Units 1-3

We made it!  The first 3 units are under our belt and I have to say that so far this year is a success.  Challenging, yes, but overall successful.  I've learned that I have to be 100% organized before the day even begins or things fall apart.  I've also learned that Adeline does best in the morning, but early afternoon is do-able, too.  If preschool occurs much after 3:00, I've lost her and might as well save the lessons for the next day.  Braxton comes and goes during preschool time.  He'll visit our preschool room (a spare room) and participate for a little bit, then wander into the living room to play.  It works out pretty well that way.  I know that he's absorbing a little bit, as I heard him counting 1, 2, 3 and 7, 8, 9, 10 the other day.  A month ago he would only count 1, 1, 3.  :)  Sadie enjoys listening to school from the bed or Mama's arms.  I think she'll become a bigger challenge when she's mobile.

So what have we been doing?  Our day begins with calendar time and recitation of the days of the week and months of the year.  We also keep a weather tracking chart.  We say the pledges for the American flag and the Christian flag.  I want Adeline to learn those b/c she will eventually be in a school.  Afterwards we recite the AWANA verse of the week.  We then turn over a number on our 100-day counting line.  We count all the numbers by 1's and then by 10's.  We are also using popsicle sticks to count to 100 one day at a time.  We bundle the sticks in groups of ten and Adeline counts them into a cup.  We're up to 44.

The rest of the schedule varies a little each day.  There are always Pre-reading and Math lessons, with Science, Social Studies, Art, Music and Bible lessons worked in throughout the week.  We've recently added Phonics and Handwriting to the daily lessons, as well.  

Unit 1 was called "The Sidewalk to My House."  It included an introduction to preschool, all about me lessons, the five senses, and my family and pets.  We covered letters A-L, numbers 1-3, three shapes, position words, and nonstandard measurement.  It was a pretty easy unit for Adeline, but I liked that it gave her confidence.

Unit 2 was "Neighborhood Streets."  It discussed people in our community and various modes of transportation.  We spent a lot of time on the "firefighter" section, talking about fire safety and how to call 911.  I also started teaching Adeline her phone number, address, and Mommy and Daddy's full names.  I rented Elmo Visits the Firehouse to watch with her.  It's an excellent video that I highly recommend!  One of the neatest things about that lesson was watching Adeline play "fire safety" with Braxton.  I overheard her telling him, "Stay low and go!" as they crawled through the equipment at the playground.  I couldn't help but grin ear to ear.  She understood the message.   

The transportation section of unit 2 gave me the "great" idea to take the kids on a bus ride.  Oh my!  I won't go into the details, but this mama caught the wrong bus and ended up spending 2 1/2 hours on a city bus with 3 children ages 4, 2, and 3 months.  Had I gotten the right bus, it would have been just a 30 minute ride.  We all learned a thing or two that day!  But I must say, the kids behaved remarkably well and even asked to ride again when our feet finally hit pavement.

Unit 2 covered letters M-S, number 4, sorting by category, left and right and several colors.

Unit 3 was "Going Places in Books."  So far this has been my favorite unit, although it has taken up the most time in terms of preparation.  The first section was Fables, Tales, and Rhymes.  For the life of me, I could not get Adeline to understand the concept of rhyme.  Then finally today (2 weeks later), she got it!  It was so neat to see that lightbulb click.  The second section was Favorite Books.  We got to read The Very Hungry Caterpillar, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (and the other books by that author), several Dr. Seuss books, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, and a classic Winnie the Pooh book.  It was so much fun!  The last section was At the Library.  We looked a several different kinds of books - history, science, cookbooks, informational books, etc.  The science and cookbook days were the most fun.  On the science day we did some experiments with dissolving things and mixing vinegar and baking soda to blow up a balloon.  On the cooking day, we made chocolate pudding with bananas and graham cracker crumbs.  Unit 3 also covered the rest of the alphabet and introduced phonics for /a/ and /b/, as well as handwriting.  Numbers through 10, ordinals, one-to-one correspondence, and patterns were included.

This has definitely been an adventure, but I'm so glad we chose this route.  I look forward to preschool time as much as Adeline does!  :)