Princess M Update

We're moving right along with the alphabet.  We got through the letter M this week.  We've been looking forward to this letter, not only because it's the first letter of her name, but because M is for - M&M's!!!  Yes - nothing is better than schooling with chocolate!

Counting M&M's

Pattern Matching

Color Sorting

Eating M&M's

M is for Mouse

M is for Mosaic - sort of

Princess M School Update

Princess M is continuing to learn letters and numbers in preschool.  We are speeding up a little and trying to do a letter a week from here on out.  There are a couple of reasons for this.  Most importantly, she is really getting good at recognizing all of the letters and saying their sounds - even the letters we haven't officially done yet.  I attribute this to her Leap Frog videos and the games she has played on the iPad.  Each week we feed Mugs (a character game from IEW's PAL curriculum) all of the letters.  She has to tell me the name of the letter and it's sound.  She can say probably twenty of them the first time through.  The rest she needs either the name or sound prompt to get the other side of the equation.  Also, I'd really like to get through all of the letters by the end of May.

This week we finished up letter H for hippo. We did not make puppets for G or H.  The little two princesses have decimated my paper bag supply making their own puppets over the last few weeks.  Here are some pictures of the last couple of weeks.

F is for fish

Fish puppet (yes it has two eyes - she just couldn't do only one)

Counting gumballs

G is for goat

H is for house

 

Princess M Preschool Check In 2

These first five weeks of school have been very hard.  We have had one great-grandmother pass away.  The other great-grandmother broke her leg and had major surgery.  Nanny came to visit for a week and a half.  Princess L was sick for a whole week.  Other various issues have plagued us as well.  So about a week and a half ago, I was feeling extremely discouraged about preschool.  I think it was just another in the litany of spiritual attacks that I have had to weather.  I have been lamenting that she just doesn't seem to be cooperating or getting the idea in many areas.  So I've been contemplating either dropping preschool completely or going with something a bit less structured.  One thing I had been doing is incorporating the letter stories from IEW's PAL curriculum that I'm using with Princess L.  The day after my major frustration hit, Princess M was paging through a workbook and pointed to the letter e.  She said, "Hey it's the toothy letter!"  She then pointed out an i and said, "And that's the sad letter!"  She could even tell me the sounds.  I was amazed.  So, I'm thinking that I just need to loosen up and not expect too much.  She will catch on in her own time.

So, we finished up the letter i this week.  I had figured to be all done with the vowels by now, but since I'm loosening up, I will not be pushing to finish on any schedule.  Here are a few pictures of some things we did.

We made an I iguana.

We made an inchworm.

We made an iguana bag puppet that says - of course - \i\.

We will be starting the letter O next week. 

Plans for 2011/2012 - Princess M

This will be Princess M's first official year as a student in our homeschool.   She will be a pre-K student.  We will be using the Letter of the Week curriculum.  While you can get all the downloads free from the site, it is well worth the $10 to download everything zipped and organized.  I also purchased the K4 expansion pack a while back.  I do not know how much of it we will use with Princess M this year, but I can also use it with Princess L for a fun review.  I have decided that, although I'd love to print everything out in color on heavy weight cardstock and then laminate it, it really was not cost effective to do that.  Princess M is my last student, so that would be a big investment.  If I still had one more behind, I would most certainly spend the money to make things last.  So I went through the list of activities and decided which ones really would be best in color, and which ones I could get by with B&W.  Princess M can color some of them in before we cut them out to play with.  I'm printing out all the activities I plan to use, a letter a day, until I have all that I need.  I've also gone through the list of suggested books and marked which ones I have available at our library.  I will be working with Princess M immediately after breakfast in the morning.  I plan to have some activities she can do with me and some that she will learn to do on her own for a few minutes.  She is very excited about being an official student, something that her sisters find very funny.  (I remind them that they were once excited about school as well.)  Princess M will also be a first year Cubbie at Awana this year.  I think she is most excited about that fact.  It has been a long wait for her to join in on the Wednesday night fun.  I will try to remember to take some photos of the activities and post them on a regular basis.  (I have such a hard time remembering to take pictures.)