Handwriting Without Tears School Book

(4 Years)

*Blah, blah.  This post is my own opinion, I have not been compensated in any way.  Blah, blah.

"I love this school work.  I'm a lucky, lucky girl."  I hear this as I'm making the kids their breakfast.  I look over to see what she's so happy about.  It's her new school book.  Now, I know it sounds like I'm a walking advertisement to the folks at Handwriting Without Tears, but I can assure you I'm not being compensated in any way.  It just so happens that the few products that we have bought, they really like: the app, the slate board and tiny sponges, and the My First School Book (here's a link to their site*).

Little Miss was busy coloring in her school book.  I noticed how she was carefully trying to stay within the lines.  We don't do a lot of coloring, we do a lot of drawing, but not a lot of coloring.  So, I was surprised that she was concentrating on keeping the color inside the lines.  We have never even talked about coloring inside the lines before.  Although, we read a lot of picture books and that's probably where she picked it up from- the illustrations show coloring inside the lines.

These books are similar to the Kumon writing books, in that they both provide a lot of repeated practice.  They begin by drawing vertical and horizontal lines, then they use those lines to teach L, F, E, T, I.  Little Miss really enjoys working in her school books.  She takes her time choosing which marker she wants to use (she's been picking markers over colored pencils and colored mini pencils lately).

Little Miss will sit at the table and work on page after page after page after page... She has sat there for almost 40 minutes, on several occasions.  She will take her time and work on the entire page, then move on, without talking, until I finally ask her to put it aside so that she will eat her breakfast.

When she's working, she's in her zone!  It's cute.  It's hard not to interrupt and ask questions or give a compliment.  I know she's working, I let her work in quiet- that's how I like to work.

Wild One isn't really interested in this book.  There's times when he'll work on a page or two, but he'd rather "read", play with Legos or play pirates.  That's fine with me.  They are four years old.  There will be plenty of times, unfortunately, that they will be required to sit and write, whether they are in the mood to or not.  For now, if he wants to write he'll write - or maybe he'll take down this puzzle from the shelf and work on it by himself.

One of my friends asked why I leave that puzzle on the shelf for them, when they have already learned how to put it together so quickly.  Good question.  Not everything needs to be a struggle, sometimes it's fun to do something easy.  Plus it's great for his self confidence, and he really likes this puzzle.

Popcorn Magic with Lesson Ideas

(4 Years)

Me- Do you want to see magic?
Little Miss- I do, I do!
Me- What do you think these are?  (I poured out a handful of popcorn kernels)

Little Miss - Beans, tiny rocks, seeds. (I had her feel a kernel and describe it).  It's tiny, hard and yellow.
She poured 1/2 cup of kernels into a brown lunch bag.

Her brother finally emerged from his room and asked to help.  Then she folded the lunch bag over twice.

 

 
We put it in the microwave.  I pressed the secret POPCORN button.  They said, "hocus pocus!"  I asked what they thought was going to happen.  Little Miss - It's going to get hot.

Then they heard the all too familiar pop pop sound.  Wild One - Popcorn!  Mommy it's popcorn!  Are we making popcorn?  They watched as the bag started inflating and they began to pop up and down like little kernels.

We usually buy Orville Redenbacher's Natural Simply Salted Microwaveable Popcorn.  Yummm!  I've wanted to try popping it in the brown lunch bag for months.  I kept thinking, it can't be as easy as pouring kernels into a brown lunch bag and pop the bag into the microwave.  If it was that easy someone would have told me by now!  Well, it's just that easy.  I like a little butter and salt on my popcorn.  So we melted a tablespoon of butter and mixed in a little salt, then poured that over the popcorn and shook the bag.  So yummy!  How did I not know about this?

LESSON IDEAS
So... the teacher in me feels compelled to tell you that you can easily turn this into a math lesson- compare the volume of the kernels to the popped corn, or compare the weight.  If the kids are ready, you can also discuss the reaction (science) that took place.  A writing lesson can be to describe what happened with illustrations.  You can create a popcorn necklace or even paint with the popcorn (art).  There are even fun popcorn books that you can use for read alouds - Tomie DePaola's The Popcorn Book, Half Popped and Popcorn to name just a few that you can borrow or buy.  Today, we decided to observe and describe a kernel and compare that to the popped corn, ok and have a healthy snack.

Learning with food is so much more fun, isn't it?

The Dot Lot - Math Fun

(4 Years)

I found this fun math activity on Pinterest, it's from ABC and 123.  During nap time, I quickly drew out two boards.  When Wild One woke up, he saw me at the kitchen table taking a picture of the board.  He asked, "What's that?  Can I play?"

We put the dominoes face down and took turns choosing a tile, counting the dots on each side of the line and adding them together.  He was instantly hooked!  It took a little less than ten minutes to play the game.  I love that we are practicing subitizing, adding and recognizing that there are several ways to construct a number (five = 0 + 5, 1 + 4, 2 + 3, 3 + 2, 4 + 1, 5 + 0) while playing.

Hee hee, sneaky math fun.  I love it!

May in a Nutshell

(4 Years)

I can't believe how fast this year is flying- ok, all four years have been flying.  One minute we are beginning May and the next, we are ending it.  So, what have we been doing?  We're going on a lot of field trips.  We've gone blueberry picking and peach picking.

We've been going to Busch Gardens almost weekly.

 

We have been reading a lot!  We're always at the library.   We started reading and ENJOYING chapter books (post to follow, well- eventually).  We've been painting, making and playing with homemade play dough (it lasts for months- see here for a great recipe).  We have been working with scissors a lot, they love cutting out shapes and then using glue sticks to glue them down (I've learned to have them work on a cafeteria tray when gluing to prevent glue from hardening on the wood table).  We've been using our Handwriting Without Tears slate boards and "school" books.  We are still in soccer, dance, gymnastics and T-Ball.

I'm trying to give them 10-minute swim lessons, each time we are in the pool.  However, Wild One wants to only swim under the water, and Little Miss doesn't want to take off her floaties.  I have one kid that needs to learn to stay above water, and the other to learn how to put her face in the water.  If  I didn't see them being born, I would never believe that they are twins!

So that's been May.