Planning for next year - Preschool (YIKES!)

I love planning. I get all excited and like to browse and look at stuff for ideas for HOURS! C is going to be 3 soon - where did the time go? He gets bored easily and wants to do work like A, so I figured I needed to do more with him this coming school season. I don't expect to do worksheets, or activity pages or anything, but I think we will do unit studies in conjuction with what A is studying or whatever takes his fancy.  Of course, I have been looking at all these ideas from all these great sites and it's easy to get carried away. That being said, I created my list of goals for C today and it looks something like this:

Know:

Colors

Shapes

Counting objects to 5

Be able to sort different objects by color, size, and/or shape

Be able to sort animals according to characteristics

Draw a circle, square, triangle

Be able to complete an ABC pattern

Sing songs

Be able to do:

Lacing work

Pasting

Cutting

Coloring

Crafting

Puzzle work

Building skills

Sharing

Patience

Would be nice:

Recognize A, C, D, M, S

To change:

Less TV, more books and toys

More one on one time

More hands on fun like painting and messy work

As you can see, there is nothing in the above list that involves "seat work" - which is how it should be. I have found a site called Confessions of a Homeschooler that has some great free printables for lacing, patterning, letters, and colors. She has puzzles that correspond with each letter that I will be using just as puzzles - we will talk about the animals on those puzzles and the beginning letter sounds, but I TOTALLY don't expect him to know those sounds. I do want to expose him to that concept though so that when we start PreKinder stuff he has heard the idea before and it isn't alien.

So far I have decided that we will make a cardboard car and gas pump, sensory floor tiles(round or square cardboard tiles covered in different stuff like sponges, Bath sponges, bubble wrap, etc), lacing cards, sensory balloons, craft stick shapes, giant felt shapes, a felt button worm made from felt scraps that can be ordered by color or shape, etc.  

Some of the items that I can't make, I will have to buy.  Those include wooden puzzles, sorting trays(wood silverware trays), craft items like paint, pom poms, etc, aquarium gravel, rawhide dog bones in all shapes and conditions for dinosaur bone hunts, stampers, paint rollers, and dot dot painters, etc.  IF you live up in the great white north and want me to send you money for when you go to Goodwill and can pick me up some of those things, I'd be super excited :) Send me a message, I'll send you money :) :)

Super Hero Arm bands - a DIY

Who can say no to that face?

Apparently, C knows what super heros are.  All day yesterday he was wearing an empty Crayola crayon box on his arm and using his Super Powers!  After MUCH convincing, I got the box off his arm and put the crayons back in it.

From the moment he woke up all he wanted to do was get his powers back.  No idea where he gets these things, but I love it :)  C repeatedly asked me to make him some powers, and breakfast didn't count. So, having finished off a roll of paper towels, I got some inspiration.

Ingredients:

• 1 empty paper towel roll
• Spray paint
• elastic
• tin foil
• needle and thread or sewing machine
• craft glue

How to:

Photo Steps. Sorry about the flash.

• Cut open the paper towel tube and press flatish
• Spray paint the paper towel tube
• Wait... play Ring Around the Rosie, answer the question "Powers done yet?" about 5 billion times
• Once done, cut tube to size
• Figure out how much elastic you need and sew that on to the painted tube.
• Cut out a bazillion little tin foil shapes until you get the right one
• Glue said shape onto the tube and let dry while child destroys house

TADA! Done.

One happy little boy :)

Friday Joys

The older kids always play some form of organized game.

Today is Friday.... what does that mean for us here? Well, since it is PE Day that means we get to go run around with a bunch of other homeschooled kids  and get sweaty - oh yes, sweaty! It is December after all, and the sun is shinning, there isn't a cloud in sight, and it's about 83 out - oh?! That isn't normal for December you say? Well, happily for us and sadly for you, it's our December. You see we live on a little slice of Paradise where it never gets below 62, and we don't have to worry about digging the car out of snow and putting on a gazillion layers like most of you do.  It also means that between June and November we are on high alert for hurricanes and it is awfully hot - run around naked type of hot.

Playing with sticks and cut grass.

Anyway.. back to what Friday means to us.  It means PE Day with the "guys" as C calls them, have a friend over to play with after PE, and bake, and craft, and just have fun day.  Every other week we start our weekend early and it's GREAT!  A gets to play with friends, C gets to play with friends, and Mommy gets to play with friends :)   Then we all go home and relax or do chores, or in our case today, bake a cake.

I did say sweaty right?

A has a friend over and C is busying doing 2 year old stuff while I am in the kitchen baking a baby shower cake.  It is a relaxing way to slide into the weekend. No pressures to get stuff done, no worries if we don't finish our work for the day. Well, except for getting the cake done, a triple layer dark and white chocolate masterpiece for a baby shower this weekend.  It's my first paid for by someone else cake and I am working my heart out on it.  If all goes as planned, this will be the first of many, if not - hey it was fun!

This weekend is spectacularly busy for us, horseback riding for A tomorrow morning, then a friend over, then later that night our church's Advent festival where the kids are going to craft, eat, and sing their hearts out, then Christmas is Spoken Here at the Botanical Gardens on Sunday.  So this Friday is truly needed, it is a perfect day for the start of a perfect weekend full of activities.

Gotta Love Fridays!