To do list

Ruth wanted to have the same type of "to do list" as Rachel had - so I got hers done last week. Rachel's are on the top and Ruth's on the bottom (where she can reach them).

Her "Art" this week. A picture
for Dad. She also ended up with
lots of stickers on herself. :-)

It was lovely to see how this week she took over the job of doing the chooks from Rachel (the red lables). She takes them any scraps, fetches the eggs and checks that they have enough food. She is such a big girl already.

Other items on her list are "Tell" when she tells me about the story that Rachel has read to her, "Music" for violin practice, "Computer" - a friend lent us a couple of new games so she is enjoying those and learning a lot. And then she has some items that are not for everyday. I have made enough for every day but for starters we are going to have it our goal to get to them at least once a week. "Baking", "Art", "Read" - at this stage it's just work on the alphabet, "Math" - at this stage just work on recognising the numbers or doing some counting or adding, "Sew" - she loves sewing and I want to try and get her something to do every week and "Clean" - it's nice for her to have a record of packing up or cleaning that she has done.

Not just puzzles

Ruth has been wanting new and more challenging computer games so I got her started on Rachel's Jumpstart Grade 1. She did a couple of the things in the main game but then I remembered the Music cd. I registered her as a pre-schooler when I set it up. She sat and played and played until she had finished the entire game. I will have to set her up as a kindergarten student next time.
It's a great game that teaches rhythm, memory of notes, knowing what sounds different instruments make as well as the basics of music reading (where one note is wrong and you have to work out quick one).
And she continues to enjoy her collage work. She knows that when she sticks heavy things on she has to let it dry before she can do the other side.

This was the other side done a couple of days later.

She had been talking about making one for each of us and so we asked her what we should use them for. Eventually we came up with the idea of Rachel keeping bottle tops in it. Rachel needs to collect bottle tops for Brownies and has found a few sources over the last week. So they are no longer just being kept in a packet but have a special bottle - lovingly made by Ruth.

JumpStart Preschool

Ruth is really enjoying this computer programme.

I can already see how these simple counting games have helped her counting. She is getting really good.
She is even starting to recognize the numbers with this game. They do say the number but she is able to at least recognize some of them before the number is even said.

Extra practice in recognizing the numbers in order and the letters too.

The memory game is also more advanced than on the Barnie DVD - so that's nice to get her mind that extra stimulation.

She quickly jumped to level 3 with letter recognition.

Colour by shape or number or letter is always fun.

Songs with the words highlighted as they sing.

Hide and seek where clues are given and you have to work out where the fish is hiding. This clue was "I rhyme with sock".

Odd one out. Great for showing the difference between letters.

And Ruth will always enjoys some puzzles.

I like how in this one she gets to see how two smaller different shapes together make the big one.

Build and boogie

It did not take Ruth long this morning to get back to her new games. I got some nice zip lock bags for all the different things (in front of the bag next to her) which helps keep all the pieces together of each game (and helps to show Hannah to play with one thing at a time and then pack up). Ruth asked me to time her this morning with building the parrot and I was amazed that she did it in just over 1 min (75seconds). It's fun to watch her working out different ways of building it - not sticking to the same order for the pieces.

One of the things I did not mention yesterday was the music cd we got too. Ruth has now learnt how to get the cd playing again as she listens to it over and over. She is already singing along to all the songs and dancing and doing actions where she can.
So creative with these shapes. Well done Ruth. This is her worm or snake.