Spencer desperately wants to be in school.
He sees his sister leave everyday regularly asks when he gets to go.
We’ve visited her classroom a few times and he BEGS to stay.
To soften things a little we’ve started holding “Spencer School.” It usually only lasts 15-20 min. and only covers one topic at a time. But its enough. And its official enough to satisfy the little guy at least somewhat.
Last week one day we talked about patterns. And we played with beads!
“Patterns” was a word he didn’t really understand… until I explained that the beads had to take turns. Then he got it!
Here are a few pictures of our activity that day.
I started by just letting him string the beads, then we talked about what a pattern is and he did another.
I gave him pipe cleaners instead of string so it would be a little easier – those beads are small. The one on his neck is a pipe cleaner too, it barely fit, but he insisted on wearing it!
What do you do to entertain your preschool-aged children at home?
I do my own preschool with my kids and they’ve all been at the top of their Kindergarten class giong in. I love the Leap Frog Letter Factory Movie. Yes it is a movie, but it is educational and it isn’t very long. Tiffanie gave me this movie when Calista was little and both she and Ellen have loved it. It teaches them all the sounds of the letters in cute creative ways for them to remember. (The instructor goes into the A room with Tad, and then leaves. All of a sudden a monster, the instructor in costume, jumps into the room and yells. All the letter A’s yell “Ahhh!” and the instructor says, “Yes, the letter A says “Ahh!” Then they sing a little song to reinforce it.) I just can’t say enough good things about it. I haven’t worked real hard with Ellen on this (she’s almost 4), but from watching the movie, she knows all the sounds of each letter and most of the names. I definitely recommend it, and its only like $10!! I also like http://www.starfall.com. It has little things from learning the letters, learning to read, to reading. You can subscribe for more info on shapes and numbers, but I haven’t gone that far yet. There’s also a leapfrog fridge magnet that has all the letter tiles that you can plug into it. My kids loved that one too. As far as counting goes, they like to play hide-and-go-seek because they get practice counting over and over again. These are just a few things I really like. I hope this is a little helpful.
Another idea…When I teach them a letter for the day, say A, then I will get on the computer and type/print up a bunch of house words that have that letter (carpet, ball, hat, table, cupboard…). I have the child go into their room while I tape the wordstrips. Then they get to look around the room or house and find the strips with the letter on it. When they get good, I also include strips that don’t have that letter, just to see if they really know it. I always have a little snack for them too, which helps keep their attention longer.
Hey Tina,
I sent the recipes to tina@ernstrom.net
If you don’t get them let me know. I had three emails for you and didn’t know which one you were using so I guessed 🙂