Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Two in a row, woohoo

Aren't you pleased? LOL.
So, today was the letter "B," and dd1 is more comfortable with that. Long lines are easier to draw than short ones. She had fun coloring and reading the words, but dd2 kept demanding my attention and dd1 started to get bored without interaction. She left a little bit undone on her papers, but that's fine at this point. She wanted to do something else, so we learned our ASL/French for the day, button/bouton. Dd2 had some more transferring activities, and dd1 and I had fun with our "what starts with _" game. Yesterday she surprised me with "apricot" for "a." We play that at home and in the car. Today was dd2's therapy playgroup and dd1's dance, so we kept the other stuff to a minimum. Dd1 had a blast at dance. I was impressed with her ability to dance as a penguin (her animal of choice)--keeping a penguin element while dancing gracefully. Seriously--you try to dance beautifully as a penguin with a straight face and see how well you do! Dd2 had fun at playgroup too. She kept diving into the ball pit. Normally that would sting a bit, jumping bum-first into a shallow ball pit, but dd2 is not afraid of something as ridiculous as "pain." She was more upset by the fact she couldn't dance with dd1. It makes her sad. She points to herself and asks, "too?" in a little lonely voice. Some of my curriculum showed up and I'm excited--I think we might stop the alphabet when the rest of it gets here, as the phonics part starts at A anyway. I just wanted to get her brushed up with a little overview and a taste of scheduling every day, esp since dd2 NEEDS a schedule, I think, to thrive. I am cheap and am waiting to hear back from some people on used curriculum books but if I don't hear by tomorrow I'll just grab the last ones I need new. I am also getting math manipulatives soon, hopefully. I have a fun book where you use the rods to make letters and do alphabet activities as well as sneaking in math. I think dd1 will like it a lot.
Yes, this one was boring, because it's late and I can't remember half of it, lol. But I wanted to update daily like I said. Two in a row, yay! Oh, and the cupcakes are long gone. Of course.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Homeschool, Take.... 3?

We usually unschool, but I have discoverd structure is very helpful for dd2, and dd1 loves to learn new things all the time, so I'm starting a more official homeschool schedule. I have some curricula, and I am also making a conscious effort to do our own schooling every day. I found a wonderful website called EnchantedLearning.com, and it has tons of printouts. Not just coloring pages and letter tracing, but mini books in French-English, lined paper to print out for our own use, worksheets like "label the parts of this airplane in Spanish" with answers, the detailed scientific parts of flowers, a short essay the history of aviation with related printouts, etc. Tons of resources. So while we wait for the official curricula, we are doing my stuff. Hopefully we'll stick with it! I think the packaged curriculum (Hearts of Dakota "Little Hearts For His Glory" will be really fun for dd2 to participate in, as well as being both fun and educational for dd1. Lots of songs and dramatic play that tie in with the reading and such. I *want* to update here a little of what we did every day, for some extra accountability, lol. 

So, before we start her phonics program, and as HOD hasn't arrived, I started us on a basic alphabet review--26 days. Today was A, obviously. We had pages to write out the letter A/a, color A words, color letter A/a, match the picture with the word, a little French-English page, and learning a new A sign. Dd1 loves capital A and can already draw it, but gets frustrated with little a. So we did a picture match, wrote one a. Did another picture match, wrote one a, etc. In the reading for the picture/word matches, dd1 was again foiled by the Engish language--she noted that "apple" had a silent E so the "aah" should be "A." But it's not. Ack! They both colored, and dd1 did write several decent a's but also several that were really a d or just messy. But not bad at all. Then she traced A/a/B/b (she likes B better than a too, apparently), and colored some more. Friends came over and we stopped, only learning an A sign while they were here--"awake." But then I decided we should learn the same sign & French word, so we learned both after our friends left--"avion," for airplane, and the sign for it. Then dd1 colored her avion, wrote out avion (had me help her with the a, but was quite happy to write "v i o n" on her own, and then wrote a capital A afterwards. It seems to make her happier to show that she can write one of the A's well on her own. She does not stay in the little lines yet, but seriously. She's how old again, lol? Not even going to worry about that. Then she cut out two pictures of airplanes (and cut them into tiny pieces), and is supposed to be drawing an airplane/avion but I hear scissors so I think avion #3 is being shredded too. She loves to cut. Dd2 colored a picture, learned "awake" before her nap. and transferred blocks from a bread pan into a bowl and back (using her hand and then her hand inside an oven mitt), and she liked the latter the most.

ETA: Then we cleaned up the cut paper shreds and made cupcakes. We traced letters in the batter with the whisk as we stirred, plus reading the ingredients and doing addition/subtraction with the eggs!