Proud Mom Moment

Last night, while I was dressing George for bed - Henry was playing in his room too. He got out his First Words Flashcards and starting reading the letters of the words on the back, then flipping it over and saying what it was.

I actually had my camera with me (I'm starting to make it a habit to carry this around with me throughout the day) - so I got a picture of him "reading".


He often did not read the letters in the correct order (left to right) - sometimes it was right to left, other times it was completely random. And he often screws up a, d, b and e, g, j -- but that didn't matter.

What matters is that there was one time when he said: 

m-o-o-n : MOON!

I felt like he was in a spelling bee.

It was perfect.

ABC = abc

I found this marvelous (not a word I normally use, but thought it was necessary) site: File Folder Fun - I'm in love with all the printables for learning! And they fit nicely in a file folder for easy storage (I'm already overstocked in craft/activity supplies and stuff).

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Matching lowercase to UPPERCASE letters.

I really wasn't sure if Henry knew his lowercase letters, 
so I thought this might be a nice test.
Plus they were hearts so even more fitting for Valentine's Day coming up!


Henry surprised me and knew probably 75% of the lowercase letters.
He had troubles with some - which was mainly because of the font of the letters (I was just a straight line, J had no line on the top, q had no curly q of a tail), so I markered over them.

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I got an awesome green file divider, that Henry picked out, in the $1 aisle at Target (though I think it was $2) - and these file folders fit perfectly in there for storage and Henry has easy access to them and I have a great place to store them now.

I'm kind of excited to try out some more fun file folder games from that site! Yay!

FREE printables - Link up!

I'm going to start a weekly "FREE Printables" linky - link up your blog post from the last week where you featured some free printables! 


There are no rules - just include your blog post in the linky below - and check out any of the others and Follow them as you wish. 


Next week, I'd love to feature one of the posters. I'll keep this linky open until Monday (1/24) - so add it before then!


Thanks for joining in!

craft : taped snow painting

I've been seeing a lot of these paintings going around and thought it would be a creative way for Henry to actually make something that was actually something.

I taped my scenery - a snowman and a few snowflakes. And an 'S' - to make this a learning experience, of course.

Then I let Henry have at it. We used washable acrylic paints - though, I recommend watercolors, we just didn't have any. I thought a wet sponge might give it the same effect - and plus it was a new painting tool for Henry.

This is what it looked like when Henry was finished painting.

We waited for it to dry - then peeled off the tape. Henry helped with peeling it off. 

The lower corner of it got super wet (I wonder how that happened... maybe the excessive squeezing of the sponge) and the tape peeled off some paper with it.

Just Playing with Play-Doh and Forts

Henry has been having a lot of fun just playing.

I think doing all these activities and crafts with him lately has increased his independence.

We pulled out the Play-Doh tub again and he's starting to explore a little more with it. 

He still made his usual - cookies. They were M&M this time. I tried making it a little educational and had him count his M&Ms as he put them on the cookies. 


I made number sheets with cookies with the corresponding M&Ms on it - and I printed out the numbers 3 and 4 (I thought it might be better to only do a couple at a time instead of overwhelming him with all 1-9.


He just wanted to make his own cookies - instead he wanted me to put the right number of M&Ms on the cookie print outs.

Henry wanted a snake - So I made him a nice long snake (sometimes it was a worm). He rolled it up in a spiral and said he was 'sleeping'. Then he stretched it out and decorated it (made it 'pretty').

He also wanted to make balls (like Grandma does) - and he played catch with Blue Dog (he's right next to him in all of these pictures, but I didn't get him in any of the pictures). Over and over he rolled the ball back and forth between him and Blue Dog.

I cannot wait until he's able to make these more by himself. That's how all the activities and crafts are that we do - a lot of me doing it, and Henry assisting. It will make my day when he does the majority of it, and me doing the assisting.

Henry's also been really into forts (again, built by me or Dad). He tries building his own, but can never get the cushions to stay in the right place. Right now, the only place he tries to build a fort is on the couch. Almost every day, the cushions come off - he gathers all the blankets he can find and asks me to build his fort. It becomes his house - he has a basement, attic and a roof. Sometimes he has more specific rooms. Most of the time he likes to be completely shut up with his flashlight, a pillow or two, and Blue Dog.

What activities do your kids like to do over and over?

Project 365 [1-14] (catching up)

I'm a couple weeks late in starting this - but I want to join in on the fun.


Project 365 is a challenge to take a picture every day for 2011 - I won't post a picture every day, but I'll do a weekly summary.


I looked back to the beginning of the year and I'm only missing a couple of days (I'll double up on the day after), so this is what I got for the first 14 days -- hopefully my pictures will be more creative as I get into this and not just simple snapshots.


FYI - I'm a little slow in blogging about some of the activities we do - so this will have a few sneak peaks in it too :)

January 1 [1/365]

Henry doing the marshmallow snowman craft on New Year's

January 2 [2/365]

Henry is helping me clean up Christmas stuff by loading his backhoe

January 3 [3/365]

Trying a game of Memory! -- Henry style.

January 4 [4/365]

Fixing in the Toy Box.

January 5 [5/365]

Henry's testing out the new play table his Dad made him.

(it was Christopher's train table when he was a kid)

  

January 6 [6/365]

Fixing his garage.

January 7 [7/365]

Henry tried making a castle out of canned food.

January 8 [8/365] - don't have any

January 9 [8 & 9/365]

Making pictures of Mom and Dad with Halloween stickers we found.

The Valentine Bakery window - the first one I decorated by myself.

January 10 [10/365]

George working on his pushups...

January 11 [11/365]

]

George again, getting a workout!

January 12 [12/365] - don't have any

January 13 [12 & 13/365]

Henry building his fort - or playing in it at least.

George is checking out his newfound toy - the Exersaucer!

January 14 [14/365]

My new favorite picture of Henry - with Blue Dog.