Before Christmas I debated back and forth whether I was going to start some Before Five in a Row activities with Nate. Honestly, besides potty training and asking for snacks he really keeps himself busy in the school room with us and hasn't needed anything to occupy his time.
But then he started asking for "work". He sees his siblings;)
So we started with Goodnight Moon, a book he had asked to be read every night for 6 months... he could have read it to us. I did some of the oral activities in Before Five in a Row book had with him, but that was about it.
The last two weeks, Nate and I worked on The Snowy Day by Ezra Keats! I tried to find some fun and age/learning level appropriate activities for him. We had a blast and it has inspired me to work on more with him... at 2.5 years old he's at a really cool stage!
I want to post some of our fun as an encouragement that "schooling" little ones can be fun, simple using what you have, and doesn't need to be fancy. I was reminded even in the last two weeks that a lot of Nate's "schooling" right now is about following directions, completing an activity, snuggling to read good books, training to use special items like glue, scissors and stamps!! and experiencing things together:)
Everyday we did an activity we read The Snowy Day! It was fun to extend the book another week and have Nate finishing sentences or pointing out things to me that I had pointed out to him during the first week!
One of our first activities was to dress him like he was going to play in the snow:) And then I armed the big kids with cotton balls to have a "snowball fight" with Nate. They had a blast and cotton balls were everywhere (yep... totally raided the cotton ball stash from the master bathroom)!!
During the first week we got a little bit of "snow"... umm, like 20 minutes of flakes and then ICE!
But I was still able to use it;) Nate and I went for a walk on the ice in the grass to hear the "crunch" that Peter heard in the story!
He also did some tracing lines/pre-writing:)
After playing with a laminated snowman where Nate could add the hat, scarf and carrot nose, we let him make his own snowman with glue!! This is where there was training... teaching him to put glue on paper and giving him small amounts and a Q-tip.
It was cute to see him working at the table with the girls:)
After giving Nate some direction with the articles for the snowman, I let him do the cotton balls and glue himself:)
I was very excited to find some snowflake stamps at our local Walmart... I felt a little weird purchasing stamps for one project but then I was super excited when they rang up $.22 each:) LOL!! Onto stamp-training with Nate:)
There were other oral/physical activities we did that were too simple to capture:) Like pointing our toes like Peter does to make different tracks in the snow. We'd point our toes when we'd get to that spot in the book. Or talking about Peter's bath when Nate was taking his own bath one night! He loved the part of Peter walking UP the mountain and sliding DOWN!
It was a fun two weeks... I'm ready to start another theme... sort of;) And I did really like doing just the reading of the book and an activity (if he was into it) each day.
Other books we read:
*White Snow, Bright Snow by Alvin Tresselt and Roger Duvoisin
*The Big Snow by Berta Hader and Elmer Hader... if you haven't read this, borrow it from your library soon!!!
*Owl Moon by Jane Yolen
*Snow Is Falling (Let's-Read-and-Find... Science) by Franklyn M. Branley and Holly Keller
*Snow by Uri Shulevitz
Starting simple:)
Linking up to Tot School Gathering!
But then he started asking for "work". He sees his siblings;)
So we started with Goodnight Moon, a book he had asked to be read every night for 6 months... he could have read it to us. I did some of the oral activities in Before Five in a Row book had with him, but that was about it.
I want to post some of our fun as an encouragement that "schooling" little ones can be fun, simple using what you have, and doesn't need to be fancy. I was reminded even in the last two weeks that a lot of Nate's "schooling" right now is about following directions, completing an activity, snuggling to read good books, training to use special items like glue, scissors and stamps!! and experiencing things together:)
Everyday we did an activity we read The Snowy Day! It was fun to extend the book another week and have Nate finishing sentences or pointing out things to me that I had pointed out to him during the first week!
One of our first activities was to dress him like he was going to play in the snow:) And then I armed the big kids with cotton balls to have a "snowball fight" with Nate. They had a blast and cotton balls were everywhere (yep... totally raided the cotton ball stash from the master bathroom)!!
During the first week we got a little bit of "snow"... umm, like 20 minutes of flakes and then ICE!
But I was still able to use it;) Nate and I went for a walk on the ice in the grass to hear the "crunch" that Peter heard in the story!
We did some matching of different pictures of things from the story. Printed from Homeschool Creations.
He also did some tracing lines/pre-writing:)
 |
| not too bad... his final looked like this |
After playing with a laminated snowman where Nate could add the hat, scarf and carrot nose, we let him make his own snowman with glue!! This is where there was training... teaching him to put glue on paper and giving him small amounts and a Q-tip.
It was cute to see him working at the table with the girls:)
After giving Nate some direction with the articles for the snowman, I let him do the cotton balls and glue himself:)
I was very excited to find some snowflake stamps at our local Walmart... I felt a little weird purchasing stamps for one project but then I was super excited when they rang up $.22 each:) LOL!! Onto stamp-training with Nate:)
There were other oral/physical activities we did that were too simple to capture:) Like pointing our toes like Peter does to make different tracks in the snow. We'd point our toes when we'd get to that spot in the book. Or talking about Peter's bath when Nate was taking his own bath one night! He loved the part of Peter walking UP the mountain and sliding DOWN!
It was a fun two weeks... I'm ready to start another theme... sort of;) And I did really like doing just the reading of the book and an activity (if he was into it) each day.
Other books we read:
*White Snow, Bright Snow by Alvin Tresselt and Roger Duvoisin
*The Big Snow by Berta Hader and Elmer Hader... if you haven't read this, borrow it from your library soon!!!
*Owl Moon by Jane Yolen
*Snow Is Falling (Let's-Read-and-Find... Science) by Franklyn M. Branley and Holly Keller
*Snow by Uri Shulevitz
Starting simple:)
Linking up to Tot School Gathering!
3 comments:
That is so fun. Abby and I have done a few FIAR books and it really is interesting. She usually starts out not wanting to even read the book, but ends up liking it. The only one so far we didn't like was Storm in the Night. It was not a good book.
Two is such a fun age! I am planning to row with my little one when he is closer to 2 1/2, so it is great to see you rowing with Nate. I'd love it if you would link up to The Snowy Day on my B4FI♥AR link up on my blog!
http://delightfullearning.blogspot.com/p/before-fiar-link-up.html
Looking forward to seeing what you do next!
{Found you from Carisa's blog!}
I love your stamping project! It looks so "Ezra Jack Keats-esque!" We are doing The Snowy Day this week, thanks for all the wonderful ideas!
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