Chicka Chicka still the favorite

So we've been reading our new Chicka Chicka Boom Boom book just about every night for the past week. Both girls really love the book and can "read" along with me. It brings me back memories of Collin, when he was little and I used to read it to him.  I found a bunch of great craft ideas to go along with the book. We picked a handprint version that looked really cute. Chloe was so happy to get started on it, and it turned out very cute.

We've also worked on a few "what does not belong" problems and a couple of 12 piece puzzles. Chloe is getting really good at them now and enjoys putting them together by herself. Overall a great day today with lots of smiles. Now to find another craft project for Thursday to go with the letter "B". Pinterest here I come :-)

Moving on to letter "B"

Today we moved on to the letter "B". We listened to a couple of stories on YouTube, one of them being Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle.

The other was one of our favorites Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault. 

We just bought this book last week and enjoyed reading it at night. 
Chloe practiced writing her letter "B"s. To be honest, I think she might be a little too young to write. She is a little clumsy with the pencil and wants to do swirls instead of lines and such. I get a smile on my face watching her every time. We'll be practicing just the same, but I'm not hoping for her to be writing any time soon. She practiced with the scissors again and we laced to work on her small motor skills. Maybe that will help her with the writing as well. 
It's funny when it's school day, she wants Cayle to take a nap pretty much as soon as we take Collin to school. On the way back home she is already asking me to put Cayle down for a nap. She is just so excited to do school with me. I think it's the one on one time she enjoys the most. 

"A" is for Alligator

Today we reviewed the letter "A" in a fun way. We listened to the "There's An Alligator Under My Bed" book by Mercer Mayer on YouTube, I found a super cute version of it read by the author. You can find it HERE.
We also made a super cute "A" is for Alligator craft that I found on Totally Tots . Chloe was so excited to make this craft and she did very good using the glue stick and adding all the pieces to her alligator. We even added a magnet in the back so it can be displayed on the refrigerator for her to see.

We did a few worksheets on shapes and colored a picture just for fun :-)
It was another productive day for little Ms.Chloe!

Day 2 - Practice with Scissors

Thursday was a busy day for us, Collin had a field trip to a local nursing home and the girls and I were driving him and another one of his classmates to and from. Chloe was asking about school all morning and could hardly wait to start after we got home and ate lunch. Good thing, Cayle was plenty tired by then so she had no trouble taking a nap.
We started with the Days of the Week song once again. I found different versions of it on YouTube that were fun to listen to.  Then I decided to let Chloe practice with scissors. I bought a set of safety scissors and she was so excited to try. I couldn't help but giggle, watching her trying to figure out where her little fingers would go. After a few awkward moments and with a little bit of help, she was trimming away. I let her pick a new shape to review and she picked the triangle. After we were done, we did a numbers puzzle just for fun.
I just love spending an hour of quality time with Chloe. The best thing is, that she gets really excited about it and I overheard her tell her gym teacher about how she wrote her letter "A"s the other day: "Up, down and across" she said, making me smile.

Preschool - Day 1

After a lot of planning, preparing and praying, we finally started our at home preschool today.
Both Chloe and I were very excited and could hardly wait. We started with the days of the week song that I've heard the preschoolers singing at LCA. I looked it up on youtube and we sang it along a few times.
My goal for the next few weeks is to review colors and shapes before I move on to recognizing numbers and their sequence. Chloe did excellent and surprised me with how well she knew her shapes. We did a couple of worksheets and played a fun shape sorting version of the Candyland game.

After our game we moved on to writing. I focused on the letter "A" today. We talked about the way it looked, and practiced writing it a few times, then I asked Chloe to find the letter around the room and she did really good. 

I closed our session today by reading a story ( Princess and the pea ) and singing a couple of songs. 

It was cute that after we were done, Chloe stayed at her desk and "played" school for a while.