Everything Will FALL Into Place When You Put God First

     This week is, as far as teaching goes, is probably one of my top five favorite themes to play with. This has surprised even myself because those that know me know I really cannot stand Fall and Winter. I am very much a Summer fan. I live for long hot days and warm nights. Fall symbolizes the end of my favorite season. So loving the fall theme seems odd, but it is filled with so many fun ideas. That and the beginning of football season, and the best time of the year to binge watch Gilmore Girls (not that those are relevant to teaching but still remain true). Tie in the fact that for me this time around it is the same week as the letter "Gg" and I have had the most fun with the activities. There are so many ways of going about what to plan. I am sure there are activities you all have thought up that did not cross my mind. Along with Fall and the letter "Gg" we learned about the number 2. I have been an excited momma so it may be a good thing I cannot drink coffee (I know I know, I am weird, but I am ok with that fact).

Monday- What Happens In Nature During the Fall/Intro to Uppercase "G"
Books: My "g" Soundbox by Jane Belk Moncure
A Book of Seasons by Alice and Martin Provenson
My First Dictionary "Gg" words only

Songs: Goosey Goosey Gander (Mother goose)
Autumn Poem
Autumn winds begin to blow
Colored leaves fall fast and slow
Twirling, whirling all around
Till at last they touch the ground

Activities
Intro letter "Gg"
Uppercase "G" coloring page
"Gg" vocab words
Fall tree door decor activity- I used clear comtact paper and fake leaves. I drew a tree trunk on the unsticky part of the contact paper. Tape the contact paper to the door sticky side facing you. Then decorate thectree together by sticking the fake leaves onto the sticky side of the contact paper. I ended up also having to use double sided tape for some of the leaves.
Fall tree painting activity- take a piece of paper and use the paint bottles, not a paint brush for this activity. Drip out a line for the tree trunk towards the bottom of the paper. After that help guide your child to drip out in globs different fall colors for leaves above the tree trunk. Use clear plastice wrap the same size of the paper you used. Carefully place it on top of the globs of paint, then let your child push down on top so the paint runs together and spreads around to make a fall tree.
Pretend fall tree play-use the left over fake leaves and pretend you are fall trees by tossing them up in the air and watching them fall together.. or play leaf fight with the leftover fake leaves.
Introduce what the seasons are then zone in on fall. What happens in fall with nature...days get shorter, it gets colder, plants begin to let go of their flowers and food gets harvested and tree leaves change colors and fall off...

Tuesday: Fall Activities/Intro Number 2
Books: Grandpa Gazillions Number Yard by Laurie Kellar
A Year For All Seasons by Monica Stevenson
The story of Noah's Ark from his Bible... the animals went 2 by 2
My First Dictionary the "Gg" words only

Songs: These Are Grandma's/Grandpa's Glasses
Five Little Pumpkins poem
5 little pumpkins sitting on a gate
The first one said oh my it's getting late
The second one said there are witches in the air
The third one said but we don't care
Thr fourth one said let's run and run and run
The fifth one said I'm ready for some fun
Then whoosh went the wind
And out went the lights
And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.

Activities:
Intro number 2
2 coloring page
Review "Gg" words
Garbage toss game and play garbage man (garbage day for our neighborhood). Use up some crumpled up paper and a can and toss the garbage into the can...use dunp truck to collect the garbage and take it to the dump.
Red Light Green Light- practice stopping and going. Run around together and randomly yell out red light and make sure you both stop together. Green light when you are ready to go again. After a little bit let your kids take control of when to stop abd go.
Talk about the different fall activities and holidays that happen. Refresh about nature with Fall.
Gummy bear sorting- put one of each different colored gummy bear in a seperate container. Help your child figure out where the matching ones go. Count together the 2 gummy bears in each color.

