Preschool is back in session!

I am finally feeling well enough that I went downstairs to our school area and got a lesson ready for c and j tomorrow.  I almost had what my mom used to call a "conniption fit".  The kids have totally demolished my nice clean basement.  I know what we will be doing this weekend.  I cleaned up enough to make room for our activities and we are going to learn about the letter d and the number 2 tomorrow.  A simple plan but one that I could put together quickly and that they will enjoy.  When I asked if they were ready to start preschool again tonight they both cheered and danced around so I know how important it is quickly becoming for them to have that dedicated learning time.

Finally some preschool

We did it!!!  Finally made it downstairs to preschool.  We had quite the mess to clean up as the little ones have of course been into everything!!!  We made a weather dial using printouts from www.sparklebox.com and the kids were so excited to spin the dial to rainy!  We made caterpillar craft sticks(glued pom poms on craft sticks)...we'll add some pipe cleaner antennae and google eyes later on after the glue dries.  We practiced our cutting and gluing.  We worked on kicking and catching a ball.  We read "Marvin K. Mooney will you please Go now!".  They loved it.  I remember it being Justin's very favorite book when he was four so I'm pleased to be able to read it again.  We did a few fine motor activities also and now they are watching wow wow wubzy while I clean up and post this to the blog.  All in all the morning is shaping up to be better than I thought it would so that is a good thing.  Now to tackle the laundry monster and the dishes from this morning.  Happy schooling to you all.

Magnificent Monday

On Mondays J.R. goes to preschool so Caitlin and I have Tot School without him(and then we repeat many of the activities later because he feels left out!)  So here is what I have lined up for tomorrow:

This book talks about big and little and has great pictures.

All of our caterpillar activities are downloaded from "Confessions of a Homeschooler"  She has a great letter of the week curriculum which you can buy for a very reasonable price.  She also has so many adorable free printables....here is her link to the C activities.

http://confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/2009/10/prek-letter-c.html

I only downloaded the page without the numbers because Caitlin isn't recognizing numbers by sight yet.  I am using small foam bead for the markers and a square lacing bead that I wrote on for a dice that only rolls 1, 2, or 3.  I have to find a dice like this or a plain cube to make my own because this one rolls funny.  I don't think that Caitlin will care though.  I am trying to teach her how to play a game...taking turns, moving in order...etc.

Then it is music time...her favorite.  We have been dancing to Hap Palmer songs....I LOVE THEM...

http://www.happalmer.com/

Today we will dance to "How big is baby".  It asks questions like "is she bigger than the sea?" then no, no, no....so very cute.  We'll also dance to his version of the "five little monkeys"....just because we can:)

Next time for some edible fun with our Cheerios play book

gonna try this one with her...another caterpillar goody from Confessions of a Homeschooler...you clip the right number of clothespins onto the laminated caterpillars.

more big and little practice....throwing some medium in there too.  If its too much then I plan to cut the page apart and just do Small and Large.  Thanks again Confessions of a Homeschooler.

Workboxes for tomorrow all lined up.  I love this system and I keep the trays stacked right next to the boxes so activities that need trays will have them in a flash.  I can't believe how easy it is for the kiddos to remember not to make a mess with an activity when they have that visual and physical reminder.  What a great idea.  I just use one set of workboxes even when JR is home because I have them doing the very same thing.  

Well, that is our plan for in the morning....if miss Caitlin cooperates with it all that is.  She loves "Preschool" though so I bet we get most of it in!

Goodnight and God Bless!!

J.R.'s shape house from school

The house is the shape activity that he did at school.  I really like it....I wonder how much guidance she gave?? She seems to be really good with the kiddos. You can also see our Timmy Triangle stick puppet.  Our curriculum has you make a stick puppet for each shape and the kids loved him so much that they wanted one of their own to play with. So now we have triplet timmy triangles!!

Sissy had to have her picture taken too.  

A close up of the house.  This is how I memorialize my kiddos artwork.  I decided a long time ago to keep a few really special things and take pictures of any art or papers that I want to remember.  Four kiddos create A LOT of papers in one school year!

pictures of our little school area

These are actually the pictures I took to put on their picture schedule...which works wonderfully!

This is my Dollar Tree calendar.  I'm using velcro to attach the numbers

I got this table at a thrift store.  I think its supposed to be a college dorm type coffee table maybe??  It works great with these little stools that I got at Target, though they like the little wooden chair now too.  I put their names at their "spot" and also a bucket for each with supplies and an abacus that I made(our preschool curriculum recommends one for each kiddo and they actually love them)

Our Easel...bought at a garage sale and even though I wish it were magnetic I do love it...its very sturdy.

Our very first day of preschool at home.  I want to keep a "portfolio" of sorts so I can track their progress.  Enjoy:)

our creation papers...the kids did the coloring by themselves and put the cotton balls on by themselves.  They helped to shred the cotton balls.  It was funny to watch their expressions as the tiny ball of fluff kept growing.

These are the sandpaper letters that I made for our abc Jesus loves me curriculum.  Wow...I got all the uppercase done and about midway through was wondering what affect it would have on my cricut to run sandpaper through.  It progressed more quickly as I became more experienced though and I am excited to use these.  Especially after seeing how excited his occupational therapist was today when I told her what I had made.Here is the link for the directions and templates.  The biggest thing that I changed is that I just held the printed template on top of the sandpaper and cut both out together. The total cost was $6.00 for sandpaper and whatever ink it took to print the templates out on scrap paper.
http://www.abcjesuslovesme.com/materials-to-make/73Z3mommy-tip