Homepreschooling - October/November/December

Between Reid's birthday, a visit from the Tyndalls for a week, a trip to IL, and lots of colds and stomach bugs, the past few months have been a bit of a mess. While I felt like I was in a groove back in September with the whole "homepreschooling" thing, my instruction has been much more sporadic since then. Despite my hit or miss approach lately though, we've gotten in quite a few learning opportunities even amidst the chaos.

Still working on the alphabet, we continued making our letter crafts to add to the books the kids are constructing. Both of them get excited when I say it's craft time, but Caleb especially has been really into these ABC pages. Originally, I was just tweaking a few ideas I found on Pinterest to make them my own, but my firstborn wanted to be more involved in the planning process and has been full of ideas to add to mine. On occasion he'll scan the Internet with me, but most of the time he's got something fantastic already in that artistic brain of his. Sometimes Mommy isn't up for all the big ideas he comes up with and has to tame it down a bit; I do what I can though to encourage his enthusiasm. After all, it is their alphabet books...

This one was from Pinterest and even came with a template.

Eventually Caleb will be able to cut out his own pieces, but for now I've been doing the prep work so that we are all ready to go, making the process a lot smoother and quicker. When Reid's entertained or down for a nap, we have to use that time wisely to get somethings done!

I planned to do a camp"F"ire that I saw on Pinterest, but Caleb thought flowers would be better. I'd seen an idea along those lines too and tried to mimic it. 

With some crayons, Caleb and Hadley decided to add their own flare.

For an Awana project, I needed to buy some glitter pens, so when I saw this Pinterest idea, I thought it was a win. We had the materials and the prep work was minimal. The kids thought it was great fun too.

I was able to explain to Caleb how to spread out the glitter so it would dry better. However, Hadley, who's too little to grasp that concept, layered it on as thick as she could get it. 

Look at the depth of that beautiful mess of g-g-glitter!

She used a little on her I coloring sheet too and Caleb made a picture for Cubbies with his.

There's that Davy Crocket hat again!

Hadley's

Caleb's

Working on their "L" is for lollipops craft

We've done lots of coloring sheets with letters too. Hadley has always loved to color, but Caleb is just really starting to enjoy it. He is very concerned about doing it "right" though. Our boy is very careful to make sure things look realistic and are exactly the color they are supposed to be, especially if he is mimicking a character/scene he's seen elsewhere.

In addition to crafts and coloring, I've continued to use the flashcards, Alphabooks, and songs on ABCmouse.com I mentioned in my previous post to help my two-year-old learn her alphabet, and by the end of November, Hadley could identify all of her letters and even tell me most of the sounds they make. Hooray!

With Caleb our goals have been quite different, of course. He mastered his letters well over two years ago now and is on to bigger and better things - like reading! He has mainly been working on learning his sight words at this point and is doing a great job. 

As I mentioned in my last homepreschooling post, my mom bought at set of books designed perfectly just for this purpose and by the end of November, we'd made our way through all twelve. I love the repetition and picture clues that help him figure out words that might otherwise be tricky. 

Not only have we been using our sight words skills, I've also been having Caleb tell me how he figures out other words as we go. For example, if he tells me he used the picture clue to gather meaning he is congratulated for using that skill. We don't stop there though; I also make him look at the letter the word starts with and see if the sound matches up with what he guessed the word to be from the illustration. The books are so simplistic that they are perfect for teaching this type of cross-checking.

We started a word wall in the basement with the words he's learned so far, but I also put them on note cards. Sometimes we go through them quickly flashcard style, but others we play a game I learned in one of my Reading Specialist courses called "Your Pile/My Pile." As we go through the stack, any time Caleb gets a word correct, straight into his pile it goes. If he misses, Mommy gets the card for her pile. He loves seeing his stack grow bigger than mine!

In one of the books I mentioned above, it also suggested having the kids write their sight words in pudding with their fingers to help them remember better. So, with a chocolaty glob he got an usual and exciting lesson one day. What kid doesn't want to play in pudding?

You just have to taste it...

We also tried a little handwriting practice, but I've kind of just left that area for his preschool teacher because he gets frustrated with it at home. One day when I was working with him to write some numbers though, I noticed how quickly he was able to switch the pencil to the correct position when I reminded him to hold it like he was supposed to, so progress is definitely being made. He still frequently switches it back to "his" way, but he's getting there and has plenty of time.