Wednesday: Fall Safety/Intro Lowercase "g"

Books: Goldilocks and the Three Bears by David Crossley

My Love For You All Year Long by Susan L. Roth

My First Dictionary "Gg" words only 

Songs: Corner Grocery Store by Raffi

Autumn Time Is Coming

(Tune of Frere Jaques)

Red leaves falling

Red leaves falling

On the ground

On the ground

Autumn time is coming

Autumn time is coming

All around

All around

Orange leaves falling

Orange leaves falling

On the ground

On the ground

Autumn time is coming

Autumn time is coming

All around

All around

Brown leaves scattered

Brown leaves scattered

On the ground

On the ground

Autumn time is now here

Autumn time is now here

All around

All around

Activities:

Intro lower case "g" and review vocab words

Lower case "g" coloring page

Gold glitter glue goo- take 2 5 oz bottles of clear elmer's glue...mix it with a bigger sized jar of the super tiny gold glitter

Play gas station attendant with trikes and hose. If warm use the water as gas. If too cold just pretend.
Play pretend Guardian Angels to the recmscue 

Practice with a doll house how to lock/unlock doors with keys 

Talk about ways to stay safe suring the fall...with spiders being out more it is important to start talking about how to watvh out for them....

Thursday: Fall Clothes/Line Tracing and Scissor practicing Day

Books: Where's God by Dr. Laura Schlessinger

Turn Turn Turn by Pete Seger

My First Dictionary "Gg" words only

The story of David and Goliath from his Bible

Songs: Scarecrow Scarecrow

Scarecrow scarecrow turn around

Scarecrow scarecrow touch the ground

Scarecrow scarecrow reach up high

Scarecrow scarecrow touch the sky

Scarecrow scarecrow bend down low

Scarecrow scarecrow touch your toes

God Is Bigger Than the Boogie Man by veggie tales

The Gloria from Mass  ( those of my readers who are Catholic know this so I will not type out the words, but those who are not and are curious you are welcome to google it. It is about the Holy Trinity...God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.)

Activities: Review "Gg" vocabulary

Talk about why God is important 

Play David and Goliath with the crumpled paper from the garbage toss game. Take turns being David and Goliath

Practice tracing work sheet

Practice scissor skills

Make hair gel packets for sensory play. Squeeze hair gel and food coloring into ziplock bags. I chose fall colors for ours. Then put the bags over white paper and then trace shapes/letters/numbers/designs in the gel packets. Save for future use.

Play with corn kernals

Guitar fun

Talk about the different clothing that is worn in fall time

Zoo day-look for animals with "Gg" like giraffes or gila lizard...

Friday: Fall Animal Activities/"Gg" Vocab Review

Books:Clifford and the Grouchy Neighbors by Normam Bridwell

Animals In Fall by Martha E. H. Rustad

My First Dictionary "Gg" words

Songs: Octopus Garden by Raffi

Little Acorns
Five little acorns sitting in a tree
Along came Mr. Squirrel as hungry as could be
Then the fall winds blew and rustled all the leaves
Down came all the acorns and Mr. Squirrel was pleased

Activities:
Review "Gg" vocab words
Color "Gg" vocab worksheet
Play pretend ghosts
Glitter art- bring out glue sticks/glue and let the child make designs on paper with it then show him/her how to sprinkle on glitter to make his design glittery. I suggest using lots of newspapers for a faster and easy as possible clean up...
Sunflower seed tactile play
Talk about animal activity in the fall
Go outside and play pretend squirrels harvesting acorns...use balls or something else like that as the acorns. If rainy hide them around the house for the chils to find.
Play hibernation... use music for spring/summer. When it stops the child has to find a place to hibernate for winter...
Park day if nice outside.
Giraffe/zoo animal puzzle play

(My kid with his "acorns" he gathered up)

     As you can see there really is a lot of possible activities you can do for a fall theme as well as the letter "Gg." I know there is more activities I have not thought of. What ideas can you add to this theme that you did not see in this post? Share them with me, please!

