R was sick all weekend so we didn’t get much done this past weekend.  Today was a very productive day.  We received most of the materials for our new math curriculum.  We will be starting Math U See Alpha level.  R spent quite a lot of time playing with the manipulative blocks today.  T joined in with the block play after he woke up from his nap.  I have been having some trouble teaching R place value.  Today I broke the concept up into about 8 steps and plan on going through one lesson a day.  Hopefully in a week or two he will have it.

After our place value work we finished reading “All About Sam”  R immediately asked me to read it again.  T was working on our body puzzle.  I helped him a bit.  He did it two times in a row then R took over and did it unassisted. 

After Body Puzzle time the boys both did some computer reading lessons.  R worked on Reading Eggs.  T worked on Starfall.

2/26/2012 Sunday

Today we went to church.  Before church I read the boys 2 short books, both were “ I can Read books” one was a Little Critter book about the aquarium, the other was a Bernstein Bears book about spring cleaning.  I attempted to introduce place value using golden beads to R but he wasn’t interested.

After Church we took naps.  After naps I tried the place value lesson again.  It was a bit more successful.  I showed R a number card, such as 4 and he had to count out 4 one beads.  Once he  understood what I was asking him, I showed him the ten bars, and the ten’s cards.  I showed him a ten’s card, such as 50 and he had to count out 5 ten bars.  Once he got good at that I gave him a 10 card and a unit card together and showed how you could combine them.  I don’t think he has the concept quite yet but he is getting it. 

After that we went to the South Side.  R learned how to start his bike by himself.  They also found a couple of old masonry blades that G was telling them about.

On the way home G gave everyone a Monkey Mint.  R poled us to find out who had chewed them and who was sucking on them.  He declared that two people had mints left, and two did not, and that 2+2=4 since there were 4 mints total.  G gave us each another mint.  I asked R how many mints had now been eaten.  He did not know.  G held up eight finger to count, and I showed him that he could get the same answer by counting by 2’s.    After counting by two’s T pipes in with “Good counting Mommy, good counting.”

At home we read a few more books.  Including 2 chapters of “All About Sam”.  T chose an eye spy book and another picture number counting book.  I gave T pictures to look for in the Eye Spy book, and we discussed the colors in the other book, counted objects, and talked about the letters in each of the color words. 

Again for a day that didn’t seem to be overly educational, we did a surprising amount.

2/25/2012 Saturday

Went to “My Little Outback” with both boys from 9:30-12:00.  While there R sounded out a word or two and wrote it on the chalk board.  T scribbled, told me he was writing letters, while I tried to identify what letters they may be.  We read the book “Heggity Peggity”.  Once home we read the book “The Three Little Pigs” 

After that R and I went over to Aunt Grace’s house to help her move.  He was very well behaved and helpful.  He helped carry boxes to the new apartment, and vacuumed the bed room.  He found a yard stick and tried to measure several items.  I showed him how he didn’t have to count every line, but just had to read the final number.  Aunt Grace gave him some new books, and we read a “Little Critter”  book that taught kids about calling 911.  We discussed 911 a bit and why you would have to call.  Aunt Grace also gave him some “Puzzle Buzz” magazines which are made by the “Highlights” company.  He did a couple of matching puzzles in the book, both involved matching.  I plan on having him write a thank you letter to Aunt Grade later but he was too tired tonight. 

When we got home he watched Curious George with T for awhile while G and I made dinner.  After dinner he did a “Reading Eggs” lesson while T practiced cutting with scissors.  He was pretty tired after such a busy day and even though he asked me to do Reading Eggs, he was a bit reluctant to work on it today.

For a day that I thought was not overly educational, I see that R at least did quite a lot. 

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