TripleSmiles Hard At Work. Day 1

Well today is the DAY! The day I have been planning for at least 2 months now. Having all 3 kids home with me all summer requires planning or else I will be cleaning up raw eggs off my kitchen floor all summer. I must keep them busy and their minds active.

I have also been trying to think of a way to share my planning with out a play by play of what we are doing every second of each day. I know for certain of one person who is interested in every second, but the majority of you are not! LOL. That one person is Nana Liner.

First let me say today was CRAZY. Within 5 minutes, I was having to rethink and readjust my planning. After about 2-5 minutes, Ava went up to her room and played in there about an hour. I just let her be because the boys were so engaged in the learning activities, I didn’t want to stress over Ava “not doing the plan.” I knew she was safe in her room. Every few minutes, I’d have one of the boys run up to “report” what she was doing.

Also, a lot of these pictures were taken after I actually sat down and taught them what we were doing b.c obviously I can’t teach and take pictures at the same time. So many people have ask me what I am planning this summer, so I want to try to really document and share this first week, but I won’t be able to do this every week.

The boys were engaged about 15 minutes per activity. We went outside, etc in between things. This was not all in one sitting.

The Basics- I bought the curriculum Handwriting Without Tears. It provides wonderful multisensory lessons and activities to help preschoolers learn to write their letters. I am primarily working on this with my oldest, 4 year old. The other 2 are somewhat interested at times, and I let them participate as they can. www.hwtears.com

With this curriculum I ordered a teachers guide which tells me the order in which to teach the letters. The first letter is Letter L. I knew this would present a problem for my oldest, since his brother’s name began with the Letter L….so I had to find something he loves to link with letter L….and that is Lightning McQueen from Cars. So when they woke up this morning their toys trays centered around the movie CARS.

With each letter I am using these 3 multi-sensory activities.

Wooden pieces- On the white piece of paper, he lays the wooden pieces on top of a letter L already drawn for him. On the blue mat he lays the pieces independently making the letter L with the wooden pieces.

Roll-A- Dough Letters-

He starts by rolling dough and putting it on top of this card. After mastery of that step….he forms another letter L in the blue tray with out a guide. (except I am guiding him with the cues ”We start our letters at the top” “Big Line down” “Little Line across”

Stamp and See Screen-

This activity allow the child to stamp out each part of the letter. (Big line down, little line across) My 3 and 4 year old were able to do this easily. My 2 year old was able to stamp, but she was not able to connect the lines in the correct places.

Enhancements to Learning-

Bible Verse—This weeks verse is Matthew 22:37

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind. I taught them the verse at breakfast and go back to it as much as possible during the day.

Tot Books- I got this from one of my very favorite Blog 1+1+1=1

http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/CarsTotBook.html

And last but not least….FUN FOOD!

Traffic Light Graham Crackers

Cars themed lunch.

1. Mater Sandwich (Thanks to www.funkylunch.com for the Mater inspiration and to my my friend Brittany Poe from http://www.thepoefam.blogspot.com/ for sharing it with me:)

2. Chocolate Pudding fuel with Fillmore…he makes organic fuel in Radiator Springs.

3. Mini Oreo Tires with Luigi and Guido's from the tire shop in Radiator Springs.

4. Sally’s Cozy Cone Hotel with Cheese cubes.