"we do homework"

This afternoon I watched as the girls went through flash cards together. Alex looked up at me and said, "We do homework!" Emma would hold up a card and ask Alex "What this?" Then whey would practice saying the word as clearly as possible. I love that they are 'teaching' each other.
Yesterday during children's church Alex drew a picture of our family. I was so proud! For the record, mommy was the tallest, but daddy was drawn in a different color than us girls :) She even drew a sunshine in the top corner of the picture. For any whp don't know, laving the fine motor control to draw 4 stick figures and a sunshine is a big deal for Alex. Yay Alex!
Last week we continued practicing the use of pronouns... he, she, they,etc. I point them out in normal conversation, but also to specific activities such as asking questions about a book we are reading and encouraging their response in sentence form (as opposed to one word answers). Example...
"What is the boy holding?"
"He is holding a book."
We are still spending lots of time outside. That play time seems to encourage their imaginations. Examples... Emma was using sidewalk chalk to 'paint' Alex's fingernails today. Only moments later Emma was using that chalk as a tool to work under the hood of Alex's Mustang. They play shopping by exchanging grass and rocks as items and money. Alex places and 'order', Emma delivers a rock and says "Here! Give me money!" and then Alex pays her in grass. I love it!
Alex also showed off at therapy last week by writing her own name on her paper during speech.
I almost forgot... field trip to the county fair with Nonnie and Uncle Pat. We walked through the buildings and looked at all the plants, crafts, and animals. My girls are no strangers to farm animals, but having the opportunity to see so many animals and how they are the same and different is wonderful. Although Alex now thinks we need a rabbit and Emma was a bit disappointed that there were no monkeys :)

play play play

We have been doing LOTS of playing lately... it is just too pretty to sit inside all day, so we have been spending lots of time in the yard. Not all is lost though... their bodies and imaginations get a work out when we are outside. We find bugs, we pick flowers, we play with the dogs. Alex loves driving her mustang and Emma pushes her little cozy coupe. For some reason they are both loving picking grass and loading up their cars. Sometimes they are just playing, sometimes they pretend that the grass is something specific (things they went shopping for). For example, they love to get in their cars and tell me "Bye Bye, see you later!" and then head off. When I ask where they are going the answers range from: to therapy, shopping, to church, to Poppy's house, to Nonnie's house, to Ms. Lisa's house, etc. Today I think they were playing drive through because Alex was 'ordering' cookies and ice cream from Emma. They must have learned this at the park last week while playing with a few other little kids on the playground. So, while these things show some creativity, I am still trying to encourage their little minds as much as possible. I ask them where they are going shopping, what they are shopping for, if they will get me certain things, etc. In addition to all of these great things about playing outside, Alex can sit in her car and play for hours without ever having to fall down.
We still read at least a book or two every night before bed. The Three Little Pigs seems to be a great book to read slowly and ask lots of questions, so we keep reading that one on a regular basis. Alex pays close enough attention and is now able to answer simple questions about what will or what already happened in the story. Ms. Heidi has been reading her Goldilocks and the Three Bears in therapy and last night I was asking Alex about the story. I asked her what it was about and she was able to tell me the main characters. When I asked what happened she said "it broke", and after some more prodding from me (like I didn't know what happened) she giggled and told me Goldilocks broke the chair. I'm so happy she is making this progress. Emma is mainly concerned with getting to turn the page when we read, but at least now she is willing to wait until I read one page before she turns it. In the not so distant past we would have tiffs over her wanting to turn the pages at her whim. Progress!
Oh, labeling ordinary objects around the house doesn't seem to have helped with word recognition in any way. It does, however, make people think I'm crazy when they come over and see what I've done! So, the labels are coming down and we will just continue our repetition and working on Alex's prereading skills. She is having a full neuro-development evaluation on September 22-23 at Children's Mercy Hospital. Once that eval is complete the doctor may be able to give me some insight on the most important things to work on and any specific approaches that may be most helpful to Alex (and to Emma)... based on her developmental level (which we already know is quite delayed) and what will be the most important to learn before she loses the ability to gain skills, as well as what will help her the most once she begins losing abilities in the future.

The Starting Line

The official home school forms are submitted and the school year has officially begun. In the last week we have spent some time with the workbook, trying to become more aware of letter sounds at the beginning of words. We say the word, emphasize the sounds, and identify the letter that starts the word. Alex has been practicing writing her name a lot and doing great. Emma can't write her full name but writes the 'E' (usually upside down) and is so proud of herself. We have played Candyland and I was suprised at how upset Alex got when she didn't win... No big deal though, I'm happy to foster competition... I just want to teach them both to be good sports. The only way to do that is to lose now and then. We have played the Memory game also. Yesterday we also pulled out the play dough.
Last Saturday we spent the day working on the yard. The girls helped me pull weeds and plant new flowers. Drew found a little frog in the grass and we all took turns holding him and checking him out. One day we were headed to my grandpa's and saw a big turtle making his way across the parking lot. I stopped and opened the van doors so the girls could see and we sat and watched as he made it into the grass. Sometimes the best learning opportunities come unexpected. We have also had several play dates and played outside a lot. The weather has been so beautiful! I also value the time the girls have playing with Lorelai and Mollie on Wednesdays. It is a safe and intimate setting for them to play with friends, without me.
I am infinitely blessed to be home with my girls and so thankful for the opportunity to be mommy and teacher.

Great Stuff

Since returning from our vacation (which included the girls' first trip to the beach, educational in itself) we have done lots of fun stuff. Last week we spent a day at the Tulsa Zoo. The girls were so excited to see the animals! Each time we go it is a new experience, there is so much to see and learn about there. The girls rode a camel and there are pictures... but Christin refuses to turn those pictures because she too is riding that camel :) The days before and after our zoo trip we read animal books and it has turned into something of a unit study because on Monday we went to the safari in Gentry with the Hardins. A fun field trip with our very own preschool teacher! The safari is great in a different way because there is so much hands on. We saw kangaroos with joeys in their pouches (and got to pet them), petted the goats and pot bellied pigs, loved on baby monkeys and geunie pigs, and even got to pet a lion cub! Alex was having SO much fun that I'm sure she would have stayed all day had I been willing. This weekend we are going to Ft. Sill to be with Drew and plan to make a trip to the Wildlife Refuge to visit the prairie dog town in particular. Just another piece of this unit study that seems to have found us.
On a more academic note, we have been drawing (got to work those fine motor skills) and spending time on pre-reading skills. I decided to take a cue from ESL and label things around the house. I have labeled the door, wall, chair, table, etc so that the girls can become familiar with the words in direct relation to the object. Emma has rediscovered the magna doodle, so we have done a lot of our alphabet work there. They ask me to draw a certain picture, I do, and then we write and sound out the word.
More developmental stuff... above/below, inside/outside, thick/thin, etc.
Both girls, Emma especially, are making great strides in language therapy. Emma is frequently saying the 's' on the end of plural and possesive words. She is also using pronouns much better... "her", "his", etc. Using the gender correct pronoun is something they have really been working on and I try to encourage regularly.
Our vacation has also provided a great opportunity to encourage their story telling ability. I am trying to ask open ended questions and encourage them to tell me about things. Emma seems to want to give the answer she thinks I'm looking for (usually "Mickey Mouse" regardless of the question) and I'm really trying to get her to elaborate and give her recollection or opinion. That is getting better. Alex is doing great with that. I'm having a great time listening to Alex and enjoying my conversations with her over this and other subjects.

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.