Backwards Alphabet

Arin was challenged to learn the alphabet backwards.  She started practicing yesterday and this is what she sounds like today.

It's hard to hear the "z" but she did start out with it.

Stone Tic-Tac-Toe

A few months ago, I came across this really cool tic-tac-toe game.  I had planned to reproduce it for Arin.  Last week we took a walk and found several stones.  Once, we got them home, I realized that I didn't have the red, yellow and black paints that we would have needed to make a copy of their game, so we went with the more traditional x's and o's for our pieces.  We gathered 18 stones. 

First, I had Arin count out the ten stones that she wanted to use.  Next, I had her divide them into two equal piles. 

Then, she picked the colors she wanted to paint the stones.  She chose pink and green.  I had her decide which pile she wanted to be which color. I told her to paint the rocks, but didn't give her instructions on how to do this, which is why only the tops of the stones ended up painted. 

Once the paint had dried, I took a paint marker and attempted to make x's and o's on the stones.  I found that a permanent marker, such as a Sharpie, actually worked better.  I had purchased several small bags from Michael's craft store a while back.  So I took one of them today and drew the tic-tac-toe board on the front.  This bag will now serve as the playing board and also as a storage place for the stones.

Block Puzzle

My parents recently bought Arin this cool block puzzle. Today was the first day that we played with it (and of course the girls have aleady misplaced one of the blocks - grrr!!!). This puzzle was more of a challenge for Arin than I had expected it to be. Ella really wanted to play with it too. Last year, I came across this post on Chasing Cheerios, explaining how to make one of these puzzles. I am planning on making a four-block puzzle for Ella.

Dominoes

Arin loves playing with her new set of dominoes and she's very good at it too.

Match It!

Last month, I was tagged by Melissa in a product review meme. We were so sick that I am just now getting around to writing this up. Arin absolutely loves the Match It! puzzles from The Learning Journey. We have four of the puzzles. They have self-correcting pieces, so Arin can play them by herself, although she prefers that we play them together :)

Today we worked with the Upper and Lower Case Letters puzzle. She is able to match the upper and lower case letters and match them to the picture with the same beginning sound. It is great practice.

(Even Ella loves the puzzles!)

This is what you need to do. Write a review of any kids product, it can be a toy, a book or anything which you have personally used. Pass this meme to five other blogger friends.

I choose:

Letters, Books and Numbers, Oh My!

Hey, I'm Just the Nanny

Play, Explore and Learn

A Listmaker's Life

New Beginnings

Time Change

We were gone all weekend, so this morning, I was changing some of the clocks in the house. I took one of them off the wall and did some time telling with Arin. I need to get an easy to read analog clock without the second hand on it. The second hand kept messing her up, but whenever I would tell her to ignore that hand, she could tell what time it was. I only did 'to the hour' practice, as I haven't taught her the minutes yet. I don't have to tell her which hand (long or short) to look at - she has that all down now. Just that pesky second hand that was getting in the way.

Apple Fun

On Sunday, we went to the grocery store and bought a dozen apples (this was part of our 'Homeschool Alphabet: A' day). We bought one of each type of apple that the store had. Today, my little sister came over and spent the day with us, so I knew this was the perfect day for our apple project. Once Andy got home from work, we did an apple taste test. By the way, what good is a taste test unless you are dressed like a ballerina?!?!

Actually, first, Candace and Arin made the letter 'A' with the apples and then an arrow. It's great to have my sister here. She comes up with a lot of fun activities for Arin.

So after, their apple fun, we did the taste test. I asked Arin if she liked the apples. Her answer was exactly the same every time "Ummm Hmmm!" as she shook her head yes and had a huge smile on her face!

Red Delicious

Arin: Umm Hmm!

Aunt Candace: Bland, tastes like water.

Daddy: Blah! Very vanilla (not tasting, just meaning plain).

Mommy: Dry.

Granny Smith

(not sure why the picture keeps flipping when I upload it)

Arin: Umm Hmm!

Mommy: Tart, almost brings tears to my eyes!

Daddy: Bitter, gives me heartburn. Would be great with caramel!

Aunt Candace: Sour like a warhead! Sort of tastes like a produce aisle smells.

Braeburn

Daddy: This is a good one.

Arin: Umm Hmm!

Aunt Candace: Tastes like apple wine.

Mommy: Yikes, I think we got one that is already fermenting.

Ambrosia

Arin: Umm Hmm!

Mommy: Delightful! Tastes like a 'Grapple'.

Aunt Candace: So wonderful and unexpected. Tastes like a body spray smells or like a grape ring pop.

Daddy: Great, tastes a lot like honey.

Gala

Arin: Umm Hmm!

Aunt Candace: Tastes like a sour blueberry

Daddy: Very good.

Mommy: Nice and crunchy.

American Cameo

Arin: Umm Hmm!

