Pre-K Pirates!

This summer I have continued doing homeschool-preschool without a consistent schedule. We havent been following a curriculum, I've just been asking the boys what they want to do do--and then I find fun activities in whatever theme they want. All this week my oldest, Brigham, has been begging me about pirates. They started watching that cute pirate cartoon on Disney Jr and now thats all they talk about! I've been printing all things things pirate this week to get ready for next weeks activities. Here is what I've found so far:



One of my favorite printable/idea sites is Homeschool Creations. She has a Pirate Lapbook printable that we will be working on starting monday.
http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/2010/11/preschool-corner-pirate-unit-and-pirate.html

I just recently came across another new website that has some great printable, 2 Teaching Mommies. I just downloaded their Pirate unit today and as it was coming off the printer the boys saw it and we had to do a trial run of one of the games this morning! http://www.2teachingmommies.com/2011/07/pirate-printables.html








This was the first graphing activity we've ever done and it was really fun! I'll be doing these more often! Just a little advice: I glued the dice as directed, but the glue stick didnt hold up to my 3 hear old's tossing, so I taped the heck out of it as well.....and I laminated the chart so I can re-use it. I have had my eye on the Do-a-dot markers for awhile, but havent gotten around to ordering them. I was at the Dollar Tree the other day picking up some supplies, and came across Bingo Markers. I thought these would be perfect for activities. They are fun, but when we used them on the laminate they remained wet and messy---so I wont be marking them on laminated sheets again. Just a little FYI :)


For a fun artsy craft, I saw these cute paper plate pirates and knew the boys would love to make them. Just adorable! {And I already have all the supplies which is a bonus!}



http://iheartcraftythings.blogspot.com/2011/06/story-time-tuesday-w-paper-plate-pirate.html

I plan on doing a treasure hunt next friday, but I havent figured out the details of it yet. We may invite some neighborhood kids over to get some interaction {we've been cooped up in the house because it is SO DANG HOT HERE IN TEXAS!} As soon as I get some ideas together, I'll post.

If I can get my act together, I have been reallllllllllllllly wanting to learn how to make decorated sugar cookies. I swoon over these whenever I see them posted on party blogs. They are just SO COOL!!!! When I popped on facebook today, I saw a link to these and now I know its meant to be! They match the craft perfectly! I really want to try my hand at these, so maybe I'll be daring enough sometime this week....



http://sweetsugarbelle.com/2011/07/the-easiest-pirate-face-cookies-youll-ever-make/
We actually dont have any pirate books! crazy. I was on the lookout for some at the Goodwill last weekend but no such luck :( I may order one from Amazon today {love the free 2 day shipping--through amazon mom}

Return from blog break!

I was feeling a little overwhelmed with blogging...maybe overwhelmed isnt the right word---more like....intimidated. I convinced myself that the blog wasnt worth it because Im not like all the other "cool" blogs that make their own printables, etc. But, I came to the realization that this is a good spot to access ideas and links to other blogs and thats okay. If im searching and using other sites, I should share! So now I dont feel so insignificant :)

Brigham turned 3!!

The night before the party, Briggy was our cupcake taste-tester. Notice the shaggy crazy hair? That night we FINALLY convinced him that he REALLY needed a hair cut. Any other time we tried to talk him into it he would "I dont want to cut my hair, it looks amaaaazing!!!" hahaha.



Here is the party table minus the plate of candied rice krispie treats! {oops! those were a last minute add on right before guests arrived!}






















Here are a few random shots of the kiddies playing and eating!












A special thank you to Grandma Tina who helped out SOOO MUCH! Thanks to all our friends who came and played and gave Brigham such fun presents! We are so grateful to have such fun friends!!!

Fun Fishing game and Preschool Organization

Today is one of the last visits Briggy will have with the ECI speech therapist. He has progressed SOOOO much, and we're grateful to her and the program for all that they have provided for our family.
Today she was working on some blends with Briggy that he is having trouble with {shells, sheep, giraffe...etc.} so she had flashcards with those items on them and they each had paper clips on them. With a fishing pole that had a magnent end {ours is a Munchkin bath toy} he would go fishing for the cards and say what he saw on them. I know that that is a pretty common game, but I really liked the ease of the paper clip instead of sticking on those expensive magnets or strips I thought I would have to do to get the same result. He had a lot of fun with it, so I will definitely be doing this with alot of activities in the near future!





On an organizational note, I've been trying to find out the best way to organize all of the preschool worksheets I print off and I finally came up with a *cute* solution.




I was lucky and won an Office Depot gift card from one of their Christmas-time sweepstakes, so I put it to use and bought that ENORMOUS 4" binder. They are really expensive {like $17} which I would never pay with my own loot, but last week they had them on their worklife specials were you get 100% cash back. So I bought it with a gift card {free} and will be sent another gift card for the price I "paid" for it---yea! The size is great though, because with 26 letters, numbers, shapes and colors, I am going to have a lot of print outs over the next 2 years. I bought the A-Z dividers and 1-5 dividers from Avery on Amazon
I wanted the front cover to be cute, so I just used "preschool words" and designed a cover from www.wordle.net I am obsessed with this and have made layouts for every season/holiday to put in a frame in my entryway. Its kind of like subway art that is so in right now---but free and i dont need photoshop!!

