Goose Counts!
I've done very little to attempt to formally teach Goose to count. In fact, I'd only worked on the concept of 1, 2, 3. Then sometime in the car this week, Goose suddenly started counting and got up to 9! (Well, she skipped 6, but that was her only mistake!) It turns out Monkey and Bug had decided to take on that responsibility themselves and by the end of the week Goose was counting up to eleven (over and over and over). If they keep this up, I may never have to sit down and actually teach Goose anything! (They've also been trying to teach her read but more on that below!)

Reading
I decided we needed something to add a little more variety to reading lessons (sometimes we do them straight from the book, sometimes I write them out on their white boards). This week I took a bunch of the frozen juice lids I've been hoarding and made them each a set of letters they've done in their lessons and a set of word endings (at, am, eat, etc.) to share. This turned out to be a great idea. Not only have they enjoyed doing their regular lessons by moving these around, but they have loved making "silly words"--stringing together letters and syllables and getting me to help them sound it out. They've also started using the lids to attempt to teach Goose how to read. They use the lids like flashcards and hold one up and get her to repeat the letter sound. She loves it!

I also realized this week that some of their dragging through lessons is probably boredom with the repetitive sections rather than actual struggles with the concepts--particularly for Bug. A couple of times this week Bug asked to skip the "practice sounding out" section (which she deemed silly and boring almost from day 1) and go straight to reading a list of half a dozen words and a sentence all by herself. She zipped through it like a pro! Until this week I'd been making her plod through all the sections with me, but since she so obviously grasps the concept of sounding out, it looks like I can give her a pass on those. Monkey isn't reading words by herself yet, but she's really improved on the rhyming games, so she's getting closer. One of these days she'll probably pull a typical move and just take off without warning like she's been doing it forever!

Bug has been looking at the word books again lately. Of course, when the girls were toddlers they loved them for vocabulary building purposes, but now she looks at them to see how the words for different things are spelled. I haven't bothered testing her, but I imagine she's learning a number of sight words that way.

Preparations for Advent!

The anticipation is building, and the girls have been counting down the days until Advent when we get to put up all the decorations and start our Advent study. Of course, the rest of the world doesn't wait for Advent, so the entourage has already been coming home with fun handmade ornaments. Our big tree is a Chrismon tree instead of a typical Christmas tree, so we had to find a different home for those cute decorations. This year I had the girls come with me to the fabric store and pick out fabric that looked like a tree. We brought it home, wrapped it around a big cardboard triangle, and I added loops of ribbon to hang things from. The girls love having their own "pretend tree" upstairs.

We started our Christmas shopping this week. The girls helped me find gifts for my family's gift exchange, and they are very excited about the stocking stuffers they picked out. (So no, the entourage doesn't believe in Santa Claus, but they are really stoked about being sneaky like St. Nicholas was and putting secret presents in the stockings when nobody's looking--my family's tradition.)

This week the girls and I also went shopping for Christmas dresses! This was the first year that I didn't even attempt to coordinate dresses, and I'm so glad I didn't have my heart set on matching little girls. Monkey and Bug's dresses actually clash, but each girl got a dress that made her eyes light up--even better! Before we set out I told the girls the dresses had to cost less than a certain amount and be machine washable. Bug spotted her dream dress almost as soon as we walked into the first store: red velvet with white faux fur edging. A quick glance at the price tag revealed that a life lesson would have to be learned very quickly. Bug took the news far more gracefully than I expected, and I told her that we'd be visiting several more stores that might have the same dress for the right price. We talked about the dress and about what she really liked about it. She told me after an unsuccessful next stop that while she really liked that dress, she "might have to get a different one and just deal with it." This mom's prayers were answered when the last store on my list had the right dress for the right price! Finding Monkey's dress wasn't nearly as heartwrenching. After perusing the first store's offerings, Monkey decided she wanted one with roses like several of the dresses there, but she wasn't really excited about any of those particular ones. The next stop however had the dress: a pink tiered, sleeveless number sprinkled with sequins and featuring three roses at its empire waistline. I assumed I would be picking Goose's dress since she was just running around the racks seemingly without paying much attention to the dresses. Suddenly, I hear her yell "Mine!" and look up to see her clutching a sparkly silver dress with big black polka dots. Everyone came home very happy, and since our family's been asked to light the first Advent candle at church this coming Sunday, the entourage has a special occasion to pull out those dresses. (Pictures will hopefully be coming in my next week's post.)

Library Day
The storytime "Christmas" theme this week was "Naughty or Nice," but I'm pretty sure all the books she read were about naughty kids--redeemed at the end and always loved by their mommies, of course. For this week's craft they made Christmas tree ornaments from triangles of patterned cardstock and popsicle sticks with sparkly pom poms at the top for stars. The girls loved this craft and happily made one for home and one for the library's tree. We came home with these books:
There's a Bird on Your Head!
Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten
Dora Goes to School (Monkey and Bug have lately been very curious about school and very relieved that they don't have to go.)
The Christmas Bird
When Africa Was Home
Dogs
Farms (The previous two are Eyewitness books that Goose picked out, full of lots of great photographs. The girls have been particularly interested in Farm, which is mostly about the history of farming from Stone Age humans poking in the dirt with a stick and catching wild sheep to modern farmers with full-size tractors and milking machines.)
Aircraft (their "what do you want to learn about?" book. Monkey's favorites: the flying boat and the stealth fighter jet. We've also been making lots of paper airplanes this week and revisiting the subject of aerodynamics.)

A Sample of Questions I've Been Asked This Week:
How do spiders build their webs?
Why do bugs die?
How do space ships get to space?
How do submarines move?
How do clouds stay up there?
How big is God? And what does He look like?
What's a spirit? (When I attempted to answer this one and confessed I didn't really understand it either, the girls were quiet for a minute, then Bug offered, "Maybe we'll understand it when we get to heaven.")
How does God get us to heaven?
Will we be able to walk there?
Jesus is God, right?
Can God do everything people can't do?
Do animals worship God, too?

We bought a new winter hat for Goose this week (her pick). Just too cute not to share!