Introducing: my home preschool

So, I'm starting something with Camden this summer that I thought I'd document for the blog: home preschool. There's a couple of reasons for this: first, it gives me practice with lesson planning and teaching. Secondly, I really wanted to teach Camden some basic phonics and work on his fine motor skills while he's not in school this summer. This is nothing really formal; I'm only focusing on the alphabet and we're only having "school" 3-4 times per week for about an hour during Macey's nap time. I am, however, planning lessons during the weekend so I'm prepared for what we're going to be working on during the week ahead. For inspiration and ideas, I'm primarily using Pinterest and The Measured Mom's blog. I highly, highly recommend her blog; she's a former teacher and current SAHM with so many excellent ideas and educational resources.

It's obvious why I'm focusing on phonics with Camden; recognizing letters and their sounds is such an essential early literacy tool. I'm choosing to include a lot of fine motor activities into our lessons because I feel like Camden could use some practice in this area. I'm no occupational therapist, of course, but there are a couple of things I've noticed: he's still alternating between his left and right hand when he writes (he chooses his left more often, but does still switch to his right), and he is still using a fisted grasp. Rather than trying to force him to hold a pencil correctly before he's ready, I thought it would make more sense to work on fine motor development.

Side note: This is strictly a summer break activity. Camden will be going back to his preschool in the fall.

 

Last week, we focused on the letter Bb.

 

I absolutely love this Leap Frog Fridge Phonics magnet. You just pop a letter in and it sings a catchy little song that tells you what the letter is and what sound the letter makes. We play this at the beginning and end of each lesson.

 

Fine Motor Activities:

 

For the letter Bb, we practiced writing the letters by using a Bb template (homemade). Then, Camden filled in the Bb's with coins (day one) and buttons (day two).

 



 

 

We then made some beaded bracelets (like all of those 'b' words?!). This is a great fine motor activity that Camden really enjoyed.

 

 

 

 

Crafts:

 

On day one of Bb, we made a 'bug'; specifically, an ant. We also made a bird. (Disclaimer: I am not an artist. If our finished product somewhat resembles what we intended it to be, I consider it a success.

 



 

 

On day two, we made a bear. He also had some buttons.

 

 

 

Other Activities:

 

I drew some big letters and little letters with chalk on the patio out back. I then had Camden go on a hunt for the big B's and little b's and circle them with chalk when he found them hidden among the other letters. Sorry- forgot to get a picture of this.

 

 

We also searched the house for items that started with the letter Bb. We found: balls, a banana, a bracelet, and some bugs. On day two, we found some pictures of babies (Camden and Macey's baby pictures) and some balloons.

 

 

Books we read: