Sticker learning

Today we were given a lot of multi colored round stickers today. I decided to use some as learning tools for Tinkerbell4. We made a A-D lower case and upper case chart using 8 different stickers. Not only did Tinkerbell4 have to find the various letters but she also had to match them to the sticker key--so we worked on both letter and color associations at the same time and it took less than 5 minutes to set up!!

We also made a 1-10 number chart with 10 different stickers but Tinkerbell4 is still working on that one..guess that's what I get for starting her on it right before serving dinner.

Updates

We have been off line for the past few weeks due to a serious family illness. Tinkerbell4 and Princess2's grandfather was very ill last week but due to God's healing powers, he improved enough to be moved to a local rest home for additional therapy. Amen to the power of prayer!!

Here's what we have been doing recently:
We had been working on our ABC pantry chart...using brand names/boxes from the pantry to make a homemade ABC chart. We had to resort to using a letter sticker for "X" but found all the other letters and finally got it hung in our homeschool room.

To review numbers, I created a sticker key where I put numbers on a page and Tinkerbell4 had to find the number and put on the sticker associated with that chart (see picture). She really liked the idea stickers were involved...Tinkerbell4 LOVES stickers!

Since we have not officially started homeschooling yet (starting next month), we are going to review the overall alphabet. Today Tinkerbell4 played a few alphabet matching games to help her review. One involved taking her magnetic letters and having her match them on top of her alphabet cards. Super simple to set up and easy to explain

While we were visiting Grandma & Grandpa, the girls went to a few park where I (Mom) used to go when I was little...fun to see my girls now playing there.

Homeschool room / corner taking shape

We recently found a Weather poster for 88 cents and a dry erase magnetic board for $2 at Wallyworld and alphabet magnetic letters with some words.

It's really fun to see what inexpensive but educational decorations we can find!! Tinkerbell4 seems to LOVE this room...loves to color, loves to work on her workbook sheets, etc.

This morning we created an alphabet chart to match with letter marked clothespins. Tinkerbell4 matched them all up and then I was hoping she'd want to do it again but she didn't...oh well! Hopefully she'll try it again soon....

Last day of preschool

Today was Tinkerbell4's last day at a local Christian preschool. It was definitely bittersweet as we LOVE her teacher and several others but know that particular school is not where we want her to be anymore and more importantly know it's God's way of prompting me to start homeschooling now and not wait another 2 years. It's so hard to believe she's been there over a year...she's definitely developed socially, emotionally, mentally and I hope spiritually too while she's been there 2 days a week. Sigh..it's hard to watch your kids grow up...it goes too fast!

On to our homeschooling adventure now.....

Learning lesson for Mom

Yesterday I learned from my youngest, that being spontaneous can bring lots of smiles! Sometimes you just need to let them to throw planning out the door and spontaneously decide what to do.

Let me explain...Right before lunch yesterday, I thought Princess2 should play with her play kitchen or the Dora dollhouse, etc but SHE decided it would be fun to paint pictures. She had seen her sister painting a bank for a friend's upcoming bday so she decided she wanted to paint too so she climbed up on her stepstool, found the left over paints on the counter and decided THAT'S what she wanted to do. My initial thought was "No...it's going to be messy and it's right before lunch".. Then I realized it would keep her busy and let her have fun and give her a chance to be creative. Needless to say, she painted 3 pictures and would have kept going if I hadn't convinced her it was time to eat. When I saw the smile on her face while painting her last picture (the middle picture here), it was all worth it!!

Here's some pixs of her having fun.....

Shaving Cream

Ok, so today we tried an idea I saw on Pinterest a while back...let the girls play with shaving cream in cookies sheets. I was hoping Tinkerbell4 would draw shapes, letters, or anything..but she didn't like it as much as I hoped--oh well! Princess2 actually had more fun with it I thought she would. We had to wash their hands every few minutes due to an over abundance of shaving creamy hands. Not as big a hit with the girls as I hoped but at least it was something new to do!!!