Friends Are Gifts From God

     This week I decided to focus on the next important thing to a child's life after God and family, and that is friendship. God made us social beings. He made us want to part of a group to help us not feel so alone. Friendship seems to come so easily for young kids. They see someone around thwir age at a park and next thing you know they are chasing eachother around as though they have known eachother for awhile instead of meeting for the first time. Their relationships are not deep like the relationships they will have as they get older, but still important.
     Along with friendship being the theme for this week we worked on the letter Dd and dark vs. light.

Monday- What Is A Friend? Intro Uppercase "D"
Books: My "d" Soundbox by Jane Belk Moncure
Corduroy by Don Freeman
My First Dictionary by Betty Root (D words only

Songs: The More We Get Together
Tingaleyo by Raffi

Activities: "D" Coloring Page
Pots and pans drum set fun day. Basically find all the pots and pans you do not plan on ising for cooking. Pull them out along with some spoons and let the child habe at it.
Duplo blocks playtime
Explain what a friend is and talk about how Jesus is our friend. Talk about how Jesus had needed his friends, the Apostles, while he was here. Read a Bible story showing the importance of Jesus' friendship with His appstles.
Friend play date at the park

Tuesday- Kindness To Friends; Dark/Light
Books: A Friend Like You by Tanja Askani
Pooh and the Dragon by Ann Braybrooks
My First Dictionary, Dd words only

Songs: Make New Friends
Puff the Magic Dragon

Activities:  Glow in the dark necklace fun in his room with his lights off and curtains shut.
Make gloop together... 2 parts corn starch, 1  part water, and food coloring.
Dramatic play with his doctor set and his stuffed bears
Play with dry black beans
Talk together about fun and kind things friends do together.

Wednesday- Friend Role Playing; Lowercase d
Books: My Friend Isabelle by Eliza Woloson
What the Dinosaurs Did Last Night by Refe and Susan Tuma
Skippy Jones in the Dog House by Judy Schachner (book with cd)
My First Dictionary, Dd words only

Songs: Sharing Song by Raffi
Friends (tune of Are You Sleeping Brother John)
I like you, I like you
Yes, I do. Yes, I do
Friends are sharing
Friends are caring
I like you. Yes, I do.

Activities: "d" coloring page
Friend role playing
Play dough fun
Duplo block fun
Mr. Potato head time

Thursday: Anti-Bullying Day; Light/Dark
Books: Dumbo by the walt disney books
The Ugly Duckling  by Polona Lovsin
My First Dictionary, "Dd" words only
Down by the Bay by Kim Mitzo Thompson and Karen Mitzo Hilderbrand (book with cd)

Songs: Five Little Ducks by Raffi
Down by the Bay

Activities: Talk about what bullying is and why it is not ok to be part of bullying. Introduce one of the Great Commandments. Do unto others how you want to be done unto you, in pre-k terms.
Build a blanket tent in living room for kids to play in for dark and enjoy glow in the dark necklaces and/flashlight
Free coloring
Practice scissors and working on straight lines
Zoo day- look for animals that use d... we saw dromedary camels and komodo dragons, ducks and played on some drums.

Friday- Choosing Good Friends/Dd vocab work
Books: Dragon Was Terrible by Kelly DiPycchio
Clifford's Pals by
My First Dictionary, Dd words only

Songs: B-I-N-G-O
Oh, It's Great to Be A Dinosaur (glory glory hallelujia)
Oh I love to romp and stomp and chomp thtpughout the land.
Oh I love to romp and stomp and chomp throughout the land
Oh I love to romp and stomp and chomp throughout the land.
Oh it's great to be a dinosaur

Oh how I love to be a dinosaur
Oh how I love to be a dinosaur
Oh how I love to be a dinosaur
I romp and stomp and chomp all throughout the land.

Activities:
Talk about importance of finding good friends that love God too so they can stay out of trouble.
Dinosaur water paint pages
Free painting
Sand fun
Dd vocab work page

 D is for dirty! Boys will be boys.

