Home Preschool - January 2017

A new year means it's time to re-evaluate and adjust things. I noticed, especially during December, that we just didn't have time to get to all the activities that I had planned. December is a bit of an anomaly because we're so busy with parties, blog posts, baking, and all things Christmas, but I think it will be good to scale back the activities a bit. I'm hoping this way I won't feel so overwhelmed and won't try to rush Roman through the activity because it "has to get done".

I'm also well aware that we are likely going to spend a good amount of time playing with all the things the kids get for Christmas, and playing in their new playroom!

The only activity we managed to find time for in December was the laminated ornaments. They turned out really well and I think we'll probably make more next year to hang in the windows as well.

Here is what I have planned for January!!

1st-7th: Magic milk paint
8th-14th: Winter Paintings
15th-21st: Eskimo craft
22nd-31st: Drawing with cars

I know Roman is going to love drawing with his cars, and I'm sure the paintings will go over well. Maybe Bianca will also get in on the drawing with cars since she loves pushing cars around too.

Home Preschool - December 2016

As I sat down to write this post I was expecting to have to try to justify why we hadn't done any of the activities I had planned. Turns out we did about half of them! The ones we haven't done are mainly due to lack of prep as I didn't have the materials on hand that the activities required. That being said, we still have time as it's currently only the 21st! As I look ahead to the upcoming activities for November I see that I need to make a trip to Bulk Barn and Dollar Tree; hooray!!

Roman really enjoyed decorating his chickens and constructing their eggs and nests. As excited as he was about them I really thought he would play with them longer than he did. The novelty seemed to wear off after a day, but I think a large part of that is that the coop has to be kept up out of Bianca's reach or she tries to destroy it. Maybe I'll try moving it into his room so he can check on his chickens whenever he likes!

He also loved the animal track painting. As soon as I sat the toys and the paint on the table it was game on! You couldn't really tell the difference between the tracks themselves but he had a blast. The whole purpose of the animal/farm projects this month was to get Roman geared up for Agribition! I know for sure that the Muddy Pigs activity has Roman excited. We made two pigs so that he could take one to Grandma and Grandpa's house for their fridge. I was a little surprised that Roman was willing to paint with his hands because he doesn't usually like to, but I think the oats in the paint made it more gross and appealing. The logic of a 3 year old.

Our ocean turned into woodland creature clip cards because I had those stickers on hand. Roman loves anything with stickers so he enjoyed just making the cards themselves. I decided to laminate them to make them last a little longer. These home laminating machines are so handy. If you don't have one I highly recommend picking one up. They aren't very expensive and I seem to use it more than I ever thought I would!

I'm just going to warn you now; most of the December activities are probably not going to happen. With all things Christmas in full swing I have a feeling we'll be working on more holiday crafts and activities than we will be preschool.

1st-10th: Snow Clay, Laminated Ornaments
11th-17th: Paper Plate Christmas Ornament, Feed The Penguin Game
18th-24th: Christmas!!!
25th-31st: Straw Rockets

Home Preschool - November 2016

I don't know how it's possible, but I think October went by faster than summer did. I swear I just finished writing the October post and now I'm working on the November post. I'm so not ready for this! So not ready in fact that as I'm looking at the things to include it occurs to me that I have done zero prep for this month. None. Nadda. I really need to get my butt in gear! First, an update on how October's activities went!

I have to be honest and tell you that we didn't get to all the activities I had planned. Between all the activities Roman and Bianca do during the week, getting ready for Halloween, and starting to plan for Christmas and Christmas presents, we just didn't have the time. There were also days that Roman just wasn't interested in the activities, or wanted to continue on with an activity from the week before. A prime example of this was the moon dough. I swear Roman played with this stuff at least once a day for a week, and my poor white (now grey-ish) table can attest to that. The only advice I have for this dough is to only add a tiny amount of paint. The instructions say to add paint to the baking soda and then water. I wasn't sure how much to add so I gave it 3 big squirts. Bad idea. Roman was black, the table was/is black, and even the toys he used in it are stained black. Food coloring definitely would have made things worse so I am glad I used the paint. Overall a very successful activity that I highly recommend you try.

If you're looking for a quick activity to burn a few minutes, Roman really enjoyed the Apple Tree ABC. I printed out a few trees; upper case letters, lower case letter, and numbers. Roman loves stickers so this was right up his alley. Roman had a hard time a first when there were so many letters to choose from, but once he eliminated a few he really started to have fun. If I did this again I maybe wouldn't do then entire alphabet but choose a handful of letters and just repeat them.

