LOW - D

Quack, Quack, Quack!  This week was (almost) all about Ducks!  Rebekah is going to have a ducky birthday party soon and the reason was reconfirmed this week: she loves ducks!  No Time For Flash Cards came through again with some great craft ideas.  First we made our letter D...

This duck puppet was so much fun!  The girls' contribution was really just putting on the tape but we used it to sing our duck song (there are 2 on NTFFC) and they just loved it, especially Rebekah. 

Our shape this week was diamond so on Thursday at gymnastics the girls each made a little diamond art.  Then in the afternoon, Faith cut out some diamonds and made herself a diamond necklace.

 



For our family night the girls helped me make Dirt Cake, which was a HUGE hit of course :)

After messy faces, we got even more messy with our dirt sensory activity!  The girls really enjoy these and I am digging them, too!

Our books this week were One Duck Stuck by Phyllis Root and Come Along, Daisy by Jane Simmons.  I am so glad my girls love to read!  I feel like our letter books always become some of their favorites during the week. 



LOW - C

We had a great time with C this week!  I found two great crafts on No Time For Flash Cards both for the Letter C and the Egg Carton Caterpillar.

Here the girls are doing the motions I made up for the Little Caterpillar song!

 

We took serious advantage of the slighly cooler weather and did our painting outside in the evening.

 

One afternoon Faith and I made some delicious Chocolate Chip Cookies and that night we made some pretend ones with an idea from Homeschool Creations.  Faith really enjoyed painting with the shaving cream paint.  After painting we rolled the dice to determine how many foam "chips" to put on their cookies.  This craft helped to re-inforce the circle and the C aspect of pre-school this week.

During gymnastics class this week, I had the girls glue cherrios to a C.  Faith also did the LOW C is for caterpillar paperwork and she did excellent!  I wanted to include this picture to show how Faith wrote her name on the her work, a perfect mirror image!  I don't know what that means exactly but she is getting so much better at her letters!

 

For our family day we went for coffee.  The look on Faith's face when I told her that Daddy didn't like coffee was priceless.  It looked something like "why would anyone not love this?" 

After our coffee time, we did a coffee sensory activity which I was as excited about as the girls!  This activity was a HUGE hit.  It had been raining all day so we ended up doing the activity in the garage which was not ideal but it worked and now my garage smells great!  I bought the cheapest coffee the commissary sells, some coffee scoops, mugs, filters, and cheap creamer from the Dollar Store, as well as emptying out some of my own creamer containers that had a really easy open lid.  I poured the cheaper creamer into them and the coffee grounds into one of our tubs and let them go to town.  I had also saved some of my own used coffee grounds but that didn't work out so well as it just made the grounds clumpy so in the future I will only used dry grounds.

The girls had such a great time!  They were fully engaged for about 45 minutes with the play and after that even the clean-up was a blast!  It was some good messy fun!

 

 Our books for this week were the classic Very Hungry Caterpillar and Bob and Otto a story of two friends, a caterpillar and an earthworm.  It was cute and the girls really liked it.  Rebekah loved talking about the caterpillar still being hungry! 



 



Rebekah Joy - 23 Months

Wow!  Rebekah is going to be 2 soon :)  It is hard for me to realize that when Faith was this age I already had a 6 month old, crazy.  Both girls are super excited about the new baby coming, mostly because they won't have to do the MOTN feedings but they both love babies and I think will really try to be helpers.  Rebekah talks like there is no tomorrow.  She repeats everything we say and tells herself constantly what is going on.  It is adorable.  I have heard that kids are supposed to say 20 words by 2 but I think Rebekah is up around 200!
Sleeping:
Rebekah continues to be a great sleeper.  She has started insisting on Faith coming in to say good-night and having us all kiss the teddy head that is on her lovey blanket.  I think she is more insistent on that than us kissing her good-night!  We have received her new mattress and are preparing to move her and Faith into the same room so next month's sleeping portion of her update should be a little more involved.
Eating:
Still eating her veggies, fruit, and bread, and then reluctantly-her meat.  She and Faith both really enjoy what they call "circle cheese" which is the Baybel Swiss cheese.  This is Rebekah's favorite snack. 
Play:
Rebekah has always liked being read to but lately it has become an obsession! Several days of the week during our Rebekah & Mommy time she will ask me to read to her, even in the middle of playing with another toy. "Mama/Daddy Read Please!" is a phrase I hear at least a dozen times a day.  She is doing well in solo play but has begun insisting on additional books from the playroom (that we have been reading to her during the day) being in her room during solo play.  Also in solo play, a big hit has been puzzles and I know she spends a great deal of time working on those.  She really enjoyed these shape cupcakes this month.
Skills:
Rebekah really loves craft time during pre-school and then showing them off to Daddy.  I am impressed with her memory and how much she is trying to learn with her letters and Bible stories.n Learning black, maroon (like a good Hokie), and sometimes confuses pink with purple.  She continues to do well swimming by herself and she has started jumping into it by herself.  Gymnastics class has started and Rebekah is loving it!  She needed a little reassurance at first, I think partly because she is the only one in her class, and Faith provided it by participating in class with her for the first two weeks.  She loves hanging on the monkey bars, walking on the beam, and doing somersaults.  Plus, she looks super cute in her little leotards!  We have made a big push on training time because Rebekah has started coming to big church with us during this month.  She has done remarkably well so far but it has been a learning experience for me :)  I get the songs during the week that are going to be sung on Sunday and we sing them during pre-school and throughout the day and I have found Rebekah really really loves being sung to!

