10 Tips of the Trade: Things I've Learned Homeschooling Preschool

I have been a preschool-homeschooling mom for two years now. My daughter starts kindergarten in the fall, and I'm confident she will do wonderfully, she knows her letters, can tell time, knows the days of the week and the months of the year, is excellent at colors... the list goes on. That said - I'm glad I have a second daughter to do things differently (HAHA!) Here's a list of the things I've learned while reinventing the wheel, I mean teaching preschool.

The 10 biggest things I've learned:  

1) Get an excellent / cheap printer. Epson has the cheapest inks that I've found, and they print in good quality. They aren't a photo printer, but they're excellent for school work.  

2) Have the $1 Store be your first stop EVERY time. I go to the dollar store almost as much as I go to the grocery store. I especially hit it in August and late December early January. Need a poster board? They sell 2 for $1. Need more stickers? Rewards? Glue? Pens? Foam letters? Fuzzy Pipe cleaners? They even have awesome preschool-3rd grade books with school work pages.

3) Invest in a laminator. I grabbed mine from Target for $30-ish. It is easy and I've only ever had one jam (and that was when my daughter was playing with it) and I've laminated close to 60 pages. I will say I was certain I would use the 4x5 pockets - I haven't used one yet, just go with the plain sized paper pockets. Not only will it save on printing, it will also allow your kids to write and wipe (with a dry erase marker), and stick things over and over. All of my calendar is laminated, it works wonders.

4) Set up a Pinterest. If you don't have one already (how have you avoided it?!) set up at least one board for each school year you homeschool. This is one of the coolest ways to get inspiration. You can find printables, crafts, science projects...etc.

5) Join Teachers Pay Teachers. This website is awesome! Its also great for all education levels. The account is free and there are tons of free projects in it (use the left hand side to narrow your search) I have honestly taken a lot of my print outs from the free section - I've only spent $8 on it and I felt it was well worth it.

6) Set up a permanent homeschooling spot - even if its at the kitchen table. You'll need storage, wall space, somewhere for projects to dry, and its best not to do it over carpet, if you have to - get an area rug. Having a space is ideal because it helps the kids know its School time and not time to play and get distracted.

7) Be flexibly disciplined. Listen to your kids, there are certain days when I just know that preschool is going to be a bear. Its during those days that I call an audible and we either do a fun project, something relaxed like a color by number, or we skip it all that day and make it up the next. You'll learn when your children have better focus. I find our best focus right after snack and lunch time and that is when paper-work should happen. Art projects can be scattered where-ever, and science *sometimes* will help settle them down.

8) Variety is the spice of life, and preschool. No one wants to do the same thing over and over and that's the truth especially with young children. That said repetition is one of the best ways to ensure something sticks. Varying how something is taught and practiced helps a lot. For example if you're teaching small, medium, and large, try it with a page, blocks, and the Leap Frog Tad movie, three different ways to encourage learning the one concept.

9) Curriculum, curriculum, curriculum. This ones the hardest and most fun for me. The planning stages. Every Sunday or Monday I plan for about 2 hours of my day. Usually I get about a weeks worth done in that time. At the beginning of the school year I planned out a rough curriculum, I pulled up a variety of Kindergarten readiness tests, and made sure the points in them were covered in our studies.

10) The biggest thing I've learned so far though is to do it. Invest time in your kids and their learning. After all - they're a huge part of you.

Sisters!

So I found an artist yesterday that I really liked, named Terra Bidlespacher.  She does gorgeous pictures of fairies and girls which she calls "Fantasy Fairy Lowbrow Art".  She inspired me and I made my first attempt at her "style" of art using my daughters as inspiration.  Its not really hers, I blended it with a few other styles to make my own.  I still want to challenge my hand to see if I can duplicate her style. 

Whenever you do art, challenging yourself with other artists styles can help you grow...

Anyways, I am hoping you guys can help me out.  I want to post up some children's (or adults) art blended with mine.  So please take this picture and print it out and color it.  It's mine - I give you permission, so no worries about copyright.  Then send it to me at dollighted.letia at gmail.com!

I'll post any that I receive to the first 100.  So send them my way!

Indoors but Active!

