742.

Today was another good day. We started with Math, as usual, and I went over third attributes again, to prepare Babe a bit more for the near future. Then I had her work with sorting, something she’s very good at. I had her sort a whole bag of coins. She did her worksheets, and Math was done.

Regrettably, I had no air transportation-themed library books, so we discussed it pretty briefly next. We reviewed how water and land transportation are different, and we added air transportation to the mix. She came up with some really good ones all on her own! Like hot air balloon (“from My Little Pony, remember?”) and hang glider (“like one that Diego uses!”).

Then we jumped into Reading Comprehension. I handed her the book “The Little Engine that Could” by Watty Piper. She read the whole thing. And it’s a tough book!

While she read, I had Bubs at the table with us for a Z-less day. She brought out the pre-writing bin, completed that, then I grabbed the flash cards for her to repeat her work from yesterday. Which she did. Awesomely. And not only did she tell me the first letter of the select vehicles on the worksheet, but she was able to tell me the first letters of every vehicle! Amazing.

After Babe read her book, we worked on position words with the illustrations. Then she did her worksheet. One of the questions asked her to draw a picture of something she had to try really, really hard to do, just like the little blue engine had to try hard to pull the train over the mountain. I couldn’t handle her picture. So cute!

(If you can't tell, it's a picture of her swimming underwater to grab a pair of goggles at the bottom of the pool. We have been working on that for a couple weeks now.)

After Reading Comp., the girls chose to color instead of outside play, so we gathered in the living room and watched Sid the Science Kid and WordWorld.

After lunch, I handed Babe “The Little Engine that Could” again and had her write one word from every page. When she completed it, I told her that for homework, she was to circle all the vowels.

We checked on the Science experiment, but there was no growth enough to record just yet, but Babe did notice that the bean seeds are completely open in the peat moss. We are just waiting for some height!

To finish up the day, I asked Babe to draw a beach scene, and in the scene I wanted her to draw one mode of transportation for each property of Earth. She did! I love the picture. And yes, she did write her name on every mode of transportation she drew.

When she showed me her helicopter, I asked her if she wanted to see the deaf sign for helicopter. When I showed her, I told her that this sign was her Aunt Dani’s favorite sign! It is a pretty fun one to do.

With the completion of her picture came the completion of the day. She got ready for dance and we were off!

Third Week, 4th Day

In Math today we finished Chapter 1!!! Before I told Babe, though, I set up a kind of quiz in the playroom with three different piles of random items with the intention of reviewing all previously learned Math terms.

I had her to sort this stuff by color,

this stuff by shape,

and line this stuff up shortest to tallest.

Well guess what? She passed Chapter 1 in Math. With flying colors, really.

I wasn't able to get a picture of anything else before Z and Bubs started playing with everything, but I did incorporate other Math terms like top, bottom, under, over, right, left, nearer, and farther and Babe was able to do all of those. Very awesome. After her worksheet, I told her that she just finished Chapter 1 and her eyes got pretty big. I told her, though, that the coming weeks in Math would be pretty tough because it will be stuff she doesn't know yet.

"But you're still gonna teach it to me, right?"

Yep.

Thursday is library class for Bubs and Z, so after Math we free-played and then headed off.

After lunch, we went right into Reading Comprehension, where she had to read a wordless story. Calvert provided one about the first day of Kindergarten for some children, and before I had her "read" it, we went through the book and I asked her questions about what was happening in each picture. Then I had her go back to the beginning and "read" the book. Her dialogue tone was pretty cute (when she had the mom and teacher talk), and she made sure to say something about everything she could see in the picture.

For example, the first picture is of a boy getting out of bed. Behind him, under the covers, there's a stuffed animal. She "read", "Good morning Rabbit! I'm going to school today! You get to come with me because you are my show-and-tell!"

After she "read" that book, I gave her "Goodnight, Gorilla" by Peggy Rathmann, which is one of her favorite picture books. It's so adorable that I enjoy it too. On each page, she spoke as the mouse (who stole the key from the zookeeper and is letting all the animals out of their cages).

"Shh, stay quiet (insert featured animal). Follow me. We are going to sleep in his house tonight!"

I laughed out loud.

When she got to the page where the zookeeper's wife wakes up, I almost died.

"DEAR! Why are all these animals in my bed?!"

So cute. And after that, I'd think she got the jyst of telling wordless stories.

I had her do her online Checkpoints, then we discussed her favorite things to play and made another list.

#2, Elephant Chase, is a game I made up in the pool that we played a lot at the beginning of the summer. The way it's played is, she stands on the diving board and I stand in the middle of the pool. When she throws a sinking elephant toy in the pool, she jumps in while I go and find the elephant. If she can swim to the steps and get back on the diving board before I put the elephant on the diving board, she wins. It's awesome exercise for me and she has a blast racing me. So really, I win too! I'm actually surprised she remembered it to add it to her list.

After she made her list, we moved to Science, the intro to her five senses. She was able to name them all, so I read "My Five Senses" by Aliki. We concentrated on sight today, so we talked about how there are different colored eyes. We went through everyone in her family, and then I told her that some kids don't have the sense of sight, and that some of Aunt Dani's students are blind, which means they can't see.

