Test Run- part 2

Yesterday delivered was my gleefully ordered educational tool from last week called Education Cubes. The cubes are actually marketed to hold photographs, but this brilliant blogger has made inserts and given instructions on how to use them for what ever you are teaching. 

I try not to get sucked in to spending money on anything that's single purpose and only for a short period. Since Jen has inserts for everything from geography to sight words, these can be used for years to come. I foresee getting a second set when D is ready in a couple of years. I set each of the 4 cubes with a different concept.  The Letter of the Week curriculum is courtesy of Confessions of a Homeschooler 

I pointed out a few things and then began asking him what's that as I pointed. He named a few :-) Then he started building a tower with them, so we moved on.

  Next was chenille sticks. He watched me bend them in to letters and named A, B C, E and F. ( I did A through F)

Then we broke out the foam letters and numbers. I placed them around the table and M pulled off his favorites. I said the name of it as I was sticking them on. At one point, he starts going around the circle of the table in a sing song way calling them all E ;-)

We also had foam shapes and numbers we played with. I really like the idea that he's having fun and just getting familiar with the shapes of all these.

 Next was the molding clay. I'm still not 100% it's gluten free, (I have Celiac and M will be tested when he turns 2 in November. In the meantime we have eliminated gluten from his diet as a precaution) but I just made sure neither one of us had our hands near our mouths.

Last, we went outside as M's attention span was waning. Mommy drew A through D upper and lower case with side walk chalk on the back porch. We didn't stay long since it was already 105 outside and being in the half shade didn't help much against the sting of the heat.