I suppose it's time to post something about what we did in January.
Looking back, we did more than I thought we did. I guess what I mean is, I was so burned out with December and preoccupied with a handful of other things, that I didn't really plan anything for January. So although it's kind of random and not much to look at, at least it's something. Here it is.
I bought each child a binder, a notebook, 6 folders or so, and pencils of their choice to make their Lernbuecher. I had great plans for these. But sadly, for the first 3 weeks of January, they just sat in the plastic Walmart bag they came home in. (Wait for upcoming posts... we're definitely using them now!)
Derek made the children a "Maus Haus." The idea of a mouse house dates back to when Joshua was maybe barely 2 years or so and we lived in Spanish Fork. One day I found him behind all my clothes in my big closet and he said he was playing in a "Maus Haus" back there. So now the term mouse house just refers to any sort of special place or fort. This specific mouse house had been in the planning and prepping stages for at least 2 months before we had all the materials and the design together to put it up. It takes up a TON of room in the kids bedroom. The roof always falls off so they don't use the roof anymore. And they don't actually play in it that much anyway. We'll probably still keep it for another month, just because it took so much time and energy to put up. (It's big enough that I can fit inside along with all three of my kids. It would be kind of a squeeze to get Derek in too, but I bet we could do it.)
Joshua all the sudden got interested in money so I made him some and for an afternoon we just bought and sold the same 6 books back and forth to each other. He was very kind and when I didn't have enough money, he sold me the books back for cheap.
I almost, but not quite, failed at finishing the alphabet in one year. Technically we talked about every single letter. On "Y" he wore his "Y" jacket. He already knows Y pretty well because there is a huge one on the mountain not too far from us. We talked briefly about Z on the last day of the year. You know, last day, last letter. But that was all. And for X we played tic-tac-toe. This was an excellent way to get him to write out a letter. And having the box really helped him write it correctly, instead of writing a "t" or something similar. My favorite is the game where Joshua was the O's and he created another box for himself on top so that he could win.
One day Joshua told Abigail they were going to have school so he gave her a piece of paper and told her to start writing letters. This is what he wrote.
Another fun activity that we've done a few times to solidify letters and building words is playing with the scrabble squares. I like doing this but I'm always a little reserved because I have really fond memories of this particular scrabble game at my Grandma and Grandpa's house out in Benjamin when I was really little. It seemed like that was the summer evening activity. All the adults got together at the little breakfast table and played scrabble. I have such nice memories of that... even though I was too little and was not really ever allowed to play.
Rummy-O is another good one to work on numbers. We've also played a little Yahtzee and Uno. I'm sure there is something educational in there somewhere. After one round of Yahtzee Joshua said I could go ahead and just roll for him every time, but he loves Uno and is actually pretty good.
So that is what I accomplished when my mind was occupied elsewhere. I'm a little disappointed at how little brain power I have. Apparently I can't work on too many projects at a time. My brain shuts down at 1 and a half.
But we have been really busy with our Astronomy unit and eventually I'll post about that. I wasn't satisfied with our unit on Stars for December, since we didn't really do anything for it, so I've expanded it along with my approach for pre-school this year. So far things are going well.
Looking back, we did more than I thought we did. I guess what I mean is, I was so burned out with December and preoccupied with a handful of other things, that I didn't really plan anything for January. So although it's kind of random and not much to look at, at least it's something. Here it is.
I bought each child a binder, a notebook, 6 folders or so, and pencils of their choice to make their Lernbuecher. I had great plans for these. But sadly, for the first 3 weeks of January, they just sat in the plastic Walmart bag they came home in. (Wait for upcoming posts... we're definitely using them now!)
Joshua all the sudden got interested in money so I made him some and for an afternoon we just bought and sold the same 6 books back and forth to each other. He was very kind and when I didn't have enough money, he sold me the books back for cheap.
I almost, but not quite, failed at finishing the alphabet in one year. Technically we talked about every single letter. On "Y" he wore his "Y" jacket. He already knows Y pretty well because there is a huge one on the mountain not too far from us. We talked briefly about Z on the last day of the year. You know, last day, last letter. But that was all. And for X we played tic-tac-toe. This was an excellent way to get him to write out a letter. And having the box really helped him write it correctly, instead of writing a "t" or something similar. My favorite is the game where Joshua was the O's and he created another box for himself on top so that he could win.
So that is what I accomplished when my mind was occupied elsewhere. I'm a little disappointed at how little brain power I have. Apparently I can't work on too many projects at a time. My brain shuts down at 1 and a half.
But we have been really busy with our Astronomy unit and eventually I'll post about that. I wasn't satisfied with our unit on Stars for December, since we didn't really do anything for it, so I've expanded it along with my approach for pre-school this year. So far things are going well.
