Teaching Shapes {part one}

This week we have been working on our shapes. Thing 1 was already familiar with his shapes, so this was not brand new information.

When first introducing the shapes, we started out with the basic shapes; square, triangle, circle, diamond, and rectangle. I used shapes that are plain white, with a black outline, so that I could isolate the concept of "shapes".

The first activity that we did was cutting and pasting shapes.

You will need:

Basic Shapes Print Out

Glue (I pour it into a small cup)

Q-tip (spreading the glue)

Sheet of construction paper (something that is not white)

I cut out the shapes (if you child is older you could allow him to do it himself), because I wanted them to still resemble the shape that I was teaching!

I showed Thing 1 one shape at a time. Handing him the circle, saying "This is a circle". Then allowing him to trace the circle with his fingers. Then he glued the circle on the paper, using the q-tip to spread the paint. Once he pasted the circle on the paper, we traced it again, saying "this is a circle".

We continue this with all of the shapes. When he had finished gluing all of the shapes, we went back and talked about and traced each shape again!

The finished product:

He glued all of these without any help from me!!! I'm a proud mama!!

Here are a few tips for teaching shapes to small children:

Teach one concept at a time (resist the urge emphasize the color AND the shape)

Say the name of the shape, while the child traces the shape.

Keep it simple (there's no need to talk about how the square is made of of four right angles just yet)

Adoption Profile Book

We just finished our adoption profile book, and it should be in production as I type! If you are not familiar with the adoption process, the profile book is like a Family Album on steroids. You include pictures of your family, friends, church, and home. You include some facts about things that you like to do as a family, and things that make your family yours. Yeah...its a pretty big deal!

While putting the book together, there were times that I felt that I was "marketing" our family. Part of you wants to make sure that your book is "better" than the others. God quickly dealt with me about those feelings. Adoption isn't a competition. If anything we are united with the other families by a shared calling. We should be praying for each other as we go through this process. God is the one who places children in families, not a birth mother or agency.

The most difficult part of creating the profile book was writing the "Dear Birth Parent" letter. It's so hard to write to someone that you have never met, that will be making such a life changing decision (for ALL of the people involved). You want to convey your gratitude and respect for this woman who put her child's life above her own, but I don't think there are words that can even do that. I found myself looking for examples of other birth parent letters that couple's have written before. But in the end, after much prayer, I just had to write from the my heart. I trust that God will use my words to whoever it is that is carrying our child.

So that's where were are now. The book in production. It should be at the agency by the end of next week, and they will begin showing it to the mothers.