Toddler Class & Preschool - Spring 2010

I have been meaning to update our curriculum sidebar links since the new year - hopefully I will get it done over the next couple weeks.

Oh what to do with 2 little ones? I don't know, but I hope I have it figured out before our next little one comes along in July!!! Well, maybe I don't feel completely clueless, but today has been a "drive mom crazy" day for my 2 little girls - I caught them yanking down some blinds and they run away gigling when I came to stop them. Then I caught them dumping out flour and again they ran off giggling about being caught. My 3 year old decided to try punching me in the eye when I took away a cord that goes to our treadmill, oh so lovely. During N's club time (when I'm working with seven 6-9 year olds) they pulled out all the blocks, wooden train set, board books, puzzles, and cushions from the couch, and then begged for cookies. Then when I took them outside to burn off some energy they spent the whole time racing off (giggling again) to our neighbors stairs/deck where they noisily climbed up and down and ran away from my impatient attempts to catch them or lecture them into listening - my neighbor works a late shift. After I settled them into the sand box and they somewhat quietly played (don't throw sand - don't put sand in her hair - keep the sand in teh sandbox) they spent their bathtime (all of 5 minutes)kicking each other and dumping water out of the tub. Oy! Just another day!!


Thankfully most days are like today. As for our current plans, I don't think we have changed much from our Fall 2009 plans, but maybe we have??? I'm still working on being flexible, and don't commit to any "programs" or "plans" or "curriculum."

I do NOT get to pick the books we are reading anymore - these 2 girls have their favorites and we read them at least 2 or 3 times a day. Its always nice when they change things up with a new title. Here are some of their favorites right now:

We're Going on a Bear Hunt

The Ear Book by Al Perkins

The Hair Book by Graham Tether (couldn't find a picture)

Five Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree and Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

The Little Red Hen

Ten Tiny Fairies

Mother Goose

My Big Book

Let's Learn Portuguese Picture Dictionary

We do the "preschool" type subjects (colors, numbers, etc.) while we are reading or through the everyday things we do. For example, while we read Ten Tiny Fairies we talk about the colors of the fairies or when they pick out their clothes in the morning (and again at lunch time and then at snack time and for bed - lol) I'll tell them what color they are wearing or how many buttons I am buttoning. When I make pancakes we count how many I pour on the griddle. O counts the bread when she puts it into the toaster.

Books like My Big Book and the Portuguese Picture Dictionary are great for building vocabulary, because there are so many pictures and so many things to talk about. We talk about colors, and how many are there, and what is happening, and we pretend to eat pictures of yummy food (and sometimes farm animals too).

Often while I am working with my older kids these 2 girls join in how they can - during math they color on their own white boards or play with the math blocks. When we are working on picture narrations or copywork, they color at the table with us.

And when they get tired of hanging with us they will pull out their own activites from a nearby closet or head to their bedroom to play with their kitchen or baby dolls.

And of course they go on our nature study walks and other field trips. They are fascinated with animals right now so trips to Farm Country or a park are very exciting for them. They are expert bird watchers - at our feeder on our back porch, at parks, or driving around.

Even though we have plenty of up and downs, and crazy days like today, this age is so much fun. It is exciting to see them so excited about learning.

St Patrick's Day

Here are some things we will be doing to celebrate St. patrick's Day this week:

Online Videos- We will probably watch the ones about the History, St. Patrick, shamrocks, and green.

A Yahoo!Answers page with some great looking links to Leprechaun stories, but I don't know which ones or if we will use these - we have several pictures books about Irish fairy tales that we will read. I also found this simple article about the Legend of the Irish Leprechauns (to remind myself about all the little details!).

Here is a link to an Irish Blessing copywork pages - I put this together with some coloring pages I found online (search "st. patrick's day coloring pages") to make a book for my kids for the week.

I found this wonderful new-to-me website that does audio stories - Storynory. There is a great collection of tales about St. Patrick (and I'm super excited about many of the other stories I found!)

I remember in elementary school coming into the classroom and finding leprechaun footprints all over the room leading to a treat, and I aways intend to do it for my own kids but usually forget. I'm already thinking about it a few days ahead of time so maybe it will happen this year. I'm going to use the great idea of tracing an pair of baby shoes to make the footprints.

I've also toyed with the idea of having Lucky Charms for breakfast, but due to my pregnancy I find myself unfortunately suceptible to gobbling up all the sweet goodies in my path so I don't know if I dare bring one of my favorite cereals into the house. Oh come on, be realistic!! That isn't going to stop me.

And we will have a traditional dinner of Corned Beef, potatoes, carrots, and cabbage. Austin asks for this dinner year-round, because he loves the corned beef not the veggies, but I'll take dinner successes where I can.

Happy St. Patrick's Day Everyone!!

Winter Series #9 - Mammals

Outdoor Hour Challenges - Winter Series #9 - Mammals

We spent time this week in our own backyard and a couple local parks. Each time we were headed out I reminded the kids to be on the look out for signs of mammals, and Oh Boy! there is a lot of animal scat out there - dogs, cats, horses, and deer, deer, and more deer.

The tracks are all from our backyard-

Anonymous large dog-

Our dog's track, he's a dachshund

We found a cat track too
Lots of deer tracks-

deer droppings-
And at a park we saw signs that deer had either been eating the tree bark or rubbing horns against it.

We also reviewed the pictures of animal tracks in the book, Discover Nature in Winter (pg. 182-183), and the kids picked some to draw in their journals.

Homeschool Info

I was reading the Carnival of Homeschooling's latest blog carnival- Carnival of Homeschool: Oddities Edition and came across this great article:

25 Must-Read Homeschooling Articles for Newbies at Jimmie's Collage

I thought I would share it for all my interested readers!!

School Days

Winter Study #8 - One Small Square

Outdoor Hour Challenge - Winter Study #8 - One Small Square

We decided to do 3 different squares for our study this week. At first my kids limited their discoveries to the obvious things - leaves, sticks, rocks - but we were surprised by all the details we found when we more closely examined them - little seeds, different colored sand, shapes, symmetry, patterns - it was a beautiful nature study!

Square #1: In the flower bed

Square #2: In the sandbox

Square #3: In the grass

Winter Series #6 - Salt Study

Outdoor Hour Challenge - Winter Series #6 - Salt Study

We tried the salt experiment suggested in the Handbook of Nature Study. We dissolved salt in water and then poured it into two shallow dishes. We kept one on the kitchen counter and the other one we put on a windowsill. Because we live in the desert (dry dry dry) our salt crystals had started appearing by the next morning. We will probably let the dishes sit for a few more days to observe as the water continues to evaporate.

Here are some backyard discoveries we made during our outside time:

A dandelion!!

We continue to have lots of night time deer visitors and they leave behind tracks and other not so desirable gifts (a couple of which are shown in the top right corner of this picture).

Several mullein plants that have been wintering over!

While we were outside it started to rain and hail - in the middle of this picture is a piece of hail.

And time outside wouldn't be complete without bubbles!!

We also have also been watching several tulip plants that we brought inside a couple weeks ago. The outside bulbs haven't started growing yet - must be too cold still!