Teach Your Child To Write - A Beginner's Writing Notebook

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My little girl is turning 3 this month.  For the past year she has loved coloring, cutting paper, gluing things, etc.  She has incredible fine motor skills.  These two things coupled together led me to begin teaching her to write letters a little over two months ago.  She is doing an amazing job, and I wanted to share with you what I have been doing with her.

This is a simple, no-hassle, no fancy curriculum needed, way to help your child (at whatever age they are ready!) learn to write.  It is the very first form of copywork; simply mimicking correctly written letters.

Just before I began teaching Mackenzie to write her letters, I bought a really simple book binding system (that I'm in love with!) so I just HAD to make up a writing notebook for her.

The idea was to have her learn a new letter each day we did school work, practice previously learned letters, and also master letter sounds along with it.  So, I printed these {free!} A-Z Handwriting Worksheets from Confessions of a Homeschooler and on the back of each page I printed these {free!}blank Beginner Handwriting Sheets from Classical Copywork.

Here is what we do

1. Review the previously learned letters by looking at each page in the book she has already done.  I turn the pages and she tells me the name of the letter and what sound it makes.
2. Learn how to write the letter by tracing over the letters and letter parts on the A-Z Handwriting Worksheet for the day.  
3. Practice writing the letter on her own.  I write one uppercase and one lowercase example for her on the blank Beginner Handwriting Sheet on the opposite page and she does her best to copy it across the line.  Some letters she caught onto quickly and others took practice over many days.
4. Review writing previous day's letters.  I write letters on the rest of the lines for her to practice with.  Sometimes I pick the more difficult ones that she needs extra practice on and other times I let her pick which ones she wants me to write.

 

This process does not take long each day and it is really working well!  In just two months, she can write and give the sound for almost every letter.  I love the idea of having it all in a book like this because it is easy to review the previous letters, everything is in one place, and I don't have to print out a new sheet every day.  I'm going to have a post up soon about the book binding system I've been using and how simple it is to use!

I encourage you to try making up a notebook like this for your child if they are ready to begin learning how to write!

Ultimate Guide to Keeping Young Children with you at Church

My husband and I keep our children (currently ages almost 4 and 2) with us during the worship service at church.  We have always kept them with us.  It is not that we are necessarily against Sunday school, but that we are for worshiping together as a family.  Just like everything else in parenting, it is about training.  This post is not going to tackle the why of keeping your children with you at church, but the how.  If you are looking for the why, I can recommend the book Parenting in the Pew and I will also link to some resources on that subject at the end.

First, you have to evaluate how child friendly your church is.  If your church requires all children to be in the worship service (has no other option for children), then I would guess that they would also have more leeway as far as noise level and wiggling goes =)  Your church may be smaller and understanding of distractions (everything from cell phones ringing to babies babbling).  Maybe your church does not encourage children in the worship service, but also doesn't give you dirty looks when you walk down the isle to your seat with your children it tow.   I hope that you church does not flat out refuse children in the service, if so, I would strongly question their theology on children and have some serious discussions with the pastor.  This post is targeted at parents who want to worship with their children, but need to keep them very quiet out of respect for others listening and the pastor.

Are you ready for the Ultimate Guide to Keeping Young Children with you at Church?

How to prepare:

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• If your child is struggling to sit quietly still through your church service (and what young child doesn't?),  it is a good idea to practice at home.  This can include: 

• Simply practicing obedience ("Tommy, quiet while mommy makes this phone call." "Kate, sit still while you eat your dinner") and expecting obedience!

• Have family worship (devotions) during the week and expect the same the behavior that you are striving for at church.

• Have a baby/toddler sleep in your arms or sit in their car seat to practice what being still is like (keeping a baby quiet at all times is impossible, but you can work on stillness)

• Have a preschool/young elementary aged child sit an listen to a sermon during the week to practice correct behavior.

• It is much easier to train in the comfort of your own home that it is in the midst of a Sunday sermon.  

