BRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!

Wow, what a contrast since our last blog! It's freezing out and it has us inside the house the beginning of this week! Monday we had no gymnastics since it was MLK day, and today-well, with wind chills this low there's no way we're going out!
Lots has happened since I visited our blog, so we'll try to sum it up the best we can....
In reading/writing we purchased a new phonics program. BabyGirl was getting bored and overwhelmed with the 100 easy lessons book and needed a big change. We found one that has wonderful songs and incentives that motivate her. She's excited to do a lesson each day, even though we really focus on every other day or so. (a goal we can achieve :) I'm hoping this will get her excited about reading more on her own. I can see where looking at a story 5 sentences long can be a bit consuming! So far, looks good. I've noticed so much lately that she will get out her note pad and pens, find a cozy spot to sit, and start writing poems and cards. Her penmanship has greatly improved, and she often will practice writing all the letters of the alphabet. She does all this without being prompted, and I'm so proud of her. I can't believe how well she can sit by herself and sound out words and write down how they sound to her. It's awesome! Our walls are absolutely becoming filled with her little creations. We do tons of reading each day and are already nearing the end of our Little House books again! She can't get enough of them!
In math we've practiced counting (we've now reached 40, and going beyond), patterns, dot to dots, graphing, sorting, pairs, and play math games daily. We introduced greater than, less than and equal as well as numerals. (we just touched on these with a brief intro which she dug) She loved the idea of the alligator eating up the larger set!
For science we've done some experiments with ice. We put ice on a plate, treated some with salt and then put food coloring drops on them. It was cool to see how the ice treated with salt created patterns with the coloring seeping down into the cracks. We also put 2 plates filled with equal amount of ice down to melt. We put one in the sun and one in the shade. Lastly we discussed which was heavier, ice or water. We dropped ice into glasses to watch it float. BabyGirl absolutely loves science experiments, and requests them almost daily. She loves to make her hypothesis and test to find the outcome! We also discussed temperature and reading thermometers during these ice units.
For geography we studied north, south, east and west. We learned how to put this information to use in reading maps and our globe. She did GREAT with this and immediately aced every question I gave her!
We did some social studies checking out different jobs people do each day. This was fun for her since we have a puzzle where you find the job and match it with the people. Anything to do with puzzles go off with a bang!
We've done tons of art...we can see it everywhere we look! :)
We're continuing with our Sesame Street Fire Safety program, and they are so much fun! There is a song, a story and sometimes a play to go with each lesson. Being the avid stuffed animal collectors we are (especially Muppet's!) we have all the characters and are able to bring the stories to life as we go along! So great!!!
Bits and pieces have fallen into place along the way as well....we've visited the dentist, helped our grandma around the house, started sewing with our new sewing machine, and so much more! Pretty much every day starts out with doing every jigsaw puzzle we own after breakfast. And pretty much every day ends with mom, dad and BabyGirl playing "go fish" until bedtime.
Today has turned into "let's fill the living room with all my barbie stuff!" We're having so much fun playing! Later we plan to paint our nails crazy colors and apply some new temporary tattoos. You know, what could possibly be better than this!!???!! Learning to let go and have fun is just as important as the other stuff! I know lots of people who could benefit from this little lesson! :) Until next time...