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Showing posts with label Tot School. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tot School. Show all posts

Monday, September 2, 2013

Curriculum Plans 2013-2014

We're starting back to school here at Harts for God Homeschool tomorrow morning, with guns a-blazing! :)  I am so excited to get back to the routine, and for the new stuff the kids (and I!) will be learning this year!! :) And since it's also my birthday tomorrow, Hubby picked me up a nice birthday surprise to start the school day with - a Frappuccino! :)  In case anyone's interested, I thought I would share a quick rundown of the curriculum we're planning to use this year!  Enjoy!


Zachary: Kindergarten

-Language: A Beka Language & Phonics/Five in a Row Language
-Handwriting: Informal/Journaling
-Math: A Beka Math/Five in a Row Applied Math
-Science/Social Studies/Art: Five in a Row Volume 2
-Bible: God’s Names by Sally Michael, and one hymn/song per week.
-Music: Weekly music classes with fun songs, possibly learning to play piano/read music
-Gym: Outside Time, indoor gym class in winter

Natalie: Preschool - focus on phonics, letter & number recognition, 1:1 counting, beginning reading.
- Five in a Row alongside Z
- Confessions of a Homeschooler's Letter of the Week curriculum - handwriting, letter hunts, size sorts, etc.
- Letter Games
- Sight Words

David: Tot School
- Tot Trays
- Five in a Row alongside N & Z

So, there you go!! I am excited about Zachary's new phonics and math - he has spent quite a bit of time sharpening pencils to use in his new workbooks tomorrow! :) I hope Davey can participate in more of the Five in a Row activities this year, and I am hoping to really focus on Natalie with her letters and numbers! :)

This will be our second year of using Five in a Row, and we have just loved it! Our first unit will be Harold and the Purple Crayon, which we have prepared for by watching almost an entire season of the TV show, which we checked out from the library! :) I'm so excited to get going! :)  

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Preschool - Letters U, V, W and Easter Fun!!


We HAVE been doing school the last MONTH...I just haven't found time to post about it! :)  So, without further ado, here is a sampling of what we've been learning over the last few weeks - OH, and these pictures are completely and totally out of order, and I do not have the time or energy to get them back in order - the new uploader is not very helpful and always puts them in my post in a random order, no matter how I organize them before uploading.  Now, my randomly ordered pictures of school and Easter learning. :)

On the Thursday night before Good Friday, we celebrated the Last Supper together by eating soup and crackers and washing each others' feet and reading the corresponding Bible passages - it was very neat, and I hope we make it a yearly tradition!

This week, we studied the letter W!  Our Fruit of the Week was faithfulness, and we talked a lot about what that meant.

Zachary made a monster face out of playdough! :)

Natalie played playdough, too - and it was a jammie day!

coloring some whitecaps on their Wave W's.

We put glue on our background paper, then sprinkled sand onto it - the sand that spilled on the table became an extra sensory activity. :)  I didn't get a finished picture of our Wave W's! :(

Z's verse snake this week. :)

We used our leftover Easter grass for a sensory tub - I hid some Easter eggs in it. :)

Finding the eggs and some Easter stickers!

BIG mess to clean up!!! :)

We made Weather Windows (idea here)- Z DREW on his papers, I was so proud - drawing is something he hasn't been willing to try - he says things like, "Oh, I can't draw real things." and he won't even try - so I was very pleased that he tried!  He drew a sun, some raindrops, a cloud, and when I first asked him to draw snow, I said, "Draw something that makes you think of snow" and he drew his brain - HA HA! It is on the bottom right. :) Quite logical!!

