Earth Day Theme - April 20-24, 2015

We took a break on theme weeks for a little bit and focused on other things, but now we are back to themes.

This week we did Earth Day activities. I am not sure we did the theme the way most people would, but it worked for us and had a good time with it.

I used the the Genesis creation story as our foundation for talking about Earth Day and how God created the earth and we are responsible for taking care of it. It seemed a very good tie in and Drew was asking good questions about creation and taking care of things. We are using The Beginners Bible for Kids as our Bible for Drew. He likes the pictures and it is easy to understand.

I found a new worksheet for him this week. It was a count the item and then identify the correct number and glue it into the square. He really impressed me with it. I didn't have to do anything but explain what to do and he did it all by himself. He did have a harder time with the glue stick, but he doesn't understand gentle in general and you can't just smoosh glue stick down and have it work.

We continued to work on tracing shapes. He knows the shapes, but he does much better practicing his writing basics with shape tracing than the does with other methods. The triangle trace was fun, he would count the actual lines in the triangle, but then as he was tracing it every time he made a bump off the line he would count it and add it to the number of sides a triangle has. One triangle had about 20 sides to it.

He wanted to practice his coloring and I didn't remember to actually print coloring sheets. So, sadly he had to color my version of the Earth. I am thankful he doesn't know what it is supposed to look like. He spent a lot of time retracing my lines before he finally started coloring.

Story time at the library was Earth Day. They took a different take on the day, too. Instead of recycling and such they did nature. I hadn't thought of that option. They talked about animals and planting a garden.

For the library craft this week they made bullfrogs. Again, it was a chance to practice our gluing. I didn't realize how much he wanted to cut his frog out when I was helping him, and it caused a bit of a freak out which turned into a major stubborn streak on taking his picture. I promised him we would do more cutting and pasting the next day.

I realize doing these post how often he manages to wear the same shirt two days in a row. Oh well. I had promised him that we could do more cut and paste when I found some good worksheets. I liked these because he could color them and then cut them out. After he cut them out he glued them onto construction paper, which of course I forgot to get a picture of. His cutting is getting better, it still isn't where I think it should be, but he is getting better at holding them correctly and learning to hold the paper tight.

Drew loves paint, like crazy will choose to paint over almost anything else. So, I am having to come up with new ideas on painting all the time. This week it was using a stamp the dots paint sheet with puff balls in a clothes pin. He did probably 75% of the dots before he just started painting with the puff. It was frustrating to him that it had white gaps between the dots. It was amusing to me.

I am continuing to try to figure out our homeschool wall a little more. I want somewhere that we can hang up his school work so that he can see what he has done that week. So, this is a work in progress to see how we can accomplish this. He liked it that he could walk by and show AJ what he did this week.

Dr. Seuss Theme - March 2-6, 2015

In honor of Dr. Seuss Day we celebrated all week long with activities and adventures.  It is definitely a celebration I want to repeat in years to come. 

We read a lot of Dr. Seuss books this week. I am not sure why, but he really loves the Lorax. He wanted to read it while we were making breakfast.

We made Cat in the Hat pancakes with Green  Eggs (we didn't have any ham or bacon sadly).  He loved the red/ pink pancakes, but the white ones he didn't eat. Sometimes, I really don't get him because they were the exact same just one had food coloring.

We worked on some new skills this week. It is the first time I have given him a maze. It was a really simple follow the line maze, but he loved it and was really good at it. We also worked on more letter recognition with a color in the letters to make a picture. I am still having a hard time getting him to focus for longer than 5 - 10 minutes at a time, but as long as there is lots of variety I can get him to work on stuff.

We went to a special library program at a different library than we do story time at. They had a whole preschool and young elementary school program for Dr. Seuss. They did games, activities, and face painting. I really liked the fish sorting activity, the kids had to sort the goldfish by color before they could eat them. Some of the other activities were a little above his level, but he tried them. I love the face painting. He made a very good cat.

Later that afternoon we met up with AJ and went to Universal to do the Dr. Seuss area there. They had a special table set up to do some activities. It wasn't the most elaborate celebration at Universal, but I was glad they did something for it. Drew really liked it.

We also went to our normal story time. They were celebrating also. The kids made Cat Hats after stories and songs. The hats came out really cute. Drew wanted a picture with his friend Mia.

I really enjoyed this week. I found all kinds of neat ideas for next year, so hopefully it will be even more fun!

Chinese New Year Theme - February 19-25, 2015

Chinese New Year isn't something we normally celebrate or even really talk about, but when I saw it on our library story time calendar as a theme I thought it could be fun to do it here, too.

Drew and I made paper lanterns out of construction paper. He worked on his cutting skills with scissors. This is a hard area for him because he still wants to use two hands. I thought finding a pair of kid's scissors that would pull themselves back into the open position would help, but it didn't. It just frustrated him more, so I let him use my scissors and he was much more successful. I was really surprised.

Then we made decorations for the lantern. He used a circle punch to punch out 10 circles. He made some "moons" as he called them that were missed punches. He liked the punch once he understood he had to put the paper into the slot, and he really liked counting them.

Next he used the glue sticks to glue the circles on. Glue is another one of those areas we haven't worked on and I know I need to. He gets frustrated when he doesn't have enough glue to stick things to except his fingers. I think using liquid white glue would be easier, but I am not sure how out of hand things would get before he had glued everything to himself, or his hair. He also used some colored circle stickers to decorate the lantern. It was a good way to make him count the different color circles and talk about which color had more.

Once it was all decorated I put it together. When I was done taping it and trying to fluff it out he kept saying it looked like an octopus. He was right. When I handed it to him he started alternating between ringing it like a bell and squishing it to make an octopus. I am not sure he got the idea of it being a lantern, but he liked it.

Ring! Ring! Ring!

It is an octopus!

We also did some painting. In honor of Chinese New Year we used the colors red and yellow. As he was painting we were talking about how when he painted with the red and yellow it made orange. He kept telling me that is how purple is made. Sadly, I kept trying to correct him that it was orange, but once I stopped to think about it he was right, last week we made purple the same way. He wasn't telling me we were making purple today, but that is how purple was made, too, by mixing colors. I think he outsmarted me on that one.

I helped him make a little dragon out of egg carton. I had to paint it for him because his paint wouldn't stick to and dry on Styrofoam, so, I had to use my craft paints. I don't trust him with those yet because they aren't as easy to clean up as his paint is. So, my lesson learned for the week is to make sure to buy eggs in paper cartons on the weeks that we need egg cartons, or find friends that do. He helped me glue the google eyes on to the head and then string the head and the body together with a pipe cleaner.

This week we were reading books about Chinese New Year and kites. I am going to roll the kites into my March theme of "In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb" starting next week. It seemed like a great tie in. He liked the Red is a Dragon book a lot, the others he isn't as into. I am hoping the more we read them the more he will enjoy them.

We had been intending to go to a Chinese New Year celebration with a Dragon Parade, but this weekend AJ and I were both to sick to really get off the couch, so we missed it. Instead we watched some videos on YouTube. It gave us a chance to talk about the Lion Dance and all the gymnastics they were using, and the how the drummers were playing and moving around to the rhythm, and then watch the snippets of a parade and all that was going on there.







There were supposed to be some other great adventures for this week's theme, but AJ and I both came down with massive colds and then my car died and we had to deal with that. Next year, I plan to be a little more on top of it and not just a spur of the moment theme.

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