Monday, January 31, 2011

Letter of the Week

We have been learning how to write letters and what sounds they make. T calls it her ‘letter games’ and really enjoys doing them. I try to teach T one letter a week. Some weeks we don’t get around to it. I began this back in September and we are currently on the letter ‘J’. I give her about 3 or 4 activities a day over a 2 day span. Her attention span doesn’t seem to last any longer than that. We also watch this DVD when she asks for it: Leapfrog: Letter Factory. She actually enjoys watching it and is learning as well.

T’s favorite letter game is the size sorting activity off of Confessions of a Homeschooler. Most of our activities come from her blog. I highly recommend her free letter printables.

We always make sure we do one letter craft. This week we used Confessions of a Homeschooler's craft for ‘J is for Jesus’.



Sometimes we get out the playdough and form the letters. This is usually followed by playing with the dough.

Another favorite is from this site: Beginningreading.com

Other great resources I use for our letter of the week include:
Pre-K printables
Starfall ABC printouts

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Snowshake

This is for those of you who are lucky enough to have snow this season. Thankfully, we had a few days to enjoy the snow right before Christmas. One of our traditions that we began last year is to make snowshakes. My mom told me about these and it's very simple.

You need:

packed snow
milk
sugar
vanilla

You basically just fill a cup full of snow and pack it in. Pour in the milk (but make sure not too much, otherwise the snow will melt). Then mix in the sugar and vanilla. The amounts are up to you.


Last year, we had almost 2 ft. of snow and really enjoyed this simple drink quite often. Now, when T sees snow, she immediately asks to have a snowshake. Yummy!

Monday, January 24, 2011

Sparkly Snowflakes


You may have noticed in the New Year's garland post some colorful snowflakes on the window below. A couple of weeks ago, T and I made those together. I cut the snowflakes and she painted and glittered them. The wet paint works like glue for the glitter to stick. However, if you do this, make sure to hang dry these as they will stick to any paper below when drying. We learned this and weren't able to unstick some of our snowflakes, which made me sad.


T's favorite part was putting the glitter on. I did my best to be as organized as possible to lessen the glitter mess but of course, glitter still got everywhere. If you don't like a mess, it might be better to do that part outside or in an area you don't care that gets messy.

I think they turned out great and are a perfect winter decoration for our home!

Friday, January 21, 2011

Photo of the Week

My favorite hobby is photography. I'm still learning and am constantly taking pictures. Each Friday I plan to post my favorite photo that I took during the week.
Happy 2 month birthday to L!

Thursday, January 20, 2011

New Year's Garland

Happy New Year! A new year, a new blog.
This craft was inspired from The Artful Parent. Instead of making Christmas garlands, we made ours for the New Year. I plan on keeping it up through the month of January.
I helped T with this one. Hers are the solid purple and yellow ones. She says the yellow ones are suns and the purple ones are moons. Like all our projects, I let her pick out the colors.