Day 3 Wes couldn't wait to get home and "learn"! Each day we start by talking about what day it is and what the date is also. I let Wes attach the date to our calendar and we sing the days of the week song.
This day we started off with "Lasso and Look". I took the looking glasses included in the day's bag and tied them to ribbon. I used our sand sensory box to hide the glasses amongst some objects we have been talking about, like horses, rocks, lizards and camels. I put the "find" poster right in front of the box. The horse in this box has accompanied us ALL WEEK. Wes fondly named it "horse".
I then had Wes select a ribbon and we read what each card said. Each had instructions to find an object on the poster and on the back side it had actions to do that tied into the object that you found.
We then did a round up of shapes that included counting and matching. I made a corral out of play fencing we already had. I placed the counting card included in the day's bag inside and told him we were going to round up some shapes and put them in our corral.
It's really amazing how much more excited Wes was about counting when it was presented this way. I had him match the size at the same time so it was a double lesson for him! I know! Sneaky mommy...
When he had finished matching and counting, we returned the squares back to the corresponding bag, counting one by one and sorting by color. As you can see, we re-used the squares from day 2.
This day we also talked about kindness. The "kindness" activity was by far my favorite. I'm so bummed I was not able to capture some of these moments with my camera. It is one of the lessons that really resonated with Wes and we reference it all the time. Wes and I made each other "kindness" bracelets. He wore it through the day and whenever we went somewhere, I asked Wes if he wanted to tell people what his bracelet said. He would give a huge grin and say, "I am KIND". We talked often about what it meant to be kind - we share, we think of how we can be nice and make people happy. I asked Wes who he would like to be kind to today and he picked Ms. Martha, a school attendant at Brady's school who we see every day when we pick him up. I asked Wes what he'd like to do to be kind and he said, "Get her coffee". This kid's kindness really melts my heart.
I explained to Wes that I didn't know if we could keep her coffee hot, but maybe he'd like to get her something from the bakery. When there, I had him show the bakery gals his bracelet and tell them what it said. Talk about cuteness overload! I asked him if we should get something for his brother, too and he handpicked a "panda" cookie because he knew Brady loved his panda, "Maggie". The picture below is priceless. Brady didn't know what to think of his cookie.
When we arrived at school, Wes gave Ms. Martha her boxed treat and we explained how he was practicing being kind. Now, if he gets upset or grabs something out of his brother's hands, we simply ask, "Was that kind?" He usually will say "No" and we decide on something else to do to make both boys happy, like asking for a turn or just finding a different activity to do instead.
The other activity Wes loved this day was making lassos. We practiced roping animals and leading them to the corral.
Day 4 we practiced our cutting with the hobby horse activity. Wes is starting to get cutting a little bit more on his own, but I am still ready for hand over hand help. We fringed the mane and then glued it to the horse. It's amazing that with all of the toys we have, Wes finds a lot of joy from racing with this horse head on a stick. We have used it almost every day!
Since letter H is the letter of the moment, we used the cards and some objects to talk about the letter H. I used horse and hat objects because that was what is referenced on the day's cards AND the alphabet poster.
Because this type of activity is fairly new to him, we kept the items close by on the table and really worked on identifying the items horse and hat. I asked him to point with his pointer "h" to hat, then to the horses. I asked him to use the pointer to point to the hat card and horse card. Then I asked him to take the cards and put it in from the objects and then match the objects on the card.
And, while playing with playdoh, we decided to make the letter "H". We also used small horses to make imprints in the playdoh with the body and hooves.
We made horse trail mix, which included "hay" (shredded wheat), "oats" (cheerios), "grass" (crunchy chow mein noodles), and "apples" (dried apples). I put them in bowls and had Wes "feed" his horse and make baggies of mix for the horses to eat. Wes took turns letting the horse "eat" and then he would try it. We practiced being "kind" and asking Brady if he would like to try the treats as well.
Day 5 I used washi tape to make a huge "H" on our carpet. Both Brady and Wes took turns walking, crawling and jumping over the "H". We even did the "Hah-Hah" dance sounding out words that started with "H". It was a great way to incorporate gross motor and phonics!
Here are a few photos from Wes' journal this week. We drew a photo of Wes with a lasso and on another page we made a horse pin from twigs we gathered outside.
Thanks for following our journey this week! As you can see, we are having a blast with the program! You will get to see more of Brady next week! He's officially on summer break as of Tuesday! For more information on Mother Goose Time, please visit them at www.mothergoosetime.com.
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