Preschool Week of 9/10

So in the end, I didn't unplug for very long...But I did manage to get a lot done, and I spent lots of time with Crumpet. He ended up getting very sick - alternating between a horrible cold and all night vomiting sessions - for the week, so we were forced to stay home. That helped get everything reorganized around here. And, incredibly, we did get a lot of school work done.

Reading: We finished the first beginner book in Progressive Phonics and started the next. I tried video taping Crumpet while he reads, but it makes him panic, and suddenly, he can't remember his letter sounds, or starts adding letters to words... So Grammy doesn't get to see him read yet.. Maybe soon. Or maybe she'll visit?
Spanish: We are starting very slowly with our Spanish program. We're just doing one new topic a week, and I repeat it often during the week. We can say "Hello, what's your name?" And "My name is ___" And we can count to ten. And the big miracle is that Crumpet will say the numbers with the CD! He won't do it for me, but he'll do it for the lady on the computer... So I know he's learning.
Science/Nature:
We spent all of Labor Day weekend outdoors, which was wonderful. There is a beach on the north shore which is known for its sea turtle population. We stop by whenever we're up there, and we always see a turtle or two. This time, they were packed 2 or 3 deep all the way down the beach. Crumpet's dad took him out swimming with them, and the boys were surrounded by turtles.
The 'rock' in the middle of the picture below is a turtle.
We also went hiking out to a lighthouse and spent some time geocaching on the way. Geocaching is becoming an obsession of Crumpet's and mine, and I'll write a post about it soon.
Crumpet chose the book Bartholomew and the Oobleck by Dr. Seuss while we were at the library. Of course, we had to make Oobleck!
That stuff is weird! Crumpet touched it once and decided that it was too gross and I could play with it myself. So he became photographer:
Crumpet saw someone growing seeds on a paper towel on PBS. We've done that before, and he asked to repeat the project. I just so happen to have bought a 'root viewer' at Cracker Barrel in Georgia, and I was waiting for the right time to use it.
We filled it up with dirt and planted a few seeds.
And they sprouted overnight. Seriously. Talk about gratification for a 4 year old!




Art:
We broke out some of the new supplies I bought at the education store. It was the first time I've seen Crumpet interested in crafting in ages. We got this cool set of textured paint stamps:
And made sea scenes:
And we made paper dolls:
It was a great week, despite all the illness around here. For more preschool posts, go to Homeschool Creations.

Preschool Week of 8/20

Homeschool this week was great. Parent Participation Preschool - not so much. On Monday, Crumpet flat out refused to go. A few weeks ago, he finally learned to get his own clothes off. I was so proud. On Monday, I was sorry I ever taught him, because every time I managed to get him clothed, he removed the clothes... So we called it quits and stayed home Monday. Wednesday, I took him to McDonald's for breakfast and then to school. It was much easier because we were already out of the house when school time rolled around. He was still pretty grumpy about being there though... Our theme at school was the color red, and the teacher had some really fun toys and activities set out for us to work with.

At home, we did great.
Phonics/Reading: Crumpet FINALLY knows the alphabet! And, Crumpet started reading this week! Very exciting stuff. I knew he was close, so I had planned to start our McRuffy reading program with him this week. We zoomed through the first 10 lessons or so, trying to get him caught up to the point where kids read 3 letter words. We also read a new book from Progressive Phonics.

We discovered an incredible library story hour at our nearest Hawaii state library. The storyteller reads a few stories, but he also plays music, dances with the kids, and puts on puppet and shadow puppet shows, as well as telling stories with a felt board. Then the kids make crafts. Really amazing. This week, Crumpet checked out The Three Bears and The Three Little Pigs. I said "You know we have these stories at home, right? Do you want to just read our copies?" Crumpet replied "No, Mom. I like to read new versions and find out who the author is." I guess he's preparing to get his doctorate in literature...

Math/Science: Both lessons were about measuring and length this week.

