B is for Ballerinas

 Today was a wonderful summer day!  We started our day with an enormous breakfast, a quick trip to Walmart for some pool toys, and then a wonderful trip to the pool with Gogo and Pop.  After splashing and "swimming" around the pool we went to Daddy's restaurant for a visit and some lunch.  Then we got home and snuggled down for a little nap and some TV time in the big bed with Mommy.  Ahhhhh lazy summer days!

 Once we were done being lazy Gooba actually asked if we could play with some cards...awww yeah!  So since today was going to be ballerina day anyways which I was happy to postpone, we busted some stuff out and got a few things done!  First we started with pattern cards which she rocked yesterday and was still pretty awesome at it today.  These were a bit trickier, but still fun.

 Our next card game, which is now a classic favorite in our house, was size sorting.  For some reason, Gooba continues to LOVE sorting things by size.   These cards were a bit trickier as well today.  There were several sizes, but they were all very close in size to each other.  Nevertheless, she was able to sort them from largest to smallest and from smallest to largest with no problem.  We played this game a lot!

Our next card game was sorting the capitol and lowercase letters.  Yesterday I realized Gooba had trouble understanding the difference between B and bee, but had no trouble with B and butterfly.  She apparently has no trouble with B and ballerina bears either.  She was able to complete this activity with absolutely no problems.  In fact she completed it so fast that when she placed the last card she yelled "done!"  I didn't know we were racing!  Go Gooba!

Our next activity was a color matching card game.  Gooba thought this game would be much better if she used her magnifying glass and her binoculars.  As usual she was fantastic at her color matching.  It's so fun to see her rock out at the same activities time after time.  She is just so sweet and special!  I love when she adds her own little special touches to our activities, sometimes I'm not sure who is teaching who!

Next we did some coloring.  Gooba loves coloring, but is very much a scribbler.  She also loves to use the black and brown crayon or marker.  First we colored a B is for ballerina coloring page.

 Then we used the dry erase markers to try and color the letter B.  Don't get too excited from the photo, I colored the lowercase b to try and show her what to do!  She did a little better today attempting to stay on or near the letters.  She also changes which hand she uses quite often; she is definitely way better and controlled with her right hand, but uses her left hand a lot as well.

Next we tried doing some writing practice sheets.  This, as you can see, turned into scribblefest.  I tried helping her by holding her hand, but that did not go over well.  I tried getting my own marker to show her how to trace the lines, and she put the cap back on and took my marker away.  So I let her just have it and she colored all over the paper with lots of different colors.  The most important thing was that she was having a blast coloring.  She'll get it eventually.  Another opportunity for Mommy to watch her grow!

Gooba was really into the coloring today, so we took out the B tracing page.  She worked on this page a lot today.  For a short time she actually tried to color on top of the letters before she just went crazy with it.  She was clapping at one point and yelling "I'm writing a B!" So the intention was definitely there.  We have some cute ballerina crafts and a few left over things to do over the weekend, but all in all I think we got a lot of things done today considering we spent the entire morning shopping and at the pool.







Printables graciously borrowed from 1+1+1=1 and Confessions of a Homeschooler.

B is for MORE Bugs!

 Today was another bugtastic day!  We got together again with Stay at Home Adventures, but this time at their house, and it was a hot one!  Today we got up to a super humid 97 degrees...Gooba was a little sweat ball by the time we got home.


Our first activity was digging in the dirt, always a winner with Gooba, and deciding if the creature we found was a bug or not a bug.  Mostly the girls enjoyed digging in the dirt, so we let Bro Bro sort the creatures and count how many we had of each.

 The next activity was super fun and a water activity, which definitely helped with the heat.  As bug exterminators we filled up little water guns and tried squirting each other.  If you got hit with the water you had to wiggle wiggle wiggle and fall to the ground like a bug.  We did not so much understand the wiggle, but we sure did enjoy squirting the car!  The car did not understand wiggling either.

When we had exterminated all of the bugs with our water guns, we filled the water with bottle top bugs.  The kids had to fish them out with their little strainers and place them in the hoop that matched the color.  The girls were fantastic at this activity!  They matched all of their colors perfectly and loved playing with the strainers.  In fact Gooba kept taking the "bugs" out of the hoops and putting them back in the water to fish more out.

