D is for Dinosaur...

 D is for Dinosaur & Daniel, we started off our letter of the week with our Dinoland small world play, which both boys loved & it was played with on & off all week. 

The boys made these Double Daffodil cards to give Nanny & Grandma on mothers day (UK). We then had a go at some dropper art, at a local toddler group.

 For our worksheets this we again visited Confessions Of A Homescholer & we also downloaded the dinosaur pack from Over The Bog Moon. This week for our do-a-dot sheets I decided to have a go at making some pom pom magnets like these. I used a hot glue gun to stick some round magnets that we already had on to the back of some pom poms, when i ran out of magnets I cut up some free magnets (advertising etc) to use. Some of these were a little thin so to make them stronger i used the glue to double it up before sticking on the pom pom.

 Both boys have loved the pom poms as they have been able to use the sheet over & over, we have also had a couple of free hand creations on the fridge. I was really excited when I saw this pin on pintrest Joseph (4) has always struggled holding a pen/pencil, so next time he was colouring I grabbed an old, sock & cut 2 holes, MAGIC! It really works & he loves it. Joseph calls it his pinching parrot like from the recent series, I Can Cook (UK TV show). I might even add eyes & a beak for him!

 We also had a go at the pre-writing practise from the dinosaur pack, Daniel (2.5) loved the fact that he was helping the mummy dinosaur find its egg. I think he liked the sense of purpose rather than just tracing because he was asked!

We have 2 sets of Leapfrog Fridge Phonics, one lower & one uppercase. I bought the 2nd set from a charity, partly because our 1st set was missing a couple of letters & partly so that we would have 2 base units one for each of the boys! As part of our letter of the week i have been putting away all the other letters & just leaving out that weeks letter.

We have had a great week with letter D, but are looking forward to E for Easter & Egg!

x Jo x

C is for....

Car, Cat, Coin, Chocolate, Cheese, Carrots, Caterpillar Clown & lots more! We started off out letter C activity's with some painting using cars, which was a big hit with the boys.

We also had a letter C lunch of car shaped sandwiches, cucumber, carrot sticks, cheese cubes, crisps (chips) & cranberries. When using cookie cutters to make sandwiches I make sure that any left overs are eaten either by the boys or myself, so as not to waste any. Both boys ate all their lunch & had some extra sandwich.

That same day we also had a letter C snack of cheerios, cranberries & chocolate coins. While they were eating I used the opportunity to point out that everything began with C & since they have been able to name several foods that begin with C when asked.

 We used some more of Erica's work sheets this week a Caterpillar do-a-dot sheet & Circus Cutting practise. With the cutting sheets the boys trace over the lines first to help with writing skills then use their scissors to try and cut along the dotted lines. Daniel was so excited when he made a triangle.

We also tried something new with our worksheets this week - play dough. Daniel was making balls using our Play-Doh Candy Cyclone, when I realised that they were the perfect size for the do-a-dot sheets. So he pressed one ball on to each dot. He really enjoyed this and it was a great way to add some extra interest to the work sheets. Next time we do this I will put the sheet inside a plastic wallet (or laminate) so It can be used again.

We had to have our car play mat, garage & dress up out. We also read so letter C books this week which included the boys favourite The Very Hungry Catterpillar

                            

B is for.....

Butterfly, Button, Bread, Banana, Builder, Bowl, Beads, Baby & lots lots more!

We started out our letter B focus with our Button decorated Butterflys & then had lots of fun with our Builder & Water Bead small world box.

We had a nice selection of work sheets to  use however Joseph (4) lost interest after he did the baby do-a-dot sheet from a great Baby Pre-School Pack, We also used work sheets from the pre-school printables from Confessions of a Homeschooler. For lots more printables & ideas check out my Work Sheets Pintrest board.

 Here is the banana bread that we made, we had lots of mix that wouldn't fit in my silicone loaf tin so we made some mini ones as well, which were great for the boys lunch box's. I used this Nigela recipe which is fab as it has a button to convert from UK to US measurements. I still haven't got my head around US cup measurements so I'm on the look out for a set of measuring cups so I can try out all the fab recipes I have pinned.

