At Home Pre-School Boot Camp: Week 4

Welcome to Week 4 of At Home Pre-school Boot Camp!  If you missed the beginning of the series, you may want to start from Week 1.  

You' will notice that these posts are not being published on an exact regular schedule.  As I  am publishing these posts, I am enjoying the last days of freedom before putting my kids in formal education.  These posts are bringing back happy memories as we enjoy the end of summer.  I hope that they will be material for some other mom making her own memories.

Things to do just once this week

If you have been following this series from the beginning, your child has been attending a structured activity that is going to help him have success in society for a few weeks.  This week, add in a social event.  This could mean hanging out at the library after reading time to play.  It could at happen while he is at day care.  It could be a planned trip to the play ground, or an old fashioned play date.

On one of your at home days, block out some time to cook together.  Cooking can provide an opportunity to read a recipe, calculate the needed ingredients, observe science in action, experience a piece of a new culture.  It is a great life skill.   As you are getting started concentrate on letting your child do the work, and making it fun.  Do simple, familiar recipes and allow quadruple the time you would normally need.

If you have more time, ask your child to choose an art activity that you have done before.

Daily habits

First of all, keep up the reading and play times you have already established!  If you are not connecting with your child in a meaningful way, all your other attempts at teaching him will fall flat.  

Start looking for areas where you could allow your child to be more self sufficient.  Could she dress herself, find her own toys, or even fix her own lunch?

Enriching your home environment

Look for some ways that you could make your home more kid friendly.   Think about adding stools and moving the items they use daily to their level.  Here are some ideas to get you started.

Looking ahead

Our next big activity is Play-Doh .  Feel free to just pick some up from the store, or have some baking soda and cornstarch on hand.  Grab a box for the play dough and feel free to toss in some plastic knives, cookie cutters, and anything else that would be fun to use with play dough.

Friend to Follow

Aubrey  from Montessori Mischief has inspired me to give my children freedom in their learning and independence in their daily lives.  Montessori is a great educational philosophy, and I love how Aubrey applies it to the home environment. She also makes herself available for questions!

If you have a question about Montessori education, submit it to her tutorials page. Also, be sure to Check out her Montessori 101 Series! 

This post contains Amazon affiliate links.  Click here for more information.   Thanks for your support!  The post, At Home Pre-School Boot Camp: Week 4 , by Christy McGuire originally appeared on WisdomKnowledgeJoy@blogspot.com.

Five Hacks for Promoting Your Child's Independence at Home

Children naturally want to grow up and do it themselves.  Here are five ways we encourage our children's independence in our home.  You will notice that I didn't pretty up for these photos.  This is how we live, and what independence really looks like at our home.

Kids Book Shelf.

We purchased these book shelves because the cubed sections make a smaller, more manageable space that children can use to put away books correctly.  I added a basket on top just for books that they can read themselves. By the way, the easy to read series that you see above are Phonics by the Book from This Reading Mama (Free!), Now I'm Reading! Level One Animal Pals (Affiliate) , and  Bob Books, Set 1: Beginning Readers (Affiliate).

Kids Learning Shelf

We organized a few toys and several learning activities in containers on the shelf.  The children can remove these, play with them and return them independently.

Kids dish cupboard

The Kids Dish cupboard is one of the low cabinets. My children are responsible for putting away their own dishes from the dishwasher, and setting their own places at the table.  My daughter is usually more particular about stacking the dishes, but I think that allowing some messiness is part of the learning process.

Kids height hangers

My husband moved the hanging bars down, so that the children get to their own clothes and hang them up again when they are finished.  As a bonus, we have extra storage above.

Stools

Changing out a sink is not a quick easy project.  By adding a stool, we bring the children up to the level where they can use the sink efficiently.

Much of what you see here has been inspired by Aubrey at Montessori Mischief.  Check out her Video on organizing Winter Clothes.

Click here to return to the At Home Pre-school Boot Camp Week 4 summary.


This post contains Amazon affiliate links.  Click here for more information.   Thanks for your support!  The post, Five Ideas Promoting Your Child's Independence at Home, by Christy McGuire originally appeared on WisdomKnowledgeJoy@blogspot.com.

Four Secrets for planning Successful Playdates

"Let's get together!"  As a new mom in the area, I am always excited when another mom says those words, and even more excited when it happens.  Play dates are great opportunities for my children to learn social skills.  More importantly, play dates have allowed my children and I to form permanent friendships all over the country and the world.   Here are some play date secrets I have learned from moms around the country and around the world.

