End of Week Reflections

So, this is what we actually did this week:

Read the following books (in addition to others):

Hibernation Station by Michelle Meadows and Kurt Cyrus
When Will it Snow? by Kathryn White and Alison Edgson
Jingle Bells by Darcy May
When Will it Be Spring? by Catherine Walters
Hello, Snow by Hope Vestergaard 
Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson

Video Resources:

We watched these videos:

Dora the Explorer The Mixed Up Seasons (season 4, episode 15)

Activities:

Math

✓1. Back to work on counting. I think I'll print some BIG numbers and put them around the basement. It will be more active and fun to have her get up and move around to find the number and what is underneath it.  I'll divide the basement into four seasons and reinforce the seasonal stuff.

✓2. She has chosen to play some basic addition games on my iPad, so I think I'll do a formal introduction of the + sign. We've done it casually previously. She can easily grasp 1, 2, and 3 without counting now. She's internalized the amount.

Map Skills

1. She has asked to go visit the woods and have an adventure, so I think I will take the iPad out and we'll go for a walk, take some photos, and then recreate the walk on paper using photos and toys.  I have a trail marking/GPS app on the ipad which would facilitate this.

Language Arts

✓1. I want to focus for the next few weeks on getting her to tell more stories. She makes them up all the time and I'd like to encourage that more.  Perhaps this week, we'll try to actually put her story down in a book (with my help).

Science

1. We'll take some time this week to look at photos of all sorts of animals that hibernate and where they “sleep”.

2. We've been talking about how snow and ice are made (the temperature required), so I think we'll freeze some water in the freezer. Then we can compare it to water outside and water from the faucet and from the refrigerator. 

3. We'll cover the seasons and which months go in which season.  Since we have a globe, we might try to talk about the planet and sun in terms of the seasons, but I suspect that will still be over her head.  However, if I use one of my floor lamps that emits heat as the sun.....she might feel the difference.

✓4. We hung up a calendar in the basement and check it everyday to see what day it is.  We also added some art work that shows it is the season of winter and the month of January.

Kitchen/Meals/Snacks
I'll get my ice cube trays out that are fun shapes.  We can fill them up with juice and other liquids.

Feelings

✓1. She's been asking me a lot recently if I'm happy. So, I think we'll talk about being happy and what makes her happy. Since she know a lot of words to use to describe emotions, I think we'll talk about how we express being happy in ways other than using words. Then, we can branch out to talking about other feelings and how we communicate them in addition to using words.

Art

✓1. Origami snowflakes which we will paint and decorate.  I need to buy some thinner paper.  (Used parchment paper from the kitchen)

Fine Motor

✓1. I think I'll make some tracing patterns of different animals and snowflakes for her.

✓2. We'll get back to tracing letters this week.

✓3. The origami project also strengthens fine motor and use of scissors.

✓4. On a whim, I bought some lacing cards at a store this week. We'll spend some time playing with those this week.

Reading

1. She is absorbing words amazingly quickly, so I think we'll start on learning to spell and recognize three new words a week. We'll adjust the number up or down as needed.  No need to do this in a formal way.  She is learning a ton of words from all the reading we're doing.

Learning about....fever.

Rachel started running a fever on Thursday.  It got up to 102.6.  At that point, I gave her some Advil to help her feel more comfortable. She's got mucos running out her nose and alternates between ok to attached to me.  Poor kid.

Of course, I now have it too.

That's got to be some kind of a record.  Two days back at playschool and we're sick.

Numbers, Calculators and Her Choices

Yesterday, after playschool, we came home and Rachel played in the basement while I worked on my laptop.  I had printed full page numbers and she asked to play the "hide a number" game.  So, I hid 1-5 around her play area while she hid her eyes.  I told her she had to find them and bring them to me in order.  It took a bit of time, mainly because she would see a toy she'd rather play with.  That was fine.  I'm not pushing this.  However, over the course of an hour or so, we had played four rounds, at her instigation.  She found all the numbers, 1-20, in order.

Then, we laid on the floor together and played on the iPad.  She's quite interested in a weird little learning game called Ansel and ...something.  They are basically exploring parts of Africa.  Not my favorite game for her, and it is over her head, but she keeps going back to it. -shrug-  This is all about what interests her, so I won't interfere.

After she got bored with that, I, on a whim, kicked up the calculator.  I showed her how to add things like 1 + 2.  After a couple of demos, she wanted to try.  Then, she was off and running.  This covered what I wanted to touch on in terms of basic math this week.

Oh, I should note here that yesterday during show-and-tell she shared the cardboard tube train we made this past week.  She also answered questions about who rode on the train (animals), and what they did on the train (hibernate).  She then explained what hibernation means to the class.

I have an appointment with Nancy Meyer tomorrow to discuss better techniques I can use with her in terms of handling her tantrums and my frustration.

Emotions and Demonstration

Emotions

One of the things I wanted to work on this week with Rachel is interpreting body language.  How do we tell what someone is feeling if they don't use words to tell us.  This morning, while sitting on the couch reading and drinking our morning cocoa/coffee, the topic came up naturally.

