1, 2, 3!

Sunshine has begun working in his new "school book," Counting With Numbers, part of Rod & Staff's preschool series.

He had been working through the 1st book in the series for about 2 years now and FINALLY finished that one.  He has an attention span at least a year behind his age, likely because his family age is only about 2 1/2, and prior to now he had not been interested in academic work of any kind.

Which is fine by me.  I've never been a preschool-pusher.  Ok, yes, I was when RoseBud was little, but that was because I didn't know any better.  I learned my lesson with her.

Anyway, he has finished the 1st book, Adventures with Books and is now in the counting book.  And surprisingly, he's working very well!  The first two pages had him tracing the numeral 1 and counting one object.  He could already count, with one-to-one correspondence up to four objects reliably and sometimes 5.  And he could make a reasonably straight line, so this first section, learning "one" was easy for him.

The second page spread jumped right into the number "two" and this was a little trickier, but he persevered through it and even began writing some 2's on his own (without having to trace them!).

I brought out my old preschool-standby favorite, "Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills, Preschool" which I've always picked up at Sam's or Costco for $5.95 and found him the corresponding numeral pages.  He did some more practice with ones and twos.

And now he's up to 3.  "Around the tree, around the tree, this is how we make a 3," is the rhyme in Counting with Numbers and he's making lovely little 3's!

He astonished me the other day in the car by counting up to 11 correctly!

And this boy just LOVES books!  I'd forgotten how much fun it was to read to a preschooler.  Banana Boy has never been a book boy.  Sing to him, yes!  Read to him, not interested.

Sunshine has worn out our voices reading all the My First Little House books about "Lawla and Mary."  He has them all memorized and if you change a word, he'll let you know.

His latest passion is Richard Scarry.  We began with Richard Scarry's Mother Goose, which he called his "kitty book" because of the big cat on the cover.  Now he has discovered that we own almost every Richard Scarry book ever known to man and we are reading through them.  Needless to say, he really enjoyed Cars and Trucks and Things That Go (one of my very favorite books from MY childhood.  We are on our 3rd copy in this house.  Sadly, they don't seem to hold up well)  Can YOU find Goldbug on every spread?

We do our reading before naptime.  It seems to be the only dedicated time I can carve out EVERY day to read to him without interruptions.  We try to read one storybook, one poetry book (focusing on Mother Goose right now) and the Bible.

We are reading the Rhyme Bible For Toddlers together and are going through it for the second time.

And for science, he obsessively watches Sid the Science Kid.

There you have it: my accidental preschool curriculum.  All my past planning was wasted time.  It just goes to show that no two kids are the same.  I don't think I've done anything even remotely similar for any two of my five kids. 

Live and learn...

Screw This!

Sunshine's Easter present was this super-duper-schmooper (I hate when Sid the Science Kid says that--do any real kids talk like that???) drill set. I saw it on Amazon and it got great reviews.

Let me say, that for once, a toy is living up to its expectations!

First of all, ALL the kids love it and if it is out, they can't keep their hands off of it, from Daisy down to Sunshine.

It is as sturdy as everyone says in the Amazon reviews.

It was easy for Sunshine to figure out but challenging and interesting enough for him to keep playing with.

It is playable at so many levels. Sunshine just screws the screws in and unscrews them. Banana boy experiments with all the different bits. Pepper and Daisy use the pattern cards and also make their own patterns. They have also been trying to teach Sunshine to make patterns.

Oh, Sunshine DID, on his own, unscrew them by color for a while. In other words, he unscrewed all the greens, then all the reds. Then I think he got bored and did the rest randomly.

I love this toy!

Ouch! I just went over to Amazon to get the link and it is selling for $38 now! I only paid $28. Watch for deals!

Bug Catching

I was snuggling Sunshine before school this morning and he was playing with his bug catcher. He kept picking up the cage with the scissor-catcher thingy. Suddenly, I realized how good he was with the scissor-catcher thingy and I had the bright idea to get him some "bugs" to catch. Perfect fine-motor work!

