Monthly Plan January 2013

BIBLE: 

*Bible Verses: We use verses from Songs for Saplings. I love that all the verses are songs. It makes it so easy to remember.

-N verse- "Apart from me you can do Nothing."  John 15:5
-Bible verses from Awana

Singing: We sing lots of praise songs and listen to the radio, but I am going to start teaching hymns to my kids.  Last year Shrade learned This is My Father's World.  So for this month we will learn Count Your Blessings.

Bible verse activities and printables from Totally Tots

Story time (see blog post): New Year Bible Reading Adventure

We also do free Bible lessons that we get in the mail from The Mailbox Club.

LESSONS:
*Milk N' Honey Preschool:
We have started Preschool.  See my Preschool Plans.
So far we have done A, B, C and D.  See my lessons and blog posts below.

This month we will be doing Letter E and Letter F.  See my Pinterest boards for ideas.  I was spending WAY too much time planning and not enough time teaching, so I've scaled back on what I will be sharing, but we will still do crafts, activities and read books.  And I will still share blog posts of what we did.  We will concentrate on lowercase letter crafts this year from No Time for Flashcards.  And we will do lots of Sensory Activities with letters as well.

Preschool Lessons (finished):

Letter A

Letter B 

Letter C

Letter D

All About Reading

This month we started using real curriculum from All About Learning Press- All About Reading Pre-1 Level for pre-readers.  I made a recent post about the material which I just reviewed.

I like using this because I don't have to plan anything and the activities are intentional, fun and full of great learning!  Thumbs up for All about Learning!
 

Be sure to pick up your FREE activity book from All About Learning.

*Brightly Beaming Toddler:   Jessna is now 20 months old.  

This curriculum includes 24 lesson plans.  There are 2 lessons for each month of your toddler's life from 13 months to 24 months of age.  You can spend approximately 2 weeks on each lesson plan with your toddler.  The lessons are geared to a toddler's development as he/she progresses through the second year of life.  Keep everything fun and only do activities when your toddler wants to.

20 months: Lesson 15

20 months: Lesson 16

Also with Jessna I'm going to try some activities from these websites:
*Pocketful of Posies- Toddler Time
*Activity Mom- Learning with your Toddler
*FamilyEducation.com- Activities for Toddlers

*Sensory Play:
-water play
-playdough 
-rice

Everyday Sensory Alphabet Activities by Melitsa Avila

We will be using a lot of these activities when we learn the letters!

*Daily Music time: Songs from Music Notes and CD's we get at the library. 


*Art:
 -watercolor painting
-using paintbrush
-coloring
-crafts

*Field Trips:
Playdates
MOPS 
Library story time for Preschool
Mall playground
Nature Center
Play to Learn- free community program

Math:
Hands on activities from Hands On As We Grow

Source: handsonaswegrow.com via Shonda on Pinterest

Writing numbers with Thomas the Train math book

Pretend Play:

Source: simplekids.net via Shonda on Pinterest

*Other Activities
Check out my Pinterest Boards for Preschool Ideas and more! 


We are also working through a BIG Preschool Workbook for ages 3-5.

I also ordered a The Everything Preschool Kit from Time for Tots on Etsy to give us some fun for the afternoon.


*Skills/Chores:
 What Shrade is working on: 4 years of age
Chore ideas from Money Saving Mom
-Responding with "yes, mama"
-brushing teeth
-brush hair
-playing gently with sister
-setting the table
-wipe up spills
-gather laundry- NEW
-sort laundry and put laundry away
-making bed-NEW
-empty dishwasher-NEW
-helping mom cook in the kitchen
-cleaning up room in 15 min-NEW
-empty wastebasket- NEW

*Academic
-cutting
-tracing
-letter sounds
-tracing first name
We will also do some name activities.

Source: blog.memetales.com via Shonda on Pinterest

Cooking:
We are going to try some non-reader recipes with Kids Cooking Activities.  Hopefully 1-2 a month!


Reading:
I was using this great free reading program called Reading Teacher, but it looks like they are going to start charging this year.  I might still get the membership since I really like it.  I also have Hooked On Phonics that I will try a little bit if Shrade is interested.  We do reading for fun and he just loves it!


Another great website that I will start using is This Reading Mama.  She has a great free Pre-K Reading program.

I really want to use the Preschool and Toddler calendars from Preschool Express.



Jessna is working on:
Chore ideas from Money Saving Mom
*first moments of discipline- what to touch, what not to touch
*learning how to sign "more"-done
*learning to sign "all done"-done
*learning to sign "please"-done
*coming when called
*learning how to go down the stairs-done
*drinking from a cup-NEW
*putting toys away-NEW
*taking off clothes and putting in the laundry basket-NEW


I get a lot of these skills/chores from What Every Child Should Know Along the Way (Teaching practical life skills in every stage of life.) by Gail Martin.  I HIGHLY recommend this book that has so many practical ways to teacher your child along with many Bible verses. I will be sharing from this book during  2013 on my Thursday parenting series.