Our Thing At Home

So, Olivia is attending organized preschool 2 days a week, and then the remaining 3 days are our days! I'm not really sure what to call it other than "Our Thing at Home." I have a different vision for our time together this year, and I don't really know how to describe it other than it's our time together to explore, read, learn, be creative, play, etc... Some things look like school, but some things don't. It's just our special time together.

One of the biggest changes I've made is combining our "school" area with our playroom. I had always thought the best setup was a separate "school" room that was off limits outside of our school time. But combining the two has actually been far better. Now we have a lot more room, everything is in the same room, and JP can have the entire office for his army stuff. It's already a huge improvement to our time together.

Here's our bulletin board with our Raising Rock Stars Preschool items and calendar items. I changed our calendar time a ton. I found the calendar I was trying to use didn't work well for little hands, so I got some great ideas from Confessions of a Homeschooler. Right now it's just sitting on the floor, but I need to quickly get it hanging as we've already almost had a couple tip overs.

Next to the bulletin board is the big shelf with miscellaneous toys, and a puzzle center. The very top shelf is just a big mess of supplies right now as I'm still in the middle of organizing. The smaller shelf is Isaiah's. It has his toys and board books. Eventually when he's a little older this will be the center for our Tot School time. But for now it's a place for him to explore.

Olivia's drawers, easel, and table. On the easel I write a daily message. This day it was "I am so happy to be with you," and the following day was "Slinky Dog is a really fun toy." On the shelf is our game and puzzle of the week and then the felt board that goes along with one of her star box activities. Slinky Dog joined us for our first day in the new setup.

And now, the boxes...

1: Kumon Drawing page and storytelling pad. I got this wonderful idea from the 1+1+1=1 Blog. Olivia learns how to draw something from the Kumon workbook page...this day was cherries, but other days have been an orange, a baseball, and an apple. After practicing on the Kumon page, she draws it again in a picture in her storytelling pad. Then she dictates a story about what she drew. This has been a huge hit for my little storyteller!

2: Practicing the letter E from Raising Rockstars Preschool.

3: Cutting out and taping together the Raising Rockstars Preschool memory verse. After she tapes it together she goes around and measures things to see which is taller. She measured Isaiah and then Slinky Dog both with his slinky long and his slinky short.

4: HWT letter A. Building the letter A with wood pieces. This is where I haven't come up with a good plan yet. Preschool is working on the letters from A to Z; but Raising Rock Starts is doing it in order of the easiest to hardest to write...which, is the way I prefer. Plus Raising Rock Stars doesn't have all the letter lesson plans completed yet. So, do I scrap the Raising Rock Stars and find something else to go A to Z or does she just get introduced to writing more than one letter at a time? Not sure yet.

5: Dot Art page.

6: My Blue Book. She had to color a few pictures blue, then cut them out and staple together. An activity sent home by her preschool teacher for one of the days she missed this week.

Star 1: Counting Bears, Automoblox, giant tweezers, and rings from Twister Hopscotch. This usually turns into a game about Larry Boy and the Rumor Weed.

Star 2: Stacking pegs and baby zoo animals tube.

Star 3: Horse felt friends.

Olivia didn't want to play with any of the star boxes, so we played Kai Lan legos instead...with Tigger watching near by. This is one reason I like everything in one room. With a 4 year old, I believe flexibility is still key, and our goal is to have fun, fun, fun!

Speaking of flexibility, while we were playing Olivia spotted the My First Science Kit I recently bought. I hadn't planned on pulling it out this day, but she was really excited about it so we did. I'm glad too, because she spent a good hour with it. It was a lot of fun.

So at this point we're going to take our days together a week at a time. These are pictures of our first day. The second day I didn't have any planned box activities, and she chose a super hero puzzle over the one I had pulled out. She wanted to do the science kit again, but not as long. Tomorrow I plan to just have an art box for her, but we'll have to work it around a doctor's appointment. And, now that she's playing violin she needs to practice that every day, and I really don't want to push her beyond her 4 year old capabilities. If she doesn't want to do any of my planned activities, at the very least my goal is to have our daily Bible time, read a ton, play a ton, and make a ton of fun memories!

So, what about Isaiah you may ask...I did after re-reading this post. Where in the world is that precious baby and is he being ignored? (o; Well he is right by our side...playing with his toys, getting into her toys, and making life interesting. Sometimes he's napping, but usually not. And, I've been a lot more focused on some one on one attention with him...which, sending Olivia to preschool has helped a lot with that. But, it's important for when she's home too!!! So Isaiah and I sit on the floor and read and play while she's eating breakfast (she sleeps in and eats breakfast way after Isaiah and I do) or watching a movie or sleeping in (o: