Nature Studies

Since the weather has been so fantastic, we have been spending a lot of time outside.  Today, Rachel found a feather, a dozen or so snail shells, and...(drum roll) Louise the "Garden" snake and her two babies! 

I love watching her explore in the yard. 

Legos and Math

Today, Rachel and I ventured to pick up her lego in the basement.  I told her she had to do it.  This was not a universally loved idea. She managed to get some of the blocks in the bin, but was having trouble doing it all.  So, I suggested we play a game.  I got a sheet of paper and drew to big boxes, put a "+" between them and an "=" after.  Then, I put lego blocks in each box and we did addition.  After she solved the math equation, she put the blocks in the bin.  She was doing so well that I added another feature.  After counting the blocks, we put the actual number underneath them so we could see the actual math equation.

All I can say is wow.  I had no idea she had caught on to basic addition as well as she has.

Plus, we got all the lego picked up. Win-Win.

Oh, and she can now count easily to 30.  Again, we were surprised to hear her do this yesterday, out of the blue.

Oops

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word read means:

look at and comprehend the meaning of (written or printed matter) by mentally interpreting the characters or symbols of which it is composed

This morning, Rachel and I were reading a book that we've only read a couple of times.  It hasn't made our regular stack of morning reading books.  This morning, she saw it and said, "Let's read that."


No problem.  I grabbed it and I started reading it to her.  Several pages into the book, I asked her at random to tell me what this word was:  Oops.


I seriously expected her to go, "I not know that."  (It is her standard response to any question she doesn't know the answer to.  David and I have both taken up saying it.)


Instead, she pondered a couple of seconds and then said, "Oops."  I blinked and then managed to say, "Yes, that's right."  She then followed up with, "You know, like in that other book."


I knew exactly the book she was talking about.  It was one of her baby books, Blue Hat, Green Hat by Sandra Boynton.  


So today, Rachel officially read on her own.  Her teachers at playschool told me last week that they thought she would be reading by summer.  They were right.