We have had a great summer! Lots of fun outside, swimming lessons, camping, day trips! We are wrapping up our summer with a zoo trip next weekend.
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| Fun afternoon at the Cove! |
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| Camping! |
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| Aren't these kids so cute! |
We are getting so excited as I am pulling out stuff and organizing things for School this year. We just received a couple boxes of free stuff from the school district, and it was very exciting looking through all of it!
I try to keep all of my educational toys organized and put away (in my huge walk-in closet, which doubles as my home-school supplies organizational closet). I love letting the kids play with these toys, but they are appreciated and enjoyed much more when they are not using them every day. With my counting bears, for example, I come up with different games for using them and I only get them out when it is planned. For this week, I will have them out as a center that the kids can choose if they want. I dumped all the bears in a medium sized tub (these come in handy so much!), and added some shovels, the colored cups, and the scales toy. I will let the kids play with them however they would like, but they will remain in one area of the room with the tub and the other objects I have put in. That way they don't get scattered and mixed in with all our other toys.
I have a small corner in my dining room that I have converted into our "Preschool Corner." My space is very small, but we have made it work well for us. I recently got a new white board, and a new drawer stacker that works very well for organizing things. I also printed off some schedule picture cards and let Joelle help with coloring, and put them up to try to have a little bit more of a schedule to follow.
This summer I started using the drawer stacker (which I was given free from someone. What a blessing!) to do the workbox system. Workboxes are basically a visual way to organize your schedule. I put something in each drawer and the girls take turns opening them throughout the day to see what our next game or project is. Some of the things going in our workboxes for the first week of school:
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| I found lots of fun fall printables, printed and laminated many things- including a fall themed memory game which I know they will love! |
Last year I purchased Funshine Express at 50% off after each month (I have about six months worth). So, I am set with full monthly plans that include crafts all prepackaged. I love doing crafts, but to me having all the supplies gathered up already and all the ideas is worth the money, especially at 50% off. It was a good deal for me. Now with a very active baby, I won't have to come up with craft ideas or buy supplies- So I am very happy!
For Bible this year we are going through a book I found on Amazon that sounded really cool! It follows the alphabet. It includes Bible stories with devotional thoughts and memory verses all narrated on cds. The verses are also in songs, so they will be more fun and easy to memorize. I have added to that coloring sheets that I will be writing the memory verses on and we will be compiling a book throughout the year as a visual reminder. We will also work through a free character curriculum that I found online, learning about kindness, obedience, diligence, etc. There are about eight that I will spread out over the year. Probably one per month.
I have made some journals for the kids, by simply buying one dollar folders that hold paper and adding blank paper. I like to have them do journal writing once a week at least, either with a prompt from me or by allowing them to write a story that they think of. I plan to use these throughout the year, adding paper to them as needed. I also have made laminated name tracing cards for them and they have been practicing tracing and writing their names with dry erase markers. The kids each have their own small pencil boxes with a large pencil and a large selection of crayons, markers, and colored pencils for journal time and any time they want to use them.
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| Joelle's Journal and name practice card |
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| Our Fall Sensory Bin all ready to go! |
Along with the curriculum from the school district (which was free) that includes 18 themes to choose from, each with a detailed guide book of games and activities, we have many things we were already doing and will continue. In order to remember all of the choices for things to do from the different curricula I have and my seasonal stuff/learning toys, I have come up with a daily rhythm to follow three days a week.
Day 1: Sensory Bin, Shapes/Colors Games and Activities, Language Arts/Math Activities
Day 2: Playdough, Letters Games and Activities, Science/Social Studies Activities
Day 3: Puzzles, Numbers Games and Activities, Journals/Art/Music
I will incorporate as many new things as are fun and reasonable, but continue to do what we naturally enjoy. One of Joelle's favorite activities is counting with manipulatives. Last spring I gathered up some baby food jars and filled them with many different things I had that the kids can count with. This continues to be very entertaining.
Remember you don't have to spend much or do anything super fancy to succeed at home preschool. There is so much you can get for free! If you need ideas, check out some of my favorite bloggers. These people are full of ideas and free printables. I have learned a lot from them!
She has some really nice printables!
This site is huge, but I love the tot books. I've also learned a lot of homeschooling tips from her. The blog is fun to read too.
This site has a lot of preschool links. I use her printable packs a lot
This lady no longer blogs regularly but I love looking around on her blog and seeing all the fun Montessori-type activities she does with her young son.
We are excited to be starting some new things and continuing some old favorites! Yeah for Fall and Pre-K at home! Here's a few more pictures of my favorite people:
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