The Box

We recently acquired a very large box. My boys lately have been very interested in fire trucks, firemen, and fire houses. I found a DVD recently about fire houses and shortly after letting the boys watch it…they started pretending they were firemen. So the idea occurred to me to let them turn this box into a fire house.

So first, mama cut two doors into the box. Our local fire station has 2 doors. One of the fire truck, and one for the ambulance. So they were very specific about the number of doors I was to cut.

Then, we moved our project outside and painted……

and painted……

and painted! They painted that box

for about 2 hours.

Then, they played…..

and played…….

and played some more…..

for about 6 hours….the first day…..3 hours the next day…..and they are still playing today with this crazy box! Who knew…you could have so much fun with a box!

H is for Nana’s House!

Well our week at Nana’s House is the perfect time to learn all about the letter H!!

I brought our “learning bag” along for the trip…and have done all of my basic letter activities that I do with each letter every week.You can take a peek here if you are a new reader. http://triplesmiles.blogspot.com/2010/06/triplesmiles-hard-at-work-day-1.html

Today we took advantage of Nana’s Play dough table to help us learn about letter H.

H is for Heart, Hand and Hat!!

We also had a fun fun fun picnic lunch with our Lifelong friends…The Hills! They have an AMAZING play fort and sandbox for hours of fun! Mommy actually got sit, eat her lunch, AND visit with her friends today! Amazing!

Here is a peek at a few other fun things we have been doing at Nana’s house this week!

Riding Papa’s Tractor

Picking Corn!

Playing Trains…

Having fun with Cousin Colton

Coming Up Next….H is for Handy Manny!

Summer Learn and Move…Day 2

Who Hooo! Today went so much smoother than yesterday as far as keeping all 3 kids engaged. I was reminded by a friend in blog world that this time should be FUN and not FORCED! My goal is to have “Learn and Move” for 90 minutes each day! Today we did 45 minutes in “round one” and 3o minutes in “round two” So I was pleased.

So today, we did the same BASICS that I blogged about yesterday. I added a few more

Learning Enhancements-

Dot painting Letter L

This and many other wonderful activities are available from http://confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/2010/02/letter-of-week.html

Cutting practice-

Side note: I went to a parent training recently and learned children learn best by cutting while sitting on the floor, not at a table.

Cars Tot Book…focusing on “Name” today.

(I mix all the letters of his name up with a few extra letters. I tell him what letter comes next and he finds it..poor boy has a long name to learn!)

While I am doing “The Basics” with one child…the other 2 are working on Learn and Move Tray Activities.

Today’s trays were…

Matching ABC Letter Cards to ABC Blocks.

Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Donaldson for digging these blocks out of their attic and sending them to us! Thanks to Nana Liner for the ABC Cards.

Stringing Block Beads-

Lightning McQueen Art Tray-

(all red materials) thanks to our sweet friend Isela for the Lightning McQueen Extra Large Coloring Pad

CARS Mini Puzzle-

$1 store has amazing low cost items that are perfect for a learning tray.

At the end of today’s “session” both boys were able to write the Letter L…this is with no help from me except by saying “We start our letters at the top” “Big line down” “Little Line Across”

Mommy is so proud!

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.

Daddy's Toys

After a very eventful week, a package arrived from Grandma and Grandpa in Michigan. (Well it actually arrived a few weeks ago, but the rainy morning provided the perfect excuse to open it!)
Inside were a bunch of Daddy's old toys. How fun! Blocks, Letters and Tinker Toys. Of course the kids don't understand yet that these toys used to belong to their daddy, but maybe one day they will. Little Girl wasn't too interested in the blocks...so she just curled up in a chair with a book. Thank you so much Grandma and Grandpa!