Adam’s Preschool Year: 2011-2012

It’s official, I am home-preschooling (my own word) Adam this Fall!  I have been agonizing over when, what, and how to give Adam a preschool year.  The thought of putting him in a preschool outside of my home has crossed my mind, but only for the social aspect.  Adam is extremely social and of all the things I know I can give him, socialization is the only one I’m struggling with at the moment.  He is just now starting to be interested in playing with friends in the neighborhood so I think if I make a conscious effort to have him play with kids sometimes, he’ll be fine.  He is also going to take a tumbling class once a week so he’ll have that time to be silly with other 3-5 year olds (as if being silly for 2 hours in his church class isn’t enough silliness….bless his teachers).  I guess my only other concern is the overall experience of preschool.  I taught in a preschool for one semester in college and loved it.  I loved all the centers that the kids could choose from.  I loved the creativity of dress-up, play kitchens, art projects, sensory tables, listening stations, the list could go on.  That being said, he still has 1 more year after this before he can start Kindergarten, so a formal preschool isn’t out of the question for next year.

Anyway….I AM excited about having him home!  Maybe it’s my over-protective-motherness, but I can’t bear to leave him yet.  He’s still just a 3 year old!  So here are my plans for the year!  Much thought, research, and praying has gone into compiling this and I’m finally feeling GOOD about it all.  And to me, that is the answer that I’m doing the right thing.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m exhausted just thinking about implementing it, but I have to put aside my selfishness because I know that this is what my son needs.  Structure.  Routine.  Guidance.  Pre-planned activities.  Knowing Mommy is going to sit and focus on him.  So, without further ado, here it is:

CORE

Letter of the Week Preschool Curriculum by Erica at Confessions of a Homeschooler.

I love Erica.  She only charges $10 to download the entire curriculum and let me tell you, it is a TON of stuff.  It is all roughly the same from week-to-week so I am planning in 4 week chunks to make sure that we’re rotating through the activities.  She also has a K4 Expansion that I may consider getting down the road if I feel Adam needs a little more “umph”. 

To go along with the letter theme of the week, we will read the corresponding book from,
AlphaTales Box Set: A Set of 26 Irresistible Animal That Build Phonemic Awareness and Teach Each Letter of the Alphabet


They are silly and kind of pointless stories, but it gives lots of practice saying the sounds and hunting for the letters on the page.  I bought this with the money my sweet Grandparents gave me to buy Christmas presents for my kids with.  My Mom makes fun of me that I buy boring and practical things.  It’s true.  But I wanted these books and they aren’t cheap.  Thank you Grandma!

We will also read the corresponding poem from the e-book ABC Poem of the Week from Scholastic Teaching Resources.

I have planned a few weeks throughout the year to take a break from Letter of the Week and do a fun Preschool Pack by Jolanthe at Homeschool Creations and Carisa at 1+1+1=1. The Pirate one will be the first of several.

PHONICS

Hooked on Phonics: Learn to Read Pre-K

I bought this program a year ago when it was on sale.  I’m a bit undecided about it.  There is another program I am interested in, but since I already have this (and since Adam already knows all of the initial 26 sounds) we’re just going to plow through this.  The rhyming portions will be the most beneficial.  As well as needing to circle things and draw lines in the workbook.

Of course there will be lots of reading during the week as well.  Based on him knowing all his letters and sounds, he could be ready to learn to read, but I’m just feeling like it isn’t time yet.  So maybe after we finish the 2 workbooks in the HOP Pre-K level, I’ll think about starting something else.  He does play Starfall.com and games on the iPad, plus watches The Talking Words Factory so he’s beginning to grasp the idea of sounding out words a little bit.

HANDWRITING

Handwriting Without Tears: Get Set For School Pre-K

We started a little bit of this a few months ago.  But I wanted to hold off so that we could do one letter each week as we work through LOTW.  I am so excited about this program!  It’s very hands on and I’m rotating each week whether he makes letters with play-doh, uses the Stamp & See Screen (magna-doodle), uses wet sponges and/or chalk on a slate, or practices writing in sand, pudding, shaving cream, etc.  One day we’ll do one of these multisensory things along with a workbook page and the other day we’ll use the wood pieces to create the letter.  I hope he learns to write this year!

