Preschool Corner

I'm not going to lie, I'm really irked with myself for how poorly we are doing with our homeschooling. It's not for lack of planning, it's simply a lack of time. Between Doctors, Dance and Dentist's I don't see how we can manage to get ANYTHING done! So, I'm completely frustrated with the whole thing, and I'm sure this is normal, but since we are expecting a New Addition in August I've decided it's time I went and purchased a "real curriculum" in hopes of cutting out some of the planning time and using that for work time. I would love for you guys to give me your opinions of Saxon Math K if you have used it or know of friends who have used it.

So, we had a great Groundhogs Day activities planned, but since I fell down the stairs, that was junked instead for doctors appointments. I hope to use some of the poems (Robert Louis Stevenson's My Shadow) for a Shadow unit.

Instead, I  have decided to take a break from our Phonics program, Math activities and Science, and focus on what the Kindergarten Class up the road uses for their "literature" curriculum. It's the Mary Caulkin's Writing Seminar...which basically believes that every child, no matter abilities can "write" or tell a story.

Kaelyn and I spent the day discussing Books, and what makes a book. Today, we discussed the "Cover" of a book, what you find there (pictures and letters...these are her answers). I explained that the Letters make up words which create a Title. Her vocab words for this week are Title, Cover, Author, and Pre-writting. These are all terms that she will be introduced to in her Kindergarten class (should we choose to send her). She is going to be making an alphabet book using Dr. Seuss' ABC Book and My First Alphabet  Book as models. She brainstormed the title today, and it's all 26 letters "because that's what my story is about". We will be working on rough drafts of the title page and "publishing" it as well. I hope to have her use a sight word that starts with that pages letter....and start working the sight words with her prior to introducing the books. It's a backwards approach but the other way wasn't working.

Anna, my sweet 1 year old, sat through the WHOLE lesson on books and what makes them up (I'll be making a book for them to keep and use as a reference showing what makes a book, along with vocab words). She will be making (with lots of help from me and her sister because Kaelyn asked to help) a Colors book. Kaelyn "helped" choose the title Rainbow Book, so that it can be all about colors. I hope to have Anna work on one color the ENTIRE week while we work on a single letter each day.

I'll post pictures as soon as I have them, but I'm going to be perfectly honest....this is all what I did today. So if you'd like to see what other, more organized preschooling mama's are up to....go here!