Thursday Preschool Playdate Letter W , Oceans & Fish!

 

We learned about the letter W this week--- water, walrus, whale....

And all about Oceans and Fish!

 

As you can see we had Scarlett's pet goldfish in the middle of the table- we talked about taking care of fish as a pet and they all got to feed the goldfish a tiny bit of food.

 

We worked on our counting.  They each had two paper goldfish bowls and used goldfish crackers. I wrote a number on the dry erase board and they had to recognize the number and put that amount of "fish" in the goldfish bowl.  Some needed more help than others but they all did a really great job and seemed to enjoy it!

 

We played one of my favorite SENSORY games.  Blindfolded they put their hands in a grab bag and feel around for something.  They had to describe it without looking and then finally got to take off the blindfold- they always get sooo excited!

 

They pulled out lots of different ocean life- starfish, sea shells, sand dollars, etc.

 

Then we got on our "pretend" scuba gear and swam out to the backyard.  Then they  hunted for sea shells in the OCEAN (aka. plastic pool).

We sang a cute song about 5 little fish- each of them got to hold a paper fish and sing along.

We read 2 really cute books from the library called:

The Pout Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen (they just laughed at this!!)

and Rainbow Fish discovers the deep sea by Marcus Pfister

Pre-K Curriculum for my 3.5 yr old

I thought I would use this to jot down what we will be doing in our homeschool Preschool this year!
Of course we will still be doing our Thursday Preschool Playdates with the other Mommies (which Scarlett just LOVES) but Tuesday and Wednesdays we will also be doing preschool activities!!  There may be a few changes/additions once I attend the Catholic Homeschooling Convention in Grapevine this Friday.  I am really excited to attend this homeschooling convention and this year  with my HUSBAND!!   I was impressed last year and just want to make sure he and I are on the same track with our kids.  Looks like some great speakers this year and I have more of a plan for looking at their books too!

Here is my tentative Pre-K Curriculum list for this 2010-2011 year:
(I put links for many things if you are interested in checking them out!!)

Progressive Phonics
A Child's Garden of Verses
Reading aloud classics- starting with The Jungle Book (july '10)
Later in the year- Teaching to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

Bible Stories & Children's story books of the Saints
(planning to use Faith & Life for grade school)

Kumon Books- Pre-K & K 

Kinderbach Music
"Handle on the Arts" Fine Arts Program
Maestro Classics "Stories in Music"

Little Pim Spanish DVD and Music CD for Pre-K
(note: after I bought this I found it at the library!!)

Gross Motor- lots of running and playing outside of course! :) We will also be signing up at our City Rec Center for Gymnastics and probably ballet/tap again as well!  I can't wait till Lily is old enough to join her sister... only about 6 more months ( it is just too cute!!)

*Lily will be playing along with her sister in Pre-K this year (she is almost 2 years.) Anything she is interested in doing with Scarlett I will just try to simplify for her of course!! :)


My Goal: After this year I would like to start a Kindergarten curriculum with Scarlett... she will be 4 1/2 next August and would be waiting another year to start school if we were attending somewhere.  However from what I have seen so far and watching her very close this year, I am assuming she will be MORE than ready to start at the end of next summer!

I am looking forward to learning with my little girls this year- it has been a lot of fun so far and my feelings have only gotten stronger about educating at home for the moment.  There have been LOTS of HUGE things this year society wise AND close to home that make me believe I need to do this for my girls so much! I know it is a HUGE commitment for me but I will do anything and everything possible to bring up girls who will know, love, and serve God and everyone they meet! :)
 

April Showers Bring May Flowers... and a BABY BOY TOO!

In April, I  threw a baby shower for my little sister-- she just had her baby in May (Jacob Michael) and I still haven't posted until today- aghhh!!
I threw her baby shower on a Saturday afternoon toward the end of April. I really wanted an outdoor baby shower in the backyard, BUT the weather in Dallas decided to follow my theme and it "SHOWERED" all morning!! Therefore,we had the baby shower in my house- it turned out really nice even if it was a bit crowded!! I just want to thank my sister in law for helping me with everything- she was so wonderful and fun to work with and also my BEST friend (who is also my Fairy Blog Mother) for her help taking the pictures. Thank you!!

 

Invitation for the event: 

April Showers bring May Flowers and a little baby boy, 

Let's shower Claire with lots of love for this bundle of joy!

 

Gorgeous chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with Umbrella Toppers and little "raindrop" flowers.  I worked with Charynn to create my own unique cupcake toppers - I found her from Two Sugar Babies on Etsy - check her out! She can do the most amazing stuff with fondant- Thank you Charynn!

I also worked with Tabitha from Proud Grits on Etsy- she was so sweet and we actually talked about lots of ideas for my baby shower- she really knows her stuff! I ended up having her make me some cute umbrella confetti and she threw in some little paper flower confetti as well- it was absolutely adorable on the tables!

 

Sign in table for Claire's Shower- we used her baby book to sign in and had a M&M counting game at the sign in table too!  Claire dressed perfectly to match her yellow and blue baby shower colors- she is so cute!

 

One of the guests counting the M&M's in the baby bottle!

Another game we played was measure the Momma! Each person had to take a piece of string and cut it at whatever they thought the circumference of Claire's baby belly might be.  It was pretty funny- some cut very small lengths of string and others cute humongous pieces!! LOL 

The winners received a cute little candle and notepad for a prize.

 

My other little sister, Claire, and my mom helping open a gift.  If you look behind them on the fireplace you will see a "bunting" type banner that says Baby Shower in cute lettering- with little baby boy onesies hanging on the rope with clips.

 

Here is an up close of some of the umbrellas we put around the house.  We cut raindrops and hung them with clear string to the yellow and blue umbrellas.

 

More cute umbrellas, balloons, and raindrops!

 

We served some light snacks since the party was around 3 in the afternoon.  We had fruit and veggies to nibble on as well as some quiche and some mini pizza rollups. Yummy!

At the end of the shower, we gave small umbrellas as thank you gifts to the guests...we used raindrop paper and wrote "from our shower to yours" on the paper attached to the umbrella- since it was raining those umbrellas really got used!! LOL

Claire's shower was really a success! She literally got a room FULL of gifts.  It completely filled my living room area- it was amazing! Definitely thankful for all our family and friends that were able to attend!

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SOME OTHER THANK YOUS! Check out all these great sites!

When I was planning this party, I went to some experts to get advice on what kinds of things would be neat to do for the baby shower.  I talked with Brittany from One Charming Party because she has the most awesome, beautiful ideas!! I wasn't expecting this but she actually hooked me up with a free inspiration board from her friend Becca from Birthday Girl Blog and oh my gosh it was the coolest April Showers Inspiration Board!!  I love these two girls ideas- they are absolutely fabulous and can come up with some really unique ideas if you need something for birthdays, showers, weddings, etc.  Check them both out and give them lots of love from me!!  Here is the PRECIOUS inspiration board that Becca sent me- so many cute ideas- for anyone that might be interested in doing a "rainshowers theme!".

 

Another sweet lady that sent me some awesome ideas was Shelley from How Does She? Have ya'll ever seen this blog?  It is so cool- those girls are amazing and their blog is so much fun to read! Check it out!!

My final shout out is to Amy from STEM parties- she also sent me loads of adorable ideas and places to check out online!!  

All of these ladies are busy, busy, busy and yet they each took time to write me back and I will be forever appreciative of that!  I hope good things are coming  to each and every one of the ladies that helped me with this shower. HUGS TO YOU ALL!!