2015

My poor severely neglected blog – what happened to this year? I almost feel this is when a new blog should be started, but then since I am writing so little, it makes sense to keep the same blog where it will still be ok to blog as little as I like.

Initially I thought I would discuss what we have been using for homeschooling, but it really is too late in the year now to start a curriculum post – we are mostly using curricula where we just move onto the next thing.

South Africa has entered another stage of Load Shedding. This happened in 2008 when L was just a baby, however there was light (I know, I know…) at the end of the tunnel. Now there is not much hope and people are settling into expected black outs of 2-4 hours duration 1-2 times a week at least. We have heard the sound of generators humming outside shopping complexes on certain weekends and seen many CLOSED signs while the traffic backs up at traffic lights that have stopped working. This was L teaching K to draw by candle night one evening.

K has been doing gymnastics at the same gym where L has now started competitive levels. Both girls are stronger and more balanced as a result of the gymnastics and both of them have grown in confidence.

K’s reading has come on nicely this year – no, she is not really reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid – she just wants to copy her older sister. She is reading very early chapter books and has a fair amount of stamina for reading for her age. She is still working on some of the more complex phonics, but is reading with a good amount of fluency.

My daughters went on field trips with other homeschooling families while I was working and continued some of their school work during this time when staying with a friend of mine who also homeschools – I was very grateful for this help.

The girls did come to work with me once or twice however and learnt a lot while there.

In Science the girls have been learning about heat, insulation, the effect of pressure on heat. It lined up very nicely with our studies in SOTW3 where we were learning about James Watt and steam engines at the same time. This photo shows my girls being insulated in our cold winter weather.

Despite the lack of blogging and a very busy year, the girls have learnt a lot. We are planning a big move sometime next year and life will be chaotic in the months to come; homeschooling fits in very well with our lives as they are now enabling our children to learn both from books and from life. Obviously there has been a lot more going on than what these photos show, but I thought I would just touch base and let people know we have not disappeared.

Day in the Life – 14 October 2014

We had to empty our pool again this year (we neglect it badly in winter) so the girls were really keen to swim while it was filling up and before we added the chemicals. This is when homeschooling is fun and when you realise that schooling can work differently. My girls have been trained that what Mom says goes when around the pool or they lose the chance to swim for quite some time which is why I could get them out the water and get them to do school in between swimming.

Very early on in the morning soon after the water had been turned on.

L does not seem to feel the cold.

K in the deep end early in the day.

And time for some work – they ran around in the sun to dry and then towelled their arms before they came to do some work. L is doing her Maths in this photo and K has started writing worksheets to learn letter formation.

K then took herself to her bedroom and read a book independently (this is Ladybird 3c) School on your unmade bed while dressed in your costume.

L in the meantime was stirring up a concoction in the back garden.

I didn’t take photos of everything – since it was getting warm they had ice lollies and some fruit for a snack and I read SOTW2 to them during snack time. As the water got deeper and the children were actually swimming, they also got a lot colder. Then school work happened with towels draped around them.

Being diabetic I also have to keep checking my sugar levels to make sure I do not go low. They actually ran pretty well this day.

We moved the tables into the shade and L did her spelling and other language arts. We had done reading earlier in the day on the grass. L is reading The World around the Corner by Maurice Gee. K was starting Ladybird 5b. I also did some phonics with K who is working on the silent E and long vowels at the end of short words.

When I prepared lunch I brought K into the kitchen and she helped me dish up while working on Maths – how many plates do we need? If each of us has 2 spoons of tuna then how many spoons do we need for all of us? If L wants an naartjie and K wants a banana and I want an apple then how many pieces of fruit do we need and so on. We also did some patterning. K also heard a story and told me what it had been about while I wrote it down for her.

Then it was lunch time. L finished Reasoning and Writing C (extension 4) and while we ate I read them Jungle Doctor pulls a leg. And after that it was time to swim some more and then pack for gymnastics – they have back to back classes (K first then L) which end at 18:00 so after a late supper and a story both girls were really tired – it had been a busy day. However this type of day works very well for my eldest as she is very active and needs the physical exercise between the sit down work we do. I may continue this through summer though not every day.

Birthdays and a Holiday Week

L had her 7th birthday on 14 September and my husband’s birthday is 4 days later. L had a sleepover the Friday before her birthday with a few friends and we went to L’s Nana and Grandad’s house for tea after church on her birthday. We then left for a week’s holiday on the Monday. We stopped homeschooling from 13 September and will start again next week as we had all earned a break.

