Week 4, day 1: Half-hearted

New material: three new animals in beginning/ending sound identification,

color shade matching,


pouring into a small-necked container,


cutting and gluing,


and sink and float returns, by popular demand!


So... today was half-hearted, all around. As I mentioned before, we only had one day off this "weekend". And I think that was a mistake. I think it does both of us -- but mostly me -- good to have a few days off to refresh and, in my case, to think of new material.

Nugget's first choice was the new color shade matching. This is my way of preparing her for Color Box #3. I've skipped Color Boxes #1 and #2 because she knows all those colors, but I'm not quite sure she's ready for lighter/darker. I figured the first step was to make sure she could identify the differences between the shades. I picked up paint chips in all the major colors, then glued a piece of each color to a clothespin. (Right now I just have the reds prepared, but I'll bring in other colors each week.) She clips the clothespin to the matching shade, which also helps with finger strength.

Nugget needed help with this, because her fingers aren't strong enough to do the clothespin one-handed. I ended up holding the paint chip while she clipped the clothespin on. She mixed up two shades on her first go-round, but noticed the mistake when we reviewed them at the end and corrected it.

Next, she moved to the collage station -- cutting and gluing. I put this out after she had such a blast with collage last week. Again, her hand/finger strength isn't great enough to use the scissors one-handed, so I held the paper strip while she cut. I think I need to look for a new set of beginning scissors to see if they're easier for her to use.

Once she cut for a bit and moved into gluing, I assumed she'd be busy for a while and ducked out to take a shower. That totally broke her concentration and she stopped her collage after 3 pieces. I tried to pull her into the beginning/ending sounds (where I'd added 3 new animals), but she didn't want to do that independently. I worked with her on it once when I got out of the shower, but we never got back into the groove.

I needed a few more minutes to myself to work up a grocery list, and she'd been begging for sink or float (any time she sees pouring, she asks if it's sink or float). So I pulled that out and she happily worked with that for a few minutes, but just one go-through.

We'll see if we go back in tomorrow. We probably should -- another single day off won't change anything. Should just get back into things. I think I'm just feeling particularly tired tonight. A good night's sleep (and hopefully a change of position from Sprout, because I'm currently getting some painful knee-into-stomach pops) may improve things.