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.

November 13 - 19: Goodnight Moon

Although Rachel knows Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd by heart, I'm going to use it this week as the "rowing" book.  We'll read it everyday.

Supplementary Books: 
*Goldilocks
*Runaway Bunny
*Grandpa Takes Me to THE MOON by Timothy R. Gaffney
*The Way Back Home by Oliver Jeffers
Stars by Steve Tomecek
Earth by Dana Meachen Rau
Maple Moon by Connie Brummel Crook and Scott Cameron  (too advanced, so I'll need to re-tell it)
The Stars by Cynthia Pratt Nicolson
Once Upon a Starry Night by Jacqueline Mitton and Christina Balit
Sun by Steve Tomecek
The Moon by Seymour Simon
*Goodnight Moon 123 based on Goodnight Moon

Again, many of the books were included for the photographs.  The ones with asterisks are the one's we will actually read.

Art:
1. Coloring page with the nursery rhyme "Hey Diddle, Diddle" printed on it.  She loves learning poems, so this will be fun for her.
2. We will continue playing with her crayons: sorting into groups by color and discussing primary and secondary colors.  Paint using cardboard and pom-poms for fun.
3. Make a mobile out of moon and stars made out of Sculpt-it clay.  She likes playing with the clay and cutting things out, so we'll do that, let them dry, and then paint it.  I need to buy some glow in the dark paint as a surprise for her.
4. She has learned how to use my digital camera in the "point and shoot" mode.  She can frame what she wants in the picture and knows how to hold the camera without getting her fingers in front of the lens or sensor.  So, she'll get to use my camera this week to take pictures in her room of things to include in her version of the book "Goodnight Moon".

Math:
1. I saw this: Sensory Bin  I think I'll make one. She should enjoy digging and finding things. Then, we can count them and play some basic addition games.
2. I'll cut out some felt mittens and let her practice hanging them on a clothes rack (like in the book).  We can practice counting.  Need to buy different colored felt at fabric store.

Science:
1. We'll try looking at a coloring sheet of the different phases of the moon, but I think it will be too much for her.  We'll definitely look at photos of the moon in books and online.
2. I'd like to look through a telescope at the moon, but I'm not inclined to buy one.  I've posted a request on freecycle to see if someone wants to get rid of an old one, or will let us borrow one. We might try David's binoculars.

Language Arts:
1. Have her tell the Goodnight Moon story using her own room and things.  I created a template that matches the page of the book and left blanks in the places she can choose what she wants to say goodnight to next.  We'll add some photos of her room.
2. Learn the Hey Diddle, Diddle nursery rhyme/song
3. Learn "I See the Moon"


Pretend/Recreating Book Experiences:
1. Make oatmeal for breakfast one day (bowl full of mush)
2. Hanging up mittens on a drying rack (see Math section)
3. Look at the Runaway Bunny book and find the matching image in the Goodnight Moon book

In the bigger picture, I need to clean out her toys this week.  Some need to be archived for later retrieval.  Some need to be pitched/goodwilled/freecycled.  I'd like to rearrange her playspace in the basement as well.