Week in Review - Week 8

This was a slower week for schooling, and I can't even tell you why, but we seemed extra busy with life in general.  Anyway, here were our goals:

Theme/Lesson:  Thank You, God, for Making Me

Bible Story:  Creation - Day 6 People

Memory Verse:  Psalm 139:14  You made me in an amazing and wonderful way.

Poem:  Where is Thumbkin?

Song:  Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes

Book of the Week:  Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Letter: L-P

Number: 1-4

Self-care & Manners:  Undress Self and Name Clothing

Fine Motor:  Pick up things with thumb and index finger

Color:  Purple

Shape:  Triangle

Information:  First, Middle, Last name

Gross Motor:  Crawl and climb over large pillows or cushions

Monday was our last day of Monday School for this term.  Isaiah and Nadia both had a blast at Monday School (and that's an understatement).  The time with the other kids helped Nadia learn how to have fun without Mama having to be there, yet she was always extremely happy to see me again!  Isaiah continued to learn how to interact appropriately with other kids his age.  He LOVES to be with other boys. 

At home we actually almost accomplished all our goals!  I can hardly believe it.

While learning about how God made people, we glued pictures of people from magazines onto purple paper (yes, multitasking).  We get a magazine from Compassion International, and I love how I was able to get pictures of people from all over the world!

Both the kids did well with counting to 4.  Isaiah has been able to string numbers together with a little assistance for a while now, but this week was the first time that he obviously counted objects!  He touched each apple as he counted all 4 of them!  I was so excited!

We found Chicka Chicka Boom Boom at the library, thankfully.  It was a smaller version of the book, which I think worked better for us.  I made palm trees and letter cards that we enjoyed playing with.  I tried to focus on the letters L-P, but we really just looked at all the letters.  I found the letters that I used here, and the tree here.  I love that the ABC Jesus Loves Me curriculum already has all the links for me!  I'm not very good at searching for things online.

We colored lots and lots this week.  I tried to get them to color with purple crayons and markers as much as possible to introduce this new color.  We colored lots of purple triangles, and Nadia identified a triangle at the end of the week!  They both still need prompting on the color purple.

Isaiah and his classmates got to tell all the parents from our co-op about the days of creation.  They did a great job at our Showcase!

At the end of the week, both kids were sick, so I was easy on them as far as school went.  The did get lots of fine motor practice though as they did one of their favorite activities:  Playing with marbles and buttons.  They did this for a LONG time!

We didn't do a whole lot of crawling, but both the kids had their different therapies this week, so we're working on gross motor skills, believe me!

Each week the kids get better at trying to sing our verse with me.  I LOVE it! (have I used caps lock enough yet in this post?)  I can't wait to see how God blesses their efforts in learning His word.

And now a few of my favorite pics from the week:

On our last day of Monday School, I took in a special treat for Isaiah's class.  I love that Isaiah got right down to business:  Why bother taking the time to pick this cookie up when it comes ready made for biting?

These two love each other more every day, I'm convinced of it!

You can tell by her face that Nadia is squeezing her brother will all her might!

Right back at ya, sis!

Review Week (with videos - Grandparents, you're welcome)

playdough, squares, blue, red, clothes to laundry room

This week was a scheduled review week, so I'm not going to list off all the things that we were reviewing because it was a lot!  Basically what I tried to do was get all the fun activities in that we weren't able to do during the other "regular" weeks (as if there is such a thing as a regular week).

We had some nice weather this week, so we enjoyed some outside play time, even if it was confined to the back porch.

We reviewed our animals:

Nadia was very excited about coloring this duck

Isaiah was all about Gonzo and the chickens

 To review colors we played our Candyland "bingo" game.  I've never noticed this, but Isaiah was able to match the colors!  He didn't always name them correctly, but he could match them about 90% of the time.  Hooray!

We worked on shapes and colors with playdough on the back porch.

