We’ve been home more than usual since DJ has had an early fall cold. So we had two good days of “school” this week.

I presented the Trinomial cube to DJ after he moved a table in our spare room to get to where it was stored on a high shelf. A similar occurrence happened a few months ago with the Binomial cube and he surprised me with the ability to complete that puzzle rather easily.

The Trinomial is quite a bit more complex though and he’s entered his 3yo phase of “don’t show me how, I’ll show you”. So I’m expecting he won’t find this one so easy.

Since DJ has been cooped up inside so much this week, he has a lot of extra energy to burn. He began running circles around our hallway, dining room, kitchen, living room. I decided long ago that I was not going to let his need to move be at odds with his learning. So I don’t require him to sit still or even wait until he does.

While he was running, I pulled out these Living/Non-Living cards and called out to him for each one asking which category it belonged too. He still struggles with this some and he really doesn’t like to sort things so I did a lot of question/answer, like Do hats grow? Do birds have babies? Do rocks eat? to help him decide.

When we only had a few cards left, DJ paused next to me, pointed to the Living section and said, “All the animals are there.” YES! What an awesome independent discovery! I then pointed to the flower and tree and asked him what those were. I’m not sure he had connected the word “plant” with the various types in the same way he has “animal” So we talked about that some. This is a precursor to the next Biology Classification of Plant vs Animal, which is then followed by the Five Classes of Vertebrates. So I think I should start getting cards ready for the next step!

Continuing his need to move, I took these cards from the Child Size Masterpieces book, Step 1 to the other side of the room. There are two of each card, so I handed DJ one card at a time, instructing him to run across the room and place it on his mat, either by itself or with its match, depending if the first copy was already there. He did really great with it until he got silly and put the first bunny rabbit on top of the two George Washingtons. Then he put the second rabbit to the left, splitting up the pair that would have been together on the far left. But, he did complete the matching and had a lot of fun doing it. Maybe he’s ready for Step 2 on this one too?

The next day, we revisited the Land & Water forms that we first used in this post. We started again with lake & island. As soon as he poured the water into the little lake, DJ said “The LAST time we were at the lake… Arleen JUMPED off the diving board!” This happened back in early August when we were swimming in a lake with a family friend. Wow, did she make a big impression on him!

I had saved the lake and island clay forms that we originally made but we had to remake peninsula & gulf today. This was actually good because it gave me a chance to really review these two that are not as familiar as lake/island. After making the clay forms, we reviewed the picture cards and then found examples of peninsula & gulf on the Continent Globe.

Although I had intended to finish after peninsula/gulf, DJ wanted to do more. So we made clay forms for straight & isthmus. In this picture, he’s pouring the water. Sorry for the photo quality. The sunlight burst through the window just as I took the shot.

After cleaning up the land forms work, we brought out the tray I made up for the sound of /f/. These have been great at engaging him and convincing him to play the I Spy game with me. He explored all of the miniature items and read through the I Spy Phonics book for F. Then I started again with Step 1 of the I Spy Sound Games. I held one item in my hand and said, “I Spy something in my hand that starts with /fff/, what is it?” I went through the entire pile and he gleefully answered each and every one! Our box included flag, feather, frog, floss, fish, football, and fan. Progress, we’re making progress!

Our next activity is to prepare DJ for the many stereognostic activities that we have to do, starting with Touch Tablets, which are 5 sets of matching tablets each with a different grade of sandpaper. His goal will be to match the pairs by touch only and that is made possible by wearing a blindfold. The first time I tried to introduce the blindfold, DJ wasn’t comfortable with it at all. This time, I started by wearing the blindfold myself and walking around the room, touching various items and naming them.

It wasn’t long before he was begging to try himself. I handed him a variety of objects he is familiar with and he named them all! In this photo he’s holding up a matchbox car.

All in all a VERY productive school week!