*Five. One. Four.

I'm writing Friday's blog on Sunday because I just got back from a wonderful weekend in St. Augustine with my sister. Oh, and last night we saw Wicked in Jacksonville. Amazing! But this blog isn't about my love of musicals, so let's revert back to Friday.

Friday was Field Trip Day! But before we left, I had Bubs and Z work on their name activity. Bubs was almost able to do it without her name card! She only mixed up the last A and H in her name.

Around 10, we gathered up the homemade cupcakes (for a quick picture) and headed off to the fire station!

We got to the first fire station and the bay doors were closed, which means they were out on a call or training, so we had to go to the next one. We showed up and I knocked on the door to ask if visitors were welcome and with a HUGE smile, the Lieutenant said, "Absolutely!"

And let me tell you, the kids were certainly welcomed. They walked in and practically ran the place! It was only the Lieutenant and one firefighter at the station and they were so happy to have the kids in the building. The kids were shown EVERYTHING.

The very first thing they got to do was go in the fire truck. They were buckled in, tried every piece of clothing on, pushed buttons (the truck was off) and the firefighter was blowing up rubber gloves as balloons. The kids were in heaven! Sensory overload!

Wow. It was intense. They nearly got to touch everything. And that was only outside! Then they got to go inside and get a tour of the place! From their rec. room to their kitchen to their bedrooms to the office.

You'll never guess what they got to do next! The Lieutenant asked me quietly if they'd be OK using the hose. The actual hose that's connected to the fire truck. I couldn't believe it! I said yes and the firefighter asked the kids if they wanted to pretend to be real firefighters putting out a fire.

"We can use the hose?!"

Babe made the connection immediately. They ran outside and the truck was started so they'd have pressure to the hose. They put out a cone in the parking lot for the kids to try to knock down with the water. It was great! I was still in shock that permission was granted for this to be done!

Can you believe it!? It was fantastic. Everyone had a great time and I think the fire staff had more fun than the kids! We took one last picture of everyone before we thanked them a million times and headed back home.

But of course the kids wanted to go back into the truck, so the guys let them!!!

Obviously, everyone had a great time. We made it home in time for lunch, and I let the rest of the day be chill-day. However, Babe got a piece of mail from her aunt, a teacher at the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind. The letter was written in Braille! Since Babe is the same age as one of the oldest blind pre-schoolers at the school, they will become pen pals. So to end the day, Babe wrote a letter to her new pen pal.

We also sent him a fork. My sister is going to try to get a video of him guessing what it is. Then this preschooler will write a letter back to Annabel with a blind-related game (probably something to do with Braille), and then we will send him back something to try to guess. Fun, huh? My sister and I both think it's a great opportunity for both kids!

What do you think?

Five. One. Three.

Today in Math, I wanted to try something a little more challenging, since Babe started picking up subtraction very quickly. It kind of freaks me out how fast she can do simple math in her head. When we were all done with the basic stuff and after she completed her worksheet, I took out the number cards and put three numbers in a row. I left out the plus/minus sign, but put the equals sign and then had her figure out if the number sentence required a plus sign or a minus sign.

She got all but the first one correct! She was a little confused about what I wanted her to do, but when I physically showed her, she got it. When I put up the numbers 9, 6, and 3, I told her this might be a hard one so to try to concentrate.

"This isn't hard! A minus sign goes here because 9 and 6 are really big numbers, and 3 is a small number. If it was a plus sign, it'd be an even bigger number!"

What the. How did? Who the? What is going on!? I have no idea how she even thinks like that. But she does, and with that, I ended Math.

For Reading Comprehension, she read "What's on the Menu?", an article at the end of "Feast for 10". After answering various questions, and adoring all the food faces at the end, we were ready to start discussing the next community helper - police officers!

I had Babe tell me everything she knew about them, and when she did, I asked her how police officers were different than firefighters.

"Firefighters save us from fires. Police officers save us from bad people."

Hehe. So cute. I then gathered everyone to the table where I laid out some activities (printed from this AMAZING website!!!) that they all could do. The first was drawing lines from police man to bad guy.

Bubs did amazingly well at this, and Z practiced his scribbling skills.

Next, we had some fun with fingerprinting.

We finished just in time for outside play and lunch.

After lunch, Babe did her Science lesson on classifying objects. I had her color and cut out the eight items on the Calvert-assigned worksheet and then cut them out. I asked her if she knew what "classify" meant, and when I told her the definition, she said she remembered. Ha! So I asked her to classify the eight objects into two groups.

She did so. One was a food pile and one was an animal pile. I then asked her if she could classify the animal pile into two groups. She did so again!

"One group has feet, and one doesn't!"

Amazing.

Then I got her pencil case, dumped it all out on the table, and asked her to classify everything. She did! She had an eraser pile, marker pile, pencil pile, scissor pile, and crayon pile. Awesome. Science was complete.