Rachel brought over the book "Not a Box".  At one point, she commented on one of the illustration saying, "He's thinking." 

I asked her how she knew that, which prompted a lot of discussion.  Then, David started demonstrating other emotions for us.  

It was fun.

Then, later in the day, we went to the tile store where our tile order got totally and completely messed up.  I was exhausted and my patience was gone.  Later in the day, Rachel told Daddy that "we had fun, then Mommy got mad at the tile."

Ahem.  Great.  I will win no awards for parenting today.

Language Arts and Storytelling

Yesterday, while riding in the car, we passed the water tower near our house.  Rachel laughed and said the monkeys hadn't stolen it.  I asked her "Why?"  (The cheeky monkeys have been stealing the water tower for quite some time.)  She explained they couldn't steal it so they went home.  

"Home?  Where is that?"

Rachel replied, "In the jungle."

Mom, "Oh, what do you think they eat there?"

Rachel said, "Plants".

"Not bananas?"

Rachel, using that tone of voice that clearly says her mother is just old and daft, said, "No, they eat plants."

We then went through questions about how many monkeys there were (9), how big they were (pretty big, only 7 would fit int he car), when they were coming back (7 months), who stopped them from taking the water tower (cars).  We did a whole story, which is exactly what I want to encourage her to do.

Science (well, sort of, in the loosest sense of the word)

As we have been talking about seasons, I brought in the concept of months.  They cover this at playschool, so I thought it would work for us at home as well. We put up a big calendar on the door to the laundry room and every day she has moved a star to the date for the day.  The first time we moved the star, I was surprised, and chagrined, that she didn't know which direction to go for the next day. Duh.  I wasn't thinking.  So, I explained how things work.  Today, she did better, but what really stunned me was she counted to 30 with minimal help.

Resources

I also picked up some of the early Kumon workbooks on tracing patterns, letters and beginning to tell time.

January 8-13: Hibernation Station

Opening notes:

Given that we are now into winter, we're going to look at hibernation and snow.  We'll probably also touch on seasons.  And, this week, we'll add a calendar to the wall of her room so she can start understanding months, seasons, years...etc.  I've got a lot planned, but here is my confession....we started this past week and I'm merely extending the subject matter in a more organized fashion.

Books:

Hibernation Station by Michelle Meadows and Kurt Cyrus
When Will it Snow? by Kathryn White and Alison Edgson
Jingle Bells by Darcy May
When Will it Be Spring? by Catherine Walters
Hello, Snow by Hope Vestergaard 
Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson

Video Resources:
The Berenstain Bears - Bears for All Seasons (1-2)

The Adventures of Milo and Otis (season 1, episode 6)

Dora the Explorer The Mixed Up Seasons (season 4, episode 15)

Activities:

Math

1. Back to work on counting. I think I'll print some BIG numbers and put them around the basement. It will be more active and fun to have her get up and move around to find the number and what is underneath it.  I'll divide the basement into four seasons and reinforce the seasonal stuff.

2. She has chosen to play some basic addition games on my iPad, so I think I'll do a formal introduction of the + sign. We've done it casually previously. She can easily grasp 1, 2, and 3 without counting now. She's internalized the amount.

Map Skills

1. She has asked to go visit the woods and have an adventure, so I think I will take the iPad out and we'll go for a walk, take some photos, and then recreate the walk on paper using photos and toys.  I have a trail marking/GPS app on the ipad which would facilitate this.

Language Arts

1. I want to focus for the next few weeks on getting her to tell more stories. She makes them up all the time and I'd like to encourage that more.  Perhaps this week, we'll try to actually put her story down in a book (with my help).

Science

1. We'll take some time this week to look at photos of all sorts of animals that hibernate and where they “sleep”.

2. We've been talking about how snow and ice are made (the temperature required), so I think we'll freeze some water in the freezer. Then we can compare it to water outside and water from the faucet and from the refrigerator.  
3. We'll cover the seasons and which months go in which season.  Since we have a globe, we might try to talk about the planet and sun in terms of the seasons, but I suspect that will still be over her head.  However, if I use one of my floor lamps that emits heat as the sun.....she might feel the difference.


Kitchen/Meals/Snacks
I'll get my ice cube trays out that are fun shapes.  We can fill them up with juice and other liquids.

Feelings

1. She's been asking me a lot recently if I'm happy. So, I think we'll talk about being happy and what makes her happy. Since she know a lot of words to use to describe emotions, I think we'll talk about how we express being happy in ways other than using words. Then, we can branch out to talking about other feelings and how we communicate them in addition to using words.

Art

1. Origami snowflakes which we will paint and decorate.  I need to buy some thinner paper.

Fine Motor

1. I think I'll make some tracing patterns of different animals and snowflakes for her.

2. We'll get back to tracing letters this week.

3. The origami project also strengthens fine motor and use of scissors.

4. On a whim, I bought some lacing cards at a store this week. We'll spend some time playing with those this week.

Reading

1. She is absorbing words amazingly quickly, so I think we'll start on learning to spell and recognize three new words a week. We'll adjust the number up or down as needed.