The Many Ways We Can Get From Here to There

       (Another painting I made as a gift)

Hey Guys,
     How are you doing since you last stopped by? Or if this is your first time here then hey, welcome, and I hope you find my blog somewhat entertaining... or atleast do not feel like this post is a waste of your time. My week has been busy with obviously what you will see in this blog, but also some rainy days, antsy kids, and super comfy clothes. Add to that lots of caffeine, messy pony tails, and not caring much about anything except making it through the day. Yes, this week I have most definitely fallen into the hot mess mom for the first half of the week. I don't know why, but rainy days do that to me.  As soon as the sun was out shining the second half of my week I finally got back into putting more energy into my personal looks and not just what I was hoping to teach/work on with my kiddo.
       Anyway, so enough about my personal craziness and onto why you decided to check out this specific blog entry. This week I decided to put together a transportation theme. The things that go and how we get from one place to another It is fun to learn even more about all the this for younger kids. Science and early early physics, fine and gross motor skills, and understanding more about the world around the child all go into learning about transportation.

     We have also been focused on the letter "Mm" and number three.

Monday- Practice Tracing Uppercase "M"/Traveling On Four Wheels

Books:
My M Soundbox by Jane Belk Moncure
Things That Go by Seymour Reit

Songs:
Here We Go Round the Mullberry Bush
The Wheels On the Bus

Activities:
Review "Mm" vocab words. Practice tracing uppercase M

Play with mirrors

Play with toy cars

Tuesday- practice tracing number 3/"Mm" phonics work/Traveling on the tracks

Books:
Goldirocks and the Three Bears by Corey Rosen and Beth Coulton
Moon Tiger by Phyllis Root
Where Do Steam Engines Sleep at Night? by Brianna Caplan Sayres

Songs:
Moonshadow
Three Blind Mice
I've Been Working on the Railroad

Activities:
Review "Mm" vocab and do some phonics work

Practice tracing number three and number three group recognition.  I used money sorting with coins for this.

Learn more about money. I found this felt money in the $3.00 bin at my local target and could not resist cheating on my dollar tree store with target for this.... 😂😂😂

Play with our locomotive toy

Wednesday- Practice Tracing Lowercase "m"/Traveling on the water

Books:
Where's My Mommy? by Carol Roth and Sean Julian
Boats Afloat by Shelley Rotner

Songs:
Do You Believe In Magic?
Row Row Row Your Boat
Hail Mary Gentle Woman

Activities:

Review "Mm" vocab and practice tracing lower case "m"

Talk about the parts of The Mass using our toddler Mass book.

Color a Mary (Jesus' mom) coloring page.

Play with magnets

Play with some toy boats

Thursday- Sequencing work/Traveling on Smaller Wheels

Books:
Monkey Soup by Louis Sacher
Curious George Rides A Bike by H. A. Rey

Songs:
Five Little Monkeys
Bumping Up and Down In My Little Red Wagon by Raffi

Activities:
Review "Mm" vocab words

Work on a sequencing work page

Make some art buy mixing up some colors (color review).

Play on trike

Go for a ride in the wagon

Zoo day

Friday-"Mm" Review/Traveling In the Air

Books:
Mice and Beans by Pam Munoz Ryan
Jetliners by Jon Richards

Songs:
Monster Mash
Up, Up, and Away

Activities:
Review "Mm" vocab and tracing work

Play a intro game of memory/matching. Basically I have one of each matching cards all faced up (maybe 8 matches to start with). The matching pics I keep in a stack. I show my kid on of my cards then hide it and habe him try to remember which one I held up and find the matching one from the cards that are all faced up... once he conquers that intro to memory I will slowly phase him into normal memory.

Play with the toy airplanes we hav


What other activities can you think up for your child to have fun learning more about transportation?

Kick Off Your Boots and Stay Awhile

Howdy Yall!

     I hope your week has been a nice one. Not sure how many of you have started your kiddos back into another school year, or how many of you are waiting till the beginning of September. If you have I hope you had a great week of fun learning and hard work. To those who are still milking Summer for all you can I see you, I get you, and I wish you some peaceful and enjoyable and chill last few weeks. Please forgive me for posting this one up kind of late... I will let yall in on one of my guilty pleasures, but not really guilty... I happen to be a huge Taylor Swift fan ( I know she is not everyone's cup of tea, but bless my heart, I just cannot help it). I am only telling you this because her newest album dropped at midnight and so today I have been spending my free chill time listening and taking it in that I almost forgot to make this post. I really hope I am not allienating myself from any of you readers for admitting this fact...😕 hopefully you keep reading on and feel inspired about new ideas for your kids enough you forget this part of me.

     This week even though it is us doing schoolwork here I have been enjoying some more fun and carefree school themes to try and get a little bit of both schoolwork in while holding onto that feeling of Summer vibe. I decided to go on an adventure into the wild wild west. You know, Cowboys (and cowgirls too), bonfires, camp fire songs, native americans, the pony express, and some other things. It is a theme pretty great for my almost four year old boy that is also rich in American History, both gross and fine motor skills, sensory fun, geography, life science, and so much more. 