• Right before you enter the service make sure everyone has gone to the bathroom and give your kids a peptalk of what you expect from them.  As young as 18 months my kids could answer the question "How do we act at church?" with a "shhhh" or a "quiet" showing me they are beginning to understand. 

• Here are what some other wise ladies have to share about this...
• Smockity Frocks on Training Little Children for Church 
• Yes They Are All Ours on Getting Children to Sit in Church
• Preschoolers and Peace on Training Little Ones in Church
• Raising Olives on Family Worship 
• Yes They Are All Ours on Getting Children to Sit in Church 
• Baker's Dozen on Training Children to Sit Through Church

Where to sit:

• Up front.  This may sound like exactly what you don't want to do,  but hear me out!  Sitting up font puts your kids near the action.  There is more for them to look at and pay attention to.  They may feel more important, thinking that the pastor is speaking right to them!  If you do this, make sure you are not coming and going all service long...when we sit up front and have to leave for a minute, we slip in the back after or wait until the end if it's almost over. 

• In the back.  If you have a small baby who is awake and babbling, fussy, or a child who you know is going to need some extra attention/training, it my be best for your to stick to the back =)  You definitely don't want to be a distraction to others if you don't have to be!  When my children were babies, I liked being able to walk them in the back until they fell asleep and then be able to quickly slip back in the pew with my husband. 

• The end of a pew.  Generally speaking it is best if you can stick to the end of a row.  If you foresee having to leave at all, it is doing no one a service to have to climb over others in order to 'slip out.' =)  That being said, for a while my daughter was obsessed with stairs.  Where we sat in church was up some stairs, so for a while my family sat on the end of the pew, but we positioned my daughter farthest in so she wouldn't be tempted by the stairs.  So, evaluate your situation, consider others, and pick a good spot!

• By a door.  If your church is not tiny, try to sit by an easy exit.  This is merely for the consideration of others, your pastor included!  If you can go from your seat to a door with no one noticing, that is fantastic!  In our church, there are even doors up front, so we have the option of sitting just about anywhere.  When my kids were babies, instead of sitting by an EXIT door, we would sit close to the cry room door.  Just think about the layout of your church and pick a spot that makes the most sense and is going to distract your pastor (and others) the least if you have to get up and walk out!

• Here is a great idea from another mom...
• Life in a Shoe on Children in Church

 

What to bring:

• Something to keep the hands busy.  I do not advocate entertaining your child with many toys because I do not want children to grow up thinking that a church service is something they need to distract themselves from, but I understand that young children get fidgety and keeping their hands busy can help.

• Keep it simple.  A Bible (children's or adult), a piece of paper and pencil, a shoestring, hair tie, or pipe cleaner, a quiet chew toy for a baby, etc.  Do not bring a whole bag of toys or a whole pack of crayons. 

• Keep it quiet.  Lauri toys or stickers are good options.  A simple busy bag might do the trick.  Be careful of loose papers for drawing on and books with thin pages as they can be loud (think crinkling and constant flipping).

• Something to keep the mouth quiet.  This should be reserved for very young children.  Once you child is preschool age, they should understand that they need to be quiet.  This should also not be brought out at the beginning, but reserved for times they need to be extra quiet or for near the end when they are needing help for the last little bit of the service.

• Keep it clean.  Avoid things that can make a mess on their hands or the floor (I avoid suckers/fruit/etc. and crackers/pretzles/cereal/etc.) My favorites are gummy bears (not so healthy) or dried fruit because they are in small pieces that can be put right into the mouth.

• Keep it quiet.  If a food is going to be noisy, don't bring it!  My son likes to bite hard candy, so we don't let him have it.  Crackers/cereal/pretzles/etc. are also noisy when crunched, so that is another reason we do not do them.  We bring a sippy cup for each of our children and have found that certain cups are noisier than others.  As a side note, we also do not offer the drink until the very end, and only if they need it to help during the last few minutes because drinking inevitably leads to bathroom breaks =)

• Something to aid in learning.   This will vary with different ages, but the ultimate goal is helping your child to learn, so always be thinking to that end.  

