Letter G display

I seem to be able to do a little more each week and I'm quite pleased with my second attempt at a letter display. 

This week is G, theme goat amd vocabulary theme farm. So we have lots of books with G in or about the farm.

Several farm puzzles, a big tractor floor puzzle which I suppose really we should have done last week, g alphabet box, her big fabric g from her room, glue for lots of sticking this week, a giraffe lacing card and various other g related items. Can't wait to show her in the morning.

Letter T

My favourite, and I think Mischief's favourite activity this week was stolen from Counting Coconuts. We made a tree from tissue paper and she loved spreading the glue and sticking the paper on.

Cutting and sticking seems to be a favourite generally and she is getting better with the scissors. This week she even managed to cut out some of the items herself and part of most of the others.

We also cut out all the images from the vocabulary theme and she chose where to put each one on the letter T. Daddy was amazed at how nearly she did it.

She's going great guns with dot stamping and painting is her other favourite thing to do. I'm impressed how well she get the dots in the circles and she got all the little trains and letters in these activities.

I was really proud of her line tracing this week as it was the first time she'd done this activity and has only really been copying lines very recently.

Her colouring is also getting more intentional and although this does look like a lot of scribble she's clearly focusing on specific areas and colours.

We certainly did a lot with printables this week.

Satsumas...

Well Mischief has taught herself how to peel satsumas, and very pleased with herself she is to! Mummy and daddy aren't allowed to help anymore. I thought she'd be a lot older before she started doing this but the fine motor skills and muscle strength seem to be all there.

First letter display

I haven't done a display for our weekly letter before but as the theme is trains I realised I had quite a bit of stuff I could use. 

I set out her small train set with trees, some plastic linking trains, a spinning top, tiger finger puppet, letter t block book, tortoise puzzle flash card, letter t phonics flash card, letter t foam puzzle piece, a clock for time and transport puzzles. I had some more bits to add but the table is quite small. 

I thinkable liked it when she saw it this morning. 

We then played with the rest of the train set for a bit. 

T for tent...

Well we're studying the letter T this week so Mischief and I took the opportunity to have lunch in the tent in the garden. She loved it and had so much fun.

Not a very flattering phot but more to follow.

Spring has Sprung...

With the advent of some warmer weather we have spent a lot of time outside. We walk our dog most days anyway but Mischief just can't be kept out of the garden.

Last week we took a friend to the local Nature Reserve for a picnic and the girls insisted on a bench of their own and the had a good run around.

The weather really warmed over the weekend and we had a picnic on Saturday and Sunday too. Sunday we met some friends from our NCT group for lunch at a local National Trust property and the children had a fab time. It was so warm and the grown ups had a great lazy time while the little ones entertained themselves.

Letter D

We had fun with the letter D for duck last week. As ever I thank 1+1+1=1 for the printables.

Mischief dot stamped

She's getting pretty good at this and really enjoys it. 

Letter stamped

She did pretty well at this too and kept most of the stamps in the duck. 

Cut and pasted

Mischief is getting better at cutting. Mummy still had to help out but they all were partly cut out by her. I understand her frustration though as the safety scissors are rubbish. She did all the sticking though. 

We also coloured and painted and had fun with playdoh. We made up some rainbow letter pasta too, she enjoyed mushing the bags again.

And then had fun mixing all the colours together.

Button Snake

I saw this great idea on Counting Coconuts and had to make one for Mischief. I too sewed a loop on the end to hold and instead of squares of fabric I cut shapes. I cut two of each shape so we could do some shape and colour matching.

I made it some time ago but she's only really started shoung an interest recently. I did catch her showing it to Babbitt though.

She is getting better at buttoning now and although doing buttons up is still a bit hit and miss she is a dab hand at undoing them, usually on my clothes.

Credit where credit's due...

As you've probably gathered I'm very new to the world of homeschooling. As such I have to give credit to the two blog writers who have given me the inspiration to try and ideas to use. I stumbled across Counting Coconuts first when I was looking for some activities to do at home. This led me on to 1+1+1=1.

I find both these blogs really inspiring and my first turn to for ideas. So thanks ladies. I couldn't do it without you.

Tot Trays

We've got some new trays this month. I haven't been swapping them weekly as we don't spend as much time as I would like with them. This does mean Mischief hasn't got bored with them so I'm happy to leave them a bit longer.

