We are winding down for the year. We didn't do a new shape, but we did review the ones we've already learned over the course of this year with books and eye-spy.
I did get one our learning sessions on video just for posterity. It's hilarious that it was interrupted numerous times by varying things like Doodlebug waking up from his nap early crying, mommy forgetting something, hunger, random songs, Munchkin having ideas where he ran out of the room to get something and finally we decided to pick it up another time when the lawn guys arrived. It was a losing battle for his attention at that point. That's just real life in our day :-) Every day living things don't stress us out. We just finished things up another day and that's all right.
We did 22 activities, even if we'd only done the first sitting, the week would have been deemed a success. I always have more activities ready than what we can do in a week because I have been able to gather so many ideas from blogs through Pinterest. I mix it up every other week or so, since I know I wouldn't want to do the same thing monotonously for 26 weeks as we went through the alphabet. Plus, his skills have advanced, so we've added, deleted and changed activities according to his learning and maturity.
The extra time allowed us to do more for our Monthly Faith focus of Prayer. We read several of our prayer books and did a few crafts this week so I have updated that post.
For the Letter Yy we......
played with a yo-yo
Played with our kizclub.com feet
traced with our makinglearningfun highway letters
Munchkin wanted to do the pattern page from Making Learning Fun 'by mysef'.
He did great! He did match the proper shape and color, it was in the opposite direction ;-)
Power magnets with Confessions of a Homeschooler printable
COAH large letters, railroad & 3d Y
Y vocabulary words from 1+1+1=1
Salt box with tracing card under the box
Doodlebug got in on the Y fun ;-)
Testing out a few things to go full force in the fall. Visuals to go along
with ABC's of Character book.
Education Cubes from MamaJen
ABC Tracing iphone app
ABC Phototouch phone ap, He did great!
Phonics from Leap Frog, Visual from 1+1+1=1 for our Verse of the Week,
and trading card from The Story for bible story time.
Letter building
Playdoh mats ( or soy-doh as we use) from Homeschool Creations
Cookie cutter Letters
Geoboard
Lacing letters from Homeschool Creations
Gluing bible verse on a bible mommy colored. Munchkin really enjoyed
layering on the glue from 1+1+1=1
May's Faith focus is on prayer. Ideas that I'm considering for the month are on my Pinterest Prayer board. Also, three books called "Pray and Play Bible", "Helping Kids Pray" and "Teaching Children to Pray" Ages 2 & 3 are proving to be creative resources. I'll add pictures as we complete projects through out the month.
My background with prayer as a child were centered around organized prayers from the Catholic church. While we can deepen our understanding and connection with God through these, we don't want our children to be limited to formal prayers as I was. My husband's spiritual gift is prayer and God has grown me in this area through my husband's gift by being married to him. Our example as parents will be one of the greatest daily models our children will see of being vulnerable, personal and respectful as we approach our Heavenly Father. This pillar of faith is so integral in our walk with God I didn't want to pass up the opportunity to be intentional about learning to talk with God. Since we are winding down academically, we can really pour quite a bit of time in May. In fact, this first week with mommy's birthday and daddy taking a couple of days off, we spent teaching time solely on our faith focus.
With two little guys, I have plenty of these snacks. So I used the can. I used
my scrapbook paper and letter stickers and a glue gun
In are to be prayed, out has been so everyone is covered
For Instance, we have prayed over these family and friends
since we set it up, so they'll go in the out can.
Red is immediate family
Blue is extended family
Green is friends
Black is meal time prayers since it sits on the dining room table.
2011 Christmas Cards received help direct us to a family
or friend to cover in prayer a week at a time. I put these in
no particular order. Our friends, the Davis' were who
we prayed for the first week in May
Relating blowing bubbles to sending our prayers up to God.
I really enjoy having fun, making memories and incorporating spiritual truths with teachable moments. It's relaxed, not contrived, forced or stiff. It really speaks to Deuteronomy 11:19 regarding how we are to teach love and obedience to the Lord to our children as we sit, walk, lay down and get up. Framing an activity through the viewpoint of God, also reminds me of how Jesus spoke in every day parables so the people could understand big truths.
Crafts:
Videos:
We've talked quite a bit about Daniel praying to God no matter what others tell him. We do have the VeggieTales version of that story.
Coloring Pages and Preschool Worksheets:
Visuals:
Prayer is us talking to God, which leads me to June's focus. We will focus on the powerful and main way God speaks to us through His word. We'll be using resources to get more familiar and talk about the Bible.
