Homeschool Fun: Dinos

 We had dinosaur week! It was so much fun. No pre-k pack for us, we worked from The Mailbox's Preschool Plans Day By Day. I really like the book. Since it is geared to actual preschools, we can't do all of the activities or need to adjust them to having only 1 kid in class.

One of Jayne's faves, as usual, were the art projects. We made dinos out of foamie shapes and in the pics he made a dino puzzle into a fabulous work of art!

Homeschool Fun: Star Wars

Jayne does his Read, Build, Write sheet.

We worked with the pre-k pack from Homeschool Creations. This was pretty much Jayne's dream week since he got to do tons of Star Wars stuff. We also found lots of great crafts at Filth Wizardry.

R2D2 is not done yet, but is coming along well!



Fruit and Veggie Rainbow

Jayne is becoming a bit of a picky eater and we all have a tendency to eat too many grains. So, we made a food colors chart. The goal is to collect all the colored magnets each day by eating that color of food. It is working out splendidly!

 First step is to tear strips of colored paper for the fruit colors. We have red, orange, yellow, green, and blue/purple. Then we flipped through grocery adds to find produce that is that color and glued them onto the sheets.

 Then we broke out the contact paper. We laid the strips one at a time and smoothed them on well. We started at the bottom and worked up so that we would have a rough edge between each color.

 Here is our finished chart! We cut out sticky magnets to hold it to the fridge and magnet squares in each section to put the color shapes. The shape magnets are card stock (from scrapbooking) and put on sticky magnets. Each time we eat a color we put a magnet on the chart.

Jayne loves the new chart and is eating many more fruits and veggies now. He even suggested that we get some carrots, because they are orange you know. Above is the first meal after starting. I had to share because purple grapes and green kiwi look simply fantastic together!

Homeschool Fun: Doctor

This week was very light. We did the preschool pack from Homeschool Creations. Jayne anjoyed it and I liked taking a bit of a break in intensity. He liked making the band aid book a lot. What's not to like about cutting and glueing, right? We played go fish with the doctor cards from the pack and memory with the shadow matching cards. We had the sensory bin filled with "patients" otherwise known as beanie babies and fleece band aids. The band aids were super easy to make and I was able to use tan fleece scraps from making pads for The Crazy Elephant. I can say that I found the idea for them on pintrest, though mine were a simplified version. It was another great week in the classroom with my little guy!

Jayne fixes up Ziggy Zebra

Many happily bandaged patient!

Year of the Dragon

Door hanger

Happy Chinese new year! Okay, so I realize that it actually happened on Monday. I couldn't do a blog post then because we had some serious ice storm stuff going on here in Minnesota and the power kept going off and on. But here I am today with a quick post. Jayne and I visited nickjr.com and printed out some fun Kai-Lan printables for the holiday and spent some electricity free funtime on them. Here are the pics...

Jayne's chinese lantern and Kai-Lan's DVD in the background

Jayne's printable stickers turned collage. He loves cutting and glueing, so this was a great activity for him!

Homeschool Fun: Planets

(To Row, Row, Row Your Boat)

Stars, Moons, Planets too,

Up in outer space.

All are in our galaxy,

Each in it's own place!

It is space week, and Jayne said, "again?!" Yes! But this week is focused on the planets instead of space travel, rockets. We have been doing a lot of activities out of The Mailbox's Preschool Plans Day By Day. I have a few photos for you of our activities...

It is so hard to see in the photo, but this is his sensory bin. We spent time dropping marbles in to see how craters are made on the moon.

For art time on Tuesday we broke out the play-doh and sculpted some super fantastic space aliens. I will admit that Jayne's is much cooler than mine (on the left).

We have been working on random worksheets and organizing cutout planets by size and order too. The last big activity we will be doing is going to be edible and is from the book. We will be laying out corn flakes on a pan and covering them with almond bark. It is supposed to simulate the surface of the moon, and will be down right fun and tasty!



Homeschool Fun: Knights

Jayne's new school mate, Croci

It is going to be mostly pics today. We have had a fun start to knight week. Jayne played lego knights with his daddy and people knights too. We made puppets to play with all week long and Jayne has done great on his worksheets so far. There is also a new addition to our school! His name is Croci the crocodileand he is Jayne's new puppet friend for school. We were going to wait for Ziggy the Zebra with his all about reading class in the fall but he is to advanced for the level that Ziggy comes with so we let him choose a friend for himself. Now on to the pictures!

Jayne and Croci play knights! Adam even made Croci his own matching chainmail to play in.

 Adam gets in on the knight play.

Our preschool pack this week is from homeschoolcreations.com and one of Jayne's favorites this week is the board game. A while back I made photo bead magnets as gifts and for us and that is what we use for our pieces. They work out great for keeping track of who is who.