Her favourite one contains these nesting hexagon trinket boxes. In the smallest I put some gold hearts as a surprise. She loves emptying them and putting them back together.

We did some transferring of pom poms with tongs into an icecube tray.

I thought this would hold her attention for longer than it did.

My friend leant me the Melissa and Doug clothes fastening puzzle. I though Mischief would love this as she is always doing our zips and buttons and poppers but although she played a little it wasn't a great hit.

I made some geo boards a while back and she's finally showing some interest. We revised the letter we have already learnt.

We have another tray with clear and blue glass pebbles. The idea is to sort them into tiny bucket, well that's the idea...Mischief likes upending them in the floor and scattering far and wide. Pic to follow.

That's about it for now as I don't seem to have pics for the others. Must try harder.

Reading

Mischief has always been in to her books but lately she's stepped that up a little. She really enjoys 'reading' to her teddies in the morning while I'm showering and often when we're reading together she'll ask to 'try reading it myself'.

We caught her reading this book and when I asked her which was her favourite page she showed us this one

'Viaduct like on holiday with Granny'.

Its so sweet.

School Room Update

We've been working hard on the school room the last few weeks. We've gradually got rid of bits and pieces and a friend donated a sofa bed so it's looking really good.

We still have a couple of mattresses to move out of there and we'll probably move the furniture round agian when we do but it's a nice space to work in now and Mischief often asks to 'do something in the school room'.

I used a pin board to display her work from the week and she loves showing daddy what she's done in a day.

Spring Sensory Tub

Our theme this month is Spring so I created a new tub. The base is of pinto beans, I love how most are beige with brown spots but some are brown with beige spots.

I added some hollow eggs, felt rabbits, chicks in nests, flowers, a squeaky nest from the letter lion, feathers, polystyrene eggs, fabric flowers, bows and stars and a Easter chick bucket with tongs. A few days later I added coloured butterfly beads.

She's asked to play with it a few times and is getting the hang of the tongs but I think she's still more interested in pouring and scooping on its own without the added extras. Still I'm pleased and she is taking an interest.

Letter A

This week was letter A. We don't seem to have been home much this week but I downloaded the Tot School Printable programme from 1+1+1=1 and presented it to her in her own folder. She enjoyed choosing which activites to do.

I think the favourite was letter stamping with my card making alphabet stamps.

She also actually had a go with the magnetic pom poms I made a few weeks ago. I'm sorry, I can't remember where I got the printables from. I've laminated them and use them with a baking sheet I used for Fimo.

We also did cut and paste a word sheets from Home School Creations. She's just learning how to cut and its fun and frustrating by turns.

Colouring and dot marking have been a big part but I might spend another week on the letter a as we still have quite a few activities to complete.

We also played with her alphabet box for Aa. In it we have an aeroplane, acorn, some amythest and an angel.

Magnetic Counting Fish

I saw these great counting fish on Counting Coconuts and just had to make a set for Mischief. I had a lot of fun (and no small amount of frustration) making them. Most bits I had lying around and only bought the washers, the magnets and the embroidery thread.

We had a good time choosing colours, embellishments and shapes. I re-learnt blanket stitch as I haven't done it since school. I stuffed them with shredded paper for a nice tactile feel and sound. I added the corresponding numbers to the reverse of the fish with a fabric pen to help number recognition.

She already loves playing with them but doesn't quite get the fishing rod and holds the stick in one hand and the magnet in the other, she then proceeds to collect as many as the fish as possible in one go. It is a hit though and is helping colour recognition as well as numbers.

Letter M

I looked into the Montesorri method of introducing letters and chose a plan with sets of letters. I modified it a bit so the first set would include the initials for mummy, daddy and Mischief and we started with M.

We made a mauve, maroon and magenta mosaic M, 

a macaroni M,

Dot stamping,

colouring,

made Ms on our geo board,

and M mazes,

This last truly amazed me (no pun intended) as I really thought it'd be beyond her. She pointed out all the Ms and 'coloured' most of them and then drew lines between the mouse and cheese.

We did some other colouring activities at the toddler group at Church but those are in the wall there.

We also listened to Mozarts Marriage of Figaro, Mendelssohn and mandolin music. When playing with the weather sensory tub we listened to rain and storms.

Thank you to 1+1+1=1, Learn Create Love and DotMarkerPrintables for the printables we used.