$1.00 fun!

I picked up a pack of finger puppets at our local $ store. I thought I would let my children try them for a buck. This is great for my family. DS is old enough to sew them and draw faces. DD is at a great age to watch them dance on your fingers. They tickle her tummy and she laughs. DS has only made 2 so far. 6 came in the pack with extra sheets of felt to cut and decorate the puppets. This picture isn't very clear. I don't have time to take and upload a new one. I am sure you get the idea.

Pre- writing/reading

I lost my first worksheet to HOH. I made up a sheet to replace it. My DD is NOT ready to write! She isn't able to use a crayon yet (she does like the taste of them...YUCK!). I made up this page to work on very early reading/writing skills. I made a orange dot for her to put her finger on and then she is to trace across to the animal. When she gets to the animal I will say the name of the animal and make the sound. I thought I could use this to show her reading goes left to right top to bottom, teach names duck, rooster, pig, and cow, and animal sounds. My first try went BAD! First she tried to tear the paper. I gently took it away and put it on the table. She screamed and tried to tear the paper again. I tried to get the paper back and she went running away with it. I got some tape and taped the corners down to the table. She screamed and instantly started working her fingers under the paper trying to tear it again! I was calm and looked happy with all this but the ENTIRE time I was ready to CRY! I used some more tape.... Then some more..... and yet more tape. My DS was laughing at this! DD kept screaming! I kept saying It's OK, this is going to be fun.... OH YES! Mommy missed that spot! and I kept using the tape telling myself that this can still workout. Once the paper was taped all the way around the outside. My DD let out one more scream and then looked at the paper. She noticed it had animals on it. LOL! I put her finger on the top dot and said look lets start at the orange dot and slide over to the animal. Duck goes quack quack. I used hand over hand and went down the rows. She used a flat hand and not her pointer finger after the duck. I thought it was a big FLOP! I was thinking she isn't ready to do this I will try again in a month or two.

THEN!
A few hours later I looked over and saw her USING HER POINTER on her OWN going down the animals! She is enjoying this. I guess it was a fun thing to to after all!

I should let you all know that she wasn't screaming because I was pushing her. She was yelling because she likes to tear paper. I never FORCED her to move her hand. I didn't make her do this activity. She could have walked away at any time. She screams a lot because she doesn't have enough words. She screams even when she is happy. She likes this activity now. She has done it several times on her own and giggles when she does it. Yes! We do make a big deal when she does it to encourage her to do it again.

I am sharing this long story to give others a look into "how" we do things. I have read things over the years that other people do but I can't always figure out "how" they do it. I thought that because this story went so wrong and turned out good maybe someone else would "see" how I work around things when it goes bad. I am not saying it is the right way to do things! It is the way my family is doing things right now.

I'm a little Teapot

I made up a set of felt teapots for our felt board. My DD LOVES the song I'm a little teapot. You can see in the picture that the blue teapot and the top gold one both have cut off handles and spouts. I did that so we can put them together when we sing the song. The bottom one is all one piece I was thinking one piece might be easier for DD to use.

Baby school.

OK, It isn't school it is play. My idea of teaching might not agree with everyone but it works for us. I like to introduce my children to school stuff in a fun way. I feel my job as a teacher is to open of the love of learning in my children. I feel if I make learning fun they will want to learn more. If I can have fun with reading, writing, and math and lay a good foundation they will want to keep going with it when they are older. I DO NOT PUSH! I DO let them learn at a rate they are ready for! My DD is 14 months old. I started what in my house we call her school time. We never called it "school" when my son was this young but he does "school time" now that he is 6. Everyone in my house now calls his work "school". I decided everyone in our house would know this is important baby time if we call it school.

We read the story of Jonah and worked on the verse Obey God. We also clapped to the music. All of that was all from HOH for a 2 year old. I know she isn't 2 but I already had the program and did it with my son when he was 18 months old.

She wanted to color with markers (she can't use crayons well yet). She did draw on her face. I made up some of what I call HOP MATS for her. Today we did the number one. My mats for her are about 12in X 12in. When anyone in our family walks from the kitchen to the living room we have to hop on and shout ONE. My DD thinks this is FUN!

I used the grip type of shelf liner and sharpie to make them up. I will add 1 or 2 at a time.

Square and circle.

LETTERS! This is my take on letters. You need sounds of the letters not names to read. Most of our reading and writing is lower case. I will show her both but I am only looking to "teach" the lower case (I feel that will be done in the next 3-4 years). I will teach sounds over names of letters. My goal is to help her read later on not sing the ABC song. We do say our ABC's but it isn't as important as the sounds for me. Below you will see my "a" mat we will say "aaaaaah" DH and DS might say "A goes aaaaah" That will be OK. I do hope everyone does the aaaaah part when walking on the a. I will use blue for a,e,i,o,u and red for all other letters. I do like Montessori way of teaching reading but I don't follow it exactly. KWIM? I don't think children hop and shout letter sounds in a Montessori classroom. I am just doing what "fits" for my family.

Some of the ways we use the hop mats are hop and shout. Run to the "circle". Toss a bean bags on them. Set up hopscotch with them. Sit on them. Put an apple on the letter a. Put one toy on the number one, two on the 2 and so on. Spelling words and lots of other silly games. I will try to post how we are using them as we get going. I came up with the idea for my son when he was young. He was older than 14 months. He learned very quickly and they didn't get a lot of use our of his letter, number, skip counting sets. I still use this style of teaching with him. His mats are a LOT smaller and he walks on his hands with me holding his feet to do drills. He has a multiplication set I don't think I ever posted. I will do that this week. I have a hop mat grammar sets posted .... http://schoolnsuch2.blogspot.com/2006/06/grammar-game.html#links My DD is trying to help me type this so I will have to write more later. We are going to read some books. She likes me to read I'm a little tea pot over and over. Hmmm.... I think I need to make up a felt set for that song.