Preschool Week 7, Letter D, Number 4, and baby Moses

This week we focused on the letter D. Again. I actually jumped the boat when we started preschool and wanted to include letters even though the curriculum waited a couple weeks into it...you can read that here. 
But after a week or two into preschool, I realized it was better for us (and a lot easier for me) to just follow the curriculum regardless if Oliver already knows the letters, shapes etc, of what we are covering. I can add to the curriculum each week if it's just too simple for Oliver and I love doing that.
But back to the week, we focused on D, the number 4 and the Bible story of when Moses was born.
I created a page of words with "d" in them for Oliver to find and circle. He still gets frustrated with this because it's hard for  him to make small circles around the d's. But I talked him through and helped him find words that started with the "da, da, da" sound.
Also, I love this picture of our sweet boy. I can see his boyish, childhood all wrapped up in that little face. :)

We played with some play sand this week again, which is ALWAYS a huge hit.
And I also let Oliver put a puzzle together that I printed for free online. It's a puzzle that is in strips you stack, with the number at the end of the strip. You can find the numbers and line them up (1-10) and then the pictures line up too. It's hard to get them (with three year old hands) perfectly lined up, so Oliver wasn't a huge fan. But as his fine motor skills and attention span increase I think he'll like doing this one a little more :).

We read the story of baby Moses this week too, and our craft was very simple for it. I printed the free printouts from ABCJLM and used those. Oliver painted and glued the pieces down on a sheet of paper. He did good gluing them all down in the right sequence (brush, basket, baby).

I found a super cute theme packet for brown bear that I printed for free! I used the sequence bears for Oliver. He's gotten really good at figuring out sequences. And Oliver worked on matching letters (big and little) from his name on this car that I made him.

Another counting activity we did: I used the ladybugs previously and instead of matching them to leaves, I had Oliver count the dots on the lady bugs and match them to the corresponding numbers I had made on sheets of paper. (I just made numbers 1-10 with simple matching dots under them)
He really loved doing this! He counted each dot on the ladybug and on each sheet of paper. He really likes counting and matching!

We are enjoying some lovely weather here in Georgia and it's wonderful to take lunch outside and enojoy these mild fall days together. The boys love being outdoors so any chance we get is always a hit! I am so thankful to be home with the boys to be able to do this with them. Such a huge blessing!
Also, nevermind that my foot looks completely out of proportion with my body. What the?? It's what you get from self timer. ha!

Our week ended with a little paint project. I had created these balloons for Oliver to paint for his daddy. Whose big birthday was that weekend. He did fabulous painting them with much gusto. He really likes to paint shapes. Aren't they pretty in all those colors?

Preschool Week 4, day 3

Day three.
We started with routine things, then moved onto a little review of our Bible story (Adam and Eve). I had Oliver color a printout from ABCJLM of Adam and Eve. He colored a little, but not much. Coloring is just not his thing. I've introduced him to it over and over again, but he has yet to really get into it. Maybe he just won't, maybe he will later. Either way, it's okay. I love exploring different creative things with him and seeing what makes him excited.
So far, I know he loves using the glue by himself.
Using his own scissors is exciting for about 5 minutes.
Searching games are up there in his list of favorite activities (searching for colors, letters).
And getting his hands messy, or building/playing in stuff. Like play-doh, play sand, dirt etc.
I guess that's a boy for you. We finished our flag today! The final thing to add were the stars, so Oliver was thrilled to squeeze out gobs  a small amount of glue for the stars. Can we say hurray for finishing the flag? It only took us well over a week :).

OH, I also wanted to add that we are now including the pledge of allegiance into our routine things. I forgot to post that along the way...so there it is.

We moved onto some practice with line drawing. I have these cute printouts that have different lines (curvy, straight, spikey) from little campers to a tent. I love them because they are perfect for Oliver, who loves outdoor things (like his daddy) and was excited to make a path to the tents. I wish I could remember where I printed them from. If I find the link I'll post it. {okay I just found the link and it's here. Great site for free printables!}

We did a little counting after that.

And I found time to organize all my printables I had stored up over the past year, so I pulled out an old  sequence printout. I remember Oliver was frustrated with these when we tried them months ago. Sequence is a hard thing to learn and it was just too early for him to understand. He did a little better this time, but I'll let him try them again soon to see how he thinks through it. I cannot remember where I printed these from either :/ But it's easy enough to search for "sequence" printables at sites like, Homeschool Creations or 1+1+1.




























We moved onto a puzzle I had printed out a while back. Since Oliver loves puzzles I thought he might enjoy this one, but it was pretty much a fail. It's a tough puzzle. Because all the pieces are square, it's hard to know what goes where. Also the way the pieces and art of the actual puzzle are, it's tough to know what direction which puzzle piece is supposed to go and where they go. I think I'll look for a different puzzle for him, with a picture that has lots of different colors on it.

We ended our school time at that point. BUT later that day I had a fun project planned for Oliver. I looked up science for preschool on Pinterest and found a popular post about mixing vinegar and baking soda. I was inspired to try it for our own science time. I also had the notion to do this while I was getting dinner ready. For some reason, the time period from about 4-5ish in the evening is the worst time of day for crankiness. From both boys.
Having an activity that thoroughly captivated him was a huge plus! I didn't know how long this would interest Oliver but I was amazed at the length of time he played with it.
Here's the simple recipe for it: