Welcome 2014! One of the best parts of a new year is a NEW calender!! My daughter received a new calender for Christmas from her grandparents. It's called, "The Barnyard Bunch and Friends." It's an exclusive calender from the web-site of David Jeremiah!
When she received it I think I was more excited then her. Read below the features of this resource (taken directly from www.DavidJeremiah.org)...
"Each month focuses on a different biblical principle to encourage children (Be
helpful! Be kind! Be thoughtful!), along with a monthly Bible memory
verse. ALSO — on the first day of each
month, children and parents can visit our website where they will find
the Barnyard Bunch and read a story, listen to a new audio story about
that month's featured animal, and download a coloring page."
In
an attempt to be a reflective teacher for my children and to meet their
current learning needs I have decided to forgo a full year long plan
and just focus on three months at a time! If you would like to read
more about our plan please read the post, "How To... OR Not Do... A Year Plan."
Term Two encompasses December, January, and February. I am planning to
stick to the ideas below and save any new changes for the next term.
This is my current lesson plan document. I like to make my own because I tend to change it. I keep it in a three ring binder for organization!
Bible:
Every morning during breakfast we read a daily devotional. Currently I am using "Day by Day"
by Betty Free. I highly recommend this book! It is simple yet
presents real gospel stories and lessons for children. It is gospel
driven with biblical application.
I am happy to share an amazing resource I have come across to help present biblical lessons to toddlers! Please visit Ministry to Children
for free ideas and print outs to help communicate God's word to our
youngest of learners!! I have been using the creation lesson ideas to
help me begin a two year old creation journal that I hope to be sharing
with you soon!
Our main focus this term in bible will be our daily devotionals, finishing our creation journal, and moving on to "Toddlers Knowing God" a free resource provided by Ministry to Children.
Read Alouds:
Most of our read-aloud stories are seasonally themed or books of high interest. During the month of December we are reading all Christmas focused books. If you missed the post, "Reading our Way to Christmas" check it out here!
Music/Art/Poetry:
During the month of December we will be focusing on listening and singing to Christmas Carols. I have been introducing gospel hymns and will continue to pursue this. So far we have become familiar with the Doxology and the hymn All Creatures of Our God and King (which corresponds with our creation theme for bible).
We will continue to listen to classical and instrumental music
with a goal of listening to specific instruments then recognizing and
identifying their sound. My mother-in-law was sharing with me the love she has for Serge Prokofiev's musical Peter and the Wolf. I feel this will be an excellent way to listen and learn specific instruments! Enjoy the video clip below (or click the link here)!!
Before I had children I
had the wonderful privilege of taking guitar lessons from a wonderful
musician. I will be using my own skills to play songs, sing
together, and enjoy music with my children! Currently I am using the
resource "Storytime Songs" to print off simple songs and guitar chords. So far we have been singing Five Green and Speckled Frogs with the guitar while also using the correlating book and felt frogs for interaction and play.
Art
will be discovery of different materials and mediums (crayons, markers,
pencil, paint, etc.) with a goal to create one complete art project per
month!
Poetry will simply be read aloud for enjoyment!
Nature Study:
We have begun our nature journal and it is going very well! We focus on completing one page per week. If you would like more information on how to begin a two year old nature journal please see the post, "2 Year Old Nature Journal: Getting Started." Please continue to check back in as it is my desire to share our nature journal pages with you!!
I've ordered the magazine Ranger Rick. We will be using this resource to help us explore nature that we cannot see in our backyard (for example we recently we studied giraffes). This provides us with an opportunity to see a different genre and form of reading material as well!
Academics:
Beginning Reading: I
will continue to focus on ALL letters as well as a letter per week. We
do this through several activities such as books, puzzles, environmental
print, and games! I recently printed off our first simple reading book
from readinga-z.com. This is a
resource that I am familiar with from teaching at my local elementary
school, it does require a paid membership. I will be using this book as
one way to teach concepts of print.
Beginning
Mathematics: We continue to review numbers with various activities. We count aloud and count one to one correspondence. Recently we
began sorting items and looking at the calender!!