Several weeks ago now, we studied the letter U! Our song was 'Jesus, You're My Hope' from the Sovereign Grace CD To Be Like Jesus.  I really loved teaching this verse to Zachary, he learned about tempting and the word endure, and we got to talk about the concept of always having a choice when you're going through temptation, it was very good.  Plus this is probably my favorite song on the CD, it is always a great reminder for me, not just the kids! :)

Zachary's Underground U (idea here) - he drew the long worm on the bottom middle, and the big and small circles are rocks that he drew, too!  He also cut the grass fringes along the top.
Natalie's Underground U - she cut her own grass, too, and she loves to draw circles - she gets so excited, throws her pen down and squeals, "Circle!!"  when she draws one. :)  (This is one way that my 2 learners are sooooo different - she is so far ahead of where Z was with his fine motor skills at this age but yet he knew all his letters and numbers by age two and she doesn't know very many yet. So interesting to me!)

Z with his finished verse puzzle! :)

Davey swinging in his bare feet!! :)  He is really growing up  - he'll be nine months next week! He can feed himself Cheerios now, and he is using his toes & arms to 'crawl' around everywhere now! :)  This means I can occasionally put him down now, which is a very convenient development. :)

Our weather has been SO gorgeous this spring!! This was our weather board one week in MARCH, people. Seriously, shorts in March, in western NY? Super weird. But totally awesome. :)

Making a U with our Alphabet Builders (idea here).

Natalie is all dressed up as a McDonald's worker, thanks to our friend who passed on her old hat and shirt! :)  She is cooking me 'fwies', her favorite McDonald's menu item. :)

We also studied the letter V!  And our Fruit of the Week was Goodness.  It is so important to remember that God is always good to us, and we can be good to others as well. :)

We made a Peeps Wreath! Unfortunately, I could not locate a wreath form as I was supposed to, so we used this circle of cardboard cut out of a pizza box instead. Hopefully we can do it right next year!  But six colors of Peeps still made it fun. :)  We just glued them on, and they stayed just fine!
Our finished Peeps wreath!! Loved all the colors! :)

The kids coloring the parts of their Vase V's.

Natalie's is on the left, and Z's is on the right - he did a great job coloring his vase and gluing it together!  Nat had a cold or something this morning, and threw a huge tantrum and did NOT want to glue her V on her page, so I did it for her...with the bad memories of this craft, I just threw hers away - have you ever had a craft like that, where it turned out cute, but the process of getting it there was not as fun as you hoped?

We matched these Valentine cards - counting the hearts and matching them with the corresponding numbers.


Z made a 'verse snake' with his verse puzzle. :)

We painted these cute wood flower picture holders. :)

Zachary painted a balloon on his face :)

So of course Nat had to paint her face, too. :)

Finished picture holders!! I hot glued them together. :) Z's is on the left, Nat's on the right. (I finished hers up.)

We left the day before Easter for vacation, so the week before that, I was busy getting ready, so instead of an organized week of school, we just did some fun Easter activities. :)  Here we are sorting jellybeans by color in an egg carton.

Sorting...and eating. :)

The kids dot painting on some cardstock Easter eggs that I made tape patterns on...(idea on my Easter pinterest board!)

The painted eggs...waiting for them to dry!  

The finished eggs! They ripped when I took the tape off! :(  A friend used masking tape on hers instead of the clear tape the craft instructions called for,  I think I'll try that next time.

This was our FAVORITE Easter activity - we put a piece of paper in a box, picked 3 colors of paint, dripped some paint in the box, and threw in 4 plastic Easter eggs - they rolled the eggs around to make patterns on the paper - it turned out really cute, and they had so much FUN working together on these! :)  Will definitely be doing this again! :)

I loved how they were working together to roll the eggs all around. :)

These were our finished products!!  You could use them as wrapping paper for small gifts. :)
So that has been our month in learning!!  Only THREE weeks of school left!!  It will be great to have extra time to get outside and lots of time to just sit and read books!  I am also getting really excited about planning for our fall school (official Pre-K for Z this year plus preschool for Nat and some things to keep Davey busy and learning alongside us), and reorganizing/decorating our schoolroom to make it more efficient! :)

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Preschool - Letter T!

Our family has been very busy with all kinds of fun- like a grandparents visit, LOTS of hours playing out the GORGEOUS, 70 degree MARCH weather (what? Here in western NY we regularly schedule SNOW retreats in early March!!), and even a Mommy & Daddy getaway to Niagara Falls, Canada!!  Anyhow, we somehow managed to squeeze in a week of school about the letter T!