"Gg" is for Games

   

     If you have been following this blog for awhile than it is not too surprising that we are working with the letter G. When double checking myself about  about what I remembered learning about for the importance of structured game playing I found not as much info out there as everything else I have refreshed my memory on. Structured games in 2 1/2 - 3 1/2 year olds looks pretty different in a lot of ways than how we should approach structured games for older kids. Structured games are basically any game that has set rules of play. The most popular type of sttuctured gamed are active and allow lots of body movement. Also there are some sit-down games and these are not always baord games so much. Honestly, I would not recommend board games yet for this age group, but because each child is different and are more ready than others than I would definitely wait until age three. You as the parent would know if your child is ready for all the things board games entail.
     So what makes games so important for little ones? The fact that through game playing children learn how to take turns. They learn to have self-control because they have to follow the rules. Depending on the type of game being played it will work gross and/or fine motor skills. Games help with social cues. They help children strengthen cognitive skills. Another important reason games are helpful  is how they can strengthen math and verbal cues. Playing games also can help with literacy skills. These are just some ways playing games is work for kids and not mindless timewasters.
     Structured games, as I said earlier all have a set of rules that need to be followed. Games should be modified at this age to where winning and losing is not what matters, so should actually be downplayed during the game. What should be cheered on the most is watching them as they follow along and cheer for listening, and following the rules of the game as that is what will be hardest for this age group. For me, I tend to take out winning and losing from my vocabulary when a game is being done. I also tend to eliminate a position of winner loser. I would not recommend that as the child gets closer to four, but the concept of winning actually can be detrimental for kids so young.
      Here are a few examples of how I modify active games for this age group. For musical chairs I do not take chairs out like I would for older kids. Instead I make sure they fully are understanding of how to stop and find a chair between rounds of having them do different movements... one round will be them acting like airplanes until the music stops. The next round might be ok now crawl like a baby, etc. For red light green light I just let kids run around in a circle and randomly say red light and see them stop. Taking turns and letting my kid be the light. I take the basic ideas of a game a modify it for my kid's readiness.
     When doing sit-down games I make sure winning is not really big deal. For picture bingo, for example, I cheer on big if a child this young finds the matching picture on his card on his own mors than I do about who gets their card covered first or last. Or if it is a game like doggy doggy where's your bone we cheer on the child after he/she figures out who has the bone and allow the finder to pick out who they want to be the dog next, as long as the child they want has not had a turn yet.
     These are what I have found to be most age appropriate ways games are important. Did you think of something to add that I missed? Please let me know!

Intro to Urie Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Theory

 

      This next theory I thought about sharing with you all today is the ecological theory. This theory is not so much about teaching per say, but how the people that are nearest to a child affect how the child develops. There is a trickle down affect on the child as you will see. There are four groups in this theory. The microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and the macrosystem.

     The microsystem consists of the child's main caregivers and family unit. These people should be the biggest fans and advocators for the child. If the family unit is living, caring, and focused on the child's well being than that will be carried with that child's memory forever building up the child's self confidence whereas if the child is neglected than he/she will hold onto that as well with a feeling of unimportance.

     The mesosystem is the people that the child comes into contact with on a regular basis. Teachers, friends, extended family members, church family, etc.. this group plays an important role. The more the carefivers place an importance on these things than the child will more than likely follow suit. These people will also leave imprints on a child's life. The more that parents take an interestin the child's mesosytem the safer the child will feel to explore this part of the environment.

     The ecosystem is the group of people that will affect the child, but who they may never physically meet. The main caretaker's place of employment for example. Anything positive or negative there will have a great affect on the child. Those civil workers in their hometown will also have an affect on the child, but the child will have little or no contact at all.
 
      The macrosystem is about the child's culture, country's government and laws. The really big picture.
   
     These each have an affect on the child. A visual I like to think about is the zoom in/zoom out function on google maps. The more you zoom out of the child's life the more you can see how we are all connected in a way in this systems theory.

Sensing the Beauty of the World God Created

 

     This week I decided to focus on the importance of our five senses. With hindsight I realize now that I should have done this theme along with my first two themese in the beginning, "How God Made Me Special" and "Using My Body to Glorify agod." I have made note of that for my pwn future reference. Also, this post will not have many photos as I have been dealing with back pain this week as well as watchimg some of my nephews and niece and did not want to put their photos up here without their parent's permission, which I always forgot to ask when I was talking with them.
     The five senses is such a fun theme for this age group. A lot of sensory activities are used here. Mostly not many really messy ones, but still fun.
      God gave us five senses and helping kids learn to use them to help and be grateful for what God created for us is very important.
     Along with the five senses we learned about the letter "Ff" and the number "1."

