a week in review.... J

Instead of posting each and every day about what SweetPea (and occasionally, PorkChop) is doing with her home schooling, I figured that Fridays would be a good opportunity to sum up our week. Less stress on me since it would mean summarizing as I went instead of devoting each and every day to just schooling and would also give me a chance to look back on the weeks and see our positives and strengths instead of just getting mired down in our weaknesses and shortcomings. 

Learning about the letter "J"

 This week, our first week back after a long Christmas break was focused on learning about the letter J. I thought about going ahead and focusing on a new number as well but SweetPea is still struggling a bit with identifying numbers on a whole (even though she can count well and can even do some simple adding), so instead, we are taking a side step and learning about money.... something that she is very interested in right now!

making "jam" together

 I try to incorporate more than just recognizing the letter and the sound. I try to find games that use that letter, activities that go with it, and of course, a cooking assignment each week. This week, we made blackberry jam in the crockpot. Super simple and really tasty! Lunch twice this week turned out to be peanut butter and jam sandwiches so we could all enjoy the spoils!

J is for Jaguar

 Art time this week was used to create J words out of the letter J. On Wednesday, SweetPea made a jaguar from a capital J and today, she made her lowercase J juggle. Unfortunately, I didn't have a special J activity planned but what child doesn't like to jump? So we took turns jumping on the beds, the couches, the floor.... inside, outside.... off the step into the living room, over cracks on the street.... Jumping was huge! And it fit very nicely with our nursery rhyme of the week "Jack Be Nimble". I really should have created a fake candle out of  a toilet paper roll and let SweetPea BE Jack but I guess that I can always save that idea for when PorkChop is ready to set sail on his course.

New math skill.... learning about coins

 Learning about money for math is going to take us a few weeks. Right now, SweetPea can identify correctly the penny and the dime. The nickel and quarter still throw her through a loop. But she is learning the value of each as well (again, the dime and the penny she has down cold). We aren't adding coin values yet, just working on recognition and value. As she works on money, I plan on giving her change to practice the skill in the "real world". Which means I can see a trip to her favorite bakery in our near future where she can purchase her own brownie by counting out the change on her own.

j is for "juggling"

And that was pretty much our first week back in a nutshell.