For some time now I have wanted to have a more formal "school day" with the kids, but didn't quite know how to get started. We practice our letters and read a lot through out the day, but I truly felt that they would benefit from something more structured. After talking about this with a friend at church one day, she offered to send me the daily schedule from her son's preschool.
This was a tremendous help as it gave me an idea of how to break down the day into shorter time segments that are more appropriate for Norah and Justin. After weeks of everyone being sick, I felt like now that everyone was on the mend, it was time to start. Jeff helped them make and then pack their lunches and snacks the night before, then when I got home from work I made sure everything was ready for the next morning.
We were supposed to start at 9am, but as Justin was still recovering from a three day fever, I decided that 9:20 was not that far off! We sat at the dining room table, and started off by coloring the letter A. Then moved on to learning about alligators by going to the computer and looking up information on them. They thought this was exciting, but were thrilled when we got to go paint pictures of alligators! I was very popular at that point.
We had story time, snack time, outside time, play time, music time and lunch time. I made sure to move to different parts of the house and used an egg timer to tell us when our current activity finished. We made sure to pick up as we went and the kids were great at listening to me (with a few minor incidents of rebellion of course)!
They thought it was a lot of fun overall, but their favorite parts of the day involved the painting, as well as the art project we did. We used their hands and made fun masks that they got to glue and color. Towards the end of our school day (about 1) Justin started to fade. As mentioned previously he is still recovering, so I didn't fight him when he decided he really didn't want to color the number 1, but instead climbed into my lap to cuddle. He sat very quietly with me while Norah finished up her picture, and then we talked about the number 1 for a bit.
I am very pleased with how the day went and plan to make it a regular activity. Each Wednesday we are going to get up and have school. What thrills me is that Norah has asked each day if we can go to school and I can be teacher, and we can paint, have cheese puffs and read stories. Both Jeff and I are excited about this and will work together to plan the coming classes! We are both looking forward to this and love that the kids are enthusiastic about it too.
Norah working on her mask project.
Justin trying to figure out what happened to his green crayon.
Justin proudly showing off his mask. Yes, he's shirtless. After painting he went to wash up and got his shirt wet, so it was drying when this was taken. We are a relaxed school, but not that relaxed!
Norah smiling so sweetly for me with her mask! She loved making it and then holding it up to her face. She couldn't wait to show daddy!
Getting ready to see if an ice cube melts faster in cold water or hot water. I think they actually had more fun putting their hands in the water but they seemed genuinely fascinated when we compared a new ice cube to the ones that were in the water and how different they were in size.
Norah's art work from the day.
Justin's art work from the day.
For some time now I have wanted to have a more formal "school day" with the kids, but didn't quite know how to get started. We practice our letters and read a lot through out the day, but I truly felt that they would benefit from something more structured. After talking about this with a friend at church one day, she offered to send me the daily schedule from her son's preschool.
This was a tremendous help as it gave me an idea of how to break down the day into shorter time segments that are more appropriate for Norah and Justin. After weeks of everyone being sick, I felt like now that everyone was on the mend, it was time to start. Jeff helped them make and then pack their lunches and snacks the night before, then when I got home from work I made sure everything was ready for the next morning.
We were supposed to start at 9am, but as Justin was still recovering from a three day fever, I decided that 9:20 was not that far off! We sat at the dining room table, and started off by coloring the letter A. Then moved on to learning about alligators by going to the computer and looking up information on them. They thought this was exciting, but were thrilled when we got to go paint pictures of alligators! I was very popular at that point.
We had story time, snack time, outside time, play time, music time and lunch time. I made sure to move to different parts of the house and used an egg timer to tell us when our current activity finished. We made sure to pick up as we went and the kids were great at listening to me (with a few minor incidents of rebellion of course)!
They thought it was a lot of fun overall, but their favorite parts of the day involved the painting, as well as the art project we did. We used their hands and made fun masks that they got to glue and color. Towards the end of our school day (about 1) Justin started to fade. As mentioned previously he is still recovering, so I didn't fight him when he decided he really didn't want to color the number 1, but instead climbed into my lap to cuddle. He sat very quietly with me while Norah finished up her picture, and then we talked about the number 1 for a bit.
I am very pleased with how the day went and plan to make it a regular activity. Each Wednesday we are going to get up and have school. What thrills me is that Norah has asked each day if we can go to school and I can be teacher, and we can paint, have cheese puffs and read stories. Both Jeff and I are excited about this and will work together to plan the coming classes! We are both looking forward to this and love that the kids are enthusiastic about it too.
Norah working on her mask project.
Justin trying to figure out what happened to his green crayon.
Justin proudly showing off his mask. Yes, he's shirtless. After painting he went to wash up and got his shirt wet, so it was drying when this was taken. We are a relaxed school, but not that relaxed!
Norah smiling so sweetly for me with her mask! She loved making it and then holding it up to her face. She couldn't wait to show daddy!
Getting ready to see if an ice cube melts faster in cold water or hot water. I think they actually had more fun putting their hands in the water but they seemed genuinely fascinated when we compared a new ice cube to the ones that were in the water and how different they were in size.
Norah's art work from the day.
Justin's art work from the day.
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