D Stuff

Pretty successful week. In sounding out letters in our books, Talmage confused the lowercase B and D. How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon? was a fantastic D book.

Activities

Five Little Ducks. There are a lot of versions of this song and I think mine is the most funny. I was excited for this activity because I remember learning this song in preschool circa 1984. I also was excited to bring back the circa 1984 (and earlier) flannel board.

Our activity that day involved us making a flannel board. I bought a piece of flannel from the cloth store (light blue, of course) and hot glued it (only on the back because the glue makes the material pucker) to a piece of foam core. I assume plywood or cardboard would work just as well. I then glued manilla folders on the back so that I can store our flannel board projects for the future.

I printed out a mom and dad duck from this template and five baby ducks from this template on different colors of paper. I then faux laminated them with contact paper and glued sand paper on the back.

I was excited about this because I knew my mother-in-law would be disappointed if I wasn't integrating math concepts into this project. Tal's pretty good at one-to-one number connections and addition, but he has a harder time with subtraction. This was a fantastic and easy way to do that.

I feel obligated to explain that the sweater was pooching funny. I did just have a baby 7 weeks ago, but my belly isn't THAT big.



Dalmatians.



We painted a brown paper sack white. I'm sure this would be easier with a white paper bag, but I couldn't find those at the store. Anyway, Tal appreciated having paint as part of the project. Glued black spots and ears, plus googly eyes and a poof ball nose. Classic red tongue under the flap.

Dinosaur (Pipecleanosaurus).



I actually read about how to do these a year ago, and when we did the activity, I went from memory. When I looked online for the directions so I could attach them here, I realized that I had forgotten a couple steps.

D treasure hunt. Dad, doorbell, door, dishwasher, dirt, Daddy's car, doctor's kit. The treasure was Dots.

C Stuff

As soon as we started C Week, Talmage guessed that the C made the sound "sss." I corrected him and changed the sound to "kkk." I'm sure I'm going to shake his grip on his worldview when I teach him the soft C sound. English is tricky.

Activities

Cookies and cards for our cousins. Actually just our cousins who live in Salt Lake got cookies. We mailed cards to the rest. So far, the cooking projects might be Talmage's favorite. And he likes to paint.

Colorful collage.



This was fun. I rolled out about 10 feet of paper and compiled everything creative I could think of. Wrapping paper, paint, markers, tissue paper, magazines, cookie cutters for tracing, glue. I think that's it. We then went crazy. Well, (as I mentioned before) Talmage loves to paint, and he stuck with that. I did more of the papier colle part.

Cow puzzle. Here's the site with the instructions for this. We printed stage 4 and glued it on a cereal box for durability. We needn't have bothered. Talmage loves puzzles. They're his gift. And apparently this didn't hold a candle to the 500 piece puzzle we were working on on the dining room table. The pieces didn't even stick together! It's in the garbage can now.

Caterpillar


We took a popsicle stick, glue poof balls on it, googly eyes, and used a pipe cleaner for an antenna. I probably should have used a longer popsicle stick. Incidentally, our book that day was The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Not bad for hard C sounds.

Caterpillar C.


Pretty simple. I cut out bright colored circles and Talmage glued them in a C shape.

Visit to Costco. Okay, we needed to go to Costco and I passed it off as a C activity. We got hot dogs and a smoothie.

Car trip.


We went to Moab at the end of the week. Tyler's annoyed that I've forever changed road trips to car trips in Talmage's head.

C treasure hunt. Camera, closet, clothes, cup, cars. The treasure was cookies.

B Stuff

B has been our most difficult letter to write. In fact, two weeks later, Talmage will write M, E, and L out of his own head, but still struggles with the two bumps on B.

I don't have any books that stand out, except we discovered Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus this week and though it wasn't the best B book, it might be the best children's book ever written.

Activities

Banana bread. Big hit. With both Tyler and Talmage.

Bumblebee B.

I drew a hive and then used my thumbprint dipped in yellow paint to make bumblebees swirling around it. I use me in the first person because Talmage would have no part of putting his hand into paint. Whose child is this?

Blue painting.

I had visions of channeling Picasso and his blue period. Actually Stockton was with us for this activity, and he was quite involved painting much of our kitchen.

This was pretty simple. I mixed three colors of blue and let them have at it. Then they took baths.

Bluebirds.


The idea for this was actually blackbirds, but I didn't have any black paint at the time. That way we could do the blackbird poem:

Two little blackbirds sitting on a hill
One named Jack and the other named Jill.
Fly away Jack; fly away Jill.
Come back Jack; come back Jill.

