Our first week of Home School Preschool!!

We had so much fun rowing Ping last week.  The girls asked for school right away every morning and even over the weekend.  I can tell that it is a very special time for them.  They learned so much and seemed so very excited about it.  I just love preschool.  No yucky bookwork, just lots of fun with colors, crafts and play. 

Here's what we did...
Monday/Geography day-Read Ping. Found China on the map.  Learned China is in Asia and sang the continent song while pointing to each one.  Put Ping story disk on China on our world map.  Colored the Chinese flag.  Traced the word China under the flag.  Did a duck color matching activity from the Pond Preschool Pack. 

Tuesday/Literature day: Read Ping, talked about the different between fiction and non fiction.  Separated a pile of books into fiction and nonfiction piles (we're still working on this concept!).  Colored a "D is for Duck" page from the Pond Preschool Pack.  Read a non-fiction book about a little girl visiting China with her parents.  Found China on the map again and reviewed its continent. 

Wednesday/art day: Read Ping.  Learned about shading and motion lines and practiced those concepts on paper.  Looked through the Ping book and found where shading and motion lines had been used.  My crafty Thea was thrilled with this and is still practicing her shading.  Did a cutting activity from the Pond Preschool Pack and painted on the easel with tempra paints.  Made a paper plate duck craft (sorta lame, but the girls really liked the ducks once they were finished and used them to "play Ping"). 

Thursday/science day: Read Ping.  Learned about different types of ducks around the world by printing off and reading this page.  I put the page in their portfolios for them to look back at.  Watched this movie about ducks.  Read Watch Me Grow:Ducking.  Did a "sink or float" science experiment which they just loved!  It turned into open ended water play of course which was also a lot of fun.  We also did a pre writing worksheet from the preschool pack.  I'm amazed at how much Thea likes to trace and write.  The boys were NOT into that, but she seems to have the patience for it and really enjoy it.  Schooling boys and girls is like night and day! 

Friday/math day:  Read Ping.  Went through the book and did lots of counting.  How many ducks?  How many mountains?  This was another thing I couldn't believe how much Thea liked.  I really had to make the boys count things, but Thea and Mareea would have done it all day!  We got out our counting creatures and put out one for each of Ping's family members and counted them all.  Then we did the math match up activity from the preschool pack. 

All in all it was a really great week.  I'm sure I could have gotten more in depth with the china study and read a lot more books to them about it, but in general I just wanted them to enjoy learning and for me to enjoy teaching.  Both were accomplished so I believe it was a success.  They just loved spending the time with me and getting to do all the activities.  I'm looking forward to next week's Katy No Pocket lesson and learning about Australia, kangaroos and manners.