Homeschool Preschool Weekly Recap {Age 3}

H is 3 and 2 months old, and loves Homeschool Preschool.  Not only does he join us for Circle Time and Stations (logic puzzzles and math manipulatives) in the morning, but he doesn't nap anymore so he participates in ALL our school work.  Even with Kindergarten-level work I'm having a hard time challenging this sharp little guy.  I think it's a good thing, however, to give him a majority of easy-mastery activities at the moment to keep school light and fun.  Here's a sample of what we did this week...

Homeschool Preschool Activities

My little boy, H, will be 3 years old next week!  This means that he has graduated from Tot School and has started Preschool (homeschool).  H participates in Circle Time (and other activities) with his older sisters (see my Homeschool Kindergarten day-in-the-life post), but he also gets plenty of his own activities...

Tot School - 30 Months

Now that H is 2.5 years old, we've decided to put him to work on the farm.  Here he is milking the cow..  :)  Actually, H's "Tot School" time has been full of playing, exploring, fun, and learning (even on vacation).  He loves to participate in "circle time" with his older sisters and soaks up new information like a sponge.  Here's a tiny peep into some of his favorite activities lately..

Combinatorics in Kindergarten {What Will Little Bear Wear?}

It's been a bit chilly here lately so the girls and I have been reading plenty of stories about cold and snow.  One of the stories in circulation this week is "What Will Little Bear Wear?" from the book Little Bear by Elsa Holmelund Minarik.  I threw together a fun little math activity related to the book. (It would also go great with the book Jesse Bear What Will You Wear? from Before Five in a Row)...

Tot School - 28 Months

Baby H is almost 2.5!  My little boy is really going through a big developmental growth spurt right now as he's communicating more effectively, following directions, and craving more challenging learning activities.  He always asks to "do school" (so he can be like his big sisters, of course).  Here are some of the activities I've been giving him..

Tot School - 23 Months

Baby H will be a 2-year-old in less than a month!  He is such a fun little kid to play with and I find great joy in our special Tot School time when I can interact with him one-on-one.  Here are some of the learning activities he's been enjoying this month...

Observing Caterpillars

Two weeks ago, we received some mail-order caterpillars.  The girls (and I) have been having a great time observing them and learning about the butterfly life cycle...

Model Building with Preschoolers

This afternoon, the twins (almost 4 years old) and I built a wooden 'model' firetruck.  Although the label said that the set was for ages 8+, my preschoolers did an excellent job (with some help, of course), and it was a neat project to work on together.  Little did my kids realize that this was a learning activity requiring math, spatial reasoning, and problem solving skills...

Hidden Words Reading Game with 3D Glasses

A couple weeks ago we got a game with 3D glasses and a workbook with objects to find in a Chick-Fil-A kids meal.  The kids enjoyed playing the game as intended, but were particularly fascinated with the glasses.  I made them a fun reading game with hidden words that could only be read using the 'magic' glasses.  You can make this game using any red tinted see-through object (color paddles, Magna-Tiles, etc..).  This game provided lots and lots of entertainment (and reading practice) for my kids. Here's how it's done..

Teach Your Preschooler to Read!

 

Today I am participating in a guest blogger series on teaching your children to read on Life & Lessons from a Country Road.   In my guest post, I describe some of the lessons I've learned as I taught my twins to read by age 3.5.  Please head over there and check it out!

Homeschool Preschool - April

The twins are 3.5 years old.  I hope some readers have stuck around through my blogging hiatus this month.  We're moving (again) so April involved a lot of sorting through all the kids' toys and homeschool activities and organizing/packing everything.  We still do Homeschool Preschool twice a day, but the packing has drained my creativity so we've stuck with activities that are already on hand.  Here are some highlights..

Homeschool Preschool - Weeks 29 & 30

 

L and E are 3.5 years old.  If you follow this blog and have been wondering what has happened to my plan of doing a book-related activity every day in March, well we've actually been sticking to it.  However, my kids have been doing so great with our Homeschool Preschool sessions lately (2-3 times a day for about an hour each session), that I've kept the book activities pretty simple.  Sometimes we read a book and then watch a YouTube movie about the subject, or complete a puzzle on the theme, etc.. nothing that would be interesting enough to blog about.  Here's a little glimpse of what we've been working on in preschool over the past two weeks..

