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Preschool Corner: Vacation Version

Jul102009
July 10, 2009 by Leave a Comment

This week has been a whirlwind of activity while we were packing up to travel to visit grandparents and traveling. So there was nothing done.

Other than reading. And enjoying the beautiful weather. And swimming. Or the children’s museum.

Nothing but fun…and what might actually be considered a ‘break’ from school. A new concept for summer, I know. :)

While we’re traveling I’m hauling along planning materials to work on next year’s plans. Now that I’ve officially finished printing off my planner I can start the REAL fun! Since we’re going to be using workboxes, I’ve been having fun making forms and pulling together ideas for those in the upcoming year.

But don’t let my sitting back and {semi} resting hold you back! Please, please, please share what you all are doing! I have loved visiting your blogs and meeting all you ladies that are new to joining up each week! Link away!

About the Preschool Corner:

The Preschool Corner is a place for us to share the ideas we are using during our “preschool time” with our kids. You can join in the fun and record what you are doing in your house. Please link your exact blog post to the Mr. Linky below (if you have questions feel free to ask). Be sure to link back to this blog post so that your readers can find some other great ideas too!

The guidelines can be found here if you need them.

Share what you’ve been doing in your house this week!

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Tot School ::27::

Jul42009
July 4, 2009 by Leave a Comment

~ Kaleb is 32 months ~

We got back into a better routine this week and had a great time making 4th of July crafts {go figure} and just having fun! Here was the layout for the week:

Tuesday: 4 pc. block puzzles, 4th of July shaker, 4th of July hat
Wednesday: star painting/stamping, Wii, color card sorting
Thursday: Children’s Museum with grandmother so Mommy could CLEAN
Friday: building w/ colored blocks, scrunchies on a stick, coffee filter ‘fireworks’

Some of our pictures {and from the looks of it, you’d think Kaleb only wears orange, eh?}

The 4th of July hats and ‘sparklers’ we made were a HUGE hit with all the kids, but Kaleb kept his on the entire time we watched the parade. Some foam sheets and duct tape is all it takes to make kids happy!

Our cookie cutters get so much use {HA!}, so we pulled them out this week along with our red and blue paint to make some star prints/stencils with all the kids. Kaleb was MOST thrilled to paint…he loves, loves, loves it and cries every time we put it away {while Mommy rejoices that the mess is cleaned up!}.

We’ve been playing Wii carnival and Kaleb was given a remote this time and did great on the horse races…no, we’re not raising a future horse racer…but he was too stinkin’ cute flapping that remote up and down as fast as he could!

I have some great colored building blocks and we had fun seeing how tall we could stack the blocks before Kaleb chose to knock them down. He also imitated building arches with me…his, not so much an arch.

Kaleb’s favorite game {and he’s getting rather quick!} is putting scrunchies on a stick from one of our other games. I love it because we name colors as he does it and he also get to work on some fine motor skills.

That’s it for this week! Don’t forget to visit Carissa at 1+1+1=1 for some more Tot School posts. If you are participating I’ll hopefully get a chance to stop by and visit you too!

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Preschool Corner: 4th of July Style

Jul32009
July 3, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Since I have done little {if anything} over the past few years to celebrate the 4th of July with the kids, THIS was apparently my week to shove holiday activities to the front and make up for years gone by.

We picked up a book by Sheri Dean called Fourth of July {Our Country’s Holidays}, a book from the Weekly Reader Early Learning Library. It was simple enough for Zachary to follow and explained how Independence Day came to be and the different ways Americans celebrate the holiday.

Other activities from this week:

~ We worked on learning the Pledge of Allegiance

~ We made some fun hats and sparklers to wear at the parade on Saturday

~ Used cookie cutters and paint to make star prints

~ Made ‘flower fireworks‘ to hang from our dining room light using markers, coffee filters, pipe cleaners, and some water. These turned out so neat and are basically tye-dyeish. CUTE!

~ Tried to draw Uncle Sam….but Zachary got a little distracted and just drew a boy. :)

If you didn’t happen to catch my post with Fourth of July resources, there are some great links for Independence Day activities for your kids. :)

We’re still working on our “School’s Out Challenge” which is going GREAT with all the kids, but Zachary has worked his way through about 2/3 of the chart so far!! Yeah for incentives!!

Books we used

About the Preschool Corner:

The Preschool Corner is a place for us to share the ideas we are using during our “preschool time” with our kids. You can join in the fun and record what you are doing in your house. Please link your exact blog post to the Mr. Linky below (if you have questions feel free to ask). Be sure to link back to this blog post so that your readers can find some other great ideas too!

