Soap Boats Science & History

Soap Boats are fun to make just as a fun project, but they can also be used in science and history lessons to discuss oceans, sailing, boats, floating, and American history. They also appeal to a wide range of ages and require very little set up or clean up!

Here's the simple how-to for  Soap Boats:


Simple Supplies:

• Ivory soap
• grapefruit spoons (or normal spoons, or other sculpting tool!)
• bowl of water
• optional: liquid watercolors

Easy How-to:

1- Let your children carve out the boat!  Ivory soap works well because it is easy to dig into, but older children may enjoy comparing different brands.  I also like to use grapefruit spoons because they have a gentle serrated edge.  Normal spoons and other sculpting tools will also work.

2- Ask your children if they think their boats will float, and let them experiment with it.  They may also enjoy experimenting with other brands of soaps, objects or people being placed in their boats, objects or people on their own, and a plethora of other set-ups that they design themselves!  We added a little blue liquid watercolor to the "ocean" for the experimenting!  You can click here to see how we make liquid watercolors or use the convenient affiliate link at the bottom of this page to see them on Amazon.

Have you ever made soap boats?  What lessons would you make them with?

Here are some quick Amazon affiliate links for the supplies: you never pay more for clicking through these links, but if you do make a purchase I receive a small amount for referring you.






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Preschool Learning Fun from Teach Me Tuesday!!

Welcome to Teach Me Tuesday!!

I'm so sorry that this did not get up earlier, but I am so excited to see what everyone has been up to!

Our features this week are fabulous preschool learning games:

#1: Upper & Lower Case Letter Match Printable from B-Inspired Mama
#2: Dinosaur Activity Trays from Life With Moore Babies
#3: Hidden Ice Treasures from Gift of Curiosity

FREE PRINTABLE FEATURES:

FREE Digraph Playdough Mats from 3 Dinosaurs
FREE Early Reading Printables Bob Books Set 3
FREE Upper & Lower Case Letter Match Printable from B-Inspired Mama

Most Clicked on Link:

Fizzy Ocean Sensory Bin

at Wildflower Ramblings

You can also see more free printables on my FREE PRINTABLES Pinterest board here!  It's brand new, but growing quickly, so be sure to check it frequently!


If you missed any of these posts, be sure to check them out!  And if you were featured, feel free to grab a button from the right side bar!

Now, on to this week's linky party!!

The party will be live until Thursday night!

<div align="center"><a href="http://PreschoolPowolPackets.blogspot.com" title="Preschool Powol Packets" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/j368/cmg38/TeachMeTuesdayButton.jpg" alt="Preschool Powol Packets" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

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The Boy Who Cried Wolf - FREEBIE, Giveaway, Poppins Book Nook!!

I have so many treats for you today!!  

First of all, as part of Poppins Book Nook Book Club, we read the classic fairy tale fable The Boy Who Cried Wolf.

It was so much fun that I wanted my new early reader to be able to read it independently and easily.  This is good for building her reading confidence.  So, I re-told the story as an easy reader, and I am sharing it with you as a FREEBIE!!  I hope you have a young friend who will enjoy it!  Click HERE to get your {FREE} copy!  

Secondly, here is The Boy Who Cried Wolf book that we enjoyed.  I think the pictures are absolutely fantastic!   After you read it, try acting it out.  It is a simple, repetitive story that our kids loved dramatizing!  Our little "shepherd" perfectly mimicked the boy in the story!  You can see the book on Amazon here: (affiliate link):

Do you have any fairy-tale activities you'd like to share?  Join the party here:

And finally, beginning this month, the Poppins Book Nook group is offering readers a chance to win one new storybook related to the theme for the month!  This month, one lucky reader will get a copy of A First Book of Fairy Tales!  The winner must reside within the United States--just use the handy Rafflecopter form below to enter!

Happy Educating, Carla!

I may share at any of these parties!

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Ultimate List of Free Unit Plans for Young Children

This week I have been posting a 5-day series on a subject that is close to my heart: How Do I Teach a Child-led Curriculum?

Today, I am sharing the Ultimate List of Free Lessons & Unit Plans!  Here is the rest of the schedule:

Monday: Why Child-led Education

Tuesday: Attention Spans of Children

Wednesday: How To Use Routine in a Child-led Curriculum

Thursday: How To Plan Lessons & Units in a Child-led Curriculum

Friday: The Ultimate List of Free Unit Plans

Since this is a preschool blog, I am sharing a list of {FREE} lessons and unit plans for young children.  If you have a FREE unit plan you would like me to list, just send me an email--I'd love to keep this list updated as a huge resource!

The Ultimate List of Free Unit Plans for Young Children!

Preschool Powol Packets!!
Yes, I have several {FREE} units, including a Poetry Unit, a St. Patrick's Day Packet, an Amazing Arctic Animals PreK Packet, a Spiders lapbook and more!  You can also see my smaller packets and single printables (like mini-books and more!) in the FREE tab above. And, you can find more than 400 resources alphabetized for Letter of the Week themes here! Also, be sure to follow along with me in the future because I release all my new packets (like the Hop Back to School Packet, Construction Packet, Dinosaur Packet, etc) FREE for three days before I charge for them!  

