Little Preschool

My Little Tornadoes drive me crazy, but gosh, I sure love doing the preschool thing with them.  Having them underfoot during homeschool hours is nothing like having Daniel underfoot and you all remember what he was like, don't you???

I don't think I've pulled Mighty Mind out of my school cupboard for years and years... Most of the magnets have fallen off, but all the pieces are there.  Lula was able to complete about half the cards before the shapes got too hard and Heidi did about ten of them.  I was mostly working on politely-waiting and asking-for-help-without-shouting skills with the girls and teaching Jason to not touch (and stay off the table).... like that will ever happen.

Recess is essential.  Can you believe this mild weather? I have kids running around in SHORTS with the windows open.  We are halfway through November and have only had three fires in the wood stove- and they were mostly for ambience. My big plan to keep my sanity is to take the kids outside more this winter.  I'm shedding the coats and boots that don't meet the rainy day requirements for our family and hopefully replacing them with USEFUL rain gear for their Christmas present (shhhhh! Don't tell!)  I'm tired of being home; I want adventure!

How do you know your preschooler is ready for fun hands-on crafts?  When they sneak off with scissors and do this:

Own it, mamas.  I hear the snip snip, thank God it's not their hair (again), and get going with the printer.  I used to try not to print because it uses so much ink, but  you should see how much Lula loves her binder of schoolwork!  She pulls it off the shelf several times a day to look at the pages she created.  She is writing the words Lula, Mom, Dad, and Cat.

I love Lula's intense concentration!

This project was perfect for her.  She knows the numbers from 1 to 10, so she was just working on her cutting skills and her asking-nicely-for-a-turn-with-the-glue-stick skills.  Heidi needed more help with the numbers and cutting, but she was thrilled to glue all by herself!

Nice haircut, Heidi

School Readiness

The beginning of a new school year is upon us and this year, I'm adding a new preschooler!  I'll give you a few hints who it is: She just turned three, she is probably too young to start preschool, and she is half of my Double Trouble team (look for a post on that soon).  If you guessed Lula (or Dori Ann as she calls herself), you guessed right!  Lula isn't really doing anything structured, I only want to keep her from sneaking outside and getting attacked by a goose.  I have a preschool curriculum called Letter of the Week that has a weekly schedule with plenty of activities.  I know Lula isn't ready for some of the activities so I'll be able to stretch it over two years.  The only problem is that the whole curriculum is a PDF and color printing is quite costly.

Good thing I have a few tricks up my sleeve, eh?  One of the new additions to the homeschool is a laminator. Instead of printing page-sized colored letters, I just bought a pack of upper case letters from the Dollar Store. Then six letters were laminated at a time, cut out, and hole punched for lacing.  Even the laces are shoe laces from the Dollar Store.

I showed Lula her letters and the first thing she did was make an accessory out of the D. Hm, what is it with my girls and their fashion sense? She has been wearing that bathing suit for at least a month.

I love homeschooling the preschool years and I'm so happy that I never run out of ideas or inspiration or even preschoolers! I'm also planning on posting my other school plans, but you'll have to read about it on my new, open-to-the-public blog that I'm experimenting with this year.  Check it out: The BookSharking Bunch.  I started it last spring when the new BookShark curriculum Facebook page members started asking for people to list their homeschool blogs.  I didn't really want a bunch of strangers coming here, so I started a new one.  I'll let you know when I have a post written for the upcoming school year.

Finger Painting

For mess-free finger painting, add paint to a ziplock bag, squeeze out the air, close tightly, and adhere to a window.  I used BioColor paint and double-taped where the bag opens.  Just make sure your kids know to keep sharp objects away!  This was a fun way to add some bright color to my grey and dreary school room.

