Preschool Puffs and Plugs: Week ending Oct.3

Homeschooling updates from a proud parent's point of view
*Puff: praise extravagantly; to publicize with often exaggerated praise; *Plug: the favorable mention of something,
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I needed some sort of catchy phrase to start summing up our activities-especially since I am having trouble with daily blogging-and there seems to be a lack of jazzy synonyms for words like summary and review. So, I dug a little deeper, stretched a little farther, and found 'puffs and plugs.' I know I could use 'weekly wrap-ups, or Saturday summary' but I wanted something a little brighter with the sparkly touch that seems to be all things --me.

OK, let's start with the PUFFS:

Monday, September 29:Craft Project

On Monday, Sophie chose a pumpkin patch scene to create with a foamies kit bought at the craft store.
She figured out how to put the two trees together by herself.Then using the box as a guide she created her masterpiece.The only thing I did was hot glue the tree, fence, and sign to the base-right where she told me to.
She's a perfectly proud-of-herself preschooler. I am perfectly pleased at her efforts. I'm even more thrilled with her ability to follow directions; her capability of sitting in her seat content and behaving for almost an hour; and I couldn't be happier with her tiny little motor skills getting all that tape off the back of the foamies and the fact that she was able to figure out how to assemble this practically on her own.

Tuesday, September 29: Bead Sorting and jewelry design.

The Montessori lessons** I was using said to pick four shapes with same or only 2 different colored beads. I decided Sophie could handle something a little more challenging.
With a bit of coaching from me, she made the decision to sort by color instead of shape. Each time she got bored with a color she moved on to a new color. This kept her busy for almost 20 minutes! I think she enjoyed putting the beads into this container the best. She was really excited that the box tops snapped in place.

Then it was time to make a necklace and 'jam' on her guitar with it on. I couldn't get a great pic of the necklace though. I'll have to do some editing and post in the future when I get the chance.

Wednesday, October 1: P.E. and a little tool-time.

Notice anything about this bike? (besides the fact she is growing quickly out of it)

Yep. No more training wheels. She fell gracefully though and seriously had more of a fit wearing the helmet and knee pads than she did when she fell over. She's one tough cookie.

After all of that great exercise (for me and her daddy) she decided she still wants the training wheels.
So she put them back on. I may have helped a little.

Now for a couple of plugs:

Also on Wednesday we did a Montessori exercise playing I Spy with one of the actual I Spy books--the Halloween version. It's great for teaching letter sounds (I spy something that starts with a B,) colors (I spy something black,) and even a some higher level cognitive skills (I Spy something that flies only at night.) A bat was the answer to those three--in case you were wondering. Anyway, this was a fantastic teachable moment while at the same time disguising itself as down time-getting Sophie ready for a nap. LOVED IT! We will be doing this one often. I am sooooo looking forward to the Christmas version. It will be a staple in our Christmas time activity schedule.

This is Sophie giving herself a plug once the training wheels were back on. Good for you Butter Bee~Take a Bow!

*definitions from dictionary.com
**I have decided to tone down the Montessori pressure I put on myself by picking one or two activities for the week and then just improvising on the rest-relying on my former teaching skills to help me turn play-time into learning time. She absolutely lives in a complete educational environment, so pretty much everything she sees, hears, and plays with will help her grow leaps and bounds educationally in some fashion or another. This week was a LOT less stressful than last week, and instead of scrambling to fill time, this week we ran out of time to do all of the activities scheduled. Plus, if I use Thursday as a wrap-up day, I won't feel so damn guilty about not posting everyday. Today we were going to do science and practice making bubbles, but we will postpone until next week.