Busy Busy Busy

I can't believe how fast time flies! It seems like I last visted this blog a week or so ago....I'm happy to report that means we are having way too much fun!!
We're continuing the phonics at least 3x weekly and have moved on to readers. BabyGirl LOVES reading and each time she finishes a book she yells AGAIN! AGAIN! ANOTHER ONE! It's so cool to see and hear as well as video tape! :) I'm so proud of her and have such a sense of accomplishment when I observe her successfully sounding out words and getting so excited with laughter when she reads something funny! What a feeling of independence it must be to her! I remember so well when the street signs, etc started jumping out at me. I read every one of them aloud, much to my fathers dismay... :) We're also working on sight words. BabyGirl does great with the comprehension questions at the end of the stories.
We are always counting everything! I'll be in the kitchen cooking and hear her sitting at the table counting something she's found. Today she was counting over 100! Yay! When she's relaxed just counting for leisure she makes little to no mistakes, so we'll continue to take it easy since that's when she flourishes. We've been continuing to work on reading the clock. This is also something she brought to my attention that she was interested in, not anything that was introduced to her. She's doing very well with it, and has mastered the hours. She's starting to grasp time concept, and we made a fun poster to introduce counting by fives. She also loves to play money/time bingo! We've discussed the concept of 1/2 by using some manipulatives. (she chose valentine candy :) She did great, and we're planning on playing that game lots more for practice. We got a comp game from the library that was suggested in my core knowledge book for math that we've also been enjoying. It's called James Discovers Math. It works with time, addition, subtraction, all shapes, etc. It's fun to work on together!
It's funny, going through this homeschooling adventure I try to take every day as it comes. Not get too freaked on on 'planned curriculum', etc. I notice that, as I stated above, BabyGirl requestes SO MUCH information on her own with no adult intervention. Working with art and manipulatives gets her so focused and excited about learning she just can't get enough. I like to let her take the lead and trust that we will go where we need to, and it is working beautifully so far. That being said, I was on the phone with my grandma the other day telling her about the math manipulatives game we had just played and how great it was and she actually said "Yeah, but this is the 'real world', BabyGirl is going to have to get used to doing things she doesn't like." OH MY GOD! I don't even have to tell you how that made me feel ! Thank goodness my daughter won't be forced into sitting in the back of a classroom like a zombie!
Okay, okay, off the box now...
We wound up our geography of Asia with hanging some chinese new year decorations and watching Mulan. We're actually making fortune cookies tonight or probably tomorrow since time is once again getting away from me. It should be awesome!
We've done tons of art (everyday!) and discussed warm/cool colors and what feelings they give us. BabyGirl created a wonderful masterpiece she calls "The Orchestra" using her favorites. I usually try to interate art into whatever we're learning that day. Like today, we studied Abe Lincoln for Presidents Day. We gathered sticks out of the yard and glued them on his log cabin. It really seems to concrete the ideas in her head. We got some great books on exploring different kinds/forms of art with children I'm looking forward to.
So far this week we've done George Washington and Abe Lincoln, we're planning on more.
We've got a wonderful ballet CD from our Auntie Candace that has the best songs from Swan Lake, Nutcracker, etc. We love to listen to it on a cold day and move however the music makes us feel. It came with a book that has pictures of the actual ballet along with the stories. BabyGirl totally digs this and it's such good exercise for us both! Today we actually did the same thing with an awesome rescource from the library. It was Carnival of the Animals narrated by John Lithgow. It was wonderful! John would read the narration from the ballet, then it would be followed by that animals song. It was so much fun to listen, look at the pictures, and then dance along pretending you were that animal! I highly recommend this one!!!!
We're continuing with gymnastics and have moved to the "big gym" into beginners. After sitting in on the parents night at kindernastics it was very apparent that poor BabyGirl had to sit on her star patiently waiting while most girls in her class were running around, yelling, mis-behaving, pretending to be puppies and 'licking' everyone (gross!). It was totally out of control in my opinion and the teacher didn't quite have a handle on any of it. It isn't fair that BabyGirl had to put up with that interrupting her learning, so we've moved up! It's great so far, and we LOVE our new teacher!
Dance is still great, as usual...and we're continuing our 2 playgroups weekly. And, of course, watching American Idol rooting for our faves. All in all we're having a blast and enjoying every second of our lives. Until next time....
:) Once again, I cant get spell check to work, so please excuse any errors, I dont have much time to work on this.... :)