Aisley at 5 months (April 17)

If this month had a theme it would be: Going Places.  You are so mobile even though you are not crawling.  Anytime I lay you down to play on the floor, you immediately start making your way across the room rolling or scooting.  And you are so close to crawling!  You've been attempting to get your legs in underneath you, so I know it's just a matter of a few weeks.

You love being around your sisters.  You enjoy watching them in action and get so excited when you even just hear their voice.

You have been sitting up so well, too.  It hasn't been completely unassisted yet, but even when someone is holding you, you are so strong and can hold yourself up very steadily.  Because of that, you've been able to sit by yourself in Bible class for the first time this month.

You are such a happy and easy going baby.  It doesn't take much to get a big grin and a smile from you.  I love it!  You've also started giving "kisses".  You will grab my head, pull me to you and give big open mouth slobbers.  Very messy, but super sweet!

I had a hard time getting your monthly pillow shot because you don't stay still very long.  My, how you've grown!

Happy 6th Birthday Branna! (April 12)

I can't believe that I have a 6 year old!  Branna has grown so much and in so many ways this year.  Not only she very tall for her age (95th percentile) she is also ahead in her education (she's reading at a 4th grade level!).  I am continually amazed at her insights and imagination.
One of her biggest interests this year has been in robots, which partly inspired her wish for an Astro Boy themed party.  Since Astro Boy is somewhat outdated in the U.S., it was difficult to find Astro Boy stuff, but we were able to make due and it pulled off to Branna's satisfaction. :)

Food and Dessert Table

Fun Playing at the Park

Blowing Out the Candle

Friends!

Opening Gifts (She's very thankful for this one!)

Aisley (4 months old)

This month has been a fun one!  You are really becoming aware of people and things around you and starting to interact more.  You laugh and smile all the time.  In fact, it's the first thing you do every morning.

You've also started rolling over from your back to tummy (about 3.5 months).  You've gotten pretty good at getting places by rolling.  One morning, I left you on your pallet and when I walked back in you had rolled several feet away to the front of the fire place.

You're grabbing skills have gotten really good, too.  If you see something you want, you reach for it and can get it to your mouth most of the time.  It's also been fun to see you notice your hands and feet.  When you catch a glimpse of them, you pause and wave them back and forth in front of your face.

You are such a sweet little girl and I'm looking forward to sharing more of your adventures as they come!

Branna lost her first tooth!

Due to illness and the craziness of everyday life, I have neglected the blog more than usual over the last couple weeks it seems.  Here is a little bit of catch up of what we've been up to...

Branna has continued to excel in all her school work.  She loves to read and is currently reading through her first novel based on her favorite movie: Astro Boy.  She also got a cute book from my mom called Three Stories You Can Read to Your Dog.  She was very excited to read them to her dog, Cooper!

She has done really well with her math work and has surprised me at how quickly she catches on to things.  Recently, we started counting by 2's. (She already knows her 5's and 10's.)  After our first day, she was able to count by 2's backwards from 100!  And I didn't even prompt her to do that...I was impressed!

(A side note:  She has recently wanted to start "posing" for her pictures.  She wants to act like she's doing something and then have me take her picture.  Here she is "acting" like she is counting. :) )

Here is another pose for the family tree she put together:

For math one day, we used Easter eggs for patterning:

I used a simpler version of this with Atlie where I gave her one card and she had to find the matching egg top and bottom.

Branna loves to help out in the kitchen and I was very excited to find this easy cookie recipe we used when we talked manna.  (I replaced the egg with oil to make it for safer handling for the girls.)

Atlie has also recently become fascinated with scissors.  I think it's partly just that age and she sees Branna using them, but I also think it's due to her recent experience at the doctor's office.  Over the Christmas holiday, she ended up with nurse maid's elbow and had to get a soft cast while we waited for the diagnosis.   When she got the cast off, the nurse had to cut it off.

 Since then, she has loved to pretend to put a band aid on (usually a long sticker or piece of tape) and then cut it off.  But, I really think this has helped her cutting skills!

I also had her work with tongs to enable that coordination:

By the end of the first week with the tongs, she was able to cut paper! (See the aftermath below...)

The sticker alphabet pages we did a few weeks ago were such a success, that I made another sticker activity.  For this, I labeled a each letter with a different colored sticker (you can see in the picture E=green, F=orange, G=pink, H=yellow).  Using this legend, Atlie identified the letters in the upper portion of her worksheet with the corresponding color.