Next, and very appropriate for our super hot day, was the frozen bugs.  Pretty Girl's Mommy had frozen three bugs into three blocks of ice.  The kids had to spray the blocks of ice with warm water and try to pick out the bugs.  I'm not sure what worked better, the 97 degree heat or the warm water.   Either way, the kids still had fun.

After freeing the frozen bugs we moved on to attacking bubble bugs with fly swatters.  Since I was the one blowing the bubbles, I didn't get a picture of this one... sorry!  Essentially we blew a bunch of bubbles and the kids ran around the yard whacking them with fly swatters.  A good time for all!

Craft Time!  All I have is a finished product picture of this one since it was pretty hands on, but they turned out great!  First we used Dot Painters to paint a paper plate.  This was a great time for the girls to practice their colors and their manners.  When they were done painting we cut their plates and attached the body that Pretty Girl's Mommy cut out the night before.  We taped the body to the wings and taped on pipe cleaners for antennae.  Then they chose and glued on their own googly eyes.



The next craft was another super cute one.  We turned red socks inside out and filled them with beans, tied the top and rolled the extra over the knot.  We added some black dots, and voila instant beanbag ladybugs!

We then took our ladybugs and placed them in a sheet to make a make shift parachute and just went crazy!!!!  Gooba was very good at this since we have now played parachute at both Story Time and Gymnastics.  And frankly, she's just great at going crazy in general, it's kind of her thing!

 

Finally we were on to our last craft of the day... notice how all the outside activities were at the beginning before the heat got too bad!  Gooba really liked this one, so again I only have a finished product picture.  We cut out a butterfly shape and placed it on contact paper.  Then we added a few pieces of ribbon, cut the extra contact paper and stuck them on the window!  Gooba is super proud of this one and showed it several times to Daddy.







When we got home we decided to work on a few of our butterfly activities.  The first one was one of her favorites, size sorting.  This time we had many Daddy, Mommy, and Baby cards.  We sorted them by size and then counted how many of each we had.

 The next one made me smile.  Earlier in the week really struggled with sorting the bee B's so I thought we would try to sort some butterfly B's.  She had absolutely no problem with this today.  In fact, even our bear we made yesterday helped a little bit.  She insisted I take bear's picture since he helped so much.  Then I realized that she was just mega confused by the whole B bee thing.  Probably shouldn't have started the week with those!

Next we tried something new, some pattern cards.  Gooba was freakishly awesome at finishing these patterns.  She continues to surprise me with what she knows.  She was also pretty excited about this activity if you couldn't already tell from the picture.

 After the 30 seconds that it took us to make patterns we moved onto "heads and tooshies" even though they were technically right and left wings.  Even Chance got in on the fun with this one.  Gooba continued to rock at this game.





Finally, as if we hadn't accomplished enough today, we ended the day with some magnets.  All in all we had another fabulous friend day and learned a lot in the process.  Tomorrow we hope to squeeze in some ballerinas and some pool time with Gogo and Pop as well!









Printables borrowed graciously from Confessions of a Homeschooler and Making Learning Fun

B is for Bears

Today's lesson was all about bears!  We started the morning out by sorting and counting little bears.  We had some little fuzzy ones and some plastic colored bear counters.  We counted the types of bears and how many of each color we had.  Then Gooba had fun sorting them in her trays and using the "clapper catcher" to move them from container to container

The next activity was the biggest hit of the day so far, besides gymnastics class, size sorting.  Gooba just LOVES to classify things by families or size.  Every time we use size cards there's a daddy, a mommy, a big brother, a little sister, and a baby.  We add grandparents in if there are more cards.  On the upside, she is fantastic at sorting things by size.  We played this several times and she got them in the right order every time.

Today we also worked on making the letter B with Bendaroos.  The last time we did this activity we were new to Bendaroos so Gooba was uninterested in making any type of letter.  This time she actually tried putting the Bendaroos on the dotted lines on the paper.  She was not great at this but the effort was definitely there today.



