DADDY'S HOME!
We found out on somewhat short notice that Daddy was coming home early from his big trip! Family tradition is that we always pick him up from the airport with the entourage wearing shirts that say "Team Daddy." They've all recently outgrown theirs, and Monkey and Bug were extremely excited that they could write TEAM DADDY on their new shirts themselves (with carefully supervised fabric Sharpie markers). Of course, in the excitement of his arrival no pictures were taken, so you'll just have to wait to see the finished products. As soon as we got home, the girls insisted that Daddy open his much-belated Christmas presents, and Daddy revealed the presents he brought home from some of his stops--some edible treats, a picture book with a stuffed animal, and key chains. This week has involved lots of showing Daddy all the toys they got for Christmas, wrestling, playing with puzzles, playing hide-and-seek and follow-the-leader, snuggling, getting him to really read them bedtime stories instead of watching the videos he made, etc.

Reading
Bug is now reading paragraphs of three sentences and continues finding more and more words in real books that she realizes she can read. She was very excited about showing off her reading skills for Daddy by reading two Bob books to him in their entirety. I've also heard her watching phonics videos on Starfall, and she usually gets involved in the reading activities I have planned for Monkey.

Monkey formally added a new sound this week, n, which opens up a lot of word possibilities. She discovered (and spent a great deal of time on) a bunch of sight reading games on Starfall, so I focused more of our lessons time on phonics skills this week. We tried two new activities this week that really appeal to her kinesthetic sense: I poured about two cups of dry rice into a tray, and we practiced writing out all the sounds she knows as well as a few short words (then of course, I gave her some time to just play with the rice, which was highly popular, and that's when Bug and Goose were allowed to jump in). I also pulled out the alphabet blocks we got when they were babies and had Monkey sort out all the sounds she knows already. Next I started building short words and helping her sound them out. The final part of the lesson was hilarious and highly effective. I gave Monkey freedom to build whatever word she wanted, and I would sound it out. Of course, it was all nonsense, but it really enforced the idea that you can read words you don't know by sight by sounding them out. During the next day's lesson, she actually sounded out several entirely new words all by herself!

Both girls have been actively memorizing things this week: short books that I've been reading, nursery rhymes from me and from Starfall, and songs from CDs in the car. Goose has been picking up on the nursery rhymes at least; her favorites are I'm a Little Teapot and Humpty Dumpty, though we tend to get slightly (adorably) garbled and abridged versions at this point.

Math
We've been working on really getting the teens in the right order and completing simple addition problems (sums less than 5) this week. I made a set of flashcards for numbers 1-20 awhile back, and this week I flung them out 52-card pickup style and had the girls line them up in the right order. They completed the task with minimal help (mostly me reminding them that "teen" means "10 plus" however many and asking what should come next if ___teen was last?). We also pulled out a numbers puzzle game that has them putting together three-piece mini puzzles of the numeral, the number word, and an illustration of that many objects. We used the white board to do addition problems. At this point I use an appropriate number of circles instead of actual numerals, then I write out the "real" equation once they solve the problem. At the end of this week, Bug actually requested some subtraction problems because they've come up in Starfall.

Library Day
This week's theme at storytime was boats--lots of fun books and a singing of "A Sailor Went to Sea, Sea, Sea." The craft was making a boat on a popsicle stick with shapes cut out from scrapbooking paper. Monkey and Bug did nicely with theirs, and Goose as usual insisted that on doing it "all by myself!" The girls ended up sitting separately at the big craft tables, and when I went to check on Goose as the end, she held up her creation, looking a bit uncertain, "Um, Mommy, it's not a boat." While she did manage to get all the paper glued onto the popsicle stick, I had to agree with her assessment and asked if she wanted any help. She agreed, and I did actually manage to peel off the paper and help her start over with much success. This week we came home with these books:
Rhyming Dust Bunnies
Let's Say Hi to Friends Who Fly!
Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog
The Little House
The Pirate of Kindergarten
Baby Animals

Exploring
When Thursday, our usual homeschool group day, rolled around, Monkey immediately declared that she didn't want to go anywhere, and Goose insisted that we should go to a playground. Since we had no responsibilities with the group that day, I went with it and we headed to a nearby park instead. Once we arrived, it occurred to me that the frisbee golf trails through the woods would be deserted on a weekday morning, and the entourage was thrilled at the suggestion that we go exploring instead. We found sweet gum tree balls, some impressive samples of quartz, and several pieces of trash (which we dutifully carried with us back to the trashcan). We reached the very top of a HUGE hill (at least the entourage's perspective), discovered a set of tennis courts we'd never seen before, climbed the very steep but short hill surrounding the baseball fields and slid down it (repeatedly), crossed a wooden bridge over a mostly dry ditch and decided it would be perfect for enacting The Three Billy Goats Gruff, and then decided to find a good spot for a bear's house in the woods and play Goldilocks and the Three Bears (we didn't actually act out this story; we pretended to be the three bears going for their walk in the woods while the porridge cooled--much more fun than pretending to complain about what they found when they returned).

Family Class at the Y!
The Y we're members of has a once-a-week class open to kids and parents. Monkey, Bug, and I have actually gone twice before (Goose is too little), but I believe I forgot to write about it before. The first time was an epic failure. Some friends talked us into joining them, but it turned out to be a family Zumba class--the music was way too loud and the instructor far too excited for Monkey and Bug to tolerate. We left the room after only a few minutes when Monkey burst into tears, but Bug wanted to watch from the hallway for awhile. I talked to the Y staff, and we tried again for Family Fun & Games Night. While the girls didn't want to participate in everything, overall we had a great time, and they were really excited that we could bring Daddy with us this week. They are still hesitant participants, and Monkey is still trying to grasp the concept of competition, but they get into it eventually, and I think being in a semi-organized class and watching Daddy and I follow instructions from a teacher too will be a good learning experience for them.