Daily Daniel

The day of Evie's birthday, Daniel found some money around the house.  He kept asking me how rich he was and what he could spend his money on.  "Not much, kiddo," I responded.  After we got in the car to head out for the party, Daniel again asked what he could buy at the store with his new money that was now three silver coins and two were big ones!  "You could probably buy a banana."  And that it what he did.  I helped him pick a solo banana and he proudly carried it through the store.  If there had been other shoppers at our tiny local store, he probably would have shown them his money and the banana.  At the check out lane, he insisted on paying for his own banana all by himself, but whispered to me that I could tell him which coins to give the cashier.  The cashier thought Daniel was adorable, which of course he is, and rang up his banana which came to $.23.  "Hand her one big coin," I whispered.  He handed her a quarter with a flourish and was so pleased to receive two cents change, his banana in his very own bag, and his very own receipt!  You should have seen him strut out of the store with his bag and receipt!

When he got in the car, he said, "I don't even want this banana! Here, Lula!"  He kept his two pennies in his pocket up until he got into the pool.  Mark insisted that Daniel not take the pennies into the pool and that he would keep them safe in the locker while they were swimming.  You better believe that Daniel remembered his two pennies and demanded them back as soon as they were dried and dressed after swimming!

About two weeks ago, I got a few bags of random Christmas junk at the tiny local second hand store.  It really is just junk and normally I would leave it right where I saw it.  But because I'm still going through my sensory bin phase and Daniel is always asking for "prodrects," I brought them home.  For a few bucks I got some pinecones, decorative sprigs of this n that, beaded snowflake ornaments, and some pompoms.  At home, I added some squished bows from the wrapping drawer and some ancient cinnamon sticks from the spice cupboard.  Fiona and Daniel dug through that bin and sniffed things and exclaimed over all the little doodads they found.  They were busy for at least 30 minutes!

After they were done digging, I brought out a sorting tray and asked how they could use it for their bin.  Fiona decided to sort the items, but I let Daniel decide the sorting rule.  I thought for sure he would sort by type: pinecones, bows, ornaments, pompoms...and then run out of sections and ask for a second tray.  Instead, he decided that everything would be sorted by shape: circles (spheres, technically), ovals, stars, and things with sticks poking out of them that looked bushy.  Everything else went in the center.  Boy, did I have fun watching them come up with their ideas!

Frogs in the Pond

The weather has been fantastically warm this week, driving us away from "schoolwork" and toward independent learning...

I asked Shane to read a book about a frog's life cycle to Daniel to prepare him for some fun preschool activities I had lined up.  This inspired Shane to take Daniel to the pond to look for frog eggs.  Shane brought a sample of pond life back to the house and started recording what he saw.  Daniel copied what Shane was doing...for a few seconds at least.  I love that!

Evie carried on the proud tradition of taking her baby sister out on the paddle board.  Ami used to do that for Evie when she was a little two year old!  Evie didn't go more than a foot deep since Lula didn't have a life jacket on.

I took my four little ones out to the Dollar Store on Tuesday night to pick up supplies for Ian's upcoming birthday, to train the little ones in proper store behavior, and to pick up a few treats for my preschool on the side...  I love the Dollar Store.  I got these little plastic frog/lizard toys, a dish with three divisions, and set Daniel up with some sorting this morning.  The labels said simply frog and not frog.  Daniel isn't really reading, but he is spelling simple words...

After he sorted the frogs out for me, I put them in a "pond" (also known as a sensory bin...or plastic box) with those really cool hydrating beads that are used in flower vases.  I also got the hydrating beads at the dollar store!  We added water and watched the beads get larger all day.  By this evening, the "pond" was ready to play with.

This is when the fun really started!  My preschool class quickly expanded to include everyone except Ian (who probably secretly wished he was little again) and Shane (who was reading and didn't know what we were doing, but he probably would have joined in if he were around).

These beads feel so COOL!  We searched for the plastic frogs and lizards (we called them newts), glass marbles, and a set of frog life cycle figures.

As soon as the play got crazy (beads bouncing around the porch, Lula sitting in the box), I packed the box away for another time...and we will watch the beads to see what they do next!

Sensory Bins

I somehow stumbled on the concept of sensory bins.  I remember my preschool had a huge one, filled with cornmeal.  I always thought these were supposed to be indoor sandboxes, but I guess they have their own special term and purpose.  I like the idea of having calming activities and something quick and interesting to keep little ones occupied.  So I've thrown some super simple bins together in the last few days...