A very excited birthday girl

L on her 7th birthday

We stayed at a farm on the border of Lesotho. Here are the girls running along early in the morning.

Setting up the chess set which they played a few times while on holiday.

The girls spent a fair amount of time feeding the bunnies, naming them and attempting to cuddle them.

Resting – isn’t that what holidays are for?

We went on a number of walks – some of this we tied with the homeschooling we had been doing looking at sedimentary rock and there were also some fossils in the rocks. Both girls managed very well on the walks (and I think the adults did too!)

K found some sand very like beach sand that she had to stop and play in.

The girls going into a fairly open cave with Dozer the dog who lives at the holiday resort:

We saw some interesting rocks:

Crossing the river on a swinging bridge:

Swinging back at the resort:

Milking the cows:

K and L on a led pony ride:

L also went on a longer ride with me. Joseph was our guide.

Back in the house and playing on the stairs:

The girls could get close to the male emu. The female and her three babies were in another enclosure.

Spring had sprung and there were some amazing, beautiful areas full of bright colours.

K near the apple trees in full blossom (in the background).

K spent a lot of time playing with toy animals as well as visiting the live ones. The holiday did her good and she got glowing chubby cheeks which we have not seen before on our little girl.

Both the girls (and even their mother – can you believe it) climbed into the icy water and had a swim. The days were warm enough that we did cope.

It was a lovely break and now we will head back to homeschooling for the final quarter of the year as summer approaches.

Spring Day

The morning in pictures:

Not our usual breakfast, but at least the children ate this time.

Unit in BFSU on Fossils – making sedimentary rock in a bottle which the children both ran around the pool to shake up before allowing it to settle.
We also watered the vegetable garden and did a brief discussion for K on what plants need to grow and for L on why a vegetable garden is prepared the way it is.

Showing the already settled bits in her bottle.

L had to write some grade 1 assessment papers today as our year runs January to December and I want a record of the year in some form. She did the Maths and English paper today.

K while L was busy – not sure what exactly she was doing 🙂

Checking on the settling sand and playing with the puppy

K drawing a picture – these antics on the chair remind me of L at the same age – and looking at today’s photos they do eventually learn to sit down (well some of the time)

Both girls read to me while we sat outside and had a snack. This photo was partly posed after the reading.

Examining some flowers coming up in the garden because it is Spring Day

Back to work: logic problems and a numbers worksheet

Both children do get one-on-one time while the other takes a break. K loves working with preschool sticker books so we did a few pages.

This is Reasoning and Writing Level B’s extensions which I started with L a while ago that teaches factual writing from pictures. The lessons have been short and sweet – I show the pictures on the computer as I have been unable to get the books any other way and we are not using it as a full curriculum. We also did WWE2 later in the day.

K plays this phonics game where I write out a few sounds and today some sight words and then get her to place a duplo block on the sound or word I say. Once she has covered them all she takes them off and then tells me where to place the blocks.

This was not the end of the day, but the end of my photo taking. A friend called and we went to a Nursery to look at flowers and feed the bunnies as well as look at other pets, rush around and play on the jungle gyms. Then we came home and trained the dog some and L finished the last of her Math with more outside play time until we began the bedtime routine, lots of read alouds and Bible stories.

August 2014

Spring will start here soon. We are in the middle of a cold front right now though and it is bitterly cold (ok for where we live – people might laugh at me complaining of windy chilly weather when they will be experiencing blizzards in the near future). We planted a vegetable garden recently though my old dog likes to lie in the middle of it so who knows what will grow. Our one-eyed three-legged dog got picked up by someone who never returned him – we searched through shelters and phoned all the vets, and though the SPCA had had a call from the person who picked him up, they did not have her details and she never did return him. Having lost two dogs in a short space of time, I decided to get a young dog for L – her name is Lilly and she is digging holes in our lawn, chewing our wrists and devouring the children’s toys, but we love her and she is very sweet. (She looks guilty cause she is on the couch)

August has been a rough month for me. Work was crazy the few days I worked, my car broke down twice and is still in for repairs as I type this, the electricity company disconnected our electricity in error and though they admitted it was a fault on their part it still took 3 days to get it reconnected and numerous phone calls of complaint and then 3 days after they reconnected it we had a power outage in the area which luckily only lasted a few hours, but I was not impressed. K who was potty trained is again not… it may be the stress we have been under, but I will keep an eye on it just in case it is something else.

