Sunday, July 24, 2011

Tot School: Trial Run

Kayleigh is 41 months old
tot_school150

Since we’re still in summer mode, we had another easy week.  So we tried out our Raising Rockstars/ Sonlight p 3/4 schedule for a couple of days. 

Our days will be starting with our newly redone morning board.  We tried doing calendar last year but she wasn’t ready; it went much better this time.

The top of our board is your standard calendar activities: days of the week, date, seasons, weather, songs, etc.  The bottom of the board is our Raising Rockstars  components: Bible verse, verse application, song, and key cards.  You can read more about that on 1+1+1=1

We don’t have any wall space for hanging this stuff due to the insane about of bookshelves in our school room, oh the trials of being a Sonlighter lol, so I made it out of heavy foam board.  It folds up and slides neatly behind a shelf when not in use.  Love it!

Morning_Board_4web

Here’s the little miss counting the numbers with her pointer.  She wouldn’t have anything to do with that last year so progress has been made.
calendar1_4web

Using her Raising Rockstar prop (RR from now on) to sing our song. 
song1_4web


Raising Rockstar Activities
Unit Deets
Letter: Ll
Verse: Matthew 5:16
Number: 1
Color: Yellow
Shape: Circle
Sight Word: See

Here she is working on her RR binder which will hold all of her verses, projects, and key cards.  And it will be a nice little keep sake when we’re finished. 
binder1_4web

Coloring her Bible verse for this unit.
colorverse1_4web

Cutting out her vocab cards.  She did a really good job staying on the lines for the most part.
vocabcut1_4web

“Reading” her cards that we put in her binder.  She LOVED this!
vocabread1_4web

Pre-writing using “Get Ready for L".  She did surprisingly well with this.  She normally scribbles and misses the lines entirely.  I guess she wasn’t kidding when she said she wanted to write like sissy. LOL
Ready_4_L1_4web

I didn’t get any pictures of it, but she also really liked “reading” the mini-book that goes along with the unit.  The purpose of that is mainly for working with the sight word, but since we’re not really doing sight words, we read it just for fun.  It was very repetitive and with the picture clues, she was easily able to figure out what to “read.”  She felt like a “big gurl baby.” 
She is very in love with being a baby yet wants to do big girl stuff and “big gurl baby” is apparently her way of having the best of both worlds. LOL

Other Activities
In no particular order…

Ll Maze.  Find and stamp all the big and little Ls.  Ideally, you’d do it in order, to make a maze, but she’s not ready for that so she just stamped them as she saw them. 


This is something that I made and will make available to you once I have them all finished.  I think I’m on 
V so soon.  =o)
Aa_Maze_4web


Playing on ABC Mouse.  She also did the L unit on Starfall but I didn’t get any pictures of that.
ABC_Mouse_4web

An ABC puzzle.  This was the first time she’s worked on a puzzle of this size and she was LOVING it!  She did it over and over and over.  She was so proud that she could do it.  With a little help of course.
ABC_PUzzle1_4webABC_PUzzle2_4webABC_Puzzle3_4web

I printed this ladybug number book from Making Learning Fun.  We did it a little differently.  We didn’t attempt to write the number words, we just stamped the correct number of spots on the ladybug.
count_and_stamp_4web

Dot painting L is for Ladybug.  This was from COAH. For the first time in the history of the world, she only painted on the dots.  Normally it’s all over.  And I had told her she could paint it however she wanted. LOL
dot_paint_4web

She worked in her Kumon Let’s Color and Easy Maze books
Kumon_Color2_4webKumon_Maze_4web

Ladybug color match and big/little L sort, both from COAH.

Ladybug_Color_Match_4web

Ll_sort_4web


Her star boxes, which are available after her guided activities are completed, contained Magneatos, Lacing Bears, and instruments. 
Magneato2_4web
Music_4web


Read Alouds
She loved all of her Sonlight read alouds.  So much that we read extra.
This first book is part of RR and is where the Bible verses come from.  It didn’t really hold Kayleigh’s attention, as it doesn’t have a lot pictures.  So I’m not sure if this will work for us yet.  We’ll see.
She likes this Bible okay


but she really loves the Family Time Bible so I think we’re going to switch. In fact, she went and got it off the shelf after being unhappy that 101 didn’t have a picture of the snake in the Garden of Eden.  LOL
The Family Time Bible came with core pre-k but it’s an easier version than 101 favorites.   Sadly, the Family Time Bible is out of print.  Mackenzie LOVED this Bible for years and it shows the wear.
Family_Time_Bible1_4web


This treasury is one of the best I’ve seen as it has full size pictures. Woot!!  This week we read Baby Says, Pete’s a Pizza, Harold’s Purple Crayon, and If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.

All-in-all, our trial run went well.  I saw some things that I might tweak and I  have a possible review item coming up that might alter my plan a bit more.   Especially if we like it. 




8 comments:

Unknown said...

She's adorable! It looks like it'll work out, huh? She seems excited about her learning! (But how can she not? Fun stuff! LOL)

Nadia said...

wow i love that puzzle. Where did you get it from? She seems to really enjoy her tot school time!

Lynn said...

Looks like a fun week!! I love your calendar board.

Carolyn said...

Here is where this comment belongs. :)

Love, love, love your morning board!! I was wondering how I was going to incorporate the RRSP board into our calendar board next year. I am sooo looking forward to following you start out preschool. You are paving the way for me next year. :) A great week with great learning!

btw, I am totally pinning your board on my Pinterest board. http://pinterest.com/cmhodae/homeschooling/ :)

Our Homeschool Reviews said...

I miss this age. We had such a good time "doing school" when my daughter was younger. Looks like you guys will be having fun!

jess_hak said...

Really love your morning board. :) Looks like you had a great start on the RR and Sonlight schedule. Did it fit into your day nicely? We are doing something similar to Sonlight (Winter Promise) and are adding in Hubbard's Cupboard for Bible. I am still trying to find a rhythm. Between Tot School for two boys and Kindergarten for my dd I'm having a difficult time getting everything I want to do done. Add housework on top of that and whoa....lol

It'll click eventually, just wondering how you are doing it?

jeffreymwhite1 said...

I like your blog because it seems like we each have daughters with about the same age differences almost 11 and almost 3). I like Sonlight, too, although my first choice is Calvert.
Kathy

Kelly Burgess said...

Hey, Stef! You might try The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes by Kenneth Taylor. That's the one I ended up substituting for 101 with Holden. The stories are concise, have a nice illustration to go with them, and have simple, age-appropriate comprehension questions to go with them. It seems to be just right for Holden.

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