Dot and her dog....

Masha' Allah, we've been cruising right along in series one of our BOB Books, and just completed book three titled Dot. A short story about Dot, her dog and a hat. As I mentioned the books gradually increase in difficulty, and we ran into some trouble.....

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The Book

The Problem

The body of this book contains longer sentences, and the twins kept trying to read them as either one big run on word, or jumbled words together. They are still getting familiar with capital letters starting sentences, and punctuation, etc. 

Alhumdullilah, I had an idea:

This is a common teaching practice, and one I've used in my own personal studies. Alhumdullilah, it did the trick, and with a little help at times, the twins are reading and understanding the sentences confidently, Masha' Allah. 

At story time we pulled out and Early Reader book I picked up from the library just to see what it was, and I have to say, Masha' Allah, our Dot book, and the one we are currently working on, are far superior in sentence structure and length, but not vocabulary.   

Looks like its going to be a good idea to make sure we make a good mix of the two. Insha' Allah, on our next Library trip, I'll be raiding the Early Reader section : ) Fun!

Lueker Munchkins: The Story of the World.

Our good friends, the Lueker Munchkins, have been studying The Story of the World curriculum this Summer, and have shared some informative, and inspirational posts via their blog in recent weeks. Below are a few links. After reading through these, I am heavily considering adding this as an extra to our curriculum studies. Enjoy.

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The Story of the World through the eyes of the Lueker Munchkins:

Weeks 1 and 2:

http://luekermunchkins2.blogspot.com/2012/05/story-of-world-weeks-1-2.html

Nomadic Farmers:

http://luekermunchkins2.blogspot.com/2012/05/first-nomads-become-farmers.html

Flooding the Nile River:

http://luekermunchkins2.blogspot.com/2012/05/flooding-nile-river.html

Bug Tray

One of our new activities has been making trays. Alhumdullilah, its been a wonderful evolution of trying to keep things organized, while keeping up with the creative whims of the Professors. They had mainly been art supplies, such as crayons, paper, stencils etc. Over the weekend the Professors did a little shopping at the Dollar store, Masha' Allah, and picked up some neat magnifying glasses that had a tube, that held card board bugs and tweezers. They were inspecting everything with them, so I decided to create a Bug Tray for them.

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One of the magnifying glasses

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My Bug Tray

I threw this together in the midst of the breakfast rush hour, so not too fancy, but, Masha' Allah they loved it!

Inspecting the tray, and adding and removing some critters

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Masha' Allah, later in the day Professor #2 informed me that he had created his own bug tray, and needed me to get a picture of it : )

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Masha' Allah, this turned out to be something the Professors all really enjoyed, and is still out on our classroom shelf. 

Sunflower Seed Update

It's been been about two weeks since we've posted and update on our Sunflower seeds. Masha' Allah, they are growing quite well, though one of the plants seems to have gotten a little nibbled on. The seed package says it takes 100 days for them to reach full bloom, and that is, insha' Allah, going to  be around the second week of June, not that long now.

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These pictures were taken on Saturday, May 12th. Masha' Allah, the plants have grown noticeably since then, and some are now being supported by small sticks. 

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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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Refreshing and Rearranging

Its been awhile since I've posted on the blog looks like. I have been busy with a sick Baby Professor, housework, and finalizing our learning track for the immediate future insha' Allah. I have also given some of my blog time to lesson planning during the Professors nap time, when I am alert and awake, instead of slumped over my laptop asleep, thinking I'm being productive, after they've gone to bed for the night. There won't be any pictures in today's post, but I will share a great link, and and update on what we've been up to.

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Twins Lessons

Through alot of informal observation, I have really nailed down that the twins want to read and write, now! I've been trying to take a step back and figure out how we are going to fit their thirst for this in, with the Spring, and Practical Life themes we've been working on, and continuing our Arabic, for which they are in a really good flow, Masha' Allah. So, we've decided to start the Pink Language Series. To see a very informative, and detailed post on just what this is, please visit my friend Lori, over at Montessori Moments, by clicking this link:

http://mymontessorimoments.com/2012/04/23/montessori-language-pink-blue-and-green-series/

Starting this series will help us cover both, reading and writing in one lesson, though first we will be 'writing' the words with our moveable alphabet, since we are still working on our sand writing. Here is an example of how we'll be going about this:

http://mymontessorimoments.com/2012/01/03/montessori-movable-alphabet/

 I have also discovered that one of the twins has no clue how to write his numbers, so we will be using the sandpaper numeral cards, and doing some sand writing work with him to catch him up insha' Allah. 

I'll post a few pics of our lessons, and updates, once we get started, insha' Allah. 

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Playroom Rearrangement

The Professors school room is separate from their playroom. Their playroom is the basement. We don't use the basement for anything, so it worked out perfect to set up a nice large space for play there, Masha' Allah. However, we were in need of a serious rearrangement, as we've had the same set up going for over a year. With the Professors help, I've moved all the "toys" and the play areas (ie play kitchen) to one side of the basement. There is a table and chairs in the center corner, and a sofa in the other, and that leaves one entire side free and open. I am trying to hang the mini basketball hoop from their room, on the wall in the open area. We have lots of soft toy balls that we use as "basketballs"and Insha' Allah this will allow for more exercise. I am also thinking of marking the floors with a free throw line etc. Fun! 

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Professor #3 and Baby Professor

Professor #3 is still making his way through the Maja Pitamic book, but we take lots of breaks. He's off and on with school work and that's fine for now : ) Baby Professor has had a strong interest in coloring recently. He can't get enough! He wants to color almost all the time! I've hung some of his drawings up in the classroom and Masha' Allah he is very proud of his work! : )

So that's what we've been up to. Not much to garden either as its been pretty rainy, cloudy, and grey here almost daily. I'm so ready for sunny Summer days insha' Allah. Insha' Allah, once I get things finalized and we get rolling on lessons again, we'll have some new posts up soon : )

New Homeschool Blog.

My good friend Ms. Anna, mom to our friends the Lueker girls (and boy), has started an official homeschool blog. She has been chronicling her kids as they learn and grow since the birth of her eldest daughter Reagan five years ago. In addition to that, their new blog will allow us to see them  learn and grow as budding homeschoolers. Please stop by and see what's new.

Lueker Munchkins School and Play: http://luekermunchkins2.blogspot.com/