Snipping

Yesterday we completed 62 worksheets, meaning we're over halfway done with the Total Basic Skills Preschool workbook. Phew! I know we did some other activities.. but my head is so full of today's activities that I can't remember what else. lol

Today Reagan did 4 worksheets, an alphabet floor puzzle, an alphabet puzzle about 3 times, finger puppet play, we read the last 2 chapters of Madagascar Escape 2 Africa, chose a new book, went through the complete set of Things Outside Dora flap cards, did some play to practice with the 10 English/ Spanish cards in the set, completed one cutting practice worksheet (our first snipping activity!), and made 2 foam animal crafts. Reagan also spent some time in there reading with her Poingo. I'm sure we will do more this afternoon.. but I wanted to post before I forgot all that! :-)

Father's Day Prep Day!

This morning Reagan sat down and did 27 workbook pages. Then she and Adam each drew a picture while I read them a chapter of Madagascar 2. Reagan made wrapping for a gift for Father's Day and practiced using her cutting skills to do it. (I'll post a picture of this later.) In about half an hour we're headed off to a class to decorate a cake for Daddy for Father's Day, and then to a gymnastics demonstration Reagan was invited to participate in. It's amazing to think she's been doing gymnastics for almost 2 years now!

I'll edit this post to add more later in the day. :-)

Added at 4:15 PM

Reagan had a great time decorating her cake today! She did an awesome job, and only needed mommy's help with keeping the icing flowing out of the piping bag.

One of MANY pictures from Reagan's gymnastics exhibition.

Busy, Busy

We started a BIG workbook today in hopes that it would last longer. It's a preschool workbook, so it's pretty much all things that Reagan knows how to do already. And once she knows the directions, she can complete most activities by herself by recognizing what the directions are. Combining her work before and after lunch she completed a whopping 45 pages! She also took a break in there to draw a picture. We read 3 chapters of Madagascar 2, and played a game of Go Fish. Then she asked to listen to her Spanish Cd, so she did that. There was also some time on the Leap Pad in there! Phew! That girl is busy, busy! The also asked me to make a craft project for her to do this afternoon, but she was getting cranky and tired playing with her brother, so I sent her to play quietly by herself for awhile. We'll see how long it lasts!

Camping

We spent Monday, Tuesday, and part of Wednesday camping at Lynx Lake! The kids had a wonderful time. We read the entire The Littles go Exploring book while we were camping! We also saw a lot of wildlife, and read a book about the life cycle of butterflies. Reagan heard, saw, and found the feather of a crow.

On Tuesday evening the kids spent some time coloring, and Reagan did some beautiful drawings:

"Me feeding the ducks in the water" The large red is Reagan with lots of hair sticking up. Down at the bottom, the red line is the water, and the red and green are three ducks. She was very specific to give them beaks. At right, is a picture of the actual event.


"Daddy, Reagan, and Mommy hiking on the trail" The big red person with the hair is mommy, the red person to the right of that is Reagan, and there is a pale brown person standing in front of/ below Reagan that is Daddy. The yellow lines down the right of the page are the trail. The big red "rectangle" on the left is our car, and the black is it's bumper. It's parked by the trail, and has some nice rainbow colored grass below.


Reagan was also eager to practice her Spanish on the trip, and used Hola, and Adios regularly. She also asked me to help her practice the command words she has learned, for march, clap, sit down, and stand up. She knows 1,2, 5, and 8 in Spanish, and kept having me repeat the numbers 1 through 10 so she could work on knowing more.

Spanish Begins

Today while cleaning in the morning I put on one of Reagan's Spanish learning CDs. She did every well with the first and second lessons. We repeated the first one 3 times, and the second one quite a few times as well. After that she listened, but wasn't repeating as much. However... the program is designed to be interactive, so you;re supposed to be doing things along with what they're saying, to help you learn the words. So of course since Juan said to make paper plate maracas, we had to do it!

Photos of their maracas. Reagan's is has a picture of a pizza with black olives on it on the front. The back of hers ended up being another pizza with olives that she drew, but didn't like.. which is why she made this one. I thought she wanted her original plate she had colored as the back since she was quite disgusted with the first pizza. But as you can see it's in the upper left corner, and ended up not being used on the maraca.


We didn't do any other really structured activities. But Reagan played with her Leap Pad a bunch, and did her alphabet train puzzle. I also got her project patch from Lowes sewn on her apron, and she was thrilled.

Yesterday- Saturday Classes!

Yesterday was Reagan's first building class at Lowes. Daddy was along so she got to pick who she wanted to help her with the project, and she picked him. She had a great time building a Hole in One putting green. She's very excited about this especially after last week's project at the Home Depot, and is looking forward to her next class in two weeks! It seems like we have a new regular Saturday activity!


