School Time

So the other day the boys asked to do some school at home. We have not done school at home and most of my supplies is in storage. So I scrounged around and found a few things that got put in the attic. They had fun working on it and asked to do it again. So I will have to get some stuff together for them.

First Day of MDO

It is so hard to believe that both boys are attending Mother's Day Out this year. I have to say I am very excited to get some quality Mommy time in, but I do miss them both.

The first day went ok. Zach cried a little, but did ok. He ate all his lunch and even napped. I think it make it easier for him to because his friend Taryn is in his class. Ryan on the other hand had a day like I expected. Ryan like to try a push the limits and that is exactly what he tried to do on his first day. He ended up having to sit and watch the other kids play when they went outside. I was very happy to see this from his teacher. I think it laid down the ground rules really fast and hopefully next week will go a lot better.

Right now they are going just one day a week, but starting in October they will attend Mondays and Wednesday.

I guess this would be a good time to update about doing preschool at home. Right now we are in a holding pattern. I do want to still work on stuff at home, but I am not sure exactly where it will fit in. I am hoping that when Chris schedule settles back, we will find our routine and can then get back to it. I love teaching both boys and they love getting the attention. So hopefully, starting in October we can get settled into a routine that includes school time at home.

Number review with a holiday kick

After cleaning up our cookie mess and lunch and naps, I had Ryan do some school time. We have not really done any since the end of May and I did not want him to forget to much. I had found some 4th of July theme printable's and had him work on them. I have to say I was very surprised by him. Since, we stopped doing school time, he has learned to count to 30 and we are working on getting to 40. Some of the number cards he had had numbers 11-20 and I was impressed that he recognized those numbers and got the answers right. He really enjoyed working on this stuff, so I think I will have to continue with the review time and maybe start working on some letter.

I have found a lot of really cute summer theme printable for him to do and also can reuse them during the school year with certain letters, so be looking for some new school post.

While Ryan was doing his work Zach wanted to do some too. I was excited, cause now I could put his new chair for school time to use. I printed him out a 4th of July coloring page and gave him the color red. He was very into coloring, but he did get a little carried away and colored my desk. Thank goodness for washable colors.

Taking a step back

The last couple of days have been rough for us when it comes to working with Ryan on his numbers. We have been reviewing the numbers 1-8 and doing ok with it. He still has some trouble with some numbers. Our biggest challenge come when we try to go trough flash cards and ask him the numbers. He get very defiant, starts guessing and fidgeting. After two night of this and everyone getting frustrated, Chris and I sat down to talk after the boys went to bed about it and what to do to keep this from happening. When we decided to do preschool at home, I wanted it to be a fun experience with some structure and learning involved. This was not the road I wanted to be on. So Chris and I decided to stop the quizzing with the flash cards and go back to work with just the numbers 1-5 till he gets all those. Really, we are working with just 4 and 5, because he has 1-3 down pat. Today, when we sat down to do school time, it went much better. He started with his new number puzzle, then did his magnet pages for 4 and 5. After that we did these number sequencing puzzles I had made and then followed it up with a game of memory with the numbers 1-5. And since Ryan won the memory game he got to pick a prize out of the prize bucket. He really liked that.

I have to say we did a lot better today and hopefully this path can continue. I plan to introduce the number 6 again next week.

I tried to upload what the sequencing puzzles looked like, but it wouldn't work. So here is Mr. Zach doing his animal sound puzzle.

The # 5

Today we worked on the # 5. We did some of our usual things working with stuff that only has the number on it and he has to tell me the number. I am still dealing with whole guessing or now he even tries stalling. It is so hard sometimes, because I want to make it fun for him but until we break through this battle of who has control. It is going to be trying on us both. I just remind myself to stay strong and not give up or give in.

Zach has decided that he wants to do school to. So he sits at the Mickey Mouse table and works on get the things to pop up. And just like Ryan, when he gets frustrated he brings it to me to do. It makes me smile to see how much Zach looks up to Ryan.

 Ryan working with the new magnets we got this afternoon. He was so excited to try them out.

After working on school for a while, we headed over to the Gibbon's house so the kids could play and Tiffany and I could discuss about getting together once a week and doing school together with the kids. I am so excited about this, because it will give both boys a chance to learn how to interact with others and learn from someone else. Are plan is to do projects based on the letter we are working on that week. We want to keep it fun, but educational at the same time. So if anyone has any good crafts or things to do for any letter let me know, as I will be needing ideas.