Joseph & I went to a local pet fancy rat show at the weekend (we didn't show our girls, but will at the next one). They had a colouring & a model rat competition for the kids. This was the first time that Joseph had used plasticine, he did find it hard to use at first, however soon got the hang of it. I helped a lot with making his model rat but the colour choice was all his! He decided to call his rat Bertie so we made a letter B for his plate.

Why not check out our letter A activity's.

x Jo x

A is for ....

We have finally started our focus on letters I'm aiming to focus on each letter for a week or two (depending on what else we have on) & to do all 26 by the time Joseph starts school in September!

We kicked things off with the letter A - 

A is for APPLE, ant, axe, & alien!

 We Started off with some pre-school work sheets from Erica at Confessions of a homeschooler as the boys loved her Christmas worksheets that we did. The boys first raced over the dotted lines, then used their safety scissors to try & cut along the lines, Joseph (4) enjoys putting the paper back together like a puzzle once he has cut along the lines.

 

We then did the upper & lowercase do-a-dot sheets also from Erica's pre-school curriculum.

Next the boys worked on these apple colouring & tracing pages. In one of the pictures Joseph is holding his pen in a fist, this is how he naturally colours, he will only hold a pen the correct way if I place it there for him & struggles to control it. If anyone has any tips to help him with this please feel free to comment or e-mail me. We really enjoyed doing these work sheets & are looking forward to the letter B, I have lots more ideas pinned on Pintrest, so will be able to vary each week.

Take a look at our apple printing (pictured above) which tied in nicely with this weeks theme.

 x Jo x

Christmas Work Sheets

I know its a bit late however I really wanted to share these fab worksheets that I found over on one of my favourite blogs Confessions of a Homeschooler. Erica has some great ideas and an amazing printable pre-school curriculum which we will be doing bits & pieces from in the new year.

I admire people who choose to home school their children, as I know that I would lack the patience among many other skills that would be required. I'm also not sure that my boys would take to it very well, especially Joseph (4) as he tends to work better with his teachers than he does at home. So even though both boys attend both Nursery & Pre-School once I decided that it would benefit both boys to have some structured activity's when at home, geared towards learning.

As Josephs concentration has improved a bit recently I decided to re-try him on some work books that we got from some pre-school magazines. He really likes the stickers & engages with the well known characters. I do struggle with encouraging him to try the writing (tracing over the dotted lines etc) & often get "Mummy do it".

In the new year we are going to start with a letter of the week/fortnight using the Confessions of a Homeschooler printables, As a start I  printed off some sheets from Erica's Christmas Packs for the boys to use in the lead up to Christmas.

 

We started off with her Do-A-Dot pages, Erica uses Do-A-Dot markers which can be bought from Amazon US & also Amazon UK, however they work out pricey over here. So you can also use bingo markers or we used our ELC Easy Painters.

Once again Daniel (2.5) took to this activity better than Joseph, being more calm & precise, where as Joseph started off colouring with his & when asked to do one dot at a time started wildly stamping & drowning the page! 

Next we had our first go at cutting practise. Joseph has used scissors at home before but not often as Daniel would want to join in & he was previously to young. He does however use them lots at pre-school & his art work often is embellished with cuts or cut in half. With Daniel joining him at pre-school in the new year, I figured now was time to trust him with some scissors!

Daniels hands are quite small (as are his feet) for his age & he struggled to open the scissors but he had lots of fun, just needed help from me. 

I picked up our safety scissors in the Disney Store sale a couple of years ago for 10p each, and they have a cute Winnie The Pooh cap.

Cutting is obviously Josephs forte, as he managed the curve with out to much trouble & even went back over to neaten it up. He also managed the zig zag well but struggled more with the last line.

 

Both boys enjoyed Erica's work sheets & I look forward to doing more with them in the new year.

x Jo x