Additional dvd's for when needed:
Dumbo
Veggie Tales: King George and the Rubber Ducky
Daniel Tiger: Daniel's New Friend episode
Daniel Tiger's Daniel's Friends Say No episode

What ways or activities can you think of that can help an almost 3 yr old understand more about friendship?

D is for Dramatic Play

   

     The last few days I have experienced my child pretend to be a doctor. I have watched him run superfast around our backyard exclaiming loudly "SUPER WHY" (his version of super heros at the moment). I have seen him pretend he is a puppy dog, cat, and cow. I have watched him have comversations over his fake cell phone while working hard at his tool bench like daddy and papaw do. Playing pretend and using his imagination is what  educators refer to as dramatic play.
     Dramatic play both in their own time as well as structured through an adult are very important for the social and emotional growth of children. It may seem like a silly game your child has made up and you may get bored after 10 minutes of whatever scenario they are excited about sharing with you, but maybe after reading this post you will find their dramatic play not so silly anymore. That is my hope, anyway.
      So what exactly is going on that is so developmentally big? Many different things actually. Through dramatic play your child is able to figure out and understand more of the world around them. Young children are not quite able to think through what they have experienced. Just like art is an outlet to physically work through emotions, dramatic play is used in the same way for them. If something is scary or upsetting to them they will use dramatic play to work out why.
     They need dramatic play to help work out how roles work best. Dramatic play helps them make sense of why a doctors do check ups, or explore how cooking and service work through playing in a kitchen set and taking turns serving, cooking, and ordering. It helps them learn  social behaviors and social cues. Through interaction with peers there will undoubtedly be disagreements and fights, but they also learn how to cooperate with other people and how to find solutions that can make everyone happy. Conflict-resolution skills are started through these interactions and it will continue to grow as they get older. It is easy to see that along with conflict-resolution skills they are also learning self-regulating skills. Skills that help them learn the rules and behavior acceptable to those around them.
      Believe it or not acting and playing make-believe is also inportant for early literacy. They learn the importance of needing and wanting to read and write through their role playing. A waitress needs a pad to write orders on. A child playing store needs to understand what labels on food are as well as paper for writong down a shopping list. A mechanic needs to know how to understand the instruction manual.
     Dramatic play is part of their learning experience. It is work for them. Fun work, yes, but work still. Hopefully next time you catch your kids playing pretend you may be more interested in what they are working on or out through their adventures. Maybe you will find it even more enjoyable jumping in and following their lead. You will probably be able to learn even more about how they view their world. It may make notmal scenarios more exciting and interesting stepping into their cute and little shoes.

Introduction to Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligence Theory

 

While taking early childhood education

courses I became bombarded with the ideas of so many different theories of how children learn. Skinner, Pavlov, Frued,  along with many others. It was hard sometimes to keep track of which psychologist and behavioral theorist came up with which theory. Many times it was well accepted to hear us students ask, now as it Sigmund Fruied who is famous for (insert a learning theory here) or was is Montessori? After going through coyrse after course it becomes more natural to figure out which learning behavioral theories are more favored, and which ones you became to hate mainly because of how much focus was part of it. Not that the ones most hated were not important. They are, which is why they had full courses based on those particular ones. 

     

     I have a few teaching/learning styles I have come to really appreciate and use most when teaching my classes. One of my personal favorites is keeping Howard Gardener's multiple intelligence theory in mind when putting together lesson plans for early pre-k. His thoery basically is each child has unique learning styles. Children learn best when being taught through their learning styles. Also each child has more than one learning style. Usually early childhood 2-3 yr olds tend to fall into 3 of the 8 styles, spatial, linguistic, and musical, but that does not mean every child falls into those three. I will give a general definition of each of the 8 and maybe it will help you figure out which ways your child learns best. I have found my child has learned best through those three categories. Also bear with me and the way the words ended up being formatted on this post. I am using my phone and blogger is acting a little bonkers on me today.

