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I intend to keep things pretty simple for Mr. Conductor. I am planning just a few things a day as I find much of his day is “learning thru play”. For example: we have a large clear plastic shoe box full of rice (purchased cheaply at Aldi’s) and little scoops (those little things saved from baby formula cans are great!) that he plays with quite contentedly- some days I hide little items like toys cars, plastic dinosaurs or frogs/bugs, buttons and such and he eagerly digs with a small spoon and toy loader to “excavate” them. We also have a small Rubbermaid tote full of sand in which he plays also. Having them in shallow totes or shoe boxes makes them portable and easy to have right up on the table. Another great entertaining activity is shaving cream- not the gel but the good ol’ el-cheap-o cream (pick some up at the dollar store for a buck). Just pour a big dab on the table and let them go at it. Mr. Conductor and I start by spelling his name and such and then I just let him play and play to his heart’s content. [Even the older ones love to get in on this one!] I also give him a few pipe cleaners and just let him play and shape and create as well as that good old favorite- beads and string. We use multi-colored big pony beads and yarn (wrap the end of the yarn for easy threading and knot the other end- I slip one bead on and then knot it so Mr. C can see that is the end).
A super great resource book is Preschool Activities in a Bag. I have not been fortunate enough to find a group of women who wish to have a bag exchange but have enjoyed making some up for Mr. C. These are great for him to spend time on when I really need to be working one-on-one teaching the girls and can’t be constantly at his side.
As for sit down work- I plan on doing approximately 3 to 4 worksheets about 3 times a week with him (more if he desires). Right now his worksheets consist of simple tracing, simple cutting and simple coloring. I’ve got a couple of worksheet books that I really love right now made by Kumon and purchased at our local teacher store. We’ve got Let’s Sticker and Paste and Let’s Color. Mr. Conductor and I just love these handy little books (they’re 5x7 size and the pages tear out nicely- great for taking with us in the car and to church). We also use worksheets from the following sources:
Preschool Themes and lesson plans
I also glean a lot of good “stuff” from this website Preschool by Stormie.
Sometimes I do themes- mostly around the holidays [Thanksgiving, Christmas, Lent/Easter]. I don’t really stick to the letter, number, color, shape, person “of the month” stuff. I tried at first with Sassafras and my follow-thru was sadly lacking. I find it best to follow his lead. Say today he wants to study fish- then we do some worksheets on fish, count fish crackers, sort [fake] fish by size and read a book about fish. Now this is all great when he chooses something that we tend to have a lot of at home (like fish, trains, small cars and trucks, Legos etc.) but when he is interested in something we don’t have a lot of resources for- well I either become inventive on the internet, go to the library or talk him into something else.
As the year progresses/as I see a need or want for it- we could start some of the “leftovers” in the preschool workbooks we have laying around . . . . you can pick up these workbooks anywhere- we purchased them at Wal-mart, Target and my favorite- Sam’s Club. At Sam’s you can get a big book that has all the “smaller” books in it for a very cheap price. These books are a bit more advanced than Mr. Conductor is ready for right now- letter and number recognition and such.