I actually remembered to take a picture of our circle time center this week: The kids still love to use this every school day! :) 

Here is our Bible time board - Our song was Nothing Better than Jesus from the Sovereign Grace CD To Be Like Jesus.  Our verse was Jeremiah 10:6, which says 'No one is like You, O Lord. You are great. Your name is powerful.'  Our Bible passage was Jeremiah 10, about the difference between God and idols, how He is the only true God!    
Z did a great job on his verse puzzle, as usual. :)  He still really enjoys this activity each week, and he even works on it independently while I get craft stuff ready or work with Natalie.  


We made birthday cards for Daddy!! Z loves to use my circle punch (for scrapbooking), so he punched out some circles and glued them in his card. :)  He wrote the 'Hi' himself!! :)

Natalie drawing a heart for Daddy. :)

Zachary's first attempt at writing!!!  It says Happy Birthday (the bottom line is ay, though it looks like gn). :)  

We made Tree T's!  We colored the trunks brown first. 

Natalie coloring

Natalie adding some glue while Z glues on his leaves.

Our finished Tree T's (idea here).  Also, I couldn't find a T craft I liked on the blogs I usually check, so I searched Google images until i saw one I liked, and it worked really well!!


I love this picture. :)  We made these tiger paper bag puppets - we glued the pieces where we wanted them the first day, then drew/colored on them the 2nd day.  Z is growling/smiling. :)


Natalie growling with her puppet. :)

Their paper bag puppets (Z did a lot of his own drawing & gluing & his puppet is on the right.  I helped Nat a lot & her/my puppet is on the left. :)  (idea here)

This was a Saturday morning fun activity, not sure why it ended up here but I'll take it. :)  This is some sticky 'Yuck' stuff that my husband got sent a sample of - the tagline for this product was "It's just like snot!" and, um, yes, it was.  Totally gross but the kids loved it - messy cleanup though!!!  

We also did shaving cream printed paper (Pinterest idea!) - here Natalie is swirling some paint around in her shaving cream...

And Zachary is swirling his around...

And of course after we printed it on the paper, they swirled & played with the rest of the shaving cream for a little while. This was MESSY to clean up, though!!!  And my kitchen smelled like a man... :)  Also, I didn't get a picture of the finished product, but it was cool, all swirly & everything. You'll have to take my word for it, I guess! :)

Natalie concentrating on cutting apart her cut & paste pieces.

Natalie gluing - her favorite! While Z cuts. :)
Natalie drawing with a wipe off marker.
She loves to draw hearts! :)
So, we did a lot of playing outside, too - a LOT!!  Here are the kids wading in a creek at camp - it was in the 60s this day -and this week has been even nicer - in the 70s even!!  I can't get over how gorgeous it is! Such a struggle to stay in and do housework when I could be outside... :)

Earlier in the month (when there was still snow on the ground, apparently), we found a 'fuzzy wuzzy' caterpillar on our back porch - Z was very excited but Nat, who is currently afraid of all animals, cried and said, "Bug!" and refused to touch him. :)

Davey!! :) He loves to be outside!! He is currently rebelling against ever being put down or being even a foot away from me, so the fact that he can swing in his little red swing on the porch with Zachary gently pushing him (Z is so amazing with Davey!!), and then I can get something done, is totally awesome.  I am trying to work up my strength to wear him more, but he weighs 20 pounds, so I can't do it very long yet! He loves to be in the baby backpack, though, and shopping with 3 is a LOT easier now that he's big enough to ride in the backpack!! :)

Well, we didn't do a ton for the letter T, but I think some learning took place! :)  To check out everyone else's great activities, hop on over to Preschool Corner and Tot School! :)  After a week-long break, we're back to school this week with the letter U!! Only six weeks of school (and an easy Easter unit while we get ready to go on vacation) left!!  Then we can play outside even more! :)