Monday- Sense of Smell ("We are to God the fragrance of Christ." 2 Corinthians 2:15)/Intro Uppercase "F"
Books: My F Soundbox by Jane Belk Moncure
The Nose Book by Al Perkins
My First Dictionary, the Ff words only

Songs: "Five Green and Speckled Frogs" by Raffi
Sing A Song of Senses tune of The Farmer In the Dell
 (this will be used throughout the week so I will type it out here, but you can look back to see what verse you want to use. So for today we just sang the verse on smelling).

Activities: Intro the letter "Ff" and go over vocab words in my first dictionary.  Use "Ff" coloring sheet.

Play follow the leader outside. We took turns being thd leader.

Introduce the five senses. Explain how when God created living things He created us with five senses. They are for us to use to learn more about the world God created us for and to use for good things. They are there also for us to avoid danger when possible.
Set up Mr. Potato head. Each day I had ny child help add onto him with each new scent being talked about. 

Intro sense of smell. Explain the importance of our sense of smell.

Find different morenaturalistic scents around the house, we used cinnamon, garlic powder, ginger, spearmint, lavendar, vanilla, and vinegar. We took turns smelling these scents. My son's two favorites were the garlic powder and cinnamon.

Tuesday: Sense of Touch (Jesus touched him and said be clean. Matthew 8:3)/Intro Number 1
Books:The Balancing Act by Merle Peek
Goodnight Curious George by Margaret and H. A. Ray
My first dictionary "Ff" words only

Songs: Where Is Thumbkin?
The verse on touch from Monday

Activities: Review "Ff" words
Intro number 1/one coloring page
Play Mr. Fix It with tool set
Intro sense of touch and how inportant and special it is.
Play with play-dough
Finger paint
Play with dry beans
Find different textures throughout the house for my kid to explore with.
Add hands to Mr. Potato head
Mother Goose On the Loose day

Wednesday: Sense of Sight ("I was blind, but now I can see." John 9:25)/ Intro Lower-case "f"
Books:All Around I See by Laya Steinburg
Sam the Firefly by P. D. Eastman
My First Dictionary

Songs: Frog Went A-Courting
Five sense song from Monday, the verse on sight

Activities; Review "Ff" words
Intro lower-case "f" and "f" coloring page
Play with flashlight
Use binoculars for sight seeing walk
Intro importance of our eyesight and ways to take care of our eyes
Play "I-Spy"
Park day

Thursday: Sense of Hearing ("He who has ears to hear, let him hear." Matthew 11:15)/Tracing and Scissor cutting skills day

Books:Dig, Wait, Listen by April Pully Sayre
Fox In Socks by Dr. Seuss
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox
My First Dictionary

Songs:What Does The Fox Say?
Five senses song from Monday. The verse on hearing.

Activities: Review "Ff" words
Tracing activity
Scissor skills practice
Play firefighters with firetruck and people
Intro sense of hearing. Use youtube sound/noise for pre-k videos for kids to figure out from listening.

Friday: Sense of Taste (Taste and see the goodness of The Lord." Psalm 36:8)/"Ff" Vocab Review Day

Books:Yum! A Tale of Two Cookies by Jane Seymour and James Keach
Alice the Fairy by David Shannon
My First Dictionary ("Ff" words only)

Songs: Old Macdonald
The Senses song from Monday (the verse on taste)

Activities: Review 'Ff" words and do the vocab coloring activity
Play with farm play set
Zoo day
Intro sense of taste. I had Anthony try a food from each of the taste groups. Salty-chips, sweet-reese cups, bitter-lemon, sour-sour patch kids. My husband went and picked those things out as my hands had been full from other things this week.
Oh and finished our my potato head.

These are just a few ways I thought of to help my kid learn about his senses. What other activities can you think of for your little ones?

