Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Valentines Week

This week instead of doing the letter "B" we took a detour to talk about hearts for Valentines. 

I ended up getting sick so we had to skip a few activities (and adorable outfits).

Coloring hearts:

I asked her what the first letter in each word was, then what color it was, and told her to color that heart that color. She actually followed the directions and did a great job! 


Jelly beans on the heart:


 The actual intent: pennies on the circles:

Counting hearts:


Sorting heart beads: 


I was able to catch them in a few Valentine outfits. And a few random highlights from the week. 





Sunday, February 8, 2015

Learning - letter A

Ella and I took a little hiatus from school when Evie was born but we are both in need of something to spice up the day - so we are hittin' the books!

Over our break we casually worked on her numbers and she can count to ten from memorization. If you point to the individual objects she can count them correctly, but left to her own devices 3 cows magically turns into 8. :) Because she is decent with the numbers and I can easily integrate counting into most activities, we are skipping forward to the alphabet.

As a starting point, she can sing through the alphabet (thanks to YaYa's LeapFrog bus present for Christmas -- she loves that toy -- and doesn't even realize she is learning). There are a few trouble spots -- "H, I, M, N, O, ..." and sometimes when she gets to "X" so goes back to "T, U, V" due to the similarity in sound between "S" and "X" when pronounced by a 2-year old.

Our starting point: The Letter A.

She's been watching Netflix when I'm feeding Evie so I've integrated a few LeapFrog shows for her to become more familiar with the letters. She has watched "Scout and Friends: Phonics Farm" which goes those each letter and a coordinating animal for each letter. There is also a great vowel song that we love. (And Ella actually says vowels quite clearly). We also have watched "LeapFrog: The Amazing Alphabet Amusement Park" some of the concepts are beyond Ella (rhyming) but she has caught onto "Big A, little a".

I've added an alphabet poster to the fridge as well as on the side of the cabinets by the trashcan. I also taped up flashcards behind the glass front on our TV stand. Ella loved interacting with the color swatches I taped up last year, so I figured she would engage with the letters more this way. I think her favorite is the one on the fridge. I also pulled the letter magnets that came with the Priddy book from a yardsale (50 cents) for the fridge.




Our alphabet puzzle: 


Making letters out of dice:


And obviously standing inside them:


Covering up the "A's" with dice and pennies: 



Our friends lent us their alphabet floor mat. It's a huge hit with Ella! 

Sitting on the "A":

Coloring some worksheets: 


Using a word search to spot "A's". Ella is surprisingly quick at this! 

And sporting our Anchor shirt (which Ella pronounces "wanker")

Monday, February 2, 2015

Baby Face

We never posted baby pictures of Josh and I when Ella was born and we received the obligatory "whose baby pictures does she look like?" question. 

So here they are with all 4 of us. What do you think? 

Upper left: Josh; upper right: Ella; bottom left: Evie; Bottom right: Rachel

Rachel, Evie, Ella, Josh

Ella, Ella, Josh, Evie, Rachel

Snow!

Ella loves being outside and she loves snow! Luckily we have plenty of snow. Thanks Daddy for playing with her outside. :) 








Thanks Gram for the snowsuit! 

Sunday, February 1, 2015

Chuck E Cheese

What do you do when you are in Eastern Ohio with 7 hours before your parents fly out? Go to Chuck E. Cheese. 

Ella's first time.










Pretty much a sensory overload - but hey - she had fun! 

Thanks Gram for being on Evie patrol so Josh and I could follow Ella around :)