JD is 2!

I am so behind on blogging and so on but...we had so much fun at home with just mommy, daddy, Katie and Grandpa on JD's actual birthday.  It is hard to believe that this little guy is two years old.  He is such a joy to have.  He brings us a lot of laughter, hugs and kisses.

Preschooler Activities

Since Katie is not attending preschool yet (she'll be 4 in less than 4 months) I am constantly trying to make sure that I come up with good activities for her. I am putting some of what we've been doing together so that I can easily find it again.  : )

Thanks to The Talking words factory and the Letter Factory both Katie and JD know their letters and the sounds they make very well.  We also do puzzles and have started the hooked on phonics for  kindergarten for Katie.

The best learning to write book that I've found it the one that we call her "Gorilla book" because it has a gorilla on the front. This is one of the Kumon books and teaches Uppercase Letters.  I love this one because it is very basic.  It has the letters organized according to how they are written.  For example all the letters with curved lines are grouped together and so on.  Most books have you trace the letter a couple times and then have the child write 10 or so of their own letter.  This does not work very well on someone who has never practiced their letters before.  The Kumon books just have you trace each letter about 3 times or so.  Then there is always a review too.

Online I am working on some of the sight dolch words.  You can print them out for free and there is a list of activities that we are going to try.

So here is what I'll be doing.  I printed out set 1 which looks like the above.  You can print it out from here.

Next I printed out the pictures of the nouns above. You can print yours from this link.

Then I will cut them all out and do an activity similar to activity one from this site.

I'll start with phrases instead of sentences.  For example I might start with the word "a" and have her place it next to each noun and say the phrase.  Then I'll add the word "big."  I'll progress from there and see where it goes.

Update:  Check out how I turned this into a Spanish activity!

Nativity

This was FABULOUS!
My sister in law told us about this and we went together to a miniature Bethlehem.  We waited in a line about 3 or more blocks long but it was well worth the wait.

While in line Centurions, Herod, people on their way to Bethlehem and animals kept us entertained.





 Once we got to Bethlehem we had to pay our taxes and then sign the scroll for the census.









 


Then we walked through the town.  We saw people making bowls, leather, bread and selling fruit.






"And there were shepherds out in the hillside keeping watch over their flocks by night"

"a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
Glory to God in the highest,
      and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

So cold!!

It was pretty wet and rainey all day so we stayed inside the whole day. Towards the end when it was almost dark we just had to step out. It was so cold. I think it might have been 50 degrees. (Just checking to see if you're reading this Tami) I almost got rid of this hat earlier this year. I'm so glad I didn't. It brought me a giggle as soon as I put it on JD. The surprising part was that he kept it on. I think it was because Katie had her hood on and so he wanted one too. We had a nice walk around our neighborhood looking at some of the lights.

It's not funny! It's funny!

JD loves to climb all over this kitchen set that his Granny brought for him and Katie. Today he got stuck in the sink part. He and Katie took off all the removable parts as soon as they got it. It was difficult for me to get him out. I had to try several times.

Santa

This last Sunday we went to see Santa at the village. I love this Santa. No long lines, free, and you can take a bunch of pictures. Its great. Both Katie and JD were excited to see Santa this year. Katie even knew what she was going to ask for: cotton candy and a lollipop. (This kid likes her sweets.) But when the time came she got too shy and barely said a word. Then all the way home she talked about how she forgot to ask Santa for her cotton candy and lollipop. She was starting to get sad so we told her we could write him a letter.

These last two are from last year.  Look at JD.  Just a baby.

Here's the whole post from last year.