Preschool Update

I thought I would check in and show you some of the things Alex has been working on lately.  For the most part, we're enjoying letting the boys just play and be kids.  We read lots of books, play tons of board games (of course), play outside when it's warm enough, and make lots of projects.

Today he made this lovely pasta picture.  He said, "It's just like Angry Birds."  Not sure what that means.

Alex's routine lately is to wake up, play a little computer (great because it gives Mommy a chance to wake up), eat breakfast, and then he does his "schoolwork".  I have a packet of work ready for him each morning.  I pull pages from different Kindergarten workbooks.  Most of it, once I read him the directions, is pretty easy for him to complete independently.

Here's a sample of what he worked on today:

Letter writing 

Determining which picture words start with the same sound 

 Matching the pictures that start with the same sound

(this took him all of 4 seconds)

 Answering questions using a graph.  You can see it's not finished -- after writing out the words "pizza" and "hot dog" (copying the letters from the previous page), the kid was exhausted.  Mommy is nice and doesn't push him when he needs a break.  :)

We continue to work on reading skills with him.  He is able to sound out just about any 3 letter word with a short vowel in the middle (like big, net, bus, etc.).  We just started a computer reading program and will see how that goes as well.

That's our preschool update from Boomerang Drive!

-- Holly

Heart Stamping

I came across a super easy Valentines Day project using materials we already had in the house.  I thought it looked fun and decided to give it a try.

Super easy: smush a toilet paper roll into the shape of a heart and tape it.  Dip in paint.  Voila!  Instant heart stamper.

I was happy to participate in this one because I can actually make beautiful art if it doesn't involve drawing.

Unfortunately Alex gave this one about 5 minutes and was "tired of doing this".  He gets like that.  Sometimes it takes longer to get out the materials for a project than it does for him to lose interest in doing it.

But not Thomas.  He stamped.

And stamped.

And stamped.

He loved it!

That's it from Boomerang Drive!

-- Holly

February Sensory Bin

My friend Megan introduced me to sensory bins.  Basically, they are boxes filled with all kinds of objects, and kiddos can scoop, sort, funnel, dump, and much more with the contents of the box.  To save time and money, Megan, another friend Jess and I are taking turns each month making a sensory bin.  Then we trade them around so we all get to play with them.  It was my turn to make one for February, which was perfect because I love, love, LOVE anything to do with Valentines Day.


Here is our box of treasures:

Thomas has enjoyed this a lot so far.  One day, we sorted some of the objects by type and color.  There were some smooth gemstones, and some other ones cut with angles like diamonds, so Thomas practiced distinguishing between "smooth" and "bumpy".

He tried looking at objects through a magnifying glass . . .

 . . . and picking up objects with tongs.

One of his favorites was throwing feathers up into the air.

Other February photos will be here.


We are having fun playing on Boomerang Drive!


-- Holly