Preschool Corner--Lots of Real Life Learning

First, we are a very Irish family, with a very Irish last name...and I didn't manage the FIRST St. Patty's Day craft. BUT, we did manage to go visit a friend, wear very irish-green garb, eat lots of green foods and spend time playing!

Second, not much schooling has happened around here...atleast not in the way I would like for it to happen. This week, and the rest of this month and April will be crazy! Between doctors, meetings, Ryan's crazy work, and errands....I'm not sure how much we'll manage but to help make our days more productive...I'm giving up my 7 am rule (which I swear by, my girls aren't allowed out of their rooms until 7) and moving to a 6 am wake up for me. Hopefully, I'll be able to clear away normal morning routines in lieu for school. How do you guys manage it all?

So here was our week!
Monday- Dance, Playdate, Groceries on a budget (which Kaelyn is now learning ALL about, I'm thinking about going garage sale-ing with friends and allowing Kaelyn to have two dollars to spend the entire day)

Tuesday-Toyota Maintenece at 8 am! And I can't praise those guys enough! They combined my appointments (which freed up our afternoon for outdoors play with friends), and had the maintence, car washed, and recall issues addressed in LESS THAN 2 hours! While there... we sorted all their toys, and then started to play.

Anna stacked blocks, watched me sort them and help name some colors. She also learned how to put the blocks through the hole. Kaelyn helped build and play with a magnet table.

Kaelyn and I played tea party, mommy and baby bear, and then she started using these TINY spoons to carry cereal from the plate to her mouth....fine motor skills!

Wednesday-St Patty's Day...the girls got to wear their home-made goodies, Anna went to daycare where she did FABULOUS, Kaelyn went to work with Daddy and helped count things, and sort things, and work on check lists, while I went to a meeting with the Commander. Afterwards, we had lunch and played outdoors with friends...and then had a great St patty's day dinner with Angie!

Thurday- FINALLY some schoolwork in the more traditional sense!

The girls asked to play playdough while I finished cleaning...they worked together to get the dough out, divy it up and seperate toys.

We read the fable "How the Turtle got it's Shell"...which is about a turtle who has a shell, but it's shell isn't cracked (I really think the title needs to be edited, because I found this to be confusing and I'm an adult!) and how the turtle wanted to migrate (we discussed this word) south with the birds. The birds told the turtle that he could come if he held onto a stick with his mouth and they would fly him down, but not to let go. The turtle became impatient and started to talk which made him fall and crack his shell. He was ashamed and wanted to run away from the sky and hid all winter under the pond water.

After discussing migration, we discussed the seasons. Kaelyn surprisingly knew which season I had "forgot"...which amazed me since I've never formally addressed seasons. I had her decorate the trees according to the season

And I had Anna color hers as well

Whlie the girls colored, I cut out the shapes for a turtle, two large half circles, two small circles, eight rectangles and two triangles. The girls each assembled their turtles!

(yes, that's Anna trying to sneak some glue in her mouth)

Then they decorated them accordingly. Kaelyn noticed her shell needed cracks,

 

and then she insisted that we recreate the story, so I pulled out some more paper, and hurriedly came up with this!

I used a hole punch and made the turtle bite the "stick" between the two blue birds.

The girls then went outside to play and Anna came inside to stack blocks (something she is getting REALLY good at, and has helped her recognize colors...but not say them. She's also very intentional in the placement of her blocks...she'll remove one, only to try another and make a more stable tower)

When Dad got home, Kaelyn insisted that she show him the deer poop as well as how good she could throw a frisby! Thankfully, our neighbor and his daughter played outside with the girls while I finished dinner...he also taught Kaelyn to throw the frisbee!

Wanna see what the other ladies are up too? Check out Preschool Corner (which now includes K5....which means I'll be able to stick around next semester when I plan on focusing on more preK-K work with an actual curriculm with Kaelyn.)