Mommy Preschool: D, E, & F

I'm playing catch up... weather has been SOO nice we have been playing more & working less. Advantages to Mommy Preschool :)

Karly could not wait to learn letter D! She wanted to learn about Dino's!

 Loved this book!

After we read the book I had her Draw a picture about the story... (the blue one is the dino & the orange one is her & they both have orange underwear!)

Dino-shape 

Reinforce shapes

 Letter D is for Dinosaur free printable

Clothes-Pin Dinosaur:

directions for clothes pin dinos

 Dinosaur Eggs! Ok I found this idea for easter but we changed it up a bit I found a bag of plastic easer eggs & on one half write a capital letter & the other half write a lower case letter. I mixed up the eggs & put them in a bowl filled with beans & rice to create a Dino Dig! She had to find both capital & lower cause & match them together...

Playdough Fossils: 

  A dollar store find! woohoo. This kid is a puzzle junkie!

  Dino Puppets!

 Kar surprised me with this one morning. Out of no where she said mommy I wrote you a letter- thinking it would be all scribbles to my surprise it said "MOM"! 

 Dinosaur Counting worksheet

 Just for fun! Color shaving cream with food coloring & paint the tub, walls, body- whatever! ( I could not get her out of the bath!)

 Moving on from D... We made a Dinosaur Egg

Painted the egg, then I added a smaller egg representing the yolk. I had a pack of dino stickers & she put the baby dinosaurs in the egg. Maybe not totally accurate but she loved it & it got the point across! 

I am now using a different ciriculum for learning to write letters. For a free download of the alphabet http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/preschool-printables

They are great because they have pre-writing prior to starting the letters! Love them!

 Practicing counting. Using an Egg carton I put numbers in the bottom & she placed the correct amount in each egg spot.

 F is for Flower:

using coffee filters & food coloring

 Cupcake flowers

 Monkey See-- Monkey DO! aka Replicate.

I would patter a stack of blocks & then tell her to make one just like mine. This was a hit & so good for her!

 One more just for Fun! Mummy Dogs. Yes my entire family loves these little guys! Crescent Rolls & Hot Dogs- what could be wring about that?!

 A Few of my Favorite things:
About once a month we have a special day & I let Karly pick a few of her favorite things to do that day. She gets to make all the choices (well maybe not all, but she thinks so!)

 Pizza at Racanelli's 

 Cupcakes from McCarthers Bakery

 Morning at the Zoo

 

It has been a long time since she has fallen asleep in my arms. I had to savor the moment! We ended the day at Kirkwood park & she passed out on me. It was priceless. A moment to remember for this mommy!

My Well- Worn Path

A few weeks ago one of our pastor's wives gave a little mini message on creating a well worn path. She didn't know, but God had really been laying this same vision in my heart. I know that God speaks to everyone differently but so often in my life God uses people that just walk in & out of my life to encourage & confirm what He is speaking to me.

If my well worn path was visible this is what I imagine it to look like. I imagine Jesus is at the end of this path, just sitting with arms wide open waiting for me. The greatest ting about this path is it is finally cleared. The path used to be covered with moss, grass, trees, rocks... But everyday as I walked on it to find Jesus I would clear it a little bit more each day, moving that rock, or branch. The more times I run to Jesus, the more of His word I put into my life, the more I listened to His soft voice the clearer my path became. Now my path is cleared I can run quickly to the arm of my God. Every once in a while the storm may pass and leave behind some branches in my path, but I now know how to pick them up & continue running. Life is not perfect and times get hard, struggles come for everyone. But if you have created a well worn path that run or struggle is so much easier. Sometimes I believe that Jesus even sees me running & though the path may have some debris on it, He meets me right where & I am helps me make that path clear again.

I am not a person that forces 'religion' on anyone. I think religion is useless & certainly will not get you to heaven. And it is not often that I blog about my personal walk, but I have been challenged to step out of my comfort zones. This isn't much, but something that has been really heavy on my heart lately & a way God is speaking to me. For me sometimes I get lost in bible readings, or sermons & I need a visual. This made my walk with God become clear. So now I can ask myself daily, "how does your path look? Have you went running to your Father today?" It all starts with just one step, put one foot in front of the other.

