Friday, May 31, 2013
Auntie Day
We cut school work short today, just the 3 work books, so that he could go spend the day with my sister. They are honest to God best friends. They had a great day and wne tot see Iron Man 3. I think I will have him make a page for his journal tomorrow, I'm glad it's Saturday and we dont have school work! But I am hopeful that tomorrow will be as nice as it was today, we even got some sun, so we can go take a nature adventure.
May 30, 2013
No nature walk, yet again there is too much rain, so I had Sam draw a picture of it for his craft journal, after school he just colored and played with his brother. Better luck this weekend!
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Spring Mobile
How to: Discuss with your child what is part of spring. Every area is different so your child's answers will vary, in our area there are lots of flowers, grass, green leaves on trees, bees, and sometimes the sun.
Once your chld has decided on what they want to have hang from their mobile draw very simple shapes of these on colored construction paper and have your child cut them out (you may need to help them) You may want to have a few extra pieces to tape to the hanger, or even one big one.
while your child cuts these you may want to grab another pair of scissors and cut the pieces of yarn, one for each cut out your child will have hang. Also cut and tie the larger piece of yarn to the stick if you are using one as a hanger.
Once cut out tape a piece of yarn to the cut out, then tie the other end to your hanger/stick.
Here are our finished Spring Mobiles. Mine is rain because, well, it rains a lot here, LOL
We chose to hang our here, its a great thing to have a covered porch here as even on rainy spring days we can still do our crafts outside!
May 28, 2013
Today we started our math book and Sam was SO excited for it. Its actually kindergarten level, but hes doing great so far. All he had to do was trace the number zero and then write it himself, and then trace the word zero and then write it himself. As long as I help him place the pencil in the right spot he can do it himself. Though he had an issue with "Z". He has started having to repeatedly write a letter each day on his penmanship paper. since his letter workbook focus on the same letter for 2 days (2 pages) He will do a letter a day until he catches up then do the repeated writing the second day. I think he needs the practice right now.
Since we woke up late (the fact that our 8 month old alarm clock didn't go off this morning!) I did breakfast and school Daddy read to him while I ran the errands I was late for. When I got home we worked on our craft today. He had a blast making a "Spring Mobile" (I will post a step by step run through and hung them on our covered front porch.
As tomorrow is doctor's appointment day for the baby we will be taking a break from school. All we do is read and he gets to use his Leapfrom Tag reading pen that Santa brought him and he will be working on a math book, as well as some stories. I know that many SAHMs and WAHMs have busy days, this is a great way to keep to your non school schedule and to allow them to still learn something new.
Since we woke up late (the fact that our 8 month old alarm clock didn't go off this morning!) I did breakfast and school Daddy read to him while I ran the errands I was late for. When I got home we worked on our craft today. He had a blast making a "Spring Mobile" (I will post a step by step run through and hung them on our covered front porch.
As tomorrow is doctor's appointment day for the baby we will be taking a break from school. All we do is read and he gets to use his Leapfrom Tag reading pen that Santa brought him and he will be working on a math book, as well as some stories. I know that many SAHMs and WAHMs have busy days, this is a great way to keep to your non school schedule and to allow them to still learn something new.
Monday, May 27, 2013
Memorial Day
Schools are closed today, but we still did our school work! We had also planmned to go to the park and add a page to our craft journal, but the day dawn cold and rainy, like Noah's Ark rain! So we just did our school work today and went to the cemetary where my little brother is buried. I was worried it would be hard to explain to my 4 year old how MY little brother passed away when he was a baby but that doen't mean HIS brother will pass away, but thankfuly it wasn't as big an issue as I thought it would be. He thankfully didn't make the connection between them and I didn't have to explain that even though brother is sick he won't pass away. He picked daisys for the marker and we didn't stay long given that it was raining so bad. I have chosen not to have him journal it today, it's still a sore spot on my heart.
But after we went to Walmart for some groceries and I found a kindergarten level math book for under $4 and picked it up for him to start tomorrow. I'm so glad he is having fun with learning, i can only hope that he continues to enjoy it through out school and doesn't burn out like I did.
But after we went to Walmart for some groceries and I found a kindergarten level math book for under $4 and picked it up for him to start tomorrow. I'm so glad he is having fun with learning, i can only hope that he continues to enjoy it through out school and doesn't burn out like I did.
