Turning Preschool into Kindergarten

Hi! I'm Leslie- a homeschooling momma to a 5 year old girl and 22 month old boy.  The 2 are as different as night and day.  I share our adventures here to both inspire learning at home and chronicle our lives, because honestly, I never started the baby books and my kids will just have to look back on their childhood through this blog... ha! #keepinitreal

For three years now my little girl has been able to use the 

Experience Preschool: Mother Goose Time curriculum, and I am so excited my son will too.

However the recent challenge has been: how can I make it a little more challenging for my Kindergarten daughter while still using if for my toddler son?

Little ones love to do what the bigs are doing and my son is no exception.

This can be quite a challenge, but MGT has really made it so simple for us to boost math and reading while my son gets to enjoy learning too.

Here are a few modifications we have made to meet the need of our family on our "COW" day...

READING

Who doesn't love a good Mother Goose Rhyme!? 

A poster of Hey Diddle Diddle came in our Cow Day discovery bag and I laminated it.

We read it with the beat and my son danced around and smiled.

I read it slowly several times, pointing to each word as I read it being careful not to go faster than I was pointing.  Then I wrote the sight word "the" and asked my little girl to circle them on the laminated poster.  It took her a little bit.  

She then counted her circled sight word  and wrote it in the moon.

This activity alone helped her in word recognition, writing (drawing her circle shape), counting, and writing her numbers, and my son was able to enjoy the rhythm and cadence of the poem.

And I have a beautiful nursery rhyme poster to practice reading with again and again!

MATH

Each month, Experience Preschool sends us counting clip cards.  Kiddos can clip clothespins to the cards to indicate which number is represented (great for fine motor skills).  Instead of clips, my girl wanted to place pigs, which are our monthly math manipulative, so that's what we went with.  

How did I change this to make it more challenging for kindergarten?

Once she had finished with her cards (which I also laminated because I LOVE my laminator), 

I had her write the number of the amount of pigs on her cards.

Then I had her add the 2 cards together.  She could count the pigs, but she also counted her fingers to come up with 7.  I turned around to do something with her little brother and turned back and she had used the 7 pigs to make the number 7 all on her own! I was so impressed!

Little brother had a fantastic time moving pigs from number card to number card.
I tried to get him  to place them on just the dots, but he wasn't going for it.
He sure is cute though....

STEAM

There are some things that are just perfect as is for my little learners!  Our STEAM station was awesome as my kids got to practice milking cows using disposable plastic gloves.n  I filled one with water and the other with mud.  By then end of our experiment, my girl could definitely tell that the thicker the liquid, the harder it is for it to come out!

Please know that my poor girl decided to not listen when I and her Daddy told her not to run in the house.  She tripped and hit her face on the coffee table resulting in a dent in her forehead and seriously bruised nose.  We took her to the doctor and had a CT scan done and everything came back with good results.
 She also learned her lesson. Unfortunately it was the hard way. 

Our monthly boxes might be a little over his head and need a little addition to challenge my girl,
but I could NOT ask for a better resource that I can easily make fit my kiddos needs.


Have fun experiencing all the learning!!!

Star Activities for Preschoolers

Christmas week!  It's been a blur, but I've been trying to soak it all in.

This was the perfect week to talk about stars as we discussed the birth of Jesus and how the wise men traveled to Him by way of a star.

Our Mother Goose Time STEAM station, Sparkly Stars, did not disappoint.

We started our STAR day but discussing light.

I took out a lighter and asked my girl what colors she saw in the flame.

She remarked yellow, orange, and blue.

So we used yellow and blue liquid watercolors to help us make our Sparkly Stars STEAM Station.  We also added a little purple in there for some variety. 

All you need is liquid watercolors, epsom salt, a ziplock bag, and a drying tray to do this activity.  

We did something similar when we made our Rainbow Rice which you can read about here.

My father in law scored this amazing light tray when he worked at Kodak.  It's been a perfect light table for us.  After the salt spent 30 minutes drying, I poured all our crystals into a shallow container and let my preschooler go to town playing with our newest sensory bin. 

 She loved making her handprint in the salt, and drawing in it as well. 

After we finished playing with our STEAM station, we read through the Nursery Rhyme 

"Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" pointing to each word as I read.  I love that MGT sends us these big nursery rhyme posters!  I'm kinda kicking myself for not saving some of the others. Ugh...