LMNO!

One thing I always remember was hearing little kids sing "elemeno"! during the alphabet song. So when I first taught Brigham the alphabet we didnt sing it to learn it, we said each letter slowly. Now of course he knows the song, but he knows "lmno" are lumped together like that! We are big fans of the Signing Time DVDs and she actually has a song about LMNO and how they are different. So we watched that clip, and of course listened to the song on repeat {ai-yi-yi} on the signing time cd! I had a lot of different ideas for each letter, but because I did all 4 during the same day, I had to limit the individual activities. I know we'll be reviewing the letters again soon, so I didnt worry about each letter getting less focus.

For L we made and learned about ladybugs
For M we had M&Ms {which have been a potty training reward} Macaroni and Marshmallows
For N we learned about nests
For 0 we learned about Octopuses and Owls

I printed off the A-Z handwriting sheets from Confessions of a Homeschooler

I pretty much use EVERYTHING! she has on her site, and if you were doing each letter separately or wanting more LMNO activities, you'll find tons on her blog.





We made a lady bug out of construction paper and I asked Brigham how many spots the lady bug should have--he said 10! so I punched out 10 spots and he glued them on. I hope to put together a ladybug file folder game that has some lady bug math using the spots on it this weekend. {Im hoping to be able to post it on Saturday!}
For M I chose all food items to make a craft with. We looked through the pantry and found macaroni and marshmallows to make M's out of. We were lucky to get the M's glued on before he ate them all!!!
The N activity that we used from her blog went over particularly well. I laminated the page with the nests that were divided into capital and lower case Ns and I laminated the sheet that had all of the captial and lower case eggs and then cut them out.
Brigham had to put each egg in the right spot.


The O activity was found on: http://makinglearningfun.com/themepages/OwlHandprint.htm
We are going to turn that Owl activity into a valentine for a certain Auntie Jessie who loves Owls! "Whoooooo loves you" or something cutesy like that will be written on the back with some Briggy drawings!

After going over the handwriting {which he is really picking up well!!} and making the crafts it was time for lunch so we didnt end up doing any other Letter worksheets, but there are so many to choose from.
here are some of my favorites that I am definitely going to use throughout the year in reviews:
L: http://www.first-school.ws/theme/animals/wild/lion.htm
M: http://www.preschoolexpress.com/alphabet_station04/m_activities.shtml
O: http://www.kidzone.ws/math/ocean/k-next1.htm

Back--with a new Plan of Attack!

The past couple months were a little bit crazy for our family. Nothing major or serious, but I felt a little overwhelmed with things, and took a break from the regimented daily pre-k homeschooling for Brigham. We were *trying* to potty train, FINALLY! had Brigham's adneiods removed and tubes put in his ears and had a few allergy issues and visits with the doctor for our little guy Oliver. Throw in the hectic nature of holidays--and well---I kind of gave up. We still worked daily on learning activities, but the boys watched more dvds than normal {we watch a LOT of Signing Time} Anyway, my 2011 goal was to step-up my pre-k homeschooling and thats what Im here to do!
Before I was having scheduled Preschool time from 10-11:30 everyday. I think that had something to do with the overwhelming feeling I had, feeling the need to have everything prepared everyday and posting stressed me out! Im just not as gun-ho as some other mommies? I dont know, I just felt like maybe if I did a 3-day week I'd feel like I had more time to prepare and less pressure. {pressure I was just placing on myself, but all of you moms know what I mean!} So I decided on Monday, Wednesday and Friday as preschool days! I had my whole lesson plan mapped out for the rest of the year starting on January 3rd, and guess what happened? On January 3rd my son Brigham was NOT HAVING IT! I had designed the schedule similar to what I was doing before with Monday's a focus on ONE LETTER. Well, over these past few months, Brigham has become much more skilled in the alphabet, spelling and even some reading! So the little one letter lesson I planned wasnt "enough" for him. He kept wanting to branch out and do more and didnt seem satisfied with what I had prepared. So I did a little brainstorming and talked with a friend of mine that is an elementary school teacher, and came up with a little more diverse and challenging lesson plan.
I have to re-work some things, but next monday I am going to be starting my regular blog posts again with an L M N O plan for Monday.
This is a learning process for me, so I hope I can help with some links, ideas and organization. Im excited for this new schedule!!!

Why we're MIA.....

since coming back home from my trip, i started potty training briggy and he will soon have his adneiod removed---so things have been crazy and i decided on not having the structured preschool until the week following his surgery {november 8} we've been doing a lot of potty, pumpkin and halloween related activities---but thats about it. If you happen to read this entry, know that there will be more info and worksheets to come--and if you had a minute, pray for my little briggy---we're hoping this surgery will help him in all the speech and behavioral delays he's experiencing.
thank you!
love,
kelly tillotson

ps- to all of you blogger moms that homeschool multiple children, are immaculate homemakers, have side businesses that you run online....and have time to blog daily---i really look up to you and want to know where the HECK YOU FIND YOUR TIME?! I am really struggling with getting all the work together online, let alone teaching it to him, taking care of my younger one, cleaning the house {sort of} and then at the end of the day having the energy to blog about it, when all i want to do is curl up with my hub, popcorn and watch real housewives. I would love to know your secrets!!!