Wednesday: Bottom and Tops imprints

Play doh is a glorious toy. So we used it to make imprints of the top and bottom of different play doh toys.

Angel Girl seemed to have a hard time with making the imprints...she could point to the top or bottom but rotating the toy to imprint it was difficult. But she went on to play with the play doh for another hour making different things.

Jan 25 - 28th

* keep in mind this was the original idea list but this week has had some major events in it that made mommy school hard to get to everyday so some of these may not be explained (not done) or will show up another week

• Monday
o Tracing Lines
o Clapping rhythms

• Tuesday
o Square Snacks
o Throwing balloons

• Wednesday
o Sets of 5 counting
o Bottom and Tops imprints

• Thursday
o Fingerpaint
o Making squares

• Friday
o People in My Neighborhood
o Picnic Lunch

Thursday: White Art

On Thursday we continued to learn about the color white. For this day I had a black piece of paper and white stamp pad. I had paint brushes, stamps, Q-tips and the square sponges. I let Angel Girl go at the paper making a work of art with the color white. She did really well! The painting now hangs on our fridge in the place of honor.

PS. I know I am almost a week late in this post but that is the great thing about mommy school...when life gets crazy busy we can adjust our learning and activities.

Wednesday: Counting to 5

Wednesday we worked on counting to 5 on objects. In particular these really cool nesting bowls that we got Sweet Boy for Christmas. They can stack on top of each other and within each other. They also have numbers written on them. I modeled putting out the nesting bowls and counting to 5. Then I showed her how to stack them counting to 5. Angel Girl then took over the task. She really enjoyed it and by the end of the lesson she was able to count to five while she placed them.

Tuesday: Squares

Tuesday we sponge painted. In particular we used square shaped sponges. I had a large square sponge and a few smaller square sponges. I held up the big one and reintroduced her to the word square. Then asked to make squares on the paper. She seemed to enjoy it a lot.

January 18th – 22nd

Monday
o Tracing lines Kumon
o Pat a cake

Tuesday
o Sponge paint squares
o Ring toss

Wednesday
o Counting to 5 with nesting bowls
o CAP: 1st and last with different familiar objects

Thursday
o Handprint counting to 5
o White Art

Friday
o Family Who am I? game
o Handprint paintings

Thursday: Body Parts

On Thursday we continued learning about our body parts. I read the book From Head to Toes by Eric Carle and we did the different actions that the animals did. Then we sang Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes. I did a little bit of where is your neck, wrist, ankle but she wasn't entirely sure what they were.

Tuesday: Intro White

For Tuesday I tried to introduce the color white. I had a white crayon and had Angel Girl repeat the word white. Then we went through her toys to find toys that were white. I took pictures of the items that we found so that I can make a color book for her using her toys. Most of them I had to point out to her but she did find 1 item. I figure I will continue to point out white objects to her.

Monday: Tracing

Sorry a little behind this week, we've had a very busy week this week so not all my planned mommy school lessons are occuring...but that is what makes it great...I can just do the activity at another time.

So Monday we did tracing using our Kumon book, about 1 page at a time. Kumon is a company that creates workbooks for pretty much everything. They also have tutoring and such. For me I was interested in the basic skill books. The tracing book is for ages 2-4 and it is basically a book of lines for Angel Girl to trace. Angel Girl loves to draw and color and does it often but this give a very specific task of being able to control the pencil/crayon enough to stay within the lines.

PS. I also have the cutting, coloring and mazes book (they were on sale at Costco). I think the coloring one will be fun to use when Angel Girl is more familiar with her colors.