The pasta above makes quite the noise!  Lula loves to move her hands around and make the pasta rattle.  The older kids, when I choose to include them, can string pasta on pipe cleaners (renamed chenille stems in this PC time).
The pinto beans above were put together in a second while I was trying to make dinner last night.  Lula kept getting into things, so I figured I would save more time with sweeping up beans after dinner prep than constantly stopping to get Lula out of mischief.  And I was right.  Lula happily sat on that stool scooping and dumping beans for a good 20 minutes!  Of course she has the ability/personality that allows her to sit and focus quietly on an activity...I've had other kids that would take one look at that box and dump it straight on the floor, just so he could hear what noise it makes.

The split pea bin was one I had planned on setting up for Daniel on St. Patrick's Day.  I have buckets and buckets of dried beans in my emergency food storage, so I was happy to rotate the older stock out.

Fiona helped me cut up a gold shamrock necklace from the dollar bin for this one.  The gold shamrocks slowly rose to the surface as Lula scooped and poured with the gold cups I described in this post.   I have tons of ideas that I may (or may not) execute, because remember? My new year's resolution is to not set myself up for failure.  But I have this cute mini eraser set in the shape of sushi that my Japanese friend gave me...and wouldn't it be fun to sift through white rice with a pair of chopsticks during our next unit on Japan?

Who Needs Preschool?

I first started homeschooling when Ian and Shane were preschool aged.  Back then, I was part of a club for stay-at-home moms and we all knew which preschool was the best and when you had to place your child on the waiting list to get in.  The list filled up within hours and I had to write a check as a deposit for the boys' spots.  Ian was in the four year old class, that met three times a week in the afternoon.  Shane was in the three year old class, that met twice a week in the mornings.  The total cost for both boys to attend preschool was $150 per month (I think. Maybe it was $150 each!).  I just felt sick to my stomach knowing that I would have to pack the three kids up in the van and drive across town ten times a week.  And I would pay someone $150 a month to teach them...colors, shapes, and maybe letters and numbers.  So I used one month's tuition and bought my own stuff...

One person's shot glass is another person's lentil scooper!

Preschool is my favorite age to teach.  I could teach preschool forever!  Come to think of it, I've been teaching preschool since I first began homeschooling...

Right now I have a bin filled with lentils on my table.  I've had Lentil Science since Ian was kindergarten aged, but I never officially set it up due to the never-ending supply of messy two year olds in my house.  Well, enough is enough!  I'll never get Ian's kindergarten days back and lentils can be swept up and replaced for only $12.50 for a 25 pound bag!  That's like one day of preschool! True to my children's natures, all I have to do is set something up and set them loose.  I was pleasantly surprised with what they came up with.  The gold-colored shot glasses were purchased at our local thrift store for $1.  I removed the gold chain they hung from (who wears a shot glass as a necklace?) and added the shamrock stickers.  The gold buttons were $.50 for six and make perfect gold coins.  My idea was to dig for the gold treasure using the scoopers.  Fiona added the counting bears and created her own one-to-one correspondence.

At some point I will pull out the other activities that go along with the lentil science, but for now I'm going to try to include a little more St. Patrick's Day themed activities for this week.  The great thing about getting activities set up for Daniel is that the older girls enjoy them as well.  And I don't feel like they missed out on preschool activities because I was so busy including them in Ian and Shane's school work.

I've started checking out some preschool blogs put together by moms who send their kids off to school everyday and have plenty of money and time and a fancy camera for nice photographs.  They have AWESOME activities for their Saturday Science.  I can only make a cheap imitation, but my kids enjoy what I've come up with (so far) and that's better than a super-fancy blog and public school and lotsa money.  Today I had Daniel search for those gold buttons in shaving cream.  Wow, that was a sensory experience!  We could only find one button!

Some ideas I came up with for this week are: paint chip (from the hardware store) memory with different shades of green, a green item scavenger hunt, a shamrock sticker puzzle, green playdoh with gold beads stuck in it (I don't get the stuff-stuck-in-playdoh thing, but I guess there is no harm in trying it out), and green finger jello!