"I know!"

"What do you think they do if they can't see?"

"Well, they get new eyes like that dolphin got a new tail in that movie!"

Wow.

I told her that most kids can't get new eyes and that they don't have all five senses.

"So they only have four senses?!"

Mhmm.

To engrain how important our sense of sight is, I had her sit on the couch and I wrapped a handkerchief around her head to block her eyes. Then I told her to walk to the fridge, get a Capri Sun for herself, walk back to the couch, and poke the hole to drink it. She stood up right away and felt for the couch to walk along it. As soon as she stepped out into the "open" she got nervous and put her arms out in front of her to feel for the counter. Then she walked along the counter to the fridge, opened the door, went right to the correct shelf for the juice! And then walked back.

She unwrapped the straw and wanted to go all the way back to throw the wrapper out. So she took the same route, but I about lost it again when she ended up in the dining room and slipped her hand through the back of the chair to throw the wrapper out. She picked it up, turned around, and proceeded back to the kitchen to the real garbage can.

When she got back to the couch, she poked the straw through the Capri Sun.

Kind of.

I was dying while she was doing all this and when she started drinking it, I took the handkerchief off so she could see what she did.

She laughed too.

After she refreshed herself with the juice, we ended Science and I brought out her Me Book from yesterday and had her draw her family on the second page.

Cuteness to the max. Can we all just "awwww" in unison at how they are all holding hands?

We ended the day with a quick final discussion on what to be when she grows up.

"I want to be everything."

She even watched the provided online video about how to tell what you want to be when you grow up, and one of the things listed in the video is to find things you're good at.

"Well I'm good at everything and I said I want to be everything when I grow up!"

OK then.

I gave her "When Poppy and Max Grow Up" by Lindsey Gardiner and she read it to me and Bubs. She was so excited about this book because she had to turn the page in her reading log to write it down! A whole new page!

Another day done!

Third Week, 3rd Day

I forgot my camera today so you'll have to settle for lousy phone photos.

Anyway, after a rough start yesterday, today was a complete 180! Babe was ready to go and she even guessed what we were doing in math today. I didn't even really need to do an intro!

So we jumped right in. I put various items in the middle of the table again and asked her to sort them by size. She made four piles.

She did a pretty good job, considering a few of the items were hard to differentiate size-wise.

Next, I had her sort them smallest to biggest and biggest to smallest. Again, not bad!

We then went into the playroom and I had her do the same with the blocks, and after that and a worksheet, she was done with Math!

I let her free-play today between Math and Reading and she was so excited she didn't know which way to go. I will never again underestimate the power of free-play (it's hard to fit in Mondays and Tuesdays because of dance classes), and with that little bit of time to free her mind and relax, she was voluntarily (and cooperatively!!!) helping Bubs and Z with various things, went into her room for her own quiet time with her teddies, and came back to the table quietly and ready for Reading when she heard the alarm go off.

Amazing.

I admittedly wasn't going to do Reading or Phonemic Awareness (rhyming) today because of her advancement with it all, but I did it anyway. I figured it'd be a good way to lightly exercise her mind. So we went over the book "Mice Squeak, We Speak" again and compared and contrasted the animals in the book. I asked her things like "Which animal lives in the water?" "Would you want to live in the water?"

"Would you want to eat in the water?"

"Ew I don't want to eat fish."

"You had fish sticks for lunch yesterday."

"OK I'll eat fish only when they are cooked like fish sticks."

Classic.

After she correctly matched 16 rhyming picture cards, I let her off for the morning. It was earlier than I'm used to finishing up, but she did finish it all, and it was worth it to see her face when I told her she got to go play again and watch Sid and WordWorld.

After lunch we got right back to work. She did her Checkpoints online and then I read her "Guess Who?" by Margaret Miller. Then we discussed what she wants to be when she grows up.

"I want to be everything."

"Like what?"

"An ice skater. And a teacher. And I want my own house."

Wow. So after she listed a few more, I had her actually make a list of five things to do when she gets big.

I have no idea where #4 came from (that's me). Although she does always ask me when she can go to Connecticut with me (if I'm on vacation, it's usually to CT). Weird. But overall I thought the list was cute.

We finished the day with creating a Me Book, a book all about her, by her. She picked the colors of the cover and back, then drew herself on the cover.

At this point I thought she was getting a bit tired because she didn't elaborate much on her drawing, but judging by the first page in the book she colored, she was just saving her energy.

The first page in her book was intended for drawings of all her favorite things. She didn't slack off on this assignment at all. After drawing them, she even wanted to write them!

And how cute is that she tried to sound out the words by herself at the top? Can you tell she has a stuffy nose in her pronunciation of "things" today?

Puppies, rainbows, ballet, swimming, cake...

Yeah, that's a five-year-old girl for you.

Oh to be five again.

