Week 5, days 3 and 4

Why hello!
I have been having a crazy week with two sick kids. SOOO that means I am behind on updating LAST weeks school days. I am lumping them together for the sake of my own sanity.
Here we go.
Day 3:
After routine things, we worked on some counting. Oliver can count very well, even into the 20's but he doesn't yet recognize what the 20's look like. And he gets some of the teens mixed up. I thought it would help him see the numbers both in order and out so that he can remember what they look like. Here is my attempt at capturing me in the frame with him. It's a sad attempt. I set the timer on the camera and took a few shots but Oliver was so fascinated at the blinking light on the camera that I didn't really get him counting. But it's a very real moment! ha!

We moved onto some letter sorting. I made the whole alphabet (lower and upper case) in wheels, and made a car for him to put the wheels on. Cute concept but once it was all done, I realized it was WAY too much for him to sort through. A wee bit overwhelming. Thanks for that idea Pinterest.
Well, it's not a Pinterest fault.
I think the thing about some pins is that they don't specify age. And you have to take into account where your child is and what they know at their age. I switched it out (when I realized it was even overwhelming me) and only pulled the letters in his name. We made it into a memory game at that point and I had him flip over the letters to find their matches (lower with upper), then we put them into his name. A better plan!

Day 4:
Our final day for the week.
It was a low key day for sure. Oliver started the day with some play at the table (see the friends he brought along? I do believe these are Aleksandr's toys). We did our verse together, and read a book about words, and I had Oliver tell me what words started with the letter B. He then did some painting with the letter B. Meanwhile Aleksandr was enjoying his new found skill of balancing on the the choo choo train. Silly boy! This one is a wild one for sure!
And that ended our week!

Preschool Week 5, Day 2

Today Oliver was busy putting things in very long straight lines. A habit he developed when he was in his 2's. Not sure what month this started! But all this time later and he still thrives on making things orderly, in a row, organized. I marvel at his organizational thought process. I know it does not come from my side, but rather from his daddy!

After our routine things we focused on our Bible story, Noah's Ark. I think having Oliver be involved hands on in the story helps him learn it all that much better.

We reviewed our verse. Here's my meager drawing of it.

And the rest of our day–Oliver worked on drawing the number 3, his name and finally some felt. I created the letters Bb for him to put together. Kind of tough since the B has two curve pieces that manipulate easily because they are well, felt. I ended up putting our printout of Bb for him to use as a template, this was a great way to help him learn the shapes of the pieces. But he did a great job going through so many things today!

A shared school day (preschool week 5, day one)

Week 5! Done!

I am a little late in posting this but I will try to remember what we did last week. 

Starting with day 1.

It was a special school day for us because Oliver's little buddy Elijah came to share school time with us. He is very close in age to Oliver and they enjoy playing together whenever we do get together. His mom is thinking about starting a school time with him as well, so to encourage her and to do something different in our routine we started the week together :). 

It's quite a bit different preparing for 2 kids as opposed to only Oliver. I really didn't fret about how it would go, I just made sure I was ready with activities for the both of them. Because Oliver has been doing school for a little while now he knew what to expect. Elijah was new to it but I think he enjoyed participating in the activities and seeing how we did our routine things. I know his mama was encouraged to be able to start something on her own (she told me as much) after our day was over. I am so glad for this. I think it's a wonderful blessing to be able to sit and teach your little ones. I know we already do day in and day out just by being mom's. But investing the time into schooling is so fulfilling. I know that she will reap so many rewards just by watching her little guy learn, and get excited about new things that they cover in their schooling. It's a special time (even if it is only 30-60 minutes) each day that is set apart for just the two of you. There may be interruptions from other children, but the focus is still there and I know that Oliver knows this too. When he learns something or figures out how to do a new skill I am quick to heap lots of praise on him and he just beams. I love seeing his little face light up in understanding over something. Praise, praise, praise! I don't think you can over-praise your children. I am learning this in my daily walk just as a mom. I think this can go along in life too. Praising others when you see something that merits it. Praising my husband, praising my God, praising friends. Encouragement goes so much farther than we think it does.

Okay, so to our schooling. 

We started the day going through our routine together. Prayer, weather, calendar time, song about days of week, and pledge of allegiance. Elijah enjoyed it all, and participated quite well, even doing the weather card. We moved onto our Bible story, Noah's Ark. I read through the story in Oliver's children's Bible. To help keep them focused, I pulled out our toy ark we have and let them participate in putting all the animals into the boat with Noah and his wife. They thoroughly enjoyed this part. It was hard to wind it down back to the story!