More animal and circle review and fine motor development with stickers.  These were really hard to get off the sticker paper, so I finally realized I could stick them around the edges of his tray, which worked really well.

And what week would be complete without glue?  We not only played with glue inside the square, but we also glued popsicle sticks together to make squares.  We'll save them for later to paint.  Both the kids really liked this activity.

And if a picture is worth 1000 words, then I thought perhaps some videos would be worth even more.  Or at least the grandparents should enjoy them.

So, here's a video of Isaiah helping with his memory verse:  I Thessalonians 2:13 "Give thanks to God."



Nadia knows her verse, too; though you can see that her attention span is definitely that of a two-year-old.  This makes me laugh.



I realize not everyone can understand two-year-old speak, but I don't have time to make a transcript.  Just take my word for it, she really did say the verse on that very first line.

One of our songs was Jesus Loves Me.  Isaiah's been working on this for a while with his grandpa with a slight variation to the traditional wording.  Besides getting a little distracted by his sister (who can only stay out of the camera for so long), he does a great job!



We've been working on first and last names.  Isaiah knows this really well, but Nadia just can't seem to get past the fact that she's "Sister".  Every once in a while she'll say that sister's name is Nadia, but we can't quite capture the moment.  Anyway, this one has a sweet ending that I can't resist sharing.

Week in Review - Week 7

And we're back to rockin' through our week.  We had so much fun this week, and the kids really learned a lot about animals, which is really fun for mama!  We've got a shorter post this week with fewer pictures because my hands were pretty busy, way too busy to hold a camera.

Theme/Lesson:  God Made the Animals

Bible Story:  Creation - Day 6 (farm animals)

Memory Verse:  Give thanks to God.  - I Thessalonians 2:13

Poem:  Little Bo-Peep

Song:  Jesus Loves Me

Book of the Week:  Old MacDonald Had a Farm

Letter:  H-K

Number: 1-3

Color:  Green, Yellow

Shape:  Circle

Self-care & Manners:  Pick up Toys

Information:  First and Last Name

Fine Motor:  Finger paint

Gross Motor:  Roll ball on the floor

We found all the animals that we have (toys, of course), and played  with them A LOT!  We kept them in a big blue box and did all kinds of games with them.  The kids can now name all these different animals and even make most of the sounds.

Nadia decided she wanted to be closer to the animals

I couldn't find Old MacDonald Had a Farm, but we read lots and lots of other books!  Big Red Barn was our main book, but we also read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?; Good Night, Gorilla; Moo, Baa, La, La, La; Let's Go the the Zoo!; A Children's Zoo; and Amazing Animals Wild Animals (a Dollar Tree find!)  The kids were excited to read this week, maybe because we "found" all kinds of different places to read, like under tables and buried in animals and such.

In the midst of our homeschool activities, we're always working on skills his different therapists have told me to work on.  Isaiah's lately fairly determined to put things down his shirt.  I've been told this is a "boy thing".  So, naturally, where did the animals often go?

And I finally caught him using both hands at the same time!  This is great to show how his core strength is increasing.

I've pulled out some alphabet cards that we've just been playing with them, and the kids have occasionally identified their letters correctly.  They are both counting to 3, and delight fills me when I hear them counting on their own!

Thankfully both the kids LOVE helping, so picking up toys is lots of fun.  

Perhaps one of the funnest activities of the week was bowling.  Not just any old bowling, however.  The kids had to roll a ball down the hallway to bowl over mama, and they loved it!  Then they took turns sitting in my lap getting bowled over by their sibling.  Definitely have to repeat - lots of laughter, and great for my abs.

At the end of the week we were actually able to have some school outside!  The kids enjoyed painting and coloring.

Finger painting on a whole new level - part of a secret surprise, shhh!

We finished the day with coloring Kermit, and Isaiah was so enthusiastic that he did the best job coloring that I have ever seen!

You can see other great ideas at ABC Jesus Loves Me.