Colorado winters are COLD.  Some days (like today) the high is 2. Yes thats in Fahrenheit, and yes that's the real projected high for the day.  BRRRRR. So what do you do with little ones that need to burn energy?  How do you help them when they're bouncing off the walls?  Here are 5 things we do when we need to occupy our full bodies, and all we need is a bit of space.  This is also a great thing to help our kids stay healthy during the winter months.

1) Cosmic Kids Yoga:

These are simply AMAZING.  My 5 year old and our 3 year old babysitting kiddo love to do yoga with Jaime.  She spins an exciting story with actions for the kids to do with her.  We have traveled to the moon, under the sea, and visited unicorns. 

2)  Fireman Letter / Word Stomp: 

This one we did during our Career Week, but it was fun enough the kids have asked for it again. I started by creating little red "fires" and writing lower-case letters on them.  Then I created water drops and put upper case letters on them.  It was a matching game and it was fun for them, and easily adaptable to burn (pardon the pun hehe) energy.  Write several words or letters on "fires" and have them stomp them out as you call them.  

3) Simon says: 

This is an excellent game for helping kids listen.  When the energy is high and the activity is low its hard for little ones to focus, but this takes both listening skills and energy building. 

4) Dance Party:

As simple as it sounds, clear a space and turn on some pumping-and uplifting-music.  Kids can't help but dance when there's music.  If you have a flash light or colored lights you can turn on as well they'll eat it up!

5)  Toilet Paper Roll Bowl:

This isn't as calorie burning as some of the others, but it still requires motion.  Simply using old TP rolls and a lightweight ball set up a bowling alley for the kids - have them keep score to practice math skills!

All Things Are Possible

"It always seems impossible until it's done." ~Nelson Mandela.  This quote has just become my favorite of all time.

In September I gave birth to my second dear daughter, Ky-Ky.  While I was pregnant woman, I was nervous.  Would I be able to juggle life with a new baby and a 5 year old?  Would my homemaker duties suffer?  Would my oldest think I don't love her enough with a new baby stealing so much attention?  Would I be overwhelmed and curl into a fetal position and hide in the closet watching eagles?  (Name the movie! Video at the bottom if you give up!) 

I must admit, I think having two children has helped.  I feel more focused.  My days are spent with my dollies, my house is cleaner, we eat more dinners at home, heck we do preschool on a regular basis!  When I posted this on my mom's group on Facebook (Are you part of one of these? OMG They are my GIRLS man!  I love seeing their posts and there are days where everyone just needs to vent and these ladies get me!) some of the ladies asked for tips - so here you go.  

What's changed:

1) Humility.  I was on bedrest for almost 4 months.  During that time I had to humble myself and ask for help.  I'm not supermom, never have been, but asking for help allowed me to...

2) Balance.  My cousin-in-law whom I love dearly came over on a daily basis and whipped my house into shape.  Now I don't know if its because she's worked hospitality at some major hotels, or if she has a certain level of OCD (Love you sweetie!) or what, but I have never had my house be and stay as clean as that.  She was at our house for only a few hours a day, and most of that was spent with me and my first daughter, not cleaning-cuz it was done!  She'd done it!  I watched her balance and learned quite a bit.  And I realized that I have never been able to find that balance myself.  Now I love my mom and my MIL who have both helped me out, and I learned how to clean from my mom, but for some reason seeing Ari do it I learned it.  

3) Accountability.  I gave myself too much slack.  I used to always whine about how awful I was for not doing stuff...instead of doing it (makes sense right?)  Now if I catch myself thinking "wow I'm such a slacker." I make sure to stop slacking and set myself a mini goal.  I hold myself to an end goal and its made me happier.  

4) Happiness.  I didn't realize that I could be happy without a lot of down time.  This too came from my 4 months of bedrest.  There is a LOT of time for self-reflection when you can't do anything!  I always thought I was happiest when I was playing video games or watching TV or out shopping and going to festivals.  But I have realized that I can be just as happy by taking pride in what I own, by organizing the house and keeping it clean, by playing with my dollies and watching a Disney movie. 

5) Acceptance.  Allowing myself to say enough is enough.  I have always berated myself, I've never been "enough".  For some reason this aforementioned movie struck home and made it 100% clear to me, maybe it was because I felt so like Ally so much of the time.  This scene is incredible, whether you believe in God or not, and sums up much of what I have been trying to live by recently. 