• A preschooler can trace over relevant words you have written on a paper or circle pictures that they have heard the pastor say (ex. Bible, Jesus, etc.)  A beginning writer can copy a verse from the text or write down a few words they hear the pastor say.  They can look for the passage in their Bible or read the number of the chapter in the Bible.

• Some great ideas from other ladies.

• My idea for Engaging a Preschooler During a Sermon
• Mama's Learning Corner with Listening Pages for Non-Readers
• Mama's Learning Corner with Christmas Listening Pages for Non-Readers
• Mama's Learning Corner with Easter Listening Pages for Non-Readers
• Raising Arrows on Helping Children Learn to Listen in Church 
• Smockity Frocks on Children in Church 
• mmmcrafts Worship Notes for Kiddos 
• Grocery Shrink on Getting Children to Sit in Church 
• Serving Pink Lemonade on Quiet Books

  What to train:

• General Concepts

• Consider others better than yourself. We are not teaching our children to be quiet for the sake of being quiet.  If we consider others better than ourselves, we will not keep them form being able to pay attention and learn.  We will also not be a distraction (think running up and down the isle for multiple bathroom breaks) to the pastor because that would hinder him being able to share his sermon with us as he had practiced.

• Self control This is a worth wile thing for any child to learn.  If we control our hands, they will not be waving in the air or poking our sister =)  If we control our mouths, we will sing at the appropriate time and be quiet at the appropriate time.

• What the body of Christ looks like.  A child partaking in a church service gets to see what communion looks like, what a group of people praying looks like, what their father singing to the Lord looks like!  They see their parents (and others!) valuing the work of the church by tithing and the entire congregation supporting new believers in baptism and membership.  These types of activities and experiences are not and cannot be replicated in a children's church.

• Here are what some other ladies have to share about this...

• Preschoolers and Peace on Having Little Ones in Worship 
• Generation Cedar on Training Children to Sit in Church

What to expect: 

 

• Baby (0-6months)  - Sleep, nursing/bottle, pacifier.  Begin to associate the church service with being calm.  Take your baby to the back or out of the room if needed, but do not take them to play (this will associate inappropriate behavior with a reward.)

photo credit

• Toddler (7months-2 years) - Sleep (encourage napping if the child still would normally take a nap at this time, which should be easy if they have been trained in this since day one), sitting on parents lap (do not let them walk back and forth in the row, but model stillness), folding hands during prayer, bathroom break for early potty trainers, not making it through a long sermon (if my toddler does a good job, but starts to get fussy at the end, I don't mind taking him/her out early and telling him/her that they did a great job!)

• Preschooler (3-4 years) - Standing and sitting along with the rest of the congregation, folding hands/closing eyes during prayer, looking at a Bible, filling out a page about the sermon (coloring page, copying /tracing words, etc.), one bathroom break tops.

• Young Elementary (5-7 years) - Full participation in the service, no bathroom breaks, no toys only a paper to write notes or draw a pertinent picture.  

• What another mom has to say about expiectations...
• Raising Olives on Keeping Little Ones in Worship

Other Great Ideas (or posts that cover more than one of these topics)

• Hope for the Family on Ten Ideas for Keeping Your Child Quiet in Church
• Parenting Methods on Helping Children Behave in Church
• The Common Room on 4 Moms with Children as Quit as Church Mice
• The Common Room on Children in Church
• Life in a Shoe on Children in Church (part 2)
• Raising Godly Children on How to Train Your Children to Worship 
• Alpha Omega Publications on Should Your Children Be In Church? 
• Training Your Child to Sit in Church
• Community Baptist Church on Children In Church

I hope that this has either given you some ideas if you keep your children with you in your church's worship service, or has encouraged you to at least think about this subject (or even give it a try!)  If you have any questions or other ideas, please let me know!  If you have written a blog post on this subject and would like me to like to it above, let me know and I will most likely add it (I'll have to make sure it is on topic, in line with the point of this post, family friendly, etc.)

Early Grammar Stage Focus - Play and Exploration

This is the final section of my series based on the article 10 Things To Do With Your Child Before Age 10.  To learn more about what I am doing, read my first post on Reading and Writing.

