We have been enjoying a very Valentine's-y and heart-filled week this week! It has been perfect for learning about the letter V! There has been lots of talk about love and the girls are both a little obsessed with those message candy hearts! (Oops!)
We started the week off with this 'V' sort from Confessions of a Homeschooler's V Unit. It gave great opportunity for Piper to practice saying uppercase and lowercase. I made it a part of the game that she had to say what kind of 'V' it was as she placed it in the correct spot. I love how stuff like this is not work to her but fun! She even asked to do it again!
Pipe was more than a little bit excited when I presented her with her first lovey snack - trail mix with Smarties in it! I think she loved the stories I told just as much! One day I told her about the day she was born, on another about when Taitum was born and then about how her Daddy and I fell in love! I included lots of pictures and we had a great time at each afternoon snack!
We tried to make Heart Doily shirts to wear on Valentine's day. They turned out OK but the paper doily stuck really badly to the shirt and was super hard to peel off! I think I may have used the wrong type of fabric paint but all in all they didn't turn out too terribly!
The kids were delighted when I pulled out this month's sensory box! I packed it full of Valentine's related stuff and it has kept them occupied very often this past week!
I showed Piper how to do some different things using the contents of the box.
Here she is lining up heart stones on a popsicle stick.
Then she went searching for the matching erasers to the ones that are in the muffin pan.
One evening we made some coffee filter hearts by painting them with watercolors. Piper was so excited about getting to put them up in the window for decoration!
This was a spur of the moment activity. The morning before we had used up the last of the maple syrup and I had washed the bottle out thinking we might be able to use it for something. Then I came a across some marbles and got the idea for this transfer activity. Piper used a melon baller to transfer the marbles from the bowl to the maple syrup bottle. She did this over and over again as I did the dishes! I am learning to save nearly all reusable containers now because they come in so handy with many of our school activities!
We practiced tracing the letter 'V' with the trace paint bag.
And made a 'V' collage with this printable from COAH Letter V Unit and some heart stickers!
One day we went out for a walk and Piper came across this huge stick and was in love with it. So we carried it home, cut it to make it just the right size, and painted it white to create a Valentine's tree!
Then I cut out hearts and Piper punched holes in them. (Yes, thats the Bible under her arms! She insisted it be there! :D)
Next, she strung the thread through and I tied it.
Finally, we talked about some of the things God says love is from 1 Corinthians 13. As we were talking I tried to relate it to her by creating scenarios in life in which she could show love by responding in the way the verses were talking about (ie. patient, not jealous, not bragging, etc.). I wrote them in on the hearts and she hung them on the tree. It is now the centerpiece of our dinner table!
Our love tree!
Piper worked on this activity where she first put the pipe cleaner through the holes in the top of the jar. Then she laced valentine beads onto the pipe cleaner. She decided to sort the beads by color all on her own!
We worked on this candy heart graph from Prekinders. I didn't know if she was going to get this or not but once I showed her how to do a few she was off and finished the whole graph herself! She used a lot of self control during this - I could tell she was just dying to eat them! But I promised her she could have 4 when she was all done and she persevered! :)
Piper made a Valentine mailbox! She said she wanted a crown on it of course!
Some friends came over for the evening and we played this adorable Valentine game: "Don't Break My Heart!". For this game you simply print the heart page and then place smarties (or any kind of small treat) on each heart. Then you get one of the players to go to another room so those that are left can choose which heart is going to be the special heart. Once that is decided the hiding player comes back out and starts eating the Smarties one by one. When they pick up and eat the Smartie from the special heart everybody yells "Don't Break My Heart!". The kids had such a great time playing this! There were lots of giggles and smiles and they ran around saying "Don't break my heart!" afterwards! It was nice how simple it was so that even the 2 year old could join us and understand what to do! We'll definitely playing it or "Don't Eat Pete" (another variation) again!
We also made heart crayons together. This is super easy and the kiddos were super impressed with the results!
They spent the last part of their evening together coloring with them...and pretending they were airplanes flying around!
Piper and I have also continued to daily read through "Little House in the Big Woods" together as I was telling you last week. I thought I'd give you an update on how that is going! I decided to cut back and read only half a chapter each afternoon because I felt like a whole chapter was a bit much. The first day I did this, Piper gave a disappointed "Aw!" when I closed the book! I probably would have continued if it wasn't for the fact that her sister had just woken up from her nap and was calling for me! Then one evening she was carrying the book around asking me to please read! And after every quiet time she hops out of her room with an exuberant, "Read book!". So as you can tell, it is going well! I'm so glad I decided to give it a try! Now I can't stop thinking of all the books I want to read to her next!!
There's another week under our belts! We just have Valentine's Day itself to look forward to and then its on to vegetables as we continue learning the letter 'V'! See you next week!
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