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 Week 3 day one

Today we started out with our routine (prayer, weather, calendar). Since we started a new Bible story this week after having wrapped up the days of creation last week, I decided to read from Oliver's storybook Bible for this week's story. We sat and read about Adam and Eve eating of the tree that God told them not too.

{Also on a side note, yes Oliver DOES have a shiner. How? you may ask, well not by any kind of rough housing during play, but more lack of grace on his part. He was up in his room supposedly sleeping at night, but not really, and was messing around on his bed, playing with his stuffed animal friends. He somehow managed to trip into the side of his bed. The next morning I asked him what happened, and this is the result, his first shiner. Poor guy.)

Following along with the story we worked on paint dotting the fruit that Adam and Eve ate. Oliver really likes taking the caps off and on :) He does really well with it now too! 

We then moved onto the number 2 and the letter Aa. I let Oliver create the number 2 using felt pom poms to form the number. He did well with that. I then let him practice writing Aa with a dry erase marker, as well as writing more practice sheets with circles and lines. I love using these with Oliver even if they seem tedious. I'm realizing repetition is great for him, even if it feels boring to me at times (and sometimes him too). It takes multiple times to start getting technique correct, in which he'll one day start writing on his own. 

It was about this time that his brother woke up from naptime, and we had to head out for some groceries. So after shopping, lunch, and naptime we came back for a new Aa activity together. I was ambitious during the boys nap after lunch and made a felt board for Oliver. I will try to post about it soon so I can share how easy it was to make. Using felt pieces to form letters is a great tactile way to teach letters not only visually (what they look like) but how they are built. I say this like I know what I'm talking about. Ha! I did not go to college for teaching, so I don't know how the brain learns to read, but I do know seeing letters and being very hands on in several ways helps him learn it. He does GREAT at puzzles and I thought he'd enjoy figuring out this puzzle. It was frustrating for him immediately as he didn't understand/remember how the parts to big A went. I pulled out a print out of what Aa looks like for him to look at while he used the felt board and that helped him a lot. We'll keep practicing this one and I'll add letters as we add them each week in our ABCJLM curriculum.