Toddler Beginnings Week 11

My notes on Mavi's homeschooling for Week 11

Date: July 5 - July9, 2010

Source: Bright Beaming Resources

Instead of presenting each activity we've done this week, I just wanted to present the "highlights" to make the post brief :-)

I am still implementing the theme approach of the letter of the week. but I also expanded the themes so as not to focus on category alone.  For example, this week, the category is "body parts", next week I might go for categories "nature", "relationships", "objects" etc.  Usually the theme for the week depends on Maverick's current interest and if my materials are sufficient as well.

We've been having the "handpainting" for quite a while now, and I got the notion to preserve it.  So with a poem which I got from the internet, I made him do it on this printed paper which I will laminate so .  Cute no?

Maverick's right hand at 22 months

He's a little agitated whenever I put a paint on his palm. But when I started to press his hand on the drawing book, he was so happy to his hands on it.  He already got the idea of why I was painting his hand, and learned that he can use watercolors to paint his hand.

This week, I was a little bit inspired by some homeschoolers that I made a little effort on the letter K activities.

I printed out this Letter K worksheet from here, and showed to Mavi.  From this, he learned the words that starts with a letter K.  Since we don't have a kangaroo, kite and a king in the house hehehe, the only thing I showed him were the keys.

Before:  letter K activity

Then using the crayons, I instructed him to color each picture: kangaroo, brown color; kite, orange; keys, gray and king, red.  So it's not just the letter K that he is learning here, but to follow instructions as well.  Of course, he's not adept in picking up the right crayons yet, so I have to hand him the crayons one by one. 

After:  Letter K activity

Oh! And another thing is the tracing of the letter K.  He likes it soooo much. In fact he was more glued on us, tracing the letter rather than the colors.  This is also a good way to teach him the small and big letters, although he knows them already.

Now, for "Fine Motor Skills" activity, we did lacing for the week.  I think I might do this thing for a while.  It's been the only thing that Mavi can't really "get" the idea of what lacing is all about.  All he does is put the lace on the hole, and that's it! Hehehe.

I made these for our lacing activity. It's quite simple if you have plenty of time to do it, but as for me, it took me quite a while to gather all the materials needed.  I didn't print the letter, I wrote it personally using rulers and pens. Supposedly, it should be made from something hard, like cardboard paper, but it's not available here hehe.  Or you can laminate the letter, then punch a hole.  But of course, I don't know where I can find that here.  So you see, we don't have enough resourced here but I am still finding a way to teach Maverick hehehe... extra effort.  If only we're in the Philippines... wala sanang problema.  Lahat meron!

Letter K lacing card

Here he is.  I first showed him what to do, after which, handed him the letter and let him finish.

Lacing a letter K

Here's a video of our activity.  Hmmm... I might as well be adding videos on my post :-)

He's happy everytime he manages to put the lace on the whole, exclaiming "woowww, gooly good!" meaning, "wow, very good!".

Happy with the lacing activity

Doing the activity

As for the outdoor activities and play, it's hard to take pictures now that he's everywhere whenever we're out of the house. So I don't have photos taken, but I assure you, he's getting a lot of outdoor play and nature study.  Ako pa!

By the way, we've been dancing every afternoon this week to the music of Lady Gaga hehehe. Forgetting about playing the nursery rhymes, I kept on dancing on Gaga's songs and Mavi was liking it too!  He's dancing so hard that by 9PM he gets so tired and sleepy already.  Hahaha, so now, to make him sleep early all we just have to do is dance in the afternoon! So, I wonder what music are we gonna to next week?

That's it for week 11. Hoping for a fruitful week 12 :-)