Letters for Johanna

Last week in school, I began teaching Johanna her letters.  We started with M and then V.  I also introduced a new form drawing, which she practiced during the week by walking it on the driveway, drawing it in the air, drawing it on her chalkboard, etc., and then copied it into her form drawing book on Thursday. We started off every day with our circle time.  On Mondays, Johanna practices tying laces, on Tuesdays, she jumps rope, on Wednesdays we practice bean bag throwing, and on Thursdays we do zoo-robics.  We also practice penny whistle and French Monday through Thursday, too.  Johanna is enjoying those lessons.  


On Monday, I began teaching Johanna the letter M.  I started off by telling her the fairy tale titled,  "Mount Simeli".
 

I showed her how to write an M, and we talked about the sound it makes.  She practiced writing it, and then we drew a picture in our main lesson books to go along with the story, and she also drew a letter M.

Mom's Drawing

Johanna's Drawing

I also read Julia a story (more from the adventures of Super Sam the Gnome), and then we set up the scene from the story using toys.

I also showed Johanna how to fingerknit.  She had two jump ropes made by the time we got back from picking up Grant from school (she even took the yarn with her so she could work on it in the car).  She was finger knitting like a mad-woman!  She made a jump rope for herself, and one for Julia.  Grant has also requested one, and she is more than happy to oblige!
 

On Tuesday, I had Johanna tell me what she could remember from the story, "Mount Simeli".  Afterwards, I wrote a summary of the story in her lesson book.  We also took some time to talk about our surrounding landscape (no mountains here) and then looked at a map of the United States to see where the mountains are.

I also re-told Julia's story using the toys, and then the girls and I made carrot raisin bread which turned out really yummy!

On Wednesday, I introduced Johanna to the letter V using the fairy tale titled, "Vagabonds".  

 
Once again, I showed her how to write the letter V, she practiced it, we talked about the sound it makes, and then we drew a picture form the story in our lesson books.

  Mom's Drawing

Johanna's Drawing

I also had the girl's tell me the story about Super Sam using the toys.

On Thursday, Johanna told me what she could remember from "Vagabonds", and then I wrote a short summary in her lesson book.

She also drew the form drawing in her book.

 

 Next week we will take a short break from the letters as we celebrate Michaelmas.

Orlando Vacation - Day 3

On Monday, September 3, we loaded up the car and headed south to visit the new LEGOLAND in Winter Haven, Florida (about 45 minutes away from Orlando). We arrived just a little after the park opened at 10:00am and stayed until it closed at 5:00pm.  We really lucked out, and there were not lines for any of the rides.  We enjoyed riding all of them (some of them twice), meeting some of the Lego characters, doing some shopping, watching the live-action water show, and seeing two of their 4-D shows.

   

We just had to get the kids' picture with these Lego sculptures near the entrance of the park.

Then we headed to the "Kingdoms" section of the park.

 
After that we stopped in the Duplo Village section where the kids played for awhile.

We watched a water-ski live-action show called, "Battle for Brickbeard's Bounty" in Pirates' Cove. It was a good show!

Grant had a lot of fun manning one of the water cannons!

 

We made our way into the "Land of Adventure" section of the park.

 

  In the "Lego City" the kids were able to take driving lessons at the Lego Driving school.  I think Johanna missed a few stop signs, but they still passed her!

  

Julia had a simpler version of driving school, where she pretty much went around in an oval and tried not to hit the other cars that were empty and parked around the track.

  

 

 

 

 We finished up our day in the park by looking at Miniland USA.  It must have taken a lot of people a lot of time to make all these! Pretty awesome!

We couldn't resist a stop at Webb's Candy on the way home.  We  treated the kids to some ice cream and picked up a few souvenirs.

That evening when we got back to Orlando, the kids swam in the resort pool for awhile.  Afterward, we headed to bed dreaming of our day at LEGOLAND, and looking forward to what would be our first day at Disney World's Animal Kingdom Park and Disney's Blizzard Beach water park.