Mommy School {Week 2}

The week before last week was a really odd week with Labor Day and Jackson's trip to the aquarium on Tuesday with his Aunt Katie, and cousin, Layla. So, I decided not to do the weekly theme I had planned for that week. Instead we just did a lot of free learning, which is some times better anyway...

So back to Mommy School this past week, we had a lot of fun with our theme. This weeks plans included: Theme: Ponds & Picnics.

Letters: B & C

 Number: 8

Color: Green

We went to the library and got a few books about ponds, and pond animals.

Our favorite part of the week was learning about the life cycle of a frog. Jackson eagerly listened to a library book we found on the topic, and really seems to have understood and retained how it works. He was really interested in the whole process. 

After we read and talked about the life cycle of a frog, we made 5 paper frogs each with 8 speckles (because 8 is our number this week), and glued them to popsicle sticks. I cut holes in a paper log, and we put the frogs into the holes so it looked like they were sitting on the log. Then we sang the 5 Green and Speckled Frogs Song. Jackson loved this activity, and sang the song the rest of the day.

Through out the rest of the week, we read more books about ponds, visited a local pond, had a picnic, worked on our letter in the ABC Book, and did some math activities concentrating on the number 8.

It was a great week! Come back next week to see what we did this week for our theme of Farm Animals!

Mommy School {Week 1}

Jackson was SO excited to start Mommy School last week. I hyped it up, and he couldn't wait to get started. On Monday morning we excitedly sat at our kitchen table together to start our activities. He loved it so much that when we were done with the activities for Monday, he wanted to do more, and we moved to Tuesdays activities. 

This weeks theme was All About Me- I wanted to work on self awareness, and understanding family structures with him as well as helping him gain appreciation for his own talents and abilities. We went to the library and picked out some books that went with the theme. Here are some of the books we ended up bringing home:

Home's Around the World- ABC's 

My Little House- 1,2,3 Adapted from the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Franklin goes to School by Paulette Bourgeois and Brenda Clark

My Family Plays Music by Judy Cox

Little Critter- My Family by Gina and Mercer Mayer

Human Body by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld

My Five Book by Jane Belk Moncure

Over the course of the week Jackson had fun reading the books with me, and making an All About Me book. I used 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" plastic page protectors and binder rings to make a book. Then I cut paper down to size. Each page was designated to a certain subject such as his name, his birthday, our house and what it looked like along with our address, our family, his favorite color, his favorite things to do, and some "I can" statements after we read the book about his body. Here's how it turned out. I didn't share all of the pages.

(Personal information blanked out to protect our family)

We had lots of discussions about different families, and where people all over the world live, and looked at different kinds of houses. 

We also practiced the Letter A and Number 5 this week. I got this little index card book from Staples, and took out all but 26 of the index cards so we could turn it into his ABC book.

Then we went through a magazine and found a bunch of upper and lowercase A's, cut them out, and glued them on the page. We also found an apple to add to the page.

I tried to do a variety of activities, so we weren't just sitting down at the table. We went and played tennis for a little bit one day to get some exercise in. We practiced skipping, hopping on one foot, and galloping. We played music, and danced after reading the My Family Plays Music book. We did lots of free art, and even some sensory play. And don't worry, there was LOTS of free independent play in there too.

(His self portrait)

I'd say Mommy School was pretty successful this week. I really hope he doesn't lose interest. I'll keep doing it as long as he loves it.