Second Day of Kindergarten!!!

Hi all! Thanks for the feedback I've received so far. I really appreciate it.

I'll start today's blog off with the homework I assigned Babe last night. She's only five, so I know to try to keep it light and fun. But yes, she had some math homework. Aside from a Calvert-assigned math worksheet, I had her stuff two pillows to go along with the thick and thin lesson. The two pillows had to be noticeably different in thickness. She was so excited to show me when I got to her house this morning.

I see a noticeable difference in thickness.

She and her parents all told me she had so much fun stuffing the pillows, and even let her little sister help! Little does she know, I'll sew them up and decorate them for Halloween with puff paint for her and Bubs.

After we went over homework, in which she received a "Great Job!!!" sticker (which, by the way, I think made her whole world three thousand times better), we started on today's math lesson, near and far.

She already knows this stuff, but we played with the idea a bit anyway. We went into the playroom and I had Bubs stand next to a toy of her choosing. I then had Babe tell me the toy farthest from Bubs and nearest to Bubs. We did this for a few minutes, then I chose three small toys, lined them up in a row, and asked questions like, "Which toy is farthest from the airplane?" I changed the order of the toys around and kept asking the same line of questions. After a few of those, I then asked questions like, "Can you make the car the toy that's nearest to the airplane?" We did a lot of those questions because she was having fun with making them REALLY FAR from each other. If it got too hard to see which toy was farthest, we used her foot steps to measure. She seemed to have fun with that, too.

After free-playing with the toys for a bit, we continued with the math lesson and did a gluing activity. I put out buttons, foam shapes, and foam noodles and everyone participated, including Z! Though not to the extent of Babe, Bubs and Z had fun gluing their items to the paper. In Babe's case, I had her draw a line down the middle of the paper and write "near" on one side and "far" on the other. Then, I told her to glue each item near to each other on the near side, and far from each other on the far side.

Like so.

Then she was assigned two more math worksheets.

Math. Complete.

I changed up the order a bit from yesterday to do my own experiment on timing, and since I really wanted Z in on this next craft, I did the phonemic awareness lesson next (as opposed to reading comprehension like yesterday). This may have been a mistake that I will allude to within the next couple paragraphs, but for the most part, it turned out alright.

Since all the kids know Itsy Bitsy Spider, we didn't have to learn it so I had them all sit and recite it. I asked Babe what a "spout" was and she told me that it helps the rain go in the grass. Pretty impressive, but I still wasn't sure if she understood, so I showed her using a paper towel tube wrapped in aluminum foil. This was our next craft. Though it took me about 30 minutes to prepare one for myself (which I should have done the night before if I was awesome), it was still a bit challenging for Babe, which meant I basically had to assemble four water spouts and four spiders.

The idea of the craft was to illustrate the poem. I found this cool idea on DLTK's Growing Together website, and though it was a bit ambitious, we each left with our own water spout with moving spider.

Bubs was so proud of hers that she showed her parents at lunch AND dinner.

After creating our spouts, we took them outside and compared them to the real water spouts attached to the house. Babe even looked on and in each one to see if there were any itsy bitsy spiders crawling up.

Nope.

Phonemic Awareness. Complete.

While I sent the two little ones to play, I sat with Babe to try to start the Reading Comprehension lesson with Henny Penny. I knew I was pushing it but I wanted to try anyway. Just like I thought, I read half the story, stopped to ask questions, and Babe was in a daze - unable to answer any of them correctly. So I told her that I understood why she wasn't able to pay attention and let her go play with the others, reminding her that after lunch it was back to school.

By this time it was time for me to start preparing lunch, so I put on PBS Kids while they played. By the way, when I say I let them watch PBS Kids, it's usually only during the 11 o'clock hour. In my opinion, that is when the two best shows of the morning are on. Sid the Science Kid is the first half hour and follows Sid, a preschooler and amateur scientist, into his class room where he and his three classmates do experiments. They learn to observe, compare, and contrast, and record their findings. The Girls and Z love it. The second half hour is WordWorld, and if you haven't heard of WordWorld, I suggest you take a look. It really is a very cute show geared to help pre-readers learn letters and sounds, and that letters make up words. Everything in WordWorld is made up of letters you can actually see. I often take a break from preparing lunch and join in on the watching.

