*715.

NOTE: Writing this a day late.

Friday was another fantastic day at school. Bubs did well. Z did well. And Babe did well. I love when things run so smoothly. It's almost like I have to watch my back for something to mess it all up!

We started off with Math again, where Babe worked on sequencing, and predicting outcomes. I told her the definition of predict, that it was a guess as to what you think is going to happen next.

"Oh, like Z is running past me, so I predict he is going to play in the playroom."

"Yes! That is exactly right!"

WTF? Totally came out of nowhere. haha

I wasn't quite sure how else to explain predict, so Babe just basically did her worksheets. She pretty much knew it anyway...so after her worksheets, we reviewed a bit with coin amounts. Then Math was done.

We quickly did Reading Comprehension with "The Wheels on the Bus" (again), and when she answered all questions thoroughly, she did her worksheet for that, too. Then we moved on to our discussion on land transportation.

I asked her what the three properties of Earth were, and she answered. I then asked her people were able to use transportation in each property.

"Yes! We can walk, swim, and fly!"

ha. Cute.

I then led her to the back office where I took every library book we had on the theme off the shelf. I asked her to sort them by which property of Earth they travel in.

She did! We had lots of land transportation books.

Then I had her pick which land transportation book she wanted to read. She picked "The Berenstain Bears: The Bike Lesson." I was a little worried when she picked it because it was kind of thick, but she read it all! Front to back! No stopping her. When she finished it, I told her to look down at what page she was on.

"61?! That's a long book! It didn't feel long!"

She was right! She read it so well. Amazing. That's the longest book she's read to date.

After adding it to her reading log, I set her up with a sheet of paper and all the books she cut out yesterday. I split the sheet of paper into three columns and had her write land, air, and water on the top of each column. Then I asked her to sort the books into which property of Earth they travel through. She had a ton of books to sort, so I left her to do this while I worked with Bubs and Z.

I decided to work with the flash cards first, before bin work. They can both recognize each vehicle quite easily, and with a little work from Bubs with the word 'taxi', both can also say each vehicle pretty clearly.

I set Z up with a LEGO transportation book to look through while I lined up the flashcards (with word) for Bubs. I then handed Bubs the stack of cards with just the pictures on them. I told her to match the vehicles. She did!

I then tried something completely new and wasn't sure how she was going to do with it, but I handed her the stack of just words. She doesn't know lowercase letters yet, but I wanted to see if she could match the words with their vehicles, looking at the word on the first card.

With some encouraging and some help, she was actually able to do this task! It was pretty cool watching her. She kept putting 'truck' on the train. So cute.

Woohoo! She was very proud of this moment. Extra high fives. So I sent her to choose another bin and called Z over so he could find the matching toy for each card. He did!

So cute.

Bin work was over just in time because Babe told me she was done sorting her book cut outs.

We cleaned up our messes, and then I gathered them all to the table for a color-by-number. Babe was able to do this without help, so I stuck with Bubs on this one while Z practiced his scribbling skills. Bubs was so awesome at recognizing the numbers and then actually coloring the whole space the number was in (as opposed to just the number itself, as she has done in the past). I was so blown away. She did this so well! She is just blowing my mind lately!

Again, a very proud moment for her.

By the time they all finished it was lunch time!

After lunch is usually nap time, but I think I am going to implement a strict No Nap rule on Friday afternoons. We will see how long this lasts, but so far, so good!

After lunch I sat Babe down and asked her a few questions.

"While using land transportation, how to you think people know where to go or what to do with their car or truck or bike?"

"They look at signs! Like stop signs and walk signs and remember sometimes we have to push the button that says if we can walk or not?'

Yep. So the discussion didn't last long. I told her she was exactly right, that signs tell people what to do or where to go. I then told her that we were going to one of the streets downtown to walk up and down the sidewalk, and she was going to draw all the signs she saw.

"OK! That sounds fun!"

And it was! Aside from avoiding a major broken-pencil-crisis, we made it all the way up and down the street while Babe found all the signs and guessed what they meant!

She loved the sign for the library.

"Look! He's reading a book! And there's our library!"

Yeah. So cute. She loved this.

When we got back to the car, I had her count all of the tallies.

"29! That's a lot of signs! I'm glad people know where to go here!"

hehe

We put our school stuff back in the car, I threw the stroller in the back, then surprised them with a trip to the ice cream shop. Which they enjoyed thoroughly. And my own cup of Rocky Road wasn't half bad, either.

We got back home and the kids were torn on whether they wanted to stay inside with a movie or go outside and play (it was quite hot). So I told them while I cleaned up and set out the school work, they could watch PBS Kids while doing a transportation-themed puzzle. Then if they wanted we could go outside. They were OK with that decision, and Babe did the 30 piece jigsaw puzzle with ease.

And with that, Friday was over.

And here I am, Saturday afternoon, surrounded by new St. Patrick's Day themed bins for next week, where Bubs and Z will be working with them while Babe learns all about Ireland and the Irish Potato Famine! Then of course St. Patrick's Day.

Until then, have a great wonderful weekend!