     We also focused on the letter "Ll" and number 2.

Monday- Practice Tracing Uppercase L/Intro Into Wild Wild West and Wildlife That Can Be Found In the Desert

Books:

My L Soundbox by Jane Belk Moncure

Izzy the Lizzy by Renee Riva

Journey Through the Desert

Songs:

Listen to the Horses by Raffi

Where You Lead by Carole King (cause anytime I can work one of her songs into my day for a good reason like this, I do)

Nature desert sounds

Activities:

Review Ll vocab words and practice tracing uppercase L

Work on Ll phonics work

Play with a ladder 

Intro wild wild west and how nature helped make it feel wild

Play with plastic snakes, spiders, and scorpions that I found at the dollar tree in sand.

Park Day

(Yes, I know he has no shorts on... TBH we are still getting this potty training thing down so when we are inside at home he runs around dressed like this all the time)

Tuesday: Day off to hang out with family

Wednesday: Number Two/ Practice Tracing Lowercase l/ Cowboy Fun

Books:

Lazy Jack by Tony Ross

Two by Kathryn Otoshi

Cowboys by Glen Rounds

Songs:

This Land Is Your Land

Home On the Range

Activities:

Review number 2 and practice tracing it too.

Work on group association for number 2. We used our plastoc snakes, scorpions, and spiders from yesterday.

Review Ll vocab. Work on tracing lower case "l".

Intro cowboys. Talk about ranch chores.

Use a jumping rope (I found ours at the dollar tree) and practice lasso throwing around some plastic cones (again found them at the dollar tree. What can I say? I have an addiction to cheap stuff... 😂😂😂😂)

Thursday:Sequencing Day/Native American Fun

Books:

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

The Buffalo Jump by Peter Roop

Songs:

This Little Light of Mine

10 Little Indians

Activities:

Review Ll vocab

Work on a sequencing work page

Fun with fake leaf fight

Intro Native American lifestyles in wild wild west days. Build a teepee using whatever you want. Pull out corn kernals and corn meal to play with... 

Make campfire corn muffins together

Friday- Ll Review/Importance of the Pony Express

Books:

Oh Look! by Patricia Polacco

Cowboy and Octopus by Jon Scieszka

Songs:

Life Is A Highway (Rascal Flatts version because well I love them too, and the music video is a hit for my kid so....🙄).

Buffalo Gal

Activities:

Review "Ll" vocab words and practice tracing those letters again.

Locomotive fun

Intro Pony Express. Take turns being the pony express while making art work with crayons/markers/colored pencils.

Zoo day

These are some fun ways I trued to make the wild west area more intriguing for my pre-k child. Can you think if some ideas to share? Please comment below if you do. 

Oh, I do not really refresh my readers enough about some of my earliest posts, but  if you go into my archives list area and click on learning theories you might learn or see something you did not know before as far as learning theorists go. I have several entries I have posted kind of briefly introducing some of the most popular learning and behavioral theorists who studies early childhood education. 

Step Right Up to See Some Amazing Acts!!!

      (a painting I created as a birthday gift)

     My last post was kind of a glance at the books and songs I continued to work on with my my kid over the Summer months. Our Summer was also filled with home renovations, amusement park fun, and beach bumming while visiting my parents home for a couple of weeks. Also lots of zoo trips and park days and water fun galore were happening as well. It was a fun and memorable Summer break, but it has now come to an end. To be completely honest I was not sure I would continue with my blog this year, because I wanted to be even more in the moment with my child instead of a camera lens so I did not really capture our fun in photographs. I realized though this blog really did help me keep organized and looking back has refreshed my memory. better than my haphazard notes have done so here I am back at it again. I like to try to stick fairly close to our public school system's schedule since we live in a suburb area with wonderful, but also observant neighbors. It is important to me as I continue on with our homeschooling journey that our neighbors can tell we are working too even though not in a public school setting.

      This week I thought a fun way to ease back into our school routine would be a circus themed week. The circus is a great sensory asthetic experience that can help children work on using their imagination, gross motor skills, fine motor skills, science, and creativity. There are lots of fun books and songs as well that are catchy.

     Along with the citcus theme we worked on our letter Kk as well as gettong back into learning our numbers. I started back with the number one.

Monday:Practice Tracing Uppercase K/Review and Practice Tracing 1/Intro To the Circus
Books
My Kk Soundbox by Jane Belk Moncure
Circus by Jack Prelutsky

Songs
Let's Go Fly A Kite from Mary Poppins
Funny Clown (tune of Teddy Bear Teddy Bear)
Funny clown funny clown
Spin around
Funny clown funny clown
Jump up and down
Funny clown funny clown
Touch your toes
Funny clown funny clown
Honk your nose

Activities:
Review Kk vocab words
Practice tracing uppercase K
Play with keys. Practice unlocking doors
Use plastic colorful balls and practice juggling together.