We took a large and a small paper plate, painted them blue, glued them together. I improvised feet and wings. Add a triangle beak, googly eyes and that's it.

Visit to the Tracy Aviary. To see the birds.

Bird Feeder. For next time.

Bubbles. For next time.

B treasure hunt. Ball, bed, bathtub, blanket, bottle, bionicle. The treat was Gummi Bears.

A Stuff

Vowels are tricky. What sound do they make? If I remember from my college linguistics class, mostly the schwa sound, and very rarely the short A sound. But we focused on the short a sound anyway. This made finding books to find the sound kind of tricky, and I don't have any that stand out as exceptional.

Activities

Ants on a log. The classic. Celery, peanut butter, raisins. Talmage decided he didn't like celery, and I subsequently ate all the logs of ants.

Fingerprint ants.

Pretty self-explanatory. Draw the letter A. Stamp your thumbprint up the sides of the A like it is an anthill (I only had a green stamp pad). We then talked about how ants have six legs and drew them on.

Aquarium picture.

The website I found this on had a cute idea about taking a box, filling it an inch high with sand and then pasting these sea creatures on popsicle sticks and sticking them in the sand. That way, you really get the vision of aquarium being a box where you find sealife instead of the ocean our resembles. Ah well, something for next time. Here's the link to the ocean illustrations.

Talmage wrote that A all by himself.

Visit to the Living Planet Aquarium. Mamakell and Stockton came with us. It was one of Asher's first outings.

Apple Prints: For next time.

A treasure hunt. Art kit, apples, Asher, animal board book. Short A stuff is hard. The treat was frosted animal crackers.

Why the Site

I worry that Asher won't get the same active mothering that Talmage has. This is one reason that I wanted to space my children three years apart. That way (hopefully), I will be able to repeat this project in three some odd years for Asher.

This in part explains the organization of the site. I'm not going to post what books we did unless they were particularly good for illustrating the letter sound. I will include notes to myself on what to change in the future. Mostly I will keep pictures and instructions and websites I've pilfered here regarding our activities so I remember what I did.

But you may find an occasional note about Talmage and his development. Maybe in three years I'll update it to include notes on Asher. And if the site is helpful to the internet audience at large, that's fabulous.

What We Do

Each week is dedicated to one of the letters of the alphabet. (Almost) every weekday, the schedule looks like this:

1. We write the letter of the week. At the beginning of the week, we write the letter in flour. I read somewhere that the tactile quality helps make the activity stick. Talmage just likes playing in flour. I initially thought this might be too advanced for Talmage, but by C Week, he caught the vision and could write any letter he wanted. I should mention that Talmage could already recognize all the letters both upper and lower case and so he just needed to make a connection between the letter in his head and the finger writing the letter. If he masters the letter in flour, we move to a pencil and paper by the end of the week.

2. We look for the letter in a book and state the sound. Again, Talmage could already recognize all letters when we started this project, but he didn't know many of the sounds letters make and had a hard time hearing the letter sound in words. So for this portion of our activity, I read a book and stop when a word starts with the featured letter. When I point at the letter, Talmage tells me what sound it makes. Occasionally I will review previously featured letters, just to make sure he's paying attention.

3. We do an activity that has to do with the letter. Art project, cooking project, math activity, something. This section is rather open. Occasionally we will go somewhere.

4. At the end of the week, we do a treasure hunt. I give a series of clues that have Talmage guess a location or item that starts with the letter of the week. At the end of the hunt, he finds a candy that starts with that letter. I'm taking suggestions for a treat that starts with the letter Q now. There is a video of how this works in B Week.

The Whys and Wherefores

Talmage has given up his afternoon nap.

I could probably end there, but if you want the specifics, I've always believed that active mothering leads to healthy children and happy mothers. I've fulfilled this in the past by going places with Talmage: the zoo, the Children's Museum, the Planetarium, the park etc. But now Asher is here which makes our at home time less efficient, and the aforementioned lack of a nap, which means more time to fill in the day. When I stay home I'm tempted to try and clean the house or work on the courses I teach, which means Talmage has to play on the computer or watch TV--both projects that will turn his brain to mush. Neither do they accomplish their intended purpose--to allow me to do something else productive--because he gets tired and then nags me to play then I nag him to leave me alone. Unhealthy children and unhappy mothers.

Hence, the birth of ABC Stuff. I had admired other friends' ambitious mothering for the good of their children. I started ambitious mothering for the good of me. But I think Talmage has fun, too.

Maybe I should post a sign on my front door that reads "Warning: Messy House. But Look For My Immaculately Kept Blog ABC Stuff."