Learning Colors - Red

I tried to incorporate the color of the week into most of the activities we did this week (which was really easy considering our theme was apples). As in previous weeks, I had Caleb help me find items around the house to add to our color bucket and we added another scoop to our color cone.

For a fun craft incorporating the color and theme of the week, we did some apple stamping! I gathered our supplies and we donned our painting smocks.

 I showed Caleb how to paint the apples and then stamp them onto the paper.



 He ended up getting a bit bored with the stamping and decided he just wanted to paint the apples instead.

And then he just wanted to paint the paper. :)

But here is our finished apple stamping! I think it's pretty!

It's been a really fun week! Caleb picked up on the lessons quickly and practically begged for school time each day. I love seeing him enjoy learning! And I love how our school wall looks at the end of this week! :)

Ten Apples Up On Top!

One of the books we read this week to go with our apples theme was Ten Apples Up On Top!. Caleb just loved the book and asked me to read it multiple times during the week. I wanted to come up with some type of craft to go along with the book.

I took an empty egg carton and red paint and we made "apples". It was a beautiful day to be outside so we brought our supplies to the front porch, donned our smocks, and started painting!

After the paint dried, I cut out the individual "apples".

Then we started acting out the book. We counted out the apples and put them on our heads. Caleb had the most fun running around the house, holding the apples on top of his head and shouting, "The mop! The mop! We can not let our apples drop!".

All about "nothing"

Zero was our number of the week. I printed out the number poster from ABC Jesus Loves Me and was planning on leaving it blank in order to teach that zero meant "nothing".

Of course, after the fun of the apple stamps in the letter A, Caleb insisted on stamping the number zero, too. I just couldn't say no. I figured there were other ways to teach that concept. :)

For some counting fun and fine motor play, I pulled out our Hi-Ho Cherry-O game. (And it goes with our apple theme, too! I'm so clever!) Caleb didn't quite understand the concept of the game and was more interested in picking the "apples" out of the trees and putting them in the buckets, so I just let him play.

We did do some counting, though. I would have him pick one apple and say, "One". Then I had him put it in the bucket and would ask him how many he had now. He would show me his empty hands and say, "Zero!".

I also had him use our number shaped cookie cutters with our apple pie scented playdough to cut out the number zero, but of course I forgot to take pictures! :)

The Letter "A"

I really dropped the ball earlier this week in terms of taking pictures of our activities. Luckily I still have some of our finished products.

Each week we will be using the letter posters from ABC Jesus Loves Me to learn the letter of the week. For the letter A we stamped apples in red ink (of course!) inside the letters.

We also used tactile sandpaper letters that I got from Amazon and the chants from ABCJLM for learning how to form the letters. I put them on the wall at Caleb's height so he could play with them at any time.

And of course we had to use that yummy apple pie scented playdough we made to learn our letters, too!

I chose not to focus too much on the phoenetic sound of the letter, but Caleb picked it up very well. I'll continue to introduce phonics, but it won't be my main focus this year. I was just proud whenever he would point out the letter A on things around the house, in books, or while out on errands. I can teach my child! :)

Apple Pie Scented Playdough

This week is our A is for Apples theme. We are learning the color red to go along with the theme. I originally thought about having Caleb play with red Playdoh during the week, but came across a recipe for apple pie scented playdough on The Picky Apple and decided it was perfect to go with our lessons! I did tweak it just a tad since I was missing one of the ingredients. I've put my altered recipe below.

Apple Pie Scented Playdough

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1 Tablespoon cream of tartar
• 1 cup water
• Red food coloring
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice

Stir ingredients together well in pot.  Over medium heat cook the dough, stirring constantly until it forms a ball.  Turn dough onto a board (or the counter top) and knead until very smooth.  Cool.  Store in a covered plastic container.

It smells amazing! I was so excited about making scented playdough that I've decided to make scented dough to go with the rest of the colors we learn. I'll post those recipes in the coming weeks.

Week 4 Lesson Plans

Theme: Apples

Bible Verse: Psalms 17:8 - "Keep me as the apple of your eye."

Bible Song: Apple Red Happiness

Nursery Rhyme: One, Two, Buckle My Shoe

Color: Red

Letter: A

Number: 0

Books of the Week:

I am so excited for this week and the activities I have planned. Now comes the really fun stuff! :)

Finding a schedule that works for us

I have been having a hard time trying to figure out some sort of schedule for our days. The first 3 weeks I was just doing lessons and crafts at random and realized that Caleb (and I) really needed some sort of structure in order for him to stay focused and really understand that we are learning and not just playing. I looked all over the Internet trying to find examples of home preschool schedules. Of course, everything I found differed. I came to the conclusion that we have to set a schedule that works for us and our family. So here is what I came up with...

• Our school week is going to be from Sunday - Thursday. Since we go to church on Saturday nights and my husband's work schedule is Sunday - Thursday, this will allow us to still have our "weekends" together as a family.

• We will be reading the books and Bible stories of the week, singing the songs, and reciting the nursery rhymes and Bible verses daily. I can do these things while the twins are still awake and they can hopefully enjoy along with us!

• All crafts that require my help (ie: anything having to do with paint, scissors, or glue!) will have to be done during the twins' nap time. They usually go down around 1 PM and nap for at least a couple of hours, so this should give us plenty of time.

• Sundays will be the day we focus on the letter of the week and do any associated crafts and activities. Of course, we will still review throughout the week.

• Mondays will be the day we focus on the number of the week. We may also do a fine motor skill or a Bible story related craft on this day.

• Tuesdays we will do our craft that goes along with the theme of the week and any field trips I have planned that go along with that theme.

• Wednesdays will be our down day. My mother-in-law comes every Wednesday to help me out with the kids, cleaning, and errands (God bless her!). We may or may not do any school on this day. If anything it may just be a fine or gross motor skill.

• Thursdays we will do our activities that have to do with our color of the week (and after colors will come shapes, spatial concepts, sorting, and patterns).

Of course this could change if we need it to (the beauty of homeschooling!), but I'm really happy with it right now.

Some vacation highlights

Well, we are back from a much needed family vacation. We had a wonderful visit with family and got to do and see a lot of fun things. The kids did really well on the long road trip from California to Missouri and back.

Here are some of our vacation highlights...

Caleb in the car the first day of travel. So far, so good!

Thank goodness for DVD players and headphones!

The twins loved the full length mirror in the hotel.

Enjoying the slide at the family picnic in Illinois.

Joshua discovered he likes corn on the cob.

Feeding a goat at the Dickerson Park Zoo in Springfield, MO.

Checking out the elephants.

Daddy and son, taking a walk through the zoo.

Feeding a giraffe with mommy!

Hannah enjoying a good book!

The twins, getting musical.

Riding the Branson Scenic Railway.

Joshua enjoying the views from the train.

We visited the local volunteer fire station in Chadwick, MO.

Caleb became an honorary fire chief!

Having fun at the Discovery Center children's museum in Springfield, MO.

 

This is the way we brush our teeth!

Making music!

I was going to start up with school again when we got back this last week, but decided to postpone a week in order to get the kids back to our normal routine. They had a rough time getting used to California time again. We have a lot of fun things planned this coming week as we start to learn letters and numbers! Lots of fun posts to come!