Here is Rebekah and Daddy watching the Blue Angels at the 2012 LRAFB Air Show.  "Airplane, zoom, zoom" is another phrase that we've hear constantly during this month!

Our Schedule:
0800 - Wake, get ready, breakfast
0900 - Outside, snack
1030 - Preschool
1130 - Sister or free play
1200 - Lunch
1230 - Chore
1300/15 - Reading time
1315/30 - Nap
1600 - Snack, Training time, Rebekah & Mommy play, solo play, free play
1800 - Dinner, family time, bath, Bible story, bedtime o/a 2001

2012 LRAFB Air Show

Two years ago during the LRAFB Air Show, I was 38 weeks pregnant with Rebekah and the temperature was in the high 90s with humidity to match, in short, it was miserable!  This year, however, there was a nice thunderstorm on Friday night that brought the temperature down into the mid-80s and low humidity for the airshow Saturday.  I am only 32 weeks pregnant this time, so a few pounds lighter than last time :).  On Friday afternoon I'd filled up the kiddie pool and the girls watched the Blue Angels practice which soaking in the pool which got them super excited for the airshow the next day.  We spent the day with the Langehaugs and loved it!
 

Family shot with the USCG Helo.

Rebekah exploring the helo.

Faith insisted on waiting in a 20 minute line to see what was up the stairs in the C-17.  I was so proud of her as she waited so patiently to get into the cockpit.  I don't know exactly what she expected to see up there but she was pretty excited about getting to sit in the driver's seat!

Here are my girls going for a pretend helo ride :)

Faith and I enjoying a nice frozen lemonade waiting for the Blue Angels to start.  For skipped naps that day in order to enjoy all the entertainment and food was certainly helpful in keeping everyone happy :) We found some shade under the wing of the C-17 parked near the runway and hung out there all day, moving the stroller to keep our spot in the shade!

 

Rebekah passed out after walking back from the K-9 demo.  She slept for about 20 minutes until the Blue Angels started and then she watched in amazement with Daddy at the airplanes zooming by.

 

Who Built the Ark?

We broke up the story of Noah and the ark over a two week period, with the first week being in Genesis 6 & 7 and the second week in Genesis 8 & 9 to show the end of the story.  The crafts were again redos of my first go round with Noah but both girls enjoyed them emensly. 

 

For our Family Day we went to the zoo to look at the decendents of some of the animals Noah travelled with on the ark. 

 

 

During this week we sang, Noah Found Grace and Who Built the Ark?  For the second week I found a great Rainbow song on Bible Songs and More.  We made a handprint dove and revisted Rainbow Rice as well.  I have the Noah's Ark Golden Book and randomly found We're All in the Same Boat at the library this week.  It does not follow the Biblical account of the flood but it was a cute story and just reinforced the whole thing.

Here the girls are pointing the the olive leaf in the dove's mouth. 

I used plastic bags for the rainbow rice this time and it worked out much better than trying to use an old yogurt container :) 

This is such a great sensory activity, I love it almost as much as they do!

LOW - B

B also ended up being a 2 week letter, there are so many good words out there that the kids know that start with B!  The first week was a butterfly, bee, and black focus; the second concentrated on boats, buttons, and blue. 
For black we did our standard color collage followed by a black scavenger hunt.  I think Faith's favorite part of this was making the pepper in the shape of a B.

Next we made a Bumblebee B, that I found on No Time For Flash Cards.  We also sang the Bumblebee Song which of course the girls just loved!  And yes, we did pre-school this day in our PJs, just one more reason I love homeschooling :)

 

I used another idea from NTFFC and made some hand print butterflies, monarch butterflies to be exact.  I also found a great butterfly song there which we sang and Faith remembered it when we were reading our butterfly book during reading time each day.

 

The girls had a good time making Play dough Bs with Daddy one day as well.

 





Our books for this week of the letter B were Monarch Butterfly by Gail Gibbons, an author from whom I am learning nearly as much as the girls :), and Buzz, Buzz, Buzz Went Bumblebee by Colin West.  Next time we get around to this letter, I would also like to look for Buzz by Elieen Spinelli.

For the second week of B we started with making some lower case b boats.

Next we made probably the girls' favorite craft during this letter, their own boats.  I modified this idea from NTFFC and the girls absolutely loved it.  Their made their sails and the nautical flag of their letter and in the evening Frank and I pushed the girls around, taking them to Faithland, Rebekahland, and everywhere in between.  The next day the girls loved "sailing" their dolls around as well!  What a hit!

The girls have started up gymnastics classes and I am trying to take our crafts on the road with us to have each girl busy learning and creating while the other one is engaged in her class.  This week we glued buttons onto Bs.

 

To reinforce the B, I bought the girls these bathtime sail boats and their both loved them!  For our final craft, Frank made a corn hole board and we tossed the beanbags around.  One craft we never got around to (because of our all day trip to the 2012 LRAFB Air Show and the delay on getting the book from the library with their "new" system) was a sensory tub based on The Deep Blue Sea.  I was going to have the girls fill a tub with blue water, add a red brick for the rock, make a green tree, use an avocado pit for the brown nut, make a purple parrot, and then re-use their orange butterflies from the week prior.  I was excited about it but it is just, another idea for the next time this letter comes around!

Our books during this portion of B were Boats! Speeding, Sailing, Cruising and the always popular Belly Button Book.