Just like I said, after lunch we jumped right into Science. We talked about how everyone has features, some are the same as others and some are different. Babe and Bubs stood in front of a mirror and I had Babe tell me the color of their eyes, hair, skin, and lips. She also pointed out many other things that are different.

"My ears are pierced and hers aren't. She's way too young. And probably way too scared. Right?"

Soooo...now that we got that squared away...

I brought out the paint and had Babe paint a picture of her face and a picture of Bubs's face.

Not bad. She even noticed that each of them have black rings around their eyes. She was right! Do we all have black rings around our eyes? And you can't tell in the picture, but there is definitely some glitter paint on each ear of the left painting, since, as you now know, Babe's ears are pierced.

After painting, we made a T-chart and Babe wrote out each of their features (brown eyes - blue eyes; brown hair - blonde hair; etc.).

Science. Complete.

With Z and Bubs both napping, I figured Reading Comprehension would be a lot easier. It was. We got through Henny Penny without a hitch, and Babe was even able to tell me the name of each of Henny's friends after I finished reading it. We discussed how each of their names rhyme, and I had her try to remember another story character that we read about today who had a rhyming name. It was a bit hard for her to figure out, but once I told her he was part of the craft, she immediately yelled out "ITSY BITSY!" It was a cute moment.

Reading Comprehension. Complete.

I led her onto the computer where she completed her Checkpoints for the day, then told her we had one last thing to do: finish learning the song from yesterday, You're a Grand Old Flag. Well! After about 30 minutes, she had it memorized and was singing along with the CD. I'll have to get some audio to post tomorrow. She loves the song and I think it will be a great way to end each day, alluding to the Pledge we say to the flag each morning.

By then it was about 3:30 so I had Babe go wake up Bubs for a special kind of movie (Chicken Little, featuring the voices of Zach Braff and Joan Cusack). I reminded Babe about how the story I read yesterday, The Tale of the Three Little Pigs, had a different ending than the version she read at VPK. I told her that sometimes, people change a little bit of the story every time they tell it. While I put the DVD in, I asked her to try to figure out which story it was sort of the same as.

By the end of the opening sequence of the movie, her eyes got really wide and she asked me if that was Henny Penny.

"And there's Turkey Lurkey! And oh my gosh Goosey Loosey! Is that Foxy Loxy?!"

Reading Comprehension. Definitely Complete.

And this concludes the second day of Kindergarten! Keep up with the feedback! I'll read everything!

First Day of Kindergarten!

Well hey there! This is my third attempt at a blog, so this one will go where none of those dared to go. Somewhere (I hope). And here's where I introduce myself. And my blog.

I am known as Tat2 (pronounced "tattoo") to the youngest of my nieces. The five-year-old, who I'll refer to here on out as "Babe", couldn't pronounce my real name when she first started talking. Out came Tat2, and it stuck. Literally. Her little sister, who shall be known as Bubs, and who just turned three, also calls me Tat2. As does the one-year-old I also nanny. Oh. Yeah. I'm their nanny. Four years strong! And as of recently, I am also Babe's home educator. She started Kindergarten today.

Now, I didn't start this blog to hear the pros and cons of home schooling. My brother and his wife have been through the ringer and back in deciding on what to do with their very gifted, very ambitious, and very social daughter. After a year of thoughts, months of research, and discussion upon discussion, they decided on home schooling through Calvert. So, naturally, I became the Learning Guide, as Calvert defines it.

As for me, I did not graduate from college with an Education degree. Far from it, actually. But I started working for my brother after graduating college, and after entrusting me with his daughters' lives, I shortly thereafter became their nanny and educator.

Alrighty, intro over. Now for what this blog is all about. I'll post pictures (sans kids), ideas, ask for help, etc., so jump on in. I love constructive criticism and I'd appreciate the help!

Babe woke up to a note from her mom this morning. How cute?! Babe was very excited when I got to her house this morning. So after getting ready for the day, we started school around 9 AM.