We then ventured to the computer, where Babe did her online typing lesson of letters A-E. She amazingly blew through that. She did it so quick, and it was even asking her to type the first letters of some words! I think yesterday's quick lesson on an unconnected keyboard helped. She remembered exactly where each letter was. So cool!

So after the typing lesson, she did her Checkpoints, and then we headed to the kitchen where it was time to make the treats for the firefighters tomorrow. I decided against cake pops since her machine only makes six at a time, and I figured it'd take forever to go through a whole box of cake batter, so we make cupcakes instead. She was just as excited, especially since I gave her the big bowl to lick.

So since we ran out of time during the day, her homework includes decorating 24 cupcakes. haha

Wow. Another good and productive day. Amazing!

Here's to Friday!

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!

Five. One. One.

Today was another great day and it felt very productive. I praised Babe left and right for how helpful and patient she was while I introduced Bubs and Z into the work area. She was a trooper and worked right through all their loudness.

At the start of the day, while Babe wrote her date, I showed Bubs and Z their name cards with letters. Bubs knew exactly what to do without me showing her, and she had her name put together in no time. I walked Z through his name and each of his letters, and by the last three letters, he knew what to do. Amazing! Tomorrow we will do the same name activity.

Having Bubs and Z at the table while Babe works is so much better for me. I feel more productive. I set the timer for 30 minutes, a good length of time for them to do tub work, but after 30 minutes, they both stayed and kept working. Z built with the Kid K'Nex blocks and Bubs poured rice. They worked for a solid hour! Amazing.

During that hour, Babe was able to do Math and Reading Comprehension. Today was the first day of subtraction, but I first reviewed addition with her, making sure she understood that with addition, you are adding to the first number. She completely understands addition.

So with that, I showed her a simple subtraction problem using connecting cubes - putting seven in a pile, taking away two, leaving five. She picked up on the concept quickly so I had her try using the monkey cutouts provided by Calvert. She showed me three different subtraction problems with ease. To end the lesson, I showed her what a minus sign looked like, and how it was different from a plus sign. Just to be sure, I asked her which sign is used for an addition problem, and which sign is used for a subtraction problem. She correctly answered both. Math was complete.

For Reading Comprehension, she read "Feast for 10" by Cathryn Falwell - her first book added to January's reading log! At the end of the book, it reads that nine chairs were set, and ten hungry folks shared the meal. I asked Babe how that could be? How could ten people be at the table and eat when only nine chairs were set? She was so perplexed for a minute. She looked at the illustration and saw right away the baby on the mother's lap.

"Oh look! The baby doesn't need a chair! She's on someone's lap!"

So cute.

We then used the story to create a writing web to organize all the kinds of foods that were in the story. I separated the web into meats, grains, dairy, fruits and vegetables, and desserts. Babe went through the book and wrote each food down accordingly.

When she got to the page with the beans, she looked at the illustration and started reading the labels on all the beans.

"Jelly beans, green beans, lima beans, pinto beans."

She gasped.

"REMEMBER?! Remember on our long bike ride around the neighborhood?! Pinto was the name of a road!"

She was exactly right. I then told her that it was probably named Pinto Road because Pinto is a kind of horse, a horse that looks like it's painted. I asked her if she remembered the name of the other road, and she only remembered it started with a P. I told her it was Palomino, which is the name of another horse! She was fascinated. (Later on in the day, we searched online for images of each horse, and she can now tell you the difference between a Pinto and a Palomino horse!)

After Reading Comprehension, I lined up the kids on the couch and we played a matching game with the Community Helpers puzzles I made. I first had each half of the puzzle on the floor, which each kid holding another half. I then asked questions like, "Who rides in the fire truck?" "Who bakes the cake?" If they had the correct half, they ran off the couch to their correct half. All three had a blast with this and wanted to play it over and over. I had to think up different ways to play on the fly! So after five games, I made it harder and had them each holding the puzzles so there were no halves on the floor. Then I started naming off the people. "Who has the firefighter?" "Who has the chef?" When all the people were on the floor, I then started calling out for their tools. Again, they wanted to play over and over! But I had to cut it short to make lunch. It felt good that they were having so much fun, though!

After lunch, Babe reviewed the five senses and how important it is to use scientific adjectives to describe something. I had her get her sensory tub and asked her to use her sense of touch to tell me three different adjectives. Then had her do the same with senses smell and sight. Then I took the box and told her I was going to explain what's in the box using hardly any adjectives. So I said, "There's a lot of stuff in this box."

"A lot of what? Fun toys? Colorful markers?"

"Just a lot of stuff!"

After that, she completely understood why adjectives were so important in observing and describing something.

By the time we were finished with that and her Checkpoints...and looking up horses...she was able to watch Word Girl on PBS Kids before getting ready for dance.

Like I said, what a day! A very productive one at that! Phew!