Importance of Sensory Play

   

     First off I want to say sorry for not getting this post up sooner today. It has been a kind of off day for me, but I did not forget about it. Just had to postpone it a little.
     Sensory play. What is it? Why is it such a big deal for childhood? What does sensory play look like at home and does it always have to be messy?
     Sensory play is coming up with things that enhances the senses. Tasting, touching, smelling, hearing, and seeing. It can be calming noises in the background of a story, or it can be using scented markers while coloring. It can be going on nature hikes or using flashlights or glow in the dark sticks in a homemade tent. It can be making sensory containers filled with things of different textures. It can be introducing new foods for kids to try. It can be as messy as you want it to be or not so messy. Personally, in summertime I find is the best time for big messy sensory fun because you can wash them off outside without fear of it being too cold.
    Sensory play is not just allowing kids to make messes. It is so much more than that. Through sensory play children learn and understand more and more about the world around them. If they do not get introduced to different sensory activities than it will take them longer to be comfortable in their world to continue to grow and explore. The more they are introduced to different sensory input the more excited they are to push past what they are familiar with. It gives them a stronger sense of self which then builds stronger self-confidence. Through sensory play kids also strengthen their fine and gross motor skills. It also can help relax nervous children.
     I know when i explore things like shaving cream, gloop, flour, or dry beans it definitely relaxes me. Favorite scents have a calming affect on me, and there is nothing like fitting music to my moods. If these things are helpful for me as an adult I know they must have an even bigger impact on my sweet and active boy.
     I am sure there are other ways sensory play is an important part of childhood development. What other ways can yiu think of for making sensory play a big part of everyday life of children?

Intro to Piaget's Constructivism Theory

   

     Piaget is one of the big dogs of learning theorists. He is known for many different things, but one of the biggest is his theory of constructivism. This particular theory of his focuses on the fact the children learn best through hands on activities and experiences. Children learn best through involving their senses and through physically being able to work out a new concept. The more hands on approach an instructor gives children than the more freedom thet have to experiment with the new concept they are figuring. The more hands on the quicker a child will be able to come to understand how things work.
     With this hand on approach comes the fact that piaget believed it best to instead of instructing children on new concepts, the teachers should essentially become more like facilitators. Teachers should be there to give the children what they are needing or asking for to help learn concepts and to encourage them on their newest adventure. Teachers should be able to let the child lead instead of leading the child.
     Some people love piaget's approach to learning, and others find it too far off for them. I, personally, find this take on education more realistic in a very small group setting. In a regular pre-school set-up it can be very difficult to follow each child's interests. I still find it important to try and do so as much as possible, but it can be tricky unless your daycare/pre school is specifically set-up for it. Here at home I still find it helpful to do both. I follow my son's lead probably 75% of the time, but I still think that it is also very important to do some teaching/student work.
     How do you feel about more of a hands-on learning style?

Loving and Respecting All of God's Creatures Week

I think this quote explains very well why we should help teach our children how to respect and take care of all of God's creatures. This week I focused mostly on family pets. We, as a family, do not actually own a pet, but we have several family members who do have pets and I want my boy to learn the importance and responsibility of caring for a pet properly. I am an animal lover, well except when it comes to snakes, spiders, and mosquitoes and ticks...basically blood sucking things and stinging insects just creep me out. I still leave them alone outside though.

Also this week, as I mentioned in my previous post, is a big review week. Because of that fact I did not capture many pictures with new ideas in them as most of our activities have been from previous weeks lesson plans.

Monday: What is a pet/Review of uppercase letters A-E/ review of "Aa" vocab words/review of biggest vs smallest

Books: Found Alphabet by Ramon Schindler and Wokciech

Arthur's Pet Business by Marc Brown

My First Dictionary, "Aa" words only

Songs: Alphabet song

How Much Is That Doggy In the Window?

Activities: Flashcards of uppercase A-E letters

Uppercase A-E scavenger hunt (Sunday night I cut out construction paper uppercase letters and then taped them around our living room at my son's eye level for him to find Monday morning)

Pom pom play (seperated pom poms into big and small piles)

Free painting

Zoo day

Tuesday: Different Pet Habitats/Review of "Bb" vocab/Review of longest vs shortest
Books: A Rainforest ABC by Amanda Doering
Curious George Rides A Bike by H. A. Rey
My First Dictionary "Bb" words only

Songs: B-I-N-G-O
I Have A Pet by Super Simple Songs

Activities: Review "Bb" words
Talk about how different pets need different places to live in a house...birds live in cages, fish love in aquariums, horses live in barns, etc.
Shaving cream play to re-learn long vs short as well as practicing straight lines in.
Free coloring

Wednesday: Talk about different pet chores/ Review lower-case "a-e"/Review "Cc" vocab/review of dark vs light

Books: Chick Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault

Clifford At the Circus by Norman Bridwell

My First Dictionary "Cc" words only

Songs: Super Why version of Alphabet Song

Pussy Cat Pussy Cat

Activities: Lower-case a-e flash cards review

Matching lowercase a-e cut-outs to the Uppercase "A-E" still hanging on the walls in the house

Review of "Cc" vocab words

Glow in the dark bracelet fun to review light vs dark with home made tent inside.

