, when she wants to do it with a giant rainbow crayon...I'm okay with that :)

Sensory Tub: It's been awhile since I've posted about our sensory tub. I haven't switched it out as often as I would like. They have enjoyed this month's tub. It is filled with seeds, shovels, rakes, pots, and fake flowers. I bought two big bags of bird seed and squirrel feed, because other seed was much more expensive. However, I did buy some individual packets of some vegetable seeds and scattered them in. I left the packets there that show what those seeds look like. Lexy enjoyed looking through the seeds to find specific types.



Other: We hosted a Mommy and Me class at our house which was lots of fun. If it didn't take so long to get pictures on here, I'd add more. Here is one of Lexy painging a Spring picture. Many of the kids enjoyed painting on the easel!

Bible: My husband does our Bible planning now. To go along with our Science unit, he is doing a Bible unit on God making each of us special. I'll do a seperate post with more specifics about this when we get into it more.