This week in O's homeschool

I've not been keeping up with this blog very well, but things have been very busy in O's homeschool. Our activity kit this week has a train track and trains that we have had a great time playing with, so O has been learning all about trains this week. She loves to sit in the center of the track after we have it set up. She gotten good about keeping everything on her mat, and she even tries to roll it up by herself when we are finished playing. We have lots of library books this week, too, but she only likes a couple of them.

Homeschooling Update

O and I have been very busy in our homeschool this week. We are getting back into a routine after being gone last week. We've ready lots and lots of books, played "Where is it?", put the plastic coins in the container, listened to lots of music, practiced our signs (we're working on tiger and monkey), listened to Spanish music and rhymes, threaded spools onto pipe cleaner, played with her library activity kit, smelled and labeled the scent jars, shook and labeled the listening jars, and taken lots of nature walks.

We spent last week at G & G's house. O had so much fun playing with Marg. I've never seen her more excited than she is when she sees Marg for the 1st time. I love that they love each other so much!

Learning About Fruit

O loves fake fruit, so I was really excited when I found some good quality fake fruit for a low price. I've been doing the 3 period lessons to teach her the fruit. She knew what they all were except the lemon and lime, and she learned those quickly. She won't say the names for them (except banana), but she signs apple (and banana), and she knows them receptively. The Montessori 3 part lessons are very similar to the discrete trial training that I used to do when I was an ABA therapist, so its a fun way for me to teach O.

Questions for O

We've been asking O lots of questions lately, and she loves answering us. This is one of her favorite new activities. I started asking her "What is on the outside of trees?" after she started talking about bark all of the time. She knew exactly what I was talking about and said, "bahk." I told my dad about it, and he implied that she didn't know what she was saying and that she would say "bahk" to any question that we asked her. Of course, I had to prove him wrong, so I asked her, "What do we see in the sky at night?" She said, "moon," the 1st time I ever asked her! I was shocked. We were walking in the woods with Melanie, Marg, and my dad, and they didn't hear her the 1st time, but she's kept on answering the questions correctly. Since then I've added a few more questions. "What do we read? book," "What do we throw? ball," "What do we smell with? nose," and "What animal says meow? cat." She answered book and ball correctly the 2nd time I asked. When I ask the smell question she sniffes, but she won't say nose. She's answered the meow question once, but usually she just meows back at us. This is a fun activity, and I am going to continue adding more questions because O loves this so much.

Library Finds

These are O's library books for this week.
This is O's activity kit for the week. We are going to learn all about shapes and colors.

B-I-N-G-O

A new activity that we have been doing for the past 2 days is singing and spelling O's name to the tune of "BINGO," while pointing to the wooden letters spelling out her name on her wall. O LOVES this activity, and I'm hoping that she is learning to spell her name!

Learning to Check Tire Air Pressure

O loves to do whatever her daddy is doing, so yesterday she learned how to check the air pressure on my tires. She was very excited to go around to each of the tires and check the pressure. He taught her how to check the oil today, but I didn't get any pictures of that.

There's Never Enough Time

Making tiny pumpkins with orange pladoh yesterday.

There's never enough time to do everything we want to do in a day. O and I were very busy today, but we somehow ran out of time before coloring and playing with orange playdoh. She didn't mind, but I really wanted to get those activities in today. Oh, well. She had lots of fun playing "where is it?" with the red and blue cups. She's not too interested in threading the small spools with pipe cleaners, but she loves to put the spools in a cup and then transfer them to another cup. She's also been practicing her pouring skills by pouring them from one cup to another. We had a really nice nature walk today. O rode in the wagon and was very excited to touch the bark on several trees. She holds her hand up to a tree and says "bark." (She's overgeneralizing a bit and is holding her hand up to the wall and saying "bark.") We found several pretty flowers on our walk. O was super excited. She loves to hold and smell flowers. We also found brown, red, and green leaves and a few pinecones. We saw lots of spiders, spiderwebs, squirrels, birds, trees, etc. We enjoyed putting acorns, leaves, grass, etc into the magnifying glass holder (from the activity kit). We are looking forward to another fun day tomorrow. Hopefully, we'll make it to storytime at the library.

Teaching O to do Chores

O loves to be involved in everything we do, so we have started teaching her to do chores. She enjoys helping unload the dishwasher, picking up Gracie's leftover treats, picking up her toys and books, sorting diapers (inserts go in the dryer and pockets on the line), and sweeping. Lately, she's even been helping me push the vacuum. Today when I was sweeping the den she came in from playing on the porch and brought me the dustpan. I was so surprised, and she was so proud! Helping Guh-guh put diaper inserts in the dryer.