He was thrilled to catch all these "bugs" and put them in the cage.


I think we can add this to his Tray Work list!

In case you can't tell from the photo, he is "catching" pompons.

Sunshine's Tray Work

Here is Sunshine's first day with Tray Work (a la Tot Trays)

He put wooden sticks through the holes in a spice container (5 stars! said Sunshine)
We made this very special "Monkey Bow" headband ourselves!

He painted with water colors (Fun! and I'm good at rinsing my brush, said Sunshine)

We played a matching/vocabulary game (I like when Mommy plays WITH me, said Sunshine)

He didn't really say any of those things. He doesn't talk that much. But he was thinking them in his head.

For the matching game, we laid the cards out in a grid FACE UP (I would have chosen to use way fewer cards, but he was helping me lay them out and insisted we use them all). Then he and I took turns finding matches. Not that intellectually challenging, but a good way for him to get the hang of choosing two cards and understanding that they need to match, then putting them in our own piles. Maybe next week we'll try the more classic Concentration/Memory with the cards face down. With way fewer cards.

Itty Bitty Bookworm Curriculum Giveaway

Ok, last year I posted about the Brightly Beaming curriculum for preschoolers.

Today I discovered a new preschool curriculum, Itty-Bitty Bookworm.

This is so cool! I can't wait to try it out with Sunshine. It is a literature-based curriculum with hands-on, very organized and very doable. I also think it's more age-appropriate that Brightly Beaming. At least for Sunshine, who is not a typical 4 yo.

Since I haven't used it yet, I'll let you read about it for yourself at Itty-Bitty Bookworm or you can read the stellar review at Homeschool Creations.

Oh, did I mention the best part? Homeschool Creations is GIVING AWAY one full year of this curriculum (a $300 value) so bop on over there and check it out before April 2.

Oh, did I mention the second-best part? Look at how CUTE these worms are!

Itty-Bitty Bookworm's logo

Justin is Mathtacular!

We just got volumes 2 & 3 of Mathtacular in our new Sonlight box. I put it in this morning and the kids were glued to the TV. Not that they aren't glued to the TV whatever is on. The other day, Daisy watched the history of the sewer systems in America's 10 largest cities (not kidding. This was on PBS at 11 am)

I guess it's good they are so interested in learning.

Anyway, they were loving Justin doing his mathy thing on the new DVD.

And something Justin did inspired Pepper to get out the Base Ten blocks, which she normally abhors. Well, she abhors them if I get them out for her to use in solving a math problem.

If she can unschool with them, apparently she loves them.






And what, you ask, was Sunshine doing during all this? Well, sometimes he was trying to knock over these creations. But then I got out some Tray Work for him and he did SO well! I was so proud of him. He mostly followed directions, kept the water in the cups, well, at least in the tray, well, at least on the towel. And he poured for 30 minutes!!!

Hopefully, this is something I can keep doing with him for next year as he will only be in school two days a week. yay, Sunshine!

New School Year

Well, our homeschool year is off to a rolicking start!  I managed to get two kids off to public school, make our homeschooling schedule and actually stick to it, all with a wild 3 year old under foot.

 

Let's start with the three year old.

 

He is SO much easier to work with this year.  First of all, he is beginning to be able to do little activities for more than 30 seconds at a time.  I've started having rug time with him.  We have a big oval rug in the living room and I set out 4 different preschool activities for him.  I set the timer for 15 minutes and if he gets off the rug, I patiently steer him back "until the timer beeps."  So far so good.

 

He loves puzzles and is quite good with these:  Lauri Construction Puzzles  and Lauri Perception Puzzles.  He also played quite a long time one day with the Lauri Pegs.  Can you tell we're Lauri fans??

 

The girls are taking turns playing with him while I work one-on-one with the other.  Here he is making dinosaur tracks with Daisy.