After our story and ark time, we went ahead and started our craft to go with the story. I had drawn out rainbow templates for them to fill in with paint dots. It was a little slow going as Oliver was not very excited about sharing the paint dots. But we finally had them equally fill in their rainbows (and once they got going they did a fabulous job) and then moved onto glueing down clouds. 

After the rainbow, they moved to Oliver's little table to work on their names. I had drawn their names with boxes under each letter and taped the papers down to metal cookie pans. I had some scrabble letters with magnets on them that were stuck down on top and they sorted through and placed the letters  on corresponding letters in their names. They both did a great job at this. I kept this activity for Oliver to keep practicing on all week. 

After names, we moved onto an activity of choice. Since I had one set of each thing, I pulled out counting lady bugs and color finding. Elijah chose color finding, and Oliver chose counting. 

I have to say that they did not sit quietly and do these activities independently. They are 3 years old. This photo was the moment of stillness before they both gave up on counting/color finding and decided to run around and play. And that was the end of school time! 

It was a great experience and I know Oliver loved having his buddy there. We hope to do this again often. I'm excited about it and may even branch into inviting a few more buddies. We'll see how it goes!

Preschool Week 4, day 5

Day 5.
{A small recap over our last month, and where we are now.}
Well it took me about a month to get to this point, but I decided we'll take off Fridays. Given the fact that we haven't really been entirely consistent in a 5 day week anyways, I was encouraged to do this because of a couple reasons. One, it's preschool, it's not high pressure in any way and doesn't need to be 5 days a week, two a chance to have days for free time and field trips is great! I can use the day to do something special like picnics at parks, lunch visits to daddy at work, or special trips to museums, zoo's or visiting a fire station (we are planning that in an upcoming week, although it isn't on a Friday).
I know a few homeschool mom's that do a regular 4 day week with Friday's off. They are reserved for family days. I love this and feel it will be great for us too.
I love how each week I learn things that work and don't work for our schooling methods.
I love watching Oliver teach me new things about himself, about how he learns, what he gets excited about, how he follows direction, listens in story times, and comprehends what we are talking about. I have been able to ask him in depth questions about what we are reading/learning and his responses are blowing me away. His memory is also amazing. I believe he takes after Jonah in this area, I'm not sure. I've never had a 3 year old, so I'm not sure what they are capable of memorizing, but really, I'm so impressed with his memory! I feel that I should encourage this as he gets older and I'm praying for wisdom with what I should do in this area.
I pray over our boys to be able to encourage them in areas they are gifted in, and strengthen and help them in areas they are weak in. I love seeing glimpses of who this wee man is becoming. What an incredible blessing it is to be a mom, but to be able to teach daily is also a new experience that is SO rewarding. I know it's also a responsibility as God instructs us in the Bible, but He leads and provides what you need if you keep relying on Him.
It's been a good month, and I'm excited to look ahead at our calendar and think about all the things we can learn together, things we can make together, holidays and seasons we can prepare for, ways we can grow in character as we look to serve others. There are just so many things to learn. Not even for our little 3 year old. For me too.
Homeschooling. Is it really for the kids after all?
Ah makes me think.
Well, back to our Friday. I took the boys to a park and museum, and we ended our outing having lunch with their daddy at work. Such a great day, with beautiful fall weather! A very good end to our week!
(Also we picked up a flag for Oliver, and he was thrilled. He held it so high and watched it wave in the car the entire drive to see his daddy.)

Preschool Week 4, day 4

Day four.
Oliver had a snack on this morning, which was unusual. We don't do snacks early in the day, but for some reason (maybe an early breakfast) I let him have some raisins. I let him play with his food later, by putting them on the number 2. He really enjoyed that :).
To start the day though, after our routine things, Oliver worked on the letters Aa with felt.
Today he did excellent! He could tell he got it right took, and when I praised him he just beamed! A little confidence went a long way with him. I could tell his confidence carried through everything that morning.

We moved onto counting afterwards, and like I mentioned earlier, his confidence was high today! After counting 0-5 with the ladybugs (and matching leaves) he wanted to try to keep going and made it ALL the way to 12. This is a tough thing to do, with all the matching and I was so proud of him! He initiated it and did great!

