Reish al ha-Rosh!

We made letters with Duplo blocks today.  Started out with a Reish like last week, then changed it to Hey by adding one more block, or a Vav by changing the block on top.  I didn't get alot of good pics, but here is R, putting the Reish on his Rosh:

and here he is trying to make a Hey:

M said this was more of a Vet....

Oh well.  But he is doing great with building big towers with Jenga blocks:

This is nice.  I think I'll add another one!

There, that was easy!

Not too impressive, huh?

Well, how about this?  Take that!

Uh-oh. I guess that was one too many.....

Coloring in the map

I made blank USA maps for M to color in.  He has been practicing with the puzzle for several weeks, and now can identify most of the states.  He even tried to color them in the same colors as the puzzle from memory.  I encouraged him to make up his own colors -- New Mexico doesn't have to be green, nor Louisiana purple......

Scissors

I finally got the boys into the scissors lesson.  I took out the leftover strips of paper from making Sukkah decorations, and showed R how to make little cuts to cut off bits of paper.  He took the process very seriously:

In the meantime, M shocked me by picking a paper strip, and with no direction at all started cutting it lengthwise -- in a straight line!

Is this OK, Imma?  Or do I have to do it the easy way..?

We learn about Reish

E joined us today for a lesson about Reish.  We made the letter with blocks and with our fingers, and noticed that it is the mirror image of a lower-case letter "r".  Then M wanted to write some words with Reish:

Then we enjoyed the unseasonably warm day on the porch:

What is that Montessori stuff, anyway?

So today I wanted to do some cutting and pasting with the boys, but once again, M had ideas of his own.  He pulled out the box of Montessori math materials, and asked for the place value labels.  Well, he didn't know that's what they were.  He thought they were stickers.  Well.....

I thought tens were pretty big......

....but these hundreds and thousands are even bigger!

 R seemed to enjoy the scissors well enough:

Adventures in Math, Engineering, and PE

E couldn't join us for lesson today, since he caught up on a much needed nap.  I intended to do addition and subtraction with the Jenga blocks, but while I was getting my tea, M arranged some of the blocks in a 3x4 array, and announced that he had 12 blocks.  Whoa!  OK, buddy, you wanna do multiplication, you got it!  So I showed him how we write 3 groups of 4, and then we made several other "groups".  After a while, we did switch to addition and subtraction, which we also wrote down.

That's way cool!

Meantime, R was having a blast building with the blocks:

This got M's attention.....

Who then started doing some building of his own:

That roof turned out a bit too wide to span with a single block as he was attempting, so I showed him how to cantilever across it, and then he made a BIG BIG roof, and was SOOOOO proud!

Then we went out to meet E and his Imma and brother at the playground.  A bit chilly, but a good time was had by all:

R did some impressive ladder-climbing:

Dod Hodu

Don't ask....  OK, you had to ask.  I made the outlines for the letters that spell out "Hodu" = Turkey, to help E learn to letter, since he likes doing mazes. M wanted to add "Dod" = Uncle, probably because it also uses the Vav.  Don't argue with a 3-year-old.  Just don't.

In fact, don't argue with a 2-year-old, either.  E wanted to stick to his mazes:

And DEFINITELY don't argue with a 1-year-old.  He knows EXACTLY what he wants to do:

And that's that!

We meet little D

A new little friend joined us today!  Little D is about R's age, and fit right in.  Here she is reading a book with her Imma on the ride-on toy while M is working the USA map puzzle:

And here are our usual 3 Stooges (M, E, and R), hiding their feet under the rug:

We hope D will join us again!

Craft sticks

Art lesson today was gluing craft sticks.  M had fun making an Aleph and a house:

 while R just had fun making a mess with the sticks and the glue:

After a while, he got tired of this (or maybe I got tired of cleaning up after him...) and he moved to the little table to play with the sandpaper letters:

That kept him pleasantly occupied until M was done.

Reading and playing

Today E joined us for a literacy lesson.  We played with several sets of Hebrew letters, identifying them and making words.  E really got into Et Le'ayet!  He asked for the names of all the pictures on the templates, and was very interested in the letters as well.  He is so funny -- he knows the words he is supposed to use in conversation (yes, no, thank you etc), but thinks it is a great game to refuse to say them.  Every now and again he will slip his cover, and imitate M's talking, though.  I think he is getting it!  He also likes to sing the Hebrew songs that he knows.  After the lesson, we all walked to the playground, and E and M were singing "Hiney Ma Tov uMa Na'im" while walking together:

Hiney ma tov uma naim...

...shevet (lekhet) akhim gam yakhad!

And here they are at the playground, enjoying the balmy November sun:

Another new friend

Our new friend D joined us today, and joined right in the fun.  Here she is coloring maps together with the whole gang:

And here they are all enjoying outside time on the porch:

M, D, and R are swinging together....

...while E is swinging high above with his Imma!

Art in the yard

Another beautiful sunny day!  M has been asking for his finger paints again, so we all sat out in the yard and a great time was had by all, even the dinosaur:

Later on, M and R worked together with Et Le'ayet, with M telling R the letter names while working on copying the title of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" in Hebrew: