Five

I started this Table Time by asking all of the kids to hold up one hand. I asked them to wiggle those fingers and then to open and close their hands (Attention getter). I then held up my hand and we counted my fingers one at a time. We opened and closed or hands repeating "5!" every time, they loved this part! We then traced each one of their hands on their paper and counted the paper hand's fingers. after they finished counting the fingers I wrote a big 5 in the middle of the hand. The last step was letting them try to trace their own hand. They really did try hard! Next time I will use fat crayons:) Less mess:) I really think that this helped all of them understand the concept of numbers a little better.

After they finished coloring we had gold fish for snack. they all counted with me as I put five fish in each cup. I then gave them each a pile of fish and they had fun eating and counting them!

Second Preschool Day!

Getting better:) The kids are really taking to our Preschool day. Me and Misty are having so much fun! We noticed when Misty is in charge my kids listen better and when I am in charge her kids listen better. We are going to see if we can play that to our advantage:) We had some yummy pasta for lunch and then headed over to circle time. I was in charge of circle today so I sang, Down on Grandpa's Farm, A Ram Sam Sam, and the ABC song with sign Language. We also danced to Bop Til You Drop by Greg and Steve and then read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Drake actually sat with us for circle, some of it anyway:) Misty planned table time and it was great! We decided to go with a number theme since I did one through three last week she did the number 4. She used craft foam with a sticky back to cut out four shapes and the kids sorted them out into the correct section of the paper. We sorted without sticking them on first and it went great but when we moved on to sticking it proved to be too much for them to focus on.
Drake just kept transferring shapes from the bag to the table and back again. He was actually quite focused.

Caden did a great job of sorting and when it came to sticking he decided to stack each shape in a pile. I love watching him work:)

The outside activity was bubble wrap. The kids walked on it which was a fun sensory activity and then pinched the little bubbles with their fingers which was a great fine motor activity!

Water break and a video about shapes.

We have a cork board where we tack up their work so that when the Daddies get home they can "oooh" and "aaah". I know it needs to be cleaned up:) Thursday I am in charge of table time and I have the number 5:)

First Preschool Day!

We started the day by going to feed some near by horses in the neigbohood to feed them carrots and apples! All of the kids really enjoyed this.

Next we walked over to our weekly group play date at the park. If you don't have any play group to go to just do what I did. I put a message out on face book saying what day and time I go to the park every week and said if anyone wanted to join me it would be great! Now we have a lot of people coming every week!

After the kids came home and took their naps they woke up to a delicious lunch. I just tossed a little of what ever I had in the fridge into a bowl:)
I didn't get a picture of Circle Time but Misty (my older sister) did a great job! She sang Five little monkeys jumping on the bed, Flea Fly, and 10 little Indians. She did The Number Rock by Greg and Steve on CD and then read the first three pages of Over in the Garden. Circle was shorter then we would like but it was a very new concept to all of them and so we thought it best. The picture below is how we set up Circle Time. We used pillows for them to sit on so that they would understand where to sit. We plan on buying some little carpets at the dollar store for them to sit on but pillows will work for now:)

I prepared these papers before hand. I cut construction paper into three parts and then drew lines to make three boxes with the numbers and then wrote the numbers 1, 2, and 3.

I started the lesson by taking my own paper and showing the children the numbers on the paper. I then used the little Cats and counted them out in each box. I was really amazed at how all of the kids were so intrigued with my demonstration. I then held up the papers one at a time and had them guess whose name was on the paper as I handed them out. I then gave them each six cats to practice with on their own paper.

I was really surprised at how interested Drake was in this activity! He wanted to do it just like the "Big Kids". He didn't count them but he sure looked cute putting them all on his paper:)

After they were done practicing I gave them each a sheet of stickers to try it with.

I don't have a picture but I rolled a ball to each other kids one at time and asked them what they were going to play with out side. They all said, "Play in the yard". It was too cute. I'm sure they will get the concept better soon. After they told me what they wanted to do they rolled the ball back and went to play. It was great to get outside with them in the front yard but it was HOT! We went inside and finished our day with a water break and a little WORD WORLD(PBS Show).

Preschool Days!!

Me and My sister have been wanting to do this for so long but since we were both expecting babies at the same time we wanted to wait till they were born and we were both settled in to our new families. Today will be our first day of "preschool". We will be taking turns planning and implementing on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Our schedule will start when the kids wake up from their naps at 2:00pm and the schedule will go as follows.

2:00 Lunch
2:30 Circle Time

• 3 finger play songs
• 1 CD song
• 1 book

3:00 Table Time

• 1 educational activity

3:15 Planning Time

• plan one thing that they will do during free play time

3:20 Free Play Time

This is the plan for now but we will see how it goes and tweak it where we need to. The basic outline is mimicked after my old preschool schedule. I'll be posting on Wednesdays and Fridays! I'll let you know how it goes:)

Starting Slow

I have been resuming or normal schedule this last week and it went really well. I didn't do anything super amazing but we had a lot of fun. I really went back to basics this week and the boys seemed to enjoy the simplicity.

The boys spent a lot of time just holding Jack, helping with diaper changes, getting me a burp cloth or pillow, and loving every minute!

I've let them have snack outside on a blanket a few times and they loved it.

We got out Caden's bowling set and had fun looking at the colors shining in the sun light.
Sleep!!!!

Playing with Boxes

What we've been upto!

Mostly I've been taking care of this beautiful boy! Me and the boys have done a lot of reading, singing and taking naps together. I'm up and about but I'm still working on getting back in to our normal routine. Grandpa is still letting me sleeping in and I'm loving it but will give it up soon.