Pumpkin Farm Field Trip Fall 2012

It's Fall, and that means another trip to the pumpkin farm with Abby's class!

 

 

She loved the "biiiiiig pumpkins!"

 

 

 

 

We were fascinated by the goat's pen and their bridge system... all the goats seemed to like being up on top. :)

 

 

Hiding in the "corn"

 

 

 

The hay jumping area was a little flat due to rain, lol, so the kids had fun running around on top of the bales instead!

 

 

Smelling the pretty mums!

 

 

Abby loves her horses!

 

 

 

 

You can't see, but they have cows in these pens, which thrilled Abby to no end.

 

 

Abby and Lilly really wanted to play volleyball, but they couldn't quite get the ball high enough to get it over the net, so it was a short-lived game. :)

 

 

Tractors!

 

 

The corn shed was Abby's favorite part last year!

 

 

 

 

 

Hayride!

 

 

 

 

Then we got to pick out our pumpkins!

 

 

 

Class picture... YOU try arranging twenty 4 year olds! :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We got to eat lunch on the grounds... which was good, because we were hungry! :)

 

 

Lilly! :)

 

After lunch, I took the girls around to get some fall pictures taken.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fun day! :)

Fall Crafting

Abby and I took advantage of our first "day off" since she's been back to do some fun craft projects.

 

 

Pinecone bird feeders! Just in case you grew up under a rock and never did this as a kid :), here's how you do it: cover a pinecone with peanut butter, roll in bird seed until completely covered, tie a string around the top, and hang from a tree or bush so the birdies (and squirrels!) can enjoy.

 

 

We didn't have any string, so we just tucked them in the branches of the front bushes. :)

 

 

Handprint pumpkins! I'm a sucker for any handprint craft...I think it's such a cute way to record a child's growth. First paint a big orange circle on a sheet of paper...

 

 

 ... then paint the child's hands green and have them "stamp" the "vines" on top. I drew a little "stem," too.

 

I still have a few crafts pinned still - an adorable fall leaf suncatcher, for instance - so I can't wait for our next "free" day! :)

 

 

Learning To Read

Ever since Abby asked me to teach her how to read this summer, I've been afraid she'd lose hope or get frustrated because, let's face it, learning to read can be a slow job (even for a very smart little girl!). First you have to learn to recognize all the letters... then all the sounds the letters make... then how to put the sounds together. She's really soldiered on, learning all the names of the letters, how to write upper/lower case letters, learning to write her name, etc. But for some reason, she really struggled with learning the sounds each letter makes. I don't know why - she didn't seem to be able to "hear" the difference, if you will. We'd work on her phonics workbook where she had to circle the things that started with "s", for instance, and this is how it went:

Me: "SSSSnake. Does that start with S?"
Abigail: "Ye-es?"
Me: "Very good! How about nnnnnut?"
Abigail: "Ye-es?"
Me: "Let's listen carefully. NNNNNNNNNut."
Abigail: "Ye-es?"
Me: "No, NNNNNNNNut starts with N. Hear it? N-nut. Ssss. Can you hear it?"
Abigail: "Yes!"
Me: "What about CCCCCCat? Does that start with S?"
Abigail: "Ye-es?"

Eventually I just decided that she obviously wasn't ready yet, and since I didn't want to turn the workbook into a "guessing game," I stuck it back on the shelf, waiting for another time.

We always play educational games while we're driving - even before she would talk to me I'd chatter on while we were driving, counting cars, talking about where trucks might be going, what colors the cars/signs/etc were, and so on. This is how she learned to count to 100 - every time we got in the car we'd count until we reached our destination. Last week I decided to introduce the idea of letter sounds in this way, and we started talking about things that start with the "ahh" sound.

To my surprise, she really seemed to understand the concept, and even came up with some "ahh" words herself! From then on, every time we got in the car we'd play the "letter sounds" game, naming as many words as we could think of for each letter, and so far it's been working.

So far we're up to K/L pretty dependably. I was thinking yesterday that if we finish off the letter sounds in the next couple of weeks, she could be "reading" small words by Christmas! :) I can't wait! Guess I'll have to start looking for some Bob Books for Christmas!