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

Ff Is For Father's Day and Fun

     Ever had plans to get back into things but you find God has plans for you to spend your attention and energy towards something else entirely? The last several weeks that is what happened to me. A family emergeny/loss happened for my family, and most significantly for my baby brother.  Ok so my brother is twenty-five years old, but let's be real.. as an older sister our youngest siblings still tend to be babies to us in so many ways, but especially when we hear they are hurt. This particular family emergency ended up requiring me to be on the road for 16 hrs. altogether in a week. A lot of driving back and forth. With all that being done I ended up doing less stuff with my own kid educationally than I wanted. I did do a little review each morning where I had my child practice tracing one letter from Aa-Ee. Thankfully it is Summertime here, so in some ways it was easier to put it off. It definitely put me behind on my blog posting, as those of you who stopped by have noticed.
      Because of the craziness I ended up focusing kind of on two themes that sort of gp well together as well as the letter Ff.  We did a fun week of learning all about camping as well as the importance of Father's Day. Camping tends to be a father/child bonding experience so I thought they would work-out nicely together.

Letter Ff Books We Read Together:
My F Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure
Tiger Flowers by Patricia Quinlan (this book ended up being about a boy who loses his uncle to aids... i kind of skimmed over the parts that felt to mature for my 3.5 yr old...did not look closely enough at it when I borrowed it).
Alice the Fairy by David Shannon
Finders Keepers by Will and Nicolas
About Feelings by Richard L. Allington and Kathleen Cowles

Camping Themed Books We Read Together
Just Me and My Dad by Mercer Mayer
Monster and Mouse Go Camping Deborah Underwood
Curious George Goes Camping by Margaret and H. A. Rey
A Campfire for Cowboy Billy by Wendy K. Ulmer
A Bunny's Night Out by Roni Schutter

Father's Day Books We Read Together
Just Me and My Dad by Mercer Mayer
Just Go to Bed by Mercer Mayer
Meeting Trees by Scott Russell Sanders
Froggy's Day With Dad by Jonathan London
Happy Father's Day by Steven Krall

Songs We Sang This Week
I Can Be Your Friend from Veggie Tales
Five Green and Speckled Frogs
Funny Fish
I Can Fly from Peter Pan
Firework by Katy Perry

Home On the Range
A Camping We Will Go
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
When We Camp
Campfire Pokey

Our Father by Michael W. Smith
I've Been Watching You by Rodney Atkins
I See A Hero by Shawna Belt Edwards
Father's Love by Gary Valenciano
Handprints On the Wall by Kenny Rogers

Activities We Did This Week

Intro Practice Tracing letter Ff
Ff picture vocab review
Play Mr. Fix-it with tools
Play food master with play kitchen
Play with flashlight
Play follow the leader
Firefighter dramatic play
Fun with foam shapes and foam blocks
Play with toy farm
Fingerprint art fun
Fun with fruity pebbles
Play outside in the grass with flour.

Prepare/gather necessities for camping
Set-up tent/campsite out on backyard
Make binoculars. Use two toilet papet rolls. Paint them then glue then together.
Hike around the backyard/neighborhood.
Marshmallow fun
Outside pic-nic lunch with camping foods.
Tye-dye t-shirts
Play camping games like egg toss or other racing games...
Make s-mores


Work on Father's Day surprise. I will try to go into more details about this next post as I do not want to ruin anything for my husband on the off chance he decides to check-out this post.

Some Weeks Off to Get Back On: Week 2

 

     Hello beautiful readers. I hope yall have gotten to enjoy a beautiful sunny week. Our's has been fun for my kid, but filled with mixed emotions for myself. Couple different things going on here this past week, but still educational.

     We started our week off with a bang as a zoo day. With my kiddo being sick last Thursday he missed his with the fun fun fun fun fun, and kefest are pt asking for the zoo all week-end. I wanted to wait until we were sure the stomach bug was not gonna pass on to hubby and I before going anywhere really public. Thanjfully we did not catch whatever it was that got my kiddo sick. I love zoo days! Blessedly we live close enough to one it makes more sense to get the zoo pass, and I try and utilize it well since it is a bigger cost. It has helped foster a curiousity for life sciences ib my child at an early age. He has his favorite animals, but some are different each time. Depends on which ones are the most active during our visit. Lately giraffes, penguins, orangatans, and gorillas tend to be at the top of his list.