I then grabbed a star cutout (from our wand we didn't get a chance to make), wrote "star" on it, and had my preschooler point to all the "star" words.  

Afterwards, we read with brother Follow the Star a cute little book about the birth of Jesus that I scored at Walmart, but it is also available on Amazon.  

We also looked in that book for all our "star" words.

Although we didn't get to more MGT activities, I am so glad we made the Sparkly Star bin.  

It's 2 days after Christmas, and although my girl received some great gifts, she has still made time to play on her light table with her Sparkly Star bin.  A definite win.

What sensory bin fillers are your faves?

I Can Read: -ad Words

My girl is book obsessed.

Has been since she was less than one.

If you sit on a floor, she will make a beeline for your empty lap.  With a book in her hands, she will fill your lap with her tooshy, and ask for you to read to her.

Lately, she has become quite interested in words. 

She knows all her letters, capital and lowercase, and all their sounds, and she recognizes that all words "say" something.  I normally have to point to the words while we read.  If I dont, she will point to the words asking, "What does this say, momma?" 

Because she is so interested lately, I have taken the beginning steps to teaching her how to read.

Our Preschool curriculum comes from Mother Goose Time, and each month they send us a new "I Can Read" book.  This month's focus was on feelings and -ad words like sad, mad, and glad.  We also learned 3 sight words: he, she, and is.

When we get this book, I usually read it to her a few times, and then have her read it to me.  I then give her a sight word pointer, and as she reads, she is to point to the words and then match the sight word pointer to the correct word.

Here's a video to see it in action:

After we finish the book, we place it next to her bedside.  It becomes part of our bedtime routine for the month.  

As this year continues, I hope to continue to foster her love of reading.

I don't expect her to read at this age- if she does, spectacular! 

All I hope to do, is continue to help her to love books, being read to, and help her learn what she is desiring to learn about, and lately it's been words. <3 

Happy Reading! 

Leaf Man: a FREE Nature Craft for Kids

Have you read books by Lois Ehlert?

He uses natural objects to make beautiful illustrations.
And anytime I can incorporate reading or books into our learning, the better!

Leaf Man is one of our favorite books of his.

The leaves of our oaks and crepe myrtles are changing here in Texas, and as the nuts fall from the trees, it is the perfect time to go on a nature walk and collect items.

That's just what we did this morning.

After we collected the nature items my girl found interesting, we sorted them into our Dollar Tree chip tray that is perfect for housing all our nature treasures.

Then we sat at our table and read Leaf Man.  My preschooler pointed to objects and told me what animals and items she saw in the illustrations.  It really is lovely seeing how Lois Ehlert used his creativity to make such vivid illustrations using natural items.

After we read the book, we played with our nature items and created different creatures like:

A brontosaurus
(she's dinosaur obsessed yall... you can read about her Rainbow Dinosaur 4th birthday here)

Then she wanted to make a robber! I have no clue why.  We haven't read any books about stealing, but this is what she wanted to create. I was really impressed with how she made her robber man.

See his little money bag?  It's the black walnut, lol!

She then created a fish with leaves for fins and a cracked black walnut that I ran over with my car for eyes.  Those nuts are tough, I tell ya!

Why not a tree?

Lastly, we transformed the tree into a butterfly.  Can you see its' oak leaf antenna, black walnut eyes and leaves for wings?

When we finished playing with our items, we placed them back into our Dollar Tree tray ready for play and observation another day.  Now to just keep my golden retriever from eating our sticks, cause she has... and she will.


I hope you feel inspired to get outside and play today!
God gives us such great beauty to partake in everyday- it's just taking the time to see it.
Be sure to check out all the awesome Fall activities to do with your kiddos at the
Mommy and Me INC Fall Blog Party!

If you want more great ideas, please follow us on Facebook and Pinterest.


Some of our favorite Lois Elhert books:

                   

Paul Bunyan Fun for Preschoolers

This past week we studied the Tall Tales of Paul Bunyan with our
Mother Goose Time Fables and Folktales Unit.

MGT did not disappoint in the activity department either. 
\Here's just a few of the activities we did this week....

Literary Activities:

Each day we had a story in our bag complete with colored cardstock puppets to cut out and play with.  My girl's favorite was Bessie the Cow and Babe the Ox.  She's had all sorts of imaginary adventures with those picture puppets.