Despite August being rough there have been some fun moments and my girls have kept me smiling:

Homeschooling did however move on even despite all these things. K is listening to an enormous amount of read alouds and her vocabulary is growing. She still has the speech and chewing issues she had before however and seems to have almost no appetite so I will have to look at that further. She has been doing more phonics, playing Brainy Blocks/Mastermind and continuing at a slow pace with MEP Reception.

L is moving through Reasoning and Writing book B and has started Writing with Ease Workbook 2. We continue with our own spelling and she reads a lot independently now though she is still reading to me daily too. She reached LOF Ice Cream and is now learning all multiplication facts though I have slowed right down with LOF as she needs to get the facts better memorised so that it is quicker for her. She did move on to Singapore 3a and that is going well.

Gymnastics is going well for both girls and we will soon be heading for the end of year competitions and end of year functions.

July 2014

I worked a fair amount through June so the homeschooling slowed down for a bit and picked up again through July. It has been bitterly cold in our house and sometimes we went outside just to listen to stories or took the table outside so that we could do lessons there (our house is colder inside than out at midday in winter). The sun is now starting to rise a little earlier and set a little later again so we know spring will be on its way soon.

A number of things have happened this year involving our pets. Our three-legged dog (he lost the leg as a puppy before he belonged to us) lost one of his eyes as well – I still do not know how it happened, but we woke to him with a very sore eye and had to take him to have it removed. My daughter was very distressed, but her dog has recovered well and copes just fine like that – I just hope he will stay out of trouble now though.

My elder dog started getting very irritable lately and was getting arthritis as well as having a few sores (he bit his tail all the time chasing it round and round) and one day he bit my youngest daughter while we were out in the garden. I had her at the emergency room as the wound bled a lot, but she was fine. However I had to decide to put our dog down which was very difficult, but I knew things would only get worse because he was getting more stiff and more irritable and with young children I couldn’t take that risk. I miss him a lot and so do my children.

K has been at a paeditrician because I was worried about her speech and chewing and also the fact that she weighs barely anything because she eats so little. We are now seeing a speech therapist who tested K in her language abilities up to age 5 and said she was functioning quite fine up to there so she didn’t test further, however she does have articulation problems and could not even blow bubbles so now she does exercises for this and things are improving slowly. I am also working to get her to chew her food better.

In July L went to a Holiday Club at our church where she had a lot of fun. I think she was quite sad when it ended.

As far as homeschooling goes I have changed a number of things that we are doing.

K continues with MEP Math and just general counting and basic Math sums with items around the house. She read Put me in the Zoo recently and is now reading Little Bear. We continue with phonics from OPGTR but very slowly as K only does school when she wants to. She has started the 4 year old abcjesuslovesme curriculum having finished the 3 year old one recently. She is showing a lot of interest in writing and is learning letter formation when she requests it.

Here is a picture of doing Math while playing with the tyres in the garden – it used up a lot of energy!

Both children came to The World of Dogs and Cats with their friends and had a lot of fun. There were other domestic pets there besides just dogs and cats and they also had shows – the girls saw dancing with dogs and flyball.

K has been doing preschool gymnastics at the same place that L does her gymnastics. She has been having a lot of fun with it.

L finished her gymnastics level and started the next level. This picture shows them at the warm up before the final testing for her level.

With L we started with Life of Fred late last year and she is now doing Honey and learning her multiplication facts slowly. She has almost finished Singapore 2B. She has also finished the first Logic Safari book and begged for the second one so we are doing that now and I still cannot keep up with her – she races through those and enjoys them a lot.

This is an image from her Maths workbook which she uses mostly for Life of Fred right now.

She still reads aloud to me though is reading more independently and has read a number of chapter books in quick succession. She started cursive handwriting recently and we are slowly moving through all the letter formation. We also started Reasoning and Writing B but are moving quickly through that and she is using First Language Lessons (an archived book) though again we take that very slowly. She is also doing a little creative writing and some narrations.

We are nearly finished BFSU1 and her understanding of basic scientific elements is very good – I will now need to look at BFSU2 and decide where to take her next. She continues moving through SOTW2 for history and I think I am learning more than she is.