Homeschool Preschool - Weeks 27 & 28

L and E are 3.5 years old.  The whole family is now feeling better after nearly a month of being sick with various colds, so we're back to doing more Homeschool Preschool activities.  Here's what we've been up to...

Alphabet Soup {Carmine: A Little More Red}

I read somewhere that children's book authors are sent a list of words (mostly sight-words) that they are 'allowed' to use in their books.  I'm not sure if this is true or not, but it makes me sad. That's why I'm always excited to discover a new book that will expand my children's vocabulary.  I absolutely love the book Carmine: A Little More Red by Melissa Sweet which has taught my 3-year-olds some wonderful new words.  The story starts out by explaining that Carmine's grandmother taught her how to read by making alphabet soup.  It then proceeds to retell the story of Little Red Riding Hood where each paragraph highlights one word that starts with each letter of the alphabet.   For our activity today we made our own version of alphabet soup...

Painting Whales {The Snail and the Whale}

Today's "Book of the Day" was The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson.  I love the rhythm of Donaldson's books and they are always a joy to read.  I especially like the illustrations in this one (by Axel Scheffler) because the kids get a chance to identify all sorts of different animals and habitats.  For our little activity we watched a video of a beached whale rescue and used watercolor paints to color whales..

Silly Creature Drawing Prompt {There's a Wocket in My Pocket}

March is National Reading Month and we're going to celebrate by trying to do a book-related activity every day.  It may be as simple as a little craft or acting out the story, but I'll also try to add some themed units into the mix as well.  We got an early start today by doing a little drawing prompt based on the book There's a Wocket in my Pocket by Dr. Seuss..

Journey Through Colorado History {Booking Across the USA}

I am very excited to be part of the Booking Across the USA project hosted by Growing Book by Book.  Today I am joining over 50 other bloggers in sharing a children's book and activity for my state.  The Rocky Mountains always come to mind when people think of Colorado, but I wanted to cover a different aspect of the state.  I was happy to find a new picture book called Dreaming of Colorado: A Children's Bedtime Story, written by Grant Collier and illustrated by Stephanie Lowman.  The book takes its characters through a magical canoe ride backwards in time through Colorado's history.  So the girls hopped into their own magic canoe (laundry basket) and we set off on our own historical adventure...

Homeschool Preschool Weeks 25 & 26

The whole family has been fighting some sort of a cold over the past 2 weeks.  The kids had horrible coughs for a week, followed by a day of earaches and fever.  Baby H had a fever for 4 days straight,  rising as high as 103.7 which freaked me out.  I ended up with an acute sinus infection which is just now clearing up.  Needless to say, homeschool preschool took a back seat as we focused on getting healthy.  The kids ended up watching a lot of television when they weren't feeling well.  I did scatter some learning experiences here and there depending on how everyone was doing.  Here are a couple of the things we did..

Favorite Preschool Math Ideas

Math is my favorite subject and I want my kids to love it as much as I do!  I think the best way to do this is through lots of fun and creative games that let them explore and discover new concepts about the world of numbers.  Here are some of the best Preschool Math activities that I've tried with my little ones over the past year (ages 2.5-3.5)...

Homeschool Preschool Weeks 23 & 24

L and E are 3.5 years old.  If you read this blog you know that over the past 6 months I've been going back and forth between structured and unstructured homeschool time.  After spending too much time being told by the twins that they're too busy to play with me, I decided to just ring a bell (a triangle, actually) and tell them that it means it's Preschool Time and they need to hurry to their table.  I still set up 6 trays with various activities, but I keep them on the dining room table and pick which one comes next instead of letting the kids decide. This system has been working great so far and we're back to doing 'Preschool' twice a day for 30-60 minutes each session.  I'm always pulling out fun activities and new manipulatives so the girls get excited about our time learning together and don't mind getting pulled away from their dramatic play adventures for a little while.  Here's a sampling of the types of activities we've been doing over the past 2 weeks..