Week 19 Review

Once again, I've disappeared for a few weeks!

We've been working at a bit slower pace the past few weeks, summer activities and gorgeous weather have taken over a lot of our time, but we're still at it!

Alyssa has now learned all of her lowercase letters up to f, and is quickly mastering letter sounds. We've finished patterns and are currently working on greater than-less than. She's turning out to be quite the math whiz!

Rylan has had a bit of trouble with the number 9, but seems to be grasping it now- we're hoping to move on to 10 next week! He has also been picking up a lot of letter sounds from hearing his sister, he especially loves "M says Mmmmmm!".

We finished a unit on the Ten Commandments, and since I FINALLY have my camera back, here are our tablets!

We also finished a unit on My Family and Me, we made mini books, and chose pictures from old catalogs to represent the members of our family in a collage.

And here's a few shots of our summer fun with Alyssa, Rylan, and one of their best friends.

And one of my baby girl, for good measure!

Catch them in the Act!

I've heard this a dozen times, but it never really hit home with me before, I've never really taken it to heart. The other day something on television (Dr. Phil perhaps?) caught my attention.

We have to catch our children in the act.

Not in the act of misbehaving, something even more important, we have to catch them behaving! Catch them sharing, listening, or trying hard. Too often we let these chances to praise go by without taking advantage, or even noticing, them. Yet we snap at the chance to scold or punish.

If we had only praised the good behavior that they showed moments ago, we might not find our selves scolding them now. If our children feel that we only notice their negative behaviors, they will start to feel as though it's pointless for them to act appropriately because Mommy and Daddy don't notice anyway! But children love praise, and if we praise a behavior we like in our children, we are more likely to see that behavior again and again.

And this doesn't look the same for all children. My oldest daughter is generally calm and collected, so I have to try hard to find things to praise with her, because I've come to expect those behaviors from her. My son on the other hand is a wild child, he's bouncing off the walls most of the time, so simple things like sitting still at the dinner table provide opportunities of praise for him.

All in all, I've found that children respond to positive praise better than negative punishment (and believe me, I've tried it all!). Now that isn't to say that discipline is never in order, but I've found that we don't need it as often since implementing this new tactic.

Review Week 6

This past week we spent Monday-Wednesday learning the letter J, and Thursday and Friday reviewing all of our letters so far. We also learned the number 9, and practiced counting to 15. Rylan finished up all of his shapes and knows them perfectly, he's still having a little trouble with the difference between black and brown, but I believe that's normal.

Our health lesson was manners, and our weekly study was all about fish. We also learned about David and Goliath.

We talked about where fish live, what they eat, how they breath, and their body parts. The kids made this pictures after pointing out all of their parts:

As a bonus, they got to practice their cutting and gluing skills!

Then we made our manners mini-books, the kids loved the idea of creating their very own book and were so excited to show Daddy when he came home from work! I printed the pages from this blog that I found when I googled "manners mini book".

After reading and talking about David and Goliath all week, we went "stone picking" for 5 small, smooth stones. Then we cut circles from felt, mommy punched some holes around the edges and the kiddos were able to "sew" a pouch for their stones.

And for good measure, a shot of all three of my babies spending some time playing together, I love catching moments like this!

Wordless Wednesday

The look on Rylan's face was priceless when he turned around and saw her there, she looked so proud!

Week 5 Review

This week things are finally calmed down and our routine is back! We learned the letters H and I, the numbers 7 and 8, the colours black, white, and brown, and about ovals. Our Bible lesson was about Noah's Ark, we also learned about rainbows, and healthy eating.

We started the week with the kid's favourite breakfast, pancakes and strawberry-banana smoothies!

We made junk vs healthy food collages (and the kids spent 15 minutes trying to convince mommy that Smarties are healthy and they should be allowed to eat them for breakfast, very clever!)

We painted rainbows, and also made rainbow necklaces with fruit loops (although they were eaten before I got a picture!).

And we made Noah's Ark:

In other news, Sophia had her first play date this week!

And have a look at my fearless children! They were playing in the backyard and I came in to check on supper, I was greeted by this and my daughter yelling, "It's okay Mommy, we're being careful!"

Field Trip Friday!

Hubby works shift work, which is really awful most of the time, but one of the perks is that every second weekend he gets 3 days off (although he only has one day off on the other weekend). We've decided that on most of those Fridays we will try and do some sort of field trip with the kids. Today, we had a picnic in the park, and then headed to a Science Museum- the kids loved it and we all had a great day!

Our healthy picnic :P

I thought this was very cool!

They each wanted a turn pushing baby sister.

Watching the ducks.

Feeling her heartbeat.

Chairs of nails!

Learning about muscles.

And an impromptu lesson on gravity!

The Kaleidoscope corner.

My little scientist.

The museum was in an old jail, and many of the furnishings are original. Rylan thought that was very cool!

A sign of things to come?! Let's hope not!

All tuckered out!

Week 4 Review

This week we learned the letters F and G, and the number 6. Rylan also learned the shapes diamond and heart, and the colours purple and orange. Our health lesson was Bathroom Habits, and we continued our Bible and weekly unit lesson from last week (Creation and weather).

Day 6- We coloured, cut, and glued on animals to our Creation pictures. We also added Adam (hard to see in this picture)- we made him clothes from leaves as well, which the kids thought was hilarious!

We also continued to use our weather spinners everyday, and I think we will continue even though the unit is over.

We talked about rain and recited rhymes involving them, we made an itsy bitsy spider craft.

We also talked about snow, and made snowflakes, we added glitter to them after the picture was taken.

Then on Friday we had a Field Trip day! We had a picnic lunch at the playground, then headed out to the science museum. But, I think that deserves a separate post!

Dance Your Heart Out!

Saturday was Alyssa's end of the year dance recital- it was absolutely amazing! All of the girls did great and I'm especially proud of my own little ballerina. Not only did she look adorable, but she danced so well!

Being a momma who danced recreational for 3 years and competitively for 5 years, this is something that is close to my heart. It really makes me melt to see my daughter loving the same activity that I loved for so many years (and still do!).

A couple of shots I snapped before her first performance.

The girls entertaining themselves backstage while waiting for their turn to perform. (Disclaimer- the photo below was taken by my photographer friend, the ones above were taken by myself).

The girls on stage for their ballet performance, again, taken by my friend at A.C. Photography. Alyssa is to the far left.

And their jazz performance (again, A.C. Photography). Alyssa is second to the right of the teacher.

And their tap performance, we were told "sailor themed" costumes. She is the 3rd to the right of the teacher, in her mama-made costume!

Celebrating with her best friend after the recital.