Math | PreK+

I've been meaning to write about our Math choices because I think Math is one of the harder areas for me to pick what to give to Doodle.

We started using a Math sticker book to beging to formally introduce the numbers to Doodle. It allows him to interact with the pages and do activities without needing to write a number which is important to me as he's still struggling with his handwriting. The less I can pressure him to write and the more I can allow him to do without writing the more excited he is about learning.

Enter our Math sticker book. You can buy it off Amazon but I assume I bought it at Staples or Target or some other such place as we'd had it awhile before we used it. Doodle loves this and we've adapted it to help him learn so much. The first set of pages is one number per spread (2 pages) and it asks the child to place the sticker with the number in a box above the number word, then place an equal amount of star stickers in a designated box and finally on the other page the child is asked to color a picture and add stickers to it equal to the number being worked on.

Usually Doodle and I will do the first page and talk about the number he's putting on, count aloud the star stickers and finally i'll have him jump up and down while I count to the number again. After the number 12 the book starts to work on some basic Math functions. "Count the animals in the box" and again it's all done with stickers.

This is important for me because it shows me that despite Doodle's handwriting issues, he is still learning his numbers and math skills by using the stickers and placing them in the correct spots.

We also use learning cubes for our math time as well. Legos would work just as well, as long as they stack together easily and can be counted individually.

I've recently introduce Tracer sheets into our math time as well to match the number we're working on that day. Doodle is getting more excited about learning how to write and it's allowing him to feel more open about learning and working together. The other day I asked him out of the blue to write "12" on our easel and he TRIED. He wrote it somewhat backwards and slanted but he TRIED and I was thrilled to see his confidence growing so quickly.

Of The Week

Doodle has been displaying a reluctance to practicing writing his letters or any organized writing activity. I'd hoped over the summer he would outgrow this but it's not happened and it has forced me to really look at what could be causing it. He is a bright kid and loves to learn but refuses any suggestions at writing letters or numbers.

After thinking for some time, I stumbled on the thought that maybe his being a very dominant lefty was causing problems in him learning how to manipulate his writing utensil. I paid close attention and sure enough during our days when we came to hand writing he shut down emotionally and refused to try. I did a little research and I found some great sites talking about learn to write left handed and the obstacles that kids face in a right dominant world. This has really made me look hard at my kid and realize that it is so very very important for me to focus on giving him confidence in learning how to write well left handed. I feel so strongly about this, in fact, that I've decided to take this fall semester to focus heavily on learning to write before we jump into much anything else at the kindy level. Despite him being ready for it, so much of the curriculum I'd looked at requires Doodle to write at some point in time. (numbers for math, copy words for learning to read, etc) and if he is not confident in his ability to write he will continue to hold back in learning and refuse to grow.

So what do I do now? I take my neatly organized and planned curriculum and I decide to rearrange it in a way that makes sense on how to teach a kid to write. Again, although Doodle knows his alphabet, I'm working on helping him learn to write it which means we will be focusing time on turning letters into shapes and learning how to create those shapes first with hand held manipulatives and then followed on paper with a writing utensil.

Week 1 - August 30th - September 3rd

Letter - L

• Tracer Page -  Put into a sheet protector Doodle and I will take turns learning how to go through the motions of writing an "L" with fat dry erase markers. The sheet protectors allow us to reuse this page daily by wiping it clean after completed. (Other tracers available here.)
• Lacing L Craft - Part of learning L will also be phonics related and serve for our art time. We will be making collages and coloring letters and talking about the sounds and words that start with the letter/sound/etc.
•  Letter(word) Search - Always looking to encourage focus and logic this will be a fun new activity for us. Doodle will search for the "L"s on his own and then I will work with him to continue and find the words as a whole. Good opportunity to work on sight words with him as well. Likely will repeat 2 or 3 times during the week.
• Lizard Puzzle - 6 piece puzzles for some "fun" computer time. 
• L Book - I'm not sure if we'll use the one here or just make our own but I am enjoying the idea of a week long "Letter Book" project with a new theme each day/page.

Word - The

• Spruce Up Sight Words - While I like the phonics approach over sight words, I do think some sight words are good to learn on their own early on, even if done on a phonics approach. I love the way this site turns them into a craft to introduce the words with in a low key approach. I'll be doing a few weeks of 'review' words to see how Doodle takes to the weekly word format. 
•  Sight word memory match game - I will use flash cards of the words in various informal games to force Doodle to read.

Numbers - 1 & One

• I would really like Doodle to learn to read his number words this year. He's easily recognizing numbers up through 12 so we're going to continue with counting and sequencing through 20 but also go "back" and work on number words as well.
• Puzzles - Gotta love a perfect find!
• Patterns - Doodle hasn't shown a huge understanding of patterns so I'd like to help focus him on a new pattern each week and gradually increase the complexity.

Crafts

• Handprint Lillies

Fall Begins

School has started here in our humble home. That means 6 workboxes a day, chapter reading at night, and dedicated craft time each week.