Talk about the things we need to do to maje sure pets are taken care of properly

Thursday: Veterinarian Day/"Dd" vocab review/review empty vs full/practice tracing and cutting

Books: Danny's Duck by Clara Vulliamy

Just Me and My Puppy by Mercer Meyer

My First Dictionary "Dd" words only

Songs: Five Little Ducks by Raffi

Tingaleyo by Raffi

Activities: Review "Dd" words

Use flour for review of empty vs. full

Tracing activity

Practice using safety scissors

Play Veterinarian to explain who we bring pets to when they are sick

Ball and tent play outside

Friday- What NOT to do to pets/"Ee" vocab review/Aa-Ee vocab work sheets review/cold vs hot review

Books: Emergency by Tom Lichtenheld and Ezra Fields-Meyer

Don't Take Your Snake for a Stroll by Karen Ireland

My First Dictionary "Ee" words only

Songs: Alphabet Song in the tune of Row Row Row Your Boat

Mary Had a Little Lamb

Activities: Review "Ee" words

Review a-e vocab worksheets and match them to the letters still hanging around the living room

Ice play out side

Explain what is not ok for a person to do to a pet and the importance of being gentle to animals. 

Park day

 How the abc wall art ended up looking

 Just because this filter amused me

 These are what happens when my kid is not at all interested in posing for a photo by said wall-art....it is as close as I could get.

How do you feel about reviewing concepts at young ages? Share your thoughts. 

Importance of Repitition

     As an early childhood teacher there was a time period I would write out notes to parents specifying what we did during the week and the strengths I noticed among their child as well as their weaknesses. An abbreviated form of the parent/teacher records that Montessori programs tend to follow. I ended up not continuing those little reports because my boss at the time said the parents found a lot of the things said and done as being too repetitive. Instead of sending out a letter explaining why activities were repetitive I just let it go. I missed a great opportunity to explain about the importance of play, but also why repitition of activities is important for young children. The more they are introduced to activities the more they advance in their skills. Repitition is what gives them ample time to digest, breakdown, and understand concepts.
     This week, as you will see later, is a review week for us. We will be repeating quite a few of the past weeks activities because the more times my son has to refresh his mind of past weeks concepts, the stronger his memory and understanding of them will be.
     Repitition is such a natural way to really learn new skills even now as adults. I know my husband and I are both best at hands on learning and repitition. If we as adults still need repitition to learn new skills, why should we get frustrated or bored because our children all do the same? Repitition is not so boring for kids. They thrive on it until a skill is completely mastered as much as possible, and eventually they will move on to a new unmastered skill. For example, my child for months was obsessed with learning to screw ans unscrew lids. Obsessed as in if he saw a bottle he needed to work on that skill. He was perplexed by how it works. He was frustrated when he could not get the lid on the bottle just right. I would have to put bottles in their own "time-outs" if I noticed he was about to have a melt down because he was struggling. He also refused help from me to put the lids on. I was beginning to wonder if something was wrong with my child's love of working on lids. After several months he finally mastered that skill to the point that now bottles do not hold as much fascination for him anymore (well unless it is a bottle of bubbles). Repitition for him, as well as all children is an important part of learning for them and it is hard work. That very proud face they make when they keep getting better at their new skill makes everything worth it.