You can get this "10 things..." article plus SO much more information in the book Teaching the Trivium from the good people at Trivium Pursuit.

This week's focus is on Play and Exploration.

This topic could not come at a better time!  My family just moved from a two bedroom, no yard, up a flight of stairs condo, to a nice home on an acre of land, with a basement.  Before we barely had room to put our things, so many things were in bins and boxes in our one car garage.  We tried to go out to parks as much as possible, but it was hard not just being able to run outside for a minute to burn off some energy.  I know many families live this way (and worse!) so I am not complaining, but just contrasting to how blessed I feel now to have a home and yard for the children to play in and explore!

The article mentioned above encourages us to give our children plenty of time to play, but not necessarily in the way you might think.  They suggest giving your children tools so they can create (build, garden, sew, etc.) and explore (binoculars, microscope, telescope, etc.) along with more traditional things like blocks and dress-up clothes.  We get tons of plastic, electronic toys from family members, and while they are really fun for a short amount of time, we have seen how their sparkle soon wears off and the toy is mostly useless.  I definitely see the great benefit in giving your child things that they have to think how to use, as opposed to the toy being the one to say how it's used (by talking or moving itself for example).

The article goes on to discourage us parents from letting our children use electronic devices for entertainment (TV, video games, etc.)  I definitely see their point, but I can tell you it's hard to do!  I see a difference in my son's attitude after he watches TV, and I hate it, but sometimes I just need an uninterrupted break so I let him watch.  Really, I know that he needs to learn to play with things better (as opposed to watching things passively), and that is something that we are working on.  I'm not going to tell you to never let your child use electronics, ever, but at least be aware of how much time they are spending doing this sort of thing.   

We got into bad habits living in our condo.  Since it was not easy to go outside to play and explore, my son would fill up with energy and not have anywhere constructive to get it out.  He would act up and an easy way to have him clam down was to let him watch TV.  This, of course, made him like TV more and want to watch it more because he was used to being fed entertainment instead of creating it himself.  This is something we know we need to work hard at reversing.  I can tell you already that just being in our new home with a yard to run out into has helped immensely!  Since the TV isn't in a prominent place in the house, he doesn't see it as often so he doesn't ask to watch it.  I am excited to see him learning the joy of playing and exploring, and can't wait to see him grow in this area!

Goals for Play and Exploration:

• Provide more tools for exploration
• Make good toys accessible in the house
• Drastically limit TV time (no more than  1/2 hour a day?)

Check out how we are doing on these goals in my follow up post, Play and Exploration  Re-Visited.

This post is a part of the following series:

Early Grammar Stage Focus - Discipline

This is part nine of my series based on the article 10 Things To Do With Your Child Before Age 10.  To learn more about what I am doing, read my first post on Reading and Writing.

You can get this "10 things..." article plus SO much more information in the book Teaching the Trivium from the good people at Trivium Pursuit.

This week's focus is on Discipline.

I feel a little funny writing about this topic because I am no where near the perfect parent and my children are no where near near the perfect children (but God made us perfect for each other! =)   As far as discipline and obedience goes, we are still in the training process, but I still want to share with you all today because the article mentioned above has some great thoughts on the subject.

This section of the article begins by saying that if the area of discipline is neglected, you might as well forget about academics.  If our children do not learn to be obedient to us, then they will most likely struggle with self-discipline in their own life.  We work on that a lot in my home.  It is fun to do loud, active things sometimes, but we also need to learn to be in control of our body and our mouths (and our thoughts...but we're not tackling that one yet with our 3 and 2 year olds =).

Ideally, we should have the respect of our children, they should love to please us, and they should be obedient (happily) at our first request.  I don't know that this is ever possible to get 100%, but it's a good goal!  Also, as children mature, you want them to be critical thinkers and not just follow commands blindly, so this concept needs to be tweaked at each developmental stage.  For example, it is appropriate for two year olds to obey for no reason other than because their parent told them to.  A four year old has new processes going on in his head and wants to know "why?"  It is good to explain things to this aged child, but it is not appropriate for them to need to know the answer in order for them to obey.

