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Pre K and K for kiddo #4


vaquitita
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Help me come up with some ideas for my youngest please! Being the youngest of four kids he just doesn't get the time and attention the others did. I'd like to plan that into next school year, but I also need something simple and easy, fun, and not school-ish. I'm not asking for much am I? :D

 

He'll be 3 years 9 months when we start school back up in August. We do a lot of things together. Each morning starts with a reading basket, and I did read at least one picture book most days this year. I'd like to increase that next year. Then comes table time for one on one lessons and independent work. This year I plunked him in front of the TV for this portion of our day. I'd like to change that. Maybe start with an activity with him while the older kids get started. Then hopefully he can play on his own a bit.

 

I need to figure out two things. 1- a list of activities for me to do with him and 2- a list of activities that I can rotate getting out each day for him to do on his own. He's a very busy, wiggly, social little guy. He was slow to talk, still has no interest in letters, but loves to count things. He can recognize objects up to five, I've tried to do subitizing with him as he explored this interest.

 

Part of me just wants a workbook because it would be easy. Just turn the page do the next thing. But while that might be ok in the rotation, he doesn't have the fine motor skills or interest in that.

 

I have AAR pre level to use with him. But no idea how I want to teach reading past that. I've used AAR with a previous kid and don't want to do that again. My fingers are crossed he picks it up easy and I can just teach him with readers like I did his two brothers. I don't even know if he'll be ready for the pre level this year. If not, I won't worry about it. I'll try to read a variety of abc books to him.

 

I have c rods (maybe I need to spend the summer watching education unboxed videos?). I have an old vintage math book, Franklin Primary Arithmetic, that I was thinking I could use the lessons without showing him the book for numbers 1-10.

 

Oh, writing. If he's interested I do have the hwot mat man books and letter pieces.

 

But what if he's not ready for any of that? I need some kind of list of ideas, otherwise I won't carve out the time to spend with him.

Edited by vaquitita
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This year, I had a child that age and she enjoyed:

 

puzzles (the Ravensberger puzzles for 4+ were just perfect)

playing with math manipulatives (c-rods, pattern blocks, mathlink cubes)

games (like Feed The Kitty and Hissss and Snakes and Ladders, as well as War; lots of games from Peggy Kaye's books)

art projects (pass around picture game, drawing stories, coloring together, cutting and pasting, nature rubbing, tearing paper)

singing a few songs together daily (the same ones, over and over, slowly adding new ones)

play-dough and tools

Curious George pre-K workbook (reading the stories together and being allowed to doodle/draw in it)

and of course, reading, reading, reading

 

I found the key was to keep everything I had for her in a bin and choose a few things we'd be doing for a week, pull those things, and bring them out to the table daily. That way she was always excited to see what I'd chosen and could concentrate on a few things for the week before they'd go back in the bin.

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I love 4 year olds.  I bet others will have some great ideas. 

 

 

I love to spend time with the littles first thing in the morning.   Read to them, snuggle them, take them on a walk, get some crafts going. 

 

I would include the kiddo as much as you can. 

 

But also have your older ones take turns doing stuff with them.  Read to him.  Teach him how to do something.  When you are working with your older ones can your 7 year old do projects with him?

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Here is what my preschooler did this year when we did school (when he wasn't in front of TV....no guilt here...sometimes you do what you gotta do).  More often than not though he was: 

 

With us at table - coloring, cutting, pasting, folding, etc.  I just bought a ton of paper and let him go to town.  

Do a Dots.  

Big paint brush, cup of water, front porch. Happy kid.  And I could "watch" him. 

I have five bins - one with black beans, one with popcorn (unpopped), one with rice and one with macaroni pasta.  The last bin has ice cube tray, tongs (to pick out poms), measuring cups, measuring spoons, little cups, old spice jars and tops, etc.  He would choose a bin (like rice) and then have at it on play room floor.  If it got too messy I took it away.  He kept it neat.  :) 

Shaker container (like at pizza places that have the red pepper flakes or parmesan chese) - and some toothpicks.  Putting toothpicks in little holes was super fun! 