Introduction to B. F. Skinner's Operant Conditioning Behavioral Theory

 

   Another learning/behavioral theory I have found most helpful with keeping toddlers focused on a task is B. F. Skinner's Operant Conditioning theory. This may sound confusing or tricky, but to put it more simply it is a reward/punishment theory. I bet you all probably already have used this theory in your home without even realizing it had anyother name than simply put, discipline.
     When it comes to learning though I tend to get great results with offering lots of rewards for my child. His rewards tend to do with either shapes (if you show me how to color on your paper than I will draw a whatever shape you want on mine), or climbing on things (after we finish this book we will go outside and play on the steps), or even allowing him to sit on his trike if he pays attention to our vocab work (which is what worked for us this morning).

(My kid holding up the shapes he wanted me to draw for him after each time he showed me his painting skills)

     At this age I do not put emphasis on "punishment" for losing focus on work. Honestly five minutes of sitting still for early pre-k is tough. I mean he gets punishments for when he actually does something wrong and unkind, but not over being uninterested in building blocks or a similar activity. When his interest starts to wan that is when it is time to clean up that activity before moving on to a new one. I find the more negative reactions for him where learning is concearned takes his excitement away from learning
     My advice is use what your child loves as a positive reinforcer for when you are trying to get him/her working on something that is not so fun/interesting to them. You do this hard thing for me and then we can do ______. Lots of positive reinforcemnt can go a long way for most children. Each child is different so if this way is not helpful for your child no worries. There are so many more learning theories out there. It is about trial and error to figure which ones are right for your child.

Honoring the Heart and Soul of Our Family...Grandparent's Day Week

 
     Sunday is the official special day of the year set aside to commemmorate the very special and beloved members of the family. The grandparents. With it being this week-end it was super easy to decide on our theme this week. Mimi and Papaw hold such a special place in our son's life. We are so blessed that they are young enough and active enough to interact with our very active boy. They live a 15 hr drive from here, but thanks to facetime we are able to keep our child knowing exactly who they are so they are not strangers to him when we get to be together in person. So here is some of the different ways we have been keeping Papaw and Mimi even more in our minds and hearts this week.
     Along with grandparents being our focus we are learning about the letter "Ee" and the concept of empty/full.

Monday- Labour Day/Mimi's Birthday
Facetime video chat with Mimi to say Happy Birthday.
Daddy was off today, so we ended up not doing much work and spent more time playing and hanging out. Free time today.

Tuesday- Importance of Grandparents/Intro Uppercase E
Books: Llama Llama Gram and Grandpa by Anna Dewdney
My "e" Soundbox by Jane Belk Moncure
My Picture Dictionary, Ee words only

Songs: Letter E song (from abc mouse)
These Are Grandma's/Grandpa's Glasses

Activities: "E" coloring page
Look at family photos with Mimi and Papaw in them.
Play with the wooden blocks that Papaw and Mimi decorated.
Remind him why Grandparents are special and ways we can make them feel loved.

Wednesday: All About MiMi/Empty vs Full

Books: Grandma by Alison Dexter
Grandma Elephant's In Charge by Martin Jenkins
My First Dictionary- Ee words only

Songs: Grandma's House by Patty Shukla
Willoughby Walloughby by Raffi

Activities: Intro/refresh about St. Anne, Jesus' grandmother
Mimi interview work sheet
Dry rice and containers for sensory play for empty/full

Thursday: All About Papaw/ Intro Lowercase "e"/empty vs full work

Books: Just Me and Grandpa  by Mercer Meyer
Emergency by Tom Lichtenheld and Ezra Fields-Meyer
My First Dictionary, "Ee" words only

Songs: The Grandpa Song by Dennis Jarrigan
Everything Grows and Grows by Raffi

Activities: "e" coloring page
Papaw interview worksheet
Use water play to focus on empty vs full
Intro St. Joachim
Park Day

Friday: Ee Vocab Review/tracing and cutting/ Easter type fun day
Books: Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
The Evil Spell by Emily Arnold McCully
The story of Easter from his children's Bible/last supper for Eucharist too
My First Dictionary, the Ee words only

Songs: Easter church hymns
Head, shoulders, knees, and toes

Activities:"Ee" vocab work sheet
Dye eggs/egg hunt in the backyard (pictures of the egg hunt will be shared later on this evening)
Build some more with the blocks MiMi and Papaw decorated.
Practice tracing and scissor cutting skills

Other additional dvd's to use as needed: The Prince of Egypt
Dumbo
Elf
Daniel Tiger's eposodes with his grandpa in them
Any cartoon Easter movies

What other ways/activities can you think up to help your children appreciate even more their grandparents?

