We are slooooowly easing back into our school-time routine after taking some much-needed time off this summer. (And for those who are wondering why we start so early - it's so that we can enjoy days off and long weekends throughout the school year as needed!)
I spend a great deal of time over the summer thinking and praying about the upcoming school year - things like curriculum choices, scheduling, extracurricular activities, and household management are not things I take lightly. I am so excited to see these decisions finally come to fruition in the new year!
One thing we are trying out is a new school-day schedule now that there are three students in God Seekers Academy - a seventh grader, a fourth grader, and a preschooler! (I can't believe how fast they are growing up!) I have structured our day so that while the big kids are working independently, Noah and I can do "Noah-school". So far, so good!
For Noah's tot school this year, I will be using Before Five in a Row as our curriculum. Because we've been doing a lot of berry picking lately, I decided to start with Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey. We have been reading it over and over this week - so much so that Noah almost has it memorized! He especially likes the part where the mommies and babies are all mixed up on Blueberry Hill (if you aren't sure what I'm talking about, you should read the book or watch it here)!
In addition to this wonderful story, we've been having fun with the letter B . . .
Here Noah is putting stickers with uppercase and lowercase Bs onto the "B" and "b" on his paper.
He also had fun putting "blueberries" on the B with a bingo dabber.
He traced the lines to bring the bear to the B.
We also did some other preschool things - like coloring shapes. (I put the coloring page into a plastic page protector so that we can erase it and use it again!)
Noah was VERY proud of himself when he finished putting the numbered blueberry clusters in order from 0-10 without any help!
He also worked on color words - each bear had the color word printed in the corresponding color so he knew what the word said and could color them all in.
He even made his own book to read - all about Little Bear (from Blueberries for Sal) that introduced position words. He loved putting the cutouts of Little Bear in the right place and then "reading" the book to Mommy and Daddy.
Now this may look like a lot . . . but remember, it was spread out over several days. And we only did these activities as long as it was fun for Noah. My philosophy of homeschooling in the early years is that I want to impart a love of learning, discovering, and exploring new things. I do recognize that as Noah sees his older siblings with their schoolwork, he naturally wants to do "school" too - hence the worksheets and other activities. But the best part of our school day is the times we can cuddle up on the couch with a book (or five) to read together!
