Pre-k

Luv Bug is 58 months old
 

 

 

I can't believe that it's been almost 1 year since my last post. I had some problems with uploading pics to blogger, then we had issues with our computer. For now, everything seems to be working.

It has been a busy year. My little girl is almost 5 already. In August we started pre-k. She loves it and wakes up eager to begin. I hope this is her attitude as we continue homeschooling.

I knew before we began that I would need to change things a bit. Although she loved the tot trays (idea here), she would go through them all the first day of the week. After much research, I decided to go with a workbox variation. I was planning on using them once we start kindergarten, but thought using them now would make the transition easier.

I ordered this from Amazon. We like it, but sometimes Luv Bug gets a little overexcited and slams the drawers closed causing some of the plastic to break.

I lined the fronts with scrapbook paper and created my own tags using Fancy Nancy images from Google.

 

 

Before I explain how we use these, I should share something that I was reluctant to before. I didn't want to come off as boastful. When Luv bug was 3 1/2, she taught herself to read. One day I just realized that she had not just memorized what we had been reading, but was truly reading the words.

The reason I decided to share now, is that this influenced our approach to pre-k. I was not in a hurry to do too many structured activities, but she is ready for them. She loves fun worksheets. I'm not ready to drop the my early childhood philosophy, so we've had to find a balance.

She has 10 workboxes. I organize them like this:

1 Language Arts

2 Math

3 Game, puzzle or open ended toy

4 Gross Motor

5 Reading

6 (same as 3)

7 Science or technology

8 Mama's choice

9 Game

10 Art

We still use themes and I print out fun worksheets she may do, but the only ones I add regularly are the letter tracing. For math we do lots of games or explore manipulatives. Reading is usually a book that she reads to me, but sometimes I'll put her journal with a prompt. She draws a picture and dictates a story. Science and techn ology is either an expiriment, exploring natural items or playing a game on the computer or Kindle.

Mama's choice is whatever I feel she would enjoy. We begin every day with at least 30 minutes of Mama' Luv Bug play time. She chooses and leads this play. Some days, #8 will include an extra half hour. On nice days it's extra gross motor. (For gross motor, we usually try to do something outside for at least an hour). Other days it's a cooking project or a fun video based on our theme.

She loves card and board games, so we made sure to have a workbox for one every day. Sometimes I choose, other days she does.

10 is always an art project. I prefer open ended, but mix it up with crafts, because she enjoys them.

 

I have slacked off on her science tray and plan to start again. I try to do several sensory activities each week.

 

Just an update on what we've been doing. I'm hoping to get back on here more often, buit it may not be weekly as before.

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Transportation Theme

Luv Bug is 45 months old.

Once again, we're playing catch up. Just after my last post, Luv Bug got sick, really sick. Poor baby was miserable. 2 doctor appointments and 1 trip to urgent care later, she finally started feeling better. She was very sweet to share with her daddy and me.  We all recovered about a week before going to visit my mom and a friend's new baby. Coming home, Luv Bug and I got sick again and it's still lingering. Hopefully we'll be recovered soon and back into the swing of things.

One of Luv Bug's favorite things to play with is her set of toy cars and trucks. She has close to 100. I've been wanting to do a transportation unit with her and I finally got around to it. We did a lot of the activities in the evenings, so that Daddy could join in. I took a ton of pictures, but my memory card is nearly full and I couldn't upload any unless I deleted some. I wasn't about to delete the ones with my friend's baby, so I had to delete several I took of our transportation unit. Since I'm still sick, I'm just posting the pictures.

 

* this post was created several weeks ago, but Blogger was giving me trouble uploading my pics. We've been working on our Winter theme. Hopefully I will get those posts up soon.

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5 Senses Theme

Luv Bug is 45 months old

Things are finally getting back to normal here. We learned about our 5 senses this week. I wasn't sure how Luv Bug would like it, but we both had such a fun week. I found so many cute ideas online (especially on Pinterest). We focused on 1 sense each day. I thought I knew which she'd enjoy most, but it was hard to decide on a favorite. I know she'll want to do many of the activities again.

I put together 6 trays, but they were hardly touched. One wasn't played at all. I even forgot to take a pic. Here are the ones we did play:

Memory

This was her favorite. It was a challenge for her to get all the quarters lying just right. Some would slide on their side, but she didn't give up. Definitely doing this again.

