F Week

Despite what you were thinking, F really does stand for the letter F. So I am renewing my efforts to do one letter a week and trying to be more thoughtful and comprehensive about the whole thing. Really it's just a nice way for me to organize our activities for the week. Plus, I'm a teacher. And as I used to tell my kindergartners, teachers have a nasty habit of making everything "educational".

So despite the fact that Marshall spent most of the week like this (notice the conveniently placed "just in case" bucket):

because everytime he attempted any physical activity (including chasing after the dog and his favorite "running away"), he threw up, we did indeed get some great simple activities done.

First, we sorted FISH into their color families. (Marshall didn't like it when I asked him to put the colors together, but he really got into it when I said that the families were trying to get together. He also really liked pushing all the piles together for a "party" at the end and then shoving them into his mouth like Cookie Monster.)

Next, I made a FAMILY poster with pictures that all our family members sent to us. (I tried to get him to make it with me, but Marshall is lately resisting any type of art activity. Read ahead.) Marshall really loves his Family poster. We hung it up in his room and he loves to go in and point out who is who and spell their names. And Josie....well, Josie just likes the extra attention from her brother as he declares, "We are a FAMILY!"

Then I had these two great activities planned. All week I tried to get Marshall to make FUNNY FACES with me. Finally, I just sat down with Josie and did it, thinking he would join in. No go. I even exclaimed loudly the joys of using glue. He would not be coerced. But Josie and I had a great time.

I also printed out a whole bunch of coloring pictures of FOOD. We were going to talk about the different colors of the food and the different food groups. While he LOVED the food coming out of the printer, he refused to color or even look at the pictures once it became clear that the goal was to color them in. Josie had a great time working on this activity with me too. (Although it quickly became apparent that she was just playing along so she could have an opportunity to gnaw on the crayons.)

She's really big into sharing these days. We're working on saying Thank You. It's so cute. She's got the intonation right. DA da.

Finally, I snuck on art project on Marshall because it involved a medium he hasn't used before....pipe cleaners. We made pipe cleaner FLOWERS for Aunt Marsha since we know she's having a tough time right now and we want to send her some love.

This weekend I am planning our next letter. Who knows what it will be? Suggestions? And don't expect so many activities each week. We were housebound and stir crazy. :) (I did attempt a quick trip to Costco at the beginning of the week to get the pictures for the Family poster. Marshall had been doing so well. But unfortunately, the walk from the parking lot to Costco was just too much to the M Man. You should have seen the look on the photo lady's face when I asked her if she had a bucket or ANYTHING.)