Homeschool/Preschool Weeks 9 &10(ABC review)

Weekly Review + 1

Our weekly review got lost in the mix last week. If you follow my posts, we had a great loss and honestly just tried to keep busy and our minds sane.

I have combined the last two weeks reviews into this post.

Week 9

We are still continuing to review the following letters: A, C, T, E, and now H.

I have really been sticking with the tracing papers, mostly found at www.easypeasylearners.com

They have a great source of preschool print sheets in different themes.

I have been having Little E work with different writing utensils and techniques also. She has used dry erase markers, crayons, paint, pencil and chalk.

Chalk and paint are definitely her favorites!

I have also been finishing up some Halloween sheets I had left over and we will begin our Thanksgiving series this week.

Here: 101 Thanksgiving Traditions have a ton of great and fun ideas. I'm sure we will be using some of them!

There are a ton of very creative crafts and lessons I hope to get started on soon.

Week 10

We bought a chalkboard/dry erase board easel! 

It was an awesome find at a thrift store near my aunt. I only paid $6.00 for it and it was missing 2 screws that we replaced for less than $3.00!

So, basically, we scored an amazing dual purpose learning board for $9.00!!

E is absolutely in love with it. She wakes up everyday wanting to do her "letter school".

 She has even bribed her sisters to play and she can be the teacher and they are her "assistants"(students).

I love that she can just jump right over and get into her writing! No prompting, no waiting to have her work printed or sorted out.

I have found her "working" on and off instead of wanting her show on or wanting the tablet to have cartoons.

It really is great! 

We have started working on her name. Well, part of it, or her nickname. Ele, pronounced just like the letter, L. She does good with E and l, but the little e has been a challenge. We either get a circle or some weird squiggle, but it's a start!

 Our Books for the Week

The Berenstain bears Home Sweet Tree

The Tiniest Pumpkin

Where is Curious George?(A Look and Find)

I hope you all have had a great week of learning and continue to follow us!

We love all the comments and feedback. Share your best ideas with us!

Homeschool/Preschool Week #8 More Halloween and ABCs

Super excited!

We hit our

Two Month Mark

Today!

That's right! We have completed a full 8 weeks of our little preschool! I couldn't be more proud of Little E...or myself. We have really worked hard to get here and it is paying off!

If you'll remember back over in Week #1 of Preschool , we were both pretty lost and trying to find our way, anyway to make this work! Wow, we've came a long way baby!

I have found so many wonderful Momma's and resources out there, and I know I keep mentioning them but, I seriously couldn't have gotten this far without all the help!

A couple of my favorites for awesome resources are:

FastSEOGuru~ For alphabet printable worksheets

Planning Playtime~ TONS of worksheets, activities and games

This Week....

We are still working on the letter T.

Here is our:

Letter T tracing worksheet

I've had her do a few worksheets. Mostly, tracing and learning to write the actual letter. I also am having her try to think of words that begin with that letter and really emphasize the T sound. She did catch on that Tuck(Wonder Pets character) sounds like Trema(me). She got really excited that she knew that was right! 

I can't forget the Youtube Letter T song!

Halloween(cont.)...

I am still printing off the Halloween tracing worksheets. She is working her way through those on and off this week.

We also have the pattern and mix-match pages. All of these printables can be found online, mostly for free. Be sure to follow my Pinterest board all about: Preschool Activities and Resources!

I have found so many wonderful, fun, cheap and always educational ideas.

Here is one of the great ones I found over at Planning Playtime:

Little E hasn't done this one yet, but it is in her folder!

This week seems like we didn't get much done...or at least nothing new. We seem to be working over things a little longer. I want her to really "get" it(whatever that is) before we move ahead. I don't want her to feel rushed or have her trying to learn too much at once. And also, I'm trying to keep it fun and stick to the theme.

I hope y'all have had an awesome and productive week. Blessing for a great weekend!

Keep checking back to see what we've been up to! 

Are you ready for Halloween? or just over it and ready for Halloween to be over?

I'm sort of in the middle. I love the kids excitement but it's really just a Hallmark holiday around here.

Costumes, cookies, candy and done!

See ya next week!

Homeschool/Preschool Week #4 (Letters, Leaves, Pumpkins, and Potions)

Preschool Activities and Adventures....

We are finishing up week #4 and man, have we been busy! Little E has been working...and playing so hard and has really gotten into learning this week. I think she is finally "getting it"!!! I have caught her even asking, "Today, I have school time?" or "I have my school before I play ponies?" The first few weeks it was a rough start to getting both of us on any kind of schedule and I seemed to be having to really coax her to get interested enough to sit and practice any type of worksheets...before the "fun stuff".

I was lucky the first few days just to get her to sit long enough for me to read and explain the paper to her before she was...done and ready to play.