     Tuesday was park day. It turned out to be an emotional park visit for this momma.
I witnessed a family (I learned from the seven year old girl) that their family has DCS apparently several times a week come to her house and her baby brother was taken away from them and today was their visitation...  I did not ask for any of that info, she just casually shared it with me...from the looks of her and her siblings and how non attentive the three adults were who were with them I can see why. They were all in thin tank tops, shorts, or over grown t-shirts... no shoes on any of them except the girl who told me this info. In hot weather or at home that is not usually a flag raiser for me, but in 55 degree weather??? She was in a leg brace. She had these red spots on her legs which I only noticed because she asked me what I thought they were. I answered that they looked like old mosquito or spider bites to me. She said no, I only get them in the bath tub... on the inside I shuttered because i immediately jumped to some scarey stuff. Googled healed cigarette burns when i got home and what I saw looked exactly like the marks on this girls leg, later on a friend of mine said hopefully it was bed bug bites that get aggrivated in the tub. I really hope that is what they were honestly. The cigarette burn though sickens/angers me....The adults were no where near the littlest one who kept asking if i could push him because he was watching me push my kid. He had on the fewest clothes of the group. After the fifth time I said ok because the adults kept ignoring him or snapping at him for bugging them. They did not seem to care that a stranger was pushing their young one. At one point during the hour I was there the father figure came out to see something with the older boys. Looked and saw me pushing his kid in the swing then moved on. No words were exchanged at all. It was as though he could not care less.  I would have been freaking out, and going over to assess the situation if it were my child.... I felt awkward enough pushing the little guy cause I did not know the parents. Then how they reacted to the 9 yr old boy who got sick all over some playground equipment was like whatever. No giving comfort, no saying ok time to go. My kid and I were out of there, but watching it all just hurt my heart. I prayed my rosary for them. I hope I do not get whatever that bug is for helping push what appeared to me to be a neglected three year old. Being a daycare/pre-k teacher child neglect/abuse has always been close to my heart, but even moreso now that I am a momma. I am sharing this because I know nothing more than I witnessed so there is obviously more to this family's story. Maybe yall could say some prayers with me for this little family? I am not sure what more to do since DCS is already involved. This just broke my heart.

     Wednesday was a fun chill at home day. We rode in the wagon around our neighborhood. We practiced putting together my child's abc floor puzzle together. We ran, we read books, we colored, cooked, and enjoyed home.

    Thursday out of nowhere my boy woke up with a bery noticeable limp. After observing him still struggle with it for a couple of hours I made an appointment with his ped. After checking my child out my ped believes he is dealing with growing pains since he is not upset while putting weight on it. The thing is he still has this limo this morning. Not worse, but not better. My ped said if he is worse to come back today but I think if it keeps like this over the week-end I will bring him back in Monday. Because of the limp we have been doing things but in slow motion.

      Today has been a fun time running errands and grocery shopping. We have my in-laws visiting tomorrow. Lots of cousins equals lots of playmates for my kiddo which hopefully may see how this limp will affect his time with them. Hopefully tomorrow he will have it less than today. Waiting and seeing is not so easy as a momma.

Some Weeks Off to Get Back On: Part One

     After nine long weeks of focused lesson planning I figure both my kid and I were ready for a lengthier break. The days are longer and warmer, the best time to be kid as far as lesson planning goes and allowing some free-play to reign. The first half of this week was filled with fun educational adventures away from home, and ended with pajama and tv days thanks to a nasty stomach bug.

     Monday was a fun day spent at The Indianapolis Children's Museum. Early rising, a lengthier drive, no quiet rest time, and late bed time was all worth it for this field trip. If you have never been to this museum, but find yourself in Indy looking for something to do with kids you canmot go wrong with this place. One of the yop five largest children's science and history museums in the world is something not to miss out on. Five levels of kids appropriate hands-on adventures. Fun for the whole family.

     Tuesday was a nice day for me as it was my birthday. We explored outside our neighborhood and had a fun birthday dinner out after watching my kid receive a hair cut. Getting a hair cut for young kids is an adventure for sure.

     Wednesday was park day. We spent all morning at the park and it was fun watchimg my child maneuver new playground obstacles he was not so sure about even just a month ago.

     Thursday was going to be our zoo adventure day, only about an hour after waking up my child got sick to his stomach... zoo adventure day has been put on hold while all of us wait and see if we catch the bug or if we will be lucky and not come down with it too. Lots of snuggling was had as my kid felt awful all morning. Thankfully by bedtime he was holding thimgs down.

     Friday was going to be a fun family week-end with uncles, aunts, and cousins, but due to the stomach flu we had to cancel to avoid spreading it around.

     It is nice to have lesson plans, but equally as nice to leave all learning up in the air through active play. Kids are kids for so long, and Summer time is almost here.