Computer time

Nakai finished out his day with a bit of computer time. We've been learning about letter sounds lately and he has really enjoyed things like the letter factory and starfall. Today, he played the Starfall abc sound games. Starfall is a great site for early readers, check it out at,

http://www.starfall.com/ and see what you think!

Captain Nakai

Nakai was so inspired by Nolan's birthday party (pirate-themed) that he's been a captain all week! Everyone else who has visited our home this week has also been a pirate (at least for a short time) and followed the Captain's orders!

apple painting

Nakai learned that he could paint with apples today! He enjoyed it...for about a minute, and then moved on to stamping, finger painting and brush painting. Then, he painted and painted until lunchtime. He is really enjoying his solo time at home this year!

sailing, sailing...

Nakai learned that he could get 4 boats for $1 at the Dollar Store today! He was so excited....he got the idea from Nolan's birthday party...the goody bags had tub boats in them and he wanted a whole fleet. He played and played with his boats all day long. No one interupted him or took them away from him, or distracted him, he was able to play exactly as he wanted until he felt ready to play something else!

more camera practice!

He's getting pretty good at taking pictures now!

On today's list...

Colors!

Nakai took a tie dyed bath today! He was so interested in how the colors changed! (and no, the colors are not all-natural....but they are well diluted!)

shapes & colors

Nakai practiced identifying shapes and colors this week! We went on shape searches through the house and outside to practice naming shapes and we painted a lot and worked on color mixing. He knew all of this already, though he did have a bit of trouble with those rectangles! Oh, and color mixing was new and exciting!

inspired by the lawn guy...

We were inside, having ourselves a great time shape searching, when all of a sudden, Nakai jumped up, ran outside and hopped on his John Deere! I watched all of this thinking,"what's going on?" Then I saw him...the lawn guy....mowing across the street. Nakai must've been inspired to keep up with him because he spent the next twenty minutes or so following along (on this side of the road), turning exactly when he turned, going as far as he went, etc. Then he just parked the tractor and came back inside! Cutie!

Learning to snap pictures

Nakai has been really into taking pictures lately. He asks all day long if he can take some pictures and then his little face lights up when he sees what he's captured. Here's his latest best pic:

Creative play

Isn't he smart? He wanted to go and buy a "car-carrying truck" really badly and I said that we had way too many vehicles already and that we couldn't go and buy more. He then asked for some tape, which I gladly handed over. The next time I looked, he had taped four small cars on top of a semi-truck! Voila! A car-carrying truck!

YODA?

Nakai really wanted this little costume when we were at Goodwill. I wonder how he knows about Yoda?!? Maybe he just thought it was cute... Anyway, I think he is pretty cute in it! Will he wear it on Halloween? Who knows! It's now in the dress-up box along with the other twenty or so costumes that we've picked up really cheap!

Color week!

Nakai wanted to paint this week and learn about color mixing. We went to Wally and he got to spend three dollars on paint. He picked out four colors: red, blue, green, and yellow and a stamp and a cardboard box and we headed home so he could set to work. He had a great time and loved to see what happened when he used all four colors at once... Just look how he's concentrating! Now he has a lovely box to keep his own special paints in!

Self-guided play

Today was one of the first days that Nakai was able to play with whatever he wanted to play with. He didn't have to worry about having things taken from him or being told to put something back... he enjoyed playing guitar for quite some time and then switched to modular daisies (which he loves), then to cars, then to "cowboy" with his wooden horse, snow boots and hat! Afterwards, we spent the afternoon putting everything back in it's place before walking to pick up Nolan and Teah from school. He had such a great day!

Nakai Flies Solo

Nakai felt such a sense of importance at the library today. It was a much different experience going by himself as opposed to tagging along with Teah and Nolan. There was no storyhour, so we just sat on the floor and played with the wooden dollhouse and barn and did the Montessori rod game and looked and looked through the books until he found just the right ones. Then he took them up to Miss Norma's desk and checked them out, all by himself!

Our sacred space

Nakai and I begin our morning circle time in our sacred space. We light our candles, say our morning verse, practice recognizing letters and getting connected with one another. We revisit our sacred space many times throughout the day to refresh our memory on verses and to regroup as needed.