September - Grandma & Grandpa

Of course, after you learn about brothers & sisters, moms & dads its only natural to learn about grandma & grandpa.  So on Day 5 we started our day by asking, what do you call your grandparents?  For my children this was easy.  We call both sides of grandparents, grandpa and grandma.

Next I got out the I Can Write sheets.  On one side there are prewriting practicing lines and on the other are letters, the three letters we are learning this month both in uppercase and lowercase form.  Peter, again being very interested in writing with the new highlighters I got for The Virtue Training Bible was requesting to write.  So I got out one of these sheets.  I let him pick any color highlighter he wanted and showed him how to follow the line.  He did really well and kept getting better and better.  He followed each line several times and tried a few colors.  Lachlan started to take interest and I am so excited because I discovered something new!

Lachlan likes to teach! He hopped up next to his brother and when we turned the sheet over to the letters, Peter said, but I don't know how.  Lachlan jumped right in and said, "here, I will show you."  What! You don't like to write, and you won't let me show you but you will teach your brother.  Instantly I started thinking about ways I could have Lachlan "teach" Peter while at the same time learning and practicing himself.  While teaching Peter, he was even more willing to take instruction from me.  So this was a big moment in our home.  I had to get out the camera because the cuteness was just too overwhelming.  I took a lot of pictures and I am going to post many of them here.  So please forgive me but I know at least one loyal reader who will appreciate and analyze every little expression from each of the boys.  I am talking to you Grandma Norma!

Doing pretty good isn't he? This was one of the first times he actually tried to follow the line.

I wrote on my arm.  See Mom.

Sounding out all the letter sounds for brother.

Holding the paper down for brother.

Showing brother how to hold the pen.

Showing brother how to write the letters.

Peter was really studying his work.

Now Peter's turn to try again.

Next we learned about the sign language word, more.  First we discussed what kind of food we like to eat at Grandma and Grandpas house?  We were actually just there for lunch so I was curious to see what they would come up with.  Peter said "crackers."  We had sandwiches for lunch which he didn't want to eat and ate mostly crackers.  So he definitely remembered that.  Then I showed them the sign for "more" and explained that if you want more food, like crackers, you can say "more" with sign language.

Then it was on to another lesson about circles called Grandma's Glasses.  The discussion question asked if you see anything at your grandparent's house that is circular?  Then I had them make circles with their hands as we were still talking about what is a circle at Grandma's house.  Then I took my two hands which were in a circle and slowly brought them up to my eyes like a pair of glasses.  What do these look like?  Glasses!  There was a little rhyme we did next:
These are grandma's glasses,
(make glasses with hands.)

This is Grandpa's hat.
(make circle above head.)

This is the way they fold their arms
(cross arms in front of self.)

Just like that!
(shake head up and down.)

They love these action rhymes.  There have been a lot of them lately.

Later in the evening, Peter, Lachlan and I got out the Family Dominoes.  They are cardstock prints made like dominoes in that they had two images on each piece.  The images were of the different family members we learned about this week.  So they were to lay them with same images together to make a long chain.  This exasperated me a little because it was a bit much taking turns and having many hands in the pot, so to speak.  Might be a fun one on one activity to work through.  But maybe I was just tired.  That could be too.

I keep missing the Closing Time activities which usually include a song from that months CD.  Finally today I tried to make a point to do the Closing Time and noticed the song title for today was "Grandma Do You Know."  It has a nice swing beat to it and talks about holding hands with Grandma to dance.  So, Grandma D and Grandma Norma, you have an open invitation to come on over and boogie with the boys!

Lastly, just to brag about my husband a bit.  He is an amazing cook.  I kept on seeing this recipe and photo being shared of this cheesy potato soup with bacon crumbles on top.  Oh man did that look good.  I said Jeff, can you make me some of this?  The next night he had potato soup on the stove and served me this beautiful bowl of soup.