Homeschool Fun: Space

Space week has come and gone (last week) but I thought I would share the big art project. Here are the supplies we used: Black construction paper, foamie stickers, lids from various containers, and a stamp pad.

The first part of the project was to make the stamps. It was super easy! Just put the foamie stickers on the lids. I do believe that the lids shown here are from a gallon of milk, a medicine bottle, and BBQ sauce. The space stickers came with his bike decorating set. We also used basic shapes for a previous stamping project.

Part 2 was to have a blast stamping! We used a silver pigment stamp pad. It worked great because you can see it really well on the black paper. It really pops.

Jayne had a great time making his space picture. He even had to make a second one to share with a very lucky grandma.

Homeschool Fun: Wizard of Oz

This week was Wizard of Oz week. It has been a while since I did my last homeschool post. This has been a crazy month! But now I am back, and we have had another great week. The preschool pack we worked with this week was from homeschoolcreations.com. It was definitely another winner.

Jayne's favorite part was making the stick puppets and acting out the story with them. He wasn't quite as into doing the worksheets this week, but not all weeks can be pure motivation. He's only 4 after all.

We watched The Wizard of Oz 3 times over the course of the week, for resting time. We also watched The Wizard of Ha's, a Veggietales movie, and as always it was a ton of fun and not nearly as long as the regular one.

We also packed our shoebox for operation Christmas child today. Jayne enjoyed doing it so much and decided to donate some of his toys as well for other kids that don't have toys. He thinks it is unspeakable that any child would be without toys as he spends about 50% or more of his day playing with them. It is hard for kids that young to grasp the idea of others living differently than them. This is the perfect time of year to help them learn though. We are trying to teach him to be grateful for the things he does have and not need to constantly buy more and more.

What are some ways that you help your child to be compassionate to others? I am sure I am not the only one that would love to read your ideas!

Hot Dog Pre-K Pack

Pattern cards

We have 50 followers and, true to my word, I am sharing the hot dog pack! Jayne really loved this pack. It is smaller than I intended but I made it while my computer was on life support, so what I made was all I was going to get. You can find the printables on our facebook page in the Hot Dog pack photo album. The link is here: http://facebook.com/thecrazyelephant

Homeschool Fun: Pirate

Pirate Jayne digs up doubloons

Pirate week was a blast! We read Pirate Pete several times and it is a very cute book. The pre-k pack we used this week was from Homeschool Creations. No formal worksheets this week so it was mostly play and games. Jayne dressed up and went on a pirate treasure hunt with his daddy. They followed the clues that led to his sensory bin. Now, years ago I got a game called Morgan's Revenge. We had not chosen the name Morgan yet, so it was coincidental. Anyway, the game comes with gold and silver doubloons and a top. Technically it is a gambling game but this week it was a buried treasure! Jayne had a blast digging them out and picking them up with his bug tweezers. He took some time to check them out under his magnifying glass too.

The preschool pack came with a board game  that we played every day. Jayne loves games and this one was nice and easy. We used the alphabet cards to play go fish. At the end of the week we recycled a page from a desk top calendar and put all the letters on it to make a poster for his classroom. We made the puppets from the pack and acted out the Pirate Pete story with them. We also talked like pirates all week long. After a trip to the store we came home with a very small paper bag that is now a pirate puppet.

It has gotten rather cold up here lately. Colder than I like, but I do live in Minnesota. Yesterday it was 32  degrees out when we got up. That means we are spending a lot less time outside. We still walk everywhere to get some fresh air, exercise, and quality time, but that is about the extent of it right now. To add a little physical activity we broke out our wintertime friend the Wii. We don't usually use it at all in the summer, but in the colder weather it is great. Jayne has been doing Nickelodeon Fit and having a blast with it. Here is a short video of him doing one of his favorites, hula hoop with Dora.

Water Bottle Craft

I originally found this idea on pintrest, which I recently caved into joining and have found that I love. The pin was from a blog post, here is the link: http://www.pinkpistachio.com/its-not-a-glitter-wand/.

Jayne adds goodies to his bottle (Fiji water bottle)

The project is so easy and Jayne had a lot of fun picking out mini items and beads to go inside. All you do is fill half a plastic bottle with water, put in all your water safe goodies, fill it the rest of the way, and seal it shut. We put in plastic beads, vintage mini animals (on hand from my mom), and some cut up curling ribbon. You could basically put in anything though, as long as it won't be damaged by the water.



Jayne watches everything move

This is a great craft project to make and worked on Jayne's fine motor skills to make it. It is fantastic for in the car and other quiet times. Jayne suggested making one for the day care boy today; he's nearly 15 months. We don't use things that have bottles very often, so it took about 15 minutes just to find a bottle. We ended up making his out of a small Pepto Bismol bottle. It worked great! It is smaller for his little hands and is seriously durable. Jayne felt great making something for someone else and the baby was all smiles playing with it.