We also made the pop up ghost craft, which Roman LOVED, and we started the Eyeball Topiary but didn't quite get it finished. The styrofoam balls I picked up from Dollarama didn't take the paint very well and will require a few coats to get them covered well. Roman quacking grew tired of painting the same balls several times, so we abandoned the project and I'll finish it up eventually. For now, it will sit in the "half finished" pile in my craft room.

So now for November! I'm a little overwhelmed just looking at my list of things that I planned on doing and thinking of when/how I'm going to get these things done. I think it's important to be flexible with your home preschool plan. In my case it isn't necessarily "preschool" more just a list of preschool type activities to entertain Roman on the days that we don't have other activities going. I think I get myself into a bind sometimes when I think to myself that these things "need" to get done. The reality is they don't and they are supposed to be fun!

1st-5th: Chicken dramatic play, Grow your own geodes
6th-12th: Cupcake liner poppy craft, Animal track painting
13th-19th: Muddy pigs, Ocean clip cards
20th-26th: Pumpkin spice latte playdough, Matching color wheel
27th-30th: Felt button chain busy bag

There are so many fun things planned! It's fun to look at these plans and see what's coming up. Because I planned it so long ago it's like a surprise even to me every month! I think Roman will love muddy pigs and I'm particularly excited for the pumpkin spice late playdough!

Home Preschool - October 2016

We're are officially into fall, my favorite time of year!!! There isn't anything I don't love about this season; the temperature, the colors, the smells and the holidays. In Canada we celebrate Thanksgiving in the first part of October, which makes October a busy month. I struggled a bit when planning this month's activities because I want to do it all but there just isn't enough time!! There needs to be a solid month between holidays so we have time to do all the things!! Before I get into the plan for October, I want to touch on some of the activities Roman enjoyed the most from September.

By far Roman's favorite activities were the exploding paint bags and the dramatic play: spaghetti shop. The paint bag's didn't actually explode, more like popped and oozed, but Roman didn't mind at all. He jump on top of them to send the paint flying, which he thought was much more fun. The neighbors however probably were not thrilled since we were doing it outside at 8am on a Saturday morning. This is why I give them holiday gifts haha. I couldn't find powder tempera paint so I just squirted some regular craft paint into a sandwich bag of vinegar, added a big scoop of baking soda, seal it, and ran!

The spaghetti shop was a whole other can of worms. Roman LOVED it. In fact the spaghetti is still sitting in the fridge three days later because he keeps pulling it out to play with. I'll probably toss it tonight and if he wants to play again we can cook up some more. That's the great part of this activity; it's SO inexpensive! We haven't tried the activities from the last week of September yet, since it's only the 27th, but I have a feeling Roman is going to love them.

Now for October!

October 1st-8th - Chocolate dipped krispie treat turkey pops, Toilet paper roll turkey &
                             Apple tree ABC match
October 9th-15th - Halloween eyeball topiary & Moon Dough
October 16th-22nd - Fall pretend play, Baking soda & vinegar reactions & Peek-a-boo ghost
October 23rd-31st - Bubble science with pumpkins, Spider web fine motor activity &
                                 Simple scissor practice

I'm excited for all of these activities, but especially the krispie treats and the eyeball topiary. While I think Roman will enjoy those, I know for a fact he will love the baking soda reactions, moon dough, and bubble science with pumpkins. We were at Superstore the other day and they already have pumpkins out. I've never seen anyone so excited. He wanted a treat (as I feel all kids do), but this time he requested his treat be a pumpkin so he can cook it and eat it. Yup, he's my child!

Home Preschool

Now that Roman is 3, I've been thinking about preschool. Around here kids can start pre-kindergarten at 3, but I've always been a little leery about it. In my experience, boys usually don't enjoy school as much as girls or the novelty of it wears off quicker. Case in point, my brother proudly proclaimed to my mom in grade 3 that he was all done school. Nothing like the harsh reality of being told you have another 9 years to go... I'm hoping to get Roman to at least grade 5 before he tells me he's done. I'm also not sure Roman is ready to be sitting and focusing in a structured environment for an extended period of time just yet. I mean, he did just turn 3 a month ago.

After talking it over with John, my mom, Trellyn, Roxy (who also happened to be Roman's camp counsellor this year), I decided to hold off on pre-K for this year. I do however feel like he would benefit from learning certain things, like his alphabet, and I'm always looking for activities to keep him busy and engaged. So, I decided to make my own preschool. Obviously I'm not a teacher so this likely doesn't meet or follow the school systems curriculum, but it will help Roman learn different skills that will benefit him farther down the road.