We ended the day by adding to her reading log. "Emily's Shoes" by Joan Cottle is another cute book about a girl trying to figure out what her mom is telling her to get ready for, and she guesses by putting on different shoes. It took Babe a while to figure out the clue on the last page of the book (a rubber duckie). Babe concluded that it was time for swimming, but it was really Emily's bath time.

Day complete! Correction: Great day complete!

Third Week, 2nd Day

Today we had a little bit of a rough start due to lack of sleep, so Math didn't start off well.

We were sorting by shapes and I laid out a bunch of random things in the middle of the table, like so:

I asked her to please sort them by shape. She was doing exactly what I wanted her to do, but she was placing the spaghetti noodles and colored pencils in with the circles (Cheerios, M&Ms, etc.). I was watching her do it knowing exactly why she was doing it, but while she sorted the rest, I was trying to figure out how to explain that she wasn't quite right. When she was all done, she was so proud. I told her she did a great job, but wanted her to tell me why she put the noodles in with the circles. Again, I knew she was going to point out the circle at the ends of each noodle.

So I told her that it was a really great observation, but was the noodle as a whole shaped like a circle? I asked her if she traced the Cheerio and the spaghetti noodle, would they both look the same? I won't get into her answer or how she relayed it to me, but let's just say it landed her in time out. I would not put her in time out for giving me the wrong answer, but I will say that it showed she had very little sleep last night.

After I got her out of time out, I asked her to please try again. I piled everything in the middle of the table again, and she did it all correctly this time.

Again, I told her that it was really great that she noticed there were circles at the end of the noodles and colored pencils, and I reassured her that next week she will learn all about cylinders. She was completely fine after time out, so we continued with math, and sorting various items...like her play food!

After completing a worksheet, she was ready for Reading Comprehension with a book called "Mice Squeak, We Speak" which she read ALL by herself! We didn't discuss too much about how animals are different than humans, because...well, she already knows that animals don't talk...

So we jumped right into learning a new poem, "Blowing Bubbles", and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to do something I've been dying to try - colored bubbles. I found a recipe online and made four different color solutions.

I got to blowing the bubbles and had them run around the yard chasing them, popping them on their sheet of paper. When it wasn't yielding the results I wanted, I taped their paper to the garage door and had THEM blow the bubbles.

But then it got too windy, then not windy enough, then Babe started complaining about the heat. So we just went inside. They still got some pretty cool art, nonetheless. But no pictures of it...

For Science and Final Discussion, we talked about growing up, and big and little. I weighed both Bubs and Babe, and also measured them. We recorded each number and I told Babe we would be doing this throughout the year. She is sure that both numbers will grow big with every measurement.

I then handed her "Big and Little" by Margaret Miller and she read it all by herself.

A milestone day! TWO books added to her reading log. She was so excited!

She ended her day with a Science worksheet and a nice, long nap before dance.

Here's to a well-rested Kindergartner tomorrow!

Third Week, 1st Day

Time is flying! Is that weird? After this week we seem to be getting into the more challenging stuff, so I'm starting to get excited.

Math lasted forEVER today because all of us were having so much fun. The lesson was sorting

colors, and I knew Babe knew how to do it, but when I asked her to sort her crayons by color, she did this:

I was kind of confused as to why, but when I asked her what sorting meant, she said, "To make them not messy."

I guess that sort of makes sense, but when I redefined it for her, she kept saying, "Ohhh I knew that." So I told her to try sorting by color again, and she did this:

Much better. She was really confused about pink so I ended up just taking it out. As a girl, pink is its OWN color, duh, and not a shade of red. So when I taught her the term 'shade', she finally understood.

So then I had her go in her room and sort all her stuffed animals by color. She was so excited! And this is what she did:

It's a little hard to tell, but there are definite color differences in there, including all her rainbow teddies on the bottom right. She did them all, and even applied her new term into conversation!

"Look at all the shades of pink there are in my animals! And yellow, too. Rabbit is definitely a different shade of yellow than Pooh."

Too cool.

To involve the little ones, we went into the playroom and I dumped out three different kinds of toys in one big pile in the center of the room. Then I placed four different colors of construction paper in each corner of the room and told them to sort away.

It turned into gym class! Out of nowhere, they all started racing each other. It was awesome. After about thirty minutes, they had all the toys sorted by color.

We finished Math by gluing various objects by color, which Bubs did VERY well. I was very impressed with her work! The marker marks are mine to give her an idea of what I wanted from her, but the rest is all her!

After Math, we ran right into Reading to learn about growing up and the differences between babies and Kindergartners. I read her "Now I'm Big!" and had a little discussion on the topic. She got the jyst, and by now, it was lunch time.

After lunch, we continued the discussion a bit on growing up, and then she read, "Too Big", a cute book about a boy who is growing out of his clothes.

We kind of had to rush after lunch today because of dance, so she did her Checkpoints next and then we talked about holidays. I took the calendar off the wall and showed her that each month has a holiday. I then had her draw her favorite holiday. Can you guess what it was? I wasn't surprised in the least bit.

(Her bed is outside because she couldn't fit it in the house with all the presents.)

Oh to be five again.

Day done!