My girl also received a new I Can Read Book: Babe and Bessie along with 3 sight words: "likes", "the" and "is". During our Morning Calendar Time, we go over her sight words that I made into magnets and place on our magnetic dray erase board. You can read how I did that here.

Math Activities:

Did you know that Paul Bunyan was a towering lumberjack?

One activity had us using a measurement tree and leaves to record how tall things were.  We measured Sweet Pea, her cart, brother, baby doll, and Farmer Eddie (from Little People, haha!)

On the day that we learned about Paul's cooking companions, we played with our tangrams and sorted the shapes- pretending they were pancakes and placing them on a paper plate that had that shape on it.  She really loved this, and we did this activity over and over and over...because #preschoolers. 

Creative Arts Activities:

Besides the drama of playing with puppets and acting out our Paul Bunyan stories, 

we had quite a few fine art activities.

On our Paul Bunyan baby day, my girl drew this lovely self portrait of when she was just 3 weeks old, complete with a pink bow and blue eyes.  It is totally okay to LOL at this picture!  Not only did I laugh and laugh at this picture, but I framed it and will treasure it FOREVER! 

Those mountains at the very bottom of her drawing are toes yall! hahahaha!

The day we learned about Bessie and Babe, we did an Invitation to Create that also incorporated science as we discovered what happens when blue and yellow paint mix.

And of course, it ended up being a finger painting because ... #preschoolers.

However, she did realize that using the handle end of her paintbrush created some fun lines in her painting as well.  I also framed this and hung it in her playroom.

Our week ended with us watching the animated classic of Paul Bunyan.

You know... the Disney version?

I am so thankful for YouTube!  I mean where on earth would I be able to find that without the internet and YouTube?  

Well, I hope this post inspired you to have fun with your preschoolers and check us out next week as I give you a tour of our recently updated schoolroom! 

Follow us on Facebook for all the latest!

Castles, Crowns, and Coloring, Oh My!

This month is Vacation Bible School month.

That means, as the VBS Director, my life is super crazy right now.  

I am hoping to share a few tips on how to help with that in a future post, so if you are involved with your VBS please stay tuned to the blog. :)

However, in all the chaos of creating things for the church, I am so thankful for our 

Mother Goose Time (preschool curriculum) box.  With all its pre-planned activities and 20 daily discovery bags with all the things we need, I can still carve out some time to make memories with my girl while she learns.  Even in life's most chaotic times.  

This month our box is themed Alphabet House, which is all about different homes,
and Castle Day was so much fun.

My girl made a crown so she could become a princess for the day.  She actually drew a dragon on her crown.  I've seen such great improvement from actually trying to draw shapes rather than scribbles. She practiced standing and waving like a princess. 

We talked about how if our family lived in the castle then her Daddy would be the _____ (King) she told me.  I asked her what I would be, and she said Queen.  But she was a little puzzled when I told her she would not be called Queen but something else.  I asked her to remember Sofia the First and what she was.  A princess!  Therefore, you too would be a princess.  Princess Avaleigh and your brother would be Prince Everett.

Kinda off topic, but have you watched The Crown on Netflix?  I just got into it and am really liking the series.  It really has helped me realize that I NEVER want to be queen of a kingdom.  

Nope. No thank you.

Anyway,  back to our lesson.
After creating her crown, she was still wanted to color with her markers, so I got out the My Little Journal and had her review her colors.  She couldn't read the words, but once I told her the name of the color, she grabbed the correct marker and colored each bird.

She has been paying so much more attention to the lines and trying to color within them.  Lots and lots of  practice with coloring, but she loves it.   I always have a container of crayons, markers or map pencils on the table ready for her whenever she gets the inclination to color. 

Afterwards I got pulled away having to do some VBS work, but we picked back up on our Castle Day today.  And you can't talk about castles with out mentioning dragons!
MGT sent us the materials to make a dragon puppet and during her quiet time play, she made the dragon attack her princess castle (Little People).  She stayed in her room playing for a whole hour! 

As Everett napped  screamed in his room, Avaleigh and I took a quick break to read one of our favorite Usborne books, BOY.  It's about a King and Dragon who fight all the time until a young deaf boy forces them to stop and listen to one another. It is such a wonderful story.
I read it aloud here:

I know we won't get to each bag this month, but I have sure enjoyed the ones we are doing. 
I'm just so thankful I don't have to plan one more thing... 
This mom's brain is on the fritz.
And I get to just sit back, watch, and play.