Preschool Corner- May Review

***Please Take Note- I began writing this post at the beginning of may and just never found the time to include my links and finish it!  So, with that said, we are now technically done with school for the summer, but I will be posting soon about the light plans we have and all the work I am putting into planning for the fall!***


Preschool has been going well with R-Man!  We have been incorporating a few new things into school time over the last month or so and for now it seems to be working.

Probably our favorite new aspect to school time has been Calendar Time!  We got some fabulous ideas from Carisa over at 1+1+1=1 and have tailored it down a bit for us.  Calendar Time basically consists of singing some songs (about the date, months, days of the week), talking about the weather, finding the color & shape of the day throughout our schoolroom, doing a quick letter-sound drill (I will talk more about this in the fall), going over our memory verse, and a few other things.  I plan to do a more thorough post on our calendar time with pictures in the fall, so stay tuned!

Another tool we have been using is the Kumon Tracing workbook.  Although I am not a fan of workbooks in general, I really like the progression of the activities in this series.  R-Man really enjoys working in this book which is also a huge deciding factor in using it!  I let him do as much or as little as he wants, but he generally asks to do anywhere from 2-5 pages a day.

For his birthday we got R-Man this cool toy from Leap Frog called a Scribble & Write.  The lights on the screen light up in a progression of how you would actually write the chosen letter or number.  There are also pictures and games- R-Man loves it!

We were doing some reading and activities on Vikings since we saw "How to Train Your Dragon," but R-Man just couldn't seem to get into it.  So, other than continuing our reading for fun, we have pretty much let that unit fall by the wayside.  I don't want to wear him out trying to make him learn about things he is just completely uninterested in.  I want him to have a love of learning and the Viking Unit just wasn't fitting into that plan.

As we head into summer R-Man is spending more time outside and less time doing "school."  Although, as I watch him exploring the world outdoors I know that he is learning far more than he would be at a desk.  He loves "working" with his dad and "doing jobs," and ya know what?  He actually does work very hard at the jobs we give him!   I have been amazed to see him verbalize his critical thinking to figure out how to accomplish what we have asked him to do also!

Our plan is to continue working on a few Kumon workbooks throughout the summer but mainly focus on experiencing the world outside our doors and answering the plethora of questions that always seem to be spilling out of him these days.  More to come on our summer plans over the next week or so though!

Preschool Corner- Long overdue update...

I have been meaning to post for weeks (okay, months) about how preschool is going but it is difficult enough to make preschool happen, let alone post about it!  With that said, we are still plugging along!

February was a bit of a crazy month while I tried to get all of our business accounting in order to do our taxes, and March (and now early April) have been plagued with what seems to be a never-ending sickness!  We had one good week and then it started all over again!  We had many more trips to the doctor than I ever bargained for, but I think things are finally starting to look up!  Plus, we found out that since last summer R-Man has grown 5 inches!!!!  Crazy huh?!  He is now 3'4" and 31 lbs (he gained 2 lbs in the time it took him to grow that much taller!  Skinny mini!).

Here is a project we did in January where we put salt and food coloring on a block of ice and let it melt throughout the day. It turned out so cool!  I was even surprised by just how cool it was!  Very fun and R-Man loved it!

In addition to our Itty-Bitty Bookworm curriculum I have decided to supplement a bit with some more montessori-type activities for things like cutting and games for letter and number memory.  A few weeks ago we were reading Mouse Paint and I made some simple cutting cards for R-Man to help the mouse get to the cheese.  He did a much better job than I expected him to and at the end he even cut the mouse and the cheese off the cards so that they actually could get to each other!

He liberated them.

He's a clever one!

Here he is playing a letter memory game I made with puff paints.  He really enjoys tracing these letters with his fingers too!

I have also started to add some more information to round out the themes of the books we are trying to incorporate lapbooking and tie things together into a bit more of a unit study that extends throughout the month.  Don't get me wrong, I am really liking Itty-Bitty Bookworm, the lapbooking just seems to help us tie our learning together more from week to week and it is a great tool for R-Man to teach things back to me, helping him remember more.  It is also good practice for me in writing curriculum/lesson plans since I am strongly considering using homemade unit studies with Charlotte Mason methods for our preschooling next year (taking some ideas from Heart of Wisdom too).  Homeschool Share has been a regular stop for me lately as I continue to research and delve into all of our options!

In March we worked on a Weather unit with the books The Wind Blew and The Mushroom in the Rain.  I borrowed Vicki Cobb's Science Play book Face the Wind from the library and we have been having so much fun with it (the most important part at this age!)!  R-Man is really enjoying the different experiments with air and absorbing so much information it blows me away!

And yet, there's more!  With our units we are trying to incorporate more nature study also, especially since the weather has been so nice off and on (low 60s in March!!)!  R-Man is enjoying digging in the dirt and observing the birds and squirrels in our own backyard! 