I found a binder and some loose leaf in the basement, picked up a few dividers at Wal Mart and set down to plan a preschool program for Roman. I made a section for each month, and divided the months out one week at a time. A simple search online yielded an endless supply of ideas. I wrote out the materials, directions and learning objectives for each activity out and allocated the activities throughout the weeks. I wanted a pouch to hold some of the smaller items, so being the resourceful person that I am, I decided to punch some holes in a freezer bags and add it into the binder. Works like a dream!

My plan is to have the lessons planned and prepped one month at a time. I'm almost done with September's prep, I only have a few items left to pick up, so I wanted to share what I have planned for September.

September 1-10: Spelling our name - dinos & Alphabet sensory play
September 11-17: Exploding paint bags & Spelling our name - sentence strip
September 18-24: Alphabet fishing & Dramatic play Spaghetti shop
September 25-30: Ziplock quilt alphabet & Wash the dog - pet sensory activity

I've also added in some alphabet recognition sheets to most of the weeks. I decided to only have 2-3 activities per week since we will still be attending play group on a fairly regular basis, and I'm also planning on registering Roman for the preschool story time at the library.

I LOVE planning lessons like this. I know all my teacher friends are probably cringing because I know planning can be a daunting process. but sometimes I feel like I could do this all day. Maybe I should have gone to school for education in stead of business administration. Maybe that'll be my second career!

5 Days of Preschool Snacks

Roman experienced another first this summer; day camp!! I remember attending the YMCA day camps when I was little and they were so much fun! So when I found out that Roman was old enough this year, I immediately signed him up. Unfortunately he didn't turn 3 until camp was almost done so he was only able to participate in one week, but it was awesome! Not only did I get a break to get some things accomplished around the house, but Roman got to experience life away from me. The best part about this camp was that Roxy (who facilitates playgroup and is good friend of mine) runs the camp, and it takes place at playgroup! This made the transition of being without me seamless because he loves Roxy, and he's obviously familiar with the building. So seamless in fact, that when I stuck around for a few minutes to talk to Roxy, Roman came over and loudly proclaimed "Mom, go!". Alrighty then....

My favorite part of camp, other than the free time, was packing Roman's snacks! Maybe it's because I'm new to the world of lunch packing, but I loved it!! I picked up this bento style lunch box by Starfrit at Wal Mart for $6 and it worked perfectly. The sections allow you to separate foods and they come out for easy cleaning. I also used some silicone muffin wrappers to further divide the compartments. All of these snacks are nut free as required by the YMCA, but I feel like that's pretty standard these days. Oh, how could I forget! I also added a sticker into the snack box each day! I really wanted to send little notes in his snack, but the fact that Roman can't read kinda put a damper on that parade.

Day 1
Banana bran muffin, graham crackers, sliced peaches, Babybel cheese, fruit snacks, water.
Roman is usually a very predictable creature, and this time he didn't disappoint. He ate all the fruit snacks and cheese, one graham cracker, one peach slice, and took one bite from the muffin.

Day 2
WOW Butter roll-up, chocolate chips, carrots, tomatoes, Babybel cheese, watermelon, juice box.
Tortilla roll-up are always hit and miss with Roman, and this time he only ate one. Obviously all the chocolate chips and cheese were gone, as well as a few carrots. I wasn't surprised that the tomatoes were left, but if you don't try there is no chance they'll eat it!

Day 3
Bread, deli chicken meat, cheddar cheese, apple slices, fruit snacks, water.
Deconstructed sandwich day! Roman loves deconstructed sandwiches. What I should say is he has been deconstructing his sandwiches since he started solids, so now I just serve them that way. The only thing that came back from this snack was a few apple slices.

Day 4
Hard boiled egg, crackers, Babybel cheese, avocado, garden carrots, chocolate dipped granola bar, water.
This was by far Roman's most loved snack of the week. Even Roxy laughed that he was very excited about the egg. He gobbled everything up except the garden carrots, which I promptly ate.

Day 5
WOW Butter banana sushi, hard boiled egg, orange, Babybel cheese, grapes, water.
So by now you've probably noticed that Roman has a thing for Babybel cheese. I always made sure to send at least one thing I know he'd eat for sure so the poor guy didn't get hungry. They were on their way to the park this day so he didn't eat very much of anything, likely because he was excited to get going. I also mom failed and forgot his sticker this day! Luckily he didn't notice or I would have felt like a bum.

Hopefully these snacks will give you some inspiration for upcoming school or daycare snacks/lunches! I had a blast making these snacks. I should have registered Roman for preschool this year just so I could make lunches every day! I think I'm going to have to keep this up for playgroup because we saved a ton of money from the typical snacks that he normally eats. Plus these are so much better for him that the pre-packaged stuff.

I'd love to hear your ideas for snacks/lunches as well! What is your kid's favorite food to find in their lunch box?