January 11th – 18th

Monday
Kumon Tracing lines
Clapping music

Tuesday
Intro Color White
Throwing beanbags

Wednesday
Counting to 5
Kumon Tracing lines

Thursday
Body Part Identification
Review squares, white, and counting to 5

Friday
Identifying family
Play at the park (depends on if the weather improves like predicted)

Friday: Family

Angel Girl got really interested in Who was Who when we went back to Daddy's home for Christmas. So that prompted me making family part of our study this month. For Friday I just pulled out some of our albums and pictures and going through them with Angel Girl. I made sure to include pictures of Grandma and Opa so that she would be able to remember who she had just spent time with. I had a little album that I wasn't using so I put in some of the loose pictures for her to look at anytime. It will be her book. The best part is that as we take more current pictures I can change them up.

Thursday: Body Parts

Note: no Wednesday post because the activity was just counting in different situations

Thursday was learning about our bodies. I had Angel Girl lay down on some wrapping paper and traced her. Then she identified body parts and I added it to her outline. I think I will do more with the outline this month but I am still trying to figure out what.
We sang Head, Shoulders Knees and Toes to finish off.
Angel is fairly versed in basic body parts so I think the rest if this month we will work on more advanced body parts (thighs, shins, chin, finger tips, ankle ect)

Tuesday: Squares

Today I introduced squares to Angel Girl. First I showed her a large square that I had cut out. I told her about 4 sides and 4 corners. Then I sang her this song:
This Is a Square - sung to "Frere Jacques"
This is a square, this is a square.
How can you tell? How can you tell?
It has four sides,
All the same size.
It's a square, it's a square.
(she didn't really get the song but I figure we can revisit it often enough)
Then we did a square picture. I got some foam squares that I let her glue on and make a picture with. I used the word square as much as I could so she could hear the word while she was manipulating the shape. She loved this activity and is really proud of the picture that she made.

P.S. This was part of the art process gluing I am introducing this month. We used a glue stick and I showed her how to hold it and to put the glue on the foam square. She got putting the glue on but I had to help her a lot with flipping it over to put on the paper.

Manners - Please and Thank You

Angel Girl is good at saying please and thank you. Sidenote: Angel Girl says Thank you in sign language most of the time, and slowly it has evolved to blowing a kiss which I am not ready to give up yet.

I googled some ideas though for helping her remember to say please and thank you. Here are my favorites: (from this site)

o Sung to: "If You're Happy and You Know It"
• When my grandpa gives me something,
• I say "thank you".
• When my grandma gives me something,
• I say "thank you".
• I can see it makes them happy
• When I say it so politely
• Yes, good manners mean to always
• say "thank you"!

o Sung to: "I'm a Little Teapot"
• I have super manners. Yes, I do.
• I can say "Please," and "Thank You," too.
• When I play with friends, I like to share.
• That's the way I show I care!

o Sung to: "Frere Jacques"
• Please and Thank You
• Please and Thank You
• Sounds so nice
• Sounds so nice
• Manners are important
• Manners are important
• Be Polite
• Be Polite

I may incorporate these songs into our day to help her remember these words, especially since she loves to sing.

Monday Jan. 4th CAP

So Monday's activity is CAP looking L to R. For the reasoning check out this post. The actually activity we will be doing on Monday is merely tracing lines. I bought the Kumon Tracing book that I plan to work on with Angel Girl to help her get use to tracing. This will also help her develop the idea of looking. I will also be using my finger to trace the words in at least one of the books that we read each day. I figure repeating these two activities in a variety of ways over many weeks, months, and years will do the best for helping my daughter learn about looking l to r. A bonus activity (something we will do if there is down time and she is bored one day) is a line of toys that she just quickly points to from left to right. This would be a quick activity that can be done that focuses on left to right processing.

New Year

Its new year which means resolutions. This year I want to be more consistent with mommy school for Angel Girl. So every month I plan to post my monthly themes to work on in Language, writing, counting, geometry, science, social studies, art color, art process, music, physical, emotional, and chore chart. So this year Mommy School will start on Monday. This week we will:
Monday:
CAP looking l to r
Cleaning up

Tuesday:
introducing squares
throwing

Wednesday:
counting to 5
CAP

Thursday:
body parts
More squares

Friday:
Family