Hello fellow bloggers/readers/moms/friends/stumble uponers!
Welcome.
The weeks following the ides of March were the kind where you loosely plan what you want to learn about the next day, and chuck it out the window when the time comes. Ahna seemed to be doing so much self directed learning, that anything I had planned would not seem to accomplish more learning. So I went with the flow.
Art/Fine motor/Nature
She is still keen on tracing letters so we are continuing in our letter book. A little perfect effort each time.
For our nature study unit these 2 weeks, we had the opportunity to watch a sunbird build its nest and lay eggs. Since the opening of the nest was on the other side to our window, we could not see much inside the nest but we did see the entire process of the build. It was spectacular. Ahna and I sat on the bed one morning and decided to draw the nest. She had also been learning how to sketch so she chose to draw a firm outline and shade the inside of it. I love watching her have ideas, implement it and assess to see if it was a good one. It is an amazing season of life to be able to see her little brain in action. What joy!
She visited the fish market with her dad one morning to buy the fish and cook it and eat it, and came back wanting to draw the fish market. She also narrated a little story about her trip and wanted me to write it on my drawing of the market.
Math
We did a little bit of numbers and counting using a puzzle and an activity. I introduced her to the concept of calendars and keeping time through different seasons. We read a book on how farm animals understand different seasons based on the changes they experience rather than the concept of a calendar. We saw the changes seasons over the year through the book and she made connections with our gardening seasons. Since then, she asks multiple questions about the days of the week, the months and seasons, so I look at that learning drive and eagerness and consider this as a little pandoras box well opened.
Reading/Science/ Bible/Narration/ Handicrafts
Since one of Ahnas most beloved things to do with mum or dad is to read, she is almost never done with the ‘last book’. She loves being read to and we really have to find creative ways to continue to engage with her in the story form. We do verbal stories that we make up, audio stories(which is her least preferred) and books! She enjoys stories is many forms. We have been encouraging her to tell us parts of the story back and she is able to narrate back with accuracy, parts of the story. This led us to start a new ‘big girl’ bible that her friend from church gave her. It has one picture on a page(if at all) and a lot more words. I started it not knowing if she is ready for it but she has taken to it surprisingly well. She understands she gets 1 reading and she gets to narrate it back to me while I write her narration back in a post it note and she gets to paste it on there. Her next Bible session, we begin with a recap of the previous story and take it along from there. I don’t expect excellent coverage of the narrative but I’m giving her opportunities to train her brain to listen more attentively with each narrative. The skill we are trying to grow is listening attentively. This will help her communication and people skills along with self-education later in life.
For her own reading skill, Ahna has been reviewing the letter sounds and practicing fluency in it along with some blending. I read in the 100 lessons for reading book that if the child is taking a bit to identify the letters, they are not fluent in it and we should strive for fluency before moving onto blending sounds. She prefers reading in real life settings now rather than a curated reading lesson. So in order to keep the love for learning alive, I grab reading opportunities while we come across them through real life. Her desire to blend sounds drives her to doing it at times but I dont have that as an expectation during our reading lessons.
For science we started observing and learning about the changing seasons. Ahna had been waiting so patiently to use a bigger puzzle for over a year and she asked if we could one afternoon while Hope napped. I thought I would surely end up completing it on my own while she lost interest in the first few minutes but I was pleasantly surprised at how she sat through the 30 minute long puzzle and contributed to joining the pieces.
For handicrafts, we did stitched a couple of sheets of felt together. Ahna was able to hold the needly firmly, insert it into the felt sheet where I marked a dot and poke it through. She is yet to learn how to keep the threads from getting tangled up, but I am so glad I remember vividly how many times I got my thread tangled up in the first few days. She is eager to learn how to stitch and measure and make things and the concept has entered her imaginative play. So another little pandoras box successfully opened. 🙂
