September - Mom

Day 3 of September's curriculum brought us to the topic of - Mom.  I thought today could be an interesting topic, seeing as how, Mom, is also teacher.  But it turned out to be a lot of fun.

Today, again, we did opening circle at breakfast.  This time I got out my camera.

I tried to get the whole crew in one shot but couldn't back up any more.

The question of the day asked, how does your mom show love?  I asked Lachlan first and he said "by giving me blue juice."  This is what he calls apple juice, still working on it.

Next we moved on to the first lesson, while still at the table.  All of the lessons start with a section called Discussion.  Today's discussion was started by asking, What part of your body looks like your mom's?  This question actually worried me a bit because of a previous conversation Lachlan and I had while out at a restaurant. 

We were out to eat and Lachlan and I were sharing the same side of the booth.  Lachlan gave me a hug and a loving smile and said Mom I love you, I wish we could get married.  I said I know bud, I love you too, but I am already married to Daddy.  Which part do you love about Mommy?  That she is nice, or that she is tall?  "Yeah," he says "that you are nice, that you are tall and these. . . " as he points to my chest and then exclaims "nipples" through the restaurant.  Oh, boy! Um, now what do I say?  The boys have always wondered what these things are on their own chest so we told them.  It's one of those words you don't realize will come back to bite you later.  I hushed him and said we don't talk about these things in public.  I do believe, for him, it is how he distinguishes a girl from a women.  However, it caught me off guard, to say the least.

So after I asked this discussion question I quickly asked next, what color are your eyes? "blue."  What color are Mommy's eyes?  "Brown."  What color are your eyes Peter? "Brown, like Mommy's!"  Now we were getting there.

Next we moved on to learning about the number one and the concept of one.  Mother Goose Time gives us Hands-On Numbers which are actually cardboard cut outs of the number for holding, manipulating and tracing.  So we got out our number 1 and our counting card.  The counting card has one circle on it and a place for the Hands-On Number to be placed.  The circle is the same size as one of the large foam shapes so it can also be placed on the counting card. 

I asked all the kids what do we have just one of on our bodies?  How many eyes do you have?  Peter counts 1, 2 as he pokes himself in each eye.  How many ears do you have? Again, they all count, 1, 2.  Now how many noses do you have? 1, they count.  Hmm, so we just have 1 nose? Yeah! Okay, what else do we just have 1 of?  I continued to help them walk through the different parts of our bodies and what we have a pair of verses just 1 of.  Next I had them trace the number 1 on the counting card and count the circles.  It was a pretty thorough discussion on the number 1.

For Hi Mom we talked about the sound at the beginning of Mom. /m/m/m/ Mom.  I am actually really excited about this because when I got out the My Little Journal at the beginning of the day and set it on the counter Lachlan pulled down and showed me the pictures on the back.

He pointed to the dog and said /d/d/d/ dog goes with /d/d/d/ dog house.  /f/f/f/fish goes with /f/f/f/fish tank and /b/b/b/bird goes with /b/b/b/birdcage.  This is a BIG deal!  Because up until now he would say /t/t/t/bubbles.  Do you see the difference there?  Everything started with just a few of the familiar sounds to him when he tried to sound things out.  Now, he actually hears the sounds and recognizes them enough to sound it out correctly.  So proud of this new accomplishment.

Sounding out Mom was fun because not only is there a /m/ sound at the beginning, but also the end.  We started out My Little Journal time with writing their names on the front.  For Lachlan I used a yellow highlighter to write his name and he used a pen to trace.  On the inside we found the M page.  In the open space I had Lachlan free hand two M's, a big M on the left and a little m on the right.  I set out the Hands-On Letters which are also cardboard cut outs in the order he was to write them.  He used a highlighter to write them on the page.

I bought this large pack of Sharpie Highlighters to use on setting up The Virtue Training Bible I recently received to try out and review.  The boys have been drawn to these bright colored pens.  At first I didn't want them to use them until I was done setting up the Bible because I didn't want them to ruin the points.  But then I caved and let them give em a try.  Now I am in love with writing with highlighters and my boys are too.  We have done a lot more writing in the last few days.  First of all highlighters are meant to write pretty smoothly as you highlight over text.  So they don't seem to stick as easily as a standard pen or marker does.  You know when they are writing along and the pen just kind of get sticks and leaves a heavy dot in that spot.  They really have to push to get it unstuck and then it jolts ahead and messes up what they were working on.  So, I highly recommend giving it a try.  They may not all work as well as they have for us, but if you need a new idea.

For the little ones I used the highlighter to write the Ms and then they used a pencil to trace inside.  After all the Ms were written I got out a stamp pad and put ink on the pinky side of their fist to make the O in the middle of Mom.  So in between the two Ms we placed the O and there you  have it . . . Mom.

We did even more on this day.  But I think if I just keep writing in this post you will all be like, really Tracy, more writing.  We did work in an Experience God lesson on this day, I really want to share, so maybe in the next post.