After we were done with Bendaroos we were off to our gymnastics class or "tastics" and Gooba calls it.  I was proud of her today, she was much more confident and adventurous and played with some of the other kids for a little bit as well.  I'm looking forward to how much she will be able to do by the end of the twelve week lessons.

When we got home from gymnastics we had some lunch and worked on our Melissa and Doug Bear Family puzzle.  We got this puzzle for Christmas this past year and Gooba has been a big fan ever since.  She was disappointed today that the Daddy pajama pants are missing and we spent a good 15 minutes looking for them with no such luck.  She does love to put every bear in their pajamas.... hopefully it will turn up.

After puzzle time we snuggled up and read a few stories and now Gooba is down for her nap.  I'm hoping to get started on some bear muffins while she is sleeping and hopefully when she wakes up we can make a bear craft.

After our nap Gooba decided it was time for some art projects.  The first thing we did was finger paint two paper plates for the bear craft below.  While that was drying Gooba was finally into coloring for the first time since we started school.  And we colored ALOT!  I bought some washable markers the other day and she was all about it.

After dinner our paper plates were finally dry and we were able to add the construction paper arms, legs, ears, and face.  Also we got to add Gooba's favorite part.... the googly eyes!


All in all we had a very great bear day.  Looking forward to more bugs and butterflies tomorrow at our play date with Stay at Home Adventures.





Printables borrowed graciously from 1+1+1=1 and Confessions of a Homeschooler.

B is for Birds

Today we continued with the letter B.  We did not do as much stuff as we normally do today since it was Story Time at the library.  Again Gooba had a blast at Story Time and enjoyed, but not more than me, picking out some new books for this week.  We read last weeks books approximately four hundred million times each.

Anyways before we left for Story Time we worked on one of our magnet pages.  Gooba was mostly interested in playing with magnets today instead of placing them in the circles.  Oh well.

We moved on from circles to coloring a letter B printable.  She was not a fan of having me show her how to hold the marker.  This seems to be a constant theme in my blogging I've noticed!  We worked on this for a little while and then she decided it was time to finish breakfast.

 While we were finishing breakfast I managed to squeeze in another activity.  We got out our birds and birdhouses sorting cards.  First we identified the letter B in both of those words and then we sorted the little cards.  I continue to be so amazed at how fast she can complete an activity when she is trying to get rid of me.  It's the same with eating, using the potty, and now school.  She'll poke along and pretend she doesn't know what's she's doing, then all of a sudden, boom we're done.  Smart and stubborn just like her.....  ;)


After we sorted and crammed the rest of our breakfast in our mouths we got dressed for the day and headed to Story Time.  Today's Story Time theme was nap time (lol) and I have found that Gooba will sit and listen to me read her a story for hours on end, but when someone else is reading she enjoys running around the room and yelling "I love dancing!"  She was great however at the music and dancing activities.  She's such a nut!




After we returned home from the library it was time for a much needed lunch.  After lunch I told Gooba I was going to paint her feet and we were going to make a bird craft.  She freaked out and started crying.  Once she calmed down, I told her I was going to tickle her feet with the paintbrush and she seemed intrigued.  Once I put one drop of paint on her foot she kept saying... "More feet paint Mommy!"  Yeah.... Mommy knows what she likes.

So even though it was bird day, Gooba insisted that we continue with the "feet painting" so we decided to make some butterflies since they also begin with B and were on our list of things to do this week anyways.  I think all of the foot paintings came great today.  I tried with the birds to put her foot down on the paper, but had much more success holding the paper on a piece of cardboard and pressing her foot on the paper while she remained seated.  MUCH better detail on the "feets" as Gooba would say!  After our painting adventure we read two new books from the library and went of to nap.  Hopefully we can squeeze in some pattern cards and play doh birds after nap!

 Okay after nap we managed to squeeze in some play doh fun time!

The two on the left are examples of the ones I made to show Gooba what to do.  She was highly intrigued, mostly because of the googly eyes.

The two pictures on the right are Gooba intently focused on the play doh.  Finally, below is her masterpiece!  She did this one all by herself without any help from Mommy.

Printables today again graciously borrowed from 1+1+1=1 , Confessions of a Homeschooler, and Making Learning Fun.