Zero/Red

I have decided, now that we have finished the alphabet, we are going to focus on colors and numbers for the remainder of the summer.  Using the posterboard I had up for our letter of the week, I made a "numbers" sign in our color of the week and using a picture of an egg carton we are going to focus on one number at a time.  This week we focused on red and zero (which was a nice transition from z).  Here is the poster:

Under the egg carton it says, "How many eggs?" 

And the strip of paper is stored under the egg carton picture 

in the black pocket.  It has the numeral plus the number word

written out.

We are going to make number books, one for each number just as we did for the letters/sounds.  

Gluing on the zero to the cover:

Tabitha is writing her name all by herself now.

How many ants are on the anthill?

Zero!

Our three page zero book

The last page asks how many grapes are on the vine.

We had a red scavenger hunt today. The girls had to find the pictures that I printed out on red construction paper and Steven hid.  I found pictures of: firetruck, apple, cardinal, strawberries, and a rose.

Then the girls colored additional pictures I printed out on white paper.  These were used for the red collage they made.

Tabitha's fine motor skills have come a long way.  

Tabitha's

Amelia's

One other thing I introduced combines fine motor skills with math.  I had a oblong basket that conveniently fit 6 Styrofoam balls I found at the thrift shop.  After lining them up in the basket and attaching numerals to the basket 

the girls are to use the paper towel roll to make the balls disappear, one by one.

moving the paper towel roll to the left as they go 

so the numeral corresponds to the number of balls.

When they are done, they have zero balls visible

I came up with this in the middle of the night, go figure.

Here is Tabitha trying it out. She really enjoys this activity.

Amelia wasn't as fond of it.

Wooo, letting them all fall back in.

A quick change of subject:

Some of you may be aware of my Words of Wisdom Wednesday meme that was started a few weeks ago.  I have done a little tweaking to make it what I really want it to be.  When I  write up my weekly post (like this one) I am going to include a thought provoking question for you to pose to your little ones if you choose to join in.  On Wednesday I will post Words of Wisdom Wednesday.  I will continue to include nuggets of imagination and chuckles that I overhear.  That will be the first part of the post.  Then I will share Tabitha's and possibly Amelia's answers to the question I posed the previous Friday.  Maybe you got a one word answer, or maybe a sentence.  Who knows?  Perhaps an entire dialog opened up.  Whatever the response, I invite you to share it in a post and link up.  Grab the Words of Wisdom Wednesday button and please link back to my post.

This weeks Words of Wisdom Wednesday question for you to pose to your little ones is:

How do we get dressed?

I am looking forward to seeing your children's answers.

To see what others are doing with their toddlers and preschoolers head on over to Homeschool Creations and 1+1+1=1

Words of Wisdom Wednesday: July 28th 2010

What strange, cute, insightful utterances have you heard your little ones say this week.  They always have something to say and I want to remember what my little ones have said years from now.  

Do you?   If you do, just write your post of what your child(ren) have said and link up below.  Don't forget to grab the button for Words of Wisdom Wednesday over on the left.

This is so cool. I actually have something cute to share that Amelia said.  I am getting so I can understand her more and more, so I believe you will be seeing both girls represented here.

7/26/10 

We were eating chili and every one in the family (besides me) likes to put saltine crackers in there chili.  After she crushed her cracker into the chili, Amelia said, "Skeeze it" (Squeeze it).  

7/23/10

Tabitha kept insisting that she was eating the toucan cereal or there were toucans in her cereal (couldn't tell which one and no we weren't eating Froot Loops we were eating Post Banana Nut Crunch.)

Amelia handed me a walnut saying she didn't want it.  Tabitha called it a "toucan."

I realized she meant pecan and explained pecans are in a different cereal, these were walnuts.

When Tabitha was working on forming her 3 letter phonetic words that I posted about here she came to the word "cut."  She sounded it out correctly and then she said if she added "e" it would be "cutie"  I explained it would need an "ie" and reminded her the "e" at the end was silent.

When we were eating baked ziti Krystal was trying to take Tabitha's ziti.  Of course Tabitha didn't want her to take it.  This is what she said:

"I like it cause I want it."

Reorganizing Montessori/Online Montessori Training Opportunity

Nicole over at One Hook Wonder hosts both Montessori Monday and Toddler Tuesday,  As I usually post about both girls together I will just link up to Montessori Monday as usual.