The Day of Rest
Religious or not I suggest having a few days a week you aren't focusing on schedule, I take Sunday completely off from this, and wednesdays are much less scheduled due to our younger child having weekly appts out of town. So we take wednesdays easy and just read before we leave, he does some math with his tag pen while we are in the doctor's office and then we may have a craft when we get home again. Yesterday was a fun day for him and he just played with his toys and helped me organize some things.
Saturday, May 25, 2013
Craft Journal
This activity helps a child not only keep track of their lives, but it feeds their creative side and helps to keep all their art in one place. This project is one part journal, one part scrap book, and 2 parts creativity.
This is a great way to have a pre-literate child keep track of their day. They can draw, paint, cut out papers, paste in leaves, and other things. When you go on walks let them pick of leaves to do fun things with, or cut out things that they saw from construction paper, like flowers, birds, ect. If you go to movies or the zoo, save the tickets from this.
What you will need: 3 Ring Binder(I sugest at lease 3 in as some pages will be thicker), 3 hole punch, tape, glue, safety scissors, contsruction paper, and printer paper (since its $3.00 for 500 sheets) crayons, markers, paints, the normal crafting materials.
How to:
This is a great way to have a pre-literate child keep track of their day. They can draw, paint, cut out papers, paste in leaves, and other things. When you go on walks let them pick of leaves to do fun things with, or cut out things that they saw from construction paper, like flowers, birds, ect. If you go to movies or the zoo, save the tickets from this.
What you will need: 3 Ring Binder(I sugest at lease 3 in as some pages will be thicker), 3 hole punch, tape, glue, safety scissors, contsruction paper, and printer paper (since its $3.00 for 500 sheets) crayons, markers, paints, the normal crafting materials.
How to:
- hole punch several pieces of printer paper (or you can punch them each time you add a page)
- help child choose type of craft (paint, marker, cut out, ect) and then start on the project.
- Example: Today we went on a nature walk and Sam chose to bring home souveniers. He wanted to make a tree with them, so on today's paper I drew a tree and Sam placed his leaves and I taped them down, then he placed his flowers and I taped them down. And then he chose to draw houses we saw on our walk in one corner .
- Talk with your child (if they are not old enough to do it by themselves) to see what they want their art to look like. If they want to have you cut shapes for them to paste, or if they want to finger paint, or draw what they saw that day. Remember if there is paint or glue involved allow it to dry before placing it in the binder.
- The most important part of this is simply to have fun doing it and to let your child go through what they've made and remember the great days they had!
May 25, 2013
As it is Saturday I would normally give Sam a day off from school work, but he was so excited he didnt want to wait til monday, so he did a page in each of his workbooks, then we started the "chapter book" for our story time. We read chapter 1 of "How to train your Dragon" and he loved it so much he doesn't want to wait for story time tomorrow for the next chapter! As I only have the first one and can't find all the other "chapter books" I've been collecting we'll go a chapter a day for now. I am looking for the other how to train your dragon books, as well as all the spiderwick chronicle ones. I'm also thinking of leminy snickets, I remember those being interesting, but I think they were really dark too.
AFTER story time today we went on a nature walk, which was excellent timing because it started to rain right after we got home. On our walk Sam collected things like flowers and leaves to use in his craft journal today (I will have a post on what this is a bit later) We also made sure to listen to the sounds we heard. As we live in Washington state its pretty green and there are plenty of animals, but living in a suburb limits the chance if seeing fun ones. We heard several types of birds and saw a few dogs though, which was a blast for Sam, we took pictures of some of the fun things we found to share as well.
When we got home we put together our prizes as a picture and put it in our craft journal
And wrote his own name^^^^
AFTER story time today we went on a nature walk, which was excellent timing because it started to rain right after we got home. On our walk Sam collected things like flowers and leaves to use in his craft journal today (I will have a post on what this is a bit later) We also made sure to listen to the sounds we heard. As we live in Washington state its pretty green and there are plenty of animals, but living in a suburb limits the chance if seeing fun ones. We heard several types of birds and saw a few dogs though, which was a blast for Sam, we took pictures of some of the fun things we found to share as well.
When we got home we put together our prizes as a picture and put it in our craft journal
Then came our craft for today, we made a pop up castle!