Cookie sheet and magnetic letters. 

Felt board with various pieces. 

Boogie Board LED writer.

Finally...after our morning time, my two big kids had "reading time".  They had to read for 20 minutes to themselves.  My first grader isn't a great reader and would often flip through Usborne encyclopedias and what not.  In that 20 minutes I would do "school" with the preschooler.  He got his tank full of Mommy time early on and we were all happier for it.  

 

Not sure if any of this would help.  Oh....and at christmas my father got him a leap pad epic. TONS of educational games on it and it is a treat, so that was a fun go to as well.  :) 

 

Good luck!!

 

Courtney 

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We are enjoying MP Junior K here. DD loves having her own official school with her own poems to memorize and books to answer questions about. She could have done everything orally when I ordered it before she was 4 but they incorporate letter and number practice which is pretty cute, she adores the poems about making numbers, so you might want to practice more writing skills first. I ended up putting it on hold until she had done some more Kumon books. They are great too if you wanted some quick practice on motor skills.

 

I love AAR. DS did have trouble with the transition from Pre-Level to 1 though so I added in MP First Start Reading which is great. I bought the TM but you do not need it at all so the workbooks are very affordable. It transitions slowly up to great reading comprehension questions which are great.

 

Usborne has a lot of great sticker books at Rainbow you could also add in. DD loves those.

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We are enjoying MP Junior K here. DD loves having her own official school with her own poems to memorize and books to answer questions about. She could have done everything orally when I ordered it before she was 4 but they incorporate letter and number practice which is pretty cute, she adores the poems about making numbers, so you might want to practice more writing skills first. I ended up putting it on hold until she had done some more Kumon books. They are great too if you wanted some quick practice on motor skills.

 

Just curious how old you dd was exactly when you started MP Jr.K with her?  I have already purchased it for my son who will turn 4 in September, but am trying to gauge his readiness.  He can count and knows his letters and sounds, but we haven't really done any writing practice yet.  Sounds like we should work on that first?

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Just curious how old you dd was exactly when you started MP Jr.K with her? I have already purchased it for my son who will turn 4 in September, but am trying to gauge his readiness. He can count and knows his letters and sounds, but we haven't really done any writing practice yet. Sounds like we should work on that first?

I think I may have bought it last summer before she turned 4. While it could be done orally I think it's worth it to work on writing skills before starting. The workbooks have some tracing but also a lot of make your own letters and numbers. She was very bothered by the blanks when she started so I put it aside and only did the Kumon books with her for awhile. It definitely doesn't need the knowledge of letter sounds. I'm glad I waited. She's getting a lot more out if it now. She loves the poems that go with the numbers (like "A straight line down, then you're done, that's how you make a one," or "around a tree, around a tree, that's how you make a three."). Very quickly now she's been able to make the numbers all by herself in the blanks. She's seen DS do poems and loves having her own plus the questions they answer about her own book.

 

I think I waited until she was closer to 4.5 before starting it again. I just had her doing a couple of pages of Kumon a day to get her ready for writing. Aside from coloring books I hadn't started any writing with her because I had planned on waiting until she was closer to 4 so she really hadn't been ready to write on her own.

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Thanks for all the suggestions!

Something I did for mine was to use a set of "work drawers" similar to the older ones. Each drawer was filled with something different, some were independent and some were with mom. Examples: one in each drawer- a puzzle, a pattern activity, a picture book, a do-a-dot paint and printable, a screw and bolt (or several in different sizes), scissors and cutting pages with zigzags (or curves, or straight lines), a coloring page and crayons, a stacking activity, pompoms and chopsticks with a little bowl, a counting activity, a letter activity, etc. This really made them feel like a part of what we were doing, but gave me time to work with the older kids. They had their own "agenda" with the work drawers. I tried to change the drawers every night for interest and a variety of skills.

 

I just remembered I actually have pics on my blog:

http://www.countingeverymoment.com/p/lapbooks.html?m=1

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited by Dazguti
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