My own personal news this year was that I managed to get an insulin pump. It has changed the way I handle the type 1 diabetes a lot and I am very glad I could get one. Besides the advantage of dropping the amount of injections I have per week from about 60-70 down to only 2, it is also easier to control and results in better sugar levels and I also do not have to do as much mental math as I was doing during the training for the pump but while still on injections. I have been on it now just over 3 months and I cannot imagine going back to daily injections.

An Update

I have never been very good at blogging – maybe my expectations for myself are just too high to actually get it done, or I am too lazy, or life really is just too busy. Nonetheless I guess writing every now and then is better than never.

My children have grown a lot since I last wrote in here – L started Grade 1 this year – well she goes to grade 1 classes at Sunday School and is in the 6 year old gymnastics class and K who would only be eligible for a grade 000 class starting next year is doing preschool activities at home with us.

I do not really have a set curriculum for L. This is what we have used in the first three months of this year:

English: We have done a few chapters of Grammarland including the worksheets (this was started last year and we continue slowly through it this year)

            : Reading: she reads to me a chapter a day of various books. So far this year she has read – Pioneer Cat, The Children of Noisy Village, Sable, In Aunt Lucy’s Kitchen, The Invisible Dog, Sophie’s Adventures

             : Read Alouds: I read to her daily and we have read many books this year – usually I am reading from at least 2 books simultaneously that are not part of other curricula she is doing. She also does hear poetry.

             : Writing – Laurana’s handwriting has improved a lot.  Her writing is a mixture of spelling words, dictation sentences, comprehension exercises, sentences for other subjects and some worksheets. At some point creative writing will start in more earnest. 

             :Vocabulary is done as part of reading and when I am reading aloud to her. Phonics is taught during reading as needed (it is seldom needed at this point)                  

              Spelling: We are doing the Dolch word list for spelling this year – I have arranged it phonetically and teach the associated rules at the same time and introduce any other words that follow the same rules at the same time. Mostly this is done through a precheck spelling list and then dictation sentences to practice any words she sticks on.

 

Maths: We are using Life of Fred and started Edgewood recently – she is still moving quite rapidly through them, but we just take it as it comes and will slow down as needed when we get to later books.

          She is also doing Singapore 2a which we have almost finished. We do move around multiple Math curricula and books though as needed both for depth and to give us a break when things have been heavier for a session.

Science: We have been using BFSU (Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding) more formally this year than last year – she does a worksheet or writes a key phrase/sentence after each lesson and draws or writes up experiments we do, but it is still not a totally formal subject and we have a lot of fun with experiments and games.          

History: We are doing Story of the World 2: Middle Ages with some additional reading and the occassional colouring page or worksheet. Again this is not formal and mostly is done as a read aloud with some map work to explain where the countries are.

Afrikaans: I am teaching Afrikaans as a second language though we have not done much of this and I need to improve the teaching and decide what it is I want her to learn this year.

Geography: We have been reading A Life Like Mine, geography is also covered in the science curriculum above and my husband does “Map Monday” with her where he teaches her a country of the world and the news associated with it (this is current events too) in a child friendly manner.

For Bible we are still reading through Leading Little Ones to God and I will make further decisions when we get close to finishing it.

We also use Easy Peasy Grade 2 and Year 2 curriculum though not totally – we do the activities I think are appropriate for her and that add to our other curricula or are additional subjects that would not have been covered otherwise.

 

 

K is using two curricula at present: We use the 3 year old abcjesuslovesme.com curriculum as a continuation of last year and she is doing Easy Peasy Getting Ready 1. She has also recently started MEP Reception for Maths, though we have not done much on this yet.

I am also teaching her sight word reading as well as phonics and she is reading both I see Sam Books (we have got as far as Book 10 to date) and The Ladybird Key Words Reading Scheme where she is on Book 3a at present. I see from other posts that we did these books last year, but decided to repeat them and start again after a long break – it was the right decision. For phonics she can blend cvc words as well as words with beginning and ending blends (and this despite the fact that her speech is not yet very clear) so at some point when I think she is ready we will have to move to the consonant blends and also the long vowel sounds and see how that goes. I did teach her EE and SH the other day with a fun game that had her shrieking and laughing, but have not seen if she can apply it to words yet.

We read aloud to her from 3-15 books a day depending on how the day is going – its probably usually closer to the smaller number.

