Saturday, April 26, 2008
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Colony of Caterpillar Clips
We are still working on the letter C, so today we made Caterpillar Clips out of clothespin, pom pom balls and googly eyes. I had only planned to make one, but Emma had a list of people to make them for. So far we have made them for Gaga (all pink and purple), Poppa (green, yellow, blue), Emma (one ball of each color), Grandma, Grandpa, Ginny, Mrs. Bobbie, and Mrs. Lois (two of Emma's teachers). It looks like I'm running a caterpillar sweatshop!
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Book Recommendation
I got a book from one of the Preschool teachers at work that she wrote based upon the methods she used in her classroom. Emma and I have been going through the book at home.
Here is the book: Ready, Set, Read by Janet Chambers
Janet uses "feely letters" to introduce the letter to the students. Here are our letters. A for apple, big blue B, and curvy caterpillar C. (Excuse the messy fridge).
Janet stresses play as being a big part of learning, so she give plenty of activities to make learning the letters and their letter sounds fun. We started learning about the letter C today, so we made a cave out of two chairs and a sheet. I placed a bunch of objects beginning with the letter c inside of the cave (carrot, crayon, car, corn, comb) and Emma would have to crawl into the cave, pull out and object, and tell me what it was. She loved it.
We also made the egg carton caterpillars, which were messy but fun.
This is Emma's bean picture from the letter B from last week. She did really well on this!
Janet has some awesome ideas to make learning fun. For the letter A, we made an ambulance (baby doll stroller) and Emma "drove" the ambulance while making the a sound to take her sick animals to the hospital. Of course, she had a blast!
We also try to have a snack that goes along with the letter that we are learning for the week, apples for a, banana pudding for b, cereal for c.
We sing songs, read books, and watch movies that all have to do with the letter of the week.
Emma has been enjoying it so much that the first thing she says every morning is "What letter are we going to do today, Mommy?" That lets me know that all of the mess is worth it!
Weekend Update
We had a great weekend, so I thought I would give everyone an update. Friday night Richard had to work, so Emma and I had a girls night of just hanging out. On Saturday morning, Mom and Dad came to visit. Dad and Richard went on a male bonding fishing trip with some of the guys with our church. My dad was in heaven! He had the best time! He caught some huge fish- I think he caught the biggest one out of everybody. I will have to post some pictures when he sends them to me. On Sunday, we were in Emma's Sunday school class, which always makes me thankful for my precious child! Then Emma went to big church with us. She was so good! She sat so quietly and really enjoyed the music. She went back to her class when the preaching started. I was so proud of her! Then, our awesome neighbors took Richard and Emma out on their boat. We went to their house for dinner to eat steak, baked potatoes, salad, macaroni and cheese, chicken fingers, french fries, potato salad, rolls, and cookie cake. We have the best neighbors in the world! They are as close as our family and we love them to death!
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
An Eventful Weekend
Dad got a new truck this Saturday. When they came to our house to show it off, Emma decided she was going home with them. Richard and I actually had a date. We went to Mugshots, took a long walk at the park, and got some shopping done. Then we got the phone call from Mom. Emma was really hot. Then she got hotter. Then she started vomiting and had a seizure. (For those of you keeping count, that's number three!). Of course, Mom and Dad were scared to death. She recovered from the seizure, but kept the fever until Monday afternoon. The docs (and Richard) say that she will outgrow them by five years old, so we have two more years of fun fevers to come!
