M is for Mail

A few weeks ago we hit the letter M for Maleiah's tot school.  I gathered a few books from the library...

We made some hats, painted a mailbox so the kids could write each other letters and I made a mail bag.... with lots of mistakes but luckily the sweet kids don't care.

Tot School~Week 1

To say that I have struggled with what to do with Maleiah this year is an understatement.  There are so many great websites devoted to preschoolers, curriculum, lesson plans and arts and craft ideas that it can make a mommy's head spin.  I used to be a preschool teacher and I have resource books coming out of my ears.

Overload set in weeks ago and I could not make a choice and so I kind of just threw things at her (not literally) to try and keep her busy but I was not happy with that either.  So I did some looking around at Carisa's Totally Tots site and what I liked was that there was a lot to pick from (Alphabet, Bible, Literature...) but I could pick and choose what my focus was going to be.  I grabbed the Tot School Planning Form here because I only had to pick 3 things to purposely do with her each day and then anything else is extra.  I needed to have a plan so I cold have things ready when our time starts.  if not, well she's lost her interest waiting on me to get my act together and then I am frustrated with myself and her and...you can see where the day is going, right?

Okay, so I made a plan based on this part of the site: Now I Know My ABC's and added in activities from my own books and things I did when I taught 3-4 year old's.  We are adding some seasonal themes during the week and activities from our library readings too.  Overall it was a great week and I am actually looking forward to next week!

Maleiah is 36 months. :)

We read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom this week to introduce the ABC's!  For October we were also focusing on the color orange and triangles.

These are the things Maleiah made this week:

• a triangle collage
• all things orange collage
• painted with orange
• painted a pumpkin and then glued on triangle shapes for the eyes, mouth and nose
• mixed red and yellow to make orange
• and painted with ABC cookie cutters

Other activities she enjoyed

• Play-Doh
• Leapfrog Word Whammer (singing the song mainly)
• Starfall  

Going On A Leaf Hunt

A spontaneous family art night.

 

We're Going On A Leaf Hunt

Stained Glass Leaves: 

• wax paper
• leaves
• hot iron
• construction paper cut into strips for frame. 

 *Make sure the wax paper is ironed right side together or it won't melt correctly.  These are so pretty hanging in a window!

Works For Me Wednesday-Nature Bag

I am hoping in all the chaos of second grade this year to do some nature study using this great book:


and these:
So to make things bit easier when we are on the way I put together this bag! It has a supply box for each of the kids with {colored pencils, crayons, glue, tape...}, a sketch book and some of the above mentioned books. I purchased a canvas bag at my friend Joanns and had the kids decorate it with fabric markers.All the stuff goes in and then when we are leaving I don't have to scurry for pencils, crayons, sketch books, etc...just grab and go. OH! But don't forget the camera...I thought about getting them each their own disposable camera but that will cost more $$$ and time than I am willing to part with so the digital goes with.


Go here for more tips! WFMW :)

The Workbox Bandwagon & Week 1 Roundup

I jumped on...

I wasn't sure if I wanted to, but I thought it would be good for Caeden (our planner) so I wrestled daily with the idea up until the first day of school. I said I would give it a go for his benefit and see what happened but to be honest I did not have high hopes. I was afraid it would be a disaster and all I could think of was the time and money that was going into the project.

So we are at the end of WEEK 1 of school and workboxes {pictures coming later!}and they are really working out great! I won't say I love them...yet.

There has been no complaining {love that!} and he doesn't wander off when he is done with his work {love that too!}. It helps that I had the year all planned out so all I have to do is go to my planner and then fill the boxes. We are only using 8 boxes at the most right now, so I am not filling them with lots of extras right now. This works because school is done by noon {most days} and I can't not love that! So far all the curriculum we are using has been a hit, which I am very pleased with. Caeden really likes the Draw to Learn the Book of Proverbs book {"Yeah, Art!"} and he as always loves Explode the Code. Math has been so good {knock on wood} and there have been no tears at all, and no fighting which is awesome! We ended last year on a bad note so to start out so sweetly this year is such a blessing.

Maleiah has been doing great with her Lazy Preschool stuff. Cutting, painting, reading and gluing, what's not to love? She loved the Corn Syrup painting and it was fun to watch her get into it. Permission to make a mess? Right on, mom!


