Five. One. Two.

Today was another great day, one with lots of realizations to make everything better for everyone. Today I realized that I will have to provide Z with a tub to work with, since presenting him with ten tubs to choose is slightly overwhelming. So I started him off with the nuts and bolts tub and he worked with that for a very long time. But before he did so, both Z and Bubs put their name together.

Look at Bubs doing it like a pro! Very impressive!

So while Bubs and Z did their tub work, Babe worked a bit more on subtraction and the difference between minus and plus. Today seemed a bit more frustrating for her but I made sure she was taking her time and staying focused, and by the end, she had it down pat. I'd ask her, "What is 4+1?" And she'd answer 5. Then I'd ask her, "What's 3-1?" And she'd say 4. I asked her again what 3-1 is, but I'd emphasize the word minus. She then answered, "Oh! Minus! 2!" We did a few of those, then a worksheet, and Math was done.

For Reading Comprehension, I brought out "Feast for 10" again and had her recall from yesterday all the food the family bought. She was able to! She remembered everything. We reviewed what happened at the beginning of the book, the middle, and the end, and she even remembered that ten people ate but only nine chairs were needed.

"Remember?! Cuz the baby was on the mommy's lap!"

Ha. So cute. Because she remembered everything from yesterday, we jumped right to the Calvert-assigned worksheet where she colored the food mentioned in the book and then, separately, drew food that her parents buy at the grocery store.

"Like canollis. Dad loves buying cannolis!"

Ah. So Italian.

After Reading Comp., I had her tell me everything she knew about firefighters.

"I know that when you see a fire, you stop, drop, and roll!"

Oh man. So funny. I reminded her that you only stop, drop, and roll when the fire is on the clothes you are wearing. She then proceeded to tell me everything the firefighter wears, including their "breathing thing." Pretty cool. She remembered a lot of stuff!

I then told her that on Friday, we are going to a fire station! Her eyes lit up and she immediately asked if we were bringing anything for them.

"Can we make them cookies?!"

She had no idea I already had plans for a friend to make cookies, but since she was so excited about making them, we are going to try to make dalmatian cake pops tomorrow. She is doubly excited, especially since we get to use the new cake pop machine she got for Christmas. So we will try that, and if worse comes to worst, we will resort to ready-to-bake cookies.

I had Bubs and Z come back to the table so they could color their firefighter printout featuring the letter F. I had Bubs practice drawing her Fs, Z practice saying the F sound, and Babe telling me words that started with F. Then I had Bubs pick out the letter F flashcard out of three, and had Babe find the uppercase and lowercase F out of a pile I put in front of her. Overall, the printout was a big hit, and as always, Babe made hers her own - adding fire, and water from the hose, and a sidewalk.

By the time they were all done coloring, it was nearly lunch time, and today they were making their own lunch - mini pizzas! They all had a great time with this, pouring on as much cheese as they wanted, adding spinach leaves, and chunks of turkey.

And here are the pizzas ready to be cooked!

Yum! Sorry for the lack of an after shot, but they were delicious and everyone ate theirs!

After lunch, I pulled out a keyboard and set it on the table for Babe to practice locating letters A-E on it. Due to Internet problems, we weren't able to do the online lesson, but I still had her learn the location of each letter. I had her practice typing them over and over, and then we moved to the iPad where I showed her the letters on this keyboard were in the exact same spots as on the other keyboard. I opened up at notepad app and had her practice there, too. Then she typed her name. Then practiced A-E again.

After her Checkpoint, I handed her "Snow" by Manya Stojic for her to read for her reading log. Such a cute book! The illustrations were so adorable. And at the end of the story she was able to recall how each animal reacted to the snow. Amazing.

And with that, the lessons was done. Add in a little PBS Kids and outside play in the chilly weather, and the day came to a close! Another busy and fulfilling day!