A Little of This and A Little of That

Monday, October 24, 2011

Since it was so nice outside yesterday, Gavin and Austin got to paint their pumpkins! Austin enjoyed it more this year then he did last year and they both spent a long time making their pumpkins perfect.

This morning Gavin read one and two-vowel words.

Austin worked on balancing.

Then he did a puzzle.

While Gavin worked on his cursive handwriting, Austin and I did something a little different. Since we have been raising Monet (who is still in his chrysalis) and Austin is so interested in caterpillers, we read the book 'The Very Hungry Caterpiller' by Eric Carle and then did some activities using the book as the theme.

First we did a caterpiller sequencing, smallest to biggest.

Then we did caterpiller shape matching.

When Gavin finished his cursive writing, we worked some more on telling time. First we read a book about telling time to the minutes (to five, not ones). We are working on learning the minutes so we played a memory game where you had to match the number on the clock with the number of minutes is represents, i.e. 4 and :20, 9 and :45. We used a practice clock for reference that includes both numbers today since it's our first day. It was tricky but Gavin enjoyed it as he does anything in game form.

By this time, Austin was playing with the dinosaur Playmobils.

After our game Gavin filled out a clock with the hours, then with the minutes (by five's not each individual minute).

In science we started learning about our senses. We read a couple books and then Gavin went on a 'touch' scavenger hunt. He had to find something soft,

something scratchy,

something fuzzy,

something rough (the chainmail on his Schleich knight),

something hard (his football player),

and something smooth.

So I did a little sewing this weekend too. I made a slipcover for the glider and matching curtains for the baby's room (who is still nameless, poor thing). But, the slipcover fits nicely and the curtains (I just sewed simple panels) are exactly the same size and fit the windows perfectly so I was very happy and pleasantly surprised.

Then I tried making a couple summer pillowcase dresses for next summer. I can't follow patterns so I just wing-it so my first attempt didn't come out super great but it is still wearable and not completely terrible. But, I will say, the top is not crooked as it looks in this picture for some reason, and they are both lined.

My second attempt turned out much better although it needs to be ironed. The fabric has little kites and butterflies on it and is super cute! I'm going to try and make a matching diaper cover in the pink since I used the same pink trim on both dresses.