Both girls are attending gymnastics classes and they also attend a chess group and a homeschooling group all once a week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Day of Homeschooling

Since I really struggle to get my camera out during school, I decided to take it out for a full day and snap photos all day and then I could ignore it for the next few days. Most of the photos in this post then come from one day of homeschooling. (And this was a day they requested to wear matching clothes if you are wondering) I did add a few extras we took at other times in the last two weeks at the end of this post too.

Our day starts with the girls playing (usually alone while I get the other child dressed and see to breakfast), saying goodbye to Dad and then we eat breakfast together before any schooling starts – we usually start at about 09:00. This particular morning L was brushing her hair and playing with toys in her sister’s room. Riding motorbikes also happens all day in our house (and outside our house) by one or other of the girls – sometimes even around the dining room table.

After breakfast we started with physical education – a fancy term to mean run around and burn off some energy as my eldest in particular is very active and needs to move a lot before she can sit down even for a short time. During this period we run, hop, skip, play certain games, do ball skills and work on gross motor skills with K also.

We then went indoors and did our Bible lesson. I am using http://www.abcjesuslovesme.com with both girls – the age 2 and 5 curricula. It means that both of them actually do two Bible stories a week as they both listen in on each other’s lesson and I just have not yet figured out a way to do one lesson with both of them – but no one is complaining so that is ok. Usually they colour or paint a picture or do a craft for the lesson. This week’s lesson was on the Ten Lepers and being grateful.

L then had a break while I turned to K who had been riding around the motorbike for a while. I did some word flashcards with her – she is reading book 2a of Ladybird now, but we still use the flashcards quite often.

We then moved on to science – we are doing different biomes and had started with the desert so I did a craft with both children of a cactus at sunset.

And then we had a quick snack and some play time. The reason K’s face is covered in pink stuff is that I had bought dragon fruit at the shops and they were trying it for the first time – K loved it. L – not so much.

After that I did reading with L – she was reading Tippy Lemmey and because she reads on my lap we posed the following photos – K’s not quite up to taking photos yet. 🙂 We also worked on two digit addition with borrowing using manipulatives.

After another break, we started doing more science – I set them up painting a desert landscape – L also painted a world map to show where all the deserts are. While they were busy I read a whole host of books to them – short sections in many of the books about deserts and desert plants and animals and also some fiction and poetry that was related in some way to the topic.

K was so taken by all the books that I found her literally pouring over a particular book later that morning.

L went off to play outside and I made lunch with K in attendance.

After lunch L did a quick handwriting worksheet and then the girls got changed and ready for dance class. The girls wanted to pose for photos before the class and then since we arrived early at the dance class I let the girls play around on the jungle gyms.

After dance class, our day was pretty much over and the rest of the afternoon and evening was spent playing.

Here are some more things that we have done during homeschooling in the past couple of weeks:

1. Drawing Nasca lines in our back garden after reading about them in SOTW1. K also enjoyed this activity.

2. Finding some desert plants on a walk around our block.

3.. Visiting the yebogogga underground science exhibit at Wits University.

L with a stuffed leopard.

Brushing sand off a “fossil” to identify it.

While this exhibit was mostly for older children, K did enjoy digging for fossils and also making dinosaurs out of play dough and colouring what was supposed to be a prehistoric creature.

4. Using up an entire tube of children’s lipstick in one afternoon. (They were both in on it.)

April already

I am just going to jump back into this and forget the apologies for neglecting the blog.

Winter is almost on us, the rain has mostly stopped, our swimming pool is no longer in commission and homeschooling (and work) continue. Valentine’s Day and Easter have also come and gone.

Sometimes it feels like we are not moving ahead, but when I look back I can see how much we have done.

Math:

L is almost finished the first book of Horizons 1 and has a couple more chapters to go in Singapore 1b. I will probably have to rewrite some of Singapore to teach South African money – my daughter asked me if something in the shops cost a certain amount of dollars recently. We have successfully started both multiplication and division using manipulatives and she seems to understand the concepts. She has not struggled with the Singapore Word Problems we have been doing now either.