I have found with my children that a huge impact on their obedience (and attitude that goes along with it) is my attitude.  If I let my 'in the moment' anger get in the way, it doesn't accomplish much and in fact I am convinced that it causes more anger and aggression in my children in the near future.  So, as parents it is very important for us to react calmly and lovingly, yet still unwaveringly.  It is also important to make sure that you child hears you when you give them a command or ask them a question.  In order for that to happen, you need to train them that it is of utmost importance for them to look at you right away when they hear your voice.  This is for their safety if nothing else!

I do want to make clear that the goal of discipline is not to make robots of our children.  Ultimately it is to have an enjoyable, peaceful home and to win our children's hearts, to guide them to loving God, and to raise thoughtful, considerate, teachable, young adults.

If for no other reason...

 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.  "Honor your father and mother" (this is the first commandment with a promise), "that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land."  Fathers, do no provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.   Ephesians 6:1-4

This section in the article has a few other very informative sub-sections on socialization, work ethic, having a peaceful home, having a good attitude, and a few others.  They are definitely worth a read!  Even if you do not agree with every word, there is much food for thought. 

How do you handle obedience and discipline in your home?  What do you expect from your children and how do you go about getting it?  I'd love to hear some tips from you, or ask a question that someone else here can help answer!


Check out how we are doing in this area in my follow up post, Discipline Re-Visited.

This post is a part of the following series:

Preparing for a Classical Education

I love the classical model of education.  I love the idea of teaching children how to learn so they can eventually learn for themselves in any situation.  I love the idea of teaching history chronologically and incorporating many subjects together instead of segmenting them.  I have wanted to teach my children classically since, well, before they were born =)  I am now blessed with two little ones (currently 3 and 2 years old), but their physical abilities, attention span, and mental capacity are not ready yet for true classical teaching, so what do we do?  We prepare them for a classical education...

I'm excited to be guest posting today over at Homegrown Learners.  To read the rest of this post, click here! 

Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!

Today my baby girl turned 2 years old!  It really is a little bit of a shock because I definitely still consider her my baby.  I am excited because when Trevor turned two I started 'officially' doing school with him, so it's a little reminder that Mackenzie really is getting to be a big girl!

I took some time today to start my evaluation/goal book for her like I have done for Trevor.  I thought about her strengths and weaknesses and some long and short term goals that I have for her.  I also looked back at some of the academic goals I had written for Trevor for his 2 year old year.  It is neat to see how much information she has soaked up from from being with Trevor and I when we do school.  I honestly have never sat down and tried to teach her any numbers or colors (using legos, or by reading books, etc.) like I did with Trevor when he was a toddler, but none the less she knows quite a bit!

I will share with you some of what I wrote down.  Please bear in mind that none of this is perfect, complete, or set in stone, it is simply what came to my mind today as I wrote.


Purpose Statement:

That Mackenzie would come to love and obey Christ and learn to live (and love!) a life of service to her family, church, and community.

Long Range Goals:

• Salvation (obviously this is not my doing, but we will teach her with this goal in mind!)
• Become one who loves to care for others
• Learn to keep a household

 Specific Academic Goals: (these are what I set for Trevor at age 2)

• count to ten (she can count to six now, so I'm sure this won't be a problem)
• count items up to ten
• sing the ABC song (she mumbles through it now, but it is not clear)
• recognize the 26 letters
• identify main colors (she knows many)
• identify shapes (she only knows circle =)

 Strengths:

•  Strong sense of compassion - (ex. she loves to be motherly to her baby dolls and is sensitive to their 'needs')
• Good attention span - (ex. she will sit and color for longer than Trevor will even now, she will sit on my lap while I read a chapter book, she sits through church fairly well)
• Determined, not easily discouraged - (ex. will sit and dump water between two cups or build a tower for an hour, she always wants to figure out how to do things herself)
• Does not need to be entertained - (ex. I will find her sitting in a room by herself playing...something Trevor still does not do)
• Diligent worker - (ex. she picks up toys thoroughly, loves to help me when I clean)

