May Week 1

Monday

Read book about ants (I read The Life and Times of an Ant, but there are many many good fiction and nonfiction books). (reading, theme)

Sing song about Ant/insect parts. Here are some cute ones. (music, theme)

Tuesday

We went to a local museum that has a collection of leaf cutter ants and just observed and talked about it. If you don't have a local museum like this you can always just go outside and find an ant hill and sit and watch it for a while. (science, theme)

Read a blue book, then hand over some different types of blue paper and tissue squares and let Angel Girl cut and glue them on a paper to make a blue collage. (color of the month, art, reading)

Wednesday

Crawl like an ant around the room, so extentensions of this are to have a piece of food (real or play) that they can pick up and move like an ant. (movement, theme)

Kumon tracing book. (pre-writing)

Thursday

Thumbprint Ants. (theme, art)

Read a circle book. Tape a circle on the floor and do different movements around it like running, tip toeing, marching, jumping, hopping. (shape of the month, movement, reading)

Friday

Counting to 5 on finger. (math)

Mothers Day - we read a book about moms (What Mom's Can't Do), and then she got to color a card for me. (Just 4 Fun, holiday)

Monday: Intro A letter and sound

Picking the first letter to introduce was easy. A because that is the first letter in Angel Girl's name. To introduce the letter I cute it out of sandpaper and glued it to an index card. I plan to use these index cards over the next couple of years. Remember this is an introduction there is no expectation of mastery or even really acknowledgement. This is merely to start the process of recognition. So I helped her trace the letter and said the letter name. I also linked it to her name. This is going to be the process for all of the letter introductions.
1) Letter will be cut out of sandpaper and mounted on an index card.
2) Help trace the letter and say letter name.
3) Link to a known word or object (object is always better they can see and touch it)
Remember at 2-3 years of age there is no expectation of mastery. This is merely and introduction.

Thursday: Circle Fun

When I was planning the week I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do for circles yet. Mostly because I didn't know where we would be in mommy school by then because of all the other things I planned for the week. Well come Thursday I needed an idea and considered going online (my favorite place to get ideas) but Angel Girl had an idea all her own (thus why I love homeschooling I can take her lead). She wanted to run in circles. So we ran in a circle, and walked, tiptoed, hopped, skipped, jumped, elephant walked all in a circle. She loved it and I loved it!

Wednesday: Cooking Circles

The idea of this activity is to make something that is circular. My first thought was sugar cookies but Angel Girl is dairy allergic so butter and milk are not options for us in anything. Then I realized we could make dairy free biscuits as long as I use the dairy free vegan butter we have. So I found this recipe. We made it together and used a cup to cut out the circles. Angel Girl loved rolling out the dough and then cutting out the circles. Then we ate them for lunch which made it more fun I think.

Wednesday: Counting to 5 with balls

We continue to work on counting to 5. Today we did it with 5 balls. We rolled them, threw them, kicked them and bounced them. We counted as we did it. We put 5 in a large bucket all together and took them out. We put one each in 5 containers and counted. The most important thing was repeating the order 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Monday/Wednesday: Beading Sequence

Going along with sequencing I am doing some math patterns. Originally on Monday I was going to do an AB pattern (only 2 colors) but I realized that this was a completely new activity to Angel Girl. So for Monday I pulled out her beads and let her string any way she wanted to. This was to help her get the idea of stringing. Then I put it on her like a necklace. Then on Wednesday I started with a very simple AB patter. Pink/Purple/Pink/Purple. This is not a concept I expect her to master or even really understand fully just begin to see. So I helped her with picking out the next bead. She really likes having the necklace to where. It also helps with her fine motor skills to string beads onto a piece of string.

Tuesday: Jumping Stones

For Tuesday I just put out some washclothes like hopscotch (if it was warmer I would have gone outside and done it with hopscotch). Then we walked on each square, jumped with 2 feet on each square, jumped on one foot on each washcloth then tried jumping on just 1 foot to each square. It was a great way to get some energy out in the middle of winter :) You could use cut out feet or anything really that would show where the child was to put their feet.

Wednesday: Bottom and Tops imprints

Play doh is a glorious toy. So we used it to make imprints of the top and bottom of different play doh toys.

Angel Girl seemed to have a hard time with making the imprints...she could point to the top or bottom but rotating the toy to imprint it was difficult. But she went on to play with the play doh for another hour making different things.

Ball Activity

Today we decided to focus on rolling a ball. I got out two balls and one cardboard box to start with. Then we took turns trying to roll the ball into the box (this would work with an empty formula can as well). They had fun rolling the ball. Then I let them each have their own box and ball and let them loose to experiment.

They only played with it for like 1 minute after I walked away but hey, at least they had fun.

Spooning Rice

So one activity that Angel Girl enjoys is spooning rice (I am sure there is a real term for it but that is what I call it). For me I have tupperware container that has 3 compartments and then I let her fill and empty the compartments of rice. It can entertain her for 10 to 15 minutes which in AE terms is a LONG time.

Playdoh

So yesterday Angel Girl and I made play doh. We used this recipe:
3cups four
1/3 cup salt
2tbsp oil (veg)
1cup water
7 drops food coloring.

mix dry ingredients with oil. add food coloring to water and mix together. add water to flour/salt/oil mixture slowly~about 1/4 cup at a time and mix together with a spoon. once you've added all the water, knead the dough with your hands.

It worked out pretty well...Angel Girl loved being able to help me make it and then play with it. It was even sticky enough to play with to day. Now I just need more playdoh toys.