Friday, October 1, 2010

Letter H

Can't believe it's been another week already! I keep meaning to blog in between my preschool posts but haven't done it yet. This week went by too fast, but we had fun.
Scripture: Mosiah 2:17

Monday
Reading: Our BFIAR book was If Jesus Came to My House. It went along with our memory scripture and has a great message. Unfortunately I think it went a little over the kids' heads. They were so confused about Jesus being a little boy in the pictures and I don't think they understood the end, where the little boy narrator explains that he had imagined Jesus that way and instead of really spending the day with Jesus, he could treat everyone he sees with kindness. Leighton kept pointing to the pictures and saying, "That's Jesus?" So it may have been a little too abstract. But still a great book. I hope as we keep reading it and talking about it they will understand it a little better.

Letters: Kumon Uppercase #5-6

Fine Motor Skills: they poked holes in a letter H on paper with thumbtacks. This was great activity for both of them.

Play/LMS: Hula hoop! Walmart charges $8 per hula hoop, which Andrew thought was highway robbery, but I think it was worth it. The kids loved it and have been playing with them every time they go outside. I tried to show them how it worked but couldn't successfully get it to stay up longer than about 1.3 seconds. But they have improved at the general idea over the week.

Tuesday
We didn't do preschool that day; instead, we went to the Children's Museum for some hands-on learning, if you will. We went with the Culvers and the Alleys, and Andrew even had the day off and got to go with us.

Wednesday
Another bad preschool day. We did circle time and then I read a few books before I rushed out to a dentist appt. We read The Napping House (Audrey Wood), A House is a House for Me (Mary Ann Hoberman) and The Little House (Virginia Lee Burton). The House is a House for Me one was great, even though I think I liked it better than the kids. The illustrations were engaging. This was our second attempt with The Little House, and for some reason my kids just don't like this book. They won't sit through it, which is extremely rare for them. Maybe it's because there's no interesting characters - I don't know. I think it's a good book, but we'll have to wait a while before checking that one out again.

Thursday
Reading: Are You a Horse? (Andy Rash) - this was a cute idea for a story, but I didn't like the writing. Would have been better if it was more predictable, so the kids could follow it better. The Wild Little Horse (Rita Gray) - I liked the pictures in this book but really wasn't crazy about the writing/story.

Art: H is for House, h is for horse - we didn't do the whole foam thing because I wanted Eva to be more involved in the process. I cut the letters out of paper on my Cricut, glued them on sheets of white cardstock, and Eva drew on all the parts with markers. Her favorite thing is writing words and she is always asking how to spell things; she loved writing the words "horse" and "house" on the page.

Math/FMS: workbook p. 15-19, then hammered golf tees into blocks of styrofoam. Another awesome activity, esp. for Leighton. He was occupied for the better part of an hour with NO throwing!! We did our cutting and sticker workbooks, and Eva kept asking to do "more preschool." I couldn't say no, so we just kept going and doing workbooks - our new Kumon Maze and Number Games ones are great and we did the first 2 pages in each. We went for almost 2 hours straight.

Music: Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, Peter Hammers, All the Pretty Little Horses, If You're Happy and You Know It

Friday
Reading: The Hiccuping Hippo (Keith Faulkner); Hidden Hippo (Joan Gannij); Hippo Goes Bananas (Marjorie Dennis Murray)

Math: Hippo Size Sort and Hippo Color Word Match - these were both awesome for Leighton. I was surprised how easily he matched the colors. The size was a bit more of a challenge (better for Eva) but he still tried and got a few in the right order. I think the hippo is adorable and I'm glad to have these laminated and around for multiple uses in the future.

Letters: We did workbooks and she breezed through them. I sometimes feel we do too much "workbook" stuff and I want her to have freedom, but she loves them so much I can't take them away. So I'll just have to deal with my feelings of being too "schoolish."
Next week: the letter M

2 comments:

Ali said...

After my experience last year with Eliza's preschool, I have to say that I have an idea of the effort you're putting forth which is why I stand to applaud you for your amazing dedication.

Sorry if my nose looks brown, but seriously. You have three kids! Way to go! This is my "off year" (have another child, etc) but I plan to do what we did for Eliza with Henry when he's three.

Are you doing this with a batch of mommy friends? Are there days you have help? Anyway, it's been fun to see what you've been doing. Are you using, "Teach Me Mommy?"

Kirsten and Steve said...

You are amazing. I am just starting to get involved in a pre-school co-op with some girls in my ward and would love the kumon letter file you have. My email is kirstenbham@gmail.com. I will keep up with your blog for other awesome tips!!