Preschool At the Bruffeys!

I've been sensing the need to implement more of a flexible "schedule" in our days, beyond the meal times and sleep times we have established. Having taught for one semester in Deaf education before we moved to Texas, I decided we would start to set up some preschool-like activities at predictable times during the day. I'd love to be able to set up "centers" and hope to figure out how to use the space in my house to do so, but for now I'm going to add just one or two things that can become predictable in our days that add learning and fun and some more structure interspersed in Jacob's days of free play. I pulled out the things I created in that one semester (I was working to get into education and hoped to make it a career, then we moved) and am really excited by what I saved! It has weathered 2 1/2 years in storage pretty well!

My calendar system!

I need to update the year and take some of the pieces to Mardel for laminating and picking up some more velcro squares to repair some things, but overall it is in pretty good shape! We started today talking about the day and the weather. I know it won't be something Jacob can really engage in for a while, but we can talk about it and work on numbers and seasons and days as the weeks and months unfold! I'd SO love to have the money to buy and assemble a whole new system (I remember how much fun I had at the teacher supply store in Bowling Green, KY when I was putting this one together!), but we'll use what we have until it falls apart (go Dave Ramsey!).

I have several sets of flashcards - some for numbers, others for shapes, others for colors. This set is for colors and shapes. Jacob has started pointing out colors - his favorite so far is green, followed by red, so I'm capitalizing on that and working on those 2 colors and then "shapes" he loves - mostly dogs and balls!

I made this "Fish for Feelings" game to use with a kindergartner I was teaching so we could talk about the concept of feelings. I want to make a more "sophisticated" fishing game (I was on a LOW budget when I was teaching and even lower budget now), but this was an exciting find so we can do SOME fishing! The game I want to make is this one: http://thetrendytreehouse.blogspot.com/2011/09/gifts-for-boys-in-your-life.html - with felt fish and a dowl rod pole, but for now my paper fish labeled with feelings and a metal paperclip and my leather rope with a magnet glued to the end works! Jacob got in to holding the fish and letting me "fish" for them. :-) 

I bought these pom pom balls at the Dollar General right near us here in Haslet (LOVE that place!) and they've been great for talking about colors (again - he tends to throw these out and then pick up the green ones and say "gween ball! more gween ball!" - but we're working on shape and color!)

So, I added these things, along with several other learning activities I found in my teacher's bag to the color wheel and playdough mats (I finished laminating and binding all 20 playdough mats this week)... and now we have a great....

Activity and Learning Shelf! We also have some great sidewalk chalk, crayons and coloring book, playdough for the mats, a preschool activity set I had for teaching, etc. I have some magnet letters I keep in a locked cabinet due to the size and we use those on a cookie sheet for letters and colors. 

Feeling MUCH more equipped to have structured learning time!

~ Mama Bruffey

Wife of One, Mother of Two