Preschool at Home: Week 1

showing her work to Daddy

This is week one of doing a slightly structured preschool routine with Riley. Since this blog is all about keeping a record of our lives, I want to post an update each week of what we're working on and how it's going. When Caroline is at this stage of life, I'm not going to remember exactly what worked and what didn't unless I write it down.

Each week I've decided to incorporate several things into our "preschool curriculum." Our goals for each theme will stay the same: learn a letter, a shape, a color, a Bible verse, and an ASL sign. We'll also work on counting. To reach our goals, Riley and I will be doing activities, crafts, songs, and lots and lots of repetition. We might even throw in a special snack or two. In the dining room by Riley's high chair and the table where we do lots of our activities, I'll be putting our weekly verse, letter, and shape on the wall for easy access and a constant reminder to review.

Our theme this week was hearts and pink (think Valentine's Day in April). I know it sounds like a tacky theme for the middle of April, but I wanted to start with something I knew my little scholar would enjoy. Our Riley is 100% girly girl so it was right up her alley. As we scribbled on heart coloring pages and did activities involving pink markers, yarn, and paint, Riley and I worked on memorizing a portion of John 13:35, "Love one another." and we sang a song about giving our hearts to Jesus. She can now recognize the letter H and wants me to "draw" it with sidewalk chalk on the driveway anytime we're outside.

Our favorite activities of the week were the footprint butterfly (I've been dying to try it since I saw it on Pinterest) and cherry blossom tree. Riley loved having me paint her little feet and pushing them down on the paper. Butterflies could very well be another of our themes on down the road, but I justified it by using pink paint. Riley's favorite part of the cherry blossom activity was blowing through the straw once we put the glob of paint on our paper. I've been dying to try both of these activities since I saw them on Pinterest. The ideas for both came from this website.

And for my mommy confession of the day: I totally threw the blue bow in to take pictures. Riley's hair was a total mess prior to these shots.

I'll leave you with this picture of our cute little sidekick. It will never cease to amaze me how quickly a baby can wrap herself around my heart and into our lives.