Vacation Week 1

When planning out the Little Learners Curriculum, Gretchen and I figured it would be good to insert some vacation weeks.  The vacation weeks serve for various purposes whether your family goes on a vacation, you need a break from the learning or someone gets sick.  Jimmy just so happened to be on actual vacation during this week so we made the most of it!  At the end of the first 6 weeks, if you don't want to take a break from the curriculum you can review some more (review is built into week 5 with the letter F as well).  That's just what we did!

We have alphabet, number and shape flash cards.  I started the alphabet flashcards when she was 12 months and within a few months she knew her letters.  We were surprised because I thought she was just memorizing the pictures but it just goes to show how smart these little minds are!  They are capable of a lot more than we realize but it's also important not to force or push anything.  I am learning my limits as the teacher in me gets so excited when Grace learns something new!  

We do flashcards a few mornings a week usually following breakfast because she is strapped in and can't go anywhere :)  She enjoys holding/playing with the cards after we finish the learning time.

I used markers to make this...it was a great way to review the different colors and I had her point to them as we reviewed.  Nothing fancy or cute about this but it was effective!  She has progressed a lot with colors...I was forcing it a few weeks ago so we took a break and just did it here and there.  I think that break helped!

She was still engaged so we did shapes review after color review.  I drew each shape, wrote the name and then gave her stickers to put inside of each shape.  I would say, "Grace, can you put this sticker inside of the diamond?" and she did SO well with it!  The only shape she needed guiding with was the square but other than that she put the sticker in each shape correctly and so neatly as you can see below, haha!

This is a run over from "F" week.  I never got around to making the felt activity.  Better late than never, right?  These are all parts to a face. This will be a good activity to save for the next set of 6 weeks as we will be doing body parts.

"F" is for Fred, the felt face friend of ours.  Grace was interested in this more than any other felt activity we have done.

"F" is also for making forts!  We saved this activity for when daddy was off as he claims he was the "fort making king" as a kid.

Puzzles are a great way to review and the little ones don't even realize they are learning!

Our field trip (one is included for the end of each 6 weeks in the curriculum) was to the Natural Science Center of Greensboro.  

After learning/reviewing farm animals the first 6 weeks, you are to visit some type of Farm.  This was perfect because it was a part of the Natural Science Center.

Cute little donkey...we explained that it was like a small horse (since donkey wasn't one of the animals we did).

There is a petting zoo at this center...perfect for petting sheep and goats which are both animals we learned about!

We didn't learn about the Wallaby but they were fun to see!

Huge rabbit! There were plenty more animals we saw that we did or didn't study.  We had a lot of fun and I think Grace will enjoy it even more when she is a year older.