We started this week exploring simple patterns. She "read" me a color book and a
shape book to prepare. Then we created patterns using colors, shapes, and size to make simple ab patterns. We used her
birthday cake toy to create simple abc patterns and noticed how this pattern places the same decoration opposite each other on the cake. We read
Bear Snores On,
Bear Feels Sick, and
Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site and noted how these stanzas ended in rhyming patterns - abcb in the bear books and abab in the construction books. We pulled out our rhyming fish and fished for some rhyming words as well. She also pulled out her plastic canvas and practiced stitching, saying up and down as she pulled her needle through.
Tuesday we talked about more complex patterns. We used our
pasta to create rainbow color patterns. We listened to
Roy G. Biv by They Might be Giants and I sang my own rainbow song. We also made patterns out of the shapes. We also played with some stamps, noting the combination of colors on the stamps. She tried to make her own pattern, creating a line of balloons. We made patterns on her
magnet board. The shape magnets that came with it are great for this. The cushion on the back is helpful for angling it well or for setting it comfortably on your lap. The main problem is that the images are light and the erasing bar a bit difficult for her to move. We explored texture patterns in her
beads and in her foam alphabet floor tiles.
Books also have different types of patterns. Instead of rhyme, Tuesday we looked at books that repeat larger ideas. We read the
Smallest Girl in the Smallest Grade,
Two Friends: Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass, and
If You Take a Mouse to School. We talked about how
Two Friends had an introduction, then looked at Susan's childhood, had the quote "The right to live free. The right to vote. Some people had rights while others had none," then spoke of how she fought for rights. Then it followed a similar pattern for Frederick Douglass, starting with his childhood, using the same quote and then addressing how he fought for rights. We looked at how books like
We're Going on a Bear Hunt and
Let's Go Camping, which came with Violet, repeat chunks of text. She loves We're Going on a Bear Hunt now, but it took awhile for her to get into the sound book because there is an image of a dog in a snowstorm that makes the sound of a snowstorm instead of a dog. She used to get upset that it didn't bark. But she likes the story and sound now, but parents be forewarned, this is a book that is great for kids but can annoy parents with its repetition. We read
I Love Saturdays y domingos, which has a pattern between sets of grandparents. It's also nice as it includes some Spanish words. We ended with
Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What do You See and
Peek-a-Boo Forest, which have sentences that repeat, with the slight change in animals in each page.
Wednesday we went back to dance class, and we realized music and dance are another place to explore patterns. We listened to some musical patterns and tried to make our own with her various instruments. We also practiced some movement patterns, with clapping and stomping. We read one of my favorites,
Zin Zin Zin, a Violin, which I love because it counts to ten, introduces different types of instruments, and uses some musical terminology. We also read
Do Re Mi, which was the interesting story of Guido d'Arezzo. I didn't know a lot of this story, so it was interesting for me and written at a level children can understand.
Later we colored and worked on the Animals of the Alphabet book. We had lots of R and S animals - raccoons, rabbits, rhinos, red pandas (which have long been an animal she loves, as it was the first animal she really reacted to at the zoo), snakes, sea dragons, sloths, sea horses, sheep, sea urchins, shrimp, sharks, sea stars, skunks, squirrels, scorpions, and seals. She thought it was amazing how many ocean creatures there were.
Thursday we discussed routines. We looked at bus and train schedules at the train station, and she built a train. We looked at her calendar and I introduced some of her new chore options on her calendar. The felt calendar is great because we can add things as we need them, but it doesn't always stick well. There are some great options by
Melissa and Doug instead, if you don't want to make your own. There are activity and chore charts, but we combine these in our felt chart. And yes, Genevieve does have chores at age 2. She feeds the cat, sweeps, helps with laundry and dishes, waters the plants, and brushes her teeth and hair. We talked about how her chores repeat and so do the activities. We talked about how we feed the cat every day, but other things we only do once a week, like soccer and dance class.
Tobias had sign class on Thursday too. This week was about getting dressed. This week and the other classes fit this theme of patterns and routines as well. So we talked about morning and evening routines and how these repeat. Every night we watch
Daniel Tiger while we clean up, then after Daniel we put go potty, put on pajamas, brush our teeth, share goodnight kisses, and then read many bedtime stories. Daytime and nighttime are another type of pattern we also discussed
Friday we talked about some longer patterns, like how the moon changes, the 4 seasons, and life cycles of caterpillars.
Ready, Jet, Go has interesting episodes about the moon and perspective. The younger character Mindy believes there are a bunch of different moons, and the older kids discover that this is not the case. It doesn't necessarily bring up the lunar cycle, but it was a good launching point. We've been observing the sky a lot in the morning and we've seen a large moon for a couple days last week. We also saw some hot air balloons and clouds as a side note.
We watched the episode of
Curious George with Hundley Junior, the caterpillar. We read The Hungry Caterpillar and talked about the cycle a caterpillar goes through. We looked at pictures of Genevieve when she was younger and compared them to pictures of Tobias. So even though we don't go through the same changes of the caterpillar, we do go through similar growth patterns and learn skills in a similar order.
While talking about similarities, we also managed to have a few different versions of the Cinderella stories in the house at the moment, so we compared
Raisel's Riddle,
Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters, and
The Talking Eggs to the Disney version, and Rexerella. We looked for similarities and similar story arcs, and differences.
Genevieve has been very interested in bones this week, so we also watched an episode of
Dinosaur Train with Fossil Fred and read an introduction to the
skeletal system.
Wild Kratts has been introducing new episodes with Chinese animals, and Genevieve loves pandas so we also read a little about pandas and monkeys in some National Geographic books. We were also lucky to find a female duck in our yard and a camouflaged bug in the grass.
I love Dr. Seuss books and so do Genevieve and Tobias, so we are using the whole week to celebrate Read Across America. The rhymes are fun. Illustrations are friendly. Some words are ridiculously silly. And there are great lessons, like conservation, humanitarianism, and being willing to try something new.
On Monday, we read Horton Hears a Who, Horton Hatches an Egg, Yertle the Turtle, and And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. We chose these books because they all feature animals you might see at the zoo. Genevieve made a map of the zoo and also made some charts to fill in at the zoo. We were scientists studying animal behavior and counting animals by classification. She kept noting the animals that had hair like her, and were therefore mammals. We also had fun marching in our own parade in honor of Mulberry Street. 
On Tuesday, we were going to explore rhyming words. Oddly enough, Mr. Dan chose to point out rhyming words in the books he read in story time. We played with our rhyming fish. Genevieve also enjoyed finding rhyming words to finish my sentences. She played a game with Wonder Red from Super Why on the PBS Kids app. We also read some of Dr. Seuss's sillier, tongue-twisting rhymes like Hop on Pop, Fox in Socks, Oh Say Can You Say, There's a Wocket in My Pocket, and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish. Genevieve relived the fun of yesterday, painting a giraffe.
Wednesday is busy with two gymnastics classes, park time, and dance but we found some time for Seuss. We read Bartholomew and the Oobleck, which is one of the few non-rhyming Seuss books. We also celebrated the beginning of March Math Madness by reading Hoot which counts to 5 and names colors. We made our own oobleck, using math and measurement skills. We used cornstarch and water in a 1:1, 2:1, and 1:2 ratio. Each had a different color. Then we played with our non-Newtonian fluid, watching it turn from solid to liquid and back again. Since Bartholomew helps the king with the weather, we observed the weather outside. Then we made cloud paintings with cotton balls, and shaving cream mixed with a little glue.