Weaknesses:

•  I don't want to air her dirty laundry, so I'm not doing to put what I wrote down here.  Suffice it to say that it is nothing uncommon to a two year old =)

General Observations:

• She has a very keen sense of smell
• She loves to sing and dance
• She puts together detailed sentances
• She likes pretty things and to be pretty and to complement pretty things
• She loves all things gymnastics...swinging, balancing, hand stands, back walk-overs off of the couch, etc. She seems quite strong for a little 'baby'
• She LOVES to rest/cuddle.  She still sucks her two fingers and is obsessed with her "ni-night" (blanket).  She is so adorable I hate to break it just yet!

So that's Mackenzie!  I love the girl like crazy and am SO thankful for her!

Happy Birthday Mackenzie!

Teaching Through Song

Something that we have found very effective in teaching Trevor is music.  I know this concept is very familiar, but I thought I would share a few of the songs that we have used to teach basic facts to Trevor. 

The Alphabet Song  (obviously =)

The Days Of The Week

Months of the Year

Vowel Song (to the tune of B-I-N-G-O)

• There was a letter had a name,
• Yes vowel was it's name, Oh!
• A-E-I-O-U
• A-E-I-O-U
• A-E-I-O-U
• Yes vowel was it's name, Oh!

•  
• You get the idea...I've seen lots of variations online for this.  You can use the vowel sounds instead of the names, if you want as well.

Skip Counting (we made this one up to the tune of Skip to my Lou, so here's a video of it.  It's a little embarrassing, so don't make fun =)  It would be better if my option for a camera man who was older than 16 months.)

I was amazed at how quickly Trevor caught on to the info from these songs!  In a mater of a few listens, he was singing along, and after a few days knew them very well!  (We did just introduce one at a time.)

What songs have you found effective in teaching your little ones?

Happy Learning!

End of the Year Evaluation - 2 yr old school year

It's August now, and that means that a brand new year of school is about to begin.  I love to have clean notebooks and sharpened pencils and of course a new planner for the year, but before I get too far ahead of myself, I want to take a moment and look back to see if we accomplished what I hoped to this year.  A few months ago, I did a mid-year review evaluating where we were in the goals I had set for Trevor at the beginning of the year and at that time I amended some of my goals.  Now that the year is over, I'd like to check in again to see where we are at.

To review, here were the amended goals I set when I did a mid-year review:

• Be able to count to 25
• Be able to count items up to 25
• Be able to recognize and say the sound(s) of all uppercase and lowercase letters
• Continue learning new colors and shapes
• I may start having him trace lines for early writing work
• I may start having him "build" letters out of cut out lines and curves

End of the year check -up

• He can count easily to 20, and with help to 30
• He can count items as high as he can count and with help a little higher
• He knows all his letters (uppercase and lowercase) visually and knows what sounds they make 
• We did not specifically focus any more teaching on colors or shapes, but talk about new ones if they come up
• He practices building letters and tracing lines used for writing letters
• He can write the letters A, C, E, H, I, L, O, Q, and T (of course, not perfectly or beautifully!)
• We have also started other types of things like Bible memory, listening to chapter books, music time, etc.

First, let me admit that I did not follow through on the curriculum we started the year with.  I was just board with what we were doing.  The curriculum was good at the beginning of the year, but  it was just too simple by the end of the year.  A few weeks ago, in this post, I explained what we have been doing this summer.

In the next few days I hope to post what my goals are for his 3 yr old school year.  So far I've never been accurate to what we actually accomplish (he usually blows me away with how much more he is able to learn!), but I like having benchmarks to base my lesson plans on and also to be able to look back on to see where we've been.

To my homeschooling friends, how did you like what you did last year?  Did you accomplish what you set out to teach?  Do you have any particular books or plans that you loved and can recommend?

Happy Learning!