Tuesday: Work on Kk Phonics Work/Circus Animals
Books
Pig Kahuna by Jennifer Sattler
One by V. Radunsky
Curious George Rides A Bike by H. A. Rey

Songs
Knees Up Mother Brown by Raffi
One by Chris Sligh
Let's Go to the Circus (tune of Mary had a Little Lamb)
Let's all go to the circus today, the circus today, the circus today.  Let's all go to the circus today and watch the big parade

See the clowns all tumbling around, timbling around, tumbling around. See the clowns all tumbling around in the circus ring.

Lions and tigers jumping through hoops, jumping through hoops, jumping through hoops. Lions and tigers jumping through hoops in their circus cage.

The prancing horses step so high, step so high, step so high. The prancing horses step so high around the circus ring.

Repeat first paragraph

Activities
Review Kk vocab words. Work on the letter Kk phonics work page
Use a plastic knife to cut Play dough
Review and practice tracing number one. Work on recognizing what one object looks like vs groups of objects. We used animal crackers.
Play with the train and build a circus ring of animals around it with blocks and play amimals.

Wednesday: Practice Tracing Lower Case k/Circus Acts
Books
The Little Kids Table by Mary Ann McCabe Riehte
Clifford at the Circus  Norman Bridwell

Songs:
The Kit-Kat song
Take Me Out to the Circus (tune:Take Me Out to the Ball Game)
Take me out to the circus
Take me to the big top.
I want to see the clowns tumbling around
As I eat popcorn and drink soda pop
Oh the lions and tigers may scare me
And the hire wire acts amaze me
So...you...see all the great things  we will do
On our circus day!

Activities:
Review Kk vocab and practice tracing lower case k
Play with dry kidney beans
Practice balancing for a "high wire" act. We used some long boards in our backyard to balance on.

Thursday: Sequencing/Circus Side Acts
Books:
Kitten In Trouble by Maria Polushkin
Horton Hatches An Egg by Dr. Seuss

Songs:
Three Little Kittens
Walking Through the Circus (tune: I've Been Working On the Railroad)
I am walking through the circus
Happy as can be.
I am walking through the circus
Just to see what I can see.
I can see the clown laughing
I can see the elephant too.
I can see the lion sleeping.
Look out! Cause he sees you too.

Activities:
Review Kk vocab words
Work on a sequencing work page
Practice karate kicks
Practice acrobat moves

Friday: Review Day/Circus Equipment and Safety
Books:
My Kitchen by Harlow Rockwell
The Greatest Show On Earth by John Prater

Songs:
Kitchen Sing-Sing by Raffi
A Million Dream from The Greatest Showman soundtrack

Activities:
Work on letter Kk review sheet
Play with toy kitchen
Zoo day. Look for the kimono dragon
Share some simple magic tricks!

What ways can you think if making a circus theme fun and educational???

Summer Fun/Summer Break

Hey Lovely Readers,

      It has been a couple months since I last posted as those who stopped by noticed. The reason behind this is although I continued some great educational activities and experiences for my kid, I needed a mental break of my own from this blog. Towards the end of the year I was starting to not enjoy posting as much and going through a blog/teacher planning burn-out. I wanted to get back to where I looked forward to posting and sharing instead of it feeling more of a requirement. That is not how I wanted my blog to make me feel nor do I want my kid to feel that way either. With it being Summer I just figured for my own relaxation it was time to pause my more detailed schedule and just kind of go with the flow.  I do want to share with you the books and songs that I did make sure to read with my kid. All my photos I took though are no longer saved on my phone, except our Summer vacation ones, so that is somewhat of a bummer, but really what matters is your own experiences with your early pre-k kid.

Letter Hh Books
My H Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure
A-Hunting We Will Go by Steven Kellogg
Home On the Bayou by G. Brian Karas
Let Me Hold You Longer by Karen Kingsbury
Help! By Holly Keller

Letter Hh Songs
Home On The Range
Help! By the Beatles
My Father's House by Audio Adrenaline
If You're Happy and You Know It
Head Shoulders Knees and Toes

4th of July Books
My First Fourth of July by Harriet W. Hodgson
Independence Day by Holly Aloian
Fourth of July Mice by Bethany Roberts
Fourth of July by Barbara M. Joosse
The 4th of July Story by Alice Dalgliesh

4th of July Songs 
The Star Spangled Banner
America
God Bless America
God Bless the U.S.A.
Dixie
The Battle Hymn of the Republic

Letter Ii Books
My Ii Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure
Iron Horses by Verla Kay and Michael McCurdy
Little Bit: the Sound of Short i by Peg Ballard and Cynthia Klingel
The Island of the Sky by Steven Kellogg
Ii by Kelly Doudna

Letter Ii Songs
The abc mouse letter Ii song
Iguana song
Itsy bitsy spider
Indoor voice song
Ice Cream song

Letter Jj Books
My Jj Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure
July by Mari Kesseiring
Sloppy Joe by Dave Keane
My Journey to the Stars by Scott Kelly
Joey by Jack Kent

Letter Jj Songs
Peanut Butter and Jelly
Jack and Jill
Jail House Rock by Elvis
The Juggler song
Jingle Bells