Preschool Counting Game

We are playing this game at our house this morning, so I thought I would share. It's a great way to teach counting and even math. I'm always on the lookout for tactical, learning activities that are applicable for my almost 6 year old and my barely 3 year old. A friend who teaches special education taught us this game. It is very versatile.

• Print 5 sets of feet (or more if you want to go higher than 10), and cut out
• Write a number on each foot
• Have children try to put the numbers in order on the floor
• Hide a number and have smaller children hunt for the missing number
• Stand on numbers while counting (beginner addition) 
• Try going backwards while counting (beginner subtraction)

The possibilities are endless. Have fun!

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She gets her athletic abilities from me.

Really I am no athlete. Not even a little bit. I spent my whole childhood and young adulthood avoiding any and all forms of physical activity. I was contentedly happy as a music geek, faining injuries so that I wouldn't have to participate in anything that might make me work up a sweat. Or show how uncoordinated that I was. That method worked so well for me. I assumed that when I had children, they would naturally follow in my music-geekiness footsteps. From music they would learn poise, confidence, and discipline.

In my early twenties I began to see athletics in a different light. Softball is kinda okay with a group of friends. Water sports are a blast. Fall football games are entertaining. And frisbee golf? Well, now that is downright fun. And I began to admire those who enjoy sports and are actually good at them.

Then I went and married into a family who loves, loves, loves sports. Sports Nuts, I call them. (My mother-in-law even has a degree is Physical Education).

Now me and the man I married have a bit of a quandary: sports or music. While I still believe that poise, confidence, and discipline can be learned from music, I also see the added benefits of fitness that goes along with sports. Having my fingers in tip-top shape from playing piano comes in handy for concertos, but not so much when trying to lose pregnancy weight gain.

 Jeff and I have decided to expose our children to sport and music. Crazy. I know. If they show a natural aptitude and/or desire to participate in one more than the other, then fine. Discipline of character is the goal.

We signed Emma up for T-ball this month through the YMCA. Her cousins (Josh and Jake) were doing it and that made T-ball sound way more appealing than the swimming lessons I was planning on.

Twice a week we go to practice and Emma joins the other 4-6 year olds in learning the fine art of hitting a ball off a T with a bat and catching ground balls with a glove.

That's my girl. Or, I should say, my husband's child since the ball actually made it into the glove.

Notice the kids in the right side of the picture? There is a lot of scrambling and falling going on at PeeWee T-ball.

Emma really enjoys it and is learning new skills. She also does a lot of chewing on her glove and staring off into space. Maybe she is related to me after all. 

At the end of each practice there is a game. With so many kids participating, the bases are pretty hard to see. It's a free for all when a player makes a hit. 30 preschoolers swarming the same ball is a pretty funny event. Eventually one child will pop up from the dogpile with the ball in hand and exclaim, "I got it." Meanwhile, the guy up to bat could have made a home run if he knew where the bases were. They'll get it. Hopefully.

Emma is up to bat...

Looking as an objective observer, I see Emma's talents more in the musical realm. She has a beautiful voice and loves to sing. Her ear is very good too and can repeat tunes that I sing or play on the piano. Today I got Taylor Swift's White Horse stuck in my head. I was absently singing it and then heard Emma mimicking, "... it's too late for you and your white horse... to come around." 

Note to self: only absently sing songs that I want my preschooler repeating. Taylor Swift, go away.

For now, it's T-ball.

So, what do you think? Sports or music for children. Neither or all. Both or some?

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Why I love homeschool...

Flower Arranging For Beginners:




Preschool basics are to learn the alphabet, how to write the child's name in capital letters and how to count to 10. Yes, only to 10 for preschoolers. We've got that covered, so now we are on to bigger and better things. What I love about homeschooling is that every life skill can be called  skool school. Our electives are endless. From flower arranging to folding a towel ala Martha Stewart. It's all good.


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Get Set for School

I've been frustrated for some time because I can't teach Emma preschool basics like the alphabet and numbers. I'm convinced there is nothing wrong with Emma's intelligence (maybe mine), but anything needing memorization just falls out of her pretty little head. I tried to no avail to teach her and even her daddy tried to help her in the evenings. No amount of reciting could get her past G in the alphabet or 5 in numbers. She was frustrated and we were frustrated. She avoided our teaching sessions like the plague. Even though I know I shouldn't compare, it was hard to see other children her age and younger who were saying the alphabet forward and backward, in Spanish, while standing on one foot. I kept praying, "Give me wisdom, God. I don't know what to do!" (James 1:5).

A while back a lady at church, Patty, asked me to watch her 2 year old daughter a few mornings while she did some tutoring for the school district. Patty takes special needs kids who are not progressing in the classroom and tutors them for a short time one-on-one to determine what is keeping the child from learning. Patty was an amazing resource for me as she told me that I need to determine Emma's learning style. She recommended a curriculum called "Handwriting Without Tears." I immediately checked it out online and ordered the preschool book and the kindergarten book. They were only $6.95 each and I've been blown away by the thought and ingenuity of this technique.

"Get Set For School" is designed to use associations to teach the basics like letters, colors, numbers, and shapes. Instead of auditory learning that makes Emma and myself crazy, this uses spacial practice and lots of pictures. The first book is for 4-5 year olds and seems to be the perfect stage for Emma. She can do all the assignments easily without frustration. I could have started this book at least a year ago with Emma and it would have really helped, although we would have moved through the lessons slower. It's kind of fun to cruise through something for a change!

The book starts with colors and shapes using coloring as the learning tool. Also available through HWT are several different systems using dough, wooden shapes, and Mat Man (a large scale shape thing). All of the different teaching aids are reasonably priced, but designed for children with different learning styles (the entire pre-school kit is around $100 and includes tons of stuff). I haven't quite figured out how Emma learns best, so I decided to wait and see how I liked the basic book and go from there.

Emma loves to trace the shapes. It is perfect for her because she enjoys coloring and drawing. She took to curriculum like a fish to water. Instead of wrestling and fighting about one little letter and then giving up, I have to cut off the school time so she retains all the information she is gobbling up like her favorite food.

For letters, the book shows how to properly draw each letter while associating the letter with a subject that starts with that letter: D for duck. These ducks are swimming in a pond and the child is to trace the line to make the shape.

Instead of going through the alphabet chronologically, this book teaches the letters by how they are shaped. It makes so much more sense to Emma and to me. This is her first letter assignment -- L. She did it the first time without my instruction because it is so logical to her.

Even the way this book teaches numbers is fantastic. Look how many associations are made with the number 4!

The way Emma is pealing through "Get Set for School," I am thankful I also ordered the Kindergarten book, "Letters and Numbers For Me." It is an introduction to reading and combining letter sounds.

As you can tell, I am more than a little excited about this curriculum. Helping my child learn is exhilarating. I'm quite ready for any info-mercial that Handwriting Without Tears may want me to star in. Hope my passion about this helped you either to remember to pray when you lack wisdom, to figure out how your child learns and avoid some frustrations, or even given you an idea to help you educate for the basics at home. And if you weren't helped by any of those things, you may be interested to know that I used my new lens to take these pictures and it was SO much fun.

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