As the weeks have moved on and we are learning together when is our best time to do school and she is learning more of a structure, it has gotten easier.

This week...

We started more of our Autumn/Fall theme. I printed of more Fall Trees! She really loves those!

I also found a few other free printables of pumpkins and leaves. We painted our pumpkin and gave him some "googly eyes" for fun.

We used the leaves paper to practice our "Fall colors" and learn how each leaf is different(like snowflakes and clouds). We painted them and when some of the colors ran, she loved that! She kept telling me, "I made rainbow leaves!"

That got this Momma thinkin'...

Fall... Halloween... witches, ....POTIONS!

Now, this got a bit messy, so I am still looking for "neater" ways to do this little experiment, but it did teach her about colors, blending, and it was a fun, outdoor activity we could do together.

I gathered a few random(luckily they weren't our "good" dishes) cups, bowls, and a spoon.

We added water to a couple and then we squeezed in a few drops  a TON of food coloring. blue, green, yellow, and somehow we had a purple neon one.

I had her name each color and see how less dye made it lighter, more dye it got darker.

Then we would "make a potion" by pouring one color(blue) into the cup of yellow water and see what color it made. I did have her try to guess what color it would be. She guessed, "Pink!" every time! She had so much fun and did her best "Whaa ha ha!" witch voice throughout the whole day.

We've also been working on...

The letters A and C this week. We are struggling a bit with A. I'm not sure why, but she just hasn't gotten it yet. C, we are doing much better on. It helps that we have Caralyne, Caden, Carter, Catalina, and a Chloe in our family, so we have been going over and over all the C names this week.She has identified it, practiced writing or tracing and making her best /K/, /K/, /K/ sound all week!

We even found a Youtube video of  the official... Letter C Song. Let me warn all my dear Mommas, it gets very...annoying, very quickly, but it really does teach them a ton all about the letter. There is a song for each letter of the alphabet. A song and video that averages about 3 minutes, about all 26 letters!

Our books for the week...

We have read a ton, as usual. Our two picks for our Fall theme are:

Peter Rabbit and the Pumpkin Patch

Time to Harvest

I hope you all have had a great and educational week and enjoyed our adventure recap!

We'd love to hear about everyone's week!

What have you learned this week?

Have you started a Fall/Autumn theme?

What are your favorite ways to teach?

Learning to Homeschool...starting simple! Week # 1

Homeschooling my four year old...

I  decided a few months ago that I really needed to start teaching my soon to be four year old some basic skills. Things like learning to be on a schedule and things that should be routine. Not just something we do when I think about it or when we remember...or more likely, when she is bored and I'm scrambling to be that oh so creative Momma, with my Thirtyone bag of arts, crafts, and games to thrill and educate her on a whim!

There are some basics that she does well and I think I focused too much on those things and sort of...got lazy on other things she should or could be learning.

She is potty trained and can pretty much dress and undress herself with little help. She can put her shoes on 99% of the time. (We haven't attempted laces yet)

She does surprisingly well with bathing and brushing her teeth with supervision.

So, what else could I be teaching her now?

The last two weeks we have been learning together. 

She still wants me hovering over each"worksheet" but it is a start. If I move or try to leave her to do it herself, she immediately is "done". Unless, it is art or painting.

I have started by using free printable sites and found numerous pages for her to learn the alphabet, trace letters, find letters or objects, decorate or design her own coloring page, count and much more.

We are starting with the letter E this week. This letter is obviously familiar to her as her name begins with E, so I found her tons of pages all about that letter.

She loves that she knows "Her" letter and gets super excited every time she finds it...ANYWHERE!

This was a letter recognition paper. She found ALL the upper and lowercase E's all by herself! (working on her "circles" may be next weeks lesson)

I admit, I was totally impressed at how well she did!

We also did a little art work this week. She named each color as she asked to have it opened. I can't believe how well and carefully she finished this...on her own!

This girl can stay in the lines like a four year old BOSS!

P.S. Thank you Nani Jo for a great birthday gift! xoxo

The weather has been amazing this week, so we took our "class" outside to have some cousin, play, and learning time!

Hopscotch is always a WIN!

They had sooo much fun and we mixed it up a bit.

They could tip toe, big jump, hop or run on the numbers. They could call out a number and the other had to "jump" to find it.

There are so many ways to add learning to a simple chalk graph of numbers. They even got a little P.E. time and lots of laughs.

I think the first "jump song" was something like...1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 12, 7

but they loved it!

School and learning shouldn't have to feel like a battle between you and the "student".

If you love to learn and show them how to do it creatively, it is a win/win!

Happy teaching...and learning!

CoffeeWastedMomma and Little E = week #1 done!

My new featured blog find of the week:

Joyfully Thriving

(i'm going to try to have a featured blog each week)

We all need a little Momma love!