That wrapped up our school time for the morning. Later in the day (at my favorite time of day, the cranky hour) I made this play sand. I had seen a pin with this recipe on it before and I forgot about it. The actual pin calls for baby oil, which I didn't have, and 8 cups of flour, which I was pretty sure I didn't have. I was also afraid of failure (um, has anyone else experienced failed pins before?) so I thought I'd make a small mix using what I did have. 

I used regular canola oil mixed into flour. And for the exact ratio, I just started small, maybe a couple cups of flour to oh, 1/4 cup oil? I mixed in oil as I went until I felt like it was a good "sand" consistency. Basically when it was still coming apart but could hold when I squeezed it together. I then added more flour and oil, since as it turns out I had more flour than I thought. I try not to bake with all purpose flour in general because it's just not good for you (we use whole wheat) but every once in a while I do use it for sweets. And it's very handy to have on hand for crafty projects. 

Did Oliver like it?

It was such a hit! He loved it! He did want me to sit and play with him which was in between cooking for me, but it was highly successful and highly messy. But it wiped/vacuumed right up. Aleksandr really, really wanted to participate. Looking up at both me and Oliver sitting at the table he couldn't handle being alone on the ground. Poor guy. So I held him while he dug his hands in. And surprisingly he didn't eat it. I think he remembered the sand at Charleston. He LOVED it and sat and played contentedly for quite a while on the beach. After a few mouthfuls of it, he gave up eating it and really just played. I think he may have thought this was similar. So successful pin for both boys! Now this is something worth doing again!

Play Sand

5 cups all purpose flour

1 cup canola oil (or less, just slowly add in)

Mix up, slowly adding in oil until the texture is "sandy" (falls apart, but will still be moldable when you squeeze it). Dump in a big pan and watch your three year old explore, dig, pour and generally make a big, fun mess!

Preschool Day 5

Can you hear it? The jubilant shouts coming from this direction?
We made it through a whole week! Perseverance!
Really, it wasn't that rough. It was fun, and I know Oliver enjoyed it as much as me!
Here is what we did to wrap up the week.
{Also, side note, the time we have together goes so fast. I was surprised at how quickly the morning time flew by, and I had intentions of doing some of the activities in the afternoon, once nap is done, both boys are up and dinner time creeps up, we just run out of time to do more. But that's okay too. I just think I'd like to make more time to review throughout the day what we are covering. At least a little. Or limit what we learn even more, keeping it even simpler. We'll see as we go along. I'm taking cues from Oliver as to how much is too much, and what we need to slow down and focus on. (like the ladybug counting thing. needed to back that train up. and we did)}

Okay, so here we go, day five. I was inspired the night before while I was thinking through day 4 of creation. The sun, moon and stars. I had a bag of glow in the dark stars and moons tucked away as a special reward from Oliver's potty training days. Well, Oliver took to potty training SO FAST, with NO PROBLEMS, I never needed them. Not true. I just forgot about them until that very night.
So I had the notion to hang them down from the ceiling over his seat, so he would see them first thing in the morning. He gets SO excited when there is something special out just for him. And when he came down for breakfast, I carried him down the hall and told him quietly that there was something special just for him. He looked up and said with big eyes "Ooo, what is it?" He was excited to see them! And I told him what day of creation they were, what God made and continued to ask him again, while pointing to them to help him remember.
So for day 4 of creation we painted on the illustrated paper I made, and Oliver chose his paints. Which turned into a big massive blackout on that paper, but that's okay too. Also, there was time to start painting himself. (I actually didn't realize he'd started this, and when I did, I thought well at least it's watercolor!)  I also took a shot of him doing our weather on the calendar. He loves this part so much!
We didn't do much more on this day aside from our routine things. We needed to run to the store and start on a major checklist for his little brother's party the next day. Baby brother turning one is a big deal. Well any birthday is a big deal! So our school week ended pretty low key. A great week though, and after celebrating baby brother on Saturday, church on Sunday and a nice needed nap, I was ready to plan for the new week!
Are we really doing schooling? In our home? Craziness!

Preschool Day 3

Okay day 3. Getting even more into routine now. Oliver knew right where to go when we started our school time and was just as excited to get started as he was the past couple days. Yah! We went right into our routine items (weather, calendar, prayer, verse, song) and then went to the first activity. Focusing on the number zero again, Oliver practiced with the dry erase marker. He is doing great making circles, I just keep asking him what number it is to help him remember it's not the letter "o" but the number zero. Kind of tough since they look the same. We also worked on day 3 of creation which is the trees and plants. While my intentions were to have him paint it, I changed my mind and chose something more textural. I tore up some different colored tissue paper (for grasses and flowers) and some brown construction paper (for trees, and sticks). He did great with the glue bottle today, and while there may have been some ginormous piles of glue on the paper, he got the motion down. Squeezing, stopping, putting paper on it, and tap, tap, tapping the paper. 