All in all, it has been a pleasant week. I was paranoid at the beginning so it has been very restorative to have had such a great week!

First Day of School! 2009-2010

I hesitate to say it...but...it was truly...a...fantastic day!


We started the morning off right: with donuts and tried a {modified} workbox system, it went great! Maleiah did some art, cutting and glitter glue fun...it all went well. We were done by noon!

Check back with me at the end of the week, hopefully we are all still smiling!

My Very Own Lesson Planner

I love the idea of having a boxed curriculum where it's ALL DONE FOR YOU, but the whole "BOX" thing: doing what they tell ya and all is not really my thing. So I made my own "box" which I can climb in and out of at will, and I didn't pay for it so if I don't do something I wasted no money (well except for the printer ink, the tabs, the binding...but I am sure I would have printed something else...).

I printed out my lesson plans for the year using Donna Young's Homeschool Planner (Excel Version...AWESOME!)...


Then I got some colored divider tabs for $1.00 at Target...

Then I printed some more...

Then I went to Staples, where my kids know the copy and print girl by name. I got this cute plastic folder, cut it down the middle and had them BIND the whole thing! Voila!



I love it! A lot. I showed Justin twice and he tried not to laugh.

Second Grade & Lazy Preschool

I am joining Darcy's Not-Back-to-School-Blog-Hop! This week we are blogging about what we are using for curriculum this year, what we love and such. I had to laugh when she announced it because the said this for week one:

First week in August: It’s a curriculum hop. Share your well-researched plans on your post. Show us what you love. Four math curriculums later… you decided on?? McLinky will go up on Monday 8/3/09!

Isn't that hilarious? We only went through 3 (in one year)... I posted here about what we were planning for the year so this is kind of a repeat but I will tell you what I L.O.V.E. with linkage!

Second Grade

Math: Horizons Math 1 & 2 We have already been working on this through the summer...it's going great. I bought some games this year for math too! Math Wars, Set and a Fraction Game. I found a game at my dad's called Tangoes that I really want to get for this year too!

Spelling: Spelling Workout B

Grammar: First Language Lessons
Love that it's short, scripted and sweet. Caeden laughs and has fun...enough said.

Phonics: Explode the Code, Books 4, 5 and 6
Not so pretty to look at but Caeden whizzes through these and he laughs...see above.

History: Ancient Greece & Ancient Rome (following the Veritas Press time line flash cards...these are BEAUTIFUL! Love them!) We are using Story of the World, Classical Kids Activity Book and Usborne Internet Linked Reference Books for Greeks and Romans...very cool! We love everything Usborne! One of the coolest books I found were these comic books from the Stories from History Series.

Bible/Character: We are going to be learning the shorter catechism for memory work, using Draw to Learn the Book of Proverbs and A Child's Book of Character Building.

Science: Last minute changes here, like just this weekend we changed it! We are going to do Christian Kid's Explore Biology instead of Earth Science in order to keep up with the History/Science chronology.

Art: We also just changed our art plans this weekend too! We are going to be using Artistic Pursuits Book 1. I am really excited about this one, it looks really fun!

Music: I am also pretty excited about our Composer studies, listening to great classical music and learning about the lives of these composers (Bach, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Chopin & Mozart)

Lazy Preschool

I spent lots of time going back and forth whether or not to do an actual curriculum for Maleiah. She is 2, turning 3 in October so I could do something structured. I felt that I have 3 years left before she starts kindergarten (theoretically) so why not postpone the BIG stuff another year and just have some fun this year (not that the BIG stuff isn't fun...really, I didn't want to do something very structured.) So we are doing something...

Joyful Heart Learning Curriculum is a resource I love so we are going to use bits and pieces of it, basically we will follow it loosely. I like the themes and book lists as well as some of the activities. I will replace some with other projects and such from my preschool book shelf that I have kept from the years I taught preschool. I think this will give me somewhat of a springboard and the best part is it's FREE! So when I don't do something I don't have the guilt factor. :)

I found these books at Costco!

These books have been wearing a hole in my wish list for a year now...they came in the mail last week!

and of course our never ending list of library books...the hold shelf beckons me, daily.