Communicate Clearly

We all approach the world with our own bias.  That is why it is critical to communicate clearly with the other mom(s) involved before and during the play date.  Be clear about when and where the play date is taking place, whether or not food will be involved, and what kind of play is expected.  Once the children are together, do not hesitate to ask the other mom if she is comfortable with the type of play that is going on.  If you are the parent who has a concern, speak up.  Be kind, and tell the other parent specifically what you would like to see change.

Make it about the kids

As an extrovert, I can get desperate for adult conversation.  However, if the play date is going to be a success, the other mom and I need to be thinking about the kids, and that may mean that we cannot enjoy as much as conversation as we would like. We may have to make it up on the phone or via text later.

Making the play date about the kids can also means keeping them in sight.   All kids will do things when they think the adults are not looking that they would never try in front of you. You can not help your child develop social skills if you do not know what happened.  

The great thing about making it about the kids is that you can ditch some of the adult conventions.  When we were living in a small town in the southwest play dates we lived pretty far away from our friends, and play dates that did not include a meal were almost impossible.  My friend graciously pulled out the night before's left overs, and it worked perfectly.

Know your limits

Whenever we host a play date, the bedrooms are off limits.  Before our guests come, I instruct my children to move all toys that they wish to share to the living area, and all toys they do not wish to share to their bedrooms.  Keeping guests out of the bedrooms helps keep the kids in sight.  If one of my children needs down time before our guests leave, they have a safe place to go.  Sorting the toys ahead of time helps my children focus on sharing, and be secure that their most special things are safe.

Playing with other children can be surprisingly exhausting.  If your kids are showing signs of being done before the end of the play date, do not be afraid to say, "I think we need to get home for some early naps."  Sometimes this means leaving toys on the floor.  While it is generally good manners to help clean up your mess, it is sometimes in every one's best interest to just get the extra kids out of the situation.  

Go the Extra mile 

Sometimes you can not follow all the best advice.  I just said that it is important to leave when the kids are done.  However, I was in a situation a few years ago where the taxi would not show up, and I was stuck at a friend's house after her kids and mine were well over each other.  My friend graciously made us comfortable, and made it clear that we were welcome time and time again.  

 One of my friends has some children who literally need to snack all the time.  I would be overwhelmed if I had to "be a good hostess" and keep up with their demands for food and drink for the hours they spend at my house. Her children show up with lunchboxes, and we always have a great time together.  These friends willingness to go the extra mile made our play dates a success, because they made the play date happen.  Play dates that happen and that you all want to repeat are always a success.

Have you found some secrets that make play dates successful?  I would love to read them!



Click here to return to the At Home Pre-school Boot Camp Week 4 summary.

If you found this post helpful, you might also like:

 How Parents of Pre-schoolers get the most from their Free Public Libraries

How to Plan a Road trip your Kids will Love: Tip 1








This post contains Amazon affiliate links.  Click here for more information.   Thanks for your support!  The post, Four Secrets for planning Successful Playdates, by Christy McGuire originally appeared on WisdomKnowledgeJoy@blogspot.com.

Pivot Points and Spinning Spoons

Children are hard wired to do science.  T-Rex (5) and Pony Artist (4) demonstrated this the other day at breakfast.   I do not know who started it, but they took turns spinning this spoon.

They discovered that the spoon spins best when just one point touches the table.

  They tried placing the spoon with both ends touching the table. It did not spin well, and tended to flip over.  

It was a perfect experiment with just one variable: which way the spoon was facing. I pointed out to them what they had done, but they were more excited about the spinning spoon itself.

You see, they had just figured out an important physical principle.  Solid objects naturaly spin around a single point.  They might not put it into words just yet, but they definitely learned it. 

What have you and yours learned from play this week?

Get Started with the Alphabet!

This post is part of my at Home Pre-School Boot Camp.  For more information about the series, click here.

Assuming that you are working with the English alphabet, there are fifty-two characters that your child needs to know.  Twenty-six letters with upper and lower cases.  There really is no need to know exactly which ones she does and does not know, unless she knows them all.  The goal of this assessment is just to find three or so to target.  Once she has mastered those, look for a few more.

Quick side note.  Some of my friends who use the British system teach sounds ahead of letter names.  I did not choose this route, but if you want to use it,  just substitute the sound for the name in this exercise. Then you go back to names later.

Get Started!

Pull out your alphabet set.  Show one of the letters of your child's name to her.  Ask, "What letter is this?"  If she tells you, hand her the letter. If she can not tell you, tell her the name of the letter and put it aside.  Pick another letter from her name and repeat the process until you have three letters that she does not know. If you finish her name, continue with other letters.

Once you have three she did not know, choose one and show it to her again.  Wait quietly for at least fifteen seconds.  If she says it, give it to her with a word of praise.  If she does not say it, return it to your pile and say nothing.  Repeat with the other two.

