What we've been learning...

Since I've started watching a couple of kids, I've had to turn back into "Teacher Amber" and parts of our house look like something out of a preschool. So I thought I'd share some of the things we've been learning.
Our daily schedule is not totally consistent, but we do have some routines that we stick to everyday. We do a weather report everyday and keep track of the results on a chart by the patio door. This month we've also been talking about March coming in like a lion and going out like a lamb and vice versa. So far we've had more lamb days than lion days, but I'm hopeful that we'll just continue to have lamb days, right on into April! After our weather report, we go down into the hallway and practice our alphabet. That's the only place I had enough wall space to hang all the letters of the alphabet. We also talk about our special letter for the week and our special number. This week was the letter "e" and the number 4. We use Hannah's Leap Frog phonics thing from the fridge to practice the sound of the letter. They really get into that. Then it's off to the dining area to do our calendar and practice the days of the week and figure out what day we are on. From there our schedule isn't so strict. I try to make sure we do some kind of art project and maybe a worksheet with tracing letters and numbers. And we try to make it outside if the weather is nice. Today we were able to be out for like an hour. We could have stayed out longer if it hadn't been lunch time! After lunch we do story time and usually read for half an hour or sometimes more. Then it's nap/quiet time. My favorite part of the day! LOL Anyway, that's kind of what our daily schedule looks like.
This week since our focus was on the letter "e" we talked a lot about elephants...painted pictures of elephants, pretended to be elephants, did some math counting peanuts (elephants favorite food), sang about elephants and even learned how to say elephant in Spanish! We also played lots of games where we had to listen with our ears and look with our eyes (more "e" words!), like Simon Says and I Spy. Wednesday was Johnny Appleseed day so we read a story about Johnny Appleseed and ate apples for a snack. We also made our own apple trees by dipping our fingers in red paint and stamping them onto a tree shape. Hannah really enjoyed this and was so proud to show Daddy her "Apple Tee" when he got home from work. I know, apples don't start with "e" but we still did other things with the letter "e" that day. Thursday is our Bible story day and we read the story of Elijah and how God took care of him by sending the ravens to feed him. After the story we made ravens using our hand prints for the wings.
It has been a busy and fun week. Next week we are on to the letter "f" and the number 5. And since Friday will be the first day of Spring I think we will focus a lot on that and flowers and nature. The kids have already been excited by watching the buds grow on the trees and bushes. They check them everyday when they go outside. It will be so much fun once the leaves finally pop out!

"Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it."
Proverbs 22:6