Homeschool Preschool Week 3

L and E (37 months) have just completed their 3rd week for "Homeschool Preschool".  We're still trying to stick with a daily routine, but it's become a lot more flexible.  There are days when they clearly want to play without me, so I let them play while I get some work done.  Other days, L will refuse to call me "Mommy", just "Teacher" and both girls beg for their activity boxes.  We just go with the flow..  Here's a review of the types of learning experiences we've been doing...

The girls adore this Cutting Strips activity where they place a sticker into each box and then cut on the lines.  When they were doing this, they told me that they are making activities for their babies (they see me cut out activities for them all the time).

We also started playing a game where I draw a shape or line and they take different markers and trace around it to make a pretty rainbow-colored design:

It's great practice for that pre-writing fine motor control!

There are also plenty of file folder games, pocket chart activities, and other educational toys (this is just a sample, the girls have been doing a lot more):

I've deliberately started to include activities that are easy enough for L and E to complete independently.  There have been a number of occasions where one of the girls (especially E) will take out an activity and complete it all on her own.

They also enjoy trying different things with their learning activities, like seeing how quickly they can complete them, or using chopsticks to pick up the pieces:

Chopsticks, tweezers, and tongs are also a favorite tool for all sorts of creative playing, like transferring fruit-shaped erasers into bowl:

.. and putting playdough 'candies' into a silicone ice-cube tray

I also took out our costume box for lots of dramatic play fun:

Even Baby H (11 months) played along:

This week's 'school' has been a good balance of learning and playing (as it should be!).

Link-ups: