Pre to the K - this weeks pictures

Fine motor practice - sharpening a pencil. Yay for things that are weird and actually count as school. Just think for a second you need to be able to hold both objects. Hold one still and rotate the other while not dropping the pencil. Forcing the pencil into the sharpener but not too hard. Sharpening until it's sharp but not so much as to brake the tip.

This is a useful skill and fine motor control practice. Perfect for pre-kers or kindy students lagging in motor control.

A game from the sonlight p4/p5 teachers manual. Each player has an ice cube. You roll a die and depending on which number comes up you either add salt to your cube, blow on it, place it in water.... etc. First player whos' ice cube melts whens. 

Covering Science, math, following directions, taking turns.

Cutting Practice. We read stone soup and followed it up by making veggie soup for lunch.

Fantastic fine motor control practice!

( For this I gave the baby his own bits of potato and the wooden play knife so he could 'cut' too)

Attempting to grow a carrot and potato. We hallowed out the inside and added water to them. Failed Failed Failed but it was fun to try.

Science

The Letter I - a giant I on a scroll. "Here ye here ye I proclaim to all the land!"

Literacy, letter recognition.

I got these fantastic geometric shapes at a retired teachers yard sale. We like to fill them up with rice. Sometimes we weigh them against each other eg. is a sphere heavier then a cylinder?

Sometimes we just make a mess which is fun too.

And a bonus: I learned what the difference is between a triangle pyramid and a square pyramid.

spatial recognition, fine motor (pouring), math

Seward Seas Life Center Summer 2011

A trip to Homer for a wedding meant a LONG drive with the boys so we broke it down into several trips. Anchorage to see the grandparents and go to the Imaginarium (Children's Museum) And then Seward which when I was a kid the sea life center was the 'go down to the beach and poke at stuff in tide pools with sticks'  center and although that has it's own awesome-ness about it, I was more just as excited as the boys to check out the new fancy sea life center.

Seals! This was totally the post awesome part about it.

You then can go down below and watch them swim around. We could of done this for hours.

Several underwater sea life tanks.

Most of the museum was more geared for adults or older kids but they did try a bit with some child friendly bits such as this mini crabbing boat. 

Chalk Drawing 101

Chalk drawing can be very intimidating. In fact it's down right Scary. 

Drawing in general is scary for most of us with the few exceptions of those who are artistically gifted for such things. Even if it is only to be seen by the kids and not to be studied in a museum of fine art. 

All the books say the same thing about the fine arts. Something along the lines of;

"It doesn't mater how well you can sing/draw/paint/dance, just do it and your kids will enjoy the creative process."

Okay well thats great but my stick figure drawings are just not up to par. They look like nothing and are definitely not waldorf-y. So what is a mom to do?  COPY

That's right, I said COPY. 

*Secret - In the early grade school years of waldorf children copy the drawings of their teachers. It's not the dirty word we have been lead to believe.*

I have This Book (LMNOP and All the Letters A to Z)

From that and from the Oak Meadows kindergarten curriculum I can find a image that works for me.

See the L? Directly from the LMNOP book. 

This mountain scene for M? Also copied from the LMNOP book. My addition is the golden spider for our #8 story in Oak Meadow.

Okay so this one did come out of my head, mostly. Oak Meadows provided the N within the fence but since it was Solstice/Christmas I drew the Nativity. It fit with the season and with the letter N. 

In all fairness though it's not like I came up with the magnificent imagery myself.

This week is the letter O - also totally copied from the LMNOP book. See the formerly mentioned stick people? 

Now normally I change the drawing while the children are asleep. One because it's kind of magical for them to 'discover' the new drawing but mostly because if I do it while they are awake they want to 'help' which leads to less of a chalk drawing and more little kid chalk fingerprints. 

Today I broke out their own chalk boards while I did my drawing. I gave them no prompting in anyway as to the what or how of their drawings. The instructions were merely to "share the chalk there is plenty for both of you." and "draw on your own board."

Yule - 7 years.

"The world is our mom"

Loch - 3 1/2 years.

"The world - and some robots."

If you could only have 6 books for your preschooler

Let us pretend you can only have 6 books for your preschooler. (It's okay, take a breath. We are only playing pretend here.)
What would you choose? Would you choose classics? Classic picture books? Books from your youth? Fairy tales? More 'academic' books?
Being a curriculum addict I have gone through a lot of preschool programs. I've bought a lot of them too. I've looked at everything from Anabaptist, Christian, Secular, Muslim, and Pagan recommendations for what to teach your children. At least for now I have chosen the 6 books I feel are MUST HAVES. - Okay well really Sonlight choose them but I'm seconding the motion. and I'll even tell you why.- see amazon widgit for links

• 20th Century Children's Book Treasury

44 stories in one book. Many classics like Goodnight Moon & Where The Wild Things Are. This book is being picked out again and again by my kids.


• A First Book of Fairy Tales

All those fairy stories everyone should read in a young children friendly book.


• Harper Collins Treasury of Picture Book Classics

Another book of books with only one stories overlapping with other treasury. Full page pictures.


• Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm

An older book that continues about the animals from A year at Maple Hills Farm. My preschooler loves it. Can't get enough of this book. Has enough detail that new discovers can be made as your child gets older and more preceptive.


• Richard Scarry's What Do People Do All Day?

What do fireman do? How do you build a road? In true Richard Scarry style gives fun overviews of many jobs in our world.


• The Usborne Flip-Flap Body Book

Detailed book of the bodies functions but colorful and fun enough to capture the younger crowds attention. Children wont outgrow this book for several years.