Our (Not So) Summer Break

At first I had every intention of continuing preschool with Trevor this summer.  I figured, why not? it only takes a little while every other day or so.  Then I realized how completely bored I was with what we were doing, so I was very unmotivated to prepare for the days lesson.  That is when we stopped.  But then Trevor kept asking to "do school."  I tried to give him fun things to do on the floor (think games, sorting and counting things, etc.), but that didn't satisfy him, he would say "No! On the table with papers!"

I have been hard at work putting together my lesson plans for the start of this coming school year, so I thought, why not just start with some of that stuff.  Breaking from the plan makes me nervous =) so I had to come to terms in my brain that starting early and not doing everything in exactly the same order as I had planned was going to be ok.  So this is what we have been doing....


Floor Time: we do this first thing in the morning after breakfast

• Changing the calendar pieces
• Bible memory verse (this past week was Genesis 1:1)
• Singing (nothing in particular, we take turns picking songs)
• Reading (we've started Alice in Wonderland)

Chores (around 9:00am)
Room Time (Trevor and Mackenzie play together for about 45 minutes)
TV Time (Trevor loves Word World)

Writing or Math (around 10:30am when Mackenzie is napping)

• Trace and Build Pages
• Handwriting Worksheets (from Confessions of a Homeschooler)
• Counting groups of 10 (using craft stones Trevor found in a box) in preparation for learning to count to 100
• Skip Count song (I'll have to write a post on this one =)
• Counting the money he learns from doing his chores

We don't do this every day, but I'd like to try to work up to that.  Trevor and I both function better on a schedule, so when we don't do school I usually feel like we are both floundering a bit!  There are a few other elements that I want to include for the start of the school year, so maybe we will slowly start incorporating more of those things too.

For those of you who homeschool, do you school all year round (maybe taking small breaks more frequently throughout the year), or do you take a long summer break like the public schools do?

Happy Learning!

Science Activity - Planting a Tree

A while back, Recycle Bank offered a tree sapling for a couple hundred points.  (If you are unfamiliar with Recycle Bank, it is a website where you can earn points various ways...from simply taking a little quiz, all the way to recycling (depending on if your area participates)...and can redeem your point for different kinds of things like coupons and gift cards.  I only do the simple types of ways to earn points and I've definitely saved a few dollars on groceries (free produce, etc.)!  It's a great little program to check out if you haven't already.)

I thought that the tree sapling would make a great little project for Trevor and I to do.  Within a week or so, our tree had arrived from Recycle Bank.  We don't have any actual land to plan a tree on, so we grabbed a little pot, a toy shovel, and went out to plan our tree!

We borrowed some dirt from under a nearby tree. (Probably not the expert gardener thing to do, but I couldn't find soil at any of the stores we happened to be at that morning.)

Mackenzie enjoyed getting into the dirt too =)

Filled up the bucket.

Put the sapling in and topped it off with more dirt.

Proud owner of a tree!

Trevor had a great time doing this activity.  It provided (and continues to provide) an opportunity to talk about how things grow and the work that it takes to make things grow.  He gets to fill up a bucket from time to time and go water his tree.  Of course each time he expects it to be fully grown already, "It is already BIIIIIG???"  I guess it also provides an opportunity to talk about patience =)

Happy Learning!

Science Activity - Looking for Tracks

A week or so ago we ventured out as a family to do another "nature walk" (Trevor can't get enough of these now and asks to go on them all the time!)  This time our goal was to look for tracks left by animals.  In the book we are getting ideas from, The Kids' Nature Book, it suggested trying to find out some information from the tracks (like how fast the animal was going, follow the tracks to see where the animal was going, etc.), but we just focused on the concept of what a track is and trying to find some!

We found some dog tracks!  Not exactly the sort of animal I was hoping for, but it was a start =)

Trevor was very excited to find these bike tracks, and I was excited that he was getting the idea of what tracks are.

Finally!  Some actual wild animal tracks.

So we didn't find too many different sort of tracks, but we had fun walking around trying to find them.  There were so many mosquitoes that we were not brave enough to venture too far into the wooded area for very long! 

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 Looking for more preschool information?  Click on the picture below to find a list of all the preschool posts here at Living and Learning at Home, plus some of my favorite preschool resources!

