The Homegrown Preschooler {A Review}

A beautiful book that makes teaching your preschooler in the place that they live seem very doable.

The Homegrown Preschooler 

The Essentials - What you need to know
• Published by: Gryphon House
• The Homegrown Preschooler, Teaching Your Kids in the Places They Live by Kathy H. Lee and Lesli M Richards
• Age Range: For moms of preschoolers
• Large, paperback book with 224 pages, color photos and text.
• $29.95

The Review

Before I get into the meat of the book I want to talk about the book.  This book is pretty.  It is a large size comparable to a magazine.  It is soft bound with a glossy cover, semi glossy pages  and has lots and lots of full color photos.  It is beautiful.  If I had a coffee table, I would have no trouble putting this book on it. It is just that pretty.  

Here is the really beautiful part about this book, it is not just a pretty face.  This book is full of wisdom, guidance, resources, touching stories, tips and recipes.  I would call it a manual for the homeschooling pre-school mom.  It is not, however, a curriculum.  It does not give a day by day, activity by activity schedule.  It provides a little more of a bigger picture while still paying attention to the details.  

 The book is written by two veteran homeschool moms Kathy and Lesli.  At the beginning of the book each tell their own story. I love that we get to know these two gifted moms straight away.  There was something in each of their stories that resonated with me  in my decision to send or not to send my son to preschool this year.  

The book is broken into two parts, with an appendix at the end.  The first part of the book is the chapters, nine in all.  They lay out the big picture "how-to", from setting up the home to taking time to teach.  They address how children learn and the stages of development.  They also address special situations and seasons in life, such as adoption, illness and special needs. The introduction of the books says "The first half [of the book] will help you evaluate your priorities and goals for your child and family." 

I was impressed by the quality of information on how children learn.  It addresses learning in many different aspects.  This made me feel like I could tackle preschool at home and it would be ok.  In the chapter "Setting the Stage" the authors take us on a virtual tour of a preschool classroom, explaining the purpose of each station or activity, translating it into something that can happen at home.  

Another point that I found especially informative was in the chapter "Who Has Time for This?".  Three preschool families describe a perfect day.  One family has one child, the second family has three children, the last family has six children. It really gives a good window on life, in a homeschooling family.  This book is directed at parents of homeschooling preschool children.  The authors make a point of saying homeschooling preschool can prepare the child for any kind of later school experience.  

Sprinkled throughout the chapters are some special touches.  There are beautiful quotes, notes from each of the authors relating stories from their own lives, and there are recipes, really yummy recipes.  I will be making the chicken enchiladas this week. 

The second half of the book has about a gazillion developmentally appropriate activities.  Ok, maybe not a gazillion, but there are a lot.  They are divided into "target areas of growth that are necessary for healthy and happy preschoolers to be ready for kindergarten in any setting".  Those areas include home life, science, gross motor, fine motor, math, language and emergent literacy, art and social-emotional.  

This was my reaction as I read through the second half of this book:  "Oooooh I want to do that, and that, and that.  Ah, that is such a great idea, Oooo, I never thought about doing that...."  Seriously, tons, and tons of fabulous ideas. There are recipes in this section as well, recipes for play dough, puffy paint and sidewalk chalk.   Field trip ideas and tips are sprinkled throughout this section as well.  

Lastly there is an appendix.  The appendix contains an activity checklist, a getting started checklist, two pages of resources (books, websites, DVDs, blogs and apps), and plans/instructions for building a plexiglas easel and a sensory/light/water/sand table.    

This is an amazing book.  I will be recommending it to all my friends with preschooler.  It is absolutely worth the price. 

Circle Time: Plan the Best Part of Your Day {A Review}

A e-book that helps homeschool moms bring the kids together for a time of learning and fellowship.

Circle Time: Plan the Best Part of Your Day

The Essentials - What you need to know
• Published by Preschoolers and Peace
• Circle Time: Plan the Best Part of Your Day by Kendra Fletcher
• Age Range: For mom of kids of all ages
• A downloadable e-book in pdf form.
• Price: $4.99

The Review

Have you ever had something small become something meaningful?  That is what happened to me with this little e-book.  It is very unassuming at only 33 pages.  I read through the whole thing while my kids played on the playground in only a couple of days.  It made a huge impact on our homeschool day.  

