Pre-K at our House: September-November
It's been a fun and busy fall around here! Most of our days are spent at home continuing Pre-K activities with my daughter and her friend who is over here several days a week. I've seen lots of maturing with attention spans, cooperation with each other, and comprehension, just in the past several months.
I've always heard much about how preschool should be relaxed and we shouldn't rush them, etc. I believe in that. I also know they thrive with and appreciate challenges. I've been pretty laid back as far as worksheets and things like that. We do tracing practice, but I mainly leave it up to them when they feel they want to do that. Often they will choose it very regularly without any prompting from me. They both have a wipe off sheet for tracing their names and practice writing their names. It is a very popular choice! (I made these for them with plain paper glued to cardstock, and then laminated them. They are pictured in my previous post if you are curious or want to copy my idea :)
Here are the girlies posing with their art project the first day of Pre-K. Can't you see the personality in their expressions?!
Joelle loves to color and I've seen a big improvement in her ability to color in the lines. She also has a new interest in drawing, often choosing to do it at least once a day in her journal. I always follow it up by asking her to tell me the story. She will dictate to me and I will write it on the bottom of her paper. This is a very simple way to encourage print awareness and early literacy skills. It's a great way to show them that words come together for a purpose. Joelle is always proud of her drawings and happy to tell me the stories that go with them. I think it helps that she is telling me about things that have meaning to her. It is just fun for her, which is great!
We did some experimenting with fingerprints! This is so easy, and fun! All that is needed is an ink pad and paper. We also used a magnifying glass to look at the prints and our fingers up close.
We are working on adding to our large alphabet scrapbooks (which we started last school year) and doing one page per letter. This year we are doing a cut and paste activity page for each letter. The girls have been enjoying them and it gives them practice on a couple of skills. This is our only regular worksheet. The link is here if you are interested in looking at it:
I was surprised to see this fall that both girls knew how to cut out shapes, without any direction at all. That is not a skill that I have worked with them on, and scissors have not really been readily available to them until this fall. But, as soon as they picked them up they both already knew what to do. No need to give any lessons on how to hold the scissors or anything! I was impressed. Just goes to show that some things really are better left untaught until the child is just ready to do it.
Pumpkin painting time!
I try to have an organized routine at least two days a week. The other days tend to be more laid back, with long blocks of just play time and story time. I think it is a great balance for this age.
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| Sensory bin fun! |
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| Playtime! |
On our preschool specific days, I have our routine organized around the workbox system. I use my ten drawer organizer (pictured in my previous post) to plan out all our activities. If you have never heard of the workbox system before, just google something like "using workboxes for homeschooling" and you will see lots of ideas.
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| Sorting a mix of counting bears, attribute blocks, and unifix cubes. On this day, they spent over an hour on that activity! |
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| Working on patterns with large beads |
I use mine in a very laid back way for now. I put different types of games and activities in each box. The girls each have their own drawer for coloring pages, one for their journals, and one for name tracing pages. My other drawers for this week include: a math game which involves rolling dice and counting, letter stamps and picture stamps with paper and an ink pad, a magnetic story game for the story of Jesus' birth, a small game with manipulatives that you can link together, and a book that includes a musical cd that sings the story (we absolutely love these, by the way.) Look for them from Barefoot Books. Here is a link to one:
We have a beloved collection of these- and I am adding a new one to it for the kids for Christmas. So many great learning advantages through these books!
I also call my workboxes "Surprise Boxes." I think it makes them much more appealing! The girls get very excited about choosing surprise boxes!
On a typical preschool day, our schedule looks like this: free play time, Bible story time, free play, choice time (from workboxes, sensory bin or playdough), free play, snack, circle time, table time (with a planned activity- usually involving tracing, drawing, or coloring), free play, lunch, quiet time (involving silent reading, storytime, or movie- or any combination), free play, clean up time, and storytime. My schedule isn't set in stone- always flexible with a one year old roaming free too :) But I love following a general rhythm, and I think the kids enjoy that too.
Jaren has really started to join in on what we are doing too. He sits on my lap during circle time- pointing as we count, listening to stories, and trying to sing along to songs. I haven't started him in many crafts yet, but I don't think it will be too long before I do (under close supervision). He loves to be wherever the action is. He and his sister are starting to enjoy each other more. Especially when Joelle plays peek a boo with him, or he chases Joelle. I love seeing them enjoy each other!
That was our fall semester! Now we are getting ready for Christmas and looking forward to many things! Thanks for reading! I'd love to hear any comments or feedback!
I will end with this:
Two happy girls! And my little reading baby!
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| Best friends! |
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| Really Mom, do you need to take all those pictures? I'm trying to read here! |
Love all the pics! Keep it up sis
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