Monday

I wasn't feeling well today so we didn't put a lot of time into school. We did sit at the table for a while and play with play dough. Practiced thick vs. thin (Alex is having trouble with that concept) and just played a bit.

The rest of the week

Thursday and Friday consisted of ABC/abc flash cards and matching games, therapy, some new (old) book reading, playing outside, and a trip to the theater to see HSM3.
Emma is getting better with her letter recognition, slowly. We bought a new Leap Frog DVD that Lisa recommended and really helped Hannah learn her letters and sounds. I'm hoping that will aid us in the learning process.

Tuesday & Wednesday

Tuesday we practiced writing Alex's name. We hadn't really focused on that in a while and it was getting sloppier. After a little bit of practice it got better. I helped Emma write her name hand over hand. She isn't quite to the point of doing it alone. She can draw circles and straight lines though. Then we did a fun activity. We went outside and picked pretty leaves off the ground. Then we put the leaves between two pieces of wax paper and each of the girls got to help me iron over it with a warm iron. The heat seals the leaf in the wax paper. Then we practiced scissor skills by cutting the leaves out. I helped the girls to punch holes in each piece and we strung the leaves on a piece of yarn. I let Alex choose where to hang it and she chose the living room wall in a very specific place, so that is where we hung it. It was lots of fun. It also gave us a great chance to talk about how the leaves change colors and fall from the trees in the fall. Also talked about the 4 seasons. I guess that was confusing because when I asked what the 4 seasons were they wanted to name the days of the week.
Alex has PT, OT & ST that day and Emma had PT & ST.
Wednesday we worked in a workbook to practice pre writing skills. Alex practiced tracing straight lines, curved lines, circles, triangles, squares, X's, crosses, and traced through simple mazes. She did great and improved as we worked. Emma worked in a different workbook and practiced first, second and third. She also practiced circling the first in each sequence. Then we went to the park to play with the Green girls for about an hour.
Alex had PT that afternoon and Emma had OT.
As I'm typing this (Thursday) the girls are sitting in the floor tracing in their workbooks. Another long day of therapy this afternoon. 2 1/2 hours for Alex and an hour and 45 minutes for Emma.

Monday and recap

This morning we did our school work in the living room floor. Alex traced letters and I was really impressed by how many she could identify. She seems to be retaining letters she's learned in the past and slowly but surely picking up on new ones. Emma 'worked' in another book but really paid closer attention to what Alex was doing. Then we learned a new song from a toddler song book I have. Did the hand motions and all and they had fun. Oh, another new song we've learned that they love is "It's raining, It's Pouring, The old man is snoring..." We started singing it last week when it rained and now they sing it every time I wash their hair in the tub.
I am also happy with all the information they are retaining. Alex can still tell me that elephants live in Africa (from our zoo trip), they both sing 'America the Beautiful' & say the Pledge of Allegiance, they count to 8 in Spanish (because that is as far as I can go... give me a break, I took German), they can also say hello and goodbye in Spanish, say the Lord's Prayer, they know my first name and daddy's first name as well our family's last name, and letter recognition is growing. Not only does Alex recognize more letters than ever, she associates the letters with people she knows. N is for Nonnie, D is for Daddy, P is for Poppy, E is for Emma, A is for Alex, K is for Kathy, C is for Casey, etc. Letters without familiar names to associate with have other associations... Z is for zebra, etc. They are both making great progress and I'm happy with how things are going.
Oh, we are also working on the potty thing. Going on Misty's advice of bribery by sugar! Emma is willing to give the potty a try if a Skittle is waiting when she's done!

The last week

Drew has been home so we've done a lot, but blogged very little. Last week we took the girls to the corn maze and pumpkin patch. We learned where corn grows, and they got to touch it and look at it. We saw farm animals, picked pumpkins, played with other kids in the corn box and rode the cow train.
We've been to Chuck E. Cheese, a football game with friends, had a family BBQ, and played outside a lot. We are learning about the 4 seasons and days of the week. They are doing great with that. Having fun playing with leaves and sticks, and we often talk about the colors and textures of those things.
Both girls can count to 8 in Spanish consistently. Alex remembers about elephants from our trip to the zoo and can tell you that they live in Africa.

Thursday

The last few days have been ABC's, books, church, a play date at the park, and therapy. Nothing remarkable, but important just the same. Emma is asking lots of questions lately and narrates everything she does. Alex is being a very big girl wearing her new arm brace and playing with new people she isn't familiar with. Drew comes home tonight and will be home for 10 days, should be great family school time.

The last few days

Again, I'm blogging several days worth of school at once. I can't really remember what day we did what, so I'll just give an overview.
One day we made yarn dolls. I held the yard and the girls got to cut their yarn. It was good scissor work. Emma has an easier time with that than Alex does. The practice was good. Then we turned their yarn into dolls. Each girl got to help hold the yarn while I tied the right places. They carried those dolls around all day.




We've continued working on letter recognition and today we spent half an hour writing. That seemed to be Alex's limit before she was tired and frustrated. The problem is she wants to keep going but just can't. She did a great job of tracing and then writing letters, all uppercase right now. I worked on drawing circles and crosses with Emma, two basic shapes that lead into writing skills later.
We tied the fine motor skills and alphabet together by doing some connect the dots. A dinosaur book that we got on our trip to the museum in Eureka Springs last month. Each dot has a letter and it was good practice. We did a lot of hand over hand work and then they each did a little bit independently. I've noticed that Alex is using mainly her left hand right now. She seems to do equally well with both hands. I think that Emma favors the right, but it's still hard to tell.
Drew got each of the girls a Hannah Montana glitter art set and Saturday we all sat at the table and played. Markers, glitter pens, glitter paint, stickers and rhinestones. They had a lot of fun... we all did.



Emma seems to have big & little down. She likes to point it out whenever she can.
We are also starting the potty thing again. It's hard work but we are going to give it another try with a different approach this time. I bought them each a new potty chair and we are keeping them in the living room for quick use. Emma doesn't seem to have much control. Alex tries really hard, but the physical requirements for going potty by yourself are very difficult (getting clothes down, getting on the potty without falling off, etc.). We are giving it a try though.
We have also made a habit of meeting Lisa, Hannah and Abigail at the park on Thursday mornings. Fun play/social time and great exercise. I've started a new class at church on Thursday nights and although there isn't a class for the girls, they get to play with Mollie and a few other friends for the evening.