We then moved onto working on the letter D. This is something I added in. The curriculum doesn't introduce letters until week 3, and I was feeling ambitious and creative the night before while prepping and came up with this game for Oliver. Because he already knows all his letters (smart boy!) knowing what each one says is a brand new thing he has yet to get down. Next step to reading! So, I cut out some D's in some yellow construction paper (great idea-keep LOTS of construction paper on hand for teaching, crafts and learning play!), gathered up a few things that started with a D and put a yellow D next to each one. I didn't have a lot of items around but Oliver had fun searching for the yellow D's next to (or on, taped on a door). I was hoping that finding the D on the item a D started with would help him to visually lock it in his mind. "So door starts with what letter?" 

(I have to admit that I didn't keep up with follow through on this, as I decided to hold off on letters at the end of the week, I felt we were covering enough just sticking to the curriculum, and didn't need to rush as we'd be there soon enough in week 3. But it's still a fun idea I plan to use when we get in letters. Will update if it helps him remember!) 

We wrapped up our school time with a little watercolor painting. Working on colors here, again this information is not new to Oliver, he already knows his colors, but we'll keep on with basics to start and move into color theory (my hopes anyways) later. This ice cream cone project is in ABCJLM. You cut out ice cream scoops and a cone (I also did a cherry, um, over achiever here) and work your way through building the layers of colors on each scoop. I let Oliver paint the cone, and I think the cherry. He amazed me at his precision. I've never given him a shape to paint and he was very thorough in completely covering the entire shape with paint, rather than just making big strokes. Great job Oliver! 

Preschool Days

Welp, it's official.
We have started the "school days" with our three year old.
Well, not really official.
Homeschooling is something that both Jonah and I have prayed over in our own family. We felt at this point in our lives it was the option for us. I had a great peace about doing it (since I'd be teacher at home) and I was excited too! It's always a sign that God is in it when He ushers in those two things. I knew that this is what we were going to do, but I didn't (and still don't) know how long. We will take it each year with prayer and see where God leads us.
For now though, since Oliver just turned three this summer, I felt it was time to start preschool with him.
I have been introducing him to some schooling since he was about 22 months old or so. I made some ABC flash cards for him (here) and did several activities from handy sites like these.
But now that he's a little older and has shown me signs of readiness I decided it'd be good to start something consistent with him. So after searching out options I considered a couple and finally decided to go with ABC Jesus Loves Me. The curriculum is free (always a plus) and comes with lots of additional ideas, aside from a weekly plan. You can do as little or as much as you like. A few things I liked about this particular curriculum, it's Bible based, it includes physical activities (for both gross and fine motor skills, both being preliminaries for writing) crafts, songs and verse memorization, amongst other things.
For us, it was a good fit. I am only in week 2, but so far so good!
I printed out the lesson plan for last week, and spent some time in the evenings thinking through what we would do each day. Any crafts or special activities I wanted to include I made sure I was somewhat prepared for. SO, last Monday we officially began our "first" day of preschool :)
I have to also say that I had been working with Oliver (loosely) to memorize Scripture, learn shapes, colors, numbers and even a little counting prior to our first day. Again, he showed interest in it all and I never pushed him to do it, but encouraged it when I saw his interest. He loves learning and was so excited to do new things with me. I think this showed me signs that he was ready for something consistent.
I had a few friends ask about me blogging our experience here and since I haven't picked up this blog in a while, and since I forget what happens day in and day out, I thought I would attempt our journey into these early homeschool years. Do I know what I'm doing here? Not really! God is good and helps me when I feel like I am stumbling through an unknown territory. He has given me the desire to do this and I am encouraged when I see Oliver light up with excitement over learning something new. I pray it continues to be this way as we make our way through the weeks ahead. Meanwhile, I also hope our documentation of this whole thing proves to be an encouragement to other moms that just don't think they can do the whole "teaching your own kids" thing. You are a mom to your own kids because God made it so. It's a blessing and He will equip you with what you need. Sometimes it just takes strength and faith to step out. Those first steps are always the hardest!