Sniffing Spices

Whenever I open the pantry, L and E (3) rush to the spices and say "I want to smell something!".  Usually this involves removing all the spice container lids and making a big mess.  Yesterday, I told them that if they sat at the table nicely, I'd take the spices out for them.  We explored our sense of smell with a spontaneous spice-sniffing sensory game..

Playing with Pushpins

Recently, I purchased some inexpensive corkboards and pushpins for the girls to play with.  Since pushpins (or thumbtacks) are sharp and a major choking hazard, I introduced this as a very special activity for "big kids only", supervised the whole time, and made sure we stayed in one place and put every pin back in the box when we were done.  It was a fun, inexpensive activity in creativity and fine-motor skills...

Even More Preschool Learning Activities

We started our 2012/2013 Homeschool Preschool year on Monday.  Every morning since we started, L and E (37 months old) have been requesting to "play Preschool".  I have a separate post planned that details our daily routine, but here's a sneak peak of some of the activities we've been doing...

Mazes on the Whiteboard

E (3) has really been interested in mazes lately.  It's great pre-writing practice and takes a lot of fine motor skill control and concentration.  We've already gone through a bunch of maze workbooks, so I thought I'd draw some mazes for her on the whiteboard.  She absolutely love these!  She's even started drawing her own mazes for her sister to complete.  Here are some photos of my sweet girl in action..

Monkeys on the Number Balance

The other day, while L and E (3) were playing with their hanging monkeys, I brought out the number scale for a quick addition game.  The monkeys were perfect for hanging on the scale and added a bit of variety and whimsy to this math game...

The Growing Up Feet

In preparation for a trip to the shoe store, the twins (3 years old) and I did a quick little activity about foot size.  We were (still are) in the process of moving to a new house (downsizing, but more convenient location), so I wasn't sure where all our old shoes were, or I would have extended this activity to a full Shoe Store Dramatic Play (maybe another time).  Nevertheless, here is what we did...

Beyond Picture Books: Longer Real-Alouds for Preschoolers

My kids still love picture books.  Picture books have wonderful illustrations to explore and discuss, rhymes that are terrific for phonemic awareness, and they are just fun to read together, especially when you only have time (or patience) for a couple minutes of reading.  My girls (who just turned 3), however, have started begging for more and more stories and I found myself reading as many as 30 picture books to them every day (we usually read 4 times a day, anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour!).  So I found some longer books to read aloud to them....

Tricycle Reading Game

For the twins' 3rd birthdays, they each received adorable tricycles from my parents.  They've been happily riding them in a loop through the living room and kitchen every day (and are getting fantastically good at turning the tight corners!).  Since the girls (especially L) are demonstrating a 'sweet spot' for phonics at the moment, I reinforced what we've been learning by creating this game for them...

Grocery Store Dramatic Play

I introduced L and E (3 years old) to money recently.  They already knew the concept of money (taking it to the bank, buying stuff, etc..), but were not familiar with the coins and their values.  I promised them that they could use their plastic play money to play 'Grocery Store', so that is the first thing they asked for the next morning, even before breakfast.  It was really simple to set up, and they've been requesting the 'Grocery Store Game' all week...

Preschool Math: Comparing Quantities with the Crocodile Game

Nearly every person I know was taught the 'greater than' and 'less than' symbols as crocodile mouths (the crocodile wants to eat the larger quantity).  Here's a fun game that I put together for my preschoolers (L and E just turned 3) to teach the concept of comparing quantities.  I put magnets on the backs of number tiles a couple weeks ago and we've using them for many fun math activities on our magnet board, but I always seem to forget to take pictures.  For this game, the magnetic backs are not really necessary, and you could even play with cards that have numbers on them (like Uno).  Here are the rules of this simple math game...

Preschool Science: Learning about Air

A couple days ago, the girls (3 years old) and I did some science experiments to learn about the properties of air.  They were inspired by both Building Foundations for Scientific Understanding (BFSU) and the book Science in Seconds for Kids by Jean Potter (which contains over 100 experiments that have very little setup time).  Here are the four experiments we did...

