C is for Camping, Caterpillars, and Cousins!

We had a combination lesson day yesterday.  The previous day we had our gymnastics class and then we met our cousins at the zoo.  After the zoo she crashed for a three hour nap, woke up to eat dinner, and went back to bed for the night.  What a great day!  So I guess Wednesday's post should have been C is for crazy.

Yesterday we managed to get a few things done in the morning while I was getting ready for our family to come over and play.  First we used a bingo marker to mark the circles on a letter C.  This went ok.  Gooba did a combination dot and draw on the paper.

Next we used dry erase markers to color this caterpillar.  I tried with the blue marker to show her to draw in the circles.  She gradually got a little better with her control on this one.  I enjoy how she will concentrate really hard for about 30 seconds and then just yell out DRAW! and scribble all over the paper.  She cracks me up!

Next we colored a similar sheet with the letter C and a picture of a caterpillar.  Gooba was done concentrating on her coloring at this point and just scribbled over the while paper.  But she enjoyed herself, which is all that matters!

Then we, for some reason, worked more on marker control and tried to draw a line from the campers to the tent.  She seemed to at least get the concept on this one this time.  She was actually able to demonstrate some sort of marker control this time.  Oh how I love to see her grow!

After the writing control practice to attempted to draw some letters.  I drew one to demonstrate and she drew a little scribble and started cheering "I did it!"  So I clapped and she was done after that.

I love this one!  I handed her the magnets and the magnet page, on the wrong side of the magnet board - which I am just now noticing as I'm typing, and I turned away to wipe off the previous worksheet.  When I looked back she had started putting all the magnets on the circles without me even telling her what we were doing!  She does do better when I don't give her directions!

Next was Gooba's best activity - size sorting.  As usual she was awesome at this activity.  No problems here, large to small or small to large.

Next we worked on some patterns.  I find that when she has a longer pattern to finish, there is no problem.  She has a little trouble with a short pattern.  Needless to say, she had no problems with these patterns today.

She loved the next activity, which she has refused to do in the past.  I gave her a pattern card and a bunch of little cards and let her just go crazy.  She was very interested in the flashlights!  She actually played this for quite some time and even relocated it to the ottoman for awhile.

After that it was time for some real fun!  We set up a mini water park/campground extravaganza in the front yard.  We had a slip and slide which the toddlers LOVED!

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We set up a tent for a little bit of shade and to go with our camping theme.  Gooba very much loved having the tent set up.  It became some sort of obstacle course where they would run into the tent, through the slip and slide, and then dive into the baby pool.  Now that's some crazy cousin fun!  We also had some oven baked smores a little later for a snack to complete our camping theme.  All in all another wonderful day.









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

C is for Cupcake

We started today with another trip to Story Time at the local library.  I was so proud of Gooba today.  They start each Story Time out with the kids playing this little red drum and saying a little song that ends with them inserting their name.  Gooba, and the other kids, have been very reluctant to perform this activity during the first two Story Times.  Today Gooba played the drum while I said the song, and at the end of the song she said her name!  She also was a fantastic listener and even participated during the story!  For our craft today we made magic wands, an extra special treat for Gooba, wands are kind of her thing.  Another cute story, we have been calling our Story Time teacher Ms. Dot, only to find out today that her name is Ms. Di.  She told us "My name is actually Ms. Di, like Princess Di." Gooba's response "No, I'm the princess!"  Nice.

After Story Time we went to the park with our cousins - C for cousins!  After the park and lunch with Daddy we went home for a little bit.  Here's what we squeezed in during that little bit of time before going mini golfing and out for chicken and waffles!


First we read Camilla the Cupcake Fairy while we were going potty.  Then we read If You Give a Cat a Cupcake, a book we took out at the library.  I found a super cute song on Spell Out Loud that matches up with the book.  We sang the song and put the cute little cupcakes into the cute little cat can I made with the printables from Spell Out Loud.  We did this activity many times and counted the cupcakes. We also counted the cupcakes on the paper.





After we played with the cat and the cupcakes we painted a bottom and a top of a cupcake I cut out of construction paper.  We just painted it with washable paint and a brush.  When it was dry we glued the cupcake together and a put a cherry on the top.  We also added both letter C's onto our background paper.


So again today was kind of a lame learning day, but a super fun day with our family.  Tomorrow I expect more of the same since we are starting our day with gymnastics and then meeting our family at the zoo.  Yikes, having visitors makes me exhausted, and makes our house messy since we haven't been there!  I wouldn't have it any other way, family is so important and special to us we are loving every minute of having them here!

C is for Crab

So we finally made it to C week!  This week is going to be a hectic one!  Not only was C for crab yesterday, but C was also for... COUSINS!!  Gooba's cousins and my sister and brother-in-law are visiting from Connecticut!  Needless to say we have alot of activities planned this week, so we're going to try to squeeze in as much letter C as we can.  Yesterday we started out day with a trip to splash park!  Super fun for all the kids.  We also managed to fill in a few other activities before and after.  

 We managed to fit in some "heads and tooshies" matching cards with little crabs on them.  Gooba is really getting the knack of this game, no problems for her today!

After our crabby matching game we made this crab craft.  First, I cut out a letter C and some shapes.  Then Gooba glued them (with help) onto the blue paper and added her favorite googly eyes to make this cute letter C crab craft

The next craft we made is one of my favorites!  First I cut some yellow paper and glued it on the blue paper to look like sand.  Next I painted her hands, one at a time, with red paint and pressed them onto the paper with her thumbs pointed up.  After her handprints were dry I drew on the smile and Gooba glued on the googly eyes.

After the pool Gooba was ready for a snack so I made her this cute crab bagel with blueberries.  I got this idea from Meet the Dubiens.  Jill's is WAY cute than mine.  She also made her's a peanut butter bagel, but since ours was just a snack we used a mini bagel and I just put butter on it.  Still cute though!  Well, that's pretty much it for today, but still an awesome fun day!

Crab game cards borrowed graciously from Confessions of a Homeschooler