Monday, September 12, 2011

preschool {at our house}

Last week signaled the beginning of the new school year for many kids. And the same was true for my children.

Ok, maybe not the beginning of a new school year. More like a continuation of everything we've been doing for a long time now. Here are the traditional (and not-so-traditional) courses we covered this week:

Gardening: My mom entrusted Camille with pruning sheers while they worked in our backyard garden. Camille rose to the challenge and used them very carefully to cut down the stems of dead flowers. Though her hand strength wasn't quite enough to do it on her own, with a little help from my mom she did a great job! Levi go in on the yard work action as well, though isn't quite old enough to handle pruning sheers. Instead, he helped my dad pick up sticks from the yard.


Cooking: This week Camille was able to help me in the kitchen quite a few times. For lunch one day she spread ham salad on crackers and cut up a piece of cheese to eat with it. She also likes to help me measure ingredients when I'm  making dinner.

Hair-Cutting  101: We gave Levi a haircut. It was a family affair. While Aaron was doing some trimming, Camille gently combed Levi's hair in the back. She's practically dripping with concentration, that sweet thing!


Reading: Camille loves working with manipulatives! We used our set of alphabet blocks to make letters (and words) by laying them on the floor in lines and curves. We spelled h-a-t, and then took away the first h and replaced it with other letters so that we could make new words. So much fun for a three-year old!

P.E.: My kids get plenty of exercise. Camille could ride around on her tricycle all day. She simply adores that thing. I don't know what we're going to do when she's too big for it! She's also getting quite skilled at hoola-hooping these days, though her attention span for practicing that isn't very long yet.


Math: One afternoon we spent over an hour playing with a bucket (ok, three buckets) of landscaping rock. She likes to pour them from one bucket to another. Then she laid some in a row and we counted them. Then we did some basic addition using the rocks. After that, she used all the rocks from the buckets to make shapes. She made rectangles and triangles. And added a doorknob to each :)


Time with friends: Three days a week Camille gets to play with her friend Isabel. The girls have fun playing sleepover, beach, and other creative "games." On Thursday afternoons the kids get look forward to playing with the kids from a couple families who are in our farm CSA. On Friday we went to open gym where Camille took gymnastics. She and Levi played there with their friend Freddy, as well as some of the other kids there. Yesterday was the start of a new year of Sunday School. Camille was a bit nervous at first, but when she got to the classroom and found some of her buddies from class last year she set right to work learning about Jesus with her friends!

And, last, but certainly not least...

Nap Time: No explanation needed!


As you can see, we keep very "busy" doing school things all week long! We're having a great time doing preschool at home!

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1 comments:

adelantegirl said...

Thanks for posting this. It is nice to see someone post something about preschool at home that isn't just letter learning and art projects. I believe (and practice) that kids this age really need a lot of play. Sure, there are "academic"'things they need to learn as well, but it is so easy to do as they play and live and are curious. Sometimes its just not realistic to go through an entire lesson plan with a 3 year old but learning is happening all of the time, especially if you are looking for the opportunities and playing to their interests. Way to go!!!