I want to share a little about Sophie and what she is learning and playing right now.  Here are some of Sophie's favorite things, the toys she plays with, and the fun she has.

Our story this week (January 20-24) was The Tale of Benjamin Bunny.  We loved the part of the story when the cat sat on top of the basket, trapping Benjamin Bunny and Peter Rabbit underneath.  In whiskers and a little pink nose, Audrey pretended to be the cat.  She drank milk out of a bowl.  She even curled up like the cat when he was sleeping, in the shape of a C.  Later we drew a picture of the sleeping cat in that C shape in our main lesson book and practiced a big C on the opposite page.

We use Handwriting Without Tears in addition to our Oak Meadow Kindergarten Curriculum.  Each week we use the wooden pieces to "build" our letter.  Then we practice that letter using "wet, dry, try".  That is when I write the letter on the small chalkboard, Audrey gets it wet by following my letter with a small sponge, Audrey dries it by following where the letter was with a small dry cloth, and then Audrey tries her own letter by following where it was just wiped away.

For our second week of homeschooling in the new year (January 13-17), we read The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett.  We learned that you can find the letter B, in form and sound, in bear.  So, we drew a bear to show the letter B with our beeswax crayons in our main lesson book.  Audrey chose to draw a brown bear in the spring time, even though our story took place in the Arctic with polar bears.  We also made the letter B with buttons, in play dough, in sand, and a few other new ways.

Sophie Rae turned one on January 16th.  I cannot believe that my little baby is one year old now!  She is the sweetest and happiest birthday girl ever. 

 We started off her day with one birthday pancake and one candle for our precious one year old.  We made her blueberry pancakes because she loves blueberries, and we sprinkled some powdered sugar "snow" on top because she is our little snow baby.  She also opened her first present, a snowflake birthday crown and snowman candle ring decoration.

During Sophie's nap time, Audrey and Ethan helped make the snow cake for her birthday party.  

  When Daddy got home we had a birthday dinner celebration complete with the snow cake and hot chocolate with homemade marshmallows.  Sophie loved eating the snow cake.  And although we had not planned on letting her grab at the entire cake; she did start eating an entire corner with her hands.  Audrey and Ethan joined in the fun and ate the cake with their hands too.  Good thing it was only our family around to witness that.  Sophie opened a few more birthday presents with the help of her big sister and brother.  Sophie was really good at pulling off the wrapping paper after Audrey and Ethan started it for her.  Audrey gave Sophie a needle felted little ladybug that she made herself and Ethan colored a "play mat" for her.

The day before Sophie's first birthday, Audrey and Ethan decided they would like to decorate snowflake sugar cookies for her party.  We were planning a snow baby themed birthday because Sophie is our little snow baby...our only baby so far born in the snow.  The cookies turned out so beautiful!

To begin the new year (Jan. 6-10), we started weaving the Oak Meadow Kindergarten curriculum into our already very Waldorf inspired homeschooling.  For our first week of lessons, we read The Tale of Peter Rabbit each day.  We drew a picture of the garden gate that Peter squeezes under with our beeswax crayons to show the letter A and the long a sound in "gate".  Throughout the week we played with the letter A in other ways.

Our project time focus this week (Jan. 6-10) was penguins.  We read some great penguin books like The Little Penguin by AJ Wood, The Emperor's Egg by Martin Jenkins, and Penguins! by Gail Gibbons.  We also did a couple of penguin art projects. 

Another one of our Arizona Christmas Traditions is to jump in the piles of leaves at Grandma and Grandpa K's house.  The kids really look forward to it.  This year, Sophie was able to play a little in the pile before the big kids jumped in.

We spent our Christmas at home in Arizona with our families.  I am so thankful that we were able to do that.  One of our favorite traditions is to decorate sugar cookies with my family and Kevin's family a few days before Christmas.  Audrey really got into her decorating.  Ethan had a blast too.  He especially loved pouring out tons of sprinkles!  Sophie decorated her first Christmas sugar cookie!