Preschool learning activities

MATCHING:
On posterboard, trace around several spoons of various sizes, assorted kitchen gadgets, shoes, dolls, a large paperclip, etc. Have your child match real items to their outlines.

CLASSIFYING:
Give your child the bottom section of an egg carton and a small dish containing a mixture of raisins, square cereal, O's cereal, sunflower seeds, chocolate chips, etc. Have your child sort the items into the carton. Discuss the results. "You put all the dried fruit together." "Teah put browns together." Then put the mixture back in the dish and sort it a new way! Then eat it! Snack and play time!!

Magnet game:
Give your child a small basket containing a magnet and assorted items, both magnetic and non. Some examples are: paperclips, screws, plastic spoons, q-tips, etc.) Also include items that have magnetic parts (clothespins and pencils). Give your child some time to explore items and discover that some stick. Then have them test each item and sort into two categories: things that stick and things that don't.

SPATIAL RELATIONS:
Make a sandwich snack together with crackers and cheese.
Sing to "Down by the Station"
"Take a square cracker
put it on the bottom,
cheese in the middle,
and a cracker on the top.
Take a big bite now
of my cracker sandwich.
Crunch, crunch, yum, yum-
Now it's gone!

SEQUENCING AND SERIATION:
Play Go Where I Go with your children. The first child touches an object (the slide). The second child touches the same object plus a second object (the slide, the tree). The third child touches the previous objects in order, plus a third. When a child misses, he or she becomes the first child as the starts over.

Find four identical yogurt containers with clear lids. Place several nails in one, dried beans in one, salt in one, and leave the last empty. Glue the lids on. Have your child shake them and place them in order from loudest to quietest.

MUSIC:
(sung to "the ABC song")
Yes, I know my phone number,
555-1212.
555-1212,
555-1212.
Yes, I know my phone number,
555-1212.


Play the Hokey Pokey and encourage your child to name unusual parts like lip, elbow, hip, neck, etc.

Have fun playing and learning TOGETHER with your children this summer. Chores and errands will be there, but these precious times will fade away.

Clean up, Clean up!

Just thought I'd post some of these clean up rhymes for all the other attachment mamas (and papas) out there! Enjoy clean up time!

• One potato, two potato, three potato, four

five, six, seven more.

• 1,2,3,4

Mary's at the kitchen door,

5,6,7,8

Eating cherries from a plate.

• One for sorrow,

two for joy

three for a girl

four for a boy

five for silver

six for gold

seven for a secret

never to be told.

• ( to the tune of: paw,paw patch)

Where oh where is dear little Teah

Where oh where is dear little Nolan

Where oh where is dear little Nakai

Way down yonder in the paw, paw patch

Picking up blocks and put them in the basket

picking up blocks and put them in the basket

Picking up blocks and put them in the basket

Way down yonder in the paw paw patch

• (to the tune of the mulberry bush)

This is the way we wash the dishes (fold baby's clothes, clean up silks, put away crayons, etc.)

• (while cleaning up bath toys)

The big ship sails on the alley alley ooh,

the alley alley ooh,

the alley alley ooh.

The big ship sails on the alley alley ooh

On the last day of September!

• (while cleaning up toy cars)

Open your gates as wide as the sky

and let the king and his men pass by!

• (while cleaning dollies)

Rock a bye baby on the tree top

Enjoy helping your child have fun cleaning up! You'll have more fun, too! It's much more appealing to the child to hear mama burst into song at cleanup time than to hear "pick up those toys...NOW!"

OM

"Breathing in, I am calm...
Breathing out, I smile."

Today, I am trying to remind myself to follow this mantra! Enough said!

Dinner Verse

So, my daughter has been going to church with her friend on Wednesday evenings because she enjoys playing with the kids in the gym. Apparently, she's also very into the lessons and verses...she brings home the verses and posts them on her bulletin board and memorizes them each week. Her motivation? I asked her and she said that she likes to be the one who memorizes the verse because she gets candy!
I am glad that Teah is feeling a sense of belonging with this group of kids her own age (it has been very hard to find other homeschoolers her age in DuBois) and that she is wanting to explore her spirituality at this point. I support her decision and make sure she is able to get to church as often as I can. Since going to church, she has been more interested in saying a prayer before meals. In the past we have all held hands and said our favorite thing that happened that day or something we are thankful for.
When Nolan was in preschool, they had a special prayer that they would say before snack time and for awhile, it became our at home verse...it went like this:
"Let's bow our heads and fold our paws and thank the lord for healthy jaws....amen!" A catchy little tune to be sure....much different from the waldorf verses we started out saying when Teah was just a wee one.

I was unpacking a box of collected paper musings...things I wrote down thinking i would use someday.... I came across that little waldorf dinner blessing and it caught my attention again. I think we'll implement it now while Nakai is still young. It really is important to take a moment out of our very busy day and reflect on what's important. here goes:

"Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me."

that's it...simple and to the point. Everyone who's ever asked me what I want, knows that my standard answer is, "peace on earth." That really is so important to me. Important enough to bring attention to it at dinner and every opportunity throughout the day. That and "act in kindness." Both simple phrases, but simple phrases that hold big meaning.
Here are two other waldorf dinner blessings:

"Blessings on the blossoms,
Blessings on the fruit.
Blessings on the leaves and stems,
Blessings on the roots."


"Thank you for the food we eat,
Thank you for the friends we meet.
Thank you as we learn and play,
Thanks you for this happy day."
What can you bring to your family's attention today?

"Me" time?

Am I the only mama who isn't thrilled by the endless days of lovely weather we've been having? Don't get me wrong, I LOVE for my children to be outside playing, and I love to watch them play...but, I am beginning to feel like I would not be upset if we had a week-long downpour at this point! Really. For real.

I've got tons of sewing projects on my list of "me" time activities to complete... It took me three days to finish this one small, vintage, recycled tote to sell at the Coolspring Market next month. Three days! Why? Because between homeschooling, computer work for IWA and appointments and dance, tae kwon do and soccer practice, the only time we've spent at home has been outside, riding bikes and jumping rope, playing with sidewalk chalk, etc. All good things, yes. All productive.... but not, "me" time! I kept telling myself I'd get back to it after bedtime...but guess what? This mama is tired after bedtime! It's all I can do to drag my sleepy self out of Nakai's bed where I zonk out, cuddled up to me wee one, and into the bathroom to pee, brush these teeth and wash my tired face before crawling into my bed....where I stay as long as possible.

Also on my "me" list are articles that need to be written for www.associatedcontent.com and long books to be read and organic jellies and jams to be canned, yoga postures to master..... I try and tell myself that someday, I'll have nothing but "me"time, plenty of time to be productive..and it helps, it does...but really, shouldn't a mama have some time to herself once in awhile? An hour or two? I don't think that's asking too much, do you?

So, though it's not very zen of dalai mama, today I'm trying to manifest rain! A nice full day of rain and clouds so that the children and I can spend a day indoors, reconnecting with our crafts, our books and the sewing machine!