Snow Day

We finally got enough snow for J to play on the balcony. She was so excited that she went out right after breakfast. I piled her with layers of clothes so she would be warm. My main concern was her feet since we don't have snow boots right now. Last year, we didn't have enough snow to worry about buying them, so I didn't. But now I wish I did. Her poor little feet, even though she had 3 pairs of socks on, were freezing in her rain boots! But she was a trooper.

It wasn't enough snow for a snow day from school but it was enough for J to have fun. She wanted to build a snowman, so I joined her outside. We ended up making snow aliens.

You can see the carrot we tried to use, I just couldn't make it stick. The snow wasn't very good for making snow aliens but we tried. I think they are kinda cute. Until the next snow day!

The Story of Ping (part 1)

The Story of Ping by Marjorie Flack is our story of the week. It is about a duck who doesn't want to be punished for being the last one on the boat. Ping decides to hide in the bushes and he experiences consequences for his actions. The story takes place in China so we are learning a little about where it is located and some of the customs. We started with coloring a Chinese flag.

She was somewhat in a complaining mood and began our school day with not wanting to color anything. But she snapped out of it when I said we could stop for the day. She wanted to do school so she stopped whining.

Then J colored a Chinese paper doll which was found at Education.com. They have paper dolls for many countries.

We reviewed our sight words from last week and added another word - up. I found this great craft where J was able to spruce up her sight words by adding eyes, feet, wings, etc... So, J spruced up her three sight words - I, see, up - and I hung these pictures in the hallway so she can practice.

This is J's I. She made it a unicorn with wings! Then, we continued our study on penguins. We colored a map of where penguins live and discussed the different species. She hung this up on her wall in her bedroom. She wants to have a penguin wall.

Her favorite penguin is Little Blue which lives in Australia. Well, it is snowing now so I am not sure if we will get any school done tomorrow. She is already asking to play in the snow. She's so excited. Keke is praying for a snow day since she is sick. I think DH is also waiting for a snow day. Not sure it will snow that much but it will sure be fun to play in. We will continue our learning about China, penguins, and working with our reading lessons and sight words. Have fun, and may you be blessed with a snow day. (But not too many!)

Monday's Discovery

Today's discovery is bravery. Look what I found the other day...

I love having an upstairs in my apartment but I dislike the stairs. (J has fallen down them twice) They are somewhat akward and the railing is...well...just not up to par. I should be thankful that my stairs aren't marble like others in our complex. So this is what I find, Kaleb trying to reach J. He climbed upon his own. I have a safety gate at the top but it looks like I will need one at the bottom. Kaleb - my stunt man!!

More Penguins

We are still plugging away at school. It has been rainy and wet and there was a hint of possible snow. But no go. So, we are waiting for snow, just a little to make life interesting, something new to play with on the balcony. We are still learning about penguins which J has really gotten into. She has started calling me Mama Penguin and renaming her meal items sardines or fish of some sort. She is wearing her penguin mask and because of her doing that so often lately, Kaleb isn't as terrified as he was before.

We are working on our addition. I printed out some math cards with missing addends. We used blocks to determine the missing number under the yellow question mark. This concept is a little hard for her since it is addition with the answer first. She does better with the traditional what plus what equals.....

J received a set of Inchimals for Christmas. These are clever blocks that vary in length and each one has an animal on it. These blocks help introduce measurement as well as addition and subtraction. J went around on Christmas day, measuring people's feet. It was cute. So our math has introduced inches and measuring with a ruler and we are doing extra practice.

We are working with the words I and see. I found an easy reader that contained those simple  words - I see books, I see ..... Well, it had an extra page at the end and I had J create her own I see page. This is what she came up with...(love the tongue)

I see Grandma. Looks like her, J said she had to have short hair cause her Grandma had short hair.

We practiced our sight words using the penguin game I made before. She is hoping she doesn't get a shark hence the face. If you get a shark, your penguin gets eaten.

We colored a penguin poster with all of the 17 breeds of penguins known. She is matching the penguins to the ones she is coloring. We discussed the differences and even saw some funny looking ones!

Here she is with her completed poster. She was so proud of it, she hung it in her bedroom. She had to hang it high because of little brothers who like to stand on her bed and tear down everything in reach. We rounded off our week with a little trip to the Embassy. J's passport was expired so we had to make the trek to get a new one. It was a bad trip, just long and early hours. It should be here in a week then we get to make the visit to renew her visa. The Embassy is always a nice visit, the people are friendly and helpful. It seems like a little bit of America, hard to explain if you haven't experienced it. So back to the real world....

Back to School

We have finally got down to business and began school again. I waited an extra week because my DS was still here from the holidays and I wanted to spend as much time as possible with him before he left. So, this week, we began our FIAR book - Papa Piccolo by Carol Talley. We also began our unit study on Penguins which we will continue through the month of January.

I wrote down all of the things that J knew about penguins. Then J began coloring her penguin mask.

She colored the whole thing and then cut it out herself.

I put it together and J loved it. She jumped around the house honking like a penguin. Kaleb on the other hand, did not like it. Even though, J kept showing him that she was the one behind the mask, he kept crying every time she put it on.

I guess it does look alittle scary, especially with the 3-d beak. We then played a penguin math game. She used counters to figure the math problems and then placed the penguins on the correct place on the iceberg. We also made some matches so the penguins could find their mate.

She had to determine the answer to keep the penguins from the sharks!

We began our prereading lessons again. We are learning the sight words I and see. J colored the sight words and used letters to construct the words.

The penguin mask and other items for this study was found in Easy Make and Learn Projects: Penguins by Donald Silver. I downloaded this book when Scholastic was having their $1 sale. It has a large amount of penguin projects which we will be doing the next few weeks. The penguin math game was found at Kidssoup which is a paid subscription site. See you soon.

Monday's Discovery

I needed something quick to entertain Kaleb while doing an art project with J. So I pulled out some bottle caps that I was saving (for some reason) and a water bottle. I wanted to see what Kaleb would do.

First, he had to check to see if there was anything in the bottle worth drinking.

He plopped them in....

checked them out...

tried to take them out....

finally figured out that he could dump them. As you can see, this was serious business for him. He played with the bottle caps for awhile, in and out of the bottle, then he took the caps to various places around the room to put them in other toys. (I really had to watch where I was stepping!)  This was an easy, quick toy that allowed some serious exploration.

Monday's Discovery

This week, Kaleb discovered a chocolate bar. J was having a snack and Kaleb wanted some. J was reluctant to share because she really likes these Nesquick chocolate covered wafer bars. So, I gave him one of his own.

It doesn't look like he enjoyed it, does it? Needless to say, he ate every last bite. Not a single piece fell to the floor. (If it did, I am sure he got to it later.)