Yahoo's Preschool at Home

Yahoo is 3 1/2 years old. Where did the time go? It feels like just yesterday Yip and Yap were 3 1/2! 

When the boys were 3 years old, and we lived in Illinois, I took them to an hour and a half "preschool" at the local high school two days a week. The program was through the home economics department, there was one teenager per child and basically it was giving these high school students hands on experience with young children. They had a big playroom, they provided a snack and usually the kids did some sort of fun art project with a teenage helper. 

The boys spent their next two years, still in Illinois, in a more formal preschool in the next town. Twice a week they spent the mornings at preschool in a nearby town while I ran errands. We moved to Kansas right before they started kindergarten. 

Out here in Kansas, where towns of any size are few and far between, Yahoo doesn't have the preschool options that the boys do. A lot of people have asked me if she's in preschool this year. But no, she's not. 

There is a preschool in our little town. Preschool is five mornings a week but they have to be 4 years old to attend. I sure wish she could go to preschool, she has so much energy that it really needs to be focused on something. 

We did look into going to Dodge City twice a week for a preschool, but it was just too far away to justify driving there so often (besides the days we drive there for football games.) 

I decided to have preschool at home this year. Now, I'm not an expert on kids of this age by any stretch of the imagination BUT I have subbed a LOT in the local preschool so I've stolen lots of ideas from there. 

Most days Yahoo and I have the same morning routine. 

We do our calendar and add another day everyday. We count the numbers and work on number recognition. We have pictures so she has an idea of what is planned for certain days; Sunday is for church, Thursday is for Library, Saturday is for football, etc. And we add special days on the calendar too, like birthdays or days that I'm going to be substitute teaching. 

We sing the days of the week song to the tune of the Addams Family theme song. 

Then we sing the Months of the Year Macarena

I laminated Yahoo's name (Leola) and she practices signing her name with a dry erase marker. Then she's in charge of marking what the weather is doing on her chart. Hmmmm....it's windy in Kansas??? I never would have guessed! 

Do you remember the Letter People? I remember this curriculum when I was in kindergarten and Yahoo loves to point to the letters and say the sounds but her favorite thing to do is watch this Letter People video! 

Some days she dresses Jesse the Weather Bear. 

Today he stood naked though, poor guy, it was only 65 degrees out! 

I bet he was freezing! 

I usually try to have some sort of activity to do with her. 

Some days we sit and count, make patterns with beads, go on a shape or color hunt. Today we made a fall tree. 

And then there are some days we don't do anything. Because after all she's three and sometimes she's just not in the mood which is fine with me. It's hard having your mom as a teacher I'm sure. 

It would be nice to have a preschool nearby but we're doing to best we can out here on the prairie. Besides, I can find just about anything I need on the Internet! 

Anyone have any great activity that Yahoo might enjoy? 

Life just got away..

It's been four days since I posted. Usually I pride myself on planning ahead and never going that long without blogging but this week, well, life just got away from me. For the past few days life, and my brain, seemed to be wandering all over and getting myself focused on blogging anything wasn't going to happen. 


Ah...such is life right? Even now my brain is racing with a thousand different thoughts.


Tomorrow is parent teacher conferences. I'm not worried about Yip and Yap's academic performance. They do very well. But last year their kindergarten teacher reported that both of them talked more than the girls in the class. Geez, I know some of those girls are darn yacky. That news made me sink in my chair. I'm hoping not to hear a repeat tomorrow. 


I miss the fall leaves and colors of Indiana. Kansas barely has any trees anyway  but the ones they do have are either turning from green (the ones that were green during the drought) to brown or they are ugly cedar trees that look as comforting as a rampaging porcupine. (Do porcupines rampage?) Thanks to my sister who drove around Lafayette and sent me half a dozen gorgeous photos of the river road. It sure helped. 


