It's SUMMER Time!

Our first trip to the library yielded us some great books!

I'm particularly excited about this book! After doing some research, I have come to find out that there is an entire series of "Baby Loves Science"!

Love Bug is "reading" to her fish, FiFi. She has had me read this book so many times, she actually has it memorized! (The book is Pete The Cat).

We were working on the letter "P" and discovered that a LOT of her favorite cartoons started with P. We did some coloring worksheets and made a list of all of the other words we could think of that started with the "p" sound. :)

We found a lovely green hill for rolling down at our local park. Love Bug enjoyed this lesson in physics!

Our local library was remodeled over the winter. Love Bug has a new activity table to explore!

What a fun way to encourage cognitive thinking, fine motor skills, and math!

Observing local butterflies and plants in our parks' butterfly garden.

Drums! In the park! Way cool!

Fun math game incorporated into our playground.

And of course, lots of opportunity for gross motor development!

We used natural resources to paint with. 

Our first trip to the local splash pad- always a blast! It's amazing to see how much she has grown from one year to the next.

The very first time we EVER visited this splash pad, Love Bug wasn't even walking yet!

I found a cute set of stampers with a garden theme at the local thrift store.

Welcome to the 2017/2018 PK3 School Year!

Hello! Welcome to our SECOND year of teaching Home Preschool! At this moment, I just returned to being a Stay At Home Mom after spending the last 8+ months teaching toddlers at a 5 star rated center.

My Love Bug is going to be turning 3 years old this summer, and we are learning so much every day! She has an impressive vocabulary, can count to 10, and can correctly identify most shapes and colors.

We will definitely be revisiting some books and/or activities that we explored last year, with more age/developmentally appropriate activities. Same topics, different level of learning. :)

I have been throwing around the idea of actually homeschooling Love Bug- at least through elementary school. I would like to take this opportunity to experiment with a more formal set up regarding "school" in general, since I can afford to while school is not compulsory.

Our PK3 school year will be starting August 21st, 2017. I don't have specific times for learning, but am planning on doing child led, emergent curriculum and a lot of back-mapping of our evidence for learning! My format for evidence will be posted as weekly lesson plans on here. I will also still be sharing pictures of special activities we do. :)

Olivia will have plenty of experiences and play-to-learn opportunities to explore all developmental domains: reading & literacy, language, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, music & movement, art & sensory, pretend play, math, and science.

PK2 Review

We had many adventures and learning experiences over our 2nd year of preschool. Because I was working as a toddler teacher in Olivia's classroom, she was able to experience a true structured classroom. Here are just some of the experiences we had this last year. 

We have had some challenges with learning to blow bubbles. Livy is very independent and really wanted to be able to do it by herself, but couldn't grasp the concept of NOT putting her mouth on the wand. We eventually found this whistle style wand and she is now successfully blowing bubbles herself!

We have found a new love in Pete The Cat! Livy request to watch the videos on YouTube or for me to read the books many times throughout the day. Not only does she love these stories, but she is learning to do one-to-one correspondence  and she's learning her colors. Genius!

She has become a master at simple puzzles.

We continue to explore different mediums for art!

We have started scissor cutting practice!

We enjoy using real tools to explore and learn in our environment.

We set out a bird feeder and enjoy watching the birds as they come and eat all of their food!

We collaborate on art projects!

Olivia is learning how to write her name. We are still working on prewriting symbols and lines, but she thoroughly enjoys tracing activities.

Mommy got creative and made this Pinterest inspired balance beam for Olivia. Great for gross motor on those indoor days.

We love having a print rich environment, where Olivia can explore ways of making marks!

The complexities that come along with learning how to pedal a tricycle or bicycle is extensive!

And we always make time to get out into nature and to stop and smell the flowers!

A recent trip to a farm allowed Olivia to get up-close-and-personal with several animals. She knows all of their names and the sounds they make.

Another cute way to practice those gross motor skills such as pedaling.