The Mommy School

For our third row, we read The Little Rabbit by Phoebe Dunn. Am I the only person who didn't know that baby rabbits are really called "kits" or "kittens"? I definitely would've gotten that Jeopardy question wrong. This story was about a little girl who received a rabbit for an Easter gift. I loved that the story used real pictures instead of cartoon's/drawings. We started off the week by reading our story and then making our own bunnies.

Unfortunately, we are down a rabbit. We left to go to storytime at the library and when we came home we found googly eyes, a pink nose, rabbit ears and whiskers on the rug.

Grace (our Chocolate Labra-dork) officially ate the cotton balls. Errrrrrgggg.

We also worked on our lapbook. We made up our own pet bunnies:

In the story, Sarah names her rabbit "Buttercup" because she was sitting near some buttercups. C. told me that if he had a rabbit, maybe it would sit near a flower called, Fruit Snacks, so he could call it "Fruit Snack."

And used our math skills to help feed the rabbit:

I found these great (free!) printable mommy/baby animal cards from 1+1+1=1 website. Such a great resource! The boys had a great time trying to match the animals. They had some difficulty figuring out the penguin chick.

Of course we had to have some rabbit pancakes (and don't forget his carrot)!

We took a "field trip" to Clintonville Urban Rabbitry and Garden. We got to see several of their beautiful Champagne d'argent rabbits and they were so kind in explaining all about their specific rabbits, taking care of a rabbit, etc. to the boys. As you can imagine (if you know my boys), they were very shy and did not want to interact with the rabbits. So, we also took a trip to a local Petstore. They seemed to do much better with this and really wanted to play with the rabbits. We choose one just like Buttercup (the rabbit in the story) to look at it. We talked about their long ears and how their eyes are on the sides of their head instead of the front.

Finally, we made our own picture books. They each got to choose one of their favorite toys and we took pictures in different places throughout the house. We printed them out and they got to make up their own stories. Although, somehow, they both ended up being about cars getting the bad guys!

Some great go-along books that we read with The Little Rabbit: Rabbits & Raindrops by Jim Arnosky, Duck! Rabbit! (by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Guess How Much I Love You (by Sam McBratney), Wee Little Bunny (by Lauren Thompson), and Rabbits (by Derek Zobel).

Bible

This week we read the story of Adam and Eve. We talked about rules/laws/sins. Our Bible verses for this week were Psalm 148:3 and ...Romans 6:23...

We played a fun game of "Adam says" (vs Simon Says) to listen closely and obey. We had a fun page in our workbook to draw a line to the right face for obeying/sinning.

We also "received" a letter in the mail from Mission's Mike! The boys were so excited. He talked about a lot of the animals and regions in Africa. We got our atlas out to see how far away we were from Africa, talked about different countries and flags. We colored some African animals and talked about how Adam was in charge of all the animals. We also compared/contrasted them and discussed how God made them each special.

We also talked about some of the laws that we have when driving. We painted our own road with car wheels to remember:

They have been repeating the story all week long and having "Bible time" with one another. They each take turns being the teacher. It's really been encouraging to hear them repeating God's word.

Math

This week has focused on counting and shading in the number of blocks that is given. The boys continue to ask for math and are usually disappointed when we are finished and want more! I may try to do 2 chapters this week as they seem to be doing well with the material.


Brendan getting his math on!

Phonics

By far one of THE highlights of the week. Both boys read their first words!! I was so excited for them and was in tears. Below are video's of them both reading their first story.

Handwriting

We worked on our P's and D's this week. Still fine tuning pencil grip, but overall doing great.

Thanks for reading and see you next week!

We had another awesome week here at home! For our second row, we read Yellow Ball by Molly Bang. Who knew there was so much you could do with a book with only 29 words? The boys could recite it back to me after the first couple of days. We started off the week by beginning our Yellow book lapbook. C. decided to color the yam orange and add brown spots to make it look like a "real potato". B. said "God made the grass grow" for the yak. I love it!

Next Mommy surprised them with...You've got it! A new yellow ball.

We used our new ball to talk about the ball in the story. In several pictures it shows the ball from different distances that makes the ball appear larger/smaller. So, I told the boys to get their Vtech Camera to take some pictures of the ball from different distances to show them that the ball doesn't change but it just looks different depending on how far away they are from it. Below are their pictures:

Next we made our own storm in a bottle with a yellow ball. I have to admit, this didn't turn out as great as I had hoped. But, the boys have had fun shaking it up during the week.

On another day, we used chalks to draw our own Yellow Ball book cover (B. left, C. right):

and also did a yellow-ball lacing project to work on fine motor skills:

We had a scavenger hunt at the grocery to find something like a yellow ball. They found the lemons!


Lemon victory fist pump?

We used our lemons to make some super yummy lemonade. They were great helpers!

We finished up the week by talking about the reflection of the ball on the

water and read I See Myself by Vicki Cobb . We also talked about storms and read Clifford and the Big Storm by Norman Bridwell.

Bible


This week we finished Creation days 4-7.

Our memory verse's this week were Psalm 148:2 and ...Genesis 2:1...

Day 4: God made the Sun, Moon, stars and even Mars Today we looked at a book on the universe and all the different planets.

Day 5: God made fish, birds that fly and whales that splish! We worked on our cutting skills today by cutting out different animals and pasting them on appropriate scenery.

We also took a special field trip to look at different kinds of fish/birds. Can you guess where?

The boys were introduced to a very special guest today named, "Missions Mike." He'll be used throughout the curriculum to talk about missions work/missionaries. He left the day by letting us know he would write us while visiting missionaries in South Africa. I thought the boys wouldn't really buy into him since he is just a face on a stick, but they have asked about him all week.

Day 6: God made man, beasts that leaped, crept and ran! We talked about how we are made in God's image and they colored a picture to look like themselves. We also had a lot of fun today and yesterday playing a guessing game called I'm thinking of an animal God made on Day 5 or Day 6.

B.- he gave himself "rooster hair"

Day 7: God was pleased, then he rested. Today we talked about Day 7 and reviewed all of the other days of creation. We also added to our creation station.

Adding Day 4 Sun, Moon & Stars:

Adding Day 5 birds & fish:

For Day 6/7, they climbed in with all their stuffed animals and pretended the animals were taking a nap.

Math

This week was focused on writing/tracing numerals and reviewing number recognition 0-9. They seem to be doing great with it so far and B. even told me that it was his favorite thing of the day on Wednesday.

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Phonics

This week we were still working on making sure we recognize all the letters, lower and upper case, as well as their sounds. Next week we'll be starting in chapter 1 and will hopefully have read our first book!