Busy week

So, the week has been busy. I had a doctor appointment Monday afternoon so the girls spend an hour with Grandpa and did very well. I was so glad they didn't give him a hard time. I think the time was good for all three of them. I took the girls with me to Ginny's funeral on Tuesday morning. Alex had gotten upset a few days before when I told her that Ms. Ginny might be going to heaven, so I was a little afraid to tell her when Ginny died. But, she took it very well. I just said, "Ms. Ginny went to heaven last night. Who else do you know that is in heaven?" She answered, "Grandma." And that was about it for that conversation. Before the funeral I explained that we were going to church to have a funeral for Ms. Ginny. I asked why we had a funeral at church and she answered, "God." Short, sweet and true. The were pretty good and we came home after the service so they could go to therapy. That evening we went to Springdale to see Mollie's first grade play. They had a lot of fun watching Mollie and all the kids and thought the school was "COOL!" Carrie took us to her classroom afterward and the girls got to look around and explore. Carrie even showed them the Hermit crab. Lots of fun and I'm glad we went. Mollie was adorable as the farmer's wife in the program and she had fun showing the girls around the school.
Wednesday Lisa was sweet enough to keep the girls during my second doctor appointment. The girls got to play together, Lisa took A & E to therapy, and then they all went to the ballpark for MG and Hannah's softball game. A full day!
Today Alex had her pre-op doctor appointment for next week's procedures in KC. She did great and we had time to play and learn a bit while we were waiting for our turn. We do that a lot. Learn where we are I mean. In restaurants we identify letters and words on the menu or table top, we stop to look at signs in the store, we talk about the weather (especially this week!), etc. In the doctor's office we were searching the room and toys for certain shapes. It was fun to watch them discover that there were circles (squares, etc.) on all kinds of things in the room. We've also been working on colors more, for Emma's sake. Today she identified yellow and green correctly! I was so excited for her! We continue to observe and name shapes, colors, letters, numbers, etc. every day. Another thing we work into the day is math. Lots of simple addition lately... for example at lunch the other day we took the sweetener packets out and did some math. "If I have two pink packets and two white packets, how many do I have all together?" Lots of that sort of thing, and both girls really like doing that. I know we aren't to the "What is two plus two stage", but we are learning the process of addition and subtraction. I'm still loving homeschooling them and I'm proud of how hard they work, especially Alex. Seeing Carrie's classroom made me wish I had all of her resources (and I know she would let me dig through things whenever I wanted), but I still feel confident in being their teacher. The process of learning is amazing and I'm so thankful to be sharing it with my girls.

Letters

This morning Emma found a package of flash cards that had been given to us. We had never used them because they are sight words and I didn't think we were to that point yet, but we gave it a try. There were 25 common sight words (a, the, I, she, he, etc.) It was actually great because we named the letters (they did, with occasional help), we said the word, and took turns using the word in full sentences. Great letter identification (lower case) and sentence speaking practice. And the sight word thing can't hurt anything.
This afternoon Alex had PT. Yesterday they each had ST and PT. Church tonight.
Have a play date scheduled for the park tomorrow. We are planning a trip to Mollie's school next week to see her first grade program. The girls should love that! Drew will be home in a couple of weeks and he is hoping that we can take the girls fishing. That should be an experience! I'm hoping that when we take Alex to KC for her MRI that we can go back to the Wonderscope kids center, there is so much to do and learn there.

Math

I can't seem to recap what we've done since my last blog, I've really got to get better at blogging every day. Drew was home this past week and we didn't do much in the way of school work anyway. But today...
I got all excited last night because Julie e mailed me and asked for some homeschooling info. Lorelai will be starting Kindergarten in a little over a year and she wants to start working with her more. So, I got to share some of my infinite teaching wisdom! (Did you detect my sarcasm?)
Anyway, in thinking over some things for her, I pulled up the Kindergarten readiness list again. I went through last night and marked off the things that we are doing well with and highlighted the things that we will continue working on.
So, today we pulled out some manipulatives and got busy. I would pick up one shape and ask Emma to pick one that was the same. Check. Both girls can do that. I would make a pattern and the girls took turns picking the shape or color that came next. Did pretty well with that. More/Less. Do I have more circles or triangles, etc.? That one needs more work. Then we worked on simple addition. If I have two triangles and three circles, how many shapes do I have all together? Did really well with that. As long as we have the visuals, and of course they count out the total, but still... this first step is going well. Then they did puzzles. Alex does them completely independently and Emma needs only minimal help. Good fine motor and problem solving practice. Then Aunt Jessica showed up and we played the Candy Land Castle game. Taking turns, matching shapes, etc. Then just fun stuff. Right now they are playing with big Legos. I just asked Alex was she was building and she said a castle. I love to hear an original answer as opposed to a generic or copy cat answer.
Therapy this afternoon and the rest of the week.