An unplanned lesson

Part of Caley's school is just the everyday things we do. I know that every other mom does these things with their kids, but I *try* to look at everyday things as an essential part of her (and Amelia's!) education. The Monday/Friday "school" days are just a dedicated time we do for teaching reading explicitly. Amelia often sits in her high chair while Caley and I do her reading book. She usually eats a snack or looks at a book. She was looking at Caley's reading book recently and pointed to the letters and made a noise, like she was reading it too! 

So part of school on Monday was that Caley made her first sandwich (thanks for the idea Tamara)! It was her favorite, peanut butter and honey.

Another part of school on Monday, or rather just a reason to get out of the house, we went to the Mukilteo Lighthouse playground. I set the girls lunch, including the sandwich in a plastic bag, on a picnic table, walked away to play with Amelia, and some CROWS started pecking at it! Darn crows! And dumb Mommy... 

There were some holes in the sandwich bag, which meant we had to throw it away because birds could carry disease. It was so sad! Caley's first sandwich and she lost it to the crows. Sorry sweetie...maybe next time. Monday's lesson was one in dissappointment. You can't teach that in "school" on Mondays and Fridays at the kitchen table.

Caley sounding out some words...

with Mom's help, but nevertheless she's making great progress! Enjoy!



By the way, Bill can say words like silver, candle, and meat loaf! We'll be updating our "Billy's Classroom" blog soon with that video!

Potato Prints and Printing

Last week we did potato prints because I (Mommy) had a bunch of extra potatoes that were going to go bad. Although I forgot that some letters would be backwards when printed (give me a break, I went to public school!). Nevertheless, Caley was able to identify a few of the letters and even spelled (with my help) "sat" and "star."


We've also been practicing printing letters. By putting the worksheet pages in a plastic sleeve and using a wipe-off marker, the pages can be used and re-used infinitely! Here Caley practices "Rr."

Today I went Mommy's work (Wonderland Developmental Center) and I played. My favorite was playing in the balls. Then we went to Playland and I watched 2 movies at Playland.

I had to stop at WDC for a few minutes so the kids played in the classroom and motor room and had a blast. There was a wood box with colored McDonald's balls and a slide going into it. That was Amelia's favorite too. Caley showed some awesome motor skills rolling on the foam pads and swinging in the swing. Not that motor skills are necessarily a problem, but she's usually very timid with those things and is coming out of her shell. Amelia's a little more fearless.

What we've done

This is Mom. Caley's sleeping right now otherwise she'd be updating you. I just wanted to post some pictures, etc of what we've done in school so far. From about March-June of this year I tried to do "school" with Caley a few times a week. We would do free choice reading, a few workbook pages and then a game or puzzle or art. We started "Teach Your Child To Read..." in April sometime and moved really slowly, usually doing half a lesson and repeating the lessons at least two times (on a different day). For a while I was very strict about sitting in the mud room for school because there is a counter. Then I started to let her choose if she wanted to sit on the couch in the green room or the brown living room. I found it kind of hard to sit next to her and keep her occupied. I forgot she was only a new three-year-old.

This fall so far it's been much more relaxed. She's having a lot more fun. I have been giving her choices like where she wants to sit and recently she's wanted to sit on the floor in the living room on her yellow blankie. It's worked best to sit across from her, especially for her reading book. Games and projects she has been doing at the kitchen table, because Amelia is all over everything if it's within reach.

I attend Montessori school in Wyoming as a preschooler and have always loved the Montessori philosophy of "A child's work is his play." This has helped me so far this fall. I'm less strict and hopefully less controlling over what she will do at school. Really it's made me more intentional about teaching her throughout the week. She'll see a letter she's learned in her reading book and yell, "Mom I see a 'mmm' and 'ssss'!" It's also giving her a good repertoire of activities to do when she's bored or just says, "I want to watch a movie." She's seemed more likely to do crafts instead of wanting to watch TV.

I also think that even if we didn't do "school" this way, Caley would learn what she needs to know. She'd learn how to play appropriately and eventually would learn her letters and sounds. A lot of this "school" is really for me, to be thinking in the teacher mindset, that Mom and Dad are her first teachers.

This wasn't a project, or part of school at all, but she's just silly like that!