SPANISH

Little Pim DVDs, CD, and Flashcards

I researched Spanish programs a lot.  I’ve read a couple books in the past, as well as being engaged in teaching my babies sign language, and the fact that children can acquire a second language so much easier in the first 6 years of life is just too big of a deal to pass up.  We tried out a program called Speekee and while Adam loved it, I hated it!  The only thing I liked was that they spoke in conversations.  Other than that, the puppets and actors freaked me out.  I finally stumbled across Little Pim and we love it!  Abby especially!  She squeals with delight and yells, “Pih!” (she’s not putting the ending sound on her words yet) whenever it comes on.  There are 6 DVDs in the collection and each DVD is broken down into 7, 5 minute sections.  There are cute animations and video of children and adults.  It’s strictly vocabulary which is my only complaint.  But, the reason I like it is that it exposes the sounds of the Spanish language to my kids.  When Adam counts in Spanish, he is already using the correct accent that I have to remind myself to use rather than the ‘gringo’ version.  Especially in babies, if you expose them to the distinct sounds of a language, their brains will retain those sounds and make it easier for them to sound native when they later learn the language.  As opposed to their brains dropping all the sounds they come wired to hear, except for the ones made in their native language.   Anyway, we will watch these DVDs (along with our Baby Signing Time DVDs, Signing Time episodes on the DVR, and the Leap Frog DVDs) a couple times a week during the times when I need a break to do the dishes or just for some semi-quietness. :)

The LOTW curriculum also includes a few word flashcards for each letter.  I am also using her English color flashcards as Spanish flashcards and other number games will be done in Spanish.  I also have a couple other music CDs to listen too.

Along with all that, I bought this, The Usborne Book of Everyday Words in Spanish book at my homeschool convention for really cheap because they no longer print this version.  It has awesome pictures that I think are done in clay with TONS of vocabulary.  My plan is to pull this out every week and just have fun looking at it and naming objects.

ART

I am planning art or crafts at least once a week.  Sometimes it is based around our weekly theme, and sometimes I pull ideas from these two books.

First Art: Art Experiences for Toddlers and Twos


Preschool Art: It’s the Process Not the Product!

SCIENCE and SENSORY

I am also planning one science or sensory experience each week (or a drama/pretend experience if my brain will kick into creativity once in a while).  I picked up this book at my homeschool convention.  Some of the things are too advanced for Adam, but some are easy and fun for him.  Along with this book, I am pulling ideas off the internet for fun science-y things.

The Usborne Big Book of Science Things to Make and Do

Carisa at 1+1+1=1 has some great sensory ideas including sensory bins which I plan to incorporate into an individual letter theme, a preschool pack, or with the seasons/holidays.  The first sensory bin I did was for the 4th of July and they absolutely loved it.  The first one I have planned for this school year is for our Pirate theme (Preschool Pack) that we’ll do in mid-September.  I’m really excited about it!  I think to fill up time before then, I’ll just do colored pasta and different measuring tools/cups, etc.

I have really been inspired by John Bowman who is creating the Montessori Minute posts on 1+1+1=1 and I have been reading his eBook called Montessori at Home!: The Complete Guide to Doing Montessori Early Learning Activities at Home.  I think I might create a separate blog post about this (or combine it with a Tot School planning post for Abby) but for now, as I continue reading Bowman’s book, I’m going to try and incorporate Montessori ideas and materials for Adam.

So there you have it.  I think that’s all of it!  It looks like a lot of stuff to do doesn’t it?  I’ll post a picture of our little school area I have set up and more about Abby’s Tot School in another post.  We are scheduled to start school on August 29th (much to Adam’s dismay) so that gives me a week and a half to get myself ready to tackle all of this.  In the mean time, I’m pulling stuff out of storage for the kids to do because they are driving me crazy!  Apparently Adam can only handle a couple of months of unstructured play before he goes insane on me. :) 

This is my first link-up to the Preschool Corner over at www.homeshcoolcreations.blogspot.com!  Yippee!