Spatial

•   Children with this learning style learn best from visuals. They usually will enjoy reading and writing. They tend to be very good at putting puzzles together
• good at interpreting pictures. They love spending time with the visual arts and are good at understandimg what pictures are supposed to be about. They also recognize patterns easily. 
•                                Linguistic
• Children with this learning style are great with verbal learning. They are good at remembering written and spoken information. They enjoy reading and writing. Also they give impeccable persuasive speeches and thrive on debating
• They are good with giving explanation for things they are understanding
•  
•                        Logical-Mathmatical

• Children with this style tend to be the logical thinkers. They love figuring out patterns and thinking about abstract ideas.  They love coubting and working on numbers. They love problem solving and working out how things work through experiments.

•                        Bodily-Kinesthetic 
• Children with this learning style need movement. Sitting still for them is pure torture. They tend to have great body control. They have excellent physical coordination which makes exercising, dancing, and sports second nature to them. They learn lots of things with getting their hands dirty. They tend to renember best through physically working through it with someone giving examples than reading directions. 

                          Musical

Children with this learning style learn best through music. They are naturally aware of patterns and beats, rhythms, tones. They memorize songs and melodies as easily as they breath. The are more prone to playing with musical instruments and understand concepts after singing songs or hearing quiet music in the background.

                                Interpersonal 

Children work best and thrive in group settings. These are people people meaning they are great at building relationships. They are also known for their peacekeeping abilities when problems arise amongs friends. They are great with communication and also pick up on non-verbal cues super easily.

                  

                               Intrapersonal

Children here are more reflective. They love to spend time thinking about life and ideas moreso on their own. They are great at understanding their feelings and able to express their thoughts to others. They can realize what they are good at and not so good at which makes them very self aware.

                        Naturalistic 

Children who have this learning style are focused on nature. Anything and everything about the outdoor world. They love studying and experimenting and exploring the great outdoors. They love hiking and categorizing what new concepts they have learned through nature.

God Calls Families to Be Holy

     After two weeks of learning more about how God created us in unique and special ways and how to take care of our bodies to glorify God, I figured the next topic to learn about is families. Families are as unique as ourselves, but the one thing that should pull us altogether is how we are all called to be holy. The best way to do this is to try and emulate the best family in history. The Holy Family. Jesus, Mary, and St. Joseph should be who each family should want to aspire too. This week we worked on activities to help my almost three year old learn about ways families try to be like the Holy Family.

     Along with doing a week on families we worked on the letter Cc and the concept of long/longer/longest.

Monday - What Is A Family/ Introduce Uppercase "C"
Books: Families by Shelly Rotnery (with this book I personally chose to skip a page so that is also an option if you find a book you like except for a page or two.)
My c Sound  Box by Jane Belk Moncure
Picture Dictionary - Cc words

Songs: Pat-A-Cake (instead of saying mark it with a B, mark is with a C and practice tracing the c in the air)

 Happy Family (tune of I'm A Little Teapot)
I love momma, she loves me
We love daddy, yes sirree
He loves us and so you see
We're a happy family

Activities:

Begin working on Anthony's family photo album. Today we added just our small family of 3 photos. Each day we will add more as I introduce to him how relatives are also his family.
Ice Play: I froze water in different sized plastic containers the night before so that ice would be ready for him to touch and experience. I put the ice shapes in the pool outside so he would be able to spend more time playing with it, while being able to run around outside and keep warm, since ice is COLD (c for cold). I brought out his cars and people to play in his ice cold city.
"C" coloring page

Tuesday: Families Pray Together/Longest
Books:Creation by Cynthia Rylant (the story of the beginning of the first family God created)
Just Me and My Mom and Just Me and My Dad both by Mercer Mayer
Picture Dictionary Cc words

Songs: All I Really Need by Raffi
Pussy Cat Pussy Cat (mother Goose)