Make a note of which letters you are going to target. Offer to read her a book of her choice or spend some time playing together.

Click Here to return to the At Home Pre-School Boot Camp Week Three Summary.

 The post, Getting Started with the Alphabet, by Christy McGuire originally appeared on WisdomKnowledgeJoy@blogspot.com.

At Home Pre-School Boot Camp: Week 3 Summary

Welcome to Week 3 of At Home Pre-school Boot Camp!  If you missed the beginning of the series, you may want to start from Week 1.  

Things to do just once this week

Make that formal group activity a priority.  It can be challenging, especially if you have multiple kids in tow, but it is important to your child's long term success!

After painting, this week's new art activity is a breeze.  Click here to learn about construction paper art. 

Pull your magnetic letters or alphabet book! Click here for a simple activity to get you started.

 Review options

 If your child is able to write his name, revisit the simple writing from week one, but on a different day.  If you have time, give painting another go.

Daily habits

Keep up the reading and play times you have already established!  Those two habits are crucial to the success of everything else.  

Enriching your home environment

Do you play music through out the day?  Music is good for your child mentally and emotionally.  Classical, jazz, folk, and your personal favorites should all have a place in your day.  Develop some play lists, buy an album of new music, or find a couple of go to stations on Pandora.  Plan to turn on the music while you do an art project or chores with your kids.

Looking ahead

Next week, it is time to cook!  Choose a recipe, and buy the ingredients. If you need a place to start, try my kid friendly recipe board on Pinterest.  If cooking with kids scares you, choose a recipe labeled "Mix and Measure" or "Simple Sensory".  I will have a post on the "Why and How of Cooking" next week.

Friends to Follow

Becky at This Reading Mama is a true professional.  She is also a mom who writes curriculum for her own kids and shares it.  My kids both love her various reading packs.  You will probably gravitate toward her awesome activities, but be sure to read her posts on language and reading development. I have relied heavily on her insight when working with my own children!

While you are exploring This Reading Mom, you will probably find  Anna, The Measured Mom.  Her reading packets are also popular at our house and have provided hours of appropriate leveled reading practice.  You will also find lots of great hints on working with mixed age levels on her site. Valuable advice for anyone multiple kids!

This post contains Amazon affiliate links.  Click here for more information.   Thanks for your support!  The post, At Home Pre-School Boot Camp: Week 3 Summary, by Christy McGuire originally appeared on WisdomKnowledgeJoy@blogspot.com.

Construction Paper Art

This post is part of my at Home Pre-School Boot Camp.  For more information about the series, click here.

Construction paper, glue, and maybe scissors.  Pre-school art can be that simple, and this project can be adjusted to match the fine motor level of each child in your home.  

Early Motor Skill Development

When my children were just starting to develop their fine motor skills I approached this project two ways.  One way was to just let them tear the paper, then glue it down.  The motions of tearing and gluing strengthen the fine motor muscles, and you might be surprised how much effort can go into creating a piece in this way.

Sometimes, it is more satisfying to actually make a picture though, especially if the card or picture is for someone else.  I would ask my child what he wanted to put in the picture, and quickly cut it out.  He would then glue it on the card.  Again, this strengthens muscles and improves coordination in those little hands.  Working together we made some fun things and wonderful memories.

Scissor Practice

Using scissors is an important skill in its own right, but it also strengthens the muscles needed for holding a pencil well.   Get a good pair of kids scissors that you would not mind using yourself.  Show your child how to hold them, then help him use them to cut the paper.  He may just want to cut, or you can let him glue the pieces together to make a special creation.

Writing Practice

Once he is comfortable holding a pencil, you can ask your child to draw or trace patterns on the paper, then cut them, and re-glue.  This allows your child to gain confidence in manipulating the pencil, without the added pressure of trying to form letters.  

Projects!

There are so many great projects to do with construction paper!  We used it a year ago to make some finger puppets, and before that we made some self portraits.  In fact, T-Rex just saw these pictures and asked to do it again!

 We love Discovering Great Artists by MaryAnn F.Kohl and Kim Solga, and their lesson on Henry Matisse calls for a technique similar to this.  If you keep the colored paper, scissors, and glue together in an easy to find box, you will be ready to go with any of these lessons or just to enjoy the afternoon together making some art!

Click Here to return to the At Home Pre-School Boot Camp Week Three Summary.

This post contains Amazon affiliate links.  Click here for more information.   Thanks for your support!  The post, Construction Paper Art, by Christy McGuire originally appeared on WisdomKnowledgeJoy@blogspot.com.