We are on Lesson 3 of Calvert, so the math dealt with thick/thin. I had her and Bubs collect every pillow they could find in the house while I laid out some blankets and magazines. Babe pretty much already knows this stuff, but to include Bubs, I had her pick one of the things to stand on (everything was strewn about the living room). I then asked Babe if what she was standing on was thick or thin. Then we compared it to others in the room. After she got the hang of it, we all went to the table where I brought out the Play-Doh. She cut out thick butterflies, thin butterflies, thin alligators, thick giraffes, and so on. To add a little something, I had her make patterns with her cut outs. She did it perfectly. I then rolled a long piece of Doh, like real dough, and had her slice thick and thin pieces. Again, she did it beautifully. She finished off with the assigned math worksheets, then free played with the Doh for an extra limited time.

Math. Complete.

After the beep-beep (kitchen timer) went off, they washed their hands and I had them lay on all the pillows and blankets from the math lesson. It worked well - they got all comfy while I read "The Tale of the Three Little Pigs." Babe knew this story from VPK, so after I read it, we compared the fate of the wolf between both stories. It was an additional lesson in how stories vary from person to person. After the story was read and comprehended, we ventured outside to collect grass and rocks for a supplemental activity I thought of.

I cleared off the table and placed the grass on it. We all took turns huffing and puffing. Everyone got a big kick out of the grass flying off the table while I did it. We did the same with toothpicks (carefully). Babe, Bubs, and Z (the one-year-old) couldn't wait for me to have my turn so they can see it all fly off the other end. When it came to the rocks though, no one could do it. We even tried it all at the same time! I discussed with Babe why she thought it was so easy for the wolf to blow the hay and stick houses down, but so hard for him to blow the brick house down.

I added a craft to additionally supplement the reading comprehension lesson. All three participated, and with a little grass, toothpicks, and aquarium rock, fun ensued!

Here is Z's portrayal of the three (two) pig houses. I let him do whatever. Handed him the glue, grass, and aquarium rocks and let him go to town. I did not give him the toothpicks. He didn't miss them. He had fun!

Bubs had a good time too. I drew the three houses to give her an idea of what I wanted, so she did with that what she wanted. Perfect!

Here's Babe's! She's been into crafts since she could hold a crayon, so no doubt her's is just too cute for words. She even drew the pigs and wolf! :)

Reading Comprehension. Complete.

By the time math and reading were complete, it was about lunch time so free play/PBS Kids happened while I made lunch.

After lunch, Babe did her Calvert Checkpoints (two-question quizzes) online, and we moved on to Phonemic Awareness/Listening with Hey, Diddle Diddle.

We have a nursery rhyme book that pops up, and an illustrated nursery rhyme book, so after reciting the poem together, I had Babe identify Hey, Diddle Diddle in each book. She pointed to each character while reciting, we discussed if it was a pretend story or if it was real.

("Duh, Tat2. Spoons don't have legs, how can he run away with a dish?")

My bad.

I then had her draw her own illustration of the story:

Can we just talk about how cute the dish and spoon are, holding hands? Running away together? I got a big kick out of that.

Phonemic Awareness/Listening. Complete.

To end the day, I thought it'd be a good idea to teach her a patriotic song, so I went with You're a Grand Old Flag. It took her about 45 minutes, but by the end, she got the jyst of the first verse. When the (included) music played, she got off the couch each time to march to the beat and sing. It was cute.

When I told her that her first day of Kindergarten was over (around 3 PM), she asked if she'd have fun tomorrow too. I told her it was a possibility, and she walked to her room to get ready for dance singing You're a Grand Old Flag.

First Day of Kindergarten. Complete.

I'm going to say it was a success, but with all the notes I wrote for her parents to read, we'll see what they have to say tomorrow. I'll go out on a limb though and say they'll agree.

For those who read all the way through, what do you think about the day and the blog? Blog too long? Too short? More pictures? No pictures? Should I make the day harder? Easier? Longer?

Like I said, I'd appreciate any and all constructive criticism!