Summer Journals

A few weeks ago, I was thinking about schooling for the girls during summer.  I didn't want Lily to lose the knowledge she had learned in First grade, and I know that I really need to start preparing Allie for Kindergarten.  One day while on Facebook I stumbled across a schedule that a friend said she was going to be implementing with her girls.  I loved it because it focused on many of the things that I wanted to hit with the girls.  One thing I hadn't thought of that she was going to do was writing each day.  I decided to give it a try.  I knew that my girls would need somewhere to keep all their writings, so today we made our Summer Journals.  Quite simply it was a regular notebook with a piece of construction paper glued on the front.  The girls were then allowed to decorate it however they wanted.  Allie of course drew our family.  Lily drew a winter scene with a snowman.  Yeh, not exactly summer-ish but whatever!  The girls were super excited and proceeded to do two journal entries.  

For Lily, I'm pretty much giving her a topic and allowing her to draw picture about the topic.  She then has to write five good sentences about the topic.  That is a huge task for first grader, but we are working on it.

Allie gets a topic, and draws the picture.  She then gets to narrate to me what it is about.  With her I'm not very concerned about writing.  I'm really trying to get her to verbalize things better.  I've noticed that she mumbles a lot, and sometimes can't clearly tell us things that she needs.  I'm hoping this will give her more practice in sharing things in a more orderly fashion.  Also, if she gets done before Lily I think I will give her a few words to practice writing in her journal.

I hope since we put in the effort to make these that the excitement will continue throughout the summer!

Preschool: Day 2

Scheduling is NOT working out.  I just have to much to do during the days.  So this is going to be very loose preschool, which dissapoints me.  I really wanted to do preschool at least three times a week. I'll be lucky if I average once a week.

On a brighter note, Allie enjoyed her second day of school.  She had been asking for it all week.  Today we did the following activities:

Sang Alphabet Song

Today is...

 

Weather

Allie really enjoys running to our window and seeing what is like.  Today was cloudy and apparently I didn't draw enough clouds because she made me draw more after I only drew one!

ABC tracing card

I found this awesome printable HERE for this.  It is the second link down entitled: A-Z and 123 Tracing Worksheets. I printed it on cardstock and then slipped it into a page protector.  I have plans for going and laminating it at the local copy spot because I like this so much!

Cutting Practice

Introducing scissors to a kid is scary.  Allie has always ignored scissors in our house and I liked that because I didn't have to worry about anything getting cut.  But I felt now is a good time for her to start working on that skill.  She had a lot of fun with it.  She is still getting the correct technique down of holding the paper and keeping the scissors upright.  As I held the paper for her there were a few times I feared for my fingers! : )  I found some printables HERE for cutting practice.  You could easily draw your own lines on paper, but I don't draw straight lines so this was easier.

Letter Hunt

I held up a letter flashcard and Allie circled the appropriate letter on the alphabet sheet I made.  She got a bit angry when we didn't finish the alphabet.   We only did about half of it.

Tracing Name

I found a site {right HERE} where you could type in any word and it would create a writing practice worksheet.  I typed in Allie's name, so that she could practice tracing it.  She got ambitious and wanted to try writing it by herself after she traced it.  It was difficult but she is making progress!

My Alphabet Binder

As we crusie through the alphabet we are going to be creating many projects.  To help Allie see all the fun things she has made, and to remind her of the letters she learned, we will be creating a binder.  Today I had all color the cover of it.  I didn't think to pull out things to decorate with, but she enjoyed just coloring it.  She even drew a picture of herself on the cover.  This is a HUGE step for her because she has never had much desire to draw, and she has never gotten past scribbles until today.  I also saw her consciously make the effort to hold her crayon and markers the correct way.  Sometimes she got sometimes she didn't.

Preschool, Converstations from the Backseat, and Flying Teeth!

I've been a bit concerned about my Allie for awhile.  She is so complacent that sometimes I forget that I should be helping her do things.  Lily was very in my face and constantly needing me to come up with new things for her to do.  Allie is the complete opposite.  As I was thinking about this, I realized that by this age Lily knew most of her letters and could write her name.  Allie can't do any of that, however she is an amazing counter.  She impressed the doctor at her last visit by counting to 20!  I also realized that at this age I started a homeschool preschool with Lily.  Things needed to change, and now!

I decided to do preschool a bit differently with Allie than Lily.  Lily needed challenged, whereas Allie needs the basics.  So I searched and searched until I found a curriculum online that I enjoyed.  {see here for more info} One reason that really led me to choose this curriculum was because it had many craft projects instagated into it.  Allie lacks quite a bit in that area too.  Right now our schedule is very loose, mainly because I'm trying to figure out what will work for us.  I also need to get more organized, so I'm not flying by the seat of my pants.  I hate that feeling.

Today while Charlotte was taking a nap we did our first day of school.  I thought it would be appropriate to do a "Intro to the Alphabet" before delving into the individual letters themselves. Allie was very tentative at first and didn't want to participate.  So I reordered the things I had planned and started with singing a song she knew.  She quickly got over her fears and declared she wanted to do more school.  Her favorite activity was covering her name up with blocks.  In this activity she is learning the letters in her name, the shapes of the letters, the difference between big and small, and  also shapes.  She already knows all her shapes, but it was a good review to have her keep saying what shape she needed.  Here she is finishing it up...

I hope to be able to post at least a picture and a small listing of what we do each time we do school, be on the look out for that!  If you see an activity that you would like more information on be sure and leave a comment or e-mail me : )

Later this afternoon we had to run to the store for a few things.  While driving I heard some hilarious things from the backseat and had to jot them down.

