Carter's First Day of Preschool

On August 29, we embarked on a little adventure we refer to as Preschool...at home. :) This is another area that I must be intentional. Carter is a very smart 3 year old without someone sitting down and forcing him to learn. He learned most of his letter with the help of an alphabet puzzle with individual letters. If he couldn't remember the name of the letter, he could remember a word that started with that letter.
With the resources of the Partnership for Children of Johnston County, we've found some great stuff. I've also had a friend pass on lots of workbooks and a huge binder of A beka K4 materials. Now I have to figure out when I want to "plan". For me, I must have a plan to feel intentional. As a former teacher, I was able to "wing it" if I needed to but I want our time together to matter. So there have been intention days thus far and there have been not so intentional days. We do preschool on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but there have been days were Carter requested to do school on a Tuesday or Thursday so we still do activities together then too. One day, he even requested to do school after naptime.


Looking like Handy Manny

So far, we've focused on the letters: B,C,D,E,F,M,N. We practice writing the letters, picking out words that start with that letter, do flashcards for each letter, do activities on starfall. These letter were chosen based on the kits available to check out at the Partnership. We've spent time on a few colors: Yellow, Blue, Red. Carter struggled with wanting to know his colors. Like most kids, he went through a phase where everything was Red, or Blue or Green. Occasionally, he'll now confuse orange and yellow. We've worked out sorting bears based on color and shape and even used a scale for fun, an interview about his grandparents for Grandparent's Day, made a birthday card for Minnie, Did alphabet puzzle matching game. We've talked about jobs and cereal. When talking about cereal, Carter would roll a di and he would have to count the number and pick out that many pieces of Fruit Loops to string on a necklace (and I would tell him which colors to choose). We've done activities on rhyming words and worked on coloring pictures that feature different shapes. It's interesting to observe Carter. On our first day, I had tons of activities planned but then I remembered he's getting one on one tutoring so things go a lot faster. There have been times where he'll ask me to color the Mop for M because he's tired. :) Not sure how that would go in a regular preschool setting. It would probably result in him not completing the exercise and instead pretending his crayons are football players. :)
Speaking of crayons, they have legs. I think I've already lost an entire box of 24...unless Cameron is hiding them somewhere.



Trying to keep Cameron entertained


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