School Time: Week 13

Not the most productive week. We started out with Muffin Tin Monday of course. Can you guess the theme?

And spent some time making music:

I pulled this out today while she was sitting on the floor.  She really enjoys hitting the keys and making music.

Then we worked on our Advent Countdown Calendar Tree.  This is actually a miniature version of the tree I used with the older children after their dad left me.  Originally it was made out of 5 sheets of poster board (the big ones, the 5th one was cut in half and taped to the bottom) taped together onto which I painted a tree. We used in in place of a real tree. 

For this version I cut a tree out of green paper, glued on a star and colored a stump.  I gathered up old Christmas cards for the girls to use to cut out ornaments.

Okay, so I couldn't get them to stay still, this was the best shot I could get.

Of course then I decided I wanted to section off the days left til Christmas so it would be easier to know where to cut (with the original I just cut where I thought would work).  So the girls needed to re-attach the ornaments.  This time I had them place one in each section so they could take turns taking ornaments off so I could cut.

If you look carefully you will see we have cut the first section off leaving 23 days til Christmas in the above picture.  A second picture is underneath the tree, the children will not know what it is until we remove enough of the sections.  The older children already know because it is the same as before.

I got the idea years ago from a Christmas card I saw.  As you turned pages the branches were falling off the tree, leaving a pile behind and unveiling a cross.  As I mentioned, we used this instead of a tree. So on Christmas morning we were opening our presents under the cross, not a Christmas tree.  

I also decided it was time to put our weather duck to use.  He's been attached to our living room window, not really accessible.  I decided to bring him into the dining room next to the school table.  

Just wish the accessories would stay on better.

I have been very unstructured this week.  The one day, Tabitha decided to draw a picture of herself (she's the one on the left with all the hair).  

Then SHE wrote this sentence under the picture:

translation: man came to Tabitha. She actually started Tabitha on the bottom line with the rest of the sentence (note the T, A bottom right) then she realized she wouldn't be able to fit the whole word so I suggested she write her name above it.  After she wrote this, she then drew the man (figure on the right).  She said, "The man is walking side by side to me." I offered to write it for her.  As there was no room we wrote it on the facing page.  Then she drew a flower being held by her, I believe.  Later, when daddy was up, we found out the man was daddy.

Tiny Tot Time

Some Baby Signing Time:

Hannah spends a lot of time sitting on the floor now.  I surround her with soft toys in case she falls over, which happens less and less often.  She really enjoyed the Teddy Bear Teddy Bear soft book the other day.  She had right a hold of the interactive teddy bear that you can make jump up and down on the bed.

 Wasn't as fond of the Baby Panda book.  There weren't as many things to grab a hold of.

I love the Teddy Bear Teddy Bear book.  Here are the lines it uses:

Teddy Bear Teddy Bear touch your nose (you can move the paw to touch the nose)

Teddy Bear Teddy Bear touch your toes (you can lift the legs up to the paws so they can touch)

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear turn around (the teddy bear spins)

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear up and down (stuffed little bear is attached to a ribbon so it will move up and down on the bed).

Teddy Bear Teddy Bear tucked up tight (the blanket folds up)

Teddy Bear Teddy Bear say good night.

She loves to play with the big white bear too:

She kept moving, so this was the best picture I could get.

I'm am linking up to