Friday, December 3, 2010

Learning by Heart – weeks 8 and 9

“The mother’s heart is the child’s schoolroom”
– Henry Ward Beecher

Advent candleFancy shot of our first Advent candle :)
My camera broke halfway through week 8, and since I was behind in my posts anyway, I decided to combine the past two weeks into one post.  Believe me, it didn’t take long for me to go buy another camera (I HAVE to have a camera!), but anything we did that wasn’t captured in a photo has completely escaped my memory.  I KNOW we did things on those days without a camera, but I have no idea what they are!  Besides, it’s not much fun to post about an activity without a picture to accompany it, right?

{ M is 4 years old }

SHELF ACTIVITIES:

For December I’m sticking with easy and fun activities.  Some of them are just plain fun with not much learning involved.  We’ll get hardcore preschool again after the holidays are over. ;)  (That is totally a joke, btw.)

I set out an Advent wreath craft for M, with glitter foam pieces, glitter snowflake stickers, green cardstock, and sequins.  No shot of the activity beforehand, but here it is finished:advent wreath craft He really enjoyed making it!

Counting – I set out our number cards and a gumball machine (Dollar Tree!) full of wooden beads.  M loves this little gumball machine and I knew it would help grab his attention.  It’s the first thing he went for the morning it was out.  He set out the number cards in order, then worked the gumball machine to get beads out and counted them onto the cards:gumball machine counting

A new puzzle:new puzzle

Sewing with yarn on a piece of cotton fabric -  I have to smile to myself when I put things like this out for him.  He LOVES doing this kind of thing, but I don’t kid myself that his interest will last.  Someday he will get the idea that this isn’t a very manly sort of activity. :)  But it is great fine motor skill work and really, it’s important for boys to know how to use a needle and thread too!sewing with yarn

This was sort of a review and catch up week, so M did a cut and paste sheet for the soft /g/ sound to put in his ABC book.  Somehow G escaped us as we were going through the first few letters of the alphabet.soft 'g' collage page  

Play dough cooties -  I’ve been seeing a lot of people use Mr. Potato Head objects with play dough.  It is such a great idea!  Unfortunately the only Mr. Potato Head we have is in our camper, about an hour away.  So I grabbed the pieces from our Cooties game, and M made a lot of fun little sillies:play dough cooties

Play dough number mats 11 – 20with some leftover fall-colored play dough (gotta get that Christmas play dough made!):Play dough number mats

Pipeline Game pieces – for fine motor work:Pipeline game


Extra Activities:

A lot of shoveling has been going on… helping daddy shovel nov. 2010

And a lot of snowman-making…Matthew made his own snowmanSee the tiny snowman beside M?  He made this one all by himself, and used MY GLOVES for hands, hee hee. :)  It’s a very sweet little snowman.

And one day M made a pulley system with the fridge door handle.  He didn’t know it was a pulley, but it was!  After I told him that it was a pulley and that in real life they use them to lift heavy objects, he was awfully proud of himself for inventing it. :)  And we did some on-the-spot learning about pulleys!pulley
Hey!  You are looking at the pulley,
not the ugly kitchen flooring, right?!

I’m linking this post up to Preschool Corner, Friday Wrap-up, and Weekly Wrap-Up; be sure to check them out!

Have a beautiful day! :)
 

6 comments:

  1. Love the cootie in playdough activity! And the little snowman.. Adorable!!

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  2. Hasn't happened to my boys yet. They are demanding I teach them to sew......

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  3. Wow! Lots of fun activities. I love the pulley! He must have been so proud. And I love his little snowman!

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  4. I haven't seen the playdough critters before, even with potato head pieces. What a clever idea. Makes me wish I still had all those stray bits laying around...

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  5. Catching up with your blog and with what M is up to. Pulley is great - he is a true engineer. Enjoy your holiday season!

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  6. Hee hee... I do totally check out people's houses whenever they post a picture that you can see the background. I've been caught! And no, I don't think your floor is ugly, but I do think we have the same exact stove. I think my boys also have some of the same pajamas as M.

    Your activities always look so fun. I want to come and be a kid at your house. :) Lots of fun and learning.

    Also, to make my comment even longer, I was going to add something about unit study. We've shifted to that this year with Before Five in a Row. The biggest plus so far has been for me -- it makes me feel like "okay, we've done enough". I used to feel like every second of our day could have one more great activity, and it has helped me to slow down a bit. I'll think "oh, this would be great to go with this book" but I get less caught up in tangents. We still do other things, but the book units help me feel like school is "covered" if that makes sense. And I mean that more in terms of how I feel, not for what the kids are actually learning/experiencing, because I think I did plenty without doing the unit study approach. (Hmm, hope this is making sense!)

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