Preschool ~ Ocean Part II

We haven't quite started with our "official" school year around here, but we are beginning to ease our way into it. We started our Sonlight curriculum two weeks ago and love it. It takes us only about 20-30 minutes to complete the Read-Alouds (we are doing P4/5). The kids love to read first thing in the morning (and again before naps and bed), so that's what we have been doing, and it's been working great. Smiley tends to wake up before his sister, so I've been trying to read the longer texts (without pictures) to him while the little one is still asleep. She doesn't quite have the attention span yet to listen to a story without pictures ;) So far, we haven't done any additional activities to go with our Sonlight reading, but we will likely start this  at some point...

The rest of our week was spent enjoying the rest of the summer and continuing to focus on our ocean theme. We learned about Tide Pools and the animals that can typically be found in them. We used books and a resource from Homeschool Share. I plan on using several other ideas from the Hello Ocean Lapbook as well.

We took a field trip to see a Tide Pool at a Nature Preserve just a few miles from us... The little hike down to the beach was just breath taking. Down by the beach, we had a blast wading through the tide pools and finding mussels, shells, sea crabs, crabs, lobsters, and algae :)

Other ocean-themed activities this week included an updated sensory box. It is very similar to last week's box, but I added sea animals that the kids loved playing with...

Tot School ~ Ocean Theme

~ Our little lovebug is currently 22 months old~

We were on vacation for the past three weeks and therefore had a very relaxed learning time; nonetheless, learning style happened :)
I made an ocean-themed sensory box for the kids, which included fuzzy pom poms (to represent the water), sea shells, fish and shell table scatter (from Target), and sea critter finger puppets.

The kids loved it :)

On another day, we sorted the table scatter (blue sea shells and orange fish).

and filled pom poms in a baby bottle...

We spent a few days down in San Diego and got to visit Sea World, which was a hug hit with both kids. They loved touching some of the smaller sea animals (sea stars, sea urchins, snails etc.).

we saw Beluga Whales!

and Polar Bears!

We also were very fortunate that my family invited us to spend a week in Maui, Hawaii with them. We rented a house directly by the beach and had the BEST TIME!!

One day, we took a trip on a submarine and saw a lot of sea life :)

Of course, the majority of our time was spent at the beach!

A little tot school activity in Hawaii... (little glass pebbles that were used in candle holders outside)

Our cutie all dressed up, ready to go out to dinner :)

Preschool ~ Ocean

My family has been visiting us from Switzerland for the past 3 weeks, so our weeks have been all about quality family time and fun :) Here are some of the things we have been up to. Due to the beach locations of our trips, we started our ocean theme hands-on.

I prepared an ocean sensory box for the kids, which they loved... It included plastic fish and shells (table decoration) that I got from Target. Lots of fuzzy pom poms to represent the water. Lots of real sea shells. And ocean-themed finger puppets...

Smiley loved to put the littlest pom poms into sea shells and to get them back out with tweezers...

He also loved filling up his schoolbus (pretending it was gas) and driving it around the living room (there were lots of emergencies involved to, hence the fire truck!).

Any play involving the schoolbus was probably his favorite and occurred repeatedly :)

We then spent a few days down in San Diego, and of course, had to go to Sea World! What a great addition to our ocean theme!! One of our favorite parts was to be able to touch different sea animals!!

Last week was spent in a house in Maui, Hawaii!! A generous gift from my parents. We had the most wonderful time!

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Our house was right at the beach. It was the perfect set-up with two young kids (and 5 adults).

Due to the time difference, the kids woke up very early and we were able to play in the waves while watching the sun go up :)

One morning, we took a submarine trip to more closely see al the sea life, including sea turtles and an octopus!

On another day, we went to look at a sugar mill and learned the process from sugar cane to raw sugar. The kids even got a little sample ;)

Of course, the majority of the time was just spent having fun at the beach, such as building sand castles with my mom.

Curriculum 2011/12

Smiley ~ Preschool/Pre-K:

Smiley has shown increasing interest in academic activities over the past year and particularly enjoys science and reading. I wanted to give our days a little bit more structure and have therefore decided to order curricula... When we start our school year in September, Smiley will only be 3.5 years old, so at a preschool age. His interests are more at a Pre-K level though, so I will call next year a Preschool/Pre-K hybrid, which we will likely continue until he turns 5 in January, 2013 and we can "officially" start Kindergarten.

Here are our choices for the next school year:

History, Science, World Cultures, Bible, Language Arts:


SONLIGHT P4/5: The spine of our curriculum next year will be Sonlight. I have heard such wonderful things about this curriculum and cannot wait to get started. Sonlight is a literature-based curriculum, which seems to be the perfect fit for Smiley, who LOVES to be read to.

FIAR: I also bought Volume 1 of Five In A Row, another literature-based curriculum, using picture books. We will likely add in FIAR units every once in a while, to supplement our curriculum, particularly if we decide to stretch this year over 18 months.

We will be supplementing with our own science units and monthly themes, largely based on Smiley's interests, the season, and holidays. We will also try to go on regular field trips to make our learning as meaningful as possible.

Reading:
We will use different resources for reading that are either free or that I have purchased in the past. I prefer a phonics approach to reading and our curriculum is therefore largely phonics based, with the addition of sight words (helper words).

Hooked On Phonics (HOP): I purchased HOP K-2nd Grade for an excellent price (about $20) a while back. Smiley started Level K a couple of months ago and has done wonderfully with it. It is by far his favorite reading program. He much prefers it over the BOB books.

Bob Books: We have the first set, but as I mentioned, Smiley is not a big fan of them.

ABC Reading Eggs: This is a fun online reading program that Smiley really enjoys. It is a great supplement to HOP, as it slowly introduces word families (phonics) and supplements with sight words as well.

You Can Read: A great FREE reading program by Carisa. We use this program for our sight words and for all the fun learning activities Carisa shares so frequently. We LOVE her blog!

Ready2Read: We love this free reading program from The Moffatt Girls. It combines phonics and sight words.

Writing: 
Handwriting Without Tears: We will be using HWT~ Get Set For School (Pre-K) as our writing curriculum.

In addition to HWT we will do many fine motor activities, including sensory bins, cutting, gluing, play dough, beads, etc.

Math: 
Singapore Math: We will be using Singapore Math: Early Bird Math as our math curriculum this year. We will heavily supplement this with lots of hands-on activities. One resource we will use is Jolanthe's Preschool Packs, which we will try to coordinate with our monthly themes.

Art:
We will do lots of arts and crafts coordinating with our monthly theme or our Sonlight/FIAR curricula.

PE:
Smiley is very active and needs lots of time to run around :) We don't have a garden and going to the playground/park is therefore of utmost importance!! We like to go to the park every morning for at least 1-1.5 hours and most days, again in the afternoon. This is also a great time for him to meet his friends, such as during our weekly homeschool playgroup.

More formally, Smiley will start swimming classes and may switch to gymnastics or a ball sport as the weather gets cooler...


Lovebug ~ Tot School

Our little lovebug will turn 2 in September. My main goal for her is to have fun and learn to love learning :)
Her learning activities will be very play-based and child-driven. I am sure she will take part in many of the activities her big brother is doing as well. We will get most of our ideas from Carisa's wonderful Tot School ideas.

Linked to: Tot School, Preschool Corner, Blog Hop