Bathing Beauties and Banana Butterflies

F is for Frustrating Fish

While I read the book Blueberries for Sal, Peter used pattern blocks to make the word for.  This proved very difficult, because he was so nervous about the story that he kept having to get out of his chair to hide behind the couch.

Then we made a fish out of ripped and crumpled construction paper.  I thought this would be a nice, easy, low-mess craft, but it ended up being very frustrating for all parties concerned.  

Inexplicably, Peter couldn't rip or crumple construction paper even after I demonstrated many times.  What kind of kid can't rip things?  Elliot kept trying to eat the construction paper.  I decided to bail on the whole thing and tried to distract the kids to other activities, but then Peter started crying about not finishing the fish - even though mere minutes before he had been crying about having to make a fish.  Kids!!!

F is for Fat

Fat is one of the new CVC words Peter sounded out today.

Two Milestones for Peter

We started our F unit today.  That is certainly not a milestone; Peter has known all the letters for a very long time.  At this point we are simply using the alphabet to give us some cohesion - during this unit we will learn a few F sight words, read some F stories, practice writing the letter F and make F arts and crafts.

The first milestone is that Peter has started to sound out CVC words on his own.  He cut out four words, read them and correctly pasted them onto their pictures.

The second milestone is one that I have been waiting for for a long time: Peter walked all the way to his favorite rock and home again.  That is about 1.75 miles.  It has been frustrating when he couldn't quite make it there and back.  I would take the double stroller so he could ride part of the way, but then he would want to ride the whole time.  I would end up pushing both kids the whole walk which was good exercise for me, but wasn't tiring Peter out like I was aiming for.  Today I finally felt confident enough to just take Elliot in the single stroller and let Peter fend for himself.  He started whining a little over a mile into the walk, but we played games and sang songs to distract him and he made it home none the worse for wear.

Making a Fire Truck at Home Depot

Peter and Daddy went to the Home Depot kid clinic this morning.  It was fire truck week and they went all out.  There were fire fighters and fire trucks there.  There was a trailer that you could go in to practice crawling low to stay out of the (real) smoke.  There was a warm door to teach about feeling doors before you open them in case of fire.

Peter Taking Care of His Baby

Picking Pumpkins

An October Farm Trip

Perler Beads

Peter has been playing with his bucket of Biggie Perler Beads for over a year - but up until now he just used them as a sensory medium, something to push around with his backhoe or scoop up with a slotted spoon.

Today I pulled them out and showed him how to put them on the plastic frame and then I ironed his creations.  He went to town with this activity for over an hour and ended up with four different shapes of artwork.  He gave them to Nana and she said she is going to put hooks on them and use them as Christmas tree decorations.

The Rare Front-Winged Butterfly