Today's roundup... We had Ciaran's preschool friends over today for a short lesson. I decided to try a different approach and have a more active lesson. As our family is working through B this week - we centered our activities around B. The kids played basketball and bounced the ball to one another and attempted to make the sound B while shooting baskets (this did not go over so well), they built with blocks and went through the items in our B box.

We traced the letter B on sandpaper, felt and foamboard and then the kids drew the letter B in rice, flour and oatmeal taking turns. They seemed to enjoy that part. I just put a big tablecloth on the floor and sat down with them and three bowls. Two of them kept going a little longer and then drew pictures that started with B like bird and ball and bee - though Ciarans favorite was the frog he made. The oatmeal and flour went over better than the rice.

Then we had a marching band (which was loud but fun) and even the older siblings got involved with that activity. The older kids also had B printout books for practicing writing B words and pictures to color. The younger kids left with some B coloring pages and a printout from Letter of the Week.

We had snack and played "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See" with some printouts I got here. By that point several children (namely my own) were nearing meltdown points and having a difficult time and everyone headed home. I was by that point wiped out and Rhiannon and Ciaran were just at each other just to be that way it seemed. It was as if Ciaran said "The sky is blue" she would say "No it isn't" just to be contrary. I tried coloring that did not work, I tried reading that did not work. So we had lunch and then off for naps (that is what was needed).

The afternoon went better, Rhiannon and I had some storytime and then she read to me from "Ben Bug" in the Primary Phonics Storybooks Set 1. We played with Sirah - then with Ciaran and then we played memory all together for awhile. Ciaran played with play-doh while Rhiannon made a ballerina crown and then finished writing out her B words from this morning. We played a math game I call "number before" where I give a number and she needs to tell me the one before. She got them all right up to about 15 - and she was fuzzy on some of the teens. We listened to Bach and Beethoven. We had such a peaceful afternoon that I allowed them to watch a movie while I make dinner and type up this review.

Peace,
Tenn