One Schooling at Home struggle, is that my very academic preschooler really doesn't get the 1:1 I like to provide at this age...especially with reading. But, really, he's probably more advanced than either of my other two were...mainly because preschoolers are like sponges and he is just absorbing so much that happens around the kitchen table! But I do thank our 3rd grader who takes him under her wing often and does things like read a book to him! :-) So sweet!
Oh yeah! Lite Brite. We were so excited to get some new patterns for our very old Lite Brite. He took his time sorting out pegs (this helped reinforced which color when with each letter) and then painstakingly put each peg where it needs to be only to find out there wasn't enough whites! Ugh! I so don't like it when things like that happen. And do you think we can just purchase pegs by themselves? No, I can only find small packs with the new cube Lite Brite patterns. :-( So, anyone have any Lite Brite pegs they want to get rid of?!! :-D
3rd grader brought in a craft she created at home with T. in mind. How sweet! He enjoyed the alphabet board and matched foamie letters to it. He's starting in with sounds of the letters now...how fun!
File Folder Games...an ol' time favorite. Unfortunately I do not have time to make them...but glad that our local library has a few we can check out! T. loves them! Rhyming, goes together, letter sounds, size, shapes, colors, etc.
T. loves to do things similar to what the other kiddos do. (One day I gave him a few "worksheets" to do...I'm not big on them but he loves them. When he finished them I said, "You can put them in the basket now." Oh, it was hilarious! "Really?! Put it in the kids' basket?" Yes, T. :-) That made his day! Anyway, 1st grader is working on counting money so T. was sorting coins on a mat. :-)
This is what T. often chooses to do during our minute test in the mornings. I like to see how his drawings change over the course of time. :-)
He cut the lion out all by himself!
Then he added a pattern mane, flipped it over and wrote his name. :-) Then he wanted to write the word lion. :-) Love those little moments. When I asked him to spell it he told me "lion, /l/, L". Today I overheard him talking to someone about how to spell his name. Then he said, dad, a in the middle and 2 D's. Fun!
Child Care Land idea called "scrunch and glue". All it is a page with random dots. He uses liquid glue (perfect for glue control!) on the dots and then scrunches a piece of tissue paper and sticks it on top of the glue dot. GREAT fine motor! Good for reinforcing colors as well. He enjoyed this very simple activity. Side note, this is the first year I actually purchased precut tissue paper squares....in like 15 years. I always was that penny pincher and just cut my own tissue paper. How silly. I recommend you just spend the few extra pennies and buy the precut ones. LOL
There's that 3rd grader with T. again. :-) She has such mothering tendencies. A sweetheart. They organized the pool for water play. :-)
This is always a favorite! A bit messy, but so fun for the kids. Practice blowing in the straw first! Soapy water is a little gross! :-) I used liquid watercolors and dish soap. And of course the other kids in the kitchen didn't get anything else done during that time. :-P We ended up doing it as a whole group activity during our Free Friday activities. They had such fun!
And, a weekend activity. T. LOVES to help in the kitchen. He does quite a bit with me. Please allow your preschoolers to help as much as possible...great for learning responsibility, helping with their self-confidence, and is awesome for fine motor development! Here he is making us some sugar cookies. :-) He felt very important using the hand mixer!