 

As for Daisy & Pepper, their first day began with wailing and gnashing of teeth.  Both started out with bad attitudes and cries of "too much work!!  Too hard!"  Apparently they've gotten rusty over the summer.  After a little chat with Mr. GT (who was home because it was Labor Day) their attitudes improved and we had no more trouble the rest of the week.

 

As usual, their favorite subject is history and they can't wait for me to read to them each day.  We are reading Toliver's Secret and they really are enjoying this exciting story of the Revolutionary War.  Daisy is reading through our Sonlight Core 3 shelf.  She just finished The Corn Grows Ripe and is reading Vostaas.

 

Daisy is finishing up Singapore 3B in math and was inspired to fly through the section on capacity and completed about 8 lessons in 4 days.

 

She also learned this useful skill (the trick is to do it with your eyes OPEN!

 

 

Pepper reluctantly did math, Explode the Code and her states.  As I've mentioned before, she's a really good unschooler.  Workbooks give her hives.  Unfortunately, for the time being she is stuck with them.  Eventually I'd like to be able to give her more hands-on, activity-based learning.  The math games we did this summer worked really well for her.

 

Sunshine's Preschool Schedule, Week 2

Literature: Good Night, Moon

Nursery Rhyme: Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat

Bible Reading: Psalm 8: 1-9

Nature Study: Flower walk

Puppets: Sock Puppets

Indoor Quiet Game: Patty Cake

Indoor Active Game: Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes

Outdoor Game: Somersaults

Fine Motor: Write with chalk

Musical Instruments: Snake Slither

Arts & Crafts: Sidewalk chalk drawings

Shape: Square

Awareness for WHOM?

June is National Potty Training Awareness Month

 

Like I am not aware.

 

Can I just say that it is not any easier the fifth time around?  Can I just say that I am sick of being kicked in the stomach while changing a poopy 3 year old who doesn't want to be changed?  Can I just say that he is SO cute wearing his "unders" and running around peeing in the weeds?  Can I just say,

 

"Listen, Son.  It is National Potty Training Awareness Month and so I would like you to be aware that you are 3, you can pull your pants up and down, you know perfectly well what to do and where to do it and preschool starts in the fall.   So in honor of NPTA Month, I'd like you to be aware that mommy is tired of diapers and you need to do the whole big boy potty thing.  Ok?  For Mommy?  Let's call it your summer homeschooling curriculum.  So, from now on, in the daytime, you are wearing unders.  Pee goes in the potty.  Everyone pees in the potty.  If your unders are wet, you'll have to take them off, put them in the wash and put on dry ones.  Got it?  I'm glad we had this little talk about this important subject.  If you ever want to discuss any of this with Mommy, I'm here for you, ok?  I love you and I'm so proud of you!  Now, go out there and POTTY TRAIN!"

 

A different picture for those of you who had to read this on BOTH my blogs

Sunshine's Preschool Schedule, Week 1

Remember that this is all very loose.  The girls are doing this with him and they do a little activity for 2 or 3 minutes and then do something else.  The Week 1 schedule is:

 

Literature: Big Red Barn  (he loved this book)

Nursery Rhyme: Little Boy Blue

Bible Reading: Psalm 1: 1-3

Nature Study: Walk barefoot in the grass (he doesn't like this!)

Puppets: Finger puppets (Daisy drew a face on her pointer finger and Sunshine's and they had a long and intense conversation one day)

Indoor Quiet Game: This Little Piggy

Outdoor Game: Follow the Leader

Fine Motor: Poke playdough with toothpicks (S and Rose Bud made blue playdough as an activity one day)

Musical Instruments: Bells

Arts & Crafts: Playdough

Color: Blue

 

This schedule is loosely based on Brightly Beaming Babies & Toddlers

 

And here is why the girls watch him while I do school with the others.... 

Sunshine Unsupervised:

My Baby is So Smart

Because he doesn't talk much, I'm never quite sure what he knows.  I know he is mighty bright.

