The last week of Sights and Sounds of Winter was Light and Dark. We did really bad this week at doing school time, but had a lot of fun with some of the activities. Since it was Christmas Vacation the older girls were home, and Michael had an extra day off, and Hadlee was here, so routine was completely, 100% out the window. Like house destroying, sleep weird hours, eat weird hours and go places at weird times out the window. But that is a story for another post!
I tried to do one day of school with him, but we never made it past Circle Time! We did calendar and then I don't know what happened but that was it! Despite our lack of organized activity I would say this was a very fun week with Mother Goose Time.
We only did activities twice, but we did a lot of them, and read all the books off the reading list.
Michael took the girls over to his mom's house, so that I could organize the toy room (another post for that!) and before I put Little Guy down for nap I read him the books and we did a few quick activities from various days.
First was Singing Stars, where Mother Goose Time wanted to have the kids listen to the sounds that stars make, but since my computer wasn't on, we moved on to the singing part. They supplied a poster with the lyrics to Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, and we were supposed to cover up the last word of one of the rhymes, but since Little Guy can't read I thought that was a little unnecessary, so I just sang it through and stopped at the last word of each line. He was a pro at this, and sang along with me, always picking up where I left off.
Next we played Winter Would You Rather. We set out the Would You Rather Chart, each picked a star counter, and then we started playing. First I picked a question, then laid out the corresponding pictures (for example the question: would you rather have an owl in your drum or a mouse in your teapot? would have used the owl and mouse pictures) and asked Little Guy the question. He put his counter in the correct column and then I had him ask me the question and I did the same. For an extra challenge you could ask the reason behind his choice, which I did a couple of times. He gave nonsensical answers, like he would rather have an owl in his room than a drum because owls say "who, who", but two year olds are not known for excellent logic.
Last on that day we did Winter Solstice. First we acted out our bedtime routine really quickly (it was rapidly approaching nap time), then we got out our Winter Solstice Strips (starry paper strips in different lengths) and lined them up from longest to shortest. The instructions said to do them shortest to longest but apparently I wasn't reading very thoroughly, so we did them opposite. He did pretty well at this, and knew which ones were bigger and which were littler, but had a hard time using all of them without getting messed up. He would put one down in the right place but then have to move it because he found one that needed to go there.
We had a lot of fun just jumping around doing quick easy activities together without a lot of formality. It isn't my ideal approach to school, but it worked well for this hectic season. I know he is only two and doesn't NEED formal school time, but I think it is good for him and good for me to make it a priority.
The next day that we did Mother Goose Time we also jumped around, but this time we included the girls (6,9, and 11) which was pretty fun. They are obviously quite a bit older than the intended age group and I had to remind them a few times that when I asked a question I actually wanted Little Guy to answer, not them, but we all had a lot of fun playing together.
Winter Star Circle was great. We were provided a poster of the Winter Circle star grouping and talked a little about stars and constellations. Then we set up a similar circle on the floor with the Star Counters. All the kids lined up and waited for a turn and I gave them sets of instructions like "touch your nose, walk around the circle, then lay down" that they followed before going back in line. I always gave multi step directions and I thought Little Guy would struggle but he did really well at following all of them. He also waited in line very patiently.
Winter Bingo was a pretty big hit, but then who doesn't like Bingo? Each of the kids got a bingo card, then I gave them scrap papers to use as markers. I was the caller and drew the cards for them to match to their Bingo cards. Little Guy did awesome matching the pictures and knew what all of them were.
Bedtime Stories was such a fun review! We got out the Concept Builder Cards that reviewed the concepts (letters, numbers, color, and shape) we were working on this month. Then we got a blanket and I gave Little Guy a card, he told me what was on it and then "tucked it in to bed". He told me what all the concepts were as soon as he saw the card, and told me something about what we had done with them when prompted. He didn't do a super great job taking turns with the girls in the second round, and they ended up letting him help them a lot, but overall a success!
Night Sight was a word family game we all played. We took turns rolling a letter cube and using that letter to create "-at" words, then matching it with a word or picture. The girls did super great at this one, and helped him to much, but he did identify all the beginning sounds, and even sounded out "cat" although I don't know if it was intentional!