Homeschool Fun: Fire Safety

Jayne cuts the puzzle

This week's focus was on national fire safety week. The printables from Homeschool Creations were a great compliment to the week. As usual he really liked the activities. He especially likes cut and puzzles, so this sheet was his favorite. I cut the edges to make it a little easier for him and then he cut out all the little squares. He was pretty proud of himself when he got it put together. There is something especially difficult about puzzles with smooth edges. I was a little concerned that it would be too easy since he is used to doing 60-100 piece puzzles, but it turned out to be just right.

Jayne "drives"

On Wednesday, Adam's day off, we did all of our fire safety practice. We practiced our exit plan by setting off the fire alarm in the house. We also did a little stop, drop, and roll practice. Last year I cut a flame shape out of some felt and used it for practice because it would actually "roll" off of him. I couldn't find it this year, so we used our imaginations. We also used Jayne's toy phone to pracitce calling 911.

The highlight of the whole week was the field trip to the fire station! Jayne loved it and made sure to clibm around in all the trucks. He brought home all kinds of doodads. He has been watching Fireman Sam on Netflix this week too. Jayne says he wants to be a firefighter when he grows up.

What kinds of fun things have you done with your kiddos for fire safety week?

Homeschool Fun: Zoo

This week we worked out of the All About Reading sample work books. This is the reading program I am planning on using next year for Kindergarten so it was great getting a chance to try it out first. It was such a hit! Jayne loved rhyming with Ziggy the zebra as he cooked silly foods and getting to cut out the story cards and arrange them in the order that the story went. We used his Ziggy Zebra beanie baby as Ziggy and he loved that Ziggy talked to him. He will really love the set next year as it comes with a large Ziggy puppet. (Get the sample packs here)

We also did a giraffe art project from our Mailbox book, Day by Day Preschool Plans. It was a super easy project but he still really enjoyed it. Step 1 cut out giraffe shape. Step 2 put brown paint thumb prints all over it. Step 3 let it dry. Jayne hung it up in his room. He was very proud of him little masterpiece.

We also did a scavenger hunt for lights this week as part of his Awana Cubbies curriculum. It was fun going out at dusk and finding all the sources of light that we could.

Next week is fire safety week. What are all of you doing for this special week of the year?

Screening

Jayne had his preschool screening yesterday. He got to play a game where you put on giant headphones and listen to beeps and a game where you read letters from far away. Meanwhile we started to get a little nervous waiting in the entry. He was not done for 1 1/2 hours and it was a little past lunch time when they were ready to give us our results. Now, as we were waiting we saw them putting the pressure on the parents to get their kids in preschool and not many of the parents left feeling very good about their trip. Plus some of the parents got called back to be with their kids and we never did. We found out while we were waiting that the parents were called back to help convince their child to do the activities.
The results were in and we nervously stepped up to the table. For me this was a chance to see how well my teaching skills have gone over the last year and a half. She showed us the things he did well at and he rated as a 4 year old for some of the things, a 5 year old for a larger portion, and 6 year old for block abilities and 1 other thing. He is a little "wiggly" as she told us, and we noticed at Cubbies later that night. His eyesight is fine right now but in an area where he may need glasses later on in life. He is also not so good at articulation, not a surprise, and we will be doing some other things for that later. I said I was glad to hear he is doing good and she stopped me and said he is not doing good, he is doing very well. He has a huge head start for kindergarten already and he wouldn't even be able to go for 2 more years if he was going public.

Then came the question I was dreading after watching all the other parents..."Is he in preschool right now?" "No" "Are you putting him in preschool next year" This is where I felt hesitant but confidently said, "We are homeschooling". The woman just beamed at me and said that's great and wrote it down. It was not the reaction I expected, but it was almost like she was saying "you could not have done a better job at it". I felt SO proud of myself and Jayne too. I always wonder how I am doing at homeschooling and now I can see that I am doing a great job and will keep up all the hard work. It also made me feel really good about starting Jayne in Kindergarten next year. I wasn't entirely sure it was a good idea, but now that I know he is already ready for kindergarten, I feel confident about starting next year after finishing the whole rest of the year of preschool. It feels great having a little confirmation!

Homeschool Fun: Thomas Train

watching paint dry

Jayne had so much fun doing Thomas the Train week again that he turned our 4 day school week into 3! The highlight of the whole week was making a troublesome truck. It was the craft activity in the magazine we were working in. He had so much fun and we both worked on it. Jayne did the big parts and I did the toothpicks and face. You can see from the pics that my Zyrtec box and toilet paper roll have simply transformed!



the truck is finished



Next week we are getting a taste of the All About Reading program that we are planning to use for kindergarten next year. I am really excited to see how he likes it!

