ABC Jesus Loves Me: Week 6

For the full week 6 lesson plan visit ABC Jesus Loves Me.

This week's goals:

Bible Story:  Creation Day 6

Bible Verse:  I Thessalonians 2:13

Books:  Good Night, Gorilla

Color:  Green

Letters: H-K

Number: 1-3

Shapes:  Square

Information:  First Name and last name

Self-Care and Manners:  Place dirty clothes in laundry

Fine Motor Skill:  Play-doh

Gross Motor Skill:  Jumping

What we accomplished:

Creation Day 6 - God made the animals (and people)

We focused on the "wilder" animals like lions, tigers, giraffes, gorillas and such.  Isaiah seemed to enjoy putting animal stickers (from the Dollar Tree!) on the green paper with a big 6 drawn on it.  This was a nice easy suggestion from Heidi at ABC Jesus Loves Me, which you can find in the lesson plan link above.

We continued to read the Bible story of creation every day.  Isaiah seems to like stars the best as he says God made them on every day.  In addition to knowing Adam and Eve, he has learned that they lived in the garden of Eden!  He's also getting really good at giving a "thumb's up" as Heidi suggested in the very first lesson.

I Thessalonians 2:13

Isaiah still enjoys listening to me sing this song, but he will repeat each word after me as well.

Good Night, Gorilla

We made it to the library, but this book wasn't available; so we checked out lots of other animal books for next week.  We enjoyed reading a Fisher-Price book, My Best Friend by Kirsten Hall.  A little boy talks about his best friend while playing with all kinds of animals, but I won't spoil the surprise of who his best friend is.

We also found a great little book at Dollar Tree:  Amazing Animals:  Wild Animals by Hinkler Books Pty Ltd.  (There is no specific author listed.)  It's a short book with great pictures of safari
animals.

Green and Squares


We did everything we could think of with the color green, even begrudgingly eating green vegetables!  We painted green, played with green play-doh and did some square activities.

We also glued together 4 tongue depressors into a square.  Isaiah loves to play with glue, so this just sort of happened as I tried to keep him interested in things.

Not related to green but related to squares, we stamped!  Isaiah found this great stamp set at Dollar Tree, and thankfully the stamps were squares, so he enjoyed stamping Lightning McQueen around the place.

Numbers 1-3


We used tongue depressors for counting and number recognition.  Then we stirred things with them.  Isaiah liked the stirring best, I think.

Letters H-K

We are still working on A-G.  Isaiah will identify the correct letter from a field of 4 about 9 times out of 10.  He is also starting to willingly tell me what sound the letter makes.  Thank you, Letter Factory!  We will keep on watching!

First and Last Name


No problem!  He can still tell you his first and last name, and everyone in our immediate family; but we need to work on his generalization, though because he now says our last name is EVERYONE'S last name.

Laundry


Isaiah's very good about putting things away.  He loves to put things "in."  Although this week, he and sister did a much better job of taking his dirty laundry out and spreading it all over his room.  But they had fun, and we worked together to put it all back.

Jumping


Um, yeah, that didn't happen, but Isaiah got tons of wheelchair practice in the store.  He's pretty amazing.  His post-op visit went really well, too, and he showed off his chair rolling skills for some interns.  Thankfully we are cleared to start physical therapy!

Our Favorites:


Isaiah:

I think he actually enjoyed the painting this week!  That's my sensory-seeking little man. :)

Mama:

I love that my kids enjoy doing things together.  Anytime Isaiah does something, it's only a matter of time before I hear, "Sister...too."  Smile.

SEW: Head Lock

Last year:

This year:

Siblings make me smile.

See other Special Exposure Wednesday posts here.

Week 5 - Creation Day 5

After a two-week surgery break (not two weeks of surgery, just surgery and recovery), we are getting back into the swing of things again.  I had had all these grand plans of getting to do things with Isaiah in the hospital like read books and learn songs and all manner of fun.  The poor little guy however could barely muster a "No" whenever I offered him all my wonderful ideas.

So I let it slide.  We cranked it up this week, and there's a double meaning in that, unfortunately.

For the full lesson plan and other great ideas, visit ABC Jesus Loves Me.

This week's goals:

Bible Story:  Creation Day 5

Bible Verse:  I Thessalonians 2:13

Books:  Five Little Speckled Frogs

Color:  Red, Blue

Letters: H-K

Number: 1-2

Shapes:  Line

Information:  First Name and last name

Self-Care and Manners:  Use a fork and spoon

Fine Motor Skill:  Tear Paper

Gross Motor Skill:  Throw a bean bag into a circle

What we accomplished:

Creation Day 5 - God Made the Birds and the Fish

We continued to read the "Very Good Beginning" section from our copy of The Big Picture Story Bible. Isaiah can now tell me what God created on each day, including Day 5!  He can also complete some of the sentences of the story as I read, and he knows the name of the first man and woman created by God!  This is HUGE!  I am so excited that he is able to retain this information!

We did two crafts for Day 5:  

Getting the proper hold on his scissors is trickier than it looks!