6) Inspiration.  Dozens of things have inspired me, my two dollies do, absolutely.  My husband, my cousin, my parent's, my in-laws.  Media too: Mom's Night Out, a book called "The Gabriel Method" which oddly enough is about weight loss but has inspired me in hundreds of other ways, The 5 Love Languages...

In the end...well there is no end.  That's something I continually am trying to accept.  Every day is a journey.  Some days I'm awesome at following these changes in my life, and some days I find myself regressing.  But I'm changing.  I'm learning and accepting myself.  So if you're planning on making a long, or at least grueling, New Year's resolution, remember that "It always seems impossible until it's done."

~~~~~

The movie:  Mom's Night Out

Shelfari!!!

So you may notice a new little book shelf up in the upper-left-hand corner of this blog.  In fact if your eyes will take a wander that way now....yep you noticed it!  It's my Shelfari!

This all started because I was having a hard time figuring out how to keep track of the books She-she and I read.  We are avid readers in our house - we read a chapter every night, and several picture books during the week for preschool.

If you haven't ever heard of Shelfari its a cool little website by Amazon.

Some awesome features I've used so far:
~(obviously) The Widget - which connects smoothly to my blog here - easy peasy for you guys to see! Also there are a few different layouts / designs to fit smoothly with my aesthetic.
~ My "Shelf" - which lets me put books I've read, and the date we finished it, what I'm currently reading, and books I plan on reading.  This is especially helpful because I have written MANY lists of books / recommendations people have given me for my daughter and I to read and frankly they get lost far too easily.
~ Personal Reviews - This is great as it lets me and She-she see what we have liked.  Though its rare for me to put books down, if we do (like we did with Werewolves Don't Go to Summer Camp) we can pick it up later!
~Best Of Lists - Again these are personal and customize-able so we can share our favorites.
~Groups of Like-Minded Readers
~Following and Followers (Any site without this feature is outdated in my opinion!)
~Next in Series - Ok this is awesome, it auto tracks which books I have read that are in series and indicates which one is next.  So sweet!

There are however a few features I'm wishing I had, though I can't seem to find them any where.  In a perfect world I could design it myself!

Things I'd add (If you know how or if you know a different app with these features, comment and let me know!)
~A phone app (Do they still have websites without this?!)
~An ISBN Scanner (I can look it up manually by typing it in...but I can type in the title too, so really not easier.)
~A "Batch" Uploader (Would be so hot if we could just scan our library books like we do at check out!)
~Multiple Shelves - I want one for picture books and one for chapter books at least!
~Family Trackers - I want to be able to keep track of what my daughter is are reading, what I'm reading, and what my husband is reading (Since I pick up new books for him I don't want to bring home duplicates).  I'd also love to have age appropriate categories.
~Better Facebook Links - I want to be able to share a specific set of books.  For example my preschool kid's parents should be able to see what we're reading in preschool!  But the only way they can do that is sign up on Shelfari and follow me, and even then they see ALL the books I put in.  Which includes the chapter books each night.  Since I'm only tracking my daughter's books on this account I don't need to worry about the appropriate factor, but surely I'm on the only one that doesn't necessarily feel that everyone needs to know what books I'm reading?  For example: My preschooler's parents may be concerned if I throw on some Adult Murder Mysteries as books my children are reading!

Ah well, its a fun feature I wanted to share - watch for books my 5 year old and I enjoy, and please comment with books you and your kids love!

Sand and Sea Pudding

This week She-she and I are studying the Sea for preschool, and on today's list was a delicious treat that I am enjoying so much I figured I'd share.

Sand and Sea Pudding - a piece of the Beach.

Sand and Sea Pudding

Auntie and She-she mixing up the jello

Here's the yummo recipe!

Sea Jello
1 small box of blue Jello (We used Berry Blue)
1 small box of green Jello (We used lime)
Your fave berries for "Fishes" - we used 7 strawberries, and 7 cherries, and 1 banana sliced into 7 pieces.  (7 is our number of the week if you hadn't guessed.)

Prepare Jello as instructed on the box, stir the fruit in about 45 minutes in the fridge so there are some under the water and some above and its bumpy like waves.

Sand Pudding

