School Daze - end of August 2010

Braeden is 12.5 Months and Ryleigh is 40 Months

This was our week before we "officially" begin Tot School for Braeden and Preschool for Ryleigh... the goal next week is to actually start the curriculum for this year and include circle time and the alphabet crafts (lowercase this time)...

New in Braeden's world this week: at the beginning of the week he took one step unassisted, and figured out how to stand up without pulling himself up on something. Today he started....gasp...walking... I do love the weeble wobble stage to walking...

Cuteness in Ryleigh's world this week: During one of Braeden's naptimes, Ryleigh and I laid down on my bed to watch a Winnie the Pooh Movie..and to snuggle... I promptly fell asleep... when I woke up I found that she had tucked me in with baby Elmo (who had been changed into sleeping gear), her sippy cup filled with water, and been covered with one of her blankets...

This week I had the girls practice their cutting skills...
this worksheet was from Confessions of a Homeschooler..

We also played a number matching game with magnetic numbers I bought at the Target dollar spot. Each girl had a set of numbers from 0-9 and I randomly picked numbers out of a bag to see who could match them first. (We went through the set of numbers twice, so that each girl matched all her numbers.)I also had them do straw painting (blowing into a straw to paint). I was reminded of the idea when I read the Activity Mom's Blog...The girls liked this project a lot... I added water to the paint to make it a little easier to move...

We worked on our numbers with our number cards and clothespins...

Braeden loves to put small objects into containers...like his farm magnets in his hamper...well Monday...right before I had a house full of people over for music class... he put a shape shaker into the toilet...just as Ryleigh had started to flush it...I was maybe a step behind...but it was too late... long story short... the toilet had to be removed to retrieve the shaker...(and fix the toilet...)... the next day he tried to put a remote in the other one... YIKES!!!!
During a quiet time (Braeden nappy time) Ryleigh and I played this I Spy memory game. I really like it (and so does she) because the objects are slightly different that you have to match up...like one might be a silhouette... she does really well with this one...

Braeden got to play with a new toy (it had gears that moved...obviously he loved it)...

It kept his attention for awhile because he liked putting the gears on and taking them off...

And stacking them together...

While Braeden was playing with his gear toy, Ryleigh worked on her alphabet...matching discs that I made... (I took scrap book stickers - 2 sets- and made them un-sticky...making the perfect sturdy alphabet discs)

She also worked on shapes and sizes...from a workbook that I bought at the dollar store last year...we just put them in the page protectors so we can reuse them over again....with the dry erase markers...

The girls also made pumpkin muffins this week (the mommies favorite!)...
great for fine motor skill practice...and listening/following directions ....

Braeden and Juliette sharing a drum stick while the girls made muffins...

The girls also experimented with mixing colors. I gave each one the 3 primary colors plus white and had them try and mix certain colors.

They also played Alphabet match (similar to the number match from the beginning of the week), only here the girls each got 8 letters - so everyone had different letters to be on the lookout for.

To see what others did this week check out Tot School at 1+1+1=1; Preschool Corner at Homeschool Creations; and the Weekly Wrap-up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.