The last activity - Winter Dress Up - was so fun for everyone, even if it was a bit of a bust intellectually. We talked about what we wear in the winter, then got out a coat, hat, and scarf and set it in the middle of our circle. After I found the die we took turns rolling it. If you rolled a four you put on all the winter gear and wore it until someone else rolled a four. It was ridiculous, and super fun. We were all laughing a LOT!
This week was COMPLETELY unorganized, but super fun. We did at least half of the activities and got to include the girls. Despite the fun of our chaotic week, I am really looking forward to getting into a daily routine where we include Mother Goose Time everyday and stay on track so we get to use all the wonderful stuff that Mother Goose Time gives me free of charge in exchange for sharing our pictures (which I mostly forgot to take this week...) and experiences. My opinion is not influenced by the freeness of the curriculum!
I tried to do one day of school with him, but we never made it past Circle Time! We did calendar and then I don't know what happened but that was it! Despite our lack of organized activity I would say this was a very fun week with Mother Goose Time.
We only did activities twice, but we did a lot of them, and read all the books off the reading list.
Michael took the girls over to his mom's house, so that I could organize the toy room (another post for that!) and before I put Little Guy down for nap I read him the books and we did a few quick activities from various days.
First was Singing Stars, where Mother Goose Time wanted to have the kids listen to the sounds that stars make, but since my computer wasn't on, we moved on to the singing part. They supplied a poster with the lyrics to Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, and we were supposed to cover up the last word of one of the rhymes, but since Little Guy can't read I thought that was a little unnecessary, so I just sang it through and stopped at the last word of each line. He was a pro at this, and sang along with me, always picking up where I left off.
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| Singing Stars |
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| Winter Would You Rather |
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| Playing Would You Rather. Despite the words that clearly said "violin", he was certain it was a cello because it didn't have a bow. |
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The next day that we did Mother Goose Time we also jumped around, but this time we included the girls (6,9, and 11) which was pretty fun. They are obviously quite a bit older than the intended age group and I had to remind them a few times that when I asked a question I actually wanted Little Guy to answer, not them, but we all had a lot of fun playing together.
Winter Star Circle was great. We were provided a poster of the Winter Circle star grouping and talked a little about stars and constellations. Then we set up a similar circle on the floor with the Star Counters. All the kids lined up and waited for a turn and I gave them sets of instructions like "touch your nose, walk around the circle, then lay down" that they followed before going back in line. I always gave multi step directions and I thought Little Guy would struggle but he did really well at following all of them. He also waited in line very patiently.
Winter Bingo was a pretty big hit, but then who doesn't like Bingo? Each of the kids got a bingo card, then I gave them scrap papers to use as markers. I was the caller and drew the cards for them to match to their Bingo cards. Little Guy did awesome matching the pictures and knew what all of them were.
Bedtime Stories was such a fun review! We got out the Concept Builder Cards that reviewed the concepts (letters, numbers, color, and shape) we were working on this month. Then we got a blanket and I gave Little Guy a card, he told me what was on it and then "tucked it in to bed". He told me what all the concepts were as soon as he saw the card, and told me something about what we had done with them when prompted. He didn't do a super great job taking turns with the girls in the second round, and they ended up letting him help them a lot, but overall a success!
Night Sight was a word family game we all played. We took turns rolling a letter cube and using that letter to create "-at" words, then matching it with a word or picture. The girls did super great at this one, and helped him to much, but he did identify all the beginning sounds, and even sounded out "cat" although I don't know if it was intentional!
The last activity - Winter Dress Up - was so fun for everyone, even if it was a bit of a bust intellectually. We talked about what we wear in the winter, then got out a coat, hat, and scarf and set it in the middle of our circle. After I found the die we took turns rolling it. If you rolled a four you put on all the winter gear and wore it until someone else rolled a four. It was ridiculous, and super fun. We were all laughing a LOT!
This week was COMPLETELY unorganized, but super fun. We did at least half of the activities and got to include the girls. Despite the fun of our chaotic week, I am really looking forward to getting into a daily routine where we include Mother Goose Time everyday and stay on track so we get to use all the wonderful stuff that Mother Goose Time gives me free of charge in exchange for sharing our pictures (which I mostly forgot to take this week...) and experiences. My opinion is not influenced by the freeness of the curriculum!
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