Peter and the Wolf and Smart Kids

Once we hit January, and the half-year mark, I started to feel the pain of sending my little one off to Kindergarten. But it still seemed so far away. However, watching these kids on Tuesday (who are ready for Kindergarten!) made September seem right around the corner.

We talked about our names a lot. We discovered that Maylie has the word "May" in her name. And Gavin has the word "in" in his. Gavin wanted to know what each of our names would sound like without the beginning sound. That's a kindergarten skill: breaking words apart. I was so excited!

The kids had no problem looking for two number cubes with dots totalling 9. Wow!

When I started reading Peter and the Wolf, Rachel said, "This book is fiction. I know."

The kids are feeling so independent, serving themselves. Guess who was the only person who spilled while pouring the water? me.

And, it was so exciting to watch the kids trying to make words out of their Cheezits. Several of the kids were making 3 - 5 letter words like box, rat, pant. Maylie found T for Taryn.

Daniel was worried that he couldn't read any words, but when I put N and O in front of him, he could sound out the word "NO". And look! He's raising his hand (not sure why). That'll come in handy next year!

Peter and the Wolf

The topic yesterday was Peter and the Wolf. This was my favorite version of the story:

Last year Lara showed part of a YouTube video of Peter and the Wolf which was really cute, but one little one was way too scared (of even the music) to view it. I put it off, hoping to have time at the end so those who wanted to watch could, and those who didn't could play. But we ran out of time. And I don't know how to include a link. Just look to the right under Peter and the Wolf. She included a link.

Peter and the Wolf puppets:

The kids had a lot of fun coloring finger puppets from Peter and the Wolf. And trying to contain them in their *garden* (recycled boxes with a fold-out door for the gate). The boys thought up ways to make the wolf extra dangerous (Daniel tried to add lightning; Matthew suggested coloring lava around the wolf's mouth, and Gavin wanted both). Even Ellie declared with a smile on her face, "I'm going to make my wolf bad. Really bad." Maylie was the only one who wanted a purple wolf that would be pretty, not scary.

"Grrr"

9 Things from Peter and the Wolf:

Here are Gavin and Maylie, practicing counting and writing their numbers.

Before I layed out the characters and instruments, I asked the kids which characters and instruments were in the story, and collectively, they remembered all of them. So smart!

Opposites Game

Here's Matthew picking a stick from each cup. One cup contained *actions*, the other cup contained opposites.

Here they are, crawling quickly.

And here are the girls, crawling slowly. I'm not sure why none of the boys are in this picture. I think they crawled as slowly as their little boy bodies could possibly handle, but not as slowly as the girls.

And this was the favorite: jumping loudly. I'm sure it was my work-from-home-husband's favorite too :)