Swimming lessons started this week, and Monkey and Bug are loving them! After our family visit to the pool over the weekend and refreshers with Daddy about appropriate class behavior and participating, the girls followed their teacher and hopped into the water with no hesitation. (Let me take a moment to say how absolutely thrilled I am that it's not my kids freaking out poolside this year!) They've been tooling around with kickboards, learning to doggy paddle wearing a floaty belt (more confidence booster, than real flotation device), and practicing floating on their backs and learning the backstroke motions. One of their favorite games appears to be throwing a little rubber duck, then swimming out to retrieve it.
Goose has been dealing with the disappointment that she's not big enough for swimming lessons yet, but she's been enjoying a little one-on-one time with Daddy or me instead.
Outside of the swimming skills, the best thing to come out of these classes has been Monkey and Bug's ability to appropriately function in a class setting. Bug even connected the dots on the way home from their first class, after Daddy complimented their awesome behavior: "So, we need to be just like this for karate class--only karate I instead of swimming!"
Saturday we got in our neighborhood pool again, much to Goose's delight. She was also thrilled to have free use of one of her sisters' inner tubes and spent most of the pool time kicking around "swimming all by myself!" By the end, she realized she could also just lean back and chill. She didn't fall asleep in the pool, but she came awfully close! Monkey and Bug had been inspired to free themselves of the inner tubes by our purchase of floaty noodles and kickboards, which they loved. They are definitely gaining confidence in the water. Bug even swam a couple of feet underwater with no floaties or adult assistance. Granted, she didn't do it entirely on purpose, but she came of proud, not panicked!
Goose has been dealing with the disappointment that she's not big enough for swimming lessons yet, but she's been enjoying a little one-on-one time with Daddy or me instead.
 |
| Goose and I decided to play with my new phone. |
Outside of the swimming skills, the best thing to come out of these classes has been Monkey and Bug's ability to appropriately function in a class setting. Bug even connected the dots on the way home from their first class, after Daddy complimented their awesome behavior: "So, we need to be just like this for karate class--only karate I instead of swimming!"
Saturday we got in our neighborhood pool again, much to Goose's delight. She was also thrilled to have free use of one of her sisters' inner tubes and spent most of the pool time kicking around "swimming all by myself!" By the end, she realized she could also just lean back and chill. She didn't fall asleep in the pool, but she came awfully close! Monkey and Bug had been inspired to free themselves of the inner tubes by our purchase of floaty noodles and kickboards, which they loved. They are definitely gaining confidence in the water. Bug even swam a couple of feet underwater with no floaties or adult assistance. Granted, she didn't do it entirely on purpose, but she came of proud, not panicked!
Excellent Work, Young Grasshoppers
 |
| Monkey and Bug in guard position right after their teacher tied on their new belts. |
Daddy shot several videos, but unfortunately, they're not transferring well from his phone to our computer. For grandparents and other readers who know us in person, you'll just have to wait til you can see the girls in action for yourselves.
Archery
We succeeded in finding a decent inexpensive kids bow and arrows, which the girls got to try out on Friday. Bug enthusiastically tried it first, but after one draw decided it hurt her fingers and handed it over to Monkey, who loved it! She kept at it for quite awhile, managed to hit the target a few times, and even tried drawing with either arm to see which she liked better. Goose is too little to draw it, of course, but she worked on the important lesson of staying behind the archer.
Lessons
Along with all the physical education the girls have had this week, we managed to keep up with their reading and math lessons too. For the record, we're currently year-round homeschooling. I think I'd have a rebellion on my hands if I suddenly declared they had to stop learning to read and do math for three months.
Monkey continues to be really into learning new sounds. This week she added the individual letter sounds: e as in egg, b, and i as in ice cream. She also added some letter combinations to her repertoire: ar as in jar, and ing. Particularly with the addition of the letter combinations, she's been willing to do more sounding out of actual words. In fact, by the end of the week we changed up how we came up with the lists. Most of the time we've brainstormed words and I write down what we come up with. By the end of the week, I would write down a word, and she would sound it out.
Early this week Monkey wanted to practice counting, so headed upstairs, and I had her assemble her buddies in rows of 5 counting all the way up to 25 all by herself. For the other three days we had lessons this week, I used math sign cards and toys to get her to solve simple addition problems with manipulatives.
Bug is inching along through her reading lessons. She didn't add any new sounds this week, but she's worked her way through a story and learning the sight words (or "funny words") girl, to, and do. Her math book gets much more enthusiasm. This week she did some simple addition problems, worked on the concept of estimating, and did a few pages of shape recognition.
Goose has been making lots of requests for the ABC song, and I've been steering her toward books about shapes and colors during those random "read me a book!" moments.
We succeeded in finding a decent inexpensive kids bow and arrows, which the girls got to try out on Friday. Bug enthusiastically tried it first, but after one draw decided it hurt her fingers and handed it over to Monkey, who loved it! She kept at it for quite awhile, managed to hit the target a few times, and even tried drawing with either arm to see which she liked better. Goose is too little to draw it, of course, but she worked on the important lesson of staying behind the archer.
Lessons
Along with all the physical education the girls have had this week, we managed to keep up with their reading and math lessons too. For the record, we're currently year-round homeschooling. I think I'd have a rebellion on my hands if I suddenly declared they had to stop learning to read and do math for three months.
Monkey continues to be really into learning new sounds. This week she added the individual letter sounds: e as in egg, b, and i as in ice cream. She also added some letter combinations to her repertoire: ar as in jar, and ing. Particularly with the addition of the letter combinations, she's been willing to do more sounding out of actual words. In fact, by the end of the week we changed up how we came up with the lists. Most of the time we've brainstormed words and I write down what we come up with. By the end of the week, I would write down a word, and she would sound it out.
Early this week Monkey wanted to practice counting, so headed upstairs, and I had her assemble her buddies in rows of 5 counting all the way up to 25 all by herself. For the other three days we had lessons this week, I used math sign cards and toys to get her to solve simple addition problems with manipulatives.
Bug is inching along through her reading lessons. She didn't add any new sounds this week, but she's worked her way through a story and learning the sight words (or "funny words") girl, to, and do. Her math book gets much more enthusiasm. This week she did some simple addition problems, worked on the concept of estimating, and did a few pages of shape recognition.
Goose has been making lots of requests for the ABC song, and I've been steering her toward books about shapes and colors during those random "read me a book!" moments.
No comments:
Post a Comment