We (and yes, I mean WE!) cut out two fish together!  Isaiah then half-heartedly colored a few random lines on both of the fish.  Rather than stapling the fish and stuffing with paper towel as suggested, I taped them up 3/4 of the way, and followed Isaiah's lead as he began tearing the scraps of paper left over from our cutting.  We then stuffed the fish with the scraps of paper as the fish said, "More paper, please!" in a very fishy kind of voice.  He also asked Isaiah what Isaiah's last name is, as well as the last name of all the members of the family.  Yeah, we love multi-tasking, and apparently Isaiah enjoys talking to a fish.

That was one hungry fish!

The crankiness occurred when we attempted our second Day 5 craft.  Isaiah enjoyed glueing the "water" to our paper, but he was "ALL DONE!" when it came time for finger painting the fish and the birds in the appropriate places.

I Thessalonians 2:13

"Give thanks to God."  (to the tune of It's Raining, from the curriculum)  We sang this over and over and over and over again, and this time "we" means "mama" while Isaiah kept saying "Again! Again! Again!"

Five Little Speckled Frogs

Didn't make it to the library, but I do know a song along the same lines, so we sang "Five Fat Freckled Frogs" instead.  Perhaps not as politically correct, but lots of fun!  As we sang the song, we pulled the frogs off the log and made them jump into the water.  And now we have laminated frogs that we can use again and again!

First and Last Name

See the story about the fish. :)  Isaiah definitely knows his last name now!

Using a Fork and Spoon

Isaiah loves to play with spoons, pretending that he's making cakes in a bowl.  We have been working on his utensil skills for, oh, 3 years or so.  This week we actually began to see significant improvement!   He intentionally tried to stick his food with his fork by himself.  He has been able to eat with a fork, if the food was already there, so this is great improvement.  I think little sister is inspiring him as he sees her try these skills, too.  It's always good to have a partner in crime.

Tear Paper

Again, see the fish story.  Isaiah LOVES to tear paper.  He sees Daddy shredding things the old fashioned way and his eyes light up as he scoots himself closer and closer.  Keep strengthening those hands, buddy!

Isaiah never gets cranky when asked to tear paper.

While we didn't work specifically on letters, numbers, colors or lines, there was lots of unstructured learning going on in that area throughout every day.  We worked on circles while waiting for the doctor one day:  Nadia and I twirled around while Isaiah twirled around in his wheelchair; he was pretty amazing! We are constantly counting things and naming colors.  I want to be more intentional about letters next week.

If you'd like to see more ways to use the ABC Jesus Loves Me curriculum for 2-4 year olds, visit ABC Jesus Loves Me or Our Out-Of-Sync Life where the developer of the curriculum has a blog roll of people who use the curriculum regularly.  Thanks, Heidi!

A Short Week

This past week the ABCJLM curriculum scheduled a review week, which worked really well for us!

Monday and Tuesday we kept very busy before our long day in surgery on Wednesday.

We were finally able to get at least one of the books from the curriculum at our library.  Thankfully people have donated lots of Dr. Seuss books, so One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish was actually available!  I think I enjoyed it even more than the kids, though.

Monday we started preparing for our "Pre-Op Party", and I couldn't have done it without my baking helpers!

It's amazing what you can learn in the kitchen.

Flour is great for making circles and lines!

Sister wanted in on the action, too; and brother was kind enough to share.

Isaiah "measured" things with one bowl and worked on pouring the flour into (or onto) something else.

Tuesday night we got to party!  I realize this isn't quite part of school, but we were enjoying the fruits of the plants that God created on Day 3, right?

The fruit of our labors, a "Singing" cake, per Isaiah's request.

The rest of the week was sort of a bust for school, but that's ok.  We've talked a lot about the days of creation as Isaiah lay on his tummy in his hospital bed.  He's listened to his daddy sing a lot, and he's enjoyed some of his favorite videos, which did include some Letter Factory.

I'm not sure what next week will look like, either, but we'll get back into the swing of things as we are able.  I'm learning to give myself some grace in this area and make sure that we have some fun!

He's Getting It!

Our third week of ABCJLM school went great! Our week was a little crammed because we had some extra dr visits thrown in at the end of the week. Isaiah got to start physical therapy, this week, too, which was very exciting.  We even managed to fit in a trip to the library since I had an extra pair of hands.  I haven't been brave enough to take both kids by myself because I know all the books will end up off the shelves and on the floor.

I'm writing this from Isaiah's hospital room, so I apologize ahead of time for not getting in all the links that I would normally put in, but I didn't bring all my supplies to the hospital because we are trying not to move in. :)

The biggest news this week is Isaiah's ability to tell me the days of creation! This is HUGE for us! He has days one and two down cold.  He tells me day three and four with a slight prompt from me of the first sound of each word. I think his favorite part of creation though must be "stars" because he tries to put that in every day.

We did do a bunch of fun crafty things, but I focused more on the creation days memorization, so I don't have as many pictures of the craft stuff. Also it's been a week since we finished the lesson plan, so my memory isn't as fresh.

The main goals for the week (that I actually worked on):

Creation Day 4

Color Yellow

You know we have to have our play-doh!

Isaiah did a great job gluing on the sun, moon and stars for our Day 4 craft.

We also colored with a yellow marker on a coffee filter to make a sun.  Isaiah then painted this yellow sun.  He really liked the sponge paintbrush more than I thought he would.

We had a great week (two weeks ago)!