What's in our boxes this week?

Box 1 -

 Every day we do a new page on scissor skills. This workbook starts out with simple straight lines and gradually increases the complexity of the cutting involved over 50+ pages. I typically let Doodle cut the lines and then paste the pieces into an old notebook on his own. A great morning activity for him as it requires little help from me and lets me sip my coffee slowly before jumping into helping.

Box 2 -

Critical Thinking skill.

This morning was a Night vs Day sorting worksheet. Tomorrow will be tall vs short, etc.

Box 3 -

Lately we've been finding sequencing puzzles to work with. Workbox numbers are GREAT sequencing tools for PreK kids. Doodle is learning how to put 1 - 12 in order much easier AND starting to become better at "seeing" the difference between 6 and 9 due to the repetition. Another few days and we'll start to focus on counting marbles to match the number on the number cards.

Puzzle Break - Doodle has shown a new interest in puzzles so we typically reward him in the middle of the boxes with a puzzle break. Target had some awesome puzzles in their $1 section this last week which has increased our home puzzle library this year.

TBC ...

Finished

We finished the Boxcar Children book this evening. The kids LOVED it and really want to read more in the series. I think I'm going to need to be on the lookout for the next books available.

I also am going to put together a study guide for other PreK students. The same questions we used and some of the activities that went along with our book reading.

Next up is likely Stuart Little.

We've also been making leaps and bounds on our reviewing using the Stair game. I dont remember where I first read this, but essentially I have the kids sit at the top of the stairs and I hold a flash card. It could be a letter or number, and each kid has an opportunity to say the name of the item on the card. If it's a letter, we go a little further and have them also say it's sound and if it's a vowel or consonant. Kids are LOVING it and it's become so much more effective than any of the other worksheets I've been trying to use.

Currently Reading

One of the activities which I started to do with Doodle last spring is introduce him to Chapter books. While he obviously cannot read chapter books, he IS learning to focus to longer stories and remember previously read chapters. We typically read a chapter or two before nap time, at night time, and I've even begun to bring the book with us into the car when Mark drives so I can read to the kids. Everyone loves it.

In the spring we read James and the Giant Peach and then followed up our finished book with a family moving night watching James & the Giant Peach. Now that Doodle is back home we've decided to try out the first Boxcar Children novel. The reading is light and moves quickly and the descriptions are simple and easy for preschoolers to remember. We picked The Boxcar Children series also because of its gender neutral story. While Doodle is my primary student, I also wanted something we could continue to read while his sisters were here.



After each chapter we finish I ask three or four questions about what we just read to the kids and have them answer. These questions are simple and not meant to be tricky or hard to recall, but simple to force the kids to think back over what was just read to them and see how much they've retained. I love hearing their answers and how sometimes they've give double the details I was wanting to hear.

We've nearly halfway through the book after just one weekend but I'm so excited to see how well they've been enjoying it. It's also better for ME because I can only do so many of the picture books before I need something a little longer and new to focus on.

Go to girl hairstyles.

Here is one of our regular daily styles that the girls ask for often. Half up pig-tails.



I really enjoy keeping some of the hair down and being able to see if I can. But practicality means that it needs to stay out of faces. This is a perfect compromise and a big hit on our end.

Likewise sometimes I get a request for just a ponytail, but we're going out somewhere and I want it a little more special. This is the perfect compromise for us.



I'll take 4 small sections of hair near the hairline, braid them back, and then just tie it all up.



It seems to add just enough texture to be perfect for church or a day party somewhere but doesn't require a lot of time or hair ties.

Organizing Curriculum

Since this is our first "official" year - although I like to think we're a year-round home-school - I'm going to be looking at designing our PreK Curriculum month by month. Instead of traditional 5 day school weeks, we'll focus on breaking up our learning through each day of the week to make it easier and more age appropriate.

Today we did informal letter, number and phonic assessments of the three kids. While Doodle is my official "student" I want to have skill appropriate activities around for the Missies to do when they're with us. I'll continue to do monthly assessments of Doodle throughout the year just to see if we're going in the right direction or not.

As stated previously, August is a heavy review month for us. Lots of going back over the numbers (1 - 20) and the basic phonic sounds of the letters. I also will start to introduce some blends and work on sorting vowels, etc. I also am going to spend some time with puzzles and logic activities. We're also trying to spend some more time on days of the week and the months. I found a fun book about how to tell time so that will be added in at some point this year as well.

Some people have asked me why I'm "skipping" preschool. The short answer is that Doodle is somewhere between PreK and Kindy. He knows his shapes and colors and basic logic concepts. He knows his letters, usually remembers their sounds, and is nearly there on his numbers.

Now with my going back to school things will be hectic, and I'm assuming I'll need to be uber focused and organized. I plan to have it based on a "Letter of the Week" idea but make it more "Sound of the week" oriented.