Activities:
Play-dough to roll out and show long/longer/longest

Pray A Family Rosary together -we pray daily rosaries, but some days we do not pray altogether. I let Anthony play with saint peg dolls, carry Rosaries around, and if he gets other toys out than we do not mind. At his age hearing it being prayed and seeing his older family members praying is the most important. Most of the time he will join in by praying parts of the Our Father, Hail Mary whenever he feels like joining in. I do have coloring pages, but coloring is not his fav. He prefers looking at them right now, which is fine with me.
Long/longer/longest work sheet

Also Mother Goose On the Loose day at the library

Wednesday: Families Love and Respect One Another/Lowercase "c"
Books: The Story of Christmas by Hayley Down
Just My Grandma and Me and Just My Grandpa and Me both by Mercer Mayer
Picture Dictionary Cc words

Songs/Rhymes: These Are Grandma's/Grandpas Glasses
Hey Diddle Diddle

Activities:
Intro to the 4th Commandment in pre k terms how Good loving parents are supposed to treat their children with love, kindness, and respect as well as help them and teach them, and make sure they are taken good care of. In turn kids are to follow their parents example, do as they are told, listen, and give love back.

Add to the family photo album photos of grandparents. Explain how they are important to the child's family. Introduce St. Anne and St. Joachim as Jesus' grandparents. How his grandparents were important to Jesus' family

c coloring page

Free chalk play

Park Day

Thursday: Families Work Together/longest

Books: The Cat In The Hat by Dr. Seuss
Click, Clack, Moo Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin
Picture Dictionary Cc words

Songs: Sally the Camel
He's Got The Whole World In His Hands (use mothers and fathers, MiMi's and Papaw's, Aunts and Uncles, all the cousins, you and me)

Activities:

Zoo day- went to the zoo to find animals that start with Cc. We found copperhead, cobra, and cottonmouth snakes (insert completely freaked out I am terrified of snakes face) and camels. We also rode the carousel.

String beads to make long/longer/longest strands

Work on a family job chart. Explain how the Holy Family each worked together to get things done and did not get upset over the work they each needed to do. At Almost 3 is a great way to make my child realize he is definitely old enough for some bigger responsibilities. For him we all talked about how his "new" official responsibilities are to put his dirty clothes in the hamper, help pick up his toys, help put laundry in washer/dryer, and also press the start button on the washer/dryer. He already helps with these things, but these are now his little jobs.

Watched Daniel the Tiger "Daniel Helps Dad" episode

Add photos of Anthony's Aunts/Uncles to his photo album and explain how they are also his family and how special they are to him.

Friday: Families Have Fun Together/Cc vocabulary Review

Books: Cowboys by Glen Rounds
Corduroy By Don Freeman (Cordury is one of my kid's all time lovies. He has a few, but Corduroy is near the top of the lovey chain, so ofcourse I had to fit this one in)
Picture Dictionary Cc words

Songs: Free Choice

Activities:

Free coloring

Worked on his Cc vocabulary work sheet

Add photos of Anthony's 1st cousins (would love to asd them all, BUT both sides of our family are HUGE and we do not have a big enough photo album at this time for that. I would love to do that thought. That would be fun to see put altogether) and explain why cousins are related and important to his family. Introduce St Elizabeth, St Zachariah, and St John the Baptist to explain how important cousins were to Jesus' family

Shaving Cream Slip-n-slide/water play: take our slip-n-slide and cover it in shaving cream. Fun for Anthony to experience this with momma and daddy and seriously how does this not sound fun?!?!

Additional dvd's to use as needed.
.. Peg + Cat, the Race Car Problem
Super Why: Jasper's Cowboy Wish
Brother Francis: O Holy Night
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, both 1 and 2.
     What ways can you think of to help your 2-3 yr old learn about families and how to emulate the Holy Family? Please share your ideas!

Early Pre-K Stages of Coloring/Drawing

     Free coloring is a great educational activity a child should be able to take advantage of as much as possible. All that is needed is plenty of blank paper and crayons, markers, colored pencis, and even regular pencils, and chalk too.

     Coloring is not only great for their fine motor skills to help them as they learn to write, but it works their gross motor skills as they use all their arm muscles for coloring. It helps them with self-expression and creativity. It helps them emotionally as they work out what this world is all about. All of this also in turn will help build their self-confidence which is why putting their art up where they can see that other's find value in their work is so important.