Beginning
Writing: Our main focus is exposure to writing and encouragement of
pretend writing. I occasionally provide assistance to help my child
hold the pencil correctly (encouraging good habits yet not discouraging
her discovery and enjoyment of independent writing/scribbling).
Play:
My
two year old loves to independently play with dolls, trains, bracelets,
purses, babies, stuffed animals, and much more. I give her things
to play with such as water and rice for sensory activities, straws,
pots/pans, and other random items that are much more fun then fisher
price! We spend many hours outdoors as well.
We have recently introduced her to pretend food! This has been so much fun for her. She will be receiving a kitchen for Christmas that we are currently working on. My husband and I were inspired by a DIY project online of converting a simple nightstand into a kitchen. When our project is complete I plan to post our before and after pictures! Stay Tuned!
Other:
I
love seasonal learning! Although my home school philosophy is not
driven by thematic or seasonal units I love to incorporate seasonal
themed activities, learning, and projects! The following topics will be
our focus for our first term; December-Birth of Christ, January- Snow, February- Love & Friendship.
Our learning occurs
from morning till night, outside, inside, upstairs, downstairs, in the
car, at the store, visiting grandparents, or in our community! I'm so
thankful I can teach my children!! They have so much to learn (and so
do I!).
Please visit soon as I share how our second term is going! I look forward to sharing our learning with you!
Last Christmas we began the wonderful tradition of counting down to Christmas
that involves learning. As you see from the picture above there
are 25 wrapped items, what are they???
BOOKS!!!!!
Yes, 25 wrapped books. Each book is a
Christmas themed book. Some include traditional stories like The
Nutcracker, The Night Before Christmas, Frosty the Snowman, and A
Christmas Carol. Some are activity books, music books containing
Christmas carols, and most are of the true meaning of Christmas JESUS!
Collecting
25 Christmas books could be expensive so I shopped at used book sales,
garage sales, Resale Shops (Salvation Army), and Mom2Mom sales. Anytime
I found a Christmas related book I purchased it! Books cost me between
ten cents to one dollar. When it came time to wrap I had collected
over 25 books and I was able to choose the best ones.
How To Make Your Own Count Down to Christmas...
Collect 25 Christmas themed books (or check out 25 Christmas books at your local library)
Choose a wrapping paper to match your Christmas home decor (I found
my wrapping paper at my local dollar store. I choose 2 different paper
prints and alternated them. If you have multiple children you could assign each child their own wrapping paper and when you get to that wrapped book it's that child's turn to be the opener)
Wrap each individual book (if you want your books in a particular
order you may want to number the backs or stack them in the order you
want them to be opened. For example "The Twelve Days of Christmas" I
wanted to be opened on day twelve)
Die-Cut a Christmas shape (I choose a white Christmas tree to match my wrapping paper)
Number your Die-Cut shapes 1-25
Tape your Die-Cut shape to each wrapped book
Pick out a place to display your Countdown (I chose our buffet in
our kitchen but you may place them on your fireplace mantel or even in a
book basket if space is limited)
On December 1st allow your child to unwrap the first book (book #25)
and read together as a family (this might be your bedtime story or a
read-aloud story to start off your day!)
Continue your opening & reading, counting down all the way to Christmas!! Happy Reading!
Alternate Ideas...
"I don't have 25 Christmas
books this year" -- It doesn't have to be Christmas themed books, wrap
up any books in your home for fun! OR Check out Christmas books at your local library to wrap!
"I don't have time
or patience to wrap 25 books" -- Use a gift bag instead! You may use
multiple gift bags and have a treasure hunt in your home for them or
simply re-use one gift bag and change the book each day!
"I wasn't able to wrap all 25 books by December 1st" -- Simply wrap 7 books for the week leading up to Christmas. Choose your favorite, special, memory making books!
What
a great way to celebrate Christmas and the joy of reading in your home!
I'd love to hear if you will be doing the Christmas reading countdown
with me!
2013 Book Display
A special thank you to Aunt Theresa who gave our family a book to wrap this year titled:
A special thank you to Ma and Papa who also gave our family a special book to wrap this year titled:
