Orr Homeschool Adventures: Bb is for Barn

This morning, Alan really wanted to play I-Spy. He loves playing with all the magnetic letters. We went through all the letters and numbers that were on the board. Evan would pick each one up and say, "Here you go Alan." Alan would take it, say, "Thank-you," and put them all in a pile. They did this for the entire game. It was really cute!

Evan: "Here you go Alan." Alan: "Thank-you."

Yesterday, Evan had painted a bunch of little bears to go in his "Jesse Bear" Lapbook. We would take turns hiding them all over the room and then hunt for them. When it was Evan's turn to hide them, he would say, "Close your eyes Mommy...Don't look!" Most of the time, he would put all of them in the same spot. Then he would get so excited that he would jump up and down and say, "They're here, Mommy! Right here!" He would just pick them up for me. I would just pretend to find them, and he would say, "Good job Mommy! You found them!" (The bag around Evan's neck is all of the 'Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?' characters. He has carried this bag around his neck for the past 2 days!)

Hide and Go-Seek Bear Game.

We continued talking about the letter Bb today. We learned that Bb is for Barn. I had checked out a Rebus read-along story from the library called, "Inside a Barn in the Country" by Alyssa Satin Capucilli. I didn't know how he would do with it, but he loved it. He followed right along and by the end of the story he was reading more than just the picture lines. Since Alan had gone down for a nap, we got out Adam's old Barn set. He loves to play with the barn, but the pieces are so tiny, that we can only get it out when Alan is sleeping. Evan thinks that it is really neat to play with toys that Daddy played with as a young boy. He is so particular about everything, even when it comes to play. He has to get everything set up and put in just the right place. If one of the animals falls over or something, he freaks out and has to put it right back. (I guess he is a little bit like his mother!)

Bb is for Barn.

Making sure everything is in just the right place!

Driving the tractor around the farm.

When he was done playing with the barn, he painted a picture of a barn to go in his Bb Lapbook.

Evan painting the barn red.

Since Bb is for Barn, I had been telling Evan all day that we were going to go on a field trip to a big barn when Daddy got home from work. He was so excited! He kept saying that maybe he could find some butterflies at the barn. (We had been talking about butterflies too.) Daddy finally got home and we headed off to the Rutledge-Wilson Farm - a huge interactive farm park in Springfield. The whole way there, Evan kept noticing barns, and he would point them out to us! We finally got there, only to find that it had closed at 5:00. We were about an hour late :(. He was so bummed (and so was I!). We told him that we would go back tomorrow. On the way home, he just sat there so quiet. I pointed out a big red barn to him, and he just said, "It's closed, maybe another time." How sad! We just felt horrible!

We worked more on the "Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?" Lapbook today. Evan painted several more little pictures to go in it. While reading the story, I pointed out how the floor in Jesse Bear's kitchen had shapes all over it. So Evan sponge painted a picture with a bunch of shapes to go in his Lapbook.