    As a parent I know how hard it can be sometimes to figure out what is going on in a picture my almost 3 yr old happily shows off to me, but knowing the information in the above paragraph as well as what is age appopriate makes it easier to show true excitement when he brings me a page of another scribble picture. Also knowing how coloring is one of his not so favored activities to do makes me appreciate the artwork he does spend a whole lot of time on.

     So, what exactly is "age-appropriate" for a 2-3 year old? Well basically the scribbling stage is still normal to see up until age 3, which is why the work sheets I do use for my youngun is not something I freak out over because he scribbles all over it. For boys, the scribbling stage can actually last for a little bit after they turn 3 mainly because it takes longer for them to have stronger fine motor skills than girls. A lot of times girls pass by the scribble stage and enter into the pre-schematic coloring stage by age 3, but just keep in mind each child is different.
 
      If you want to help them along, without pushing coloring than that is cool too. The best way to help strengthen those fine motor skills when not coloring is through playing with play-dough, or tracing things in shaving cream. Basically anything that makes them flex and use those little finger/hand muscles. I hope after reading this it might help ease your mind about when to expect to see something other than those scribbles. What other ways to you find important about coloring that I forgot to mention here? Drop a comment and let me know.

Scribble stage (6 months-3 yrs)

Pre-schematic stage (2 yrs. - 4 yrs.)

Early Pre-k School Supplies Tips

     Since I decided to open my blog to be public and have started spreading the word around to my social media account I have also been looking for posts made by friends that focused on early childhood/early pre-k education questions mainly for inspiration of things to write about. One question I happened to notice this week was about the main necessaties that are really needed for teaching early pre-k at home. After working for almost a decade in a 2/3's age classroom it has been somewhat of a struggle to remember that I need to dial down what I was able to work with in a daycare classroom to what I really do need to spend some money on buying. Thankfully some things I have already owned or were gifted to Anthony for birthday/Christmas presents. With that being said, here are some of the basic things I ended up buying for the beginning of the school year.

My calendar for calendar time
A little American flag for calendar time
Washable paint
Larger sized paintbrushes
The bigger markers
Crayons, one box of the large ones and one of the regular sized
A packet of bigger, easier 3 yr old sized pencils
A packet of abc flashcards
3 different curriculum work books, 1 for ABC recognition, 1 for him to learn to trace and cut with, and 1 for mathematics
A bag of pom poms
Construction paper
Glue sticks
Toddler safety scissors
Blank paper for him to paint/color on
A ruler

What I already own and have here at the house

Playdough
Shaving cream
Blocks
A bead and shoelace srring set
Play cars and people
A little tool set and tool bench
Outdoor play chalk
Bubbles
A couple board puzzles

Along with these things I must say if you have the luxery of a library nearby, as some people do not, than make good use of it. Half of the books I am using for these themes come from the library. Such a money saver and books are so important for so many reasons. I do suggest going alone for the trips you are needing to pick out theme based books so you can really focus on what is actually in them rather than quickly picking out titles while also keeping on the look-out for your kid.

     Also look around your home. The simplest things can be remade into something new for them to learn with. Google ideas if you are not feeling as inspired by your topic of choice as you thought you would be. Repition is also key for this stage. Even if that means singing a new song on the theme like ten times in a row. Yes, I did that just this morning...Do not take this stage too seriously. It is about introducing new ideas, but if you stress too much than you will miss out of the fun. Enjoy watching them learn as they explore. That is where the magic will happen.

Using Our Bodies To Glorify God

     It is easy to see that after last week's theme of God making each of us special that this week should be focused on our health and hygiene. The bible quotes kind of explain why we need to teach good health and hygiene not only because it is the socially acceptable norm (and most certainly should be) but because our bodies are not our own. They are God's. We need to keep up healthy lifestyles to be able to glorify God at our best for as long as He wants us to here on earth.