 

Anyway, today we got out the Lauri giant shapes and tossed them around on the floor.  They come with a little (actually huge) crepe-rubber color die.  So I shook the die and had Banana Boy hop onto the shape of that color.  Then I shook it for Sunshine and showed him the color.  I asked him, "Can you hop onto the orange shape?"  He scanned around at all 6 shapes, then burst into a grin and hopped onto the orange!  Yay!

 

All this proves is that he can match colors.  I didn't ask him to find orange without showing him the orange.  Maybe we'll play that way tomorrow.

 

Incidently, it astounds me how many preschool activities are based on color and knowing/finding colors.  I find myself doing this unthinkingly with Banana Boy and then remembering that it's a challenge for him because he is color-blind. In most cases he can compensate, but he gets blue and purple mixed up often and sometimes green and orange.  He did fine with our game today except for mixing up the blue and purple once.

Summer Schedule

Well, I have grand hopes for our summer.  Of course, we're busy like crazy, so i don't know how much school will get done.  Rose Bud is going to earn $20 a week watching Sunshine two mornings a week.  And I think I'll pay Daisy something to watch him for an hour the other two mornings

 

My plan is to do some school with Banana Boy on a regular basis, mainly some reading.  He's never been much into books and so I haven't read to him as I should have.  He's interested in science, so I think we'll read through some sciencey books together.

 

I've been meaning to blog about a great resource on the net that I'm going to loosely use with Sunshine.  Many of you who already homeschool, probably know about it, but I wanted to share it for my adoption friends. 

 

It's a homeschool curriculum for preschoolers called Letter of the Week.  It's fairly rigorous academically, which is not popular in all preschool circles.  But if you are able to be flexible  and to pick and choose, there are some great ideas and suggestions here and it's very well organized for you.

 

Now, Sunshine is 3, but in looking through this curriculum I realized that in some areas he is no where NEAR age level in this curriculum.  So what I am doing with him is to go all the way back in her Brightly Beaming Babies and Brightly Beaming Toddler curriculum, which is for newborn to 2, and I will be "catching him up."  I figure he missed a lot of things as an infant that he would have gotten having one-on-one with a mommy.  So we'll be doing little snippets, maybe at a more advanced pace than on the schedule.  Part of this I will be having Rose Bud and Daisy do with him during their playtime with him.

 

I have to sit down with the printouts and pick out some specific activities.  I'll try to post the schedule here as I get to it.

 

As for the rest, the plan for Daisy is to continue with grammar, spelling and math as well as state geography (we're about half-way done) and American history.

 

Pepper will be doing grammar, state geography and American history, plus math games.

 

Banana Boy will be reading with me, working on HIS reading, and playing math games.

 

And I told Rose Bud she should pick out something to study for the summer.  Being Rose Bud, she immediately got out her Key to Fractions book and started working through it.  She was bound and determined to finish the whole book that night.  I finally made her go to bed at 9 pm with 4 pages to go in the book.  She's in Book 3, so that project should keep her busy another week or so (there are 10 books total).  Actually, she and Jay Bud, next door, are interested in WWII, so I may steer them in that direction.  Probably I'll just get her a bunch of books to read.  I remember being absolutely obsessed with the Holocaust when I was that age and reading tons of historical fiction about kids who lived through it (like Anne Frank).  edited to add:  actually Anne Frank did not live through it, as she died.  But she lived it.

 

In addition to all that, we have swimming lessons (Pepper, BB and Sunshine), gymnastics (Pepper), T-Ball (BB),  Bible Camp (Rose Bud and Daisy), VBS (everyone) and 3 vacations (a 4-day church campout, a week in a cabin in Missouri and 4 days at Family Camp)  A special end-of-summer event will be Pepper's tonsilectomy.  Oh, and RoseBud has 3 days of band camp.

 

Happy Summer!!!!