Week 28: Senses

This week was the sense-hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, and touching. 


We continued to do "Circle Time" with music-usually her Dr. Jean CD, a book-usually a Level One Reader from the library, her list of sight words, the clock and the calendar/weather chart. 


Monday: We read part of her anatomy book. It's a short book with a page about the senses and stuff and then each organ system. 


Tuesday: I asked her questions like, "What do you hear with?" And she would answer. Then we would walk around and listen for different sounds. We did that for each sense. She really enjoyed it. 


Wednesday: Still waiting for the church to catch up. 


Thursday: We did "texture paintings" with salt and powdered sugar and such. She did NOT like it. She has always been picky about textures, so she didn't do it more than a second before she said, "Um. I don't like this." We also did some more Fall art. We cut apples in half and made apple prints. 

Friday: We cooked. And as we did, I let her touch the different stuff and smell the spices. Porkchops was a good choice for this one because we dip them in milk and egg and then put them in the pancake mix. She got to feel those too, and smell them. Then she was able to hear the grease popping. And of course taste it all and touch it. 

Saturday: We played Simon Says. And I would say, "Simon says, Touch your ears." And them I would ask her, "Do you smell with your ears?" Etc. 

Week 27: Time

So this week I have been struggling with the decision of whether or not to do some somewhat formal homeschooling with her. I say no because she is so young and I do not want to burn her out. But I say yes because she is at the age where she is starting to ask about school and get excited about it, and I want to encourage that!


Jessie and I talked about it and decided to do like a small 30 minute session of "school" each day. I sit out her materials around lunch time in the area of her choice, usually the back porch. And then I just let her decide when she wants to do it. She will just sit down and say, "Let's do the calendar!" or something along those lines. I got a big bulletin in board calendar with the month, date, day, "Yesterday and Tomorrow," and the weather on it. I also put all her school supplies in the hall closet. (There was nothing in it, and it is right next to her room, so it works, like an extension. So far she has an activity mat, some parachutes-like the ones used in gym class in Elementary School, a Judy Clock, a Rubber Band Shapes Board, Counting Bears, Tangrams, some books with puppet characters, a bunch of art supplies, and some other small stuff. I really want to get some primary colored plastic tubs like the pastel ones in her room. It think it would look a lot more organized that way. I guess one thing at a time.


I think she likes this new idea. We always do her calendar, some site words-10 every two weeks from the pre-primer dolch words list, read a book from the library-a Level 1 Reader, and then her activity for the day, whatever it is.


So with that said, this week was Time.


Monday-We read her "Judy Clock" interactive book. Then we listened to some songs by Dr. Jean "Days of the Week" and "Months of the Year."


Tuesday-We played with the Judy Clock. I had Brennon that day so I had one of them pick a time and move the clock to that time. (We just worked on hours.) And then the other one acted out that time. Like 9 o'clock was wake up time. And 12 o'clock was lunch time.


Wednesday-Still waiting so that we are aligned with the church.


Thursday-We drew her favorite time of day. She chose snack time and she drew herself eating grapes. However, she once she decided she was done with her picture, she started drawing something random over it, which she normally does. So you can't tell what it is.


Friday-We used a timer when we were cooking dinner.

Sami Eating Grapes

Week 25 and 26: All About Me and Week and Fall Fun & Reading

We did All About Me the week before her birthday because we didn't do lessons the week of her birthday.  And I thought the topic went hand and hand with her upcoming birthday.


Monday: We switched things up and instead of reading a "normal book" we went through her Baby Book. We looked at pictures and talked about when she was younger. And I read what I had written about when we found out I was pregnant and that she was a girl. We also listened to the song, "Special Me" by Dr. Jean. (I really admire that woman. Something about her songs and activities that just get my daughter excited about music and learning.)


Tuesday: We did a "Fill In The Blank About Me." I just asked her a series of questions like, "What is your favorite color?" And she answered them. She did pretty well. Here it is: (Brennon also did one, so I will put his too.) 

About Me:

My name is Samantha Mays. I am almost 3 years old. My birthday is September 23^rd 2008. I have blonde hair and blue eyes. I live in Ringgold, Georgia. My favorite color is pink. My favorite food is chicken nuggets. My favorite animal is a cat. And my favorite thing to do is play in my kitchen, especially with Mom and Dad. I have hobbies. They are dancing and singing, but singing is my favorite.

About Me:

My name is Brennon Ellis. I am 3 years old. My birthday is March 28^th 2008. I have blonde hair and blue eyes. I live in Ringgold, Georgia. My favorite color is green. My favorite food is hotdogs. My favorite animal is a cat. And my favorite thing to do is play with my Thomas trains. 

Wednesday: We are putting the Bible lessons on pause for now because I am writing the curriculum for the preschool at church and I want to get caught up on that so that her lessons on Wednesday correspond with her lessons on Sunday. 


Thursday: I had Samantha and Brennon draw self portraits. Samantha drew hers and then got sort of bored and started scribbling over her portrait, but if you look you can see it. Brennon drew himself with another person. 


Friday: She picked dinner. Chicken Nuggets. ;) 


Week 26, Fall Fun, I have been looking forward to for awhile. 


Monday: We read the book "Boo, The Not So Scary Ghost." (I am in the mood for Halloween) And we did the fingerplay, "Five Little Pumpkins." 


Tuesday: We played outside in the leaves, which are everywhere now! 


Wednesday: No Bible Lesson


Thursday: We did hand/fingerprint tress. And did a painting with Fall colors. She really enjoyed this. 


Friday: We will be baking pumpkin seeds. I just decided to wait until we went to the pumpkin patch later this month so that we can take the seeds out of our pumpkins. 


Saturday: We played an "Autumn Fun" memory game on dtlk. We got to work with the computer and do an activity for this week's lesson. 


Also, not sure if I posted it on here or not, but Samantha is reading and spelling now. She can read and spell 3 letter words and we are working on sight words too. (I am going to get some sentence strips to hang up with a few dolche words every week.) Words like "cat" and "dog" are quick for her. But words like "stop" she has to sound out. We are starting our weekly trips to the library again and she got her own card. (I told her when she learned to read she would get her own card.) At night, I will read a book to her and stop when I get to word I think she can read. I am very proud of how she is progressing so quickly. I hope to she keeps up her Love for reading. 

If you look close you can see her face in the middle of the page. 

We did a "Five Little Pumpkins" coloring sheet. 

She says this is a picture of Sami playing in the leaves.