Introduction to 2012 - Part 2

As mentioned yesterday, Babe had no Calvert lesson today, but we still went over New Year's Resolutions...briefly. I started off by reading her and Bubs "Squirrel's New Year's Resolution" by Pat Miller so she could get a better understanding of what a resolution was. After I read the book, I asked her to think of three resolutions for the year.

"1. Feed the fish."

"2. Help someone every day." (A really good resolution, and one stolen from Squirrel...haha.)

"3. Be more polite."

I told her those were really good resolutions! I also told her my resolution was to make sure her and Bubs never stop having fun.

"Thank you!"

After the brief discussion, I gave Babe alphabet cards I made and had her put the capital letters in order, then had her match the lowercase letters. She did this with ease, but it was more of a review activity than anything.

While Babe was doing that, I had Bubs count chocolate chips and place them on corresponding number cards I made. She did this with ease, as well!

After both girls finished their activity, I told them to wait by the door while I unloaded my car of all the new work they will be doing. As I walked up with six tubs in my arms, Babe opened the door for me.

"Tat2! I helped you! That's my resolution!"

I gave her a high five for that one.

When all the tubs were unloaded, I had them each pick one tub at a time and bring it to the kitchen table. I then explained the rules of the new work - one tub out at a time that must be cleaned up and put back if they want another tub. They picked up on the rules so quick and had a blast with every one. It was like Christmas! I already can't wait to change some of them out to see their excitement again.

Bubs was all for the dry rice tub, as I knew she would be. Babe went nuts with the practical activities - the flossing activity and the stuffing envelopes activity. She also did all the other ones and got excited when she finished each. I explained to Babe that the tub work was more for Z and Bubs while she did her schooling, but she was welcome to use them during her free play time. She understood.

So yes, the new work was a big hit. I think tomorrow will be the real test, though, when Z is introduced to it all. Plus I'm adding the first name recognition activity. Wish me luck!

Introduction to 2012.

How about those holidays! I hope everyone had an awesome time. I know I did! I just finished a week off work, which means I was working all week on preparing new lessons and activities for the next few months. I also planned out the rest of Babe's Kindergarten. Tentatively, her last day of Kindergarten will be Friday, June 1st. Does that seem right? That's with almost a lesson a day for the rest of the manual.

For 2012, my new aim is to include Bubs and Z as much as possible in "school work" during the day. My sister is a trained Montessori educator and having her home for the holidays sparked a new interest in how I will go about planning lessons. For the first month, Bubs and Z will be working on name recognition. I made five different activities for them.

With this activity, they will be using MegaBloks to "build" their name. I glued together a "bar" of blocks with their name already on it. They each have individual blocks with one letter on each. All match up accordingly. In this picture, Hannah's is complete. Zachary's is what the activity will look like when first presented to them.

In this activity, I wrote each letter of their names on water bottle caps. I then traced each cap onto a

sheet of paper so it matches exactly. The water bottle caps will be in a tub of water for each and Hannah and Zach will scoop their caps out one at a time to match the lettered bottle caps onto their sheet of paper.

With this one, each of their names is on a sheet of paper. Each letter is also cut out for easy matching of color/letter.

Using the same named sheet of paper from the previous picture, instead of using lettered pieces of paper, Hannah and Zach will be using clothespins to match the letters in their name.

In this activity, Hannah and Zach will be stringing the letter beads. They each have a completed one to look at for help.

I do realize that most, if not all, of these activities are very challenging for a three- and two-year-old. But with a month of constant name work, I think they both will be pros at each activity by the end of a month of two. Then we can get into individual letters.

As for the rest of Bubs' and Z's work, they will have ten different activities to choose from. The first is a sensory tub (that I also made for Babe). January's theme is Community Helpers, so the sensory tub is very related.

Each sensory tub includes cotton balls, aluminum foil, trash bags, cotton swabs, letter beads, erasers, a sticky stretchy fish, construction cars, wooden service cars (ambulance, police cruiser, fire truck), tongue depressors, miniature dog, and a toothbrush. I may have missed a few items, but each item is related to the theme somehow.

The rest of the work is as follows:

Threading beads onto corresponding pipe cleaners.

Twisting nuts onto corresponding bolts.

A Pinterest idea - sticking PlayDoh in between the bumps on the MegaBlok, then "flossing" it out with yarn.

PlayDoh play with cookie cutters and knife.

Pouring/Scooping dry rice.

Kid K'Nex for building.

Matching (real) wrenches to their corresponding shadows.

Stuffing colored envelopes with corresponding sheets of paper, adding the corresponding stamp (with Velcro).

Matching puzzle. Community helper -> tool.

There you have it. Ten different activities for Bubs and Z to work on while Babe does her own work. I'm so excited to start.

Tomorrow, after a discussion on New Year's Resolutions, I will be introducing the new activities and explaining how each one works. Tomorrow will be a non-Calvert day for Babe, but the blogging will continue.

Any feedback will be appreciated. Thanks!