Our neighborhood is full of boys. Without thinking too hard, I can think of 6 boys besides Michael between the ages of four and six. At least three of them will enter kindergarten with him. Well, if I decide to send him to kindergarten they'll go off together.
For a complete contrast, there are no other little girls in the neighborhood. On the occasions when Ava finds a great playmate at the park or in a playplace, I so enjoy watching her bond with other little girls. I really do need to find a regular playmate for her. Completely by coincidence, we ran into a preschool classmate of hers at McDonalds a couple of weeks ago. The girls played together beautifully and we lingered well longer than usual to let her play. I made a point of introducing myself to her parents and exchanged email addresses with her mother. We met once more a couple of weeks later, but I haven't heard from them since.
Yesterday we ran into twins (boy/girl) from Ava's preschool class at the park. Again, I made a point to introduce myself to their mother and exchange email addresses. I dutifully sent an email expressing our openness to setting up a playdate.
To be honest, the entire process feels a little artificial and awkward, but I do it anyway. I want Ava to have the opportunity to develop friendships and this feels like a first step. If I decide to homeschool, I'll need to reach out to a new community of people and try to provide opportunities for my children to interact with other children in settings other a traditional school. I suppose this is good practice. I just wish it felt a little more natural though. A bit of ongoing success would be nice too.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Project Round-Up
Without further ado, here are several random projects from this week.
Project 1 - Word Wheel
I was getting ready for a reading lesson (the one homeschooling curriculum I have not reviewed yet, but intend to get to soon) and was inspired to make a word wheel. Our lesson called for reviewing 12 different word endings and I didn't want to make 12 different spinners, so I modified her design a little and came up with this. Six additional word endings are hidden under the smaller paper plate, but are revealed as you spin. You can practice by matching each of the 12 word endings with a single initial consonant or by sliding all 6 initial consonants by the same word ending.
Project 2 - Glass Gem Suncatchers
The children wanted to "do art" with some decorative glass gems I had around for playing on the light boxes. I remembered a project I saw at Play At Home Mom. I set the kids up with inexpensive frames on their light boxes. I slapped Mod Podge all over the outer surface of the glass and let the children stick glass gems to it. After they were dry we hung them in the windows. They are quite pretty.
Project 3 - Pattern Strips
The RightStart Math kit came with some great colored square tiles. The kids were having a blast playing with them. We used them as pattern blocks to make houses and other designs. We made patterns. We built towers. We made paths for squinkies to walk on. The kids were having so much fun playing with them I decided to make some pattern strips to add to the mix.
I spent about 90 minutes during nap one day making pattern strips. I couldn't wait to show the kids. They played with the strips for about 90 seconds before deciding they were quite boring. Guess every project can't be a win. :-)
Project 1 - Word Wheel
I was getting ready for a reading lesson (the one homeschooling curriculum I have not reviewed yet, but intend to get to soon) and was inspired to make a word wheel. Our lesson called for reviewing 12 different word endings and I didn't want to make 12 different spinners, so I modified her design a little and came up with this. Six additional word endings are hidden under the smaller paper plate, but are revealed as you spin. You can practice by matching each of the 12 word endings with a single initial consonant or by sliding all 6 initial consonants by the same word ending.
Project 2 - Glass Gem Suncatchers
The children wanted to "do art" with some decorative glass gems I had around for playing on the light boxes. I remembered a project I saw at Play At Home Mom. I set the kids up with inexpensive frames on their light boxes. I slapped Mod Podge all over the outer surface of the glass and let the children stick glass gems to it. After they were dry we hung them in the windows. They are quite pretty.
Project 3 - Pattern Strips
The RightStart Math kit came with some great colored square tiles. The kids were having a blast playing with them. We used them as pattern blocks to make houses and other designs. We made patterns. We built towers. We made paths for squinkies to walk on. The kids were having so much fun playing with them I decided to make some pattern strips to add to the mix.
I spent about 90 minutes during nap one day making pattern strips. I couldn't wait to show the kids. They played with the strips for about 90 seconds before deciding they were quite boring. Guess every project can't be a win. :-)
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Website Recommendation: daddyread.com
If you're looking for an annotated list of recommended books to read to your children DaddyRead is a great place to find it. The website has informational articles on how to read to your kids, but the heart of the site is annotated lists of books to read aloud to children separated by recommended ages. There are lists of picture books for infants through second grade. There are lists of recommended read-aloud chapter books for preschool through third grade and up. There's even a list of recommended chapter books for reluctant readers.
I started with the list of read-aloud chapter books for preschoolers and reserved five of the recommended books from our local library. We started Moongobble: Dragon of Doom today. Michael is loving it. It makes Ava a bit wiggly, but as long as she's allowed to wander the room a bit she follows along too. The chapters are short and have a couple of black and white illustrations per chapter. We've finished 5 of 13 chapters. The book is the first in a series so we'll know where to go next if the children enjoy this first one all the way through.
I started with the list of read-aloud chapter books for preschoolers and reserved five of the recommended books from our local library. We started Moongobble: Dragon of Doom today. Michael is loving it. It makes Ava a bit wiggly, but as long as she's allowed to wander the room a bit she follows along too. The chapters are short and have a couple of black and white illustrations per chapter. We've finished 5 of 13 chapters. The book is the first in a series so we'll know where to go next if the children enjoy this first one all the way through.
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