Reading, Writing and Numerals.

I have been busy all week getting the lessons ready for our Pink Language Series, and insha' Allah will get the Professors going on that from Monday. We went ahead and got started this week, on some BOB Book reading, Sandpaper Numbers and writing.

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BOB Books

One of the objects of the, Montessori Pink Language Series, is to get the Professors, recognizing and reading  the vowel letters, and short vowel words. Until now, I have read books to the Professors, and we have worked on vocabulary words, mainly on the moveable alphabet board or worksheets. They have not read from a book, on their own, as school work. Awhile back I asked around our local homeschool forums what books were recommended for beginning readers, and I got an overwhelming response for BOB Books. Alhumdullilah, I found the complete 5 box set on one of our favorite Montessori online stores, Masha' Allah. Each box set contains 12 books, which gradually increase in difficulty as you work through them. 

Alhumdullilah, all the praise and good reviews and recommendations were not wrong. These books are a perfect fit to our Pink Language Series, and to begin our book reading, Masha' Allah. 

A look inside the first book, Mat:

The words, and story line are simplified enough that the Professors can Masha' Allah, read with ease, and not get overwhelmed with long sentences. The book also adds a bit of humor, which the Professors like. 

The Professors have two dedicated 'book reading' times, during morning school time, and before bed. We start a new book at bed time, then review at school time. While Professor #3 likes to 'read' along, he has no interest in trying to figure out what the text actually says, he likes to narrate, and just be included in the process. 

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Sandpaper Numerals

Earlier this week I wrote about how I observed that one of the twins had no clue how to write his numbers. Its interesting, how one of them picked it up with no formal instruction, and the other one did not. So this week we got out our sandpaper numerals and did some sand writing. I had both Professors work on this, but these pictures are of the work of the one who was having trouble. Masha' Allah, you can see how helpful this activity has already been for him. Before this he was making X's and triangles to represent his numbers. 

Here is a close up of the Sandpaper Numerals. These are much more gritty than the letters. 

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Writing

To help catch up the Professor who is working on writing his numbers, I pulled out one, of a stack of workbooks, Masha' Allah, gifted to us over the years, to work our way through. This one deals only with numbers and math. Directly after their sand writing session, I had each Professor do a page or so of the work book. I like how the workbook combines the different writing activities, and its plain enough to not be overwhelming for them. 

Its also something that gradually increases in difficulty, so we can make use of it over time, insha' Allah. Masha' Allah, workbooks are such an easy, fun way to reinforce learning, or to just pull out for extra practice and fun : )

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