Monday, September 17th

Daddy had his first day of work today, so we went back to "school" too.

We are using Usborne books Ten Terrific Weeks - Adventures at Sea for school right now. I thought that since we were moving to Florida it would be a nice way to make this transition if we learned about the environment we were moving into.

This week we will be learning about Waves, Currents, and Tides. Today, we read about the different oceans of the world and how water makes up 2/3rds of the earth's surface. We showed the difference between 1/3 and 2/3 by pouring water in each amount in separate bowls and then checking to see which bowl held more. We then did the same thing with Cheerios.

We also made comparisons between what we were looking at in the First Encyclopedia of Seas & Oceans and some Magic School Bus episodes that we have seen on the ocean. We talked about how very cold it is at the bottom of the ocean because the sunlight doesn't get down that far. We also talked about the food cycle and how the little plants and animals get eaten by bigger and bigger animals.

Finally, we played a game on the computer where I read a description of a different animal/fish/bird and the boys had to figure out which of the 8 pictures I was describing. It was a lot of fun.

After our "formal" lessons, we rolled out our mats for some more "work". Brian did a dinosaur puzzle, while Sean and I worked with the Alphabet Vehicle puzzle going through all of the letters. Sean then wanted to work with the See & Spell puzzle - and did a very nice job matching letters for each word. Brian pulled out the Movable Alphabet (which was all the letters in a big Ziploc bag so they wouldn't get lost in the move) and he started to organize them back into their spaces in the box. Sean helped me finish putting all of the letters back into their assigned spots, and then we pulled our My First Words game, and both boys were working on the 3 part puzzles to spell words.

We had some time for imaginative play with our trains. Before lunch we watched Your Baby Can Read. I wasn't sure how this video would be received, but both boys are enchanted by it. It shows the words on the screen while someone says them and then you see what the words are describing. For example, the word "cat" shows up on the screen. You hear the man speak the word and then a child speak the word. Then you see an actual cat walking around on the screen while someone talks about how this is a cat. What was really neat was to watch Brian also do the sign for many of the words while he was watching.

After lunch and naps, we headed to Spyglass Hill Park and met up with Leighton and Miss Kellie for some exercise. Brian and Sean ran around with Leighton and swung on the swings, slid down the slides, chased each other around, and went searching for acorns.

At the end of the day, we met up with Daddy and went to a Mexican restaurant to celebrate his first day of his new career. Great day.