Homeschool Kindergarten Lesson Plans - Weeks 15-19 {Plus Christmas & New Years}

I trying to be a more consistent blogger this year and would love to resume the weekly summaries of our homeschool activities (I know that now that Baby H is nearing the age that I started this blog I'm having a lot of fun looking back at old posts and remembering what activities I did with the twins at age 2.5)  Anyway here's a glimpse of the Christmas and New Years themed activities we did this year.  December seemed to just go by in a flash...

 

I found some Rudolph the Reindeer puzzles that I got from Target for $1 each two years ago.  at the time these were too challenging for the girls so I wrote letters on the backs of the pieces to help them match them up (plus a good pre-reading activity).  L enjoyed using the letters to solve the puzzles while E solved them the 'regular' picture-matching way.

We made Christmas soap.  Soap-making is such a wonderful sensory activity and I wish I remembered to do it more often (at least for each season). We talked about how the solid glycerine chunks changed states into a liquid in the microwave and the girls just loved adding the colors and scents to the soaps.  The mold we used for the shapes was a $1 silicone ice cube tray.  The other advantage to homemade soap is that the kids get obsessed about taking baths - I've never heard them ask for so many baths that week... 

This year the twins really got into the idea of Santa Clause coming at night with gifts and enjoyed the holiday a lot.  I also liked that it wasn't too over-the-top with crazy presents - they got some board games, Legos, costumes, and other small fun items, and there were no resulting melt-downs. 

It was a bit of a struggle getting the girls back into school-mode after Christmas was over.  For some reason they both decided that they don't like reading and were really protesting whenever I told them it was time for school.  It's hard to wind down from all the excitement (and sugar) of the holiday season and get back to the routine.

One of the mini-units we did was on Tchaikovsky and The Nutcracker ballet.  We read the story ($1 at Target last year - have I mentioned I love the Dollar Spot at Target?), and watched an episode on Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite on Disney's Little Einsteins.  Starfall.com also had a little section on Tchaikovsky that we read and listened to together.

The girls worked on a coloring page of the Nutcracker while we listened to Tchaikovsky.  Then I taught them some ballet moves to try out.

In preparation for New Year's Day, we spent a lot of time talking about the passage of time.  We've been singing the Time Song from Starfall.com so they've memorized that 60 seconds make a minute, etc..  But beyond that I think they have a better grasp now of how long each measurement of time really takes and how they relate to each other. 

I used various file folder games to reinforce reading time.  We've also started mentioning time more in our daily conversations.  I found that we have enough 2014 calendars so the girls can each have their own.  They really enjoyed filling in the special days this month on their calendars, and every night we've started crossing off the day and talking about what is coming up.