4.1.4.

Yep, I am loving how things are going. Fourth month in and I finally found a comfortable pace for Babe and I. Love it.

Today in Math, we again practiced number stories with the cute little pictures that Calvert provides. We practiced with teddy bears at tea and apples on a tree. She is really starting to get the hang of it, but I have three-ish more days of review on it. I'm slowing up the pace so as not to frustrate her, which has been working really well lately. When we were done with the pictures, I brought out the dog manipulatives and started with small numbers, for for the last one I did a really big number (13+13=36). She had fun with that, and we ended Math on a high note.

After Math I gathered everyone on the couch and brought out the world map. I tried to get Bubs to point out the country that matched the country I was holding in my hand, but she wasn't really getting it. So I had Babe point out Africa. Then I read them "My First Kwanzaa Book" by Deborah Chocolate. When I got to the page with a picture of Africa on it, Bubs ran over to the map in front of me and pointed it out. Very cool.

At the end of the book, I asked Babe to recall what colors were on the African flag.

"Red, black and green."

"Do you remember the colors we dyed the noodles yesterday?"

"Red, black and green!"

Haha. She made the connection quick but still wasn't sure what we were doing with the noodles, so I had everyone sit at the table. I told them we were going to make Kwanzaa necklackes and they shrieked. With delight. So I set up a piece of yarn with some tape for a makeshift needle and I asked Babe to make her necklaces with an ABC pattern with the colors. Everyone with the exception of Z sat there for a full hour making jewelry. They weren't done when they finished their necklaces. They wanted to make bracelets, anklets, and Babe even asked if she could make another necklace and bracelet for her cousin! They made jewelry until all the noodles were gone!

What a fun morning!

After lunch, I brought out the book "Aaron and Gayla's Alphabet Book" again and had Babe explain to me how this book was organized. She didn't even think and told me in her own words that it was in alphabetical order. I read the book again and asked her to remember what Aaron and Gayla were doing on particular letter pages. Then I asked her what her favorite page was.

She did a corresponding worksheet and I left the room for a few minutes. When I came back, I found her coloring the letters of the alphabet.

"Look! I'm coloring the letters with a color of something I think about that starts with that letter!"

WHAT THE!?!?!?!?!

How does she do that!? How does she think like that!?

So she did. She finished the whole alphabet, coloring each letter a specific color.

Amazing.

We played the game the went along with the worksheet, where I hid a letter and had her guess which one was missing. She did a few but had to sing the alphabet each time. She wanted to try it with me. Obviously I said the answer a lot quicker than she did, so after a few more times (and a lot of convincing that I wasn't peeking), she wanted to try again. And guess what!? She was quicker with her responses! She didn't sing the alphabet at all during her second round. Pretty cool how that all works.

The last thing of the day was adding a book to her reading log. She breezed through it ("Winter is Here!" by Kimbery Weinberger), and after her Checkpoints were completed, the day was done.

Thursday. Complete!