Aunt Candace: Tastes like a Jolly Rancher

Daddy: Very good.

Mommy: Crunchy, but not super exciting.

Jonagold

Arin: Umm Hmm!

Mommy: Crunchy and sweet.

Daddy: Very, very good.

Aunt Candace: Tastes like a honeysuckle.

Honeycrisp

Arin: Umm Hmm!

Aunt Candace: Pretty Good.

Daddy: Ok.

Mommy: I've had better.

Golden Delicious

Arin: Umm Hmm!

Aunt Candace: Not too sweet.

Daddy: Full-bodied, complete taste.

Mommy: Delicious and golden!

Rome

Arin: Umm Hmm!

Aunt Candace: Mealy, tastes like someone peed on the orchard.

Daddy: Crispy, but lacks appeal.

Mommy: Yuck!

McIntosh

Arin: Umm Hmm!

Mommy: Very good, brings back memories of childhood. An all-time favorite.

Daddy: Good

Aunt Candace: This particular one is slightly sour, but still a favorite apple.

Fuji

Arin: Umm Hmm!

Mommy: Yummy, crispy & delicious!

Daddy: Tastes like dirt, but still good.

Aunt Candace: Pleasant, sweet flavor.

We all got to try new apples today, which was a lot of fun. The winner was unanimous - the Ambrosia. This was the first time that any of us had tried it, but it won't be the last!

When we were finished with the taste test, there were a lot of apples left over. So, using this recipe, I made apple chips. Also very delicious. They are a snack that I will be making again.

(Before going into the oven.)

(After baking in the oven.)

What Do You Do With Straws, Foam & a Hole Punch?

Make a game, of course! Arin put the pieces of straw in the holes of the foam. She had fun counting the straws as she was playing. She really takes after my mom with her love for counting everything! Ellie had a good time watching her big sister.

Bill Martin, Jr. Books

My friend at Teaching Tiny Tots used the Bill Martin, Jr. books in her lesson plans for her daughter this week. I have been wanting to do some activities, using those books, with Arin, so I decided to take my friend's lead and jump on board with the acitivities. We went to the library and checked out the books:

Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?

Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?

Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See?

We ran out of time before finishing all of the activities that I had planned, but we had fun with what we did. The last two pages of each of the books have small pictures of each of the animals mentioned in the book. So I made two color copies of these pages. Then, I cut around each animal. Arin helped me glue (we used glue sticks) the animal pictures onto colored index cards. Then, she picked out popsicle sticks and I taped one stick to the back of each card. Once we were finished with that, we used the animals to play "Go Fish". I put the popsicle sticks on the backs of the cards because I thought it would make them easier to hold. It didn't. They were still bulky. Arin has played "Go Fish" only a couple of times and I am not sure that she fully grasps the concept yet. So I had her sit on my lap and I helped her play the game with her daddy. He won, but it was a close game: 15 to 12.

After we played "Go Fish", I laid out several of the animal cards in three rows. I gave Arin matching cards. She had a great time matching the cards up. She was so proud of herself everytime she found a match!

Then, the camera battery died, so I didn't get pictures of any of the next game. Andy piled all of the picture cards together. Then, he'd pick out one card and Arin had to dig through the pile to find the match. She still did really well with this version, even though they were not in nice neat rows in front of her.

Patterns, Color Sorting & Bead Counting

The inspiration for today's learning games came from the blog My Montessori Journey.

First, we did some pattern work. I made a couple of patterns using foam lacing beads and coffee stirrers. Then, I gave it to Arin to look at. We talked about what colors and shapes were on the coffee stirrer. Then, Arin was free to copy the pattern. I had to keep reminding her to look at my pattern because she was just so excited to put the beads on the stirrer, she wasn't as concerned about the order. But, once I had her slow down and look at mine again, she was able to do really well.

The next activity was color sorting. I labeled four clear plastic cups. One was labeled with a piece of green paper, the next with a piece of yellow paper, another with a piece of orange paper and the last with a piece of pink paper. I had cut the tops (the bendy part) off several straws. I gave the cups and the straws to Arin. I didn't even have to tell her what to do, she just started putting the correct colored straw in the correct colored cup. She likes to gather a bunch of the same colored straws at once and then count them as she's placing them in the cup. That was her own little twist that she put on the game :)

The last new activity that we did today was bead counting. I laid five squares of paper in front of Arin. On the papers, were the numbers 1-5 (one number per square). Then, I laid a pipe cleaner on each of the squares. I gave Arin a tub of beads. For the card labeled 'one', she was to string one bead onto the pipe cleaner. For the card labeled 'two', she was to string two beads onto the pipe cleaner. She is so funny because she doesn't randomly pick beads to string. She had to have all the beads matching on each pipe cleaner. It was ok to have different beads for different pipe cleaners, but whatever beads were on a particular pipe cleaner had to match.