"Do you not realise that your bodies are members of Christ's body"

1st Corinthians 6:15 (the first part)~

"Do you not realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you and whom you received from God? You are not your own property, then; you have been bought at a price. So use your body for the glory of God."
~1st Corinthians 19-20~

     Along with this theme we worked on introducing the letter Bb as well as the concept of small, smaller, and smallest.

Monday - hygiene routines/uppercase B
Books: "My B Soundbox" by Jane Belk Moncure
 "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom"
 Our picture Dictionary, the Bb.                         words
Songs: Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush
The B-I-B-L-E

Activities:
B coloring sheet
Free play with duplo blocks
Sensory - bubble play
Zoo day- went searching for the animals that start with b. We found bongos, bats, birds, polar bear, boa constrictor, and others.

Tuesday - Healthy eating and exercise/small/smaller/smallest
Books: Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton
The Ark That Noah Built by Melody Carlson
Our picture dictionary - b words
Songs: Apples and Bananas
 Knees Up Mother Brown (a Raffi song).
Activities:
Tactile- Pom pom sorting into piles of small, smaller, and smallest
Chalk play- made different sized shapes to help differentiate small, smaller, and smallest
Helped bake homemade mixed berry muffins
Gross motor skills- played outside throwing/kicking an assortment of different sized balls.
Also worked on the small, smaller, smallest activity work sheet.

Wednesday: Germs/importance of handwashing and covering our mouths when we cough or sneeze/lowercase b
Books: How to Potty Train Your Monster by
Kelly DiPucchio
Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle
Picture dictionary the Bb words

Songs: Five Little Monkeys Jumping On The Bed
Smelly Germs (to the tune of Where.              Is Thumbkin)
 Smelly germs, smelly germs
 all around, all around
 wash them all away
 flush them down the drain
goodbye germs, goodbye germs

Activities:
Free foam block play.
Shaving cream germ activity- put a little shaving cream on your hands as a visual for germs and then proceed to explain how germs spread when we do not wash hands. Do this by first showing how the shaving cream will spread from one hand to the other... shake your child's hand to show how those same germs will then stick on their hands... touch a couple toys and say look how my germs have stuck to the toy. Eventually ask them to think of a way to clean away the germs... after they figure out the answer is washing their hands then go altogether to wash the shaving cream/germs to help them visual the germs being washed off.
Practice how to cover mouths when they cough and sneeze to help keep germs from spreading everywhere.
Lower case b activity
Play 5 little monkeys... we allow kids to jump on our guest bed with shoes off as we do not have a headboard for them to break. This option is not for everyone, but they can still pretend on the floor.

Thursday: Bath Time/ straight lines/scissor day
Books: Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems
There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bat by Lucille Colandro

Songs: The Wheels On the Bus
The Bathtime Song by Raffi

Activities:
Bubble bath pool water play.
Shaving cream play to practice drawing straight lines in as well as for drawing
small, smaller, and smallest shapes in.
Work on fine motor skills while practicing with safety scissors

Friday- Teeth care/ review of Bb

Books: Bear's New Friend by Karma Wilson. and Jane Chapmann
Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do                    You See?
Picture Dictionary -Bb words

Songs/rhymes: Teddy Bear Teddy Bear
Brush Your Teeth song by Raffi

Activities:
Wooden block free play.
Actually work on brushing teeth. Tooth painting project- take a yellow piece of paper. Draw a tooth shape on it. Have the child paint it white like he/she is brushing it clean.
Bubble play

Additional dvd's to use as needed:
Veggie Tales Madame Blueberry
 Daniel the Tiger: Daniel Tries A                      New Food episode
 Beauty and the Beast

Other songs we used:
I'm Bringing Home A Baby Bumble Bee
 B-I-N-G-O
Baby Beluga -A Raffi Song
Baby Mine- From the movie Dumbo

