U is for Umbrella

After completing letter H, we completed letter T then letter I but I didn't take any photos. 

Here is some of the photos from letter U

 

Counting the rain drops on the umbrella cards then finding the number card to match

Patterns

writing the letter U on the HWOT magnetic board

Play dough letter U

H is for Hippopotamus

We completed letter H early in July and here are the photos of some of the activities we completed. 

Colour matching

Counting

Pattern building - George can do this but doesn't have the confidence in himself to complete this without a lot of encouragement 

Writing the letter H

 

More writing

Grace had to join in so I got the water colours out for her to explore. 

E is for Elephant

We completed letter E in the beginning of June but I didn't post about it.  I did take photos (on my phone) so here are some of the activities George did. 

Graphing (George is only allowed to eat the marshmallows if he gets it all correct)

Upper and lower case sorting

Patterns

Puzzle - these puzzles are to simple for George but just right for Grace so I won't be making them any harder 

Size sorting

 

Here's Grace having a go with the puzzle

George pokes holes in the letter with a drawing pin.  This is a great fine motor skill.

Usually I cut these into colour puzzles but as George is mad on Lego I got him to find pieces of Lego the same colour.  Yes there is a yellow piece.

I purposly put these pieces out of order and then got George to place the same amount of Lego pieces as the number on the card. 

Word builders in upper and lower case

George also learnt how to write E using the handwriting without tears method. 

 

Model Trains

We're very lucky to have a model engineers club who run model trains every Sunday only 10 minutes drive away.

We try to visit every couple of months and both George and Grace enjoy every visit no matter how often we go.

 

Green is for GO

George turned 5 last month and as most kids start school in New Zealand on or around their 5th birthday he's officially a school boy and loves telling everyone he does school at home.

We've been doing letter of the week and hand writing without tears for a few months now but as we moved houses a few weeks ago everything went on hold while packing for the move and then moving and then unpacking and ended up losing about 5 weeks.  Losing isn't really the right word as kids learn so much through play and George did play a LOT.  He also had his birthday during this time and was totally spoilt.

George is totally obsessed with Lego and as I love to spoil by kids so hubby and I gave him two large sets. (lucky I got them for a almost half price) 

Now we are settled in our new house which is twice the size of our old one and has a 2nd living area which we've set up as the school room, I'm starting to get George into a routine.  I'm not too sure how I'm going to use this blog but I want to be able to record George's schooling and will try to continue with the letter of the week posts until we've finished the alphabet and maybe a weekly wrap up. 

Weekly wrap up

1. I brought two second hand outdoor picnic tables online, one normal, and one child size one.  They were delivered first thing on Monday morning so we had lunch outside.
2. To help encourage George to complete reading eggs lessons I created a 'eggy wall', when he completes a lesson the number of that lesson goes on the wall. 
3. I made spinach pasta.
4. Grace had fun playing under the parachute at gym with her friend K.  
5. George has improved heaps on the balance beam at gym. 
6. Grace has just started climbing the ladders at gym.
7. Letter U from handwriting without tears.
8. Grace painting while I'm working with George.
9. Play dough letter U.
10. The Lego police helicopter George built with only verbal help from Daddy.
11. Completing a reading eggs lesson.
12. Giving the bunny's some time on the grass.

F is for Fish

The week started off with the lamination getting a good work out getting every thing ready.

We bulit the letter F with our HWOT wooden pieces.

George then wrote F with the magnetic "Stamp and see screen".  George didn't need any help with this and even managed to form the letter in the correct order without any guidance.

We made a F out of play dough.  George is getting better at making the play dough 'sausages' although I still need to start him off each time.

Colour puzzles.  Grace helped and after George finished she spend several minutes playing with the pieces putting the correct colours together.

We painted F and f, I think Grace enjoyed this the most as she LOVES paint.

While the paint was still wet both Grace and George poured glitter onto their paintings.  The amount of glitter used in this one morning is what got me to get some shakers for my glitter which should hopefully stop Grace from putting ALL of the glitter on her art work. 

Do a dot pages

F f maze

We jumped around on the floor cards

and then put them in order

Cutting and gluing.  George cut out two pieces and then in finished the cutting for him.  He glued it all himself.

Lacing. George punched the holes and then used the shoe lace. 

Size sorting

F is for Fish puzzle.  These puzzles are to easy for George but I'm not going to make them any harder as I hope to use these sets with Grace next year when she's 2 1/2 - 3. 

Word building

Upper and lower case sorting

Clipping pegs on number cards

Patterning

Poke page.  I used to give George a pen to poke through the paper when doing these pages but I now give him a small drawing pin which is more of a challenge and a great fine motor skill.

Pre writing pages.  These are laminated so I can wipe off the pen afterwards. You can see Graces hand in the photos.  She's always near by when George is doing his school work with me and ends up doing the activities either with us or just after George finishes.

Fish builders. George finds these challenging, he used to match the pieces onto the picture, but now I make him do it underneath.