The guidelines can be found here if you need them.

Share what you’ve been doing in your house this week! {Just a note: I’m trying out the MckLinky this week to see how it works…so we’re learning together on this one!}.

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Tot School ::26::

Jun282009
June 28, 2009 by Leave a Comment

~ Kaleb is 31 months ~

This last week was pretty laid back again ~ even though I thought for sure I’d have more time since the older kids were in VBS. Instead, we were running errands, playing together and just goofing off in general. :)

At homeschool convention I found a cute little Oreo matching game. I think it’s cute. Kaleb is not so impressed. He matched a few cookies and then moved onto other things.

Playdough, however, is always a winner!

I pulled out a Scrabble Junior game that I had picked up at a yard sale, spread out the board and started handing Kaleb letters to try to find on the board. In all honesty, I didn’t think that he would be able to do it at all.

He proved me wrong, but after about seven letters got a little bored {even though Mommy wanted him to keep going!}.

He had much fun playing outside this week since the weather was gorgeous!

We’ve been watching a robin and her babies in the tree above our play area….I found Kaleb on the porch trying to see the babies through the railing.

So cute to see the little mouth up above the top of the nest!

Rick took a day off to work on our porch steps and Kaleb was cracking us all up with his imitation of the saw. It took us a little bit to figure out what he was doing, but we think he does a pretty good imitation {warning: you might want to turn your speakers/volume down, ’cause it really does sound like a saw!}.

Don’t forget to visit Carissa at 1+1+1=1 for some more Tot School posts.

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Preschool Corner: Three Letter Word Printables

Jun262009
June 26, 2009 by 2 Comments

So, how about some more printables? The title of the cards still makes me snicker every time I read it – makes me think of four letter words…and well, then I laugh. Somehow it just makes the printables seem like something they are NOT. They are educational ~ and all words are safe for your children to use. {grins}

I got the idea for these cards last week when visiting Clemencia’s site. She posted about a literacy game she had picked up at a thrift store and since I don’t have the game, but loved the idea, I put one together last night. The pictures aren’t puzzles in mine, but you could easily make them simple four piece puzzles.

Click on the graphic to download and print the document.

The printable has twenty pictures of words that are spelled with three letters. I made letter tiles with both lower and uppercase letters {’cause each child is different}. You can use the picture as a prompt for your child to sound out and spell the word pictured.

I haven’t uploaded the pictures of Zachary playing yet, but he is having too much fun trying to spell and read right now, so this is a perfect time for this game for him! Hope you all will enjoy it too!

About the Preschool Corner:

The Preschool Corner is a place for us to share the ideas we are using during our “preschool time” with our kids. You can join in the fun and record what you are doing in your house. Please link your exact blog post to the Mr. Linky below (if you have questions feel free to ask). Be sure to link back to this blog post so that your readers can find some other great ideas too!

The guidelines can be found here if you need them.

Share what you’ve been doing in your house this week!

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Tot School ::25::

Jun212009
June 21, 2009 by Leave a Comment

~ Kaleb is 30 months ~

Really, truly, there is not much to post this week in the way of Tot School. Mommy has been on a bit of a hiatus from school work and school time. We’re still playing and learning…it’s just not all documented.

Kaleb has been talking up a storm. Going from short phrases to full, complete sentences in just a matter of days. Amazing us with some of the things that he comes up with ~ and rather proud of himself to boot.

Kaleb had fun sorting and lining up his counting bears. This wasn’t how the activity was supposed to be…but since he was happy and it works – well, then it was Tot School!

The paint chip matching game was fun to match and play with too!

We sorted shapes and named both colors and shapes together.

Kaleb found a guitar and has been walking around the house playing it like a rockstar. It’s been a riot to watch and we’re not sure where he picked up the whole rockstar thing {unless it’s from Sid the Science Kid}.

Kaleb kept trying to get into the silverware drawer this week and although this lock on the handle didn’t actually do anything {McKenna put it there}, he cried and cried thinking the drawer was locked. It was hysterical ~ although his frustration only lasted 5 minutes before he figured out it wasn’t locked.

Bugs and the great outdoors have been the biggest thrill in our backyard. Birds, squirrels, ants, and especially ladybugs are everywhere. Zachary keeps bagging various insects and then he and Kaleb sit and examine them together – too sweet.

That’s about it for Tot School this week. Hopefully this next week will mean a little more time for Kaleb and me since the bigger kids will be in VBS all week!

Don’t forget to visit Carissa at 1+1+1=1 for some more Tot School posts.

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