The Letter C

Ah, the English language.  I realized in my planning for 'C' week that a lot of the things I wanted to do/try/talk about started with 'Ch.'  I decided to avoid most 'Ch' things because I didn't want to confuse her with sounds.  I also decided to just focus on the hard 'C' sound.  I'm glad I made those decisions because it took awhile to convince her that her friend Sophia's name doesn't start with 'C.'  When you say the letter 'C' it says, "see."  It made sense that Aria would confuse that 'ssss' sound with the letter 'S.'  Once we had that conversation, I decided I wouldn't even tackle 'Ch.'

Something I've loved about focusing on a letter of the week is the random opportunities to point out the letter.  The coolest one we had this week was a coyote.  Yes, a coyote in the middle of town.  We do have a field in our backyard, but the field is surrounded on all sides by city neighborhoods.  Anyway, on Valentine's Day we were getting ready to eat supper and a coyote ran right past our house.  I got a couple pictures, not great, but you can at least see it a little bit.  Aria was so excited to see it!  We decided it made it's appearance just for our 'C' week.

  It seems like we did a lot more this week with 'C.'  It helped that it was Valentine's Day.  We made 'C'upcakes for Daddy.  We also made Valentine's 'C'ards for friends and family.  In Aria's Wild Animal Baby magazine there was a craft suggestion about clouds.  I have always wanted to do it, but just never got around to it.  'C' week sounded like the perfect time.  There is a pattern on the magazine's website to make stencils for the clouds.  Then we took some blue paper for the sky and white paint.  Aria used a sponge and painted clouds.  It was a blast!  I wish I would have taken pictures of her doing it, but i didn't.  Oh well.  It was a fun activity on family night that Justin got to do, too.  Here is a picture of one of the finished products:

Also in the picture is the cross we made with Jesus on it.  Aria is too young to completely understand what it means that Jesus died on the cross for us, but I thought it couldn't hurt to at least start focusing on it a little bit.  She sees crosses in several places out in the world.  She points them out a lot.  In fact, she pointed one out in the Hy Vee parking lot with the criss-crossing parking space lines.  So, we read the story of Jesus' death several times and made that cross with Jesus on it.  She will now tell you that Jesus died on the cross.  It's a nice lead in to Easter in few weeks.

Here are the numerous people we know whose names start with 'C': Grandma Connie, Caden, Caleb, Cody, Connie, Camryn, Cookie Monster, and CJ the dog!

We ate: cod, cauliflower, cantaloupe, craisins, cupcakes, cookies, carrots, corn, and PBJ shaped like a cat, car, and 'C'

We colored pictures of cows, cats, cars, cards, cake, and camels.

One of Aria's favorite books lately has been If You Give a Cat a Cupcake.  It obviously fits 'C' week very well, so by her choice we read it every night before bed last week.  I checked out books about chickens, clouds, and cats.  The chickens book had a website where you could watch live chickens at a farm.  Aria LOVED that!  The coolest book we checked out was Big Cat Small Cat.  It shows opposites and leaves a blank for the reader to fill in the last opposite.  For example, one page says, "This cat is big.  This cat is small.  This cat is short.  This cat is..."  Of course, Aria loved the cats, but she also enjoyed filling in the blanks.  I liked the challenge it gave her little brain.  A very cool book!

Phew!  That was a lot.  And I feel like I'm forgetting something.  Oh well.  What a great 'C' week!