September--Lesson One

This is the first lesson for the week of September 6th-11th. Click the image below to print the lesson plan out for yourself.

Prep Time!

1. Head on over to PBSKids.org and print out Activity One: Making Applesauce!

2. Then head over to No Time for Flashcards and briefly look at her Alligator A page so you have an example of how Activity Two will look when finished.

3. Gather your materials:

• 8 apples, peeled and cut into chunks
  
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• cinnamon
• two bowls
• wooden spoon and/or potato masher
• medium-sized pot
• 2 pieces of construction paper (different colors)
• 2 googly eyes
• white foam paper or white construction paper
• glue
• scissors
• markers
• 2 books from our Reading List for this month (I suggest Apples and It's Hard to be Five)
  

Fun Time!
(For this week since it's new I'll break down each day for you, but all you really need is the printable learning plan above)

1. Pray for the Day--this can be either my suggested prayer or any prayer that works for your family.

2. Calendar/Weather--sit down in a circle or with your munchkin on your lap near the home's calendar. Move any pieces or use a marker to show which day of the week it is. Point out the month and season as well. Sing the two calendar songs together.

3. Songs/Nursery Rhymes--find a comfy spot to sit and sing the Counting Apples song. Use your fingers to demonstrate. If your munchkin is old enough, have her join in too with her own fingers, or just allow her to watch you be silly :) Then sing the Be Careful Little Hands song, this is an introduction into our fruits of the spirit theme for the month.

4. Activity One--follow instructions on the lesson plan. This one's not too messy, but a bib might be good for younger kids. Once the applesauce is made you can take a break from all this hard work and have a mid-morning snack!

5. Activity Two--this one includes markers and glue, so I'd recommend an apron, old t-shirt, or bib for the under-3 crowd. Draw a large, uppercase A on the construction paper with 2 triangles off to one side near the top of the A. Let your child color it however they want. While they color, cut out some white triangles for teeth. Cut out the A (don't cut off the triangle spots for the eyes). Glue it on the second piece of paper. Glue the googly eyes onto the triangle spots. Glue the teeth onto the inside, bottom portion of the A, that's the alligator's mouth. Let it dry.

6. Read Aloud--read the two books aloud together. If some of your kids are very young or antsy by this time feel free to set them up with a quiet activity like blocks or cars on the floor near you. You can read aloud and they can listen as they play. Keep the books in a basket or something in the main living area so your kids can go back and browse them, look at pictures, or chew on the corners ;-) when they feel like it throughout the week.

Show off crafts to Daddy, Grandma, and whoever else likes to dote on your child!

Prepping for September

Alright everyone, we're just 2 weeks away from our start date, yay!

To make sure everyone feels confident and prepared going into the month I thought I'd explain a bit and open this post up to any questions for those joining in on the lessons.

First, make sure you have glanced over the supplies list for Week 1. Click the image below and print it out if you'd like. Most things are pretty standard, and other things like construction paper, googly eyes, and fingerpaints are things that will be used for future lessons so don't feel like they are one time things. If you need ideas on the cheapest place to find things you don't have just let me know! As a hint, Target's dollar section has googly eyes and IKEA has a $5 small set of primary colored fingerpaints. Construction paper can be found anywhere for pretty cheap, as can markers and crayons. I'm getting apples from our backyard tree (aren't you jealous, hehe!) but I'm pretty sure those are easy to find elsewhere :)


Second, hop online or head over to your local library to reserve some books for this month. Below I have the entire month's list of suggested books. Don't stress if you can't find all of them, this is a suggested list, not the end-all-be-all of reading time! So long as you can scrounge up 2 books per week you'll do just fine I promise. Oh, and The Little Red House with No Windows and No Doors is a printable booklet I've adapted that you will be able to print out, fold along the crease, and staple into your own little book. Very cute and very easy I promise!



Third, think about where you want to do your crafts, songs, and reading time. Then you can put your craft supplies in easy reach. Remember, old shoeboxes make perfect boxes for craft supplies and they're free! Don't forget an old t-shirt or bib for an art smock. I plan to hang my son's in our pantry door for easy access since we do crafts at the kitchen table.

For reading time it might be good to have a basket for books around. You can refill this basket with library books every month, so your kids can browse books related to our theme whenever they want. This way library books stay organized in one area, easy to round up when they're due.

As for lessons, we (the planners) will be making the lesson plans and posting them 1 week in advance every time. Each week will have 3 days of lessons so you can choose which days you want to do the activities. When we post the lesson plans for the week just print them out and glance them over to see which materials you'll need to get out for each day. That's it, no creativity or teaching license required I promise!! Just plan to sing songs, do a craft, read a book, and enjoy your kids. Then show off their crafts to dads and grandparents to ooh and ahh over.

Now that I've written a novel and hopefully not scared anyone off, any questions?

Daily Learning Plan

Okay, I think I've got the daily learning plan uploaded properly onto googledocs so everyone can download it and edit it for their own months. Simply follow the link below, download it, open it with Microsoft Publisher, and edit and save it on your own computer as needed.

https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B8CdEMsVH2jTNjA2YWU2Z
DctNWE0NC00YzZmLTgyYjAtMDM2MmU3YmY0ZmI2&hl=en&authkey=CPaWhKwP

Let me know how it works please!

Get Ready for the Code

I'm not sure how many readers might be interested, but in my search for mazes for my son I came across these workbooks that just fit him perfectly.

This is a preschool lead-up to a popular homeschooling phonics curriculum "Explode the Code". There are 3 small workbooks, all well-priced in my opinion at around $5.99 each. There are letter cards and a teacher's guide to go with it but I personally looked at those and decided they're not necessary.

Here are a few snapshots to preview what the workbook contains. There's the typical preschool work like matching, circling which one is different, etc. and the 3 books go through all the consonant letters, focusing on the lowercase. I love that it focuses on the lowercase letters because those are the ones most often used when we write anyway! The tracing mazes (third pic down) are what I know Tobias will love, this is his new favorite activity for some reason. Not that he stays 100% between the lines, but he does actually try to follow the path and I figure it's good, low-key practice as he moves towards tracing shapes and letters. This is a very phonics-based approach so as you work through each letter the emphasis is definitely on the sounds the letters make.
These workbooks can be found at Christianbook.com, along with other homeschooling curriculum choices.