Curlers and Camo: First Week of Preschool at Home! Letter Cc and All About Me

So last week was actually the first week of preschool in our home for Gabriel {aka Gabe/ Gabraham Lincoln/Danger/Gabby Pants} He's 4...fabulous 4! And let me tell you, he LOVES preschool! Everyday he asks me, "Can we do school please?" I'm absolutely flattered and eating it up! I can't let this kid down, so I'm trying my hardest to plan ahead. I will post my lesson here on this blog and I hope that someone out there will find it helpful. A little background on me: I was a preschool teacher for several years at The Goddard School in Denver. My philosophy aligns closely to theirs- I believe that children learn best through play up till the age of 6. Who doesn't learn best when having a blast, am I right?! I believe in focusing on the Whole Child, meaning: academic, social, creative child centered learning. You won't see worksheets on my blog because I don't think that they are age appropriate for this age group. Before a child can complete a ditto or worksheet, they need to master skills like holding pencils correctly and writing. I believe in open-ended art. This also means no worksheets, dittos or coloring books {now don't freak out...my kids have tons of coloring books and I even color with them!} I'm talking about during academic time~ all art work in our preschool is a process. It's open ended meaning the child can explore with an item to use with paint and create on an open canvass! There are no lines and boundaries that the child needs to stay within. I'm not going to blab on and on about this. And so...week 1:

These are my pupils for preschool: Gabriel and Oliver! Oliver is only 1~ but he loves to join in and listen to books, play toys and sing songs just as much as any other preschool child. I know that he is able to learn alongside his brother, so I tailor my plans to his level very easily!

All About Me Theme

I will always have a book of the day that either coincides with the letter of the week and/or the theme I am teaching. This months theme is "All About Me." That may sound selfish...but it's critical! Our children need and are able to know details about themselves in case of emergency. Knowing their full name, age, address and phone number are important. Not only that, they simply need to know about themselves~ where did I come from, who am I? How was I made and what is my purpose on this earth? We all contribute to society and to our communities so how can I do that as a preschool age child? We are believers in Jesus Christ in our home...so teaching my children their identity in Christ is a huge lesson in itself, and is the most important. So first and foremost the verse of the month is:

I am fearfully and wonderfully made~ Psalms 139:14

Children at a very young age are able to memorize scripture. They may not understand it, but memorizing it puts it into a store bank in their head. One day when they are old enough to understand it, it will come back to them as needed. Train a child up in the way he should go and he will not depart from it~ Proverbs 22:6. My children are starting Awanas next month, so I will incorporate scripture and bible more later when that starts.

Letter C:

This weeks books for letter C:

A Chair for My Mother by Vera B Williams
Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss
Cool Cars by Tony Mitton
Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site by Sherri Duskey Rinker
Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina

Today we read Cool Cars by Tony Mitton and afterwards we explored with brown paint, construction paper and toy cars! The boys loved it and made several masterpieces!

Books for All About Me

I Like Myself by Karen Beaumont

Eyes, Nose, Fingers, Toes by Judy Hindley

All By Myself by Aliki

I am also focusing on reading classic books to the boys so I got The Tales of Uncle Remus: The Adventures of Brer Rabbit by Julius Lester
As far as numbers we are learning to recognize numbers 0-10. My 4 year old is really struggling with this area so we are focusing on these numbers. I bought LeapFrog movies about numbers for him to watch in the car when we run our errands~ it has seemed to help after just a few days. I also have made teacher made games for him to practice matching the little plastic magnet numbers to the numbers on flash cards. These are very simple things to do to encourage number learning.