Plans for this week- October 22

- Take the magnifiying containers from the activity kit outside and catch bugs to observe
- play "Where is it?" using red and blue cups
- thread new, small spools onto pipe cleaner
- talk about the color orange
- count small pumpkins
- practice wearing halloween costumes
- take at least one nature walk per day
- go out in the pedal boat - find the moon, watch the birds, find and label other objects- balls, boats, slides, lights, trees, docks, etc.
- do knobbed puzzles
- do sorting activity
- Read LOTS of books
- Play in the grass and collect lots of acorns and gumballs (this is O's favorite outside activity)
- Play with the hula hoop and talk about circles
- Make and play with cardboard shape puzzles
- sing, dance, and sign while listening to "Pick Me Up"

Toddler Activities

Here's a list of activities to do with your toddler. I found this list before O was born, and I haven't looked at it again until today. Its full of fun ideas. I can't wait to get started!

1. Keep a stack of old magazines and let your toddler have at them 2. Give your toddler a set of doubles when you have pictures developed 3. Stash a few dollar store toys and pull them out when you have a busy day ahead of you 4. Let your toddler dress their dolls or bears in their old infant clothing 5. Give your toddler an assortment of buttons to play with (oversized ones) 6. Put in home videos for your toddler to watch 7. Have your toddler collect pinecones for home decor 8. Give your toddler shells, beans, or beads and an egg carton to sort them 9. Show them how to twist pipe cleaners into shapes 10. Give your child a pair of safety scissors and let the child trim green beans for dinner 11. Have your toddler draw pictures for a local nursing home 12. Have your toddler thread jingle bells on a string to play with 13. Show your child how to hold her baby with a sling, feed her from the breast and change diapers 14. Open a snack while shopping at the grocery store to keep them busy 15. Buy garage sale books and let the child cut out pictures to decorate their room or papers 16. Show your toddler how to make noodle necklaces 17. Let them make art projects from dry foods like macaroni, pretzels and beans 18. have your toddler match socks for you while you fold laundry 19. Let your toddler help you cook by handing them pre measured dry goods to add, cracking eggs, etc 20. Have your toddler make faces on paper plates and glue them to popsicle sticks for plays 21. Let your toddler stamp envelopes while you pay bills (even give them 100 1 cent stamps to put on their own envelopes) 22. give your child oversized buttons to string for a toy 23. Have your toddler make home made pizza with small bowls of ingredients and ready made crust 24. Make a fort with sheets and chairs 25. Let your toddler stick bows on gifts at Xmas 26. Give your child her own spray bottle of water and a rag to help you clean 27. Have your child design gift bags with paper, crayons and paints 28. Let your child draw as you make dinner at the counter 29. Ask your toddler to tear the lettuce for salad 30. Let your child look at their own baby book 31. Have your child sort and string cheerios or other round cereals 32. Show your child how to make PB and J by themselves 33. Save scrap cardboardfor drawing supplies 34. Give your child a piece of sticky tape and let them play! 35. Involve your children in store shopping decisions, like which soup to buy 36. Have your child help put away unbreakable dishes 37. Play 'I Spy' 38. Give your child a box full of packing popcorn to play with 39. Try to spot things on car rides -- give your child a list of five pictures of common things to see outdoors, and have them point them out when they see them 40. Sing the day's activities...eating, diaper changes, clothes, etc 41. Pop in an exercise video for your child to jump along to 42. Make homemade beanbags to play with 43. Keep a clipboard, paper and crayons for car trips 44. Make snacks into faces...cheese grapes, and crackers 45. Let your toddler s with a straw 46. Have your toddler collect leaves and flowers, and iron them flat between two pieces of wax paper -- add crayong shavings for extra color! 47. Give your toddler a basket and tell them to collect rocks for apinting 48. Make dolls out of pantyhose and pillow stuffing...have your child draw faces on them 49. Race your child to see who can put away toys the fastest...make sure you lose! 50. Have your toddler close doors, close dryer doors, push empty baskets or even sweep as you do the same.

"What's Moving?"

For this activity you need a blanket, 2 or 3 objects, and some string. Tie a piece of string to each object and cover them with the blanket. Then slowly pull on a string and ask "What's moving?" O had so much fun with this activity, and she guessed the right object almost everytime. She really enjoyed pulling the strings by herself and pulling up the blanket to find the object. This activity develops: language interaction, visual discrimination, eye-hand coordination, independence, and problem solving. This activity comes from Slow and Steady Get Me Ready by June R. Oberlander.

"Where is it?"

For this activity you need 3 different-sized cans and a small object. Put the object under one of the cans and ask your child to guess which can it is under. Change the position of the cans, but always keep the object under the same can. The aim of the game is to get the child to pick up the can that the object is under 3 times in a row. This activity helps your child learn to use clues (size, shape, etc) to make decisions. O LOVED this activity! We plan on doing it again, and next time I'll used different colored cups and put the object under the same color cup each time.

Learning About Feelings

I thought that it would be fun to teach O about feelings using a book in which she is the star. I had a great time making a board book out of this book that I ordered from http://www.barebooks.com/. I was very happy with how it turned out, and I can't wait to make more books for her.

O's Porch Playroom

We set up a playroom for O on our screened porch a few months ago. We have lots of fun playing out there in her rice pit and at the nature table.