Leaping Frogs Homemade Reading Game

I've been following the phonics reading method described in Teach Your Child to Read in Just 10 Minutes a Day by Sidney Ledson.  I was terrified to hear that schools now take the 'whole word' approach to reading - which is basically teaching kids to memorize sight words rather than decode words using letter sounds.  I know that when adults read, they don't sound out each word, but rather identify it from memory, but I'd rather give my kids the foundations to understand the mechanics of words.  I noticed that when I let the girls watch the Meet the Sight Words DVDs, they learned nearly 50 words very quickly and could soon 'read' sentences, but if they forgot a word (or came to a word they hadn't learned) they guessed what it was (with the guess usually not resembling the correct word at all), which means they were not really reading.  I'm very happy with the phonics approach we're doing now, and the girls (3 years old) are progressing marvelously.  Here's a game I made that followed Sidney Ledson's 'block game', or 'train game', but uses frogs instead...

Homeschool Preschool Curriculum - 2012 / 2013 School Year

I realize that Preschoolers don't really need a "homeschool curriculum" - they just need to play and explore the world!  That's exactly what we're going to do this year.  The curriculum is really just for me to organize fun activities and games in a well-rounded fashion.  I figure that if my twins (just turned three) are receptive to activities that teach Kindergarten-level skills, why not go for it?  I always follow their lead and never force them to complete anything.  Here's our 'curriculum':

Creating Designs with Toys and Household Objects

One of L and E's favorite activities is to use various toys and household objects to create large-scale artwork on our floor.  I have to admit that this is a fun activity for me, as well.  The above photo uses pieces from a letter construction game, but we've used everything from building blocks to markers to plastic animals to create our masterpieces.  Here are some more examples I just have to share..

Paper Cup Stacking

Sometimes the best toys are the least expensive ones.  The other day, E (3 years old) spent the entire morning (yes, multiple hours) stacking paper cups...

Twins Turn Three

The twins (L and E) turned 3 years old last month.  My family came out for the celebration, and then we headed out to visit my husband's family for a week, so things have been busy (thus no blogging for a while).  I can't believe the little preemies I brought home from the hospital 3 years ago are now preschoolers! 

Settling Sibling Arguments with a Calendar

Although I'm blessed with three amazingly well-behaved kids (really!), our house still has its share of sibling arguments.  There is always fighting over which book to read, which show to watch, what color cup each girl gets, who brushes her teeth first, etc., etc., etc...  I've found a (hopefully long-lasting) solution to some of these arguments by letting each of the girls (L and E are 3 years old) get a 'special day' on the calendar.  When it's a girl's 'special day', she gets to go first whenever we take turns and gets the first choice of books/videos/toys/food.  For those random sibling arguments over toys, unless it's clear who took the toy away from whom, the 'special day' will settle the dispute.  Even my husband will ask the girls whose day it is when they fight over something.  We've been doing this system for a week and a half now, and it's working really well.  I've actually observed the girls saying "let's look at the calendar" to each other so they can see whose day it is.  They know the turns alternate so they acknowledge that if it isn't their special day today, they'll have their day tomorrow.  I can't take credit for this idea because I'm sure I heard about it somewhere, but I'm very excited about how well this is working, and wanted to share!

Preschool Learning Activities

Here's a quick summary of some of the learning activities I've been doing with L and E (3 years old).  I've been toying with the idea of trying some more structured 'homeschool preschool' time for the girls, but I realized that we fill most of our day with early learning activities, anyway.  I'd rather keep the structure really flexible for now.  I think the key is to plan enough ideas for things to do each day that when the girls ask for an 'activity', I don't have to scramble to pull something together.  For example, for our daily art activities, if I pull out all the materials I need the night before, I don't have to keep the kids waiting while I look for everything we need for the craft.  So here are some of the recent activities I've put together...

Masking Tape Resist Painting

I mixed up our usual painting routine by giving L and E (3 years old) some painters tape and creating tape-resist artwork.  It's really easy to do and produces neat results.  The tape (both sticking it on and peeling it off) added some new fine motor-skills practice, and the girls had a great time..

Cooking with Kids: Face and Hair Masks

Instead of our usual Cooking Day last week, I enlisted the help of the girls (3 years old) to make an Oatmeal Yogurt Face Mask and an Avocado Hair Mask.  What's more fun than 'cooking up' mushy stuff to slather all over your face and hair?  Here's what we did...