Pre School this week/ and Bug School too

H- 4 1/2
Bug- 18 months

This week we have not been great about doing school time... a little here and a little there.  We have been busy playing at the park instead, meeting Daddy for lunch, going to craft stores, getting ready for the baby...  We did do some school time, here is what we have been up to:

H-man Preschool
Math:  I had H put together this really great puzzle that I got at Ross for $5.  It has 3 pieces for each number 1-20.  I started by taking out all of the words, and just had him count the pictures then match the number.  Once he did this for all 20, I took away numbers 11-20.  Then I pulled out the cards with the the words (names of each number) for 1-10.  I would hold up the card and ask him if he knew what it said.  Some of the words he has memorized, others he tried to sound out. 

Art time:
Just painting, per H's request

Reading:
For our real reading time we are still slowly working through Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.   He is now to lesson 26 (I think) and each lesson has a "story" for him to read usually made up of 2 sentances of words he can sound out.  This book is honestly amazing, he can already read the little stories.  Then after each story there is a list of questions to help the child with reading comprehension.  We do reading time always while Bug is napping, it helps us both concentrate : )

H has also been really into "reading" or what you might call reciting stories to the baby.  Here are some of my favorite pics:

Yes that is by big bare belly. haha

And this one shows when the baby kicked H's hand as he read... look at that face!  I just love his expression!  It honestly made H's day that the baby liked his story so much!

Tiny Tot School:
Bug is not the best at sitting still, or having a very long attention span, so we have started working on this in a couple of different ways.
1.  High Chair time:  When I am doing school time with H, I have Bug sit in her high chair and play with 1 toy at a time.  She usually has 5 minutes of interest in the toy, then she will gather back up the pieces, and try to hand it back to me.  I know 5 minutes isn't long, but it was huge for her.  And I was so proud of her that she didn't throw the toy on the ground when she was done, that she waited for me to come over and take it from her.  Then I gave her another set of toys... again, 5 minutes of interest, packaged it back up and handed it to me.  On the first day she lasted through 4 sets of toys for a total of 20 minutes!

random, but fun... 1.  Farm Toy

2. Garlic press (don't worry no sharp edges)  

3. Metal bowl and spoon with plastic sharks

2.  Sit still time on a blanket:
Again, sitting still is not her strong suite, but an area we can improve on: )  Both of the kids get Gummy Vitamins each morning.  Instead of just giving them to the kids, I use the vitamins as little rewards or re-enforcements for sitting still.  Bug gets 1 vitamin and H gets 2.  So to lengthen the training time,  I cut hers into 4 pieces and his both in half, giving 4 pieces.   We lay out a blanket, sit down, I start by reminding Bug that it is "sit still time," then I start the Bible story.  If she can sit still for a page (2 -3 sentences) then she gets part of her "bite" as she calls it.  H has the skill down, but I use this time to let him be an example for Bug.  Praising him when he is sitting still, and letting Bug see Bro get his "bite."  Oh, we have a long way to go in this area, but it is worth all of the time and effort.  Training is never easy, but with time it does have it's rewards.

3.  Painting:
Every now and then I will pull out water-colors or finger paints for Bug to do while H is painting.  But on days that I don't have time for a lot of clean up.  I give her a paint brush, construction paper and a little cup of water.  She LOVES it.  And clean up is so easy, simply throw the piece of soggy paper away : )