Homeschool/Preschool Week #5 (Letter A, tracing, and counting)

Week #5 Round-up!

Welcome to our week #5 Round-up!

We have actually gotten a lot of classwork done. Despite our crazy, hectic, coffee induced(Momma only) week we have had. 

There have been work schedules, birthdays, tournaments, Homecoming parades, and so much more!

Little E and I have had to work our school time in and around, but we've managed!

This week we have....

Finally! Finally, gotten the Letter A! Yes!

She has been working so hard on it. I have to say, this has been one of our hardest lessons. I'm not even sure why, but it definitely has taken us a few weeks.

Little E has learned to identify, say the sound and also been tracing the letter. Capital and Lowercase!

I also have played the Official "A" Song video...I don't know how many times!

It's catchy y'all! 

Tracing letters and lines...

I have found a ton of great printables to work on her tracing!

Here is my featured Momma blog for the week!

Adventures of a Mother of 2

Seriously! Awesome stuff!

We've also been doing some work in her Little People Preschool workbooks this week.(Dollar Tree)

I printed off different "line" tracing pages. straight line, loops, zig zags.

I am learning from other homeschooling mommas that this helps with pencil control.

Little E had been having such a struggle with holding the pencil or even markers correctly. I finally remembered to buy a pack of the "fat crayons" and they seem to be helping...So much!

She definitely has more control and can press harder...like, enough to actually see what she is drawing or writing!

She has more confidence now that we can see her work and she can stay on the lines so much better!

Counting 1-10(or 12)...

Little E can can count to 10 all by herself. Some days she can get to 12, but sometimes after ten, it is 15 or 7...

We have gotten in the habit of counting everything! We count going up and down the stairs...which is like 100 times a day! We count our food! grapes, crackers, popcorn... We count while she is on the potty. LOL Seriously, it works! Whenever, wherever...WE COUNT!

Next week, I am hoping to work more with her flash cards to start identifying numbers.

She knows, 1, 2, 3, 4, 8 and 10 so far.

Our book for the week...

The Berenstain Bears Family Get Together

This is such a cute book, and great for counting all the family characters. Ma, Pa, brother, sister, Auntie, Uncle, Gramps, and Gram...

It is written in rhymes and easy for her to catch on and remember. I think we've only read it about 3 times so far this week ;)

I hope you enjoy our adventures and continue to join us!

Here are our previous weeks in case you missed them or want to go back.

Week #1

Week #2

Week #3

Week #4

Stay tuned for next week and don't forget to follow on Pinterest for all the great ideas we find!

Pinterest!

Homeschool/Preschool Week #3 ( Numbers, Counting, Patterns, and Pumpkins)

Preschool Activities and Adventures...

I can't believe we are already finishing up week three!

And, it is the first day of Fall! I'm not even ready to touch that subject.

I'm not one of those, Ooooh, pumpkin spice everything, ready for campfires, and loving all things crisp and cool.

I am definitely a more sun out, flip flops, iced tea, tank tops and 80+ degrees kind of girl!

Luckily, Little E has been more cooperative with having some "desk time".She too is a, wake up, get dressed, go outside, kind of girl. (Some days she doesn't even get to the get dressed part before she is begging at the door, like the doggie that needs to tinkle!)

Week Three Round Up

This week we slacked off on all the letters and alphabet. She seemed to be getting frustrated and wanting to play around or whine every time I mentioned her "Letter work".

To me, that is a red flag that she was either A. Not quite ready for those, or B. She was getting burnt out and we needed to change things up a bit. 

I don't want to feel like I'm forcing her too much. I understand she needs to learn these, but if it is causing her to become uninterested or down right put off by "school" then we can move on and come back later on.

I have tried to sneak in asking her to identify "big letters" while we are reading and she is doing great with that.

This week we found a fun way to get started on identifying numbers and also counting.

It really is pretty basic. I just did a plain Office doc and spaced out the numbers into a sort of grid or block. I believe I used font size 88. You can always play around and figure out which is best. 

We only did 1-4 today but soon I will add more numbers or even mix the order up.

We then gathered about 473  10-12 blocks and placed the correct number amount on that space. 

(1 block on #1 space)

 I made her count each block she placed on the grid and then count them all together(total).

At first she only wanted to use the pink blocks. Green and white blocks were "wrong". LOL

After finding ALL the pink blocks, she was back on track. 

We did this about 5 times and I had her tell me each number(identify) on the paper.

I would ask her:

Can you find #3?

After she pointed to it, then I would have her add 3 PINK blocks to that grid.

Here's what ours looked like. It isn't pretty, but it serves it's purpose.

Patterns...

I tried to use our time...and her attention wisely.

While we had all those blocks out, we also worked a little bit on doing patterns.

Again, she wanted only pink blocks, so it was a challenge at first.

Her "pattern" was all 6 pink blocks, nicely aligned into a row! I had to laugh.

I did get her to follow my pattern after a few tries.

We also did some artwork this week. She is on a painting kick. I printed off a few "Fall" pics and instead of coloring them, we busted out the Dollar Tree paint set!

Although as you can tell, by the end of this week, we only have brown and black paint left.

Hey, it was only $1.00 and we weren't expecting a Picaso.

Here is her Pumpkin from today.

As always, there has been TONS of reading and story time!

This week she has been stuck on Tom's First Day of School.

I bet we have read this book 20 times! She loves it.

It really is a cute story. It starts out with Tom learning he has to start school. He isn't excited at first.

After his sister teases him with "scary stories" about school, he is even more scared.

Mom and Dad take him the next day and he learns about all the wonderful things there are to do.

He makes friends, enjoys class, lunch, and recess.

It shows lessons in teasing, making friends, learning that everyone is different, sharing, and not being afraid.

We are finishing up this week with a few more books we haven't gotten to yet and probably a...letter sheet! We shall see.

We also have a busy weekend ahead, so I have plenty ready for Monday, and the start of week #4.

I hope everyone had a productive week.

If you've missed our adventures, you can go back and see what else we've been doing:

Week #1

Week #2

I hope you enjoy our journey and adventures.

Please share any ideas or tips you have found!

We love new ways to learn!

Enjoy the Weekend!

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!