Isaac is 43 months

Miriam is 26 months

My first Tot School/Preschool post of the new school year!!!  Hooray!  I’m starting to get into the routine of things again with the precious addition of Hannah to our family.  We have “unofficially” been doing Tot School on and off this summer, but now we are getting a bit more serious and organized. (Which this mommy thrives on!)  This will also be my first time linking up to the Preschool Corner with Jolanthe at Homeschool Creations!  I can’t believe how quickly the time is flying by! Isaac is 3 1/2 and it just blows my mind! 

  This week was our first week back, and unfortunately, the camera was at Aaron’s office most of the week :(  So I have VERY few pictures from this week.  But I am happy to say that the camera is back home now and I found the cord (again ;-)  to get the pictures downloaded. 

Circle Time

We are beginning are time with “Circle Time”  where we pray, read our Bible story for the week, and sing a mix of “Bible songs” as Isaac likes to call them and also hymns that tie in with our story focus for the week.  We also play our instruments while we sing, which the kids LOVE! Eventually, in the next few weeks, we’ll also be adding in calendar time to this.  A Few of our songs that we learned this week were:

• God Made Me
• He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands
• All Creatures of Our God and King 

Fun Play

Our Bible story this week was on Creation.  We also focused on colors and number recognition (1-3).   Here Isaac and Miriam were practicing drawing the #1 in a plate of flour.   Um yea. . . . it got a little messy.  But thankfully it was very easy to clean ;-)  Our color for that day was “white”.

On the 1st Day of Creation, God created light and made “night” and “day”.  Here Isaac is sorting cards as to whether the pictures depicts night or day.  He caught on really quickly with this. 

Since we were also focusing on the #1, we played this easy and fun game with an egg carton and some printed numbers that helped with number recognition.  We placed a number/letter in each section, put a button object in the carton, closed the lid, shook it up, and then opened it to see what letter or number our button had landed on.  This would also be a great activity to use for graphing.  I might have to try that this week with Isaac!

And this is what our sweet Hannah was up to during Tot School.  :)

This week we also;

• put blue shampoo in ziploc bags and let them practice writing the #2.  (I also drew a barely recognizable Bob and Larry, and Jr. Asparagus, at Isaac’s request ;-)
• worked on Animal lacing cards
• played with our magnetic color cubes (a few times!)
• played Candy Land (again, a few times!)
• went and gathered leaves, grass, and flowers in our boxes as we learned about the 3rd day of Creation
• watched a LeapFrog video (Love those!)
• and read quite a bit!

Our Resources:

This year I will be pulling from a few different places to get my main ideas for our school times.  I have also intentionally limited my “surfing” of other early childhood education sites just for the purpose of guarding my time.  I could spent ALOT of time looking up online for fun things to do with my kids, but I don’t feel I would be a good steward of my time.  Plus it keeps things simpler for me, and we always have PLENTY to do! 

•  Hubbard’s Cupboard:  I sweet lady from church sent me this link a few months back and as soon as I saw it, I thought, this is what we are doing this year! The 3 year old curriculum is based on a Bible story each week.  The majority of activities for the week are based off of the Bible story that you are learning.   Incorporated in this is also learning a letter a week, along with shapes, colors, numbers, etc.  Everything is laid out for you, including an overview of the year, lesson plans, and all the links needed for all the activities.  All the activities pictured this week are from Hubbard’s Cupboard.  :-) 

•  Letter of the Week Curriculum:  We are going to be using this again this year along with Hubbard’s Cupboard.  These two combined will be making of the bulk of what we do.  This will be Miriam’s first time going through it, and I will be stepping things up a bit for Isaac (probably right after Miriam goes down for a nap ;-)   

• 1+1+1=1:  So here is to the website that started me on this journey :)  Over a year ago Aaron and I had been talking about being more intentional about teaching Isaac.  One night I was searching for early childhood resources and “ran across” this treasure.  It has been such a blessing.  She has tons of great ideas and free printables that I will be using from time to time.

• Homeschool Creations:  I will be supplementing with some of the fun free printables that Jolanthe has on her blog.  We will also be linking up to her Preschool Corner too!

Coming Up . . .

Hopefully at least more pictures!!  We will be doing Days 3-7 of Creation with lots of fun activities.  I’m on my way to gather my supplies for the week as soon as I finish this!  I’ve also got a Creation Sensory bin planned too! I’m sure I will be more excited about it than the kids! 

To see what other moms are doing in Tot School and Preschool Corner this week, click on the buttons to check out the official sites!