Proverbs 4:18-19 The ways of right-living people glow with light; the longer they live, the brighter they shine. But the road of wrongdoing gets darker and darker-travelers can't see a thing; they fall flat on their faces. (message)

Preschool Week 3-- B's & C's

Week 3: 

whew! This past week was packed full of fun.

This week we worked on the Letter B!

I happened on the best website bursting of free adorable & very well thought printables. www.confessionsofahoneschooler.com

Since Karly's Dance classes just started back up last Saturday I decided to go with:

B is for Ballerina!

http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/2011/08/letter-b-for-ballerina-free-preschool-printables.html (here are all the free printables!!!)

 Dotting B: she loves these Bingo Markers (you can get them at the Dollar Store)

 Karly is a puzzle FREAK! She can beat me at puzzles any day of the week. Must get it from her father! ;) She is was excited to make her very own.

 Hard to see (sorry bad lighting) but this is the Patterns Worksheet. Love it!

Journal time: Draw a picture of a ballerina. For whatever reason she wanted her ballerina to be Light Green so she is kinda hard to see, but I loved that she added a tutu on her! 

Animals on Land or Sea: I found awesome Animal Planet Sticker packs at Big Lots for $1.50 loaded with stickers of 'real' animals. I divided the paper in half: one side Land Animals & other side Sea/Water Animals & she had to figure out what columns the animal lives in...

 Story Time! Buster is a super cute book with lots of B words. We also read Elmo's B is for Book.

 As much as I love academic curriculum I am also a HUGE fan of practical life learning. So to stay along our B theme. In the BATH we use washcloths. Karly learned how to fold a washcloth. As you can see, she thought this was the best thing ever!

 Computer Time: Sesame Street: Cookie Monster's Letter of the Day-- B!

Snack-- BlueBerries!

 Craft: Bear. http://www.first-school.ws/t/craft/bearcd_headbw.htm -- click link for template & print out.

 

 B is for Butterfly. Mosaic Butterfly. I cut squares of tissue paper & she glued it on the butterfly. http://www.first-school.ws/t/pattern/butterfly-1.htm

After a playdate with a Bunch of Bigby's! LOL!

 We finished up the day by BAKING cookies... Which is also a great way to introduce Letter C!

**On a side note! This is a great find. The dollar store had a huge pack of name tags for school desk. I took a few of them to laminate & bought a pack of dry erase markers (again hit up the $ store!) I dotted out her name on the cards before laminating so she can practice writing her name over & over & over! Often times this is keeping her busy while I am cooking dinner or picking up the house. Have I mentioned how much I love the dollar store & all its greatness!

C is for Candy!

Yes, I did it... (Bad mom, i know) I totally let her junk out on candy but she loved it & it was just for one day :)

Started C day off with learning about God's Creation:

Free Creation Print-Out

 Journal Time: Color a Creative Picture:

"This is a picture of the whole wide world" -- Karly.

Candy Corn Mosaic

Practice Writing C

Free Print Out

Computer Time:

Cookie Monster Letter of the Day- C (video)

Often times in the midst of coloring sheets & projects she starts to ware out on me, so I 've started to throw in a little computer time/ video reinforcement. It gives her a time to veg out, yet she is still learning the topic.

 Added in numbers this week: #2

Numbers in a Jar Print Out

How Many Candy Corns are in the Jar? An estimation game. I remember doing this all the time in school & never getting anywhere close... so I thought I would go old school & break it out for Karly. Looks like we will be doing this a lot, 

"200!" was her estimate! :) (she was only one 0 too much!)

Candy Corn Count:

http://www.4shared.com/photo/OTelcSd1/Candy_Corn_small.html

Roll the dice & eat the candycorn off the # you rolled.

 A game for number recognition & counting.

 Candy Collage

 We finished up the Letter C with a trip to Crown Candy. What a fun place!

 Had a refresher course in B as well as we ate out Banana Split! :)

 So this was our week in a nutshell. I am finding out that I always over plan, these are just the projects we get to... Right now we are gearing up for D= DINO Week, she is super excited to start Letter D!