Well, it was mostly fun…except for the part when Alex was squashing Max, Max was screaming for him to stop, and I lost my temper. (Then we apologized to the ones we hurt, and we prayed together that God would teach us to be KIND to one another.)
Or the part when Alex freaked out because I had the audacity to LOOK at what he’d just done. Four year olds can be hard to figure out sometimes!
Okay, on to the good stuff…because we really, truly did have fun! ;)
Gwyn, from Preschool Printables, is a sweetheart. She has both free & paid items available on her blog. Gwyn occasionally sends me a e-mail with items that she sells in Teachers Notebook store. Last week, she sent me her Presidents Day printables. Thank you, Gwyn! My boys definitely had fun with these today!
We started by reading a few of my favorite president books for little kids. These books contain plenty of facts, but they are contained within fun stories for preschool/early elementary kids. They are so much better than dry, boring factual text!
After that, we moved on to whichever activity Alex wanted to do first. I knew he was in a “do it my way” mood, and I had to work with that. He chose to do Gwyn’s matching cards. Now, technically, you’re supposed to match the pictures to the tracing cards. Instead, we printed two copies of the picture cards to make a matching game. It’s a great way to introduce Alex to faces and symbols of our country!
While Alex & I played the memory game together, Max did the African Safari maze. I know – completely unrelated, but I wasn’t about to try reasoning with him ;) 
While Alex worked on pre-writing, Max & I played our own version of the memory game. We left half of the cards right-side-up. We turned the other half upside-down. Then we flipped over each card & set it with its match. Fun for Max, without too much challenge to frustrate him…
Then Max colored a USA picture (from Making Learning Fun) while Alex worked on the picture matching page. He’s getting better at drawing straight lines to connect two items!
Next, Alex worked on patterning. Gwyn’s pages are different from the ones I make, and Alex was a bit confused. He’s not a kid who likes change! We did the page twice before he caught on. (Amusingly, Max caught on first. He was calling out the correct answers & annoying Alex!)
Alex refused to simply count on this find & count page. Instead, I asked him to circle all the stars. I then counted the stars and wrote the number in the box. After that, Alex drew lines on all the flags. Then *HE* decided he could write a 3…and he did! I was so shocked! I then had him put an X on all the hearts, and I wrote the 4 in the box for him.
Dot markers for Max…frogs & foxes from Homeschool Creations
Alex {again} worked on the pre-writing page.
Max and Mommy sequenced the eagles by size, and then I showed him how to draw a line to match the pictures. He could do it if I kept him on task. When I walked away, he just scribbled all over the page.
And then…the MELTDOWN. I complimented Alex for doing a good job with his size sequencing. He screamed, “DON’T LOOK AT IT!” Then he ran to the couch and sobbed as if I’d really hurt his feelings. I”m not sure where I went wrong, but wow…did I ever upset him!
We ended by using dot markers on the American flag. This page is from Making Learning Fun. Alex did it with all red, and Max (on a green kick…) did it with all green.
There ya have it…President’s Day. Now the boys are playing cars, Jensyn is napping, and I’m enjoying a little peace and quiet while it lasts :)
No comments:
Post a Comment