I really wanted to be able to send Naomi to preschool this year, and Naomi REALLY wanted to go to preschool this year. But with Jacob graduating at the very end of August, and not knowing when or where he'd get a job and when or where we would be moving, I knew that chances were slim that we'd be able to get her into preschool. So I decided to do preschool at home this year with Naomi & Aleta! It was mostly for Naomi, but of course Aleta can benefit, too! Anyway, these preschool posts are for my friends who have been asking for details about what we've been doing with our little home preschool.
When I started planning, I googled to find out what things children are expected to know or be able to do before kindergarten, and that's what I based our goals & lessons on. I can't remember any of the sites I got my information from, but I did another google search just now, and it looks like there's a pretty comprehensive list on this site:
http://staff.camas.wednet.edu/blogs/katieredmond/files/2014/08/Kindergarten-Readiness-Checklist.pdf . I made my list specific to my kids, so I didn't include things that Naomi already knew, and I added some Kindergarten skills that I knew she was ready for. Anyway, then I made a rough schedule so I could have some idea of how many subjects/skills we should work on each week. Sadly, due to me getting sick at the end of August with what has turned out to be a more-than-2-month-long yeast infection (Who knew they could last that long?!), and then our couple months of job-hunting, and then packing up and moving with only 5 days' notice (all while I was still sick, mind you!), we are now VERY behind in preschool. Like 2 months or so behind. Like we've maybe done a week's worth of stuff, and that's it. *sigh* Oh well! One of the good things about doing home preschool is that you can be flexible with your schedule! So even though I spent the better part of two months laying in bed while the girls did nothing but watch TV, I'm hoping I can rearrange our preschool schedule so that we still hit at least the most important skills over the next few months!
Anyway, the first thing I made for preschool was my Calendar and Weather board, which I am ridiculously proud of. I just love it!
On the left side we have our weather wheel, our weekly weather chart, and our thermometer. In the middle under the calendar is the "Today, Tomorrow, Yesterday" chart. And on the right side we have our seasons wheel, our Weather Girl, and the letters & numbers of the week. The board itself was one of those tri-fold presentation boards, like the ones we used for the science fair in middle school. I got it at Walmart, and I think it was just like 3 or 4 dollars. I liked the one that was colored black inside instead of white, but they had the white ones, too. I bought the big blank calendar thing for just a dollar or two at a teacher supply store in St. Louis, and almost everything else was a free printable! The month & date calendar signs were a free printable from
confessionsofahomeschooler.com, as well as the weekly weather chart, today-tomorrow-yesterday chart, and the season wheel. You can find them all
here. The thermometer was a free printable from
rowdyinroom300.blogspot.com, and you can find it
here. I can't remember where I found the weather wheel, but if you google "preschool weather wheel" or "free printable weather wheel" or something to that extent, you'll get lots of results. The letters & numbers sign is nothing special--I just made that on PowerPoint. After a few days of preschool, I decided to add a weekly color, as well. I printed everything on cardstock and then laminated it using clear contact paper. And I used velcro dots or masking tape to stick everything to the board, depending on whether I wanted it to be removable or not. Oh, and the happy face border around the whole thing was either from the Dollar Tree or the dollar section at Target--I can't remember which!
 |
| The girls LOVE doing Calendar & Weather! We often do calendar & weather even if we aren't doing preschool that day, because they love it, and it only takes a couple minutes. |
The last thing I made for the calendar & weather board ended up being my favorite part: the Weather Girl!
I made the little "Weather Girl" sign & speech bubble on PowerPoint, and the doll & most of her clothes were free printables from
education.com, which you can find
here. I think they let you print 10 pages for free a month. I think I printed Beach Girl Paper Doll, St. Patrick's Day Paper Doll Girl, Summer Paper Doll Girl, Paper Doll Girl: Party Fashion, Rainy Day Paper Doll Girl, and Winter Paper Doll Girl. I bought really small velcro circles from Walmart, and I used the clear velcro side to put on the doll and the white, fuzzy velcro side for the clothing pieces. You can kind of see the velcro circle on her head and the one between her eyes. She has velcro on her head for hats, between her eyes for sunglasses, on her chest for shirts/sweaters, on her hands for gloves or accessories, on her waist for pants, and on her feet for shoes or socks.
In addition to the outfits I printed from education.com, I also made an extra outfit, which is the outfit the doll is wearing in the above picture. I'm silly and ridiculous, so it bothered me that the doll didn't have a more "neutral-colored" pair of pants, like a pair of jeans that go with everything. So I made her a pair of blue jeans and a pink sweater. :) Here are her other outfits:
 |
| This is just her underwear, but you can see all the velcro circles I used. |
 |
| Snowy day! |
 |
| Sunny day! |
 |
| Another sunny, warm day outfit! |
 |
| Rainy day! |
 |
| Beach day! |
 |
| This was actually the St. Patrick's day outfit, but I covered the shamrock on her sweater with a purple heart to make the sweater more versatile. |
And there you have it! That's everything we do for calendar & weather.