Preschool: Week 16

I've discovered that Trevor has definitely outgrown some of the parts of our current preschool plan, so I've been tweaking it and trying to morph it so it starts to look more like what we will do next year.  Like last week, we've been starting off each time with singing and reading the story with goes with our theme.  This is nice because Mackenzie can participate (well, not distract) in this part.  I want to get some musical instruments for next year and expand on this singing time, so doing it just a little now is nice practice for the fall.  One day I gave him some independent reading time.  This is something I should do more, but honestly don't think of it.  I'm hoping to make it a regular part of our days starting in the fall.  We are also reading though The World of Pooh.  It's the first chapter book we have tried and we are both enjoying it!  I like that it makes him sit still and pay attention for longer than the usual simple stories we read.

Here is what we did each day...

Day 1 - Theme: Butterflies

• Color the butterfly coloring page
• Talk about vocabulary word "cocoon"
• Read The Very Hungry Caterpillar
• Sing What Shall We Do When We All Go Out
• Science Activity: Spring Blossoms
• We kept our eyes out for butterflies or caterpillars while we were on our walk...no luck!
• Trevor did stop at each dead worm and ask if it was a caterpillar.

Day 2 - Letter: "P"

• Ok, we just didn't do this one at all.  
• Instead we just did a lot of  Scrabble spelling while laying on my bed.  I started off with the letters needed to spell "tan" "ten" tin" and "ton."  We had to review the short vowel sounds, but other than that he did a good job.  Then just for fun we swapped out more letters and he practiced sounding out those words (ex. "ten" into "pen.")

Day 3 - Number "16"

• Count to the number "16"
• Put sixteen stickers on the number "16" handout, counting as you put them on
• Put 16 pegs in the pegboard, counting as you go
•  Patterns 
• Using our pegboard and pegs, I lined up four pegs in a simple pattern and had him put in what peg would come next.  For the first time he sort of got the concept.  He could do it if i was talking him through it, but when I set up a couple of rows for him to do and I left him to try it himself it wasn't even close =)

       
Day 4 - Color: Purple

• This is another area that he has outgrown, so since he had already drew a face on the oval from last week, I just had him try to draw a butterfly with a purple marker.
• Trace and Cut Pages

Day 5 - Review and Science Activity

• Review concepts from this week while putting the pages into the school binder
• Science Activity - Looking for Tracks (I hope to do a post on this one soon.)

Happy Learning!

Science Activity - Spring Blossoms

Last week the kids and I took a nature walk and looked for tree blossoms.  It's a beautiful time of year observing trees bursting with new life.  Trevor seemed to remember how the leaves fell off the trees in the fall (or maybe he just remembers the concept!), so I told him that we would go around our condo grounds and see what kind of new leaves and blossoms were growing.

My great plan was to to get samplings of all the blossoms, bring them home, and then have him match the blossoms to pictures I had printed out of the internet to see what kind of trees they were.  Well, I had a harder time finding pictures that I thought I would =)  Maybe it would have helped if I actually knew what kind of trees they were!  I guess I'm not much of a botanist.  I'll have to give it more fore site and research time before we do it again next year.  None the less, it was a great preschool activity and Trevor really enjoyed himself.  We put all the blossoms in a cup of water and Trevor was excited to show Daddy what he had collected.


Here are our findings!

Ready for our nature walk!

Baby pine cone "blossoms"

 

Some "mumble under my breath" blossoms.

 

Oh I know this one!

Dandelions, Michigan's finest springtime flower =)

Is this an apple blossom?  Whatever it is, it's beautiful.

A maple tree of some sort.  It has those helicopter things on it, which I thought Trevor would enjoy, but it was too tall for us to reach up to.

One of these trees.....

 

Trevor holding a branch with blossoms that he cut off from own of those trees over there...

 

And lastly, some of these pretty tree blossoms.

I was amazed at how many different kinds of trees are around out condo complex!  I guess I had never taken the time to notice before.  Now if only I knew what kind of trees they were.....

Happy Learning!