Pinecone Art

Today we collected pinecones and painted them for Christmas and Thanksgiving.

Using a cardboard tray we rolled the pinecones in paint.  We had fun talking about the colors and using action words such as "roll".   

These will look nice on our mantel for the holidays.

Counting and Quantities for Preschoolers

 We have been working on counting and learning quantities.  Here are some of the activities we have been doing.

1.  Matching milkcaps to circles on filefolders

2.  Spelling numbers - I found these wonderful templates at Confessions of a homeschooler.  I use our foam magnetic letter along with this activity. 

3.  Counting Strip -  OK, I know this looks a bit ragged and it is.  I started with a sentence strip and every week or so I add another.  We count through these number every day. 

4.  Counting animals -  I lay out some of our beany babies and Adeline counts them.

5.  Making Marks -  I had some left over laminated pieces so I write a number, and Adeline makes that many marks with her dry erase pen.

6.  Magna Doodle Counting-  I write a number on our magna doodle and Adeline uses a refrigerator magnet to count out the correct quantity,

7.  Counting Bears -  Again I found these templates at Confessions of a homeschooler

8.  Fine Motor Counting -  Counting beans while we drop them into a bottle.

 

3 of Our Favorite Gross Motor Activities

 

 Everyday I try to do some gross motor activities with Adeline.  We always crawl and hang from a monkey bar but here are a few others that we try to add in.

1.  Stand up, Sit down - I stack a pile of our mats to create a stool.   I hold an animal in the air and Adeline will stand up to grab the animal and sit down and throw it in a basket.  This activity works her legs and core.    

   

                                       

2.  Scooter Pull - Adeline sits on the scooter, grabs an animal and I pull her across the room to throw her animal into the box.   

 3.  Step, Step Throw - I create two steps with our mats.  Adeline will choose an animal step across the steps and throw her animal in.  Then back to get another animal.

As you can see we have many beany babies.  Whenever I see one at a yard sale I grab it.  They are very motivating for all our activities.
 

Prewriting - Getting ready to Write!

Adeline's motor skills are weak, so we are working hard to improve that.  I would like to start teaching her how to write letters soon but I feel that we need to strengthen the muscles in her hands a bit more.

What we are doing:

1.   Crawling every day.  Crawling strengthens the hands as weight is put on them.

2    Hanging from a monkey bar.

3.   Playing with play dough

4.   Lacing beads

5.   Peg board
 
6.   Scooping with a small scoop is very good because it forces you to use your pincher grasp.

7.  Drawing lines - we have been doing lots of matching pages.  I laminate them and use them over and over.
   
8.  Prewriting  pages-  I love these pages from:  3 Dinosaurs  

The number matching page is also from  3Dinosaurs 

We love these dry erase makers they are thin like a pencil and Adeline can erase when she is finished.

Activities For a Platform Swing

The weather is amazing here and we have been playing outside.  Last summer Adeline's grandpa built her this great platform swing and we have been doing many different activities on it.

First - Puzzles, both sitting on the tummy.  The whole time the swing is moving gently to challenge her balance and work the core strength.

Being on her tummy works on upper body strength. 

 Second - Adding rings to stacker both sitting and on the tummy.

Third -  Adding pegs to a pegboard.  I had to hold this in front of her but it worked great.

Fourth - Reading flashcards.

Fifth - popping bubbles.  I do not have a picture of Adeline popping bubble but this is also fun to do. 

Sometimes It Is Hard

I have been a bit absent lately and there are a couple of reasons for that.  FIRST Adeline is going to be a big sister!  We are a bit shocked and surprised with this news but we are now moving to a place of excitement.   I think between the holidays and feeling a bit yucky I have lost my motivation.  I am working hard to get it back.

Second news,  we found out this past Friday that Adeline will need heart surgery.  I am shocked and a bit overwhelmed.    When she was born we were told that her heart was fine she just had a PDA tube that took awhile to close off.  Recently the doctors detected a heart murmur and so she had an echo done this past Friday.   There they discovered a leaky valve.  This valve will continue to get worse and it must be repaired.  It is not an emergency but it must be done this year.  We are now deciding if it will before or after baby.  I am thinking before would be better.    Please pray for us as we walk through these times.