Happy Girl!

My happy little girl! She had just gotten a sticker after her ballet class. She was so excited. It still amazes me the little things that make her happy. I think she is also learning about being proud of her accomplishments.

This little 3 year old is just like most; she pushes boundaries, tests her mommy (daily), and requires much correction with love. However, she is still perfect in my eyes! It seems that as much as I teach her....she teaches me as well.

Lately, like the last month we have been completely out of routine. And now I find myself in an interesting place. I have a format established and although I wish to continue in the same routine I don't think that my new schedule will permit. So we have a new schedule in order to accomplish the same tasks. It seems that I am daily learning how to be more and more flexible.

Monday: day off
Tuesday: Reading and Language
Wednesday: Bible
Thursday: Art
Friday: Ballet

It seems that every week Katie cooks with me so my recipe will not be given a specific day or time, but we will make a recipe based on the letter that week. I will be incorporating science into our reading and art activities. Part of being a good educator is knowing your student's limits, weaknesses, and strengths. Katie is 3. I have some big goals for her this year, but I refuse to cause big stress for her or I. I am fully committed to teaching her and helping her learn. I also want her to discover and grow a LOVE for learning. If learning is burdensome she will not enjoy it. Right now her favorite way to learn is by playing. Through my professional experience and much research on how children learn, play is a huge factor. This helps children learn from the world around them. I have written about this before. If your children are playing they are learning! Encourage play by surrounding them with toys that allow them to pretend and use their imagination.

Stepping off my soap box of educational know-how, I am a mom like you and know how busy life is. My life has suddenly exploded with "busy". Part of my preschool plan for this year was for me. I need to learn how to balance and organize my time so when she is 4, 5, and 6 I can really do this homeschool thing. Otherwise she will be in a school. You may be in the same position with your young children. I hope this helps someone.

This week for the letter "H" we are reading and learning "H" words. Our art activity is handprints (Thanks Hollie). Our recipe is Honey Buns.

Memory Verse: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words will never pass away." Matthew 24:35

Have a great week!

Finally Getting Here!

Finally Getting Here is right! Weeks that we learned "F", "G", "H", have been anything but normal for us. Katie had her 3rd birthday party, we visited my mom in Daytona for her birthday, and we have a Murder Mystery party in our home tommorrow evening! Fortunately we have maintained some of our homeschool routine.

For the letter "F" we did some finger painting. Katie does not like getting her hands dirty so finger painting is a little like torture for her at first. Once she gets messy she starts to enjoy it. As you can below I got a little smirk..... She was mostly just curious. I think the texture of the paint and using her fingers intrigues her.

Go ahead and give your preschooler pretty little blobs of paint and in no time they will mix all the colors together. I think the plate of paint was just as pretty as her paintings!

Pretty little rainbow fingers!

The next week was "G" week. We read our memory verse and lots of books. We went to the library too. Katie has not been very interested in tracing letters so I have pushed that aside for now. I am focusing on reading books and talking to her. When she wants to pick up a pencil she will....... For our art activity we explored glitter glue. Katie was very curious about this sparkly stuff. She called it pretty glue. We made a birthday picture for her Grammy. That fit nicely into our "G" theme. We spent several days in Daytona with my family so we mainly had fun!

This week is "H" week.....hmmm...... That is pretty much all I have. I think we will start the letter "H" on Monday. I started to get a little frustrated with myself because I just can't seem to fit all of my planned activities into my days lately, but I think it is because of my many extra activities that have consumed our time. I remember being in the classroom and at the end of the day I would reflect on my lesson plans and prepare for the next day. Some days I would have only hit 2 or 3 of my objectives. Those days were just as frustrating as my current week. However, there were just as many days that I went above and beyond my expectations. Some days Katie and I read 2 books all day and then other days we read nearly 10 or 12. So again I learn to be flexible and accept (humbly) that I am not perfect. However, I will persevere. The next few weeks should be pretty calm in our house. For that I am grateful.

Have a beautiful day and remember to give yourself some slack...it's okay!