Geography/History: A few weeks ago, Crumpet saw a segment on PBS about a 13 year old boy who had climbed Mount Everest. He decided that he, too, would climb mountains. This week, I did a unit on Mount Everest. It was so much fun, and I learned a lot too! I'll write a separate post about our mountain climbing adventure.

Culture: We went to a beautiful Buddhist temple with Japanese gardens over the weekend. Crumpet had lots of questions about it all, and I found that I know very little about Buddhism. Time to do some research!
Nature: We went snorkeling and saw some amazing starfish, an eel, and lots of sea cucumbers. Crumpet doesn't snorkel, but he can see a lot just standing above the water here because it's so shallow and clear. He was obsessed with petting every sea cucumber he found.
We had a really great week and hope you did too! For more preschool posts, visit Homeschool Creations.

Preschool Week of 1/30

Well, it's been a heck of a few weeks. Things were going along great, schooling was fun, Crumpet was happy. Then, sadly, my mother-in-law passed away, and everything changed. We quickly packed up and drove to Texas. We had the chance to see everyone in the family, which was nice, but of course, the reason for the visit was very sad. Crumpet enjoyed playing on my in-laws' land and chasing their many cats, but now we're in recovery-from-traveling-mode, meaning he's insane all the time and can't focus or listen. At least I'm finally realizing that this always happens and it will pass in about a week. My house is gross, and I came back to 133 blog posts to read! Yikes! On the bright side, I finished ALL of the books and magazines I was reading - 32 hours in a car is a long time!

We did accomplish a lot of great learning before we headed off, so I'll try to list what I remember:

Phonics: Crumpet has been doing great with letter sounds, and we continued to practice this. Last night, I started writing out 3 letter words and showing him how to sound them out. I did a few, we worked on a few together, and then he read his first words on his own!! I'm so excited! I don't think he has any idea that he was doing it, but in a few weeks, the idea should click with him.

Storytelling: I bought a neat book at my favorite independent bookstore in Texas. It's called Imagine If... by Dr. Karen Halpern. It's just a collection of flip cards with pictures of characters, things and places. You choose one of each and make up a story. It's great for inspiring creativity!

Math:

-We read a fun book called Pattern Fish. I can't remember who wrote it... It was a cute story about some fish, all of which had different patterns and it challenged the reader to complete the patterns. Crumpet enjoyed this and figured out all the patterns.
-We did some easy addition and subtraction with M+Ms. I think Crumpet could do calculus if I could explain it with M+Ms! He loves learning experiences that involve chocolate.
-We played UNO for the first time, and he really enjoyed it.

-We played our grid game, but this time I wrote the numbers 1-6 randomly in the squares. Then we rolled a die and Crumpet stamped the appropriate number on the grid. I saw this idea at Tired, Need Sleep here.

Science: My plan was to learn a little bit about measurement. We did use a ruler and measuring tape to measure some things and talked about shorter and longer, but really, Crumpet wasn't interested.

We finished the 3 year old section of Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready, and our last project was a study of shadows. We expanded on it and talked about our shadows and how they changed depending on time of day and where the sun is. First, we experimented by moving a flashlight to diffent positions around an action figure.

Then, we went outside at different times of day and saw how our shadows changed in length and position. We got a picture in the morning and at noon, but unfortunately, the sun was hiding in the evening.

Fine Motor Skills:

Crumpet practiced opening and closing a variety of lids on jars.

He did a lot of tracing in his Kumon book. He also did some shapes cutting and sorting using a great printable from Nicole at Tired, Need Sleep. I didn't take pictures, but you can find it here.

I made a bubble solution in cake pans and gave some straws and cookie cutters to Crumpet and the boy I babysit for. They played with this for 45 minutes! Awesome. I saw this idea here at

Almost Unschoolers.

Life Fun:
Crumpet decided to dress up and play witch for a while.

We played outside on a beautiful day, before it got nasty and cold again... Are we in Hawaii yet??