Colors! Lots of colors!

This week I am trying a different approach to our schedule.  For the last month, we have been running EVERYWHERE.  We are all exhausted by the weekend, and then we keep going on the weekends too.  So, this week Pierce had to pick 3 activities he wanted, and that was IT.  Since he did not choose story time this week, that meant we were able to stay home and take our time with our schoolwork.  I have been rushing them, I realized, because we always had to be somewhere else than where we were.  And I think that is partially why they started to lose their enthusiasm and interest.  So, without further adieu, here is what we did yesterday.

For the next couple of weeks, we are doing colors and shapes.  I though those would go together very well, and without my trying, we are mixing in numbers as well.  I put out a choice of workbooks for Pierce to work on in the morning; he chose to work on the number workbook while eating breakfast.  It was awesome for Carter, since he was able to listen to us and watch Pierce practicing his writing skills.  It was awesome for Pierce, since he finally got that "big boy" school time I realize he had been lacking.

During the actual school time, I gave the boys a brief introduction to contrasting colors.  I had also cut out black strips to glue on white paper.  Carter had no interest in the art project, and instead of getting frustrated with him, I just told him to leave the school room and come back when he was ready.  As soon as he heard us cleaning up the art project and taking out the colored counting bears, he came running back into the room.  My intentions were to see where they would take the bears, and to leave ideas out for them, but they certainly would not have to do it.  Well, they ended up doing a TON of work with the boys.  First, they did the traditional sorting by color.   It took Carter a few tries, but he figured it out rather quickly what Pierce was trying to do.  Carter even became so excited about sorting them, he started yelling out the colors.  Pierce called the cups for the bears their homes, and he was putting the families back together.  It was so incredibly awesome to hear them and see them working together.  I love when it goes that smoothly.

After the sorting of the colors, Pierce discovered the counting mat I had placed on the floor.  It was originally designed for Duplo blocks, and I had originally downloaded it for Carter this past summer.  However, we never got around to it, so I decided to put it within reach, and see what would happen.  Carter was more interested in dumping the bears out at this point, so Pierce lined them up by whatever number of boxes were in each row.

Seeing as that was way too easy for him, and he knows his numbers, I decided to challenge him.  I cleared off most of the spaces, but left two rows of numbers,  Then I asked, what would happen if you added 1 bear to the 2 bears?  He moved the bear down, counted them, and told me 3.  We kept going and going with different combinations.  He absolutely loved it!  He is certainly my numbers child.

Pierce and Carter then decided that dumping and pouring needed to be done, so they worked together on that.  The boys also discovered that if they swish their cups around with the bears in them, it made an awesome noise, and they started making music.

Per Carter's request, I gave the boys their tweezers and pom poms.  For your information, the tweezers made the bears fly across the room VERY well.  Let's just say, they had a lot of cleanup to do.  :)  But, it is all part of learning, so I certainly cannot complain...too much.

The final activity for the formal school time was stamping with various colored ink pads.  No matter what the stamp pattern, both of the boys love to stamp.  I could have turned it into a simon says game very easily, but again my intentions were to see what they would do if I gave them the materials.  Here is what Carter did:

And here is what Pierce did:

Both of the boys had two totally different ideas on how to use the stamp pads, and they were happy they were able to express themselves their own way.  Carter told me every color of stamp he put on his belly, and Pierce told me every shape and color of the stamp he put on his paper.  

Throughout the day, I set up more activities for them to do.  Building blocks, foam shapes, lacing, and their Duplo Farm book.  But what surprised me the most, is what they created in their sensory bin.  Carter climbed into his sensory table, and starting picking off individual pieces of corn, one by one, off the dried out cobs we had been using to paint with.  Big brother joined in, and they did this for 40 minutes straight.  When they ran out of corn, they asked me to get more for them!  And even today, Pierce wanted me to stop at the store and get more.  

It was the perfect day of no running around for us, and it was a relief to me to see the boys finding stuff around home to do and explore again.  As you could probably also tell from the pictures, the boys never even changed out of their pajamas either.  And that was THEIR choice.  Hope you guys are all having the start of a great week!