What Laynie's school day looks like...

 

Circle Time: We are working through stories and memory work from Genesis.  After we read a story I ask her a few questions about it and she draws a picture of what she learned. 

 

Singing "our toes are on the tape" before circle time. 

 The boxes lined up next to her are her "friends". She still hasnt accepted the fact that she is homeschooled and there will be no other children present during school time. Most days after everything I say she turns, looking around her and says "You hear that boys and girls?"...but today, before we started she did a lap around the room saying, " Come on boys and girls! It's circle time!" and then placed these boxes on our circle. It is a little bit sad and pathetic but the fact that preschool is the only time during her day that she is not with other kids, at playdates, etc., makes me feel a little better about "depriving" her during school. :)

Geography/reading:  The key to keeping a 3 year old focused is to only teach her about things she is intensely interested in.  Therefore...naturally...we are currently studying Iowa and Michigan.  Having an aunt and uncle who are mysteriously back and forth is very intriguing for her. (Shout out to Nick and Aud-love you guys!) After Iowa we will be talking about Idaho (Hi Chels and Derrick) followed by texas. (Because that is where Kari Jobe lives...and Laynie is OBSESSED with Kari Jobe)

Today we marked each state on our map and read a few books about them.



 

Writing:  Letters to Grandma! I did not have any intention of working on writing with Laynie this year because I thought she was too young.  She has completely proved me wrong!  We have been practicing spelling her name but it never occured to me that she could write it until breakfast today- I gave her a pen and paper to color with and when I came back she had written her name! I worked it into our school day to see if it was a fluke...turns out it's not!

                                                                                "Mom, how do you do an "N" again?"

The "Y" is upside down and the "A's' look a little like "H"...but that's a pretty

 impressive A-L-A-Y-N-A if you ask me. :)

   
      Math: Laynie has mastered counting to 50, counting by tens to 100, and can recognize most numbers 1-30.  Today she worked on placing the right amount of beans on the numbers I drew on her white board. 
                                          

Laynie also practiced her cylinder blocks.  These are a montessori tool meant to increase focus and spacial awareness.  There are four different blocks that each contain five cylinders.  The cylinders change in height and/or diameter and each block does this in a different sequence.  In order to place the cylinders in the right spot you must be able to differentiate between the cylinders and remember which block is which sequence.  Our first week of school Laynie would work with one block at a time.  Today she tried two at a time....

                                           

 

She did so well that we even tried three!

 

 

 

 

 And once school is done for the day...giggles galore from these little buddies!

 

 

 

 

 

 

1st day as a homeschooling mom!

 

Ok, perhaps the post title is a little dramatic since it is just preschool and she is only three....either way, we are pretty excited about school around here! Laynie has been counting down the days till she could check out her new classroom in the basement and start "homeschooling".  (Yes, she actually knows she is homeschooled because so many of her friends started school this year that she picked up on the difference.   Anyways, she knew today was the day and as soon as we finished breakfast she started calling me "teacher"....and didn't stop even when I explained that it wasn't school time quite yet and that really she could just call me mom.  Hey...whatever floats her boat is good with me. :)

 

 

                           We of course had to take a few pics before getting started.....

 

   
                                                      "Hey mom! Get this one!"

 
                                            "It's preschool time because I'm 3!"

                          
               Hudson was pretty excited too!  Bummer he napped and missed all the fun!

 

Had to take one sneaky pic while she was so focused on her work.  Please notice the lack of pants.....one of the benefits of being homeschooled. 


The rest of our day consisted of the park, library and a little Curious George.