Homeschool Preschool: fine motor skills and feelings

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This week we had a younger crowd joining us but it seemed like they were still able to do at least some of the things with us. It's never too young to start! Our focus ended up being on fine motor skills and feelings. To start our "class" this week I wrote every one's name on the back of a paper plate.

 

 

  I gathered everyone in our "circle" area and reviewed each name before placing it on the ground. I then put on some music and we all danced around until I paused it. When the music stopped the kids were supposed to find the plate with their name on it. Basically working on name recognition. We repeated this several times until the song was over. Then we set out the pillows for each kid to sit on and we read "The Feelings Book" by Todd Parr. 

 

It goes over lots of different feelings - including several silly ones. I tried to get everyone to make the faces for the different feelings. Once we were done with that it was time for everyone to work at the different centers. There was one for each kid, so everyone took a turn working with their Mom on the specific "skill" at each center.

 



Two of the centers were a string between two chairs - like a clothes line. 

The child had to pick the green (blue at the next center) felt out of the basket and hang it up with the clothes pin.



They had to differentiate between the colors and practice pinching open the clothes pin.



 

The next station had a box full of cotton balls, a pair of tongs, and a Tupperware container. The child had to pick up the cotton balls with the tongs and transfer them to the Tupperware container. They could repeat back and forth.

 

 

 Next was geared more for the younger ones, but the older ones still seemed to enjoy it too. A colander and pipe cleaners. They just stick the pipe cleaners through the holes, the older ones can do both ends and arch them over each other.

 

 

 The last station was more for the older ones. There were a couple sewing cards. They used the string and went in and out of the different holes, threading the string through the card.

 

I had a timer set and when it went off we would all rotate to the next station. Three minutes at each one seemed like plenty of time. We then went to the table for a little drawing activity. They were supposed to draw a happy face and a sad face.

 

 

 Of course most started coloring on them right away or were too young to draw a face - so that didn't work out as well as I hoped! I would find another activity for this part in the future.

 

 Next up was snack. I asked if some people could bring something green to share, reinforcing the color and hoping the kids (primarily mine) would be encouraged to try new things. I have been told several times by Little Lady that she doesn't like "green" - she has apparently decided it is a food category, like fruit or nuts.



 We had kiwi, celery and green jello. The faces some of the kids made while tasting some of the things was priceless! I will say though, they did TRY everything. Whether they FINISHED is a whole other story! We then ended with free play. I really like the "skill" centers and plan to do more of them in the future. I can then also leave them out for my daughter to use while getting lunch ready and tidying up!

 

It is tough to fit much into an hour, which seems to be their max attention span for this stuff.  I might move it up to twice a week in the future. I want to start getting in stuff about the seasons and more work with letters and numbers.  I'm deciding what to do next week.  I printed out some neat cards for teaching children about playing well with each other when I was doing daycare. That is always a good lesson for two year olds!  Now I just need to find them..... 

 

Homeschool Preschool: Getting Started!

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My Little Lady will be turning three in April. This, of course, has brought up the topic of preschool. Heck, we are actually behind the ball on it in some circles. We don't know what our plans are for school when she gets older. We've discussed public, private and home school. I honestly don't know what we will do yet. That said, I did want to get started on some form of preschool for her, but don't necessarily want to shell out the money for it and sending her off to "school" just doesn't feel right for me yet. For now, I have decided to do home school preschool. I have invited several other 2/3 year olds (and their mothers) to join us so we'll have a group each time and Little Lady will get the socialization she needs. For now I am doing it once a week. The first half is structured lessons and activities, then a snack, then free crazy running around and playing for the last half. Pretty simple!



 

We started with a form of circle time. Each child just sat on a pillow. Having a specific item or spot for them will help them stay in place. You can just remind them to stay on their pillow. Of course, some might still run off into the other room to play, that is just how they are at this age.
This was our first "class" so everyone introduced themselves. We rolled the ball and the person it went to had to tell us their name. I then wrote it out on the dry erase board as I spelled it out loud. The ball was rolled to someone else and we continued until everyone had introduced themself - or their Mom did. ;-)

 

That was enough sitting for them, so we then did some movement stuff with songs. Wee Sing are great CD's for kids. Their discs include songs and games. Check and see if your local library has them. We did the Follow Me song with everyone taking a turn being the leader and doing a different movement that we would all mimic. Then the Wee Sing Train song to get some more moving in, going slow, then fast, then slow. Lastly we did the colors song where you stand up if you have a certain color on, then spin around and sit down again.

 

After all the music we did a coloring activity that focuses on listening. They had to listen to my instructions to color their picture. The activity and printout are from a book I have with preschool lessons. It is called Superbook Preschool from The Mailbox.  I picked it up the other year from an educational supply store that was going out of business.  It is a really great book. You can also just make your own version of this page and your own instructions. Make one with shapes so they work on colors, shapes and listening all at the same time. Color the stars yellow, the triangle blue, the square red - you get the idea. I drew on a sheet as I told them what they were supposed to do, so they had a visual reference for the instructions too.  They each had a set of crayons and picked out which color I was saying on their own.  They got in some listening, work with colors and identification of the different aspects of the picture.  It also let me see where everyone is at so I can plan lessons accordingly.

That was it!  They then had a little snack and played. Too much more and they probably would have been over it, but this seemed to be just enough stuff to keep their attention. I will share our activities with you each week. Maybe you can start doing this with some of your friends too!  Share any fun lesson ideas you have in the comments!

 

 

Getting Organized: Sewing

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As I've admitted, I'm a big remnant bin shopper. This leaves me with lots of random rolls of fabric. I can put them in a drawer and awkwardly sort through them once I've come up with a project, but I knew there was a better way. While cleaning up my closet I came across a shoe organizer I no longer have a need for. In all honesty, I have big feet and I can't fit all that many shoes in it anyways. 

So a method of fabric organization was born!

 

 

Depending on the thickness of the fabric, several rolls can fit in each slot.

 

 

It also makes it easy to see which fabrics would work well together. You could even keep the fabrics meant for specific projects together in their own pouches. Having them out and visible also keeps me thinking about what I can do with them, so hopefully I'll be encouraged to find some time to use them.

As you can see, I'm a fan of using what I already have laying around the house. I happen to have a bunch of pill organizers laying around. Seriously, my Grandmother was getting rid of several and my husband figured we could find a use for them. I mean, really, who couldn't use five pill holders? Well, they happen to make PERFECT bobbin holders!

 

Seriously, it is pretty similar to what they sell in the store for that.

 

Just a few simple things that can make a sewing area that much more enjoyable and productive!