 

He likes working outside with dad- he calls it his job!

 

Cooking with mom is a fun job that he always likes to get in on too!

Music is still huge for R-Man!  There is a rare moment in our house that isn't filled with song!  He sings half of what he says and can often be found with a guitar or make-shift drumsticks in his hands (yes, that's a kayak!)!

And here he is drumming with his feet!  What a guy!  Multi-talented for sure!  Haha!

Lately I have really been seeing him round that corner into being a 4 year old.  He is responding better to discipline and trying so much harder to obey.  He seems to be better comprehending my directions (when he is paying attention!) and is such a huge help to me!  He is a little gem and I can't put into words how much I love this little almost-4-year-old!

New Year, New Curriculum!

I don't know if I mentioned over here on this blog that back in December I won an ENTIRE YEAR of Itty Botty Bookworm curriculum from Jolanthe @ Homeschol Creations (who also runs this meme- hop over and join in the fun!)!  Well, obviously I couldn't have been more thrilled since I had toyed with the idea of purchasing this curriculum many times but just couldn't afford it!  So, what a HUGE blessing to have received it for free! 

We started the first week of the new year, had a bit of a snafoo (aka- R-Man got and abbreviated version of the flu and I lost my mind!) last week that allowed us only to get a few of the projects done, but we are back again this week with a vengeance! 

First of all, I have to just say that we are genuinely LOVING this curriculum!  It is so much better than I even dreamed it would be!  Incredibly simple to follow and having everything laid out already really simplifies things and makes it much more doable. 

Beyond the actual logistics of how well written the curriculum is, R-Man is getting sooooo much out of it!  I have seriously been shocked!  It may be partly because he is getting older also, but all of the sudden things are just clicking for him!  He is really starting to get his letters down and beginning to acquire basic reading concepts.

Plus, he adores the projects!  When he found out that he got to cover this icecream cone with frosting and marshmallows as a counting activity he about peed his pants!  Of course, getting to lick the knife was pretty thrilling as well!

If any of you are looking for an amazing curriculum for preschool, you will not be wasting one dime of your money if you invest in Itty Bitty Bookworm!  I have even heard rumors that they may be coming out with a Kindergarten curriculum- so keep your ears peeled!  I am just hoping it will get finished int he next year and a half!

So yup- that's where we are!  You can expect lots of Itty Bitty Bookworm related posts and progress throughout the rest of the year!  Awww- how good it feels to finally have a curriculum that fits!

Our Thanksgiving Lapbook

 I know it is a little after the fact, but we had to actually finish our lapbook before I could bring myself to post on it!   It turned out to be a great learning experience (for both of us) and we really enjoyed creating it throughout the month!  I have included photos and a video walking through all of our different components.  There is also a list at the bottom of the post with the resources I used!  Enjoy and please feel free to share any feedback!  I would love to hear your comments and suggestions!

 

 

 

Here is a list of the sites where I found our wonderful resources:
A very comprehensive list on Squidoo
A great little Bingo game on Mes-English.com
Verse cards and other printables on ChristianPreschoolPrintables.com
Dot-to-dots and more at edHelper.com

I found all of our resources through a basic Google Search, so if I left anything out I am sure you will be able to find them easily!  Thanks for taking a gander at our Thanksgiving lapbook!

Preschool Corner- Thanksgiving and K!

Mmmmmm... I am feeling much better this week about where we are headed on our home pre-schooling journey!  I still have a lot of research and preparation to do, but now that I have taken a more relaxed approach and shifted our focus we are having so much more fun and I really feel that R-Man is absorbing a lot more.

I did more reading into Charlotte Mason this past week along with a good bit of blog hopping on the topic and found a WONDERFUL blog called Our Journey Westward!  This mama very closely mirrors what I believe our future homeschool experience will look like.  She has a strong emphasis on Charlotte Mason's methods while incorporating lots of unit studies and some classical education, which is exactly what I have been thinking about!  She lists so many wonderful resources on her blog- you really must check it out!

So what are our days looking like right now?  Well, we are working on establishing more of a routine.  I try to reserve Lion Cub's morning nap time (about 45 min- 1 hour) to solely focus on working with R-Man on "pre-school" things.  During that time this week we have been working on different components of his Thanksgiving lapbook (which I will be posting on next week), reading Thanksgiving books, and the letter K.

He is really coming along with his cutting skills and is even beginning to enjoy coloring and drawing with me (I never thought I would see the day!)!

Another fun project that R-Man and I embarked on this week was writing his very first book!  It is something I have been wanting to do with his for quite some time since he has such an active imagination and is always telling us the most hysterical stories!  So, we sat down and he dictated to me a whole story he called "A Lot of Spiders."  

And here it is for your reading pleasure (remember that he is only three and I tried to stay as true to what he told me as humanly possible!)!