What is circle time?  I was familiar with the concept in the context of pre-school.  Circle time was the time when the teacher brought together all the children in a circle to read a story, sing songs and do other group activities. Kendra describes circle time as a formal start to their homeschool day.  For her it started as a time of prayer and song and evolved to include other things as well.  A time to bring all the children, even the littlest, into the family circle.  

The book Circle Time is broken into chapters.  The first four chapters are dedicated to defining circle time and implementing it. The next two chapters are full of great advice from Kendra and other moms.  The last two chapters are resources and printables.

Before I read this book I never thought about doing a circle time during our homeschool.  We started back with some homeschool July 1 and I started off with circle time.  It was a really nice, formal way to start.  I had big plans with songs and activities, but as a couple of weeks went by I see the wisdom in Kendra's advice of keep it brief, especially with a little person, especially in summer.

One of my big struggles last year was getting things started off in the morning.  The getting up and getting ready time stretched and stretched.  Just sitting down and getting started was hard.  We are not doing a lot this summer, but thanks to circle time the kids want to get started in the morning.

The thing that made me really want to read this e-book was the tag line "Teach ALL Ages".  My kiddos are 8 years apart.  There is a wide gulf in learning between 12 and 4.  I am always on the look out for good options for learning together.  One of the questions at the back of the book is "What are some of the strategies you use to keep the younger ones happy? Older ones interested?" Clearly exactly what I was looking for.  Kendra and other wise moms give lots of advice on how to tackle that particular problem.

There is lots of great wisdom and practical know-how in getting homeschool done using circle time.  Probably the best thing about this little e-book is that while it gives lots of concrete examples and plans (there are even suggested circle time schedules for fall and summer), it is utterly flexible. There are even a printable circle time wish list - for all those things you might want to do, and an independent work/group work worksheets at the end of the book.  I know that my summer circles doesn't look like Kendra's schedule suggests, but the book gave me the confidence to try out this new way of doing things.

As you can tell, I really liked this book.  It definitely delivers plenty of bang for your buck.   I would highly recommend you read it.  I will end this review with a little story.  Circle time in our house happens at 9:00.  I let the kids watch a little educational PBS television before we get started with school in the morning, so the Little Dude knows when we start.  The other morning I was not together, so I thought well today we will just skip school, it is summer after all.  Right on time, though, the Little Dude comes up to me in my pajamas and said "circle time, circle time".  So we did circle time, and moved on and got the rest of our homeschool day done as well.  Clearly my littlest one loves the structure and the activities of circle time.  It has made a difference in the way we homeschool.

Egg Carton Counting

Here is a fun {and inexpensive}way to practice counting and work on find motor skills at the same time.

Here is what you need

1 egg carton
1 bag of small pom poms (or buttons or beans or whatever small thing you want to count) - you need 78
pair of tweezers (I like the gator grabbers)

How to Make

Using a permanent marker write numbers 1 - 12 in the egg cups. 

Pour the poms into the top of the egg carton

Give your little one the tweezers,

How to Use

Using the tweezers count out the pom poms into each egg cup.  Practice counting.  Use the tweezers to work on fine motor skills.  Using the multi-colored pom poms you could also make patterns, or use the colors to point out odds and evens.  

Weekly Wrap Up - With the Real Life Farm

The Little Dude's pre-school class went to the Real Life Farm in Canton Michigan on Friday.  It was a wonderful experience.  Just enough for the little ones to learn about the farm without being overwhelming.  Lots of great hands-on experiences.

Farmer Don is so great with the kids.  He captures their attention and teaches them all about the farm in a simple way they understood.  First thing he let us know what we were doing for the day.  On the schedule: a hay ride, a horseback ride and time in the barn doing, ahem, chores. 

First the hay ride:

Then riding a horse.  Little Dude didn't really want to ride the horse.  He got to ride the biggest horse.  The Farmer was so patient with the Little Dude letting him pet the horses leg, then touching the horses nose, then finally getting up on the saddle.  He rode all the way around the circle all by himself (the horses were led).  

We ate a sack lunch (leftover pizza yum) in the picnic area outside.

Then we spent some time in the barn where the children got to pet goats, kids, sheep, lambs, piglets, rabbits, kittens, cows and a calf.  They also got to bottle feed baby goats, and grain feed goats and sheep.  And the capstone activity milking a cow.  We parents got to make butter out of buttermilk too.  

