Preschool Update

A couple weeks ago Aaron finished learning all his consonants and he is zipping along in his phonics skills. We have loved using the "Get Ready for the Code," "Get Set for the Code" and "Go for the Code" series by Nancy Hall. We started Explode the Code Book 1 last week. I highly recommend these workbooks!

As we face struggles and challenges homeschooling (and there are many!), I have to say one thing that really encourages my heart is to get to experience my children learning. To see the lightbulb light up as they understand something for the first time and to see them bursting with new knowledge makes up for the other challenges. (If only I would stop to take note of these precious moments more frequently. Too often I'm too busy whining to realize the great things happening.)

It has been such a joy to see Aaron take off with reading. With all three boys the experience with learning to read has been entirely different. They each have their own strengths and I have to say, Aaron has surprised me. Just this past summer, he hardly knew any of his letters and believe me, I tried to teach them to him. He had zero interest. I'm realizing in hindsight, he just wasn't ready. This fall, something clicked in developmentally and he has flourished. I can't take credit. I didn't do anything spectacular. He was just finally ready and willing to soak up everything I offered him.

I love that Luke and Ethan are eager to sit and listen to Aaron read!! Precious moments!

Here are his remaining "Letter of the Week" consonant projects: (He had help from either Luke or Ethan on each picture.) ** I used the help of various blogs and websites for these ideas. They are not original!

   

 "s" is for snake and "n" is for nest

"h" is for horse and "v" is for volcano

 

"d" is for dinosaur and "c" is for caterpillar

 

"g" is for giraffe and "z" is for zebra

"q" is for quail and "x" is for x-ray

"w" is for worm

"y" is for yak

"Ll" is for ladybug and lion

Friday Letter Fun

Every Friday, Aaron works on a letter of the week craft. Luke and Ethan take turns being his helper. With the help of pinterest, I have found some great ideas. These are not original and from several different sources. The boys look forward to this each week. Here is a sample of their work. I prep all the pieces and they put it together. Sometimes the big boys do more helping then I'd like... but it's mostly a great joint activity.

Nn is for nest

Ss is for snake

Ff is for fish

Bb is for bumblebee

Mm is for mouse

Kk is for kangaroo

Tt is for turtle

Rr is for rooster

Pp is for pig (my favorite!)

School Room 2012-2013

I wasn't planning to make any changes to our school room and then... I had some time alone. Amazing how much easier it is to think in a quiet house. ;p  Darin was gracious to take the boys out on an adventure this past weekend and I had three hours alone in the house. Hooray!!

I quickly got my tunes cranking and took everything out of the school room. I vacuumed, scrubbed floors, and scrubbed walls. Here's how it looked when I was finished. Wish I thought to take a photo while I was in process... I was just too busy cleaning and singing.

I rearranged the wall hangings a bit and added this world map and white table. The listening corner is to the left of the white table. There is a cd player on the built in bookcases.

Aaron's desk was moved to Luke's old spot. 

Here is a close up of Aaron's desk and workboxes. He needs the calendar lessons 

the most, so this is a perfect spot for him. His desk has a few first day surprises. :)

The reading corner for book basket time and all our other calendar activities. 

Ethan's desk is to the right.

A close up of Ethan's desk with first day goodies. He'll be adding the numbers to the number line each day and there is plenty of wall space to display artwork. This wall is magnetic. 

 After I finished setting up the room, I hung this old sheet from the inside so it would be a surprise until the first day of school. You'll see we still have our My Father's World time line above the windows in the far right of the picture. It was so mysterious and they were very excited and curious.

Outside the school room.

WAIT... Where is Luke's desk you ask??? 

Well, he needed a special quiet thinking zone to do his best work. 

A third grade thinking zone!

Luke was relocated to the dining room. I hung this little sign across the door to the dining room and Luke loved it! I'm so glad he thinks things like that are fun!