I posted some pics asking my Facebook teacher friends for handwriting advice to support what he's learning at school, especially because he seemed to crook his hand and I didn't want him to get in a bad habit. Most of them said not to push writing as this point because at this age it tends to be a fine motor limitation. They suggested things like more outdoor play, working with playdough/clay, using triangular shaped crayons, etc., as tips to help. I've tried a few of these already..

Rather than drilling handwriting, we did things like playing with clay and play dough to help build those fine motors skills in preparation for writing success later.

Hadley was busy making lots of little fingerprints.

Though he is enthusiastic about learning in general, math continues to be what really excites Caleb. I bought him a Spiderman workbook at the Heritage Festival and he loved it. One day at Granny's I gave it to him to see what he would do, and he took off. With minimal help, he can sit at the table and entertain himself solving problems while Mommy tends to other things. It is one area where he is very motivated to write as well, and he does a pretty good job with those numbers!

Just look at the enthusiasm in that little face as he concentrates on his new passion.

He couldn't remember what some of the numbers looked like when he was trying to write them, but after I put them at the top of the page, that little fella took off!

Both the kids like workbooks actually. Caleb and I used to sit together and work through them aloud but never did much writing. Now though, I've changed my approach and have been letting them write, scribble, and play. 

Hadley feels like a big girl.

It gives Caleb more motivation and reason to write, which is a win!

I think it is interesting to see the differences in how they hold their pencils as well as their body positions when working. Caleb even at the supper table tends to like to perch or stand vs. sit flat on his bottom.

Making circles

With Hadley, we worked a bit more on learning colors but haven't been as consistent as we were when we first started out and it shows. While she mastered most of the colors by the end of September that we'd worked on, she's forgotten several of them since I've failed to review like we should have the past few months. However, we did add a few new activities to the mix as we've gone to keep things interesting.

She was happy about her new workbook.

My mother-in-law bought a color cube game for Hadley last Christmas and it's been a fun way to review. We don't usually play by the rules though. Just throwing it in the air and calling out the color it lands on is engaging for Ms. Hadley and it works.

Though I didn't plan it, this new Candyland game a friend brought us while everyone was sick was a great way to dialogue about colors too.

For little Reid, Dave and I both have just tried to do more reading with him on a daily basis. I even signed all three kids up for a program at the library that promotes reading at least 1,000 books by kindergarten. While I'm sure we would make it well past that goal anyway, it is good to have the accountability to make sure that I am reading to all three of them frequently instead of just the ones who can ask for bed time stories or sit still long enough to hear the whole thing.

The effort has paid off as our youngest is turning in to a little bookworm just like his older brother used to be. More and more frequently we see him pulling books of the shelf to look at or sitting down on the floor with one to leaf through. It's not uncommon for Reid to come running towards us with a story he wants to read in hand, and he's learning to be still for longer periods of time as he listens to our voices make the book come to life. 

Back in the fall when it was still warm outside, we did some outdoor exploring and learning too.

Mom had a big collection of walnuts piled up near where she keeps her chickens and Hadley kept calling them "eggs."

Over time as we watched NaNa's chickens, we found out that several of them turned out to be roosters!

While the chickens are always there to check out, pumpkin season is more fleeting. They really enjoyed all the pumpkin patches we went to this year and the good size collection we ended up with on our porch.

After playing with the pumpkins one day, Hadley wanted to dig in the dirt and found something else interesting.

A worm!...Caleb wasn't afraid to pick it up.

Eventually we even talked Hadley into putting it in her dirty little palm. Normally she's pretty terrified of worms, associating them with snakes, but Mommy and Caleb helped her see they were safe. She did pretty good until it started squiggling up her sleeve.

Let's see if we can find some more.

Even when staying put indoors on cold days, impromptu exploratory experiences presented themselves. The kids were very interested one day in particular in what this pomegranate thing Dave brought home was all about. "What do you think it looks like on the inside?" he tried to get them to hypothesize before cutting in to it and solving the mystery.

From peering out our windows, we also started a weather graph for the month of October (though Mommy has slacked on keeping up with our calendar habits).

Well, I guess we did do a lot of stuff after all even with some big breaks in between. As Caleb goes back to school this week, hopefully we'll get back on track too and reestablish our routine. It is more than rewarding to see them motoring forward and have measurable progress. As a stay-at-home mom who doesn't always get to see lasting results since most of the work I do is undone again by my little ones before I turn around again, it motivates me and gives me a sense of accomplishment too.