(I honestly eyeballed most of this and it came out fantastic, which is great when you are doing this with young children inevitably some ingredients end up on the counter, the original recipe called for whipped topping too, but I didn't have any so I just cut it - so good and not necessary in my opinion!)

She-she grinding up the sand, we used a rolling pin to crush.

3/4 box of Nilla Wafers (I saved enough for some snacks for the rest of the week, as She-she had never had them)
2-3 Oreos (or black knock off frosted cookies, they're for color more than flavor.)
6-8 oz. whipped cream cheese
1/2 stick butter
2/3 c powdered sugar
1 box of Vanilla pudding
1 box of Coconut cream (You can interchange either flavor as you wish.  I was thinking one butterscotch and one vanilla would be good next time.)
2 3/4 cup milk

Start by putting the cookies and wafers in a zip top bag and letting your preschooler go at it, crush those cookies, crush them! (You can also use a food processor, but so much more fun for the kids to grind it up.)  Once all "sandy" set aside.

Whip together the cream cheese, butter and sugar, set aside.  Prepare the puddings, and mix them into the cream cheese mixture.  This is mostly to keep it nice and smooth.  Then top your set up Sea Jello with the pudding, and pour the "Sand" over that.  Its so good.

A is for Acorn!

School has officially started with a bang in the Dollighted house.  

Here is what our Monday schedule looks like:

Monday - Chores, breakfast, life, etc - first, Library, Calendar Time, Library Book, Craft, Uppercase A page, and "dittos" about the Capital letter

As always we did our Calendar Time.  We have been practicing our Month and Day songs for almost a week now, and She-she seems to be getting the hang of it pretty well.  We also pulled in our first exercise in "charting" with the Weather Chart, matching up the symbols from the weather we charted last week and coloring them in on the page in the proper place.  I was shocked how much this excited her, the idea of seeing what the weather was last week and how it will compare to this week really made her happy.

To sort of ease her into school again after a long summer of relaxing, I chose to start off with an A week.  She-she's name starts with A, so its one she's hugely familiar with and can write out pretty easily.

My goals this week are to hit our Wow's, which are:

Letter of the Week ~~ A
Number of the Week ~~ 8
Color of the Week ~~ Amarillo / Yellow
Animal of the Week ~~ Alligator
Food of the Week ~~ Apple
Shape of the Week ~~ Circle

So our first focus after the library and calendar was our Library book.

We learned about the Long A sound (A as in Acorn!) and the goal here was to read a book about Acorns.

We read Scared Squirrel goes Camping by Melanie Watt.  I had wanted Little Acorn Grows Up by Edward Gibbs, but that happened to be checked out and though I reserved it last Thursday and it said it was on the shelf it wasn't yet to my library~so make sure if you're putting books on hold you give yourself about a week for books to come in! :'(

This book, even though not what I first pictured ended up being adorable, and there were plenty of acorns for us to count throughout the book as well.  The other thing I loved about Scaredy Squirrel was how many fun interactive pieces there was to the story.

We had maps, complete with a cool key that we used to interpret the map:

We had graphs, there even happened to be a weather graph, which we had just charted and She-she was excited to compare to what we'd just done:

And several ways to interact physically with the book, like this warm up routine:

We had so much fun doing all the acting out of Scaredy Squirrel's adventures that it took us a while to get through the book, which is fine with me - it kept us away from the TV for almost a half hour itself!

She-she's Acorn

Once we completed our library book we decided to make our own Acorn project, which I snagged from Pinterest and a blog called "No Time for Flash Cards" which is super awesome by the way!

No Time for Flash Card's project

 
I didn't get the opportunity to run to the store for the brown paper bags, so we used orange and yellow construction paper.

After Craft time we did our dittos. An A page to practice her capital letters.  As my daughter doesn't love to focus through an entire page of letters, we focused only on the uppercase A.  I love this set from The Moffatt Girls.

I also picked up a book from Target called, Workbook Rhyme Time, A Frog on the Log - unfortunately I can't find it online to link it, sorry.

We did the "AT" page, and then wrote on our chalkboard.  I think this was almost She-she's favorite part of the game (She loves writing on her easel) and she loved putting different letters in front of "-at" and deciding if it said a real word or a "funny" word.

That's what our first day of school looked like - what are your favorite Acorn projects?