School's In Session

We've had a fun week since I last posted.  Friday we met a co worker of mine at the museum for the kick off of their Spring Break activities.  Friday the Kinetic King was there. He is this dude who was on America's Got Talent last summer and went pretty far setting up these elaborate domino/cup/ball creations that 'detonate' and then all collapse in a patterned fashion. Maddox worked with him Friday morning as he set up a mini presentation, Maddox put together her yellow cup bridge.  Way to go Maddox! 

Maddox working closely with the Kinetic King, left, to set up her yellow cup bridge.    The guy has the appearance of someone who works hours on end in his windowless basement  creating these really huge masterpieces.  Kinda scary looking with big thick glasses but relatively nice. Not super chatty as you could imagine. Kind of a solo type guy…. not that you needed to know that but I just sat and watched his mannerisms and his lack of personality as happy little Maddox worked along side him.  hmmmmm maybe kinda creepy…moving on….

Kennon once again was entertained by the large train table!! Which allowed me to hang with Maddox building creations.  Thanks to my buddy Megan who also kept an eye out. Even though we were outnumbered, our kids together vs the two of us it felt just a tad safer  having 2 adults watching out for the kids :) 

So I have become admittedly obsessive about the kid's curriculum the last several days. I am so thrilled that Aunt Diane has decided to feed my obsession :) by providing me with absolutely fantastic ways to challenge the kids daily on their letters. It is really amazing to see them learn. I have always known they were like sponges but to actually be teaching them the stuff that Kcare always 'took care of' is really fun, challenging at times, but I am thankful Diane has been an excellent resource for me the last few days.  The kids are going to work on a letter per week with separate but simultaneous activities that challenges their appropriate skill level.  So Monday we went on a 'K' hunt complete with labeled buckets with both kiddos searching for items in the house that started with K.  Then Maddox worked on writing her upper case K's and lower case K's while Kennon worked  on identifying them out in a hodgepodge type collage of letters. He actually knows his K really well so we decided to go ahead and  start E on Tuesday. We are still on E now and Maddox has been hard at work, writing her K's and E's.  She prints 4 K's and 4 E's to match her age per day…anymore than that and Aunt Diane says it's too much.    We'll start on N next week.  Diane says Kennon is most interested in his own name. Once we get through his name we'll move to the 'new' letters in Kies and then Maddox Eric and Laura etc then branching out to the other letters of the alphabet. Theoretically it will take us about 26 weeks to get through all the letters in the end with Kennon knowing all his letters by sight and Maddox betting pretty proficient at drawing all her letters uppers and lowers. She has been practicing her letters since last fall at Kindercare but needs some fine tuning on her fine motor skills.  Phew….. !! It is really exciting to work with the kids and don't worry we are still getting in plenty of playtime  and some cartoons and movies :) ( Frozen came out yesterday…. I think the Easter Bunny is going to grab it for Maddox…I can't wait to see her reaction)  There is a lot more to the above projects  to further the letter in the later days of the week, including use of magazines and newspapers, cutting out and identifying the Letter of the Week but in all honestly Diane I'm gonna need some clarification of that :)  A tad overwhelming! Thanks so much for all the recommendations. Thanks too to Grandma Jean who has also provided some education recommendations and encouragement!

Kennon marking his 'K's' with a noodle. 

Kennon was feeling under the weather Saturday night so he and I stayed home from church. He was actually diagnosed with pneumonia on Monday and was put on an antibiotic and steroids. He is doing better.  It must have been a walking pneumonia because he didn't really seem that sick! ooops.  Maddox has a cold now….. grrrr! C'mon Spring!

Saturday morning when I got back from the Y, Maddox and I loaded up our yoga mats and headed back to the museum ( having just been there on Friday morning…yes…we do live there practically…it is such a nice facility)   They do family yoga on Saturday mornings and we've never gone…. and still haven't yet!  Unfortunately it was cancelled with all the Spring Break activities. But, I hope to go again in a couple of weeks. She and I played in the museum by ourselves for a while before packing up. Since it was early on Saturday morning we had run of the place. Super nice. 

Maddox and more of her kinetic king creation

So I know one of the activities that Maddox did every morning at Kcare was 'the calendar'.  I quite honestly have been having a hard time keeping track of the days around here so I thought we should have our own. It poses a ton of learning opportunities with letter recognition, holiday education ( like for instance does anyone know what Remembrance Day is… came in the packet of holidays that I bought to go with the calendar and I have never heard of it…a little education for Mom) weather observance, timeline, the list goes on.   After 2 trips to the teacher store we now have a calendar in the basement.  So yesterday the kids set it up and I hope to make this part of our morning routine. Maddox knows all the days of the weekend but really does not remember the order the days go in as well as the months. Hoping this will help.  Don't worry I hear the voice of Grammy every now and then 'now don't push them too much Laura….. you'll push them away from learning'  So far I think we are good but the days are young. The other thing working against us since the transition is the weather. I think once the weather turns there will be less inside school time and more outside fun time.