Thursday, January 31, 2013

Well...

We were off to such a nice start last week.  I made plans, the kids had fun, we seemed to be getting back on track.  Sigh.

The official plans are put on hold again as we focus on numbers like 102-105, watching Nadia's temperature go up and down.  Thankfully she just has a virus, and she doesn't seem to be sharing.  We've been doing as many fun things as we can while she tries to get better.  It's amazing how much counting you can do when you have no energy!

So, hopefully next week we'll get back into the curriculum again.  But I'm so thankful that I'm not bound to that right now.  We are learning and growing together.  We're able to read lots and talk about things and count and learn colors and, well, just learn as we live and try to get better!

Forgive the rambling of this post.  I'm rather sleep deprived.  I used to get up with her all the time in the night just a year or so ago, but now it's so much harder.  Why is that?

We'll keep plugging along.  Any advice for how to get started again well after so many interruptions?  I can use any great ideas that you have to offer!

Monday, January 28, 2013

Week 15 - Week in Review


Well, well, well.  Here we are again at last.  We had a wonderful Christmas break followed by a great respite retreat with The Elisha Foundation followed by 2 weeks of awful sickness.  So our break ended up being quite a bit longer than I had expected, but now we're back.  We, of course, did lots of learning in the mean time, when we were able to move around and not have fevers and such that is; but it's nice to be back into a routine at last.

Theme/Lesson:  Jesus Became Man
Bible Story:  Jesus is born
Memory Verse:  I John 4:8 God is love.
Poem:  Mary Had a Little Lamb
Song:  Away in a Manger
Book of the Week:  Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do You See?
Letter: Q-S
Number: 1-5
Self-care & Manners:  "Excuse me"
Information:  Mom's name
Color:  Brown
Shape:  Star
Fine Motor:  Squeeze water from sponge
Gross Motor:  Memory obstacle course

We were able to overlap several of the goals this week, which made it more fun for me!  We played with play-doh using star cookie cutters.  Great for shape learning and fine motor skills.


We did lots of counting, even using an abacus, which turned out to be a favorite toy this week.


We counted 5 cotton balls into a brown paper bag.  I had to cut the bags shorter for the kids, so we made brown paper crowns with the tops of the bags.  Isaiah looks quite kingly, don't you think?



I think the very favorite activity was a star hunt.  I made and laminated five small stars.  I hid them around the apartment and the kids hunted for them.  It was a huge hit!  



Nadia tried hiding the stars, too, which ended up being an interesting version of hide and seek with her running off with the stars then jumping out and shouting "Boo!" followed by uncontrollable giggles from her and brother.

We also practiced scooping and counting with the cotton balls.  Thankfully the kids didn't confuse the cotton balls with ice cream in the ice cream bowls!


Unexpectedly we tried out cutting with scissors.  Both the kids did really, really well!  I held the paper for both of them.  Isaiah couldn't quite keep his balance while holding the paper and cutting; I think cutting took so much concentration that he couldn't focus on both.  Nadia just didn't know what she was doing well enough yet.  But I was super excited with how well they both did.


Favorite of the week:


The kids were watching the home movie of our Christmas day when Nadia stood by Isaiah and draped her arm around his shoulders.  These two are quite the pair!

We're really "behind" the plan for ABC Jesus Loves Me in some ways, but we are having fun and making progress.  To see what other people are doing with this and other curriculum from this great site be sure to visit by clicking here!