Allie:  Eww, Charlotte don't lick my hands!

I looked back to see that they were holding hands.

How sweet!

Charlotte thought this was an invite to put 

Allie's hands in her mouth!  Yuck!

While waiting at a red light the 

arrow light turns from green to red.

Allie exasperated: Ugh! Mooooommmm, green means go!

Me: Honey it is red for us.

Allie: Well, NOW it is!

Normally I wouldn't document about Lily losing her second tooth, but there is a hilarious story with this one so I have to!  Even as a child I was obsessed with loose teeth.  The minute they are the least bit wiggly they must come out NOW!  It has been driving me insane that Lily has three teeth that have been loose for a few weeks now.  Her bottom one has become particularly wiggly so I decided to do something about that today.  I tied a piece of floss around her tooth and gave it a tug.  To my dismay I noticed this tooth wasn't going anywhere.  I gave the strings to Lily and told her to give a pull.  Apparently I'm a woose because she gave it one tug and it went flying out her mouth and hit me on the shoulder.  We both screamed as it bounced off of me and onto the carpet.  Charlotte got a good scare from us screaming and started to cry.  I spent the next 20 minutes feeling around on the carpet until I FINALLY found that tricky tooth.  Hopefully the tooth fairy isn't unprepared with this tooth coming out unexpectedly : )

First day of school

Our morning started bright and early at 6:00 when Lily crawled into our bed and asked if it was school time.  I tried my best to go back to sleep but of course didn't.  We got up quietly so as not to wake Allie up, but she met us at our doorway with a huge smile.  While I helped Lily get dressed, double check her school supplies, and finish packing her lunch, Russ made a breakfast of eggs, bacon, toast, and orange juice per Lily's request.  Lily was bouncing off the wall with excitment.  She saw that i was grabbing the camera so I could take pictures and she promptly stole it from me so she could take some pictures.  She captured this cute picture of Allie.  I know Allie looks like a ghost in it, but look how cute her hair looks.  I'm finally able to put a bow in it! Oh and don't forget those cute chubby cheeks that are just begging to be pinched.

We walked outside to take a few pictures of Lily.  At this time I realized that Lily was being really quiet.  Very unusual for her.  After a bit of coxing we got a smile out of her.  Look at those dimples!!

Allie wanted a picture with sister and Lily obliged.  Such sweet girls aren't they?!

We started the two block towards school and Lily started dragging her feet.  She kept complaining her backpack was too heavy with the supplies in it so I took it for her, but that didn't help/  She continued to go slower, and slower.  She was walking slower than Allie!  We finally dragged her up to her school sign for one more picture and she stood there frowning and complaining.  This time we threatened to get a picture{Aren't I such a good mom?! Hehehe!}  Sorry I had to blur it, but you know we do have to consider safety.

We all walked into the cafeteria{aka drop off zone} and helped Lily find the line she was supposed to sit in.  Russ, Allie, and I stood on the sidelines while the kids said the pledge.  By the way did you know there was a Texas pledge?  Me neither, but there is!  Lily will have to teach it to us someday! LOL!  As the teachers prepared to take the kids to their rooms I went over Lily to hold her hand the way there.  Instead of holding my hand Lily grabbed me around the waist and said in frightened voice, "Momma I'm going to miss you!"

So that was why my rambunctious girl had disappeared, she was nervous!  I gave her a hug back and reassured her that everything would be fine.  As we were walking out of the gym Lily saw a younger friend from dance class{who wouldn't be going to school} and they waved at each other.  Seeing someone she knew put Lily at ease.  Apparently she had been nervous because she knew absolutely no one at school.  I got stopped at the office because I didn't have a badge on {would've been nice if they told me I needed one before hand!}  but Lily continued on to her class with no problems.

As we turned to leave, Allie FREAKED out.  She started crying and saying, "Lily! Lily!"  Poor thing didn't want to leave her sister there.  We got home and Allie was having a rough time.  She wanted her sister back.  Ahead of time we had agreed to do something fun with her because we knew this was going to be a big adjustment for her.  So we headed over to Bird Poop Park Junior Service League park.   Allie played for quite some time on the slides.  She even got daddy to go down the big twisty slide!

The park seemed to take her mind off a Lily for a few minutes.  After awhile though she kept coming and sitting with us asking "where Lily?"  It was time for another special trip.  We headed to Target and let her browse the toy aisle for quite some time.  Since it was just her we were able to let her out of the cart so she could REALLY interact with the toys.  She enjoyed herself.

At home Daddy spent quite a bit of time playing Little People with her.  I took some time to cook a treat with her.  She loves to help cook!  The whole time though she kept asking, "Where Lily?"  Lunch time was a minor melt down when she protested that "Lily lunch"  I could tell she was worried that Lily wasn't going to get lunch.  It was heartbreaking watching her!

Finally the time came for us to go pick Lily up.  Allie saw Lily first and pointed excitedly while declaring, "Lily! Lily! Lily!"  Lily ran up to us and started talking immediately about all the things she did.  She also proceeded to tell us that she didn't cry, but was sad for just a bit at the beginning of school.  What a brave girl!  We got home and let Allie out of her stroller and immediately she gave Lily a big hug and a kiss.  Who knew those two loved each other so much?! LOL!

Overall it was successful day for both girls.  Lily is excited to go back tomorrow, and Allie...well, she'll get used to it soon I'm sure!