I had so many plans to do preschool work this summer with Stirling... and while we did do some of the things I had planned, life often got in the way and we accomplished less than what I envisioned. What we did do was have a theme every week for about six weeks this summer. I had books, activities, and simple work to do surrounding each of our themes. I also included (or tried to, most weeks) a letter, number, sight word, and Bible verse. Some weeks we didn't do much with them, and just ended up repeating the same as last week. Our first week was all about superheros- Stirling's current favorite thing to play/watch/pretend.
Week 2 was "Pirate School!" We checked out some fun books from the library for this week, and had fun with finding treasure in the sensory bin. Stirling did some edible letter work- P is for peanut butter, pretzels, and popcorn! I forgot to take a picture of the pirate ship Stirling and I built out of cardboard, craft sticks, duct tape, and copy paper. His superhero action figures became the pirates!
Week 3 was perhaps the best due to lots of hands-on types of activities. We did DINOSAURS this week. We dug for dino skulls in a sand sensory bucket, made a dino skeleton from pasta shapes, excavated dinosaurs from a block of ice using hammers and warm water, made a plaster mold of a dinosaur, and created a dinosaur habitat with rocks, sand, and fake plants. I did spend a little this week to get all the tiny dinosaurs- luckily most of it was from the dollar store.
The following week we did a little bit with the theme "desert." I have to admit, I got a little lazy on this one, perhaps because I wasn't as interested. But, Stirling requested this theme, so I tried to at least do some related activities with him. Really, I would have liked to take him out to the desert... but it is way to hot to go out to the desert in July!
Week 5 was dedicated to the Fourth of July. We did firework crafts, patterns, made a cake and of course lit sparklers. In terms of being educational, this week was not very successful, and we really didn't do much. Around this time, I was also starting to look for jobs, and ended up taking the boys to daycare more than anticipated, so didn't do much "homeschooling."
Week 6 was "Ocean School," and we really enjoyed this week. I felt a little more organized and was able to put together a few fun things. This week was another one that I spent a little more- buying for the sensory bin- but it was worth it. The boys both loved playing with the water beads. Stirling ended up attending the "Balloon Cowboy" presentation at the library twice this week, and both times ended up with a huge sea creature balloon animal hat- super fun!
We did some other random activities as well. I put together a jar of "Boredom Busters" with activities that were simple to do. We also went to the library, once to the spray park, swam, and played outside when the weather wasn't too hot. I enjoyed the summer with my boys, but it did make me realize that I have a lot to work on in the patience department!
