Week 1 Ideas

Letter Aa:

• Trace an Uppercase and Lowercase A with finger, then color it.
• Name objects on pictures of items that begin with A such as apple, alligator, ant, acorn....)
• Practice tracing Aa in a tracing book with a fat preschool pencil.
• Apple page http://www.4shared.com/office/GTvyqdcV/Applecoloring.html
• Glue a large A in your alphabet composition book, glue pictures of items that start with a all around.
• Using red, green, or yellow tempera paint, fingerpaint this apple printable!http://www.abcteach.com/free/a/apple01_m.pdf

Bible Story Adam and Eve:

• Read the story and do a color sheet http://www.coloring.ws/t.asp?b=m&t=http://www.coloring.ws/bible/adamandeve6.gif
• Print and fold the Adam and Eve Mini-book from this site http://www.christianpreschoolprintables.com/Pages/AdamandEve/AdamandEveMinibook.html
• I love this A printable book! http://www.christianpreschoolprintables.com/Pages/AdamandEve/AdamandEveMinibookPhonics.html

Number 1:

• In your child's number composition book, glue a number 1 and glue pictures of pictures of 1.
• Trace the number 1
• Have your child color the number 1.  Put ONE garage sale dot sticker on it to represent 1.  Its great to touch count! Heres a set of 1-10 coloring pages! http://www.abcteach.com/free/n/number_coloring_1_10seta.pdf

Scissor Skills:

• Basics of Use (model cutting with PRESCHOOL scissors that they sell at Target, Mardel, and HEB.  They only cut paper, not hair or skin, etc.) Let your child try to use them, help them to hold them correctly.  Later we will do specific skills with lines to cut but not these first few weeks. :)

Shape Square:

• Using a glue stick and precut squares of all colors, allow your child to make a square collage!

Color Yellow:

• Have your child use yellow crayons and markers to color a sun.
• I love this "yellow things" book!http://www.abcteach.com/free/b/booklet_thingsthatareyellow.pdf

Snack Ideas:

• Applesauce
• Apple slices

All about me: 

• Make an all about Me poster with all of their favorite things and a photo of them on their "first day"

Art:

• Thumbprint Ants!  With a stamp pad, help your child stamp their finger or thumb prints in lines of 3 to make ant bodies!  Use a marker to draw on legs!
• Apple Art!  Cut an apple in half.  Use paint to stamp apple prints on a piece of construction paper.

September Focus

I can't believe it's already almost September!

September Focus:
Color: Yellow
Shape: Square
Numbers: 1 and 2
Themes: All about me, My family
Gross Motor Skill activity: Sock Toss.  To prepare, roll several socks into ball shapes.  Place a laundry basket a few feet away from a marked start line. Invite your child to stand on the line and toss each sock into the laundry basket.  As your child's tossing skills develop, move the baskey farther from the line.
Fine Motor Skill activity: Bead-a-pull.  Punch 4 holes in a sturdy paper plate.  Thread an 18-inch length of yarn through each pair of holes. then tie a large bead to each end of the length.  To use, a child pulls on one bead to make the bead at the opposite end of the yarn move. :)
Social and Emotinal Development: Sing the song "If you're happy and you know it" 

These will be recurring all month in my lessons in addition to our weekly focuses.

I am in the process of constructing a "Masterpieces" wall in my kitchen/dining room to display the girls' work, however, I have decided to make an alphabet and a number book, both out of composition notebooks.  They are about 50 cents at Target right now because of back to school so go scoop some up!  :)

Welcome!

Hello everyone!  I'm tickled pink that you found my blog!  I am hoping that my thoughts, ideas, and activities I place here will be useful to many!  Here's a little bit about me:
My name is Cristin.  I have been married to my husband Turney for six and a half years.  He is currently in Mississippi preparing for deployment to Afghanistan very soon.  We have two daughters, Hallee is two and a half and Harper is almost 18 months old.  When Hallee was very young we noticed that she wasn't hitting her developmental milestones and after many doctors, a CT scan, and many rounds of bloodwork, we found out that she had a chromosome disorder, technically a partial deletion in chromosome 14.
We began using local early childhood intervention since the therapists could work with Hallee while she was at daycare (I was still working at the time) and after giving birth to our second child we made the decision that even though it would be a squeeze on one income, I would stay home at least the following school year.  I began hunting for additional therapy and after many months, Hallee is settling in to a local children's rehabilitation center for physical, occupational, and speech therapy appointments once a week.
After watching her hit milestones later than most (10 months before sittting up unassisted, 15 months before crawling, and 27 months before walking) I've noticed that she has every abilitity to reach her goals, it is simply a matter of time. 
Being a mother that suffered with infertility at a relatively young age, I continuously struggle with two things when it comes to Hallee:  on the mom side of "my little girl is perfect!" and the professional educator side of me "something's not quite right" and I probably always will.
Our second child, Harper, is the complete opposite of Hallee, she has no difficulties of any kind and in many ways is advanced.  Harper teaches Hallee by doing things.
I have been told by a couple special people in my life that God sent Harper for Hallee and I don't doubt it!  What an awesome plan!
With all of this being said, having a bachelors degree in Interdisciplinary Child Development and Learning and a masters degree in Educational Leadership, and being an experienced certified teacher in the state of Texas has its perks.  I am incredibly well versed in TEKS, (state knowledge and skill standards), as well as pre-kindergarten guidelines and now that Hallee is being served more frequently in therapy I have determined that it is time to TEACH her.  I know she is just a little person and she learns things every single day but since I have seen that although it may take her a while to catch on, I want her to be on track with her peers when she starts school in a few years.  I am going to put my knowledge of lesson planning, DAP (developmentally appropriate practices) and love for teaching to work to transform my home into a preschool for both my children and I am inviting you along for the ride!  I will begin with brainstroming, leave ideas for preparing your home to be a learning center, as well as give lesson plans starting the week before labor day, I will try to post the plans a few days in advance so you will know what you will need to complete the following weeks lessons and activities.
I will also post photos of our work and welcome you to share your own ideas!  If you would like me to post photos or lessons that you would like to share, please email them to me at cristin.coulter@gmail.com.
Blessings!