D for Dinosaurs

The letter of the week was D and the theme was dinosaurs. Once again, we had a very busy week. I have a feeling this will be the norm. Monday we talked about D and read a book called, "Dinosaurs Big and Small." We did a color activity that I had planned for the previous week, but didn't get to do. I put shaving cream in ziplock bags and let Sawyer put food coloring in the bags and smush it all around to make red, blue, and purple shaving cream. I was going to let him finger paint with it, but he wasn't too interested in doing that. He just wanted to smush it in the bags and that was fine with me.
Tuesday I had Sawyer color a color by letter picture of a dinosaur. It had Ds on it and I told him to color all of the D's green. He liked naming the different letters and coloring the pic although he didn't keep it in the lines.
Wed. we read a book about dinosaur bones and put a dinosaur puzzle together. He painted a plate and I cut it in the shape of a dinosaur. I found the pattern here.


Sawyer chose to make the flying dinosaur and paint it purple. I know it looks a little bit like a bird.
I don't even remember what if anything we did on Thursday. I kept his friend, Bobby again and he wasn't feeling very good, so I just tried to keep all of the boys happy. Then Jaxon started running a fever that evening.
Yesterday we went to the doctor and I told Sawyer that d is for doctor. I asked him what other words started with d. He remembered daddy starts with d and then he said "Dax starts with D." He has a hard time with his J sound, so he pronounces it with a d. I guess he was right that dax starts with d, but I had to tell him that his brothers name is Jax, not dax. I helped him make a dorothy dinosaur with a toilet paper tube. I found this activity here.

Cows

Friday, we went on a little field trip. Aunt Jessica asked us if we wanted to go to the stockyards. It was a perfect end to our C week. We saw cowboys, a cattle drive, and got to sit on a cow named Big Jake.

C is for Crazy

The letter of the week is C. Crazy is not really our theme, but we have been so busy this week that we haven't had much time for our lessons. We have been talking about colors this week. Tuesday we reviewed the letter c and then read a book called "Cat's Colors". Sawyer was at his friends house all morning, so we did this when I picked him up. When he woke up I had a little activity and snack idea that I got from Shandra's blog. I had him sort fruit loops and then the plan was for him to string them and eat them. He sorted them all by himself really well, but the yarn was to thick to string them. He didn't want to eat them, so I just threw them away. It was the first time I had ever bought sugary cereal. He usually eats plain cheerios, so he didn't care for the fruit loops. I guess that is a good thing.


Wednesday I had a friend over in the morning. When she left we read a book about a rainbow and talked about the colors in a rainbow. I let him paint a rainbow. He made quite a mess! Usually I try to do the crafts when Jax is sleeping, but he was awake this time. He was on the floor pulling things out of the cabinet and I thought he was fine, until I saw that he was sucking on the red paint jar. He was testing to make sure it really was non toxic.


Today Sawyer's friend, Bobby came over. They are just a few days apart in age. His mom and I switch off keeping each other's kids and today was my day to watch Bobby. They played together most of the morning. I read them a book about colors while they ate a colorful snack of strawberries, blueberries, and green grapes. Then I let them glue colored shapes to a clown.

I am not really sure what we will do tomorrow. I had an idea involving shaving cream and food coloring that I wanted to try. We will just have to see how the day goes.

B for Butterfly

Yesterday Sawyer worked on an alphabet puzzle in the morning. I was surprised that he knew almost all of his letter sounds and most of the letter names. He has been watching The Leap Frog Letter Factory since last week and has picked up all of his sounds. I am so proud of him. He sings the song all the time.
Yesterday Sawyer glued beans to a picture of a butterfly to make a mosaic. He also colored B word pictures and I glue them to index cards.
Today was Friday and we didn't do too much. I was out of ideas and tired from the week. He loves that alphabet puzzle though and played with it all day. I took the boys to target today and before I got them out of the car Sawyer pointed and said "look mommy, T says t and A says a." Then he asked if the G was a Q. Not bad considering a week ago all he knew was s and o.

B is for bugs

This week I introduced letter B. We talked about the b sound and words that start with b. Monday we sang Baby Bumblebee and Here is a beehive. Sawyer painted a picture of a beehive and I helped him make Bees with his fingerprints. He painted 5 and I wrote the words to the rhyme on the picture. It is one of his favorites because I always tickle him at the end.


Here is a beehive
Where are the bees?
Hiding inside where nobody sees.
Watch them come out of the hive.
1 2 3 4 5
I read him a book about bees and talked about how they make honey. For snack I let him squirt honey on his crackers. Jax isn't one yet, so he just had crackers.
When I was at the dollar tree on Monday, I found a sticker book with bug crafts and stickers, so I got it. Can't beat $1. Anyway on Tuesday I helped Sawyer make a bumblebee. We sang a song and looked at a book about ants called The ants go marching on. I know ants starts with A, but it is a bug. He made a butterfly out of stickers that he got at a party this weekend. We had good luck with the whole B for bug theme. When the boys were napping I cut out B's and put them all around the house on things that start with B like baskets, bookshelf, bread, etc. When Sawyer woke up he went around the house looking for B's. I had to keep Jax from getting them and ripping them up, but it was fun.
He also got butterfly clappers at the party, so I let the boys clap them during music this morning. They liked that a lot.
Today I read a book called "The Best Bug Parade" It teaches big, bigger, biggest. We practiced putting things in order like balls, blocks, and animals from big, bigger, to biggest. Then I would show Sawyer 3 objects and ask him which is the biggest or smallest? He did alright with this. He could usually tell me the biggest, but had trouble putting them in order so we will work on this again sometime. Today I had him cover a letter B with blue paper and bug stickers. He was more interested in wearing the stickers than putting them on his paper.

A is for Apple

We started with the letter A last week. We talked about capital A and lower case a and it's sound. Even Jax had fun saying a, a, a.
He participates is circle time by dancing and trying to grab everything out of my hand. Circle Time is 10 minutes max. I am finding that I spend more time planning than we actually spend on each activity, but that's ok. The boys are so young and I can't expect to keep their attention for very long. Jaxon is 11 months today and Sawyer is 2 years and 5 months.
Monday I cut open an apple and we looked at all the parts. We counted the seeds and then we painted red apple prints and glued the seeds on it. Sawyer also colored picture of an ape eating an apple.

Tuesday we sorted green, yellow, and red paper apples. I then had Sawyer glue seeds on the apples. I numbered the apples 1-5 and he glued that number of seeds on each apple. At snack time he sorted real apples and tasted apples of each color. He said red was his favorite. In the morning we read a story about creation and talked about how God made everything including fruit. Before nap I read him a story about Adam and Eve.

On Wednesday we read a book called "The Apple Pie Tree" and then we painted hand apple trees. Sawyer really likes painting. He likes wearing his paint shirt.

Thursday we read a book about the seasons of an apple tree and did a craft about the life cycle of an apple tree.

Friday was a little bit chaotic around here. I planned to let Sawyer help me make sugar cookies and cut them into shapes of apples, but it just didn't happen, so I made the cookies when the boys were napping and he helped me ice them. We took some to our favorite teachers, Daddy, LuLu, Happy, and Aunt Jessica, to tell them to have a great year. Happy can't have sugar so we took him an apple and the apple tree picture Sawyer made. He was really proud of himself and the things he created this week.

Can you tell which cookie Sawyer painted?

Weekly Lessons

I decided to start doing mini lessons each day with the boys. We are focusing on a letter and a theme for each week. I have been taking lots of pictures and I wanted somewhere to organize these pics, so I decide to start a blog. This blog is for me, so that I can remember the activities we do together. So far it is going well. We have "circle time" every morning where we sing, talk about stuff, and do little activities. Then, usually during Jaxon's morning nap, Sawyer and I do a craft together. I guess we will see how well I do at keeping this blog up.