Letter of the Week - Letter B

B is for Butterfly.  If you ask Ladybug what letters we've covered she will say Butterfly, not B.  But that is not the point of doing this with her, it's to have fun and maybe some of it will sink in while we're playing. 

Here are photos of some of the activities Ladybug completed, again these are not everything she did, just what I managed to take photos of as it's more important that I'm with her rather than taking photos of her. 

I got the playdough out this week, pink which is Ladybugs favourite colour.  Ladybug will often get out the letter cards and playdough herself, and was delighted to see I had but this out in one of her trays.

Colour matching, also clipping spring loaded pegs onto cards are a great motor gross skill. 

Ladybug started this activity on the floor, but Jellybean kept trying to grab everything from her, now that Jellybean is crawling it's hard to keep anything away from her. 

I would have been in a lot of trouble if I didn't put some colouring activities out for Ladybug. 

This was a cutting and gluing activity.  Ladybug lost interest in this part way thru cutting so I helped her finish it off. 

And here's this weeks letter for Ladybugs alphabet book.  It's supposed to be a b with butterfly wings, and I guess it still is.  I do have to remind myself that it's not the end result, it's the process and it's how Ladybug feels that matters and she loves it. 

Letter of the Week - Letter A

I'm learning so much from Ladybug.  She's so different to her older brother and while he rather play with toys and do anything but 'work', Ladybug demands 'work' and completed most of it first thing in the morning, sometimes before I even make breakfast. 

As she has shown signs that she is ready - and pretty much demands it, I've started her on Confessions of a Homeschooler's Letter of the Week curriculum and she's loving it.

Her penmanship has improved, she's getting more confident using scissors, and she's starting to recognise numerals, even if she doesn't remember the actual letters after the week is up.

When I did LOTW with Rocket Boy, we completed it in the order set out in Handwriting Without Tear Get Set for School book, but as Ladybug is rather young and I'm not expecting her to be able to write the letters once finished so we're going in alphabetical order.

Ladybug was very excited to start with A week as her real name starts with A. She can already write uppercase A, and is very proud of that. 

Here are a few photos I managed to take during the week, we completed many more activities but I try not to have a camera in my hands all the time, and to spend as much time as I can just focusing on Ladybug and what she's doing. 

Ladybug LOVES colouring, and is getting so much better and block colouring, and staying within the lines - this isn't anything I've focused on with her, maybe something she's worked on at Montessori, or just something she's learnt herself over time. 

I cut the apples into strips, so Ladybug just had to cut between then then glue them onto the tree.

I have to watch Ladybug carefully when I get the Do a Dots out, as she has a habit of painting herself, instead of the paper. 

Using a large needle, Ladybug pokes holes thru the paper following the letter outline, this is great for find motor control and awesome pencil grip on the needle. 

When I set out this activity I had pictured Ladybug lacing each card separately, there was an upper case A, lower case a and an apple.  Instead she had lots of fun threading them together, hanging it on her bed for the rest of the day. 

Ladybug raced through all her work, so I had to find some more printables for her, especially involving colouring.  I found more at Totally Tots 

This is Ladybugs scrap book which we're going to but together each week with our letter crafts.  

The plan for the letter a craft was to look like an apple with seeds in the middle, and a stem and leaf, the idea is from Totally Tots letter a craft.  While I kinda secretly would love a perfectly completed craft, I rather let Ladybug have fun and do it how she wants.

Letter of the Week

I managed to find some time for some one on one with Ladybug so got out the Letter F activities from the LOTW curriculum 

Colour puzzles, after finding the pieces and putting them together we went over the colour names. 

Number floor cards, Ladybug needed some help with this as she doesn't known her written numbers yet, but Rocket Boy was keen to help as he clearly remembers the fun he had with this program when he was younger.  We used these cards in several ways, first with them spread around the floor, I would call out a number for colour and Ladybug and Rocket Boy would jump onto the correct one.  Then with help Ladybug lined them up in order and counted both up to 10 then back to 1 over and over. 

Puzzle.

Lacing card.

Upper and lower case sorting.

Letter tracing.

Still to do - the Handwriting without Tears letter F pages, but as I follow Ladybugs lead and she hasn't shown any interest in this yet and I'm not going to push her. 

Letter of the Week

Ladybug has been wanting to do 'school work' just like her older brother for awhile now.  She doesn't like missing out and while I've held off doing anything for awhile now and just wanting her to play, I've decided to make the Letter of the Week curriculum available to her if she choose to use it.  She also really wants to use the Handwriting without Tears book I bought and set aside for her a while ago.

With a new baby she also doesn't get as much one on one time with me any more and working on this together even if it's just one day in the weekend allows us some time together. 

 

Ladybug really surprised me with how well she wrote a L on her blackboard, following the wet, dry, try method.  She also LOVES making letters out of playdough, every time we get out the playdough she wants the letter cards. 

She traced the bird, bug and the bee pages in her HWOT work book. 

Cutting.

 

Ladybug buliding.

Ladybug took a while to understand how patterns work, she worked out the orange, purple pattern rather quickly, but took longer with the green and pink pattern.

 

Ladybug knew all her colours and shapes. 

Ladybug started out well with the prewriting cards but soon started scribbling.  This is when I knew she had, had enough and we ended it for the day 

 

Ladybug needed a little help with the puzzle.

Ladybug LOVES LOVES LOVES painting so we had to get out the water colours for her.