mommy school

To organize our days a little bit and make sure we are always learning and exploring, Hazel and I do “mommy school”. I pick a different theme every two weeks (I used to do every week but that got a little much). We also incorporate one new letter, number, and shape or color with each of our themes. 

I want Hazel (and myself) to always be reminded of what we are learning about that week, so we keep our chart, and all of our finished projects, right up in the middle of our house. And really, nothing makes me happier than having my walls covered with my baby’s art. 

Some of the themes we've done include bodies, sky, Christmas, ocean, leaves, insects, and turkeys.

 

 

 

 

we raised butterflies and made these 'hungry caterpillars' during insect week

during our 'sky' theme we also learned a lot about space

matching numbers up during our 'leaves' theme (and doesn't want her picture taken)

we were learning about the number 2, so we put our shoes all around the house and then paired them up into twos

making collages and covering them with contact paper may be my go-to craft project

making colored sand art for the ocean theme (ocean week was great since we could actually go to the ocean on multiple occasions)

our ocean

I also try to do physical activities, not just craft projects- like outdoor scavenger hunts, reading books on the topic, singing songs, cooking, games, and whatever else I can think of. Thank heavens for the internet and the incredible amount of amazing ideas I can borrow! A few of my favorite sites are The Activity Idea Place, Preschool Alphabet, and Pinterest, of course.

This week we are working on 'house & home'. We read The 3 Little Pigs and then made their three houses:

hazel is obsessed with tracing her hand. every page in every coloring book she uses has a hand print drawn on it and her hands are always outlined in marker. cute cute cute.

And here is the theme outline that is hanging up in my kitchen this week:

We also try (I need to be better at this) to have “Book of Mormon Stories” every morning. Hazel loooves that song, so we start by singing and then we do a flannel board scripture story (the same one for a whole week) and recite a scripture (also the same one for the whole week). 

I try to spend a few nap times and evenings a month and get multiple themes totally ready to go (pages printed out, stories or games laminated, etc), so I don't have to be constantly looking for ideas and organizing. Some of our upcoming themes include colors, weather, zoo, alphabet, Valentine's, and birthdays.  

This is all very much a work in progress, and certainly nothing fancy, but it has been so great for both of us. While we often go days without doing anything 'theme' related, I am working on carving out a little more time into our days where we can have our school. What a joy it has been for me to be able to teach Hazel and watch her learn SO quickly!