More Math & Literacy

Mother Goose Time has workbooks called More Math and Literacy for kids to prepare for kindergarten. Mr A likes them. He practices simple math equations, cutting, measuring, counting, writing and much more. Each day there is a corresponding page in both books that relates to the topic of the day. Mr A doesn't really care for going in order though. He'll get through pages that I tell him to do reluctantly, but always finds a page that he likes better and will do that instead. He does like More Math better than the More Literacy workbook.

While Mr A was doing this safari vehicle math page, we talked a little bit about the vehicles. I asked him, "If we were on a safari in Africa for real with all those wild animals, would you want to get out of the vehicle?" 

No, then you wouldn't be protected by the car. was Mr A's response.

"That's right. Its not safe to get out of the vehicle. So, what if an animal was on the road where the vehicle is supposed to go?"

Then we'd have to sit there and wait for it to move.

"Yes. If animals are in the path of the vehicle, you need to stop and wait."

If the animal is asleep, we could use a noise to wake it up, like the beep of the horn.

"Well, if an animal is sleeping, like a rhino and it gets scared because it was woken up, then what happens?"

Oh, it will run and crash into the car.

"Right. Animals need to be left alone or else bad things can happen."

I enjoyed this little conversation. Mr A is a smart little kid. His answers to questions are usually pretty spot on. 

For this page, How Many?, Mr A likes to circle the objects while he's counting them. I'm not sure why. He enjoys circling things.

True or False

More Math and Literacy workbooks from Mother Goose Time are a great way to fill spare time. As I've mentioned before sometimes I take them in the car, to the Dr office, the restaurant or just anywhere to keep him quiet and occupied.

Mr A likes to pick a page in random order... whatever appeals to him. The pages are numbered to correspond to the daily topic. But, I just let him do whatever page he wants.

This first page he did was called Rhyme Tree. He had to pick out what pictures rhymed then circle the ones that did. Mr A had trouble with a few, but we slowed down and repeated all of the names of pictures so that he could hear and process.

One of the questions on the T of F page asked "A blue bird has a cherry."

Mr A found one bird without any cherries and one bird that had 2 in its beak. Immediately, he answered That's false. The bird has 2 cherries, not one! That's not right, is it?

He was confused. But he's right. There is not a bird with just 'a' cherry, meaning one. But, he marked it as true after thinking about it... because the bird does have a cherry, even though it actually does have two.

That statement is a bit confusing for a child. I was impressed that he was so quick to realize it didn't sound quite right.

I like how Mr A crosses out his answer then circles it... and he only did it for the F answers.

I love the MGT workbooks =)

Seeds In The Orchard

Another new month means a new unit with Mother Goose Time. Our first day was so fun. Partly because I had things planned out and that makes it so much easier. Partly because we haven't been doing very well with our routine lately. But, mostly because we took it outside! Changing the location of where we do activities and lessons really helped the boys. Fresh air and a beautiful day made learning about seeds much more pleasant. I also brought out my cd player and music cd to listen to the themed songs while we worked.

So far, for this school year, I set up our circle time display on a folding display board. It is easy to move and worked great to bring outside. But, we'll see how long the board actually lasts since Mr Z likes to hide in it.

(Before we had even gotten outside though, I asked Mr A what he knew about seeds because he was looking at the display board. The seeds grow into a plant. It needs water to grow and sun and air to make its own food so it can get bigger.)

Mr A wanted to start with the craft. They are his favorite lately. His detail, creativity and attention span while doing these crafty projects is improving greatly. MGT provided the small paper plates and seeds for the apple. Mr A cut an arch on each side and began painting.

Mr Z just goes to town painting all over his plate after he cut it into two semi-circles. I was impressed that he tried to stay inside the lines of the coloring page for a little while too. (These coloring pages are found on the members resource tab of the MGT website and are an additional printable resource for the curriculum kits.)

Mr Z also had the rubber bunny counters from several units ago and was making them attack his paint.

I love how Mr A attached his apple leaves. He needed them on top to look like a bunny, since they had been playing with the bunny counters all morning.

Mr Z was done with his painting projects and so he worked on finding green things outside with the color brush provided in the Teacher Tool Bag in the curriculum kit.

 Mr A helped find a rectangle really quick, then went back to finish his seed painting.

One of the manipulatives from MGT this unit was a small bag of different seeds. I'm not sure what all of them were, but Mr Z enjoyed putting them on the counting sheet. Mr A just played with some plastic acorns he had found in the fall decorations bin.

Mr Z filled in all of the circles on the Counting Seeds sheet from MGT. We counted each one in the boxes a few times, but then the bunnies had to come play too.

They sorted them by color around the sheet. I asked if the bunny counters were eating the seeds. They laughed and yelled No at me. I continued by asking what seeds we can eat. Mr A answered. Pickle seeds. Banana seeds; they're really tiny. Watermelon seeds.

The Dance N Beats dvd add-on comes with a guide book as well. In it there are the music lyrics, dance move descriptions and additional crafts or activities to go along with each song. Making an Acorn Wand was the extra craft we decided to do, since an acorn is a type of seed.