E is for Exercise

     It may seem pretty simple to know kids need exercise. Toddlers and pre-schoolers need body movement. I am not talking running laps or sit-ups or any other standard exercise older kids and adults use. I mean playing on playgrpund equipment, running together in the back yard at short spurts. Practicing jumping or throwing, kicking, and catching balls. Anything to get their body moving and strengthening those gross motor skills is so important for not only our sanity as parents, but also for their continued overall development.
     Sitting still is not easy for children. Honestly, it is meant to be hard for them because their natural energy level does not really allow them to handle lots of sitting down desk work well. Infact pre-schoolers need an average of three hours a day of active play. Three hours sounds like a lot, but in all honesty it is no fun keeping a child interested and attentive when they have been sitting for too long. I believe fifteen minutes is almost too long for making a child sit down to learn something new, but I know that not everyone eould agree with me on that.
     When they are busy in active play they are still working hard. Taking ample breaks from learning new concepts actually helps their brain be able to break down those mew concepts better because they become more focused after getting their bodies moving. They are also learning at an early age how to work those muscles out which will make them stronger and more skilled at sports and recreational activitites in the long run. It helps with socialization skills. It is always more fun for them to play and run around with a playmate and so it can also help us adults get in some added burnt calories as well on the days that we are the only person they have to play with.
     Some days it is hard to fit in three hours of exercise. Maybe the weather is not helpful for outdoor play. Maybe there is sickness going around in the family. Those days I tend to turn on my child's favorite tunes and have dance parties, or I do a version of musical chairs where I have him act out different body movements and not really focus so much on taking a chair out, but coming up with something different each time the music plays. It may be something like ok this time fly like a plane, or bounce like a bunny, or spin like a tornado. I also let my child jump on our guest bed as there is no headboard for it. We roll balls around the house. Basically anything safe for indoors. It is about doing the best you can to get their bodies moving.
     What ways can you think of for the importance of exercise for pre-k children?

Intro to Lev Vygotsky's Theory of the Zone of Proximinal Development and Jerome Bruner's Scaffolding Theory

     Hey there readers. Happy labour day to you all! I hope you enjoyed a fun relaxed day today. Today also happen's to be my mom's birthday, so part of our day was spent facetiming with her as we live too far away to get to share it in person with her. I gotta do a shout-out to her today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!
     Ok, so now I will get down to business here. You may wonder why I am choosing to talk about two different learning theories today. The answer is that it is kind of inposdible to not takl about one without the other. Zone of proximal development (ZPD for short) and scaffolding go hand in hand. I think once you are finished reading this simplified example of these both you will understand how one needs the other when putting them in action.
     So what exactly is Lev Vygotsky's theory of the zone of proximinal development? Basicilly imagine a line drawn in the sand. On one side is what a person is capable of doing and on the other side of the line is your goal, but it also signifies what you cannot do yet on your own. The line in the sand is that zone of proximinal development. It is everything you need to work on to reach your goal on the other side. It is everything you need help with from a more knowledgable person. So let's use a child who is interested in learning to ride a trike. The child has figured out how to get onto the trike on his own, but he does not yet have the strength/ability yet to pedal the trike for it to move. He needs help to figure out how to get that trike to move.
     This is where the theory of scaffolding comes into play. Scaffolding is all of the activities  parent and/or teacher will use to help the child learn to ride the trike. There will be added activities to strengthen those gross motor skills, strengthen those leg muscles, and also explain how a trike moves. As the child gains more abilities on the trike the parent and/or teacher eases back on how much help is needed until thw child finally has crossed that zone of proximinal development.
    I find this to be one of the most effective teaching tools for a child to learn concepts and pass their personal goals fast. The key is to watch the child for cues as to what they are interested in and struggling with. Following yoir child's lead is what will make learning for them a little less scary than pushing what us adults think they need to learn/do. There will still be tough moments, but not over pushing is the best way. Finding that magic spot can be tricky, but so worthwhile once you see your child finally cross his bridge and figured it out.