Additional activity I ended up not fitting in..
Water balloon fun

B Is For Blocks

     The letter for the week that we are focusing on is Bb. One of the toys that I have chosen to use with my son are blocks. His duplo blocks, foam blocks, and wooden blocks. Quite a mess, but considering how important block play is, I do not mind. Plus, it gives him a chance at helping me with clean-up.
     I want to explain some ways that  young children learn through block play. It is more than them being able to learn how to use blocks to enhance their imaginary play, as well as strengthen their social skills. There is a lot going on for them while enjoying the fun of building blocks.
    While toddlers and young children build with blocks they are strengthening their problem solving skills. They have to use those brain muscles to figure out how to put together the building they are wanting for their imagination to become reality. They are learning what will work through trial and error. Sometimes kids get so frustrated when it does not work out the way they want it too, but when given a little break to calm down it is there ready for them to give it another try.
     Balancing blocks on top of one another also works to help strengthen those tiny fine motor skills. This is important for them when they are learning to write and draw. It also helps them with their hand and eye coordination, which also helps them with their writing skills as well as stronger athletic skills too.
     When they build the tower the way they hoped to in their mind it builds their self confidence. This will then help them feel less scared to learn even more trickier concepts. Building self-confidence is so important to help them be good leaders too and team plauers.
     Also, block play helps them with their mathmatical skills. They are basically little architects while designing and implementing those block structures. No matter how small their structure may seem, to them it is a masterpiece of creativity.
     There really is a lot going on in those minds as the build, plow, and explore through a big pile of blocks. What other ways can you think of that show how important free block play is for kids?

Calendar Time

     Calendar time. It is one of the most wide spread popular activities you will find in a daycare/pre-k setting. It is also one of the most hot topic issues, believe it or not, among early childhood educators. I think there are pros and cons to the activity myself, but not enough cons to completely ignore it with my kid. The beauty of staying at home and doing this on my own with him is that with one child he can get the most out of it without having to sit still and wonder when his turn to hold the flag for the pledge is (I know, I know, another thing not everyone is happy about. I will touch on this later), or put the number on the calendar, and you get the picture. He gets to do it all if he wants or none of it too. I let him take the lead on those things.
     Ok ok, so why did I say it is a hot topic? Well because there are people who LOVE calendar time, and people who hate it so much they are wanting to get rid of it from schools altogether. There are things about it I am not a fan of. Time, for one, is a very hard concept for young ones to comprehend. Those of you with toddlers know what I mean when I say that yesterday has just as much of a meaning to them timewise as tomorrow does. Yesterday could mean anything that happened before they woke up this morning and tomorrow basically means they know they still have to wait for something to come because today they were told, not today. You get the picture I hope. Does that mean I ignore the days of the week song with my son? No, I do not. He loves songs. He is even picky each day which version of the days of the week song we will sing. It is his favorite part of when we do calendar time. I know to him those days do not have much meaning yet, but it does not mean I will miss out on him belting out those days because well, it is adorable. I do not really emphasise today, yesterday, and tomorrow with him because I know for an almost 3 yr old it makes not much since to him. I just fill those up myself.
     What I do actually like about calendar time is it does give us a routine to start our day with. It also does help him have another part of the day to work on his counting and as he gets a little older, some squencing too.
     I mentioned it earlier, and yes, my son and I do practice the Pledge of Allegience right after we say thank you to God for our day and the Angel of God prayer. I bet you are wondering why would I be so bappy about the Pledge and so kind of blah about the concept of time? Yes, I know the Pledge is also very difficult for his age to understand, but if I am being honest it comes from my very proud and patriotic parents as well as because of the family members I love who are serving in the military right now. One of my nephews is in boot camp right now with a couple weeks left. I was taught to do the Pledge by my parents way before I remember even being taught to say it. It is ingrained. I want my child to learn to be respectful and feel grateful for being a citizen of this country just as my parents taught me.
    Doing calendar time, as I said, is controversial. What do you like/dislike about it? How do you adapt it to fit your child's learning style or do you ignore completely? Shoot me a comment, preferably keep it respectful, but I like hearing yall's thoughts.

