10 Plagues

Update to my last attempt at this Bible story.

We sang The Plague Song and did one plague each day for 2 weeks.  I used visuals from 1+1+1=1 and I think the combination of the song, the pictures, and the crafts helped the girls remember each plague.  I was really amazed at how much they retained.

Plague #1, red food coloring into water using small medicine droppers:

#2, paper plate Frogs painted green using the girls' handprints as the legs

 #3, Lice (the singular is louse which I learned this week).  We used a brown paper bag and pipe cleaners to make these lice.

 

#6, Boils and sores to make you sick.  I used medical tape to put red playdough boils on the girls' skin.  We also made red milk for dinner.  

#7, Hail.  I was also planning on letting them throw ice outside but it was way too cold!

#8, Locusts.  We watched a BBC video on locusts and then made locusts legs.  Later that night I poured cereal on the floor for a sensory exercise on locusts.

 

#9, Darkness.  The girls did a simple light/dark paper craft and then I turned off all the lights and covered their heads with towels and we walked around in the dark for a while :)

Faith August - 3.75 years

The biggest change for Faith this quarter is that she became a big sister, again!  She loves her new sister, Grace.  It is actually a challange to keep her away from Grace sometimes.  We have strict rules about not touching the baby while she in the bouncy seat or in the play gym but I try to make sure that Faith gets opportunities to hold her and we take time every day to talk to Grace and love on her.  Faith will make a wonderful mama someday and I want to cultivate that nurturing side of her!

Sleeping:
We continue with rest time, starting at 2:30 and continuing to 4 if she hasn't slept and 4:30 if she does fall asleep, although towards the end of this period, I have been waking her at 4 so she can have snack with her sister while I feed the baby.  Nighttime sleep continues to go well, although Rebekah does wake her at 0700 most days.  However, they enjoy laughing together early in the morning and that is fine with me :)
Eating:
Faith still enjoys all things carb (as do I!).  She eats well and usually eats evertything I put in front of her.  She was not a big fan of the kale I fried up one day; however she ate it in order to enjoy the rum cake for dessert.  She loves helping me cook and relishes the end of the task as much as the cooking itself becasue that is what I allow sample bites to be had.  I think she enjoys the savory bites as much as the sweet, perhaps just because they are special things. 
Skills:
Faith has learned to jump without looking at the floor :)  That has saved her nose a bit.  She won't jump off anything too high, really nothing much higher than my nursing stool but I know she will gain confidence as she does it more.  She continues to excel in gymnastics (although I asked her if she wanted to do dance or gymnastics when we move to AL and she said "dance!")  I think ballet will suit her personality better anyway.  She works on jumping at gymnastics as well as balance and bar work.
Her grandparents have a little razor scooter and that took about 5 minutes for her to learn to love!  For Christmas from them she received a balance bike.  After seeing my good friends' sons love their balance bike I knew these would go over really well at our house.  It took Faith about 10 days to really get the hang of it.  We took away all the other outside toys and required at least 10 minutes on her balance bike a day.  Now, we can't pry her off of it!  Once she got her feet off the ground the first time it took about 2 days for everything to click and now she flies on that bike with her feet on the center bar, doing turns like a pro!  I know she'll be ready for a 2 wheeler with pledals in no time!
Play:
Enjoys playing dress-up, not necessarily to pretend she is someone else but just for the joy of dressing up :)
Very much feels like she is in charge of her sister.  She routinely reminds Rebekah of things that I say so I try to remember that she is just imitating me, in her exaggerated way.  There is some bossiness with this but there is also a protective aspect to it; which I see when there are lots of other kids around.  She is very concerned that her sister not be exposed to unpleasantness, perhaps by some unruly (or what she considers too rough) boys.
From their other grandparents the girls got a kitchen for Christmas and Faith adors playing there and making food.  By far her favorite solo play toys right now are food toys.  She likes her sorting pie and dish set together.
Education:
Ordinal numbers
Faith knows her entire alphabet (upper and lower case) and the sounds that the consonants make (q and x are the exceptions).  She does pretty well with the vowel sound but it isn't consistant.  I have added station time into our preschool hour and during this time I am working through the K4 cirriculum.  I am starting to work on sight words with her.  On January 19th she identified her first word, God, in the Bible.  I showed it to her in our Moses and the King book several times and then she saw it in the Bible, I was so proud!  We also work on handwriting and she really loves that as well. 
Her love of reading continues!

S is for Snowman

Rebekah really loves snowmen so I decided to start our Letter of the Week back up with S.

We started with Snowmen at Night (also the title of a book for the week):

We focused on circles this week for our shape.  Here is Rebekah doing a sorting exercise with them and Faith is cutting circles out.

This mini-marshmallow snowman was by far their favorite :)

Rebekah Joy - 27 Months

I have missed a few months due to having a newborn but I am trying to get back on track :) 

Rebekah is such a big girl.  She speaks incredibly well, sometimes I forget how young she is.  She loves her little sister and it is so adorable to hear her say "hello, little one."  Recently she has renamed her teddy bear lovey Baby Jesus, it is really cute. 

SleepingShe had an ear infection this month and that made for some horrible nighttime sleep.  As soon as we started the augmenten it cleared up and she went back to sleeping well.  I also tried adjusting her nap to start closer to 2pm but she was so tired around 1:45 that it just wasn't making sense to keep her up.  So, now she goes down between 1:30 and 1:45 and sleeps until 3:30 or 4. 
Eating
Her milk intake has dropped a little bit and it is usually the thing we have to remind her to consume before she gets seconds of anything else.  Loves raisins as a snack :)
Skills
She got a balance bike for Christmas and has been working on getting on and off of that by herself.  At this posting she has done each of those several times.  She can get her panties and pants on by herself most of the time.  Some easy shoes she can get on herself, with winter and the sturdier shoes it is a bit harder.  She knows several letters by sight, R, F, G, M, D, S, and B.  She occasionally will also get K and T.  Pouring water in and out of cups has become a perfected skill as well when we do the dishes. 
Play
The girls got a kitchen for Christmas and that has been a continuing source of fun for all of them.  Rebekah loves to mimick her sister in whatever meal they are making together or shopping trip they are on with their baskets.  The shopping trip is usually taken in Grace's play gym which has become their car.  The girls received a twins babydoll set for Christmas, complete with rocking horses, and Rebekah just loves playing with her baby and taking her to gymnastics class.  Reading remains among her favorite activities to do during Mommy/Daddy time, a part of her day which of which she is quite protective.