A Lot of Spiders

by, R-Man

There were a lot of spiders going to get all the food.

By going on the floor and going to eat the food and going to go on my little chair.

They will bite big on my little chair.

Then they will bite bigger on the big chair and then they will bite all the chairs.

And there will be a big, big, giant chair and all the spiders will be eating it.  They will eat it all gone in their tummies and they will be really, really, really big!

All the spiders go up the loop and go to Canada and eat the food!

The End

I am debating over taking the story he wrote, tweeking it a bit so that the English flows better and he can hear the difference between the two, and adding graphics to turn it into a story book, but I am still not sure.  It is so pure and clearly written by a three-year-old so I will probably just leave it alone and let him learn as he grows.  It was a fun project though and I hope to do it more often!  I am hoping to prompt him into writing something about Thanksgiving this week!

Play-School

R-Man has really taken an interest lately in building things out of his foam blocks and legos!  I adore this type of play because I can totally see his wheels turning as he tries to figure out how best to stack and balance things to make them work!  He builds whole towns that he then drives his cars through and he loves using his semi-trucks and tractors to move the blocks around and haul them from place to place!  Of course he also loves that he is building things "like daddy!"

Life-School

In "Life-School" my husband and I are both putting a more concerted effort into instilling "habits" into R-Man and our whole family.  The habits we are working on are praying more throughout the day, memorizing scripture, reading the Bible together as a family, and Catechism.  I try to read a daily portion of scripture with R-Man during either breakfast or lunch everyday and we try to read whatever particular Bible story we are focusing on for the week (this week is Daniel and the Lion's Den) out of one of our children's Bibles right after dinner.  It has been great to see R-Man absorb these habits so quickly!  It amazes me how fast and well he is able to memorize verses, including the reference!

We are working on other "habits" with R-Man also- he likes to call them his "jobs."  He is responsible for taking his dishes to the sink after each meal, making his bed, putting his clothes in the laundry room and putting away the silverware out of the dishwasher.  He is doing a great job and is at a young enough age that these tasks actually seem fun!  Good by me- less work for mama!

It was a great week and I know it is only going to get better from here!

Preschool Corner- Changes & Holiday Traditions

Over the last couples of months I have been trying to use The Hubbard's Cupboard curriculum for 3-year-olds with R-Man but have been realizing more and more that it just doesn't work for us.  I think it is a wonderful curriculum and a well outlined map, however it just isn't really jiving with R-Man's style of learning or even my teaching style. 

So, that has left me to searching- again- for something that works for us.  I decided to skip a curriculum (nearly) altogether this month and just focus on Thanksgiving.  There is so much to this holiday, from the history to the concept of being thankful to the food, that I was sure we would have no shortage of material to cover of fun ways to learn!  We are currently working on a lapbook that I will be posting more about in the coming weeks, but so far it has been a lot more fun and held both R-Man's and my attention much better!

I place of our weekly bible-themes we have been focusing on our own family Bible and Catechism time each night after dinner and have been choosing our own verses to memorize as a family.  We are currently working on 1 Chronicles 16:34:

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.

I try to work in our scripture memory all throughout the day and in lots of different formats (song, repetition, explanation, etc...) so that R-Man gets used to using scripture anytime of day for all varieties of reasons.  Soon we will also be starting advent with The Jesse Tree, which will give us a map for our Bible time for the month of December.  To learn more about The Jesse Tree and how to start this tradition with your family, head over to Tired, Need Sleep for an EXCELLENT post by Nicole!  She even has a full 13-page print-out with scripture cards, ornaments and the works (Thank you Nicole!)!

In my quest for the learning process that will best work for us I have been doing a lot of reading on a variety of teaching methods, and although I think that ultimately I will end up using a mixed-bag approach as we more fully head into our homeschool years, I am significantly leaning towards many of Charlotte Mason's methods.  I found this terrific site called Simply Charlotte Mason that has wonderful articles, books and DVDs, especially about early learners.  Charlotte Mason places a large emphasis on establishing habits in ourselves and our children and I think that our whole family could benefit from implementing her ideas!  I am hoping to receive some of the books and DVDs from that site for Christmas, so I will definitely keep you all up to date on how our little journey is going!

Well, with all that said, we have been doing a little bit of "structured" preschool learning.  We continue to work on a letter a week- this week Jj was for Jet.

He loved cutting out the letters (almost all by himself) and gluing on the jets!

We have even started the very early stages of copywork.  R-Man has never been much of a drawer/colorer, but after reading Harold and the Purple Crayon I discovered that he really enjoys copying a picture that I am drawing at the same time.  I got out a large sketchbook we have and drew a line down the middle.  We then went step by step to create a picture- just like Harold in the book!  R-Man loved it!  He was so proud that he posted his pictures on the fridge right away!  We have also been doing letter tracing, particularly with his name.

