Summer vacation day 1
Indy's last day of preschool was this past friday. He starts full day kindergarden in the fall, and I don't want him to lose all the knowledge he has gained. So for the past few days I have scoured a few activity books and come up with the first few weeks of a summer program. It is a 5 day guide, a list of activities to try to do.
First I decided on the topics to be covered:
Day 1 - Science, hand dexterity (to help with writing), practical life, workbook, physical activity, Indy choice (he chooses something for us to do together), and weekly goal (I have a list of things he needs to be better at before going to kindergarden)
Day 2 - Math, hand dexterity, practical life, workbook, physical activity, Indy choice, weekly goal
Day 3 - Spanish, hand dexterity, practical life, other (my choice), physical activity, Indy choice, weekly goal
Day 4 - Writing, cooking, practical life, other, physical activity, Indy choice, weekly goal
Day 5 - Reading, music, practical life, other, physical activity, Indy choice, weekly goal
The idea is to have more activities than I need in case we are stuck in the house all day, and enough so I can pick and choose what are most important to get through for days when we have other things to do.
So today was Day 1
I gave Indy a list of weekly goals and asked him which one he wanted to work on this week. He chose "getting his clothes on and off by himself". So today and tomorrow will be focused on him taking his clothes off by himself, the next two days focused on putting them on by himself, then doing both by himself.
And so today this is what we did for our school time:
Science - Made a tornado in a bottle, and talked about weather. (We were also supposed to do an activity from his science kit, but we never got to it.
Dexterity - Play doh, we only used the play doh, not the play doh toys. The task was simply to make things. Indy made a ball, a pizza, and hot dogs. I made a tree, an octopus, and hot dogs. We had competing hot dog restaurants. We also did tracing of shapes onto paper and then drawing straight lines across the shapes.
Practical Life - Indy helped me sort and put away the laundry
Workbook - He chose which of his workbooks he wanted to do, then he did four pages by himself. The idea is for him to learn to try without being anxious about making a mistake.
Physical Activity - Skipping. I discovered he didn't know how to skip, well now he does.
Indy choice - He picked sitting on the porch and playing sitting games like Rock Paper Scissors, and Simon says.
Weekly goal - When it was time to get changed he took all his clothes off by himself.
Other stuff from today...
We did errands and while we walked we told a back and forth story as if I was our cat T, and he was our cat Love. And the cats were having an adventure outside. We went to the library for an hour. Played with our neighborhood friend for an hour (his choice), and did Kids Zumba with another friend (my choice). Oh and he had some Indy and Daddy time as well. We also fed the squirrels that live in our backyard. Oh and I know this all sounds like a lot but it really wasn't, there was lots of down time.
Other other stuff...
Making patterns out of sounds (like clap-clap-stomp). Playing "follow the leader" where the leader pretends to be walking a maze, on our walk to get ice cream. Eating dinner on the front porch, where we asked each other "What if" questions (What if trees could walk? What if all cars had to stop when one car gets to a traffic light).
The only thing he didn't like from today, was Zumba. Well that and he wished we had played with his Toy Story playset together after dinner. I promised we would tomorrow.
And now I am eating chocolate chip cookies, petting my cat, and watching The Closer. Not a bad way to end the day.
First I decided on the topics to be covered:
Day 1 - Science, hand dexterity (to help with writing), practical life, workbook, physical activity, Indy choice (he chooses something for us to do together), and weekly goal (I have a list of things he needs to be better at before going to kindergarden)
Day 2 - Math, hand dexterity, practical life, workbook, physical activity, Indy choice, weekly goal
Day 3 - Spanish, hand dexterity, practical life, other (my choice), physical activity, Indy choice, weekly goal
Day 4 - Writing, cooking, practical life, other, physical activity, Indy choice, weekly goal
Day 5 - Reading, music, practical life, other, physical activity, Indy choice, weekly goal
The idea is to have more activities than I need in case we are stuck in the house all day, and enough so I can pick and choose what are most important to get through for days when we have other things to do.
So today was Day 1
I gave Indy a list of weekly goals and asked him which one he wanted to work on this week. He chose "getting his clothes on and off by himself". So today and tomorrow will be focused on him taking his clothes off by himself, the next two days focused on putting them on by himself, then doing both by himself.
And so today this is what we did for our school time:
Science - Made a tornado in a bottle, and talked about weather. (We were also supposed to do an activity from his science kit, but we never got to it.
Dexterity - Play doh, we only used the play doh, not the play doh toys. The task was simply to make things. Indy made a ball, a pizza, and hot dogs. I made a tree, an octopus, and hot dogs. We had competing hot dog restaurants. We also did tracing of shapes onto paper and then drawing straight lines across the shapes.
Practical Life - Indy helped me sort and put away the laundry
Workbook - He chose which of his workbooks he wanted to do, then he did four pages by himself. The idea is for him to learn to try without being anxious about making a mistake.
Physical Activity - Skipping. I discovered he didn't know how to skip, well now he does.
Indy choice - He picked sitting on the porch and playing sitting games like Rock Paper Scissors, and Simon says.
Weekly goal - When it was time to get changed he took all his clothes off by himself.
Other stuff from today...
We did errands and while we walked we told a back and forth story as if I was our cat T, and he was our cat Love. And the cats were having an adventure outside. We went to the library for an hour. Played with our neighborhood friend for an hour (his choice), and did Kids Zumba with another friend (my choice). Oh and he had some Indy and Daddy time as well. We also fed the squirrels that live in our backyard. Oh and I know this all sounds like a lot but it really wasn't, there was lots of down time.
Other other stuff...
Making patterns out of sounds (like clap-clap-stomp). Playing "follow the leader" where the leader pretends to be walking a maze, on our walk to get ice cream. Eating dinner on the front porch, where we asked each other "What if" questions (What if trees could walk? What if all cars had to stop when one car gets to a traffic light).
The only thing he didn't like from today, was Zumba. Well that and he wished we had played with his Toy Story playset together after dinner. I promised we would tomorrow.
And now I am eating chocolate chip cookies, petting my cat, and watching The Closer. Not a bad way to end the day.