English/Langauge Arts

We have been continuing with a self made spelling programme with dictation and L is doing alright with it though needs a fair amount of repetition to get a rule down. Her spelling has certainly improved since the beginning of the year however.
My husband went to America in March and brought home a lot of readers and other curriculum. L is now reading many of the grade 3 Sonlight readers and I also supplement with books at the same level that we already own. She is managing independent reading better now too and seems more keen on reading – I am guessing that it is because the stories she is reading interest her more now. Her reader at the moment is The Littles.
For creative writing we have been playing around trying to find something that works for her. She is not very keen to put pencil to paper though is quite capable of writing sentences. I do occassionally make her write some sentences for science or other subjects and she often draws pictures and writes something. More recently I started the Scott Foresman Grammar and Writing programme for Grade 1.
For handwriting she has been learning manuscript in lines and is doing well with this now. She has moved to copywork of short sentences.
Vocabulary is done when she is reading her books to me or when I am reading to her and I feel this is enough for this age.
I continue to read aloud to her daily. The latest two read alouds have been Mr Galliano’s Circus and The Return of the Indian along with numerous picture books and other books from the library.

Second Language

I am starting to teach Afrikaans using just a picture dictionary at the moment. I am still trying to research and try methods to determine what will work best here. I have also not yet looked at any curricula.

History

We have continued with SOTW 1 and are now somewhere around Chapter 26 – just finished with Ancient Greece. We have done a few projects and played a few games depending on L’s interest. I also continue to take whatever books I can find in our library about the topic as these also interest her at times.

Geography

My husband brought back an Usborne Sticker book on Explorers and both girls enjoyed this. I showed L where the explorers had travelled on our world map and she learnt a number of countries as well as a general lay out of the map this way. We also did Map Work and worked on the Earth’s spin, day and night (sunrise, sunset), North, South, East and West, labelling, drawing and following basic maps. We are about to start a unit on biomes which has a heavy geography focus. Today she painted a map of South Africa’s biomes as a start.

Science

We continue to use BFSU 1 and have covered a number of different topics including the ones listed above under Geography. We also covered food chains and life cycles.

Art, Music and Sport

L has been attending a dance class once a week. I would like to find another activity for her to get involved in as she could do with more time out of the house. For music we listen to youtube videos and sing many mornings and we do arts and crafts related to any of the subjects above. L is now more keen on arts and crafts than she was a year ago.

Playing soccer with some boys at church.

Bible

We have been working through the 5 year old Bible curriculum from http://www.abcjesuslovesme.com

K’s progress

K has been moving nicely through http://www.abcjesuslovesme.com 2 year old curriculum. She seems to have all her colours down now and knows a large number of shapes. Her speech has come on nicely and she is communicating better. She has also been reading to me and has made her way through both book 1a and 1b of Ladybird Key Words Reading Scheme. We have started book 2a recently but are taking it slowly as the smaller print size does seem to slow her down. I am also only ever having her read to me when she requests it which is not everyday. She still counts 1,2, 8, 9, 10 though occassionally we do get 1, 2, 3, 4 out of her. She does understand quantity to some extent. She is able to do 35 piece puzzles with minimal help.

K is growing up – she’s got more demanding, throws more temper tantrums, but at the same time loves to take part in everything. She is in many ways more independent than L was at the same age and wants things done her way most of the time – she chooses and dresses herself (with some help) and likes to help with whatever I am busy with.

Despite growing up K is still a tiny wee thing who fits into a doll’s pram (and loves it)

Kirima wanted her own shop after reading about Jane’s shop in Ladybird book 1b

Some photos of the girls:

In, out, round about

K did week 2 of ABCJLM this week. We did not have a book of the week this week so just read lots of different books everyday. The colour for the week was blue and K painted a blue cup and the letter B for blue using blue paint. I also made her some small books for each colour and she has loved having these read to her.

She covered the 3rd day of creation this week and made a picture of flowers using bottle tops and pasta. Later in the week we quickly covered the other 2 days of creation and painted sea creatures and made a polar bear picture.

We did spend some time reading a book called In, out and roundabout and then taught K some prepositions with fun actions. She already knew most of them besides between and next to and had a lot of fun showing me them.

under

on

next to

around

She played with a number of toys this week: puzzles, brainy blocks and we spent some time working on opposites by doing an opposites puzzle.

She now knows a-g of the alphabet (as well as a good number of other letters that we have not been concentrating on) and is sight reading more words than I realised – we continued with sentences and more sight words this week. It is hard to know what she knows as she is still not saying very much, but as her speech improves she is starting to let me know that she is taking it in. We will move on with other letters next week.

We continued to work on counting different objects – she likes to put her finger on each object separately and say “two two two.”