F is for Fire Safety - Week of 8.3.09

I started this week with lots of expectations about our first "official" week of homeschooling the girls. Official for us, we don't become official to the district until we file our notice of intent when they turn 7 (which is 4 years away for Chloe and 5 for Caitlyn).

In looking at Carissa's Tot School blog and other blogs about homeschooling kindergarten and below, I kept seeing references & pictures describing fine motor skills, gross motor skills and I didn't know how that played out with young children. I found this site about Developing Fine Motor Skills and this one about Early Childhood Physical Development which is helping me to understand what I need to incorporate into their learning. I also am realizing that perfection and providing tot school do not mix!! I started realizing it when I was "doing" more of the fire truck gluing and placing on the paper rather than letting them experience and experiment on their own. I will be working on this part of myself and will let you know how it goes.

I'm going to chronicle our adventures and fun complete with pictures. I didn't start taking pictures until Thursday.

On Monday we

• looked at our theme board
• 
• read lots of fire safety books (see the bottom of this post for the titles)
  
• colored A LOT
  
• did tracing activities (and realized that a laminator would come in VERY handy and would be instrumental in helping us to save ink, paper, money, and the planet)
  
• found rectangles in the kitchen, playroom, and their bedroom
• talked about fire safety; if you see fire get out of the house, if there's a fire no hiding under the bed or in the closet, firefighters are your friends and of course stop, drop and roll
• did some pre-literacy activities on Starfall

Tuesday was a free day (ie lots of TV) as my back was hurting very badly. Wednesday was Women's bible study and then a play date for the girls. We went shopping and bought some school supplies, a laminator, and some food.

On Thursday we

• read more fire safety books.
  
• ran on the rectangle~~I tried to make a rectangle on the floor with scarves and ribbons to give an active movement to help give a visual of a rectangle but the ribbons and scarves kept moving.
  
• We went to the fire station (Reno Station 11, on Mae Anne) to take a tour with Reno Moms Like Me. Click here for more details about our fun at the fire station.
• We came back and made our own fire trucks with mommy pre-cut shapes. I think that next time with pasting specific shapes that I might draw an outline on the paper for them to match and of course have other activities where they are just freely pasting whatever wherever. On the paper of course!
• 

On Friday we

• made a rectangle on the floor with masking tape and tried having them run again - more more fun this time
• practiced fine motor skills by rolling play doh and forming it into letters on the Playdough alphabet card Chloe and Caitlyn starting to get into the fun!

Look mom, i rolled it!


Caitlyn rolling and pounding it in her hands and then holding it up and smashing onto the table just like mommy did.


Chloe squishing it... She was making finger holes

• painted with watercolors for the 1st time (my memory card was full so we don't have any pictures. :-(
  

Random things we did

• I started making a point about showing and saying the title and author of the book with the girls.
  

Books we read this week:

• Clifford: The Firehouse Dog by Norman Bridwell (their favorite!)
  
• Fire Safety by Nancy Loewen
• Rescue Machines at Work: Fire Engines by E.S. Budd
• Scholastic News Nonfiction Readers: A Very Busy Firehouse
• We work at the Fire Station by Angela Aylmore
• A Day in the Life of a Firefighter by Heather Adamson
• Safety Town: When There is a Fire Go Outside by Dorothy Chlad
• Safety Town: Matches, Lighters, and Firecrackers Are Not Toys by Dorothy Chlad