Week of May 2nd
Olivia is 5 years, 1 month
One of Olivia favorite Nickelodeon shows has been Team Umizoomi. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s three, tiny characters who are all about their “Mighty Math Powers.” Olivia is especially fond of the little girl character, Milly, who has pattern power. She hadn’t been watching it lately, but recently saw an episode and her imagination was sparked…especially for Mighty Math powers. So, I decided it was time to jump back into a routine of some home school.
And I have to say that this past week has been great! I believe the routine and the specified one on one time has helped Olivia with some of her behavior “stuff” since the move. We’ve been so topsy turvey for over a month that there wasn’t anything she could latch onto. It hasn’t been a cure-all…but definitely a step in the right direction.
Now, I had planned on doing some preschool stuff even before the move. I had gone as far as having an entire box packed with everything we would need for both Olivia and Isaiah…lesson plans, easy readers, printouts, toys, etc…But that box got whisked away with the movers and the stuff that went into storage (I really miss that box).
But it turned out for the best. Olivia was really ready to move beyond much of the stuff I had planned. And in fact, some of the kindergarten stuff I’ve incorporated still isn’t really challenging her….definitely some challenging times ahead for me as I try to keep up with her!
But…here is a glimpse into our week:
Bible: Awana Cubbies Key verse: 1 John 4:10; Motto: Jesus Loves Me; Romans 3:23; and Romans 5:8
Theme: Princess Preschool Pack
Sight Words: the, and, a, see
Math: McRuffy Kindergarten Math 1-6; RightStart Math Level A 1-4 (Why 2 different curriculum? Well, I just haven’t made up my mind yet…)
Our New Setup
Apartment living has called for a simplified setup. Basically I just gather everything together the night before and put it in a nice little pile next to the kitchen sink.
And since I no longer have a bulletin board, everything is stuck on my refrigerator…the perfect spot for my Tiny Tot (Isaiah) to pull off. I have a song, sight words, days of the week, months of the year, write on/wipe off calendar, and special work all on the front of the refrigerator.
Bible
I’ve been planning our Kindergarten curriculum for the Fall and one of the areas that I’ve struggled with is Bible. The one curriculum I really wanted to buy was about $250, but I never had a peace about it. And when I talked with JP about it, he said no…problem solved, sort of. I still like to have direction and a plan.
Well, a couple Wednesday nights ago I was feeling like the kids and I needed to get out of the apartment, but wasn’t sure where to go. I guess it was the Holy Spirit talking to me, because I researched online Awana and found a couple chapters. Now I have heard about Awana before, but our church in Kentucky didn’t do it, so I never looked into it seriously. And even though it’s the end of the school year, I still felt like we needed to “connect” with a church family here...especially Olivia who has been desperately searching for a new best friend (that’s another post entirely).
So we went. And it was the best thing ever for Olivia! She loved it right from the start and talked all week about getting her uniform, and was eager to learn the verses. She couldn’t wait to go back…and when I put her vest on her, draped her book bag over her shoulder, and handed her her book her face lit up with sheer delight. She was so excited to be there!!! And the whole “reward” system is right up her ally!
She’ll only get to go a total of 3 weeks, but we’ll finish up the Cubbies book over the summer, and then this Fall she’ll be ready to start Sparks and that will be our Bible curriculum.
Reading
Okay…I tread lightly here…but reading is a challenging area for us. Well, I should say for me since I’m struggling in finding ways to challenge her. Olivia is a natural reader…been reading since about 2 years old and now can read just about anything. She definitely needs to learn some more advanced phonics stuff, but she’ll be getting that at Cottage school this fall.
Not only that, but she is a natural story teller, so she comprehends really well whatever it is she reads. I tried this week incorporating some "book review" ideas where she restates in her own words facts about the story and her favorite parts of the story. She seemed to enjoy it so we'll stick with it, but I'm not sure it really challenged her.
Right now I’m trying some You Can Read Printables. I’m not using them all, but am picking and choosing the ones that may challenge some of her skills. Here she is doing a word search for this week’s sight words and then making the words with play-doh.
Writing
Most of her writing came with practicing writing her numbers on her McRuffy math worksheets and some came from various portions of the Princess Preschool Pack. Writing is something that is still challenging to her.
Math
The above photos are her work with McRuffy…I really, really enjoyed it…and so did she. Some of it was pretty easy and some of it challenged her. It was a good mix of manipulatives and worksheet work.
The below photos are RightStart Mathematics. I wouldn’t say we really, really like it, but I do think it is a very solid approach. The few lessons we did were pretty easy, but it challenged her in a big way to follow directions. And I like the teaching kids to see the number within a group without counting.
I go back and forth a lot because we enjoyed McRuffy so much, and I think we would enjoy RightStart…it’s just such a different approach. And when I look at what she’ll have learned over the course of the first workbook, I think ultimately RightStart will challenge her more. I wish I could be more decisive.
Crafts
It has been so long since we did crafts that I planned quite a few for this week. To go along with our Princess theme she decorated a princess mirror from Melissa & Doug…
…then for Mother’s Day she made these cute hearts for both her grandmothers. They are a slightly modified version of this from the blog Tired, Need Sleep…
…and finally we did Princess Tie Dye. I got the idea from “How To Be God’s Little Princess,” by Sheila Walsh. It’s a great book I found at the Christian bookstore. This week we talked about how a princess dresses, how she wears a tiara and other accessories, and how to be polite. It’s a fun book with fun activities as well as godly advice for little girls.
…Olivia doing her magic…I have to admit, living in an apartment I was a little scared, but we left behind no stains…yay!!!
…for some reason Olivia thought the shirts turned out silly and wouldn’t wear hers…Isaiah didn’t have a choice (o:…and of course I proudly displayed mine all the way to the neighborhood playground…
Other
One of our RightStart math lessons involved the use of some of her toys and play-doh, which of course led into an impromptu play session. All the Barbie's got play-doh pizza and went for a spin in the shape sorter box, which started out as a car but eventually became a haunted house ride. And if you’re wondering why Ken is sitting there with arms extended…well, he just wouldn’t sit up so Olivia decided it was the only way to get him to balance.
Some other things I’ve tried new this week that seem to be successful is taking a break about half-way through. I turn on a fun song like the Hokey Pokey or Ring Around the Rosy, and the three of us just get up and get silly for a few minutes. It seems to help her concentration for the second half of our activities. And I try to plan for no more than about an hour of activities in a day (not including reading time and theme toy time).
And here are a few other things we enjoyed:
Princess Joy's Birthday Blessing
Melissa and Doug's Princess Elise Magnetic Dress Up Doll
Tiny Tot
And just what is my Tiny Tot, Isaiah, doing during all of this? Well, sometimes he just sits quietly and plays with a toy, other times he flings the laundry all over the floor, or if Olivia has some independent work I sit on the floor and play with him, at times he'll watch Baby Signing Time, and still at other times he sits at the table and tries to follow along. He's so cute...he's caught onto the concept of counting and will sit there and try to "count" his toys.
So, that is a small glimpse in a very long Blog to our week.
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