Summer

We take time to smell the flowers...

...play in the water...

...and even go fishing!

I have a picture of the girls painting, but I took their shirts off to save the clothes... so those pictures aren't blog appropriate :)
I heard on the news today that children lose a large amount of academic knowledge over the summer break that has to be refreshed and retaught when the new school year begins. We really strive to continue our learning regardless of the calender. We do spend lots of time playing and having fun, but still make time for academics. The girls are always curious about letters and we continue to take the time to identify letters and 'read' words where ever we find them... menus, signs, etc. This evening Alex asked to do homework. When I asked her what she would like to do she said, "Play a game. Pizza game." I bought a great game for $3 at Walmart a few months ago and the girls love it. It is mainly for the purpose of listening skills. Each of the girls have a cardboard pizza and 15 or 20 cardboard coins with toppings (few of which are actual pizza toppings) on them. I place my order for my pizza, with two or three items, and the girls find the correct coins and make my pizza. This is also great for finding a single object in a group. Tonight I made sure to choose 'toppings' that started with the same letter. "I would like 'pepperoni' and a 'pretzel' on my pizza please." Pointing out what letter the toppings begin with and emphasizing the sound.
Then we played CandyLand. We do fine with taking turns, so this game is good for colors (Emma specifically). For Alex, identifying the color isn't difficult, but she wants to skip to any (blue) square as opposed to the next (blue) square... so we worked on that. I am finding that any of these games that require the simplest fine motor skills are becoming quite difficult. Even picking a card from the pile is now hard for Alex because two fingers on her left hand (the good hand) are now drawn up. We keep practicing though.

Good morning

What's this? I am remembering to blog? I found a note that my Aunt Linda sent to me last summer. She has home schooled her four children from the beginning and I value her advice. She says that at this point the most important thing to focus on is reading. Once they can read, the rest will come so much easier. Of course, have fun with math and science, but don't fret over it just yet. Her other advice is to remember that kids Alex and Emma's age can only be expected to sit and focus for 15-30 minutes at a time. This is something I have learned on my own over the last year and a half. We started out doing good to sit and work for 10 minutes, not we can spend half an hour working before we really need a break.
Yesterday Alex found the Hooked on Phonics workbooks. We haven't worked with them in a while, so that is what we used this morning. We started with hooked on Phonics a year and a half ago, but haven't stuck strictly to the program... just used it as a guide and aid. So this morning we reviewed the pre-reading letter book. The girls did great. We are oh so close to 100% letter recognition for both girls. Our hang ups are b/d, V/Y, l/I. Then we moved on to a few pages of letter sounds. We went through and said each letter, the sound, and a word that starts with it. That kind of repetition seems to be very helpful with Alex and Emma. Then we concentrated on 'm' and 'n'. Not sure why Hooked on Phonics put these right next to each other, so confusing for little ones. Maybe that was the point, to hear the difference. Anyway, there were three pictures of 'm' words with the word written below it. We pointed out the 'm', said the sound, then the word. The next page has six pictures, we say the word and listen if it starts with the 'm' sound. Same thing with 'n'. Alex really did very well with this and I have learned that while Emma is mostly quiet, she is soaking it all in. That is pretty well how she learned her ABC's. So, by this time Alex was tired and getting distracted so we called it good for now. Maybe do a bit more later, may just wait for therapy this afternoon. I'm so proud of the girls for loving to learn. It is never a fight. If anything, the fight comes when they get too tired to concentrate but still want to work. Alex particularly gets frustrated when she wants to keep going but can't.

May

So Drew was home for most of the month of May and it was wonderful. While he was here we finger painted, planted flowers, worked in the yard, discovered some baby birds, painted the house, played games, read books, went fishing, worked on the boat, had a yard sale, had normal therapy, two Kansas City doctor trips, etc. The girls participate in most everything we do so there was lots of learning taking place. Lots of exploring and discovering and experiencing new things. Since Drew is back at Ft. Sill we are back to our normal routine. Some 'formal' school work and play dates in the mornings and therapy in the afternoons.
What the girls are doing right now:
Alex wants to 'read' everything. She always points to writing (wherever it is) and says, "Let's do this!" So we identify every letter, sound it out where appropriate, say the word, then read the sentence as a whole. While she isn't close to reading on her own, the desire is still there and we are still nurturing it.
We are still doing lots of math throughout our day. Counting objects and simple addition and subtraction. Both girls participate in this and love it.
Imaginations are continuing to grow. The latest pretend game is taking their babies to the doctor. Emma is all about that and Alex goes right along. They take their babies to the doctor, make them take naps, go shopping, to church, and back home. Guess that sums up what our life is like :)
Emma is finally getting her colors down, a handful of them anyway. Brown, pink and yellow are consistent right now. Don't know why those three stick with her, but they are her favorites.
Alex is also drawing a lot on her own lately. We used to have to prompt and encourage her to draw stick figures, etc. Now she sits with a piece of paper or the magna doodle and draws on her own. She mainly draws people and the sun. She drew a picture the other day and told me it was her family. She is always very specific about who is who in her pictures and she always wants me to write the names of each person.
So kids are getting out of school for the summer now, but we will continue doing what we do. Our schedule isn't a strict 8-3, five days a week thing anyway... so we have to plans to halt learning until the fall. That being said, Alex will officially be a kindergartner in the fall so once that time rolls around we may get a little more serious about the time we dedicate to school work. I need to get our letter of intent (for home schooling) prepared to turn into the school district and in the fall we will look into doing some activities with the home schooling group here.