Friday, May 24, 2013
Getting started
AHHHHHH!!!! My baby needs more than snuggles and toys! He is 4 and ready to start preschool, but not old enough to be in a "real" preschool in our area. As I am new to being a SAHM (I worked until his baby brother was well on his way) I haven't had much practice with keeping older kids entertained. Babies are easy, so here goes...
Step 1: Develop a plan
I know when I was little I LOVED crafts. We happened to have been given a book "365 things to make" but its not hard to come up with your own projects or to find ideas online. But arts and crafts isn't enough for this age! He'll be starting preschool and needs to be able to do more than just count. So we need a mix of craft, learning, and other fun activities. As it is spring here I am adding in spring activites, like nature walks, as well as things like reading time in the morning.
Step 2: Get supplies
This doesnt have to be exspensive or time consuming. I got most of mine at the local Dollar Store, but you can get lots at Walmart too. I am starting out with crayons, markers(more for me than him), construction paper, a $1 sketch book, glue, saftey scissors, a folder for worksheets, a binder for crafts, penmanship paper, and stickers. You should be able to get all of this for under $15. I also went to Staples and got 2 workbooks for $5.99 each (Letters and preschool skills) but you can get ideas and printable worksheets online if your little one is old enough for this.
Step 3: Get organized
Make yourself (or print out) a few week long calendars. Fill these in at least 1 week in advance with what activites you will be doing. My calendars run Mon-Sat and I simply write what we will do; story time, workbook page, nature walk, craft, craft Journal and other activities such as practicing writing names, numbers, and letters
Step 4: Take Action
Once you have it all set up get started! (I just spent a few hours making simple copy worksheets with his name, numbers, and letters on them, and making the schedule for the current week and the next week. For the first week I started with what I was comfortable with and also just dipped our toes in the water) If you are ready mid day mid week thats ok just jump right in and get started they will have fun regardless and its easier to start now than to wait, just rememeber to be ready with supplies...
Step 5: Just keep swimming
This is my life motto and it applies here too. Tehre may be days and activites that just don't work. THAT"S OK! Just keep swimming. Don't give upo, just tweek it til it works for you. Did your nature walk bomb out because your mini me was too tired? try going a different time of day, or make them shorter, you may even want to just start out exploring the back yard first. If you all have an off day and just don't follow the schedule at all thats OK too, just get back on track tomorrow. But most of all, have fun, and remember it takes time to establish a good schedule!
Step 1: Develop a plan
I know when I was little I LOVED crafts. We happened to have been given a book "365 things to make" but its not hard to come up with your own projects or to find ideas online. But arts and crafts isn't enough for this age! He'll be starting preschool and needs to be able to do more than just count. So we need a mix of craft, learning, and other fun activities. As it is spring here I am adding in spring activites, like nature walks, as well as things like reading time in the morning.
Step 2: Get supplies
This doesnt have to be exspensive or time consuming. I got most of mine at the local Dollar Store, but you can get lots at Walmart too. I am starting out with crayons, markers(more for me than him), construction paper, a $1 sketch book, glue, saftey scissors, a folder for worksheets, a binder for crafts, penmanship paper, and stickers. You should be able to get all of this for under $15. I also went to Staples and got 2 workbooks for $5.99 each (Letters and preschool skills) but you can get ideas and printable worksheets online if your little one is old enough for this.
Step 3: Get organized
Make yourself (or print out) a few week long calendars. Fill these in at least 1 week in advance with what activites you will be doing. My calendars run Mon-Sat and I simply write what we will do; story time, workbook page, nature walk, craft, craft Journal and other activities such as practicing writing names, numbers, and letters
Step 4: Take Action
Once you have it all set up get started! (I just spent a few hours making simple copy worksheets with his name, numbers, and letters on them, and making the schedule for the current week and the next week. For the first week I started with what I was comfortable with and also just dipped our toes in the water) If you are ready mid day mid week thats ok just jump right in and get started they will have fun regardless and its easier to start now than to wait, just rememeber to be ready with supplies...
Step 5: Just keep swimming
This is my life motto and it applies here too. Tehre may be days and activites that just don't work. THAT"S OK! Just keep swimming. Don't give upo, just tweek it til it works for you. Did your nature walk bomb out because your mini me was too tired? try going a different time of day, or make them shorter, you may even want to just start out exploring the back yard first. If you all have an off day and just don't follow the schedule at all thats OK too, just get back on track tomorrow. But most of all, have fun, and remember it takes time to establish a good schedule!
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