Speaking of Kansas. Temperature patterns are nonexistent out here. Today is going to be close to 90 degrees but by Wednesday the high is only going to be 50. How is that even possible? Despite what you Hoosiers say, Indiana weather is VERY predictable! 


A year ago my brother fell off the tailgate of a truck and fractured his skull. I was 900 miles away and could do nothing but pray. He's fine now. Still stubborn and sarcastic. During that time his wife kept a journal of what went on. She's been posting it on her blog this week and it still makes me cry to know they were in such pain and I couldn't be home to help them. 


Yip and Yap have one more football game. Over the weekend I think they were FINALLY getting the hang of what they were supposed to do. Granted, of the 11 on the time they are 2 of 3 first graders. The rest are 2nd graders and I imagine all the other boys watch a lot more football on TV then my boys do. Yip and Yap haven't quite learned aggressiveness yet but I'm guessing with former athletic parents like DR and I it will show up eventually. 


Have you heard of Rural Women Rock? It's a blog that was just recently started to socially connect rural women together. During the week rural women, and their blogs, from all over the country have been country have been featured. Check them out. You'll find someone that you have something in common with. 


So there is the contents of my brain today. All over the map. Hopefully I'll get some focus soon, and a plan, because the next few weeks on my calendar are packed to the gills with stuff to get done. I'm crossing my fingers that I'll find some time to keep blogging and not go crazy in the process. 


Sincerely, 
Prairie Mother, the distorted. 

Marker Monday - Clouds

In the afternoons, while Yahoo takes a nap, the boys jump on the Internet to play computer games. They usually stick to Curious George on pbskids.org but one day they were feeling rebellious and ventured to unknown territory...Sesame Street. There they found Drawing with Clouds with Elmo. I thought this would be a good time to continue our study of weather.

After a little bit of online surfing on my part I found what we needed to learn about clouds. Because I was an art teacher and don't know much about...anything... the phrase, "Google it!" is used on a daily basis in our house!



First we talked about what makes a cloud. The water drops in the air are spread out when they are close to the ground. As the sun warms the water droplets they rise like a hot air balloon. Very high in the air it is very cold and the water drops come together to "cuddle" to stay warm. I usually try to explain concepts using analogies the boys can understand. It helped to use the analogy of people wanting to cuddle in the winter when it's cold but not in the summer when it is hot. Same concept with water droplets in the sky. Clouds are then formed when the water drops come close together.



Then we talked about the three main types of clouds; cumulus, cirrus and stratus. Cloud types are named for their shape so we drew pictures of each type with a white crayon. We have puffy (cumulus), smoky (cirrus), and like a sheet (stratus). We have also been cloud gazing when we take walks or ride in the car. The boys and I talk about the different clouds in the sky and then we have fun trying to imagine pictures in them.

Finally we made clouds in a jar. Now this is cool! You will need the following; a quart jar, a candle and matches, tongs, a bag of ice, very hot water, a flashlight and a black piece of paper.



Pour about an inch of hot water in the bottom of the quart jar. I heated it slightly on the stove but not quite boiling. Light the candle and lower it into the water with tongs. Allow it to burn for a few seconds then blow the candle out and immediately place the bag of ice completely over the opening of the jar. Place the black paper behind the jar. Finally shine the flashlight into the jar and you'll be able to see the cloud forming and rolling inside. As I looked at the cloud I kept expecting it to dissipate like smoke from a candle would but it didn't. The cloud just kept rolling and rolling until the ice was removed. Then as the cloud floated out of the jar the boys were able to "feel" the cloud and how cool it was, not hot like smoke.

The clouds may show up better if you turn out the lights too. I didn't put a picture up of our cloud in the jar because I couldn't get a really good photo to show what it looked like. The boys loved this though and we've made clouds a lot lately!

Learning about clouds and wind has been a lot of fun for all of us. Hopefully I'll be able to keep this weather theme going. I'm not sure where to go from here but I'll keep you updated on any more fun activities we do!