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 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:

Preschool Week 4 day 2

So for our second day of the week, we started out with our routine things (prayer, weather, calendar/song time, verse/Bible story) and Oliver wanted to color a sun. SO, I gave him some markers and paper and let him create whatever he liked.
That lasted a couple minutes until he was done.

We then worked on glueing our apple (craft recommended from ABCJLM) and "worm" to one side. Oliver did great controlling the glue and putting the worm together (pom pom's).
This was to be used after it dried for a prop in reviewing the story of Adam and Eve in the garden.

We glued the flag together. It took a while to get this flag finished! Between waiting for paint to dry, we now had to wait for the glue to dry to keep the whole thing together.

We finished our day with a little drawing. I think Oliver just wanted to circle shapes in this shot. I honestly cannot remember what we did. (I catch up on posts a week later so I'm so glad I have photos of what we do, because as you can tell my memory is TERRIBLE)

And at the end of our school time we pulled out play-doh and made cupcakes. And spaghetti and different shapes that Oliver could mix and pull and squeeze. (We picked up this play-doh set for a steal at a consignment sale- $4, and Oliver LOVES it)

Preschool Week 4 day one

I glanced at the weeks lesson plan for week 4 on Sunday night (or it may have even been Monday morning) and I clearly remembering thinking "phew, thank you Lord," as it was listed as a "review" week. I was still pretty wiped out after our busy week the previous week (to Charleston). A review week was actually ideal since we didn't finish a full week last week, but also I am tired, and not very motivated to create new projects (admittedly lazy over here).
So off we went to start school on week 4.
We were still finishing up our flag that we started on last week, painting the final white stripes.
{Also his shiner is looking much better this week!}
Oliver then worked on making the letter's Aa with felt. He is getting better at this. Good thing we have a review week for this, especially since we had a short week last week. It's so encouraging to see him learn things!

I pulled out my Aa printout (in a page protector) and used this as a play-doh template. I had seen this idea on a lot of preschool sites and thought Oliver could try it. It wasn't really a success. Oliver has a tough time rolling out pieces on his own still, and putting them on the template wasn't fun to him, especially once play-doh is out! He'd much rather just play with it, and that's what we ended up doing. But before I brought out more play-doh, I had him try writing the number 2 as well as Aa with a dry erase marker. He is getting better and better at tracing/writing.

Aleksandr was up from nap, so there was that going on :) At his age the things we are covering with Oliver are not things he can do quite yet. Soon enough little one, soon enough.

Also, with the play-doh, Oliver made an H and said "Wook mommy, it's dancin', the H is dancin'!" Hee hee. He's so silly. And that was also a cue to me that the play-doh on letter thing wasn't working, I just needed to let him create something on his own :) 

Finally the day ended with this. Little brother was desperate to get up and see what all the fuss was on the table, and why in the world wasn't he involved in it? Yup, lots of tears (from baby boy) usually means schools over!