Homeschool Share has hundreds of free units and lapbooks!

Not Just Cute has several free units available, including Bugs & Creepy Crawlies, Winter, Water, Construction, and others!

Living Montessori Now has a huge collection of free printables and related Montessori-inspired activities.  Some of her recent units include Police, Ladybugs, Farm, Flowers, Earth Day, Spring, President's Day, Winter Math, Christmas, and more!

Teach Beside Me has a free Food and Nutrition Unit.

Look We're Learning has a free Discovering Monsters of the Deep Pack.


Future Flying Saucers
Future Flying Saucers is written by a former teacher with a Masters Degree in Curriculum and Instruction.  She is homeschooling her two young children and sharing their unit plans as they go.  Currently, she has the following units:  Plants, Mammals, Fish, Reptiles, Birds.

3 Dinosaurs
3 Dinosaurs has dozens of free printable unit packs for toddlers, preschoolers, and kindergarteners, and she adds more all the time!   Some of her units include Summer Learning, Mini Shark Pack, Oceans, 3 Little Pigs, Apples, Baseball, Beach, Bear Snores On, Butterflies, Dinosaurs, Flowers, Football, Medieval, Monsters, Pond, Star Wars, Tooth Fairy, Woodlands, Christmas, Christopher Columbus, Earth Day, Easter, Fall, Hanukkah, Nativity, Polar Express, Reindeer, Summer Olympics, Spring, Thanksgiving, Desert, Weather, Little Red Riding Hood, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Aesops Fables, Little Red Hen, and more.  She also has several packs in French.

Here We Are Together 
Here We Are Together has several free week-long units that are part of a year-long theme.  The year is not completed yet, though several of the week-long units are.  You can see  Cooking for Kids, Crafts, and Around the World

Royal Baloo
Royal Baloo has dozens of free printable unit activities for toddler through second grade and she adds more all the time!  Some of her units include the Zoomin Moving Alphabet, Earth Day Packs, Medieval Pack, Chinese New Year, Snowman Packs, Reindeer Packs, Superhero Pack, Fire Safety Pack, Arctic Animals Pack, Memorial Day, Star Wars, Dentists, Superhero, Fire Safety, and more!

123 Homeschool 4 Me
123 Homeschool4Me has over 150 free printable packets.  Most are built around themed units and are for children 2-7, but she is constantly adding to them as her children grow!  Some of her units include Alice in Wonderland, Polar Express, If You Give A Mouse a Cookie, Dinosaurs, Farms, Superheroes, Mouse Paint, Curious George, Noah's Ark, Pizza, Pinkalicious, Winnie the Pooh, Little Red Riding Hood, Snowmen, Tangled, Early Explorers, Wild West, Princesses, Traffic Signs, Weather, Music, Nursery Rhymes, Dr. Seuss-inspired, Ancient Egyptians, Monsters, and more!

Lori's Own Little World has a free All About Me Unit and more scheduled!

Every Star is Different has a free My Little Pony Unit.

Handbook of Nature Study has a variety of free nature-related units and instructions about how to study nature with children.

Our Little Monkeys has dozens of printable packets for preschoolers.  Free units include Playful Penguins, Thanksgiving, Ice-cream, Easter, Baby Birds, Frogs in the Pond, April Showers, I Heart Trucks (boys Valentine), Fire Fighter, Little Pilot, Owl, Train, Candy Cane, Pizza, Not So Scary Monsters, and more.

Enchanted Homeschooling Mom has loads of free printables, including unit packs!  Some of her free units include Traffic Signs, Coral Reef Mini-Unit, Animal Alphabet Pack, Duck Mini-Unit, Caterpillars, and more!

Gift of Curiosity
Gift of Curiosity has dozens of free units and activities for 2-7 year olds!  Some themes include Valentine's, Easter, 4th of July, Insects, Beach, Winter, Christmas, Arctic, St. Patrick's Day, Ice-cream, and more!

Meet Penny
Meet Penny has lots of printables, including these free units:  Pumpkins, Thanksgiving, and Christmas!

Under God's Mighty Hand has a free Apple Unit!

In All You Do has many units and mini units for PreK-5th grade!

Homeschool Share  
Homeschool Share has literally hundreds of free units and lessons!  What do they have for young children?  In addition to Animal Studies (like whole units for birds, bees, cats, dogs, jellyfish, and more) and Multi-age Lapbooks, there are six levels of units.  Take a look:

Here are the topics for 2-4 year olds (Level 1):

Based on Books:
Brown Bear Brown Bear, Caps for Sale, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Ellen Stoll Walsh Unit, Feathers for Lunch, Goodnight Gorilla, Hand Hand Fingers Thumb, Honey Rabbit, If You Give a Moose a Muffin, Jamberry, Mr. Seahorse, The