All in all, I'm feeling better about how things are going.  I don't feel like I am rigidly stuck to someone else's schedule, trying to accomplish more tasks than either of us feel like doing or are interested in.  The way R-Man we are learning right now feels much more natural.  We read good books, do interesting projects, sing goofy songs and just have fun- exactly the way it should be at this age!

Planning, Planning, Planning

Sometimes I feel like I am doing is planning, but I really want to find the best fit for R-Man- learning that he will enjoy and really get something out of. The last two weeks we have been primarily working from Hubbard's Cupboard Bible and Rhyme curriculum, but I think some lack of preparedness and the way activities were presented caused some frustration for R-Man.

So, new plan! We will still be working with the Bible and Rhyme curriculum, and following that basic schedule for the year, but I am going to try to work in more from ABC Jesus Loves me and Totally Tots. I also want to incorporate the Workbox System (Jolanthe @ Homeschool Creations has a lot of great information and printables!), as I think it will be a better way for R-Man to see the flow of his preschool day, and for me to stay prepared and organized as well!

I am also working on convincing my husband to let me turn our front playroom/guestroom into a schoolroom/office (for me- he has one already!). This would involve selling our futon and having him build me a couple of pieces of furniture (sheliving and such), but I think it would be really worth it!

So, that is the plan for now! It is ever evolving, as it should be, I think!

Home Preschool Week 1

We officially started our first real week of preschool last week! It went well, but was definitely a learning experience for not only R-Man but myself as well! I had been so prepared for day one, but my preparation waned as the days went on. I am finding it to be a trick to bounce Lion Cub (one of the few things that keeps him quiet) while trying to read to read to R-Man or do a project! We are working on it though- each day is hit or miss!

We are really liking our Hubbards Cupboard curriculum though, and I think it will only get better as we get into a routine of working through the subjects and projects each morning. These first two weeks are all about creation and the curriculum does a really great job of working numbers and colors into that overall theme.

I didn't get many pics last week, but here are a few that I was able to snag:

Writing the number 1 in flour

Writing the number 3 in pudding (probably his favorite thing of the week!)

Sponge painting with blue

I am really looking forward to week 3 when we start the alphabet and the story of Adam and Eve. Sometimes I think that the story of creation is so segmented (a totally different idea each day) that it will be easier to just follow one story for the whole week. Like I said before, I think it is just going to get better with time! I am glad we are starting in August to get some of the kinks out of the way before September when I want to add in more activities to our preschool mornings, such as book themes and projects.

We also started our co-op last week, as you may have seen in my open-ended art post. It is basically just a group of mamas who are all working through the same basic curriculum with their kiddos. We are meeting one morning a week, switching off houses each week, and will go on a field trip once a month. The first week went great and we should have all the families who are planning to participate for the year in attendance this week! I am really looking forward to how this year is going to shape up- I think it will be wonderful in not only learning a ton but forming lots of new and stronger relationships! All in all, I think we are off to a good start!

We have found our curriculum for the year!

Lately I have been searching for and praying about the preschool curriculum that would be best to start with R-Man this fall. I have really felt that our whole tot-school/homeschool experience would be going much better if I had something a little bit more concrete to follow than a bunch of random projects.

Well, after considering a few different curriculums I finally found my answer today! I recently started following Teaching My Little BookWorm and today she posted her curriculum choices for fall- ABC Jesus Loves Me and Hubbards Cupboard. I checked both of them out and they are wonderful, Bible-based curriculums- exactly what I was looking for! I have decided to use the Hubbards Cupboard, Bible & Rhyme for 3-year-olds as our main curriculum (it features a 3-day-a-week schedule which is just what I want!). I will supplement that curriculum with ABC Jesus Loves Me and a book I picked up this week called the Pray & Play Bible For Young Children.

In addition we will be completing a Letter Book with many of the activities from Totally Tots and will be using themes throughout the year to correspond with the books we will be reading and additional learning projects (listed in this blog post by Teaching My Little BookWorm). We will also be intergrating Open-ended Art Projects into our learning time, so stay tuned for those upcoming posts!

To top it all off we will be trying to focus as a family on making family discipleship more of a staple in our everyday lives- we have done this off and on but haven't been as consistent as we would like to be. We plan to have regular family devotions during our dinner time that will incorporate family worship, scripture memory, devotions and prayer (from the Pray and Play Bible for Young Children), and The Catchism for Young Children.

Oh, wait! I almost forgot! We will also be putting R-Man into Awana in September so that he can get out and socialize more, and will be looking into putting him into a local soccer program too. We may be continuing in a co-op with some friends as well, if the mama who heads it up decides to keep going with it! I may think about creating a small co-op of other mamas using the same curriculum that would meet just one day a week to do group projects and field trips.

There is lots in store and we can't wait to get started! It should be a great year!