Here is his space in the dining room. He was excited about his 3rd Grade Work Zone! I wanted to be sure he didn't feel kicked out,  but instead separated because of the important work that 3rd graders need to do. I think it worked. He feels pretty special. You can tell by how hard he has been working. Praise the Lord!

And we're off... on another homeschool journey!!

More Toddler Ideas

Let's face it... having a toddler in the house while schooling older children is definitely a challenge. This year has definitely been the trickiest in that regard. However, the past month or so Aaron has really gotten into the groove. He clearly understands what is expected of him and keeps me on my toes changing out his workboxes. And praise be to God... he actually cooperates most days and does the activities I've prepared for him!! Amen!

With that in mind, here is a quick glimpse at what he's been up to. I've tried to include where I've gotten most of my ideas. I've said it before, but I love to borrow ideas I see out there on the web. Hope this is helpful for anyone else out there with a toddler in the house.

1) large clip art image of a horse found free online, printed on cardstock and laminated,

add hole punches around the perimeter and a shoe lace 

2) Tracing the letter Hh - found here, letter of the week curriculum

3) Letter Hh pin punch. Can't remember where I got this idea, but it's not my own. 

I just printed the letters and gave him a toothpick. He poked out all along the letter 

and we hung it in the window to see the light shine through the holes.

4) Using do-a-dot marker to dot the "h" on the hammer - taken from here, Tot School Printables.

 

5) matching the snowflakes - got these here

6) transferring glass beads (bought at dollar store) into ice cube tray with tongs

7) Crayola Dry Erase Activity Center - really cool because I can slip sheets 

into the slot and he can trace and erase!

8) foam shapes - I called out a shape and color and ask him to step on it.

9) I found this gem at a yard sale. It is a file folder that has been laminated with envelopes and cards. Aaron uses it for matching the pictures. There is also a second set of cards to be used for reading that does not have pictures. I bought 10 file folder sets for only $1 from a former teacher. 

10) Got this from here - letter of the week curriculum. It can be used with magnets on 

a cookie sheet, but Aaron was really enjoying the glass beads and they worked well. 

(Definitely a choking hazard so keep a watchful eye.)

11) eeBoo Preschool Lotto Game - intended to be used with others, 

but he enjoyed just matching the cards to the boards. 

*** Edited 2/23... I think it's pretty funny that the day after I posted this Aaron refused to work on his boxes and cooperate. A good dose of humility for me and the reality that Aaron is still a typical three year old. I'm not discouraged, but needed to share this to encourage other moms of toddlers that I think it's normal to have a bad day every now and then. Things are NOT picture perfect over here... as much as my pictures may fool you. :) ***

Preschool - Plan C

I posted a while back about my elaborate plan for filling Aaron's workboxes for our school day. I was a slave to my schedule for 3-4 weeks before I realized it wasn't working. I was overwhelmed by the time I spent "planning" out his boxes and he wasn't necessarily interested in the things I was putting in them.

So, plan B was to be lazy. I let him wander around and play quietly or listen to a book on CD with headphones. This would work for an hour or so,  but then he would get antsy and disruptive. It finally occurred to me a couple weeks ago that I needed to refocus myself and come up with a plan C.

I'm back to being intentional about loading his workboxes without the elaborate schedule and planning time. It has worked well over the last several weeks to load the boxes at the start of the week with more creative items and only switch out the boxes that he had exhausted somewhere mid-week. I literally just grab whatever might interest him that he hasn't seen in a while and pop it into the box.

I thought I'd share a peek at what's in his boxes this week.

Rod and Staff 3 year old beginning workbook

Lacing upper and lower case U

putting wooden dowels into cheese container 

This is a favorite, but it's been in hiding for a while.

Umbrella shape matching

plastic shape sorter

sorting upper and lower case U's

moving feathers with the tongs into the ice cube tray compartments

stringing noodles onto lace

transferring dried navy beans from one container to another

wooden animal tiles for matching

I'm sure there will be a plan D, E, and F before the year is over. Can this rigid and uptight Momma be flexible and laid back? This is certainly the test! :)