Week Two - January 8 - 14

This week was a little all over the place. Everyone was feeling grumpy - mum and dad included! It's so hard to keep up the energy levels and motivation when you're down! We pulled ourselves out of the blues by the end of the week so feeling a lot better about everything at the moment. It's so hard to feel ok about having a bad week at the moment - especially with everyone asking about what we're doing in terms of Home Ed and how will I stay sane!

So anyway, I feel like we haven't accomplished much this week but when I scratch the surface we've actually done quite a bit - I just wasn't looking beyond the not so nice bits!

This week was the letter B week.

~* We did B b colouring sheets and tracing sheets. The boys also did some tracing in a tray filled with rice.

~* We talked a lot about words that start with B and played little games - looking for things that start with B in the backyard/front yard etc. Liam suprised me a couple of times by pulling out things like "building site" and "bushes" - so he's definately getting the hang of it and learning the sounds that go with the letters.

~* We had a B party on Wednesday night with our guess of honour being daddy - his name is Ben. The boys made placemats with a letter B on each one. They set the table and a table decoration out of blocks. Our Boba Fett (from Star Wars) toy was also put on the table - a very important B object in this house - the boys LOVE Star Wars!!

~* Just by pure coincidence, our homeschooling playgroup went to the beach this week! The kids had a ball collecting shells, building sand castles, investigating jelly fish and having running races.

~* Liam and Ewan did some worksheets - dot to dot, tracing lines and then cutting along them with scissors. This was something I really wanted to work on, with Liam in particular for his fine motor skills. He has improved a lot already - and it's only been two weeks! Liam has been really enjoying it so I'm printing out some more fun sheets from Donna Young.

~* Along the same lines for fine motor skills, the boys did some craft pinning sequins into styrofoam balls. They saw the one I made for their cousin, Charlotte for Christmas and have been itching to have a go. We made these as presents for Ben, to give him on our B party night. The boys found it quite challenging but really enjoyed it.

~* Cooking - we made anzac biscuits. The boys helped with the measuring and then pressing the biscuits down with the back of a fork after I had rolled the balls. They tried rolling the balls but the mixture just kept crumbling in their hands. Following on from this, yesterday after we did the tracing letters in trays with rice, I made up another tray with red lentils in it. I gave the boys a measuring cup each and they practiced scooping up the rice/lentils and pouring them into tins and jars. They really enjoyed it and I was happy that they had a chance to practice it - when we were cooking they kept having trouble getting a full cup and then there was a lot of spillage as they poured into the mixing bowl too. So I think we will have to do some more of this because it will be very useful when we're cooking.

~* Bottle/Jar Play. I have a collection of bottles and jars that I made up last week (forgot to mention it in last week's post!). The boys practiced sorting the lids and screwing them on the right jars last week. This week we used them to look at sizes and estimating capacity. I got the boys (mostly Liam!) to line up the jars from biggest to smallest. We then filled a jar with water, filled up the one we thought was the biggest and then filled the others up with the water from that one to work out the right order. They loved doing this. Once we'd done that, we took the tray with the water outside and the boys went around the garden, finding objects to test whether they floated or sank.

~* We had more running races and walked to the park for fun on the swings. They are both loving running races at the moment. We did heaps last week and it looks like we will be doing lots for a while. I mixed it up a bit the other day with me calling out different styles as they were running - stamp like an elephant, run like an emu, tip toe, etc. Very fun!

~* Ben talked about money this morning and they sorted through their pocket money. Each boy has two boxes - one labelled Spending and the other Saving. Each week we give them a dollar each as pocket money. Today, Ben did a tally up of how much money they had in each box and the boys talked about what they wanted to save for. Liam wants a Star Wars figure and a remote control racing car. Ben wrote down how much he needed for each item and then drew a little graph that Liam can colour in each time he adds to his boxes and can see how he is progressing toward each one. Ewan doesn't really have much of an idea about it all and doesn't really want anything. Liam told him he should buy a racing car too so that they can have races - he just agrees with everything Liam says!