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 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.