L is for Letters and Leaves - 4/14/11

This morning the biggest fun was the truck tracks. I don't know what these tracks are really called. I got the first set probably 14 years ago  at the Imaginarium toy store when Bella was about 3 years old! She loved it and I have continued to buy more cars and pieces every now and then with each new child. Now we have a big box of them with tunnels and bridges. They are always a big hit with all ages. Of course the batteries on the cars are always out and the tires are always missing. I made sure I had at least 3 functioning cars before I put them out today, and by some miracle I did! Freddie, Flossie, and Jem all had fun playing with them for about an hour.

I also had Alphabet stampers out, and  babies for baby time of course, and then I put the marble building blocks out too. Those blocks didn't get much action. We'll try them again another day. While they did all this, I had to do a site change for Jem.

For school we started with our name copying. I decided yesterday to start a daily tracing copywork with the preschoolers like Jem does with his states. They both want to write their names on their papers and both struggle a bit with it. Flossie especially really wants to write her letter Flossie but has trouble doing it, so I thought that by daily tracing it, she might build the habit in her brain easier so that it became more second nature and less of a challenge. I wrote their names out on sentence strips. Each day they take their names over to the light table along with a half sheet of paper and a marker and they simply trace their name. We'll see if it makes any difference after a couple of weeks and whether we want to keep it up or not. So far they are excited about doing it.

Next they practiced their number recognition worksheets and writing 1,2, and 3. Then we wrote some Letters and put them in the mailbox for the mailman to deliver. Someone will be getting a Letter in the mail!!

By this time it was time to head out for our busy afternoon. We had to:

1. Drop Bella off at work.
2. Meet Gramps and Papa for lunch. Sweet Tomatoes today! Everyone ate a good lunch and even got dessert :)
3. Go to the store to order Jem's cake for his party tomorrow.
4. Go back and pick up Bella from work.
5. Drop Bella off at the college to study.
6. Meet Grandma at Toys R Us for some birthday shopping (Flossie and Freddie caught a nap somewhere between 4 and 6)  Freddie found something he wants for his b-day Mom. (See below :)
7. Head back home!  Whew!

Once we got home we all needed a snack and some Amazing Race Snapple we found at the store! Delicious!
Then once we were energized again, we waited for Jem to write his letter to Grammy and then we got some baggies and went on a walk to the mailbox. Along the way we collected some Leaves. On the way back we stopped at the grass park to find some more Leaves. Freddie was also excited when we saw this really cool Sun Devils truck!  Then we went home and made some Leaf rub pictures. They turned out pretty nice. Everyone was excited to see their leaves appear on the page.  The day was just about over, but we had just enough time to quickly add a picture of a Letter and a Leaf to our "L is for . . . "
door sign before they left. Busy day. Tired! Good day :)