No More Llama Drama

Three years ago, when Tank was the age Pearlie-girl is now, he was starting his second year of preschool.  But, I was working part time and needed somewhere for him to be.  Chances are pretty good that Pearlie-girl won’t go to a formal program until she is four and goes to to Pre-K at our local public school.  However, as a former preschool teacher, I can’t seem to leave well enough alone, so last year I started looking at options for doing something structured with her.

In my exploring, I came across a curriculum online called ABC Jesus Loves Me.  The curriculum itself is totally free–just printing heavy–unless you choose to purchase it pre-printed and bound or for your Kindle.  After looking through it, I decided it was just what I was looking for–straight forward, easy to implement, and not requiring a large amount of additional materials.  The two year old track covers basic things like colors, shapes, letters, and numbers, and also has a Bible story component each week.  Super!!!

So, this was Tank’s first full week of Kindergarten and Pearlie’s first week of “Mommy school”.  Here’s a link to the week 1 lesson plan.  I did look around at some other homeschool and mommy blogs, just for some additional inspiration.  And, here are some pictures of what we did this week to learn about:

• Days 1 & 2 of creation
• the color red
• circles
• the number 1
• the letters A-G
• the book Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney

She sorted the red blocks out of the block tub and made a “tower” with them.

I had some felt circles left over from a flower craft I taught in the spring, so we stuck them to the couch and some flannel.  She really enjoyed this.

One activity in the lesson plan was to color on a vertical surface, but as much as I would like to have one, we don’t have an easel–yet :-).  My plan to borrow a table top easel didn’t pan out either, so out came the magnets and we had a fridge easel.  Sometimes you just have to be creative.

I found this idea for PAJAMA SORTING at Toddler Approved and Pearlie-girl LOVED it!  She sorted and re-mixed and sorted again over and over–if it keeps my 2 year old busy for half an hour, it’s an awesome activity!!!

Playing with red play dough on PAJAMA DAY!!!

Our Bible story for the week was Days 1 and 2 of creation.  When we’re finished, we’ll have a book to go back and review.  These are a little more product than process-driven, but because of the intended longevity, I wanted to make sure the were identifiable.  🙂  We also edited the Day 2 craft a bit, swapping out blue paper strips for the water that was supposed to be created by painting with blue-tinted shaving cream.  My personal experience with shaving cream paint has taught me that it flakes and gets messy when other things are stacked on top of it–even when it’s dry.  I didn’t want a flaky mess to deal with when we use the book for review.

That’s our first week of “Mommy school” in a nutshell.  It went pretty well.  We’ll see if I can keep this up…especially when BSF starts in full force in a couple of weeks.  😉  Have a great weekend!!