Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Prekin: Dare I say that we did Sid the Science Kid again!

I spent some time this past week thinking about what I want to do with the next 12 weeks of mixed-aged children. At the end of August I will begin homeschool Kindergarten with her with K12 curriculum through our state virtual homeschool program. It will be plenty structured, so I questioned how structured I want to make the summer months.


However, I'm going to keep some structure going for a couple reasons. First, she hasn't been on too much of a structure for PreK. She pretty much teaches herself anything she wants to know so we haven't had structured lessons until recently with her new science interest.(She taught herself to read at 3.5 years. There was no working on teaching numbers, letters, colors with her in any official manner for the most part.) Sticking with a routine for the next 12 weeks will be a running start for the school year. Second, she is craving new information and experiences, and to be honest, her behavior is better when she gets my time and attention in this manner. I feel that it is almost a necessary food for her.


My concern with continuing any kind of structured approach is that she has not been spending as much time engaged in creative play during her 4th year of life. In a way, it is as if she dumped all of that when she took on a more academic interest in the world. But I think it is too early and I want to make sure I provide lots of opportunities for her to create. With a structured curriculum looming in the near future, I do fear that she needs more time for creative play.





So, with all these things on my mind, I decide to just set some objectives based on her new interests and see where that takes us.


1. Complete the Sid the Science Kid cycles since she enjoys them so much.


2. Complete a fun Geography series with a homeschool friend.


3. Complete the Spanish Hooked on Phonics series that she enjoys.


4. Provide plenty of activities that allow for creative play and expression (art shelves, dramatic play, empty boxes, blocks and more). Follow her lead on her creative activities.

5. Provide summer dance lessons again if she shows interest.







This past week she did insist we finish reading the First Human Body Encyclopedia. And then we did try making our fingerprints to determine our print pattern. We couldn't quite do that with the fingerprints but she enjoyed the activity and moved on to playing with some stamps.






She has enjoyed some art time in which she colors, cuts, tapes and paints without any direction from me.



And we completed the Sid the Science Kid investigation about germs upon her insistence.
You can see the directions for the investigation here.




First, she got her hands dirty out in the dirt pile.
This is such a little girl's dirty. My son would have been twice as dirty easily.
Examining the dirtiness under a magnifying glass.
Wiping with a paper towel but they don't really come clean.

Washing with soap and water and even scrubbing with a fingernail brush to clean them completely.

Writing about the results when she was done. She got the point that washing your hands with soap and water is the best way to get them clean. The need for a fingernail brush was a bonus lesson!


And speaking of the dirt, she helped daddy plant some vegetables in our very small garden plot. We plan to take pictures of the growth process and put together a little book or slide show presentation with it. I don't really care. I'm just hoping to get her to eat more vegetables as a result!
Next week she wants to do sink and float activity that I mentioned after she saw a Magic School Bus episode on the topic. She also reviewed her Spanish and I need to start the third level with her. And I'm sure she will want to do something else with the Sid Lessons.

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