I have been changing up the shelf again because the girls have not been interested in the activities.  I was chatting with the lady who is the head teacher over at the Montessori where I worked.  I was trying to remember some of the different practical life and math work they have on the shelves.  I also found some more baskets at the thrift shop.  Still waiting on them to get some trays, but we are making do with what we can find.

Here is what is on our shelves now:

(Spooning pompoms, placing toothpicks in the shaker jar,

bottles and lids)
]

(Pasta pouring, One to one transferring with a 

strawberry huller)

The girls were really excited to use the pouring

(Amelia had been pouring the macaroni that was in the

spooning, so I figured I better get the pouring up.) 

 It took me so long to find some small pitchers.

Spooning (not new, just changed up)

Opening and closing jars and lids

This was their first time unrolling and rolling a mat.

Transferring objects/One to one corresponding

using the strawberry huller

Lesson on waiting your turn, respect and concentration

Not the correct way to put them back in the bowl,

but I had to take a picture!

This is our version of the movable alphabet.  I found the letters over at  Montessori Materials for free (I found the link at the Mommy Teach Me website) and printed them and contact papered them several months ago.  Then I cut slots in the egg carton to store them.  I cut a big piece of blue poster board down into 2 3/4 inch by 6 inch rectangles and wrote 3 letter phonetic words down.  We are only now getting them out and using them.  Tabitha has been so interested in forming/sounding out words.  

I am also very excited to share with you a Pre-primary Montessori training program for "teachers" of 2-6 year olds that I discovered at  Early Childhood Resources Portfolio .  It is a two year program that starts in August and the cost is $10 a month/or $150.00 if you pay in advance for the entire training.  The instructor, Karen Tyler, is very flexible. Here is a description of the training from her website:

World Wide Montessori Online course is for all the
teachers/parents that are trying to implement the
Montessori Method in their classrooms/home schools.
My objective is to help provide a working knowledge for
these wonderful people who find themselves in a
situation where they can't attend formal training at this
time.  By no means are my lessons to replace a
credentialed Montessori Teacher Training School.
However, upon finishing my 24 month course you will
receive a Certificate of Completion.  

 For further details, please visit Karen’s A Montessori Marketplace website and email any other question directly to her at Karen@aMontessoriMarketplace.com. Remember to state the subject as “Inquiry for August 2010 Session”.

Mamarazzi Monday: July 26th

Are you part of the Mamarazzi?

Are you a compulsive picture taker?

Do you stalk your family with a camera?

Well, you've come to the right place!

Mamarazzi Monday is hosted by Ann Marie from Household 6 Diva.  For some reason I didn't take a lot of pictures this week.  Then suddenly, picture opportunities were popping up all over the place today.  In fact, I wish I had had my camera with me when we took our walk around town.  At one point there was a cloud in front of the moon and it looked as if a huge wolf was opening wide to eat the moon.  Anyhow, here are the pictures I decided to share this week.

Amelia trying to put her sunglasses on:

Hannah with her new activity blanket:

Superbaby!!  I started playing this game 

with Tabitha when she was this age:

Amelia was having a blast playing and singing

I picked this picture because of her mouth shape:

Yes, Ann Marie.  Steven has taken 

some pictures of me:

In case you are wondering, I am "vine ripened!"  LOL!

And now for some contributions

from the "kidarazzi"!

Not sure why we have a picture of our computer

You'll have to ask Tabitha!

Technically, another one of me.

But this one is taken by Tabitha.

Amelia wanted to point out that the ceiling is the

least cluttered part of our house.  Oh, and those

are some of the projects from the beginning of 

the year before I was posting regularly.

Time once again for

Close up/Whole Picture

Close Up

Whole Picture

Close Up

Whole Picture

Close Up

Whole Picture

Anyone notice that Steven enjoys spending time with the baby?  Though I am not sure how much she appreciates being made to look like a monkey.

 I am linking this up to Momma's Favorites over at Monkey See Monkey Do.

And here are my favorite pictures of the week. 

Tabitha really enjoys doing projects.

She is really focused on coloring her peach for our 

fruit fly lifecycle book.

Okay, so I like taking pictures of feet.