April 10, 2011

Homeschool Preschool

Last fall all of Isabella's friends began preschool.  We choose to not pay for private preschool and she did not get into any public preK programs that we applied to (via a lottery system).  I decided I would do some homeschooling for preschool.  But then September came and we travelled all over the country for a month.  When we returned home I spent 100% of my free time looking for a new apartment.  Then we moved.  Then I had a baby.  And the holidays happened.  And we are just finishing with Brian transitioning between jobs.  Wow-zah!  Life has been busy!

What I had planned to begin in September is just now finally happening!  Way back when, I came across a cool program called Five in a Row.  It's a literature program that uses children's books as a foundation and then incorporates a wide variety of learning opportunities based on that book.  We started with Before Five in a Row, which is a little more open and relaxed approach.  One thing that really sold me on using this curriculum was that there are a lot of bloggers who are using it and post loads of inspirational ideas.  Delightful Learning has been a major inspiration so far.

This week we started the program with the book, Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?  It is a fun book, full of sweet rhymes centered on what a little bear will wear throughout the day.  The kids and I really enjoyed reading the story every morning and then doing a few related activities.

Here are just a handful of activities we did last week:

coloring fun

matching rhymes

whole wheat bear pancakes

just cute

identifying shapes in the book and then painting

more painting

a teddy bear picnic--almost the same lunch Jesse Bear ate--the kids actually tried the celery with sprouts

Isabella really enjoyed the picnic

this is the lap book with a lot the activities we worked on
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