   

God Made You Special

     There is no better and more fun way to introduce the idea of pre-k work to me than doing a theme focusing on what makes each child unique and feel accepted. Since I am Catholic I also wanted to help my child realize that God is the one who created us. He made each of us different and loves us very much. *Cough** cough*Veggie Tales *cough**cough*
     Along with this theme I introduced the letter Aa to him along with the concept of big, bigger, and biggest.

Monday

Books: My A Sound Box
             God Made Me Special by Greg Fritz
Songs: ABC's
             I Am Special
             (Tune of Are You Sleeping)

              I am special
              I am special
              Can't you see
              Can't you see
              Someone very special
              Someone very special
              'Cause God made me
              'Cause God made me
Activity: Uppercase A coloring page
Art/sensory -free painting
Field trip to the zoo to visit the animals because animals start with the letter Aa.

Tuesday

Books: The Skin You Live In by Michael
             Tyler
             My First Dictionary (Aa picture                        words)
Songs : Apples and Bananas
Sensory: pom pom (those little fuzzy.                              balls) sorting. Sorted the                                    pom poms into piles of big, bigger,                  and biggest.
                 Outside chalk. Colored outside
                 together shapes different sizes to
                 learn big, bigger, biggest.
Activity: the big, bigger, biggest coloring
                work sheet

Also it was our Mother Goose On the Loose Day today.

Wednesday

Books: Our Bodies by Sue Clark
             Review the Aa picture words in the
             dictionary
Songs: The Hokey Pokey
            Head Shoulders Knees and Toes
            The Ants Go Marching One By One
Sensory/Art: Free Painting
Activity: Lower case a coloring page

Thursday

Books: Feelings by Sue Clark
             Review the Aa picture words in the
             Dictionary
Songs: If You're Happy and You Know It
            There Is No One Just Like Me
             (Tune of twinkle twinkle little star)
              There's no one who is just like me
              No one who knows how to be
              Me when I am mad or sad
              Me when I am very glad
              There is no one who is just like me
              Me is who I am proud to be.
Sensory: pom pom sorting again. Same as
                 on Tuesday
Activity: practicing drawing straight lines
                and introducing how to use safety
                scissors
Today is Park Day too.

Friday

Books: Review Aa picture vocabulary words
             from the dictionary
Dvd: Daniel Makes A New Friend from
          Daniel the Tiger
Songs: free choice
Sensory: Played with dried black beans
                Shaving cream fun
Activity: Aa vocabulary coloring page

Aditional songs: Jesus loves me

   Jesus loves the little children

    These are just ideas i know my little guy would be able to handle. What are some ideas you may have for activities about diversity and inclusiveness? Please feel free to comment them not only for my curiosity, but for even more ideas for you my readers as well.

Welcome

     Hey all of you readers out there welcome to my blog. My name is Teresa. I am married to a wonderful husband and I stay at home with my almost 3 yr old son.
     If I am being honest I am mostly using this blog as a reference tool for some of my pre-k lessons i will be doing with my little guy. Because of this I do not really expect to have a whole lot of excitement here, unless these ideas are something future stay at home mommas may be interested in or find helpful to pass the time away.
     I should probably have explained that I was, and still am, an early childhood educator before before I became pregnant and decided to stay at home with my son. A lot of these lesson plans kind of comes from things I have done in the past with my son's age group. With that being said, these lesson plans are not something to fret over if he does not really get them yet, he is almost three after all. They are mainly about introducing these ideas to him. If he remembers them than great, if he does not than no biggie. Almost three years old is still a time for learning through play more than anything else.
     You may be wondering why I chose this name for my blog. Well honestly it is because as an adult I find everyday objects, to be ordinary and so I do not always give them much thought. Through a very young child's eyes the objects or concepts or ideas I find ordinary are actually extraordinary. When I am playing and working with my toddler I begin to remember that ordinary things are so much more than that with him. They are new, exciting, magical, hard, intimidating, and sometimes scary. When I am sitting there experiencing these things with him I am watching the everyday ordinary things become extraordinary and it is a beautiful sight to behold. I hope you find something you like while visiting in on this little blog.