Non-Easter on the shelves

Rachel here. There were a few activities not on the shelf that Reese was interested in. One was working in her workbooks... but first... sharpening her pencil... for 10 minutes straight. :)

Working with her moveable alphabet on a few red words.

The ever famous... washing of the dishes. And finally, shape sorting from smallest to tallest. Reese struggled with this until I told her to do the outer frames first, and then move to the inner shapes... then there was no stopping her. :)

Basic cable

Rachel here. Long story short... Bryan and I canceled cable. Well... sort of. We reduced our ridiculously expensive time consuming garbage filled package to... basic... bum bum bum. It was traumatic at first but has proven to be a blessing. Instead of watching "The Real Housewives of" insert tragic city here... or "Teen Mom"... I've pulled weeds, gone through a ridiculous amount of ridiculous things that we own and purged, and I've managed to finish some projects around here that I just "didn't have the time" for. LAUGHABLE. Truth is we have TONS of things to get done around here before listing the house in less than a year, and the only way to get motivated for me was to get rid of the #1 distraction around here. Two projects I've managed to start/finish have been for the girls. First, I finally started collecting mini items for the girls' alphabet box. Each box houses a different letter... of which is filled with items that begin with that letter. It'll be what I use when teaching Emma Grace her letter sounds. For Reese I made little baskets... this works much nicer, takes up less space, and is more permanent. Reese likes to pull all the drawers out and play with the different items. I have a long way to go in finding items, but here is what our "B" drawer looks like so far:

I'm also using it to house some of our other printed materials like the girl's moveable alphabet cards.

Which was another project needing to be completed! FINALLY the moveable alphabet is finished. It's amazing how much effort it didn't take to finish... just needed the motivation.

Here's to getting things done around here! :)

Reese... Mon/Tues

Rachel here. We started this week with a review of the /t/ sound. Every time I showed Reese the /t/ sandpaper letter and asked her the sound that it made, she looked at me like a deer in headlights. She definitely needed the review, and HOPEFULLY we've nipped that in the bud. We revisited the sound, the letter book, and Reese's letter book. Reese also did two more /t/ crafts that turned out super cute. First she made a turtle mosaic. Thank you Pearl for the green sparkly paint... she adored it. (The Attached Mama... which is where I will more than likely be getting MOST of my alphabet crafts!)
She also made a Fall tree out of a toilet paper tube. (My Montessori Journey)

Reese is really starting to get the hang of the mouse now. She still has a long way to go, but she played on the computer for about 30 minutes without getting frustrated (and with some assistance by me)! We're big fans these days of Starfall... she loved watching the little letter videos, and I helped her play the games.

This is from last Friday. I put a few Halloween cookie cutters, paper, a pencil, and spooky colored markers out for Reese to trace and decorate. FAIL. I had to trace them for her, and then all she wanted to do was trace what I had drawn with a colored marker. It turned out to be a great activity for her... just not what I planned.

She traced her own hand. ;)

I pulled out our red word set (downloaded from My Montessori Journey)... the 8 letters we had been working on... and Reese used my makeshift movable alphabet to practice spelling the words. We sounded out each letter as we put it down, and then again to read the words. I printed the consonants we've learned so far on red paper and the vowels on blue... the closest I can get for now. :)

I googled "Montessori Activities Images" and found this idea, so I have no idea what site it is from, but I thought it was great. There are so many different ways to present the same information... I love it... even if it means I have to create 5 different activities for the same idea. :) Reese did well... when she took her time.

This picture turned out HORRIBLY, but Reese is doing a matching puzzle game where you match the mommy animal to the baby animal. This was an AWESOME find for $2 at a consignment sale.

This was another consignment find. Numbers and dinosaur puzzle pieces that fit into a book. I thought it was cute, but Reese didn't have enough patience to continue pulling the pieces out and putting them back in on each page. Emma Grace likes to play with it though. :)

Not an activity set out for her, but Reese decided to unwind a ribbon spool, put it in Emma Grace's toy, and pull it back out. At one point she told me it was like a volcano... whatever keeps her entertained.

The wooden number puzzle is AWESOME. I think I paid $2 for it at the consignment sale. It's really nice, and Reese is currently putting it together for the 4th time today. :) After she got each number put together, we put the numbers in order.

Number matching puzzle.

Also a consignment find for a few dollars... these wipeable cards. It's a pack of 40 double sided words with pictures. I pulled all the colors out for Reese to practice with today. She's very detailed and takes her time. It was really cute.

And this week's art projects from Art Class.