Day Three

Well today was pretty much the same as yesterday, just different activities to do.  We started off the morning as usual and Connor actually joined us this time.  After morning circle we moved over to our table to work on some stuff associated with the letter Q.

Sort and count

So the first thing Connor did was sort the quails into color piles and then count them out.  He got lazy in the middle but then I made him do that pile again.  He's really good at sorting and we're working on counting here, stopping at the number of items there (he likes to count around till he gets to 10).  This was fun for him and he seemed to enjoy it. I love doing this stuff with him because it is showing me how smart he really is, and how much he already knows.  Kindergarten testing should be a breeze for this kid.

Sewing the quail

This was one I had never heard of.  Having the child weave in and out of the quail.  I printed this, lamented it and then hole punched it.  It suggests using a shoe string or yarn.  Connor used a shoe string and it proved to be a little difficult.  I'll have to get a better shoe string or yarn.  He did pretty good for his first try.  I had to help him a few times get untangled or undo it when he went across the bird, but all in all, not bad little guy.

While Connor was doing his things, I had Emma do her shapes again and her Melissa and Doug caterpillar.  She's never really played with it before but I took it out so she could work on her colors.  She matched each one up perfectly! And then had them all moving together.  I was shocked, in a good way.  I have no idea when she learned her colors, it could've been me, Daddy, Connor but it was probably her education apps on the iPad that she loves so much. None the less girl knows her colors :)

Since today was Thursday, we were at the library for Discovery Time.  This group is geared more towards Connor but Em has fun too.  Today they learned about rainbows and colors.  Since we've had too much rain, the teacher talked about how they are formed.  Then they each got a color and danced around with them.  Emma really likes playing with these :)

Rainbow craft

They were given a craft at the end of the Discovery time today and once Em went down for her nap (which she did not take) Connor and I worked on this together. I had Connor dump out all the fruit loops, sort them into color piles and then glue them onto the paper by color.  He LOVED this craft.  I'm so glad the library is doing crafts because I'll be honest, I'm not good at them.  I think it's because I have a hard time buying an entire box of Fruit Loops for this tiny project :)  Thankfully the library does these crafts for me :)

I make sure to have nursery rhymes on during the morning and when we are driving somewhere so that the kids can learn them.  The library teacher says that if they know at least 6 by the time their 4, they will have an easier time in kindergarten.  Well Connor and Emma have only been listening to these for a week and they are like old pros!  I caught Connor doing this earlier.

Teaching Emma the morning circle.

I have Connor write his letters after quiet time (as we were doing this before school started) and it seems to be the only time he wants to do it.  Today instead of Q we did the number 1 and learned how to draw a square.  When they were finished I let them do what they wanted for the next hour.  I caught Connor teaching Emma everything that was on the morning board.  He was telling her about Q, the number 1 and the weather.  And even that today is Thursday and its September.

I had thought about telling Connor about the meaning of Sept 11th but I decided against it.  I feel he's too young to really understand.  Maybe next year we'll teach him about Patriot Day.

So the week of the letter Q, the number 1 and the shape square are all in the books.  Next week we start the letter P, the number 2 and the circle.  We will have our first theme, which will be the country Poland (where Jon's family is from)  we have some cool crafts that I will be incorporating in there for the country Poland.  So far, it looks like he's learning :)