Creative Free Time

G is a very creative guy. He gets that from his daddy. They are both on a never ending quest to figure out how to make things. Quite often during free time, G will wander around the house looking for things to use for his newest project. Yesterday the project that came to his mind was puppets. Now remember, he did this on his own with no help from me other than my approval of the materials he wanted to use. He used paper lunch bags, tape, markers, popcorn seeds and mini marshmallows (for the eyes, mouth and nose). Here's what he came up with:

Later in the evening, he used paper bags cut into strips and some tape to make himself into a helicopter. He taped the strips to his head for the blades, then he twist-jumped off the couch so his blades were spinning. LOL!

I Had to Laugh

Today G was playing a Jump Start learning computer game and he asked me if he should choose the 1st grade level.

"Why? Is the Kindergarten level too easy for you?", I asked.

"Well, yeah. It's kind of lame." was his answer.

I had to laugh.

Phonics Curriculum Review

Well, we've settled into a phonics routine and it is working very well. We've been using Explode the Code Online and Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. We alternate back and forth for a bit of variety and also to spend extra time on harder concepts. I'm amazed at how well he's picking up on new lessons. We've recently learned the sounds for sh, ch, and th, and we'll be moving on to the silent e soon. I'm very happy with the progress we've made recently. I find him reading signs as we drive around town. It's a very exciting time!!

Another 100!

This time, it's sit ups. Daddy made a deal with G that when he can do 100 sit ups, he will earn $5. 10 sit ups and 10 push ups a day has been a part of our weekday routine for the past month or so. G started out not being able to do even one sit up by himself. Just a week or so ago, he was able to do 10 on his own, and by the end of last week he did 20. Today he told me he was going to do 100, and he blew me away when he actually DID IT! We were both so excited, and he got to call daddy on the phone to tell him the good news. It just goes to show that if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything. Haven't I heard that somewhere before? :-)

Love Note

G came out of his room the other day and gave us this note. I think it's about the sweetest thing I've ever seen! It says, "Dear Mom and Dad, I love you very much 100 times." Talk about melting my little heart. This is definitely one for the scrapbook.

Johann Sebastian Bach

This week we learned about Johann Sebastian Bach. We read a few children's books about him, listened to his music, and learned about sound and how we hear it. We talked about sound waves and vibrations and we enjoyed doing the projects we found in Sound and Light by David Glover. We also read Ears are for Hearing by Paul Showers and learned about the parts of our ears and how they work together to enable us to hear. Being the cat lover that G is, we went a step further and also found out that a cat's ears have the same parts and work in the same way as human ears, but cats are able to hear higher pitched sounds than humans or even dogs can.

Counting Machine

My little couldn't-care-less-about-counting man has officially hit another counting spurt. He did this once before when he was 2 and was counting everything in sight. He is a counting machine! Whether he's in bed, riding in the car or just wandering around the house, he's counting. Last week he had not yet counted to 100 on his own and this morning the first thing he wanted to do was show us how high he could count...223! It's so much fun to see these bursts of learning, and his excitement about it.