After I got my acorn wand finished, Mr A flipped it over, bent the pipe cleaners and said it looked like a rooster foot. I have no idea where he came up with that, but it does resemble a rooster foot.

Instead of going to bed, Mr A wanted to do a page in his More Literacy workbook. He drew a fascinating tree with branches, leaves and different kinds of fruit. Then he worked on his name and needed to include his first, middle and last.

From art projects to workbooks, Mr A is learning and getting a better understanding of writing. Sometimes he still gets confused and reads or writes starting on the right side. When I try to correct him, he gets upset for not being correct. But, it'll come. He is getting better and improving. I love watching his excitement we he just knows how to write a letter without me telling him what it looks like. Mr Z too, is getting much better at tracing and trying to stay in the lines of pictures. Art improves these skills... fine motor skills and early writing practice. Its so fun to watch their improvement and excitement about learning.

Manipulatives and Add-Ons from MGT

I can't believe the success of these little bus counters we received from Mother Goose Time this month! The boys have been playing with them all day, every day since I opened up the curriculum box. Mr Z always has at least 2 in his hands.
The other day, I got out one of spinners that came in previous units. Mr Z immediately started matching the colored buses to the spinner. That's when Mr A noticed there were no orange buses included.

They've been making "houses" out of various materials and tracks to drive them on.

One of the games in the daily package, was a rolling cube and cards. The boys took turns rolling the cube to find out where they needed to meet their friends. Friends (or buses) were placed at the different location cards. Mr A would roll the cube and drive a bus over to meet its other bus friends.

Having a special desk with special things in it is a great help for Mr A. The other day a school advertised its closing and was giving away desks for free. I got there just in time to snag the very last one. Mr A loves his 'real school desk'. He sat there very nicely to do his projects and workbooks.

MGT offers great add-ons for each unit. We are fortunate enough to get a few of them. For several months, we have been getting the More Math and Literacy workbooks. They cover basic skills like numbers, patterns, following directions, letters, beginning sounds and so many more concepts. I think they are fabulous for reinforcement. Mr A still really only likes to do the math book though. But, he did sit at his desk for much longer than usual to get some pages done.

We are still finding what works best for us. I struggle with consistency. The boys struggle with focusing. A part of me wants to be the disciplined teacher that makes them learn the basics now to be ahead in school later. The other part wants them to be happy and have fun while learning. I think the second wins all the time. I try not to force them to do everything my way. I try not to get frustrated if they just aren't into learning something or listening to what I am trying to teach. I think that's the hardest part of being the teacher and the parent... the lines gets crossed multiple times. They know how to push my buttons. They know they have more slack here at home with me, than they would somewhere else. Teacher vs parent is a tough thing for me. I like being the teacher. I like being the parent. Sometimes the cross of the two is hard.

Oh well... that's what MGT is helping us with... learning while having fun and not stressing about academics.
I guess its easier to learn the academics while you're having fun and playing.
Just be the parent and spend time with the kids... while doing activities.

Stone Soup

We learned how sharing can be magical with the folktale Stone Soup.

A stranger passes through a town and bring the community together by providing a pot and a simple stone. The members of the village provided everything necessary to make a pot of soup to serve everyone.

Again, the boys made the soup as I read, with the storytelling pieces. 

The other day we went out to breakfast. I figured a good table activity would be our Mother Goose Time workbooks. It did help quite a bit to bring them along. They boys did a few pages and it kept them occupied for almost half of the time we were there. This is a great way to catch up on our More Math and Literacy since we always get behind. Daddy even helped Mr Z trace the letters in his journal.

Taking MGT with us when we have places to wait, is a great way to stay busy and learn at the same time. I definitely need to remember to take our workbooks with us more often.

Lion and Mouse Cont'd

We finished our Lion & Mouse activities in the evening and that seemed to work out alright. Here is what we did to finish up the lesson.

 The craft included was to make Story Puppets: a lion and a mouse to retell the story on your own. Mr A had a tough time getting started. He was frustrated that the face he drew wasn't more like the one had done and it just wasn't right. But I tried to encourage him to keep going and telling him I wasn't going to do it for him, because that's what he wanted. After a few minutes I saw him drawing a new face. He solved his own problem by flipping over the circle and drawing a face on the other side. He ended up finishing both lion faces to have a double-sided lion puppet.

Mr Z just wanted to cut the yarn that was supposed to used to make the tail of the mouse. His piece was cut into tons of tiny pieces.

One side of Mr A's lion talked in a happy voice and the other in a mean voice as he retold the parts of the story that he remembered.

Before bed and before Mr A could have his dessert, he had to complete his workbook pages. Bribing to get the pages done before dessert was a great incentive... I'll have to use that more often. He's usually not interested in doing them at all. More Math & Literacy are great little books! For each day, there is a page in each book that corresponds with the lesson. Mr A was quick to find the hidden numbers in his math book. He always chooses to do math first.

The literacy book is more difficult for Mr A. He's just not that interested and gets much more frustrated with writing. If a letter he tries to write isn't to his liking, he gets very upset and discouraged. 

Mr Z found an extra activity from last month. He traced the paths over and over.

Find the activities we did earlier on the day... HERE!