Picture Books About Winter For Kids

The last two weeks have been full of winter fun with picture book reading while the snow was blowing outside.  I thought I would share with you twelve books we especially liked.  I found these at our local library.  If you would like to see more about the books, click on the picture to take you to the Amazon listing {these are affiliate links}.

1. Winter, An Alphabet Acrostic, by Steven Schnur is a beautifully illustrated book full of wonderful poetry.  Many of us have done the acrostic poem where we've written a word up and down and filled in attributes of that word.  Steven Schnur has taken that kind of poem to another level.  A collection of twenty-six winter acrostics, each poem expands the word into a whole feast for the senses.  I love the way that this books moves through the season as it moves through the alphabet.


2. The Snowflake A Water Cycle Story by Neil Waldman is really a story of what happens to the snowflake the rest of the year.  It goes through month, by month as the snowflake falls, melts, goes into the earth, back in up in a stream, becomes part of a rainstorm, is collected for irrigation and so forth.  This true science story is written with colorful descriptive language and is beautifully illustrated.





3. Snow Pumpkin by Carole Lexa Schaefer is a charming story about two friends and an early October snow.  They try to build a snowman but there isn't enough snow for the head, so they borrow a pumpkin from a garden.  This book is set in an urban setting with many multicultural details.





4. Winter Friends by Mary Quattlebaum is another delightful collection of poems.  Each page is wonderful winter scene whimsically illustrated, capturing an aspect of a snowy winter day.  From "After the Storm" to "More Snow", this book weaves together an almost story.  My personal favorite poem is "Sledding".  Printed on an illustration a big hill of snow with children sledding, it perfectly describes the amazing descent.



5. Snow Dance by Lezlie Evans shares the joy of snow.  Starting out on a cold, gloomy afternoon, the children start to do the snow dance when they hear that a snow storm is forecasted. It snows all afternoon and evening making the perfect snowy day.  Children dance and laugh through every kind of happy snow day activity, from putting on scarves, hats and boots, snowmen making and sledding, right until the last cup of cocoa drunk before a fire.



6. We had lots of fun with The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.  There are loads and loads of great {free} learning activities out there on the web. (Check out some of the wintery activities on my Tot School Pinterest Board.) This is the classic, Calecott Award winning story of Peter, who wakes up to a snowy day and all the adventures he has.  My favorite thing about this book is the title page, where Peter is sliding down a great mound of snow.  Every time I open it up the Little Dude takes his finger down the hill and says "Wheeee".

7. A Kitten Tale by Eric Rohmann is the story of four kittens who have never seen snow.  Three look forward to winter with some trepidation.  One can't wait to see it.  They go through each season thinking about winter and what the snow will hold.





8. Snow! Snow! Snow! by Lee Harper is the simple story of what happens when a Dad and his two pups go sledding on the world's best sledding hill. Not a lot of text, this would be a great early reader.  The simple story also lends itself well to sequence cards or activities






9. Snow by Cynthia Rylant is the artfully told story of a little girl who gets to go home early from school because of snow and all the wonderful adventures she has.  The delightful thing about this book is that it is written about the snow, all different kinds of snow and the relationship of snow to all different kinds of people.  Not only is this a delightful read, but it is also beautifully illustrated.

  



10. The Big Snow by Berta and Elmer Hader is the story of what happens to all the animals and birds living on a hill in winter.  The big snow comes.  Some sleep through it, some must look for food. The last page we meet our old friend groundhog, who sees his shadow, so six more weeks of winter.  It is easy to see why this is a Caldecott Award winning book. Even though it was published in 1948, its timeless charm endures.



11. No by Claudia Rueda is a story about a little bear who doesn't want to hibernate with his Mama.  The snow will be fun and exciting, but the little bear soon learns that it is much better to be safe with Mama than out in snowy, cold storm.  This story is about obedience as much as it is about hibernation.





12. Jan Brett's Snowy Treasury is a collection of four of her most endearing, snowy, stories; Gingerbread Baby, The Mitten, The Hat and The Three Snow Bears.  The Mitten and The Hat are two of my favorite books, period.  I just love Jan Brett's skillful illustrations and humorous storytelling.  These are stories to be read again and again.