amandaspace1330

This week we have enjoyed some great math lessons. We started with making number cards. Tristan didn't finish his on the first day, he is very meticulous! He did manage to get them all done by midweek. They are so cute! To end the week, we counted and sorted M&M's. Then we ate them! Yum. All week and all of last week we have been totally harassed by the dog who lives behind us. Thank God for fences! The constant barking has been getting to me, though. I think she's just lonely now that the kids are in school and after school activities. Poor thing. I can only pray that God is teaching me patience.

Saturday we found ourselves back at the Garden of the Gods park hiking a new trail, the giant footprints. It was a beautiful Saturday.

This week we read the book Storm in the Night by Mary Stolz. The first two days reading this book through were a little rough. The recommended age for this one is 5-8, so both Tristan and Ana were too young. By midweek, I allowed (requested) Ana to occupy herself quietly while I read the book to Tristan only. This worked pretty well. We learned about the color wheel and color contrast, reading the book Color Chaos by Lynn Rowe Reed. The kids loved Color Chaos and I even learned some things about how colors are described. We also studied storms, clouds, and weather. We made a cloud in a bottle and some cloud pictures. We also colored lightning storms using white and yellow chalk on black paper. I introduced the 5 senses and we talked about how in the dark you cannot use your sense of sight. This makes the other senses seem heightened. The book Storms by Seymour Simon  describes thunder storms and how they form. It also talks about hail and tornadoes. Thursday afternoo...

Here in Colorado, school has begun for many districts (our district begins today). Anyway, I decided that we should start working off some of the stuff I have planned for this semester and then if we take time off when baby comes, no big deal. This past week we used The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack. The kids loved putting our little disk with Ping on China every day and we learned about China and Ducks and Water safety. We also played some fun math games. Friday's math lesson stole the show (mostly because it was edible). The children sorted six different types of dry food into muffin tins and then we counted the pieces of food. To emphasize the base 10 concept there were ten pieces of each food and Tristan counted out five of each to share with Ana, which left five for him to eat. By the end, I think they understood that six tens is sixty and half of ten is five, but....who knows what they actually took away?:) I still haven't been able to resist alphabet boo...

 I am now 29 weeks, but this pic was taken middle of last week. We are getting excited, and obviously, I'm big! Baby number 3 wants to make it's own stretches on mommy. Thanks to Mom Pickering, we tried some Sweet Daphne's cupcakes this week. They were awesome and unique.

Ok. So I am getting a little wacky and forgetful about things and I realize that I never said anything about why my meatloaf was edible in the last post. I added a mashed sweet potato to the meatloaf mixture and baked the meatloaf in individual muffin cups. It was a huge hit! Anastasia ate two servings! Anyway, this week I took the kids putt-putt for their first time. It was really fun! Monday's weather was perfect and they did surprisingly well. I mean, they both hit it over the six hit limit on most of the holes, but the ball ended up in the right place by the end and that impressed me. They have been eyeing the place up from the freeway since it was under construction, so this outing has been a while in coming. I'm glad they loved it. Still enjoying the fun "firsts" of their lives. Tristan said we should make putt-putt a summer tradition. He called it Summer's birthday party:) Anastasia even got a bear hug!

I haven't been able to resist alphabet books at the library these last few weeks. Some of my favorites have been: LMNO peas by Kieth Baker, this is a fun book that introduces the idea of occupations to kids. The only thing I thought was weird about the book, the last page asks "who are you?" This seems an odd question to ask a preschooler, who has no occupation. Sesame Streets, ABC and 123:A Sesame Street Treasury of Words and Numbers is a great book. You can't go wrong with Sesame Street. A, My name is Alice by Jane E. Bayer and Steven Kellog. I love this book because I used to play this game on road-trips with my family. I am so glad to introduce this game to my children. The illustrations are kinda crazy also. I need to try to get some books that involve numbers and counting and I'll work on that for the next two weeks before school begins. I got a great CD, Math Magic by Stephanie Burton. The kids love it! The songs are well-known and simple and she h...