Homeschool Fun: Robots

Jayne's robot

Another great week has come and gone. This week we used the preschool pack from Homeschool Creations. The weeks are starting to feel pretty similar at this point, so my post will be short. Jayne is enjoying his worksheets and is getting better at them with every passing week. This week we did a little fraction work and he seems to be picking up on it well. I filled his sensory bin with legos this week. I put in the tweezers for picking them up and the magnifying glass to look at them in a different way. He made a robot with foamie stickers for art time and moved on to his collage bin when he was done. He even finished off one of his glue sticks. He really enjoys the freedom of being able to create any time. He has a small bin of goodies that he can use any time he is doing art. It has scraps of paper, stickers I no longer need for scrapbooking, die cuts, glue and  scissors. All he has to do is ask and I leave him alone to create. He loves it and really appreciates that I stay out of his hair instead of looking over his shoulder all the time. Let me tell you though, he earned that trust over the past year by having never used his glue of scissors in a way that he shouldn't.

We got another Thomas the Train magazine in the mail yesterday so we are bumping the dino lessons for a while to do another train week. We also spent some time this morning updating his discovery cards. I found these cards in a thrift shop and they are such a nice addition to the wall space in our classroom. They are Pooh Bear nature discovery flash cards. They have info on the back about the topic on the front.

Fall discovery cards

Homeschool Fun: Batman

Jayne marks the letters with his guys

This week was Batman week. Jayne had a blast setting up for this one. He set up all his Batman guys in his classroom and even used them for the alphabet game shown. The preschool pack we used this week is from 1+1+1=1 and was great. Jayne's favorite were the alphabet hunt and the color matching game. We played the matching game like go fish. We definitely have a card player in the making. He is starting to get better about staying in the lines when he colors. As an artist, I am all for thinking outside the lines, but you do have to be capable of staying in the lines. Master the basics then experiment. His handwriting is improving with each week too. He has even been doing more freehand and can write his name without looking at a reference now, if you tell him what letter to write next.

I made him a batman cape as part of the school fun and Adam knitted him a batman mask. He has been wearing them ever since. They instigated an enormous amount of imaginative play. Adam will be relieved when it dies down. People tend to describe Jayne as energetic and he fits that to a T! He also started Cubbies this week at Awanas. He really loved it. He likes his special little vest and work book. Now Cubbies lessons are part of our school routine. Next week we are doing robots. The school year is flying by already!

Batman lurks through the house

Homeschool Fun: Swallowed a Fly

Old lady coloring pages

We used my Old Lady that Swallowed a Fly pack this week. If you want to use the pack it is under the printables tab. It was a relatively small week. That worked out well with the holiday and our terrible to juggle schedules. Jayne enjoyed every minute of it. He loves the book and has gotten other variations of it from the library before. The worksheets went well and his tracing is improving with each day.

The main event was the old lady herself. Granted, she has been missing her fly for some time now. But lo and behold, the fly was in a sock in the laundry on Friday afternoon. She now has all her pieces. We spent lots of time singing the song and stuffing the old lady. Next week is Batman week, Jayne is more than a little excited for that one!

How absurd to swollow a bird!

Homeschool Fun: Camping

Putting in the "today is" card



The first week went great! We did so much fun stuff and fit in a fun birthday as well. We used the camping themed printables from Homeschool Creations this week. They were great as always. Jayne is getting better on his handwriting and we are taking more of a focus on how he makes his letters. He can trace the letter well, but he likes to follow the lines any which way. That method will not work well when he starts writing freehand. We finished up his pocket chart calendar too. The calendar has been a great too the last few weeks since we got it. We do a counting song to the date each day, he is learning about the seasons, months, and days of the week too. When school started this week, we added a word of the day to the calendar chart and ask him to go read it a few times during the day. The calendar has weather and holiday cards too. He is really enjoying all that calendar time has to offer.

The lizard is camping out

The sensory bin this week really had his creativity flowing. We did sand this week. I added some yellow beads for fireflies and some card stock pieces for him to build tents with. Jayne added a lizard. He loved making tents for his lizard and then he started experimenting with the card stock. He positioned the card stock in different ways and poured sand on it to see what would happen. When he held the card stock, the sand fell through and the card flipped up. When the card stock was in the sand at a slant the sand slid down. I am really happy at how the sensory bin concept has been working!

Jayne made the landscape with playdough

We did do one extra special thing for camping week, roast marshmallows! We did not camp out because of how bad our allergies have been, but we did get to nibble some yummy s'mores. Jayne loved it! He looked for sticks and for the first time we let him toast his own marshmallows. We stayed out past his bedtime. The dark made him nervous. Overall we had a really fun week. Next week we have the old lady that swallowed a fly that I made for him.

Jayne toasts a marshmallow with his daddy