FLYNN & CO: Holly and Heidi Happenings!

I have to admit, I am not a fan of the idea of letting go of my kids and I know that Holly will be heading off to the big world of Kindergarten in less than a year so I just want to enjoy them as long as I have them all to myself . So. . . I decided to not send Holly to Pre-K this fall and table real Pre-K until January and do a mini Pre-K home school here two days a week with both girls. This week is our THIRD week and I have to say it is soo much fun and the kids love it.

I was a tad bit nervous to do it at first, but after I pulled everything together, I structured a curriculum, crafts, and activities, they settled down. Thanks to Costco and Target I found all my workbooks for under $25 for both kids! It honestly took me a few hours one weekend to pull it together from scratch. Granted I used some concepts from a Co-Op Pre-K we participated in last year to help with the day structure. Each week we are focusing on one letter of the alphabet and one number. Using the letter from the alphabet I come up with a theme and base the story and craft around that. We will begin to head to the library to check out books that work with that letter too.

I tend to be a craft hoarder and with the help of Pinterest, I manged to organize crafts with the supplies I have collected along the way with a minor additional shopping list to Michael's.
I have developed a field trip schedule that we can do on the weekends with Daddy to bring him in on all their learning!

Holly is in dance once a week and Heidi is in gymnastics once a week, so they are getting that exposure to learning to be a part of a group and listening.

Our day starts out at around 9 and ends at 11:30 and boy does the time fly! Since Holly and Heidi are only 17-months apart, a lot of the activities we do are pretty equal and adapting to meet Holly's growth is easy.

Here is our day:

Flag Pledge - yes a bit corny, but the kids love it and take turns on holding it each week

Calendar and songs

Center Activities (workbooks, activities that involve writing name, sight words, coloring and telling time) I got this amazing kid craft table at Costco a few years ago and it make a great area to do this and our crafts.

Story Time and Berenstain Bear Science Book (found on E-bay for $5).

Craft Time (their favorite time)

Here are some picture from the first two weeks. I plan on blogging about this experience so the kids can have a snapshot of this amazing experience with each other and to share with family and close friends that want to follow this fun time in our life.

A is for Apple Week! This week we painted and made applesauce from our tree.

Weekly Chart where the girls get to place stickers on the items when complete. Once filled, a very big and special trip to Lego Land will be in order!

Calendar Time

Had the girls write their names and draw faces on the first day of school as a marker for growth as they learn!

I cut apples in two and had them "stamp paint" with them!

B is for Butterfly: This week we learned about how caterpillars turn into butterflies. We read the Very Hungry Caterpillar and made a caterpillar out of egg cartons and butterflies out of paper towel cores. We headed to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History on Saturday to see the Butterfly Alive exhibit and played with both the butterflies and caterpillars with Daddy!