I wanted something multisensory for her science tray. She loved inspecting and feeling these different pieces of bark. She's my little collector and is always picking up rocks, leaves, sticks. We keep most of them for her trays or art.

I forgot to take a before pic (and this one is lousy), this is a tray Luv Bug always enjoys.

 

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Monday we learned about our sense of sight. I set up a little eye doctor game. It was simple, but she wanted to play over and over. I made a few pairs of glasses our of pipe cleaners for her dolls. I placed tape anywhere I felt the wire since I knew Luv Bug would try them on too.

It's hard to see, but I hung up her little eye chart from her doctor kit.

 

We both drew a simple picture on one side of a piece of paper.

Then, while blindfolded, we took turns drawing the same thing on the other side.

I remember doing this when I was younger and I knew Luv Bug would enjoy it. I was surprised how well she did.

I set out several I spy books and her I spy discovery bottle.

Later, when Daddy came home, we played Hide the Toy. She's too funny with this game. once she finds a hiding place she likes, she uses it every time:)

Tuesday we learned about our sense of hearing. This is a game we played during our music theme last year.  Before I put on her blindfold, I showed her each instrument and played each one's sound for her. Once blindfolded, I'd play one and she'd tell me which I'd played. While she liked this, she preferred playing the instruments for me to guess.

As a family, we're learning ASL. I found this printable here. There's one for each letter of the alphabet. I only use these pages from them, so I don't subscribe to the bundle.

 

Later, we took a sound walk and counted how many different sounds we heard.

Wednesday we learned about touch. Luv Bug LOVED all of the activities this day. I pulled out some of her texture books. The two on the top left are our favorites.

I'm having trouble linking to my Pinterest, but on my sidebar there is a follow me button if you'd like to see where I got some of the ideas this week. This was one from Pinterest. I chose 6 different items  and filled 2 balloons with each. I used 2 colors so that Luv Bug knew that if she chose a white balloon, it's match would be yellow. I also filled 6 dixie cups with the items. I didn't let Luv Bug see these until after she matched the balloons. Then we went back and guessed which balloon had each item.

Once finshed. Luv Bug asked if she could mix the cups.

She was having so much fun, I set out the containers of each and let her just play.

It made such a mess, but it was something she came up with on her own and held her interest for a LONG time.

 

Aftern we cleaned up the mess, we moved on to her Mystery Bag. ( the idea came from this post over at The Princess and the Tot).

I tried to choose things with different textures, but that would still be familiar to the touch.

Homemade slime. It was a very messy (but very fun) day.

Thursday we learned about smell. I took 5 different kitchen items and placed each in 2 cups. Luv Bug had to match them blindfolded. ( I used vanilla, cinnamon sticks, minced garlic, orange extract and whole cloves). Again, she mixed them all after we'd finshed. (They smelled nice separately, but together they were quite unpleasant.)

Spice painting was a lot of fun. I used spices that I thought would go well together. Our kitchen smelled so nice while she was doing this. (cinnamon, ground cloves, ginger, nutmeg, and pumkin pie spice.)

 

I made a few batches of jello playdough. I love the texture of this. Luv Bug loves the scent. We recently discovered that she can't tolerate food dyes, so we'll be making quite a bit of this to use up all the jello we have.

Our last day we learned about taste. Luv Bug's stomach had been bothering her, so we actually held off until Saturday (when she was feeling better) and only did the one activity. We put a lemon in one cup, salt in a second, unsweetened cocoa powder in the third and honey in the fourth and had her tell us which was sweet, bitter, salty or sour.

She loved the honey:)

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 A few random things we did:

 This is simple for her, but she still enjoys her Button Art.

 I loved doing string paintings when I was younger. I tried this months ago with Luv Bug and she wanted nothing to do with it. This time she loved it. First we used just 1 color paint and experimented with different strings.

 She asked for her felt characters one morning and we played with them throughout the day.

 

 We love our We Are The Laurie Berkner Band dvd. I went onto Amazon to see if there were others and found this one for about $5!

We're still working on our alphabet crafts. I usually set out the pieces and tell Luv Bug what each piece is for but leave it up to her where to put them. For this one, I told her she could do it how she wanted, but first showed her one way ( the feet coming out of the top, and the head at the end of the tail of the g, almost like the giraffe was rolling on the ground.) She chose her way and I was impressed. I offered do a dot markers for the spots but she wanted to draw them on herself. I love that she knows what she wants and isn't afraid to do things her own way.

 

 

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