February was a bit of a crazy month while I tried to get all of our business accounting in order to do our taxes, and March (and now early April) have been plagued with what seems to be a never-ending sickness! We had one good week and then it started all over again! We had many more trips to the doctor than I ever bargained for, but I think things are finally starting to look up! Plus, we found out that since last summer R-Man has grown 5 inches!!!! Crazy huh?! He is now 3'4" and 31 lbs (he gained 2 lbs in the time it took him to grow that much taller! Skinny mini!).
Here is a project we did in January where we put salt and food coloring on a block of ice and let it melt throughout the day. It turned out so cool! I was even surprised by just how cool it was! Very fun and R-Man loved it!
In addition to our Itty-Bitty Bookworm curriculum I have decided to supplement a bit with some more montessori-type activities for things like cutting and games for letter and number memory. A few weeks ago we were reading Mouse Paint and I made some simple cutting cards for R-Man to help the mouse get to the cheese. He did a much better job than I expected him to and at the end he even cut the mouse and the cheese off the cards so that they actually could get to each other!
He liberated them.
He's a clever one!
Here he is playing a letter memory game I made with puff paints. He really enjoys tracing these letters with his fingers too!
I have also started to add some more information to round out the themes of the books we are trying to incorporate lapbooking and tie things together into a bit more of a unit study that extends throughout the month. Don't get me wrong, I am really liking Itty-Bitty Bookworm, the lapbooking just seems to help us tie our learning together more from week to week and it is a great tool for R-Man to teach things back to me, helping him remember more. It is also good practice for me in writing curriculum/lesson plans since I am strongly considering using homemade unit studies with Charlotte Mason methods for our preschooling next year (taking some ideas from Heart of Wisdom too). Homeschool Share has been a regular stop for me lately as I continue to research and delve into all of our options!
In March we worked on a Weather unit with the books The Wind Blew and The Mushroom in the Rain. I borrowed Vicki Cobb's Science Play book Face the Wind from the library and we have been having so much fun with it (the most important part at this age!)! R-Man is really enjoying the different experiments with air and absorbing so much information it blows me away!
And yet, there's more! With our units we are trying to incorporate more nature study also, especially since the weather has been so nice off and on (low 60s in March!!)! R-Man is enjoying digging in the dirt and observing the birds and squirrels in our own backyard!
He likes working outside with dad- he calls it his job!
Cooking with mom is a fun job that he always likes to get in on too!
Music is still huge for R-Man! There is a rare moment in our house that isn't filled with song! He sings half of what he says and can often be found with a guitar or make-shift drumsticks in his hands (yes, that's a kayak!)!
And here he is drumming with his feet! What a guy! Multi-talented for sure! Haha!
Lately I have really been seeing him round that corner into being a 4 year old. He is responding better to discipline and trying so much harder to obey. He seems to be better comprehending my directions (when he is paying attention!) and is such a huge help to me! He is a little gem and I can't put into words how much I love this little almost-4-year-old!
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