We also took some time out for a little bit of good old fashion painting.  Branna wanted something "better" than paper, so she painted a box.  I found out later that she intended me to hang it on my wall...

Aisley at 3 Months (February 17)

This month you have really become more aware of you surroundings. You laugh when Branna makes a silly face at you and give big smiles when others get your attention.  I love hearing you coo and babble and to see all the expressions that go with it!

You have continued to sleep through the night and I'm starting to see more of a schedule
in your day as opposed to a routine.

And, as I predicted you rolled over from your tummy to your back this month!  You are getting so strong and I know it's only a matter of time before you are running around, playing with your sisters.

School Success

We had  a busy week at school, mainly due to the extra work I added.  This week Branna's regular math topic was fractions.  How can you not have alot of manipulatives and hands on work when talking about fractions? Fortunately, I found a really good set of games and activities which saved me a ton of prep time.  And even better, Branna enjoyed them!

A couple of her favorite things included fraction pizzas

and making a fraction-pillar.

Atlie's "Tot School" activities went really good, too.  A few things we had for the week was a "Tame the Tiger" game, magnetic pompoms activities, and coloring sorting work.

"Tame the Tiger" was a simple activity (to do and to make), but it was a big hit.  I simply cut an opening that was big enough to fit a pompom through in an tiger-face plate.  To "tame" the tiger, she had to "feed" it pompoms.

Originally, I had corresponding color/number cards.  My thought was that she would draw a card and feed the tiger that many pompoms of the given color. (I.e. If she drew a purple 2, she would give the tiger two purple pompoms.)  She did this at first, but in the end just wanted to put as many pompoms as should into the at once.  We'll try the numbers again later.

The magnetic pompoms were pretty fun for her too.  That is after the initial fun of pulling off the magnetics...

This was also easy to put together.  I cut a magnetic strip (with an adhesive backing) into small pieces and stuck it on the pompoms.  (The adhesive ended up not being durable enough to survive Atlie, so I need to go back and use hot glue.)

I printed off pages from Making Learning Fun, placed it on a metal cooking sheet I got at the Dollar Tree, and viola!

I also made a coloring sort sheet.  It could be used for lots of activities, but since we were working with pompoms, that's what we used.

A few other short activities she did was using colored chalk on black paper,

playing with Aladdin magnets (I found these on the Disney website and printed them off on magnetic paper)

and we brought out the felt pizza from last week.

But, I think Atlie's favorite activity and the one that held her attention the longest was using circle stickers on alphabet pages.

She still has lots free play (coloring, reading books, etc), but I'm excited that I'm finally getting an arsenal of activities for Atlie.  This week's tot school includes matching games and more letter letter identification.

Lastly, Branna has been working on time.  I introduced it a few weeks ago in school and her and Branyon have continued practicing during their morning lessons. To help her get a better grasp on the subject, I made this flower clock.  I came across the idea and thought it was a great idea for our classroom!

Tot School Time

We've started back to school again after our Christmas break.  One of my goals during this semester of school was to find things more constructive and learning activities for Atlie.

I've taken a few ideas from other homeschooling blogs, but haven't been consistent with it.  Another issue for me is time.  I don't mind spending some time getting things together for Atlie, but it's frustrating to spend an afternoon on something that she ends up not being interested in or only spends 5 minutes doing.  So, I've been collecting ideas that are easy for me to construct and that I think will keep Atlie busy... at least for a little bit.

This week, we had felt pizzas and button snakes.  The felt pizzas were super easy to make.  First I cut out a dough-colored circle and glued it to a firm piece of paper.  Next I cut out toppings: tomato sauce, mushrooms, ham, pepperoni, black olives, and green peppers.  As you can see, Branna enjoyed it just as much (if not more than) Atlie.

The button snakes took a little more time to make than the pizzas, mainly because there was alot cutting, but they were still relatively easy to make.  After cutting out shapes (I did squares, rectangles, and triangles) and cutting a slit in the middle of each, I sewed one felt piece to the end of a piece of ribbon and a button to the other end.
The ideas is to thread each felt piece on the button and down the ribbon.  This activity didn't interest Atlie quite as much, but I think it was because I called them "snakes".  Maybe I'll bring them back out in a few weeks and call them "worms" instead.

And of course, we still fall back on the usual free play.  Here is Dr. Atlie making a very careful examination...

... and the girls painting.  (Branna's picture is of her dog, Cooper.)

My projects for next week's Atlie Tot School include magnetic letter fishing and color matching activities.  What are your favorite Tot activities?