After class we went for a family hike at Lynx Lake. Then in the evening Reagan helped make cheese omelets for dinner. She was a big help. Oh, and she wore her Lowes apron the ENTIRE time. :-)

States

We started learning states because we were teaching Reagan her address. And she got curious about where her grandparents and cousins lived, and why she coudln't see them all the time. So we showed her on a quilted wall hanging map. She was very interested to remember these places, so we gave her a US map place mat. She quickly started asking about what all the other states were. Now you can ask her when you're in the car or something and she'll start out listing them from memory. When she can't remember any more on her own she asks for hints. We give hints like "Mommy and Daddy rode in a fancy car here" and she usually comes up with the answer. If now we'll give her the first letter of the word, and she makes the sound to try and remind herself. And a lot of times she has so much fun playing this game that she wants to know more... she asks you to give her a clue and the name of another state so she can start memorizing it too. We did this tonight, just before getting ready for bed. She has her placemat to look at since we were home. Here's her list:

Knows Name and Map Location
Texas
Arizona
California
Nevada
Ohio
Hawaii
Wisconsin
Washington
Virginia
Georgia

Knows Name, But not on Map
North Carolina
South Carolina
South Dakota

From Clue, Knows on Map
Florida

From Clue, Doesn't Know on Map
None today

Others I know she Knows, But Couldn't Remember Today
Indiana
Montana
New Mexico
Kansas

That's almost half of the states! We're so proud!

We started out the day by picking our new chapter book: Swiss Family Robinson. Then Reagan asked to read The Berenstain Bears Learn About Strangers. While the kids had sine along and dance time with their favorite music, I got out some workbooks to try and plan some activities for this afternoon. Reagan saw them, and insisted on on working on right right away. Of course it was a 1st grade workbook. She did well with the first page, and we got through the second, but this one just requires more reading than she can do right now. So I finally convinced her to switch over to a Pre-K Carebears workbook that she had done a page each in last September and November. The difference in her abilities is of course HUGE. She sat and did 5 pages on her own while I made lunch.

After lunch Adam took a nap, and we completed the Care Bears Preschool Workbook. Then Reagan decorated her treasure box for keeping special things in. We put the box up to dry and sat down to rea the first chapter of Swiss Family Robinson. After reading we worked with a set of Food and Nutrition basic classifying cards. When we were done with this I needed a break, so Reagan went off to read with her Leap Pad.

Reagan's decorated treasure box:

Today's Learning

Today we did another whole workbook! This time it was Leap Ahead Golden Books Workbook Pre-school I Know Letters. This one involved some cutting activities which made it a little more challenging. There were some minor mistakes when lower case letters got a little confused, but by about a third of the way through Reagan knew all the directions for the different activities and was doing them on her own. Through using the workbooks she has learned the difference between stickers and stamps. We're planning to go camping next week, so we read a story book about camping, and then Reagan worked on a reader about camping. She read the title, and 2 pages before she got tired. We then baked 2 different batches of cookies; banana walnut oatmeal, and vanilla wafers. And we're adding a new chore to her responsibilities: taking out the compost materials after dinner. Or as she refers to it, "feeding the worm."

A Workbook a Day..

Yesterday morning we read our new copy of The Jungle Book that has the last 2 chapters intact, and completed the story. Then we had gymnastics and took a trip to our small local zoo. When we got home from the zoo Reagan and I read her entire issue of High Five magazine. She learned how cheese is made, some Spanish, and some other fun things from that, and asked if we could do some of the activities for which it has directions. Hopefully we'll get to do some of those soon. After High Five she wanted to do worksheets, so we started a new workbook; Step Ahead Golden Books Workbook Pre-school Before I Do Math. I read her directions and she just worked away. She completed the entire workbook! And on top of that she didn't make a single mistake until she was over halfway through the 32 pages! She made very few mistakes in all, but after the first couple she would recognize and correct them by herself even. Though we need to work on erasing the right thing a little more. It's a good thing I have some workbooks stocked up from shopping at the dollar store, or we'd be out in just 2-3 days! lol

Daddy's Birthday!

Both kids were truly excited for daddy's birthday this year, but it was a super great experience for Reagan who made her own gifts, and wrapped them! I did the bow for her, and cut the paper, but she did all the rest of the wrapping. She even wrote the card herself. I helped her spell DAD for the envelope, and she signed her own name inside! :-)

The presents she made were a video of her singing, with a message telling daddy happy birthday at the end. And the project she made at her first Home Depot workshop on Saturday! A hardware sorter. :-) She loved the class, and can't wait to go next month!

Some of Last Week's Learning

Reagan was a super big helper with setting up our new vegetable garden! She helped move rock, and turn the soil, and plant the plants, and of course water! She's really excited to watch the plants grow. We planted zucchini, pumpkins, eggplant, tomatoes and peppers. We also got out compost bin started once we had the garden planted. We found a worm while planting out plants and Reagan got to hold it, and then add it to the bin. She's extremely enthusiastic about feeding the worm, and is always asking what kinds of things he would like to eat. :-)

Reagan's radishes. She's very proud of having planted these, and taking care of them. She waters them herself, and is so excited to watch them grow.


We made an egg shell planter based on the one done of Sprout's goodnight show. Reagan has been asking to do some of the crafts they do on the show, so we started with this one. She made scrambled eggs all by herself one morning, and we saved this shell for her to make into the planter. She planted chives in it, and we're looking forward to them sprouting soon. Oh and regarding the eggs... she cracked them and put them in the pan, and stirred them the whole time until they were cooked herself to make a surprise breakfast for daddy. She was so proud!


Wooden stakes for the garden! Reagan had a lot of fun coloring these, but so save her clothes and the counter I gave her washable markers to do the coloring. Now I have to think of a way to seal them quick before it rains and all the colors start running! Oops!