Mardi Gras Theme - February 14-18, 2015

This was a really short theme that overlapped the Valentine's theme. I really wanted to work this theme in because it is something I want us to create traditions around. Living in Orlando and having passes to Universal means that we go to the Mardi Gras parade at least once a year, so it seemed like a good way to work in the theme. 

We went and saw the parade with our friends on Saturday night. Some how I missed taking a picture of Drew with his beads, but I have a picture of Luke with his.  Drew wasn't as successful as Luke was at catching them, but he will get better. 

We also made Mardi Gras themed pancakes in Shrove Tuesday. I think they came out ok this time, next year I know to add more color to the batter, especially the purple. 

Drew and I made a sign for Mardi Gras and painted it. We talked about mixing the colors red and blue to make our purple. It was also our first big attempt at staying in the lines while painting. He tends to be a more abstract artist than a stay in the lines artist. 

Once he understood what I was wanting he did pretty good. I did discover I need different paint brushes for him. I only have little skinny ones and he doesn't like them. 

On Tuesday we had a break from Mardi Gras at library story time. They were celebrating President's Day. So, we heard stories and say songs about the presidents. 

Getting a good shot of him dancing isn't really possible. He is in constant motion. After story time the library does a craft. This week we made Abraham Lincoln dolls. It was a very parent involved craft, especially after Drew accidentally cut me with his scissors. I found an area we really need to work on. 

This week since it was a short theme I didn't print any new worksheets and just reused the Valentine's Day ones. I had enough that we didn't repeat many. Thank goodness because his focus on repeat stuff is very very very short. For the repeat stuff I had to bribe with the candy heart pattern pages because he gets to munch on the hearts as he works with them. 

I did manage to get some of our homeschool stuff up on the wall. I still need to work on it, but it gives me a start. I got the bulletin board up that I can change the calendar and decorations on easily. I also found a magnetic white board at Goodwill. Drew has been drawing on it and using his magnets on the letters of the week sheets. Until I get everything figured out there is a big space to hang his artwork and big projects. I kept the clock up in the same space because we are working on telling time. The analog clock is next to the digital on the oven so we can explain the time to him. He is getting good with it already and is understanding that things happen at certain times like his gymnastics class. 

Getting Back In The Swing Of Things - Valentine's Day Theme February 9-14, 2015

One of my biggest goals for this year is to get back into the swing of things with homeschooling. Drew is getting close to VPK age, and even though we aren't going to be sending him to a traditional school for this program I want him to stay on track with his peers. He has some of the basics down, so it is time to expand on them. 

Right now he can count to 10 with no problems, to 20 and only skipping 14, but once he gets to 20 he can count to about 50 or so until he gets bored. He can do some simple math like under 10 addition and subtraction, but in truth it is still more counting because he needs to see it in fingers or objects to get it. He does understand the concept of zero, which honestly is one that surprises me. Drew has his basic shapes and colors down pat, AJ has been working on some more complicated shapes with him like rhombus. He can recognize almost all of his letters, though some still confuse him on signs because they look like numbers, especially Z into a 2. He will identify letters when we are out and about until he gets bored with the game and just starts messing things up to annoy me. Boredom is going to be my biggest challenge with him. 

We kicked things back off in earnest with Valentine's Day. It seemed like a good starting point because there are a lot of good activities and preschool printable packs for it. 

We started with stringing Fruit Loops on to pipe cleaners and making them into hearts. It gave us a chance to work on counting large numbers, stringing in patterns, and fine motor skills. There was also lots of snacking on them and using them as lightsabers until they were made into hearts.

We made Valentine's to take to our playgroup's party. I was hoping we could work on writing his name, but he wasn't interested in it at all that day, but he did work on the letters in his first and last name and what it looked like put together. That was a new skill for him. He also started understanding the concept of a first name and a last name. It was fun to see him get that AJ, Humma, Humpa, Mamie, and me all have the same last name as him.

At the party the kids got to decorate heart cookies and then eat them. It gave me a good idea to let him practice with a knife more often. 

Later in the week we worked with the letter V for Valentine and H for heart. Some of the things we did were use V stamps to fill in the letter V, the letter H to fill in the H, and worksheets to practice handwriting, identifying what is different, and patterning. 

 

I want to get in the habit of posting his work so that I can look back and see where he is improving. I have a hard time judging that on the day in day out basis. It should also get me in the habit of documenting and keeping a portfolio of his work for when he starts kindergarten. 

Most of the sheets we used this week were from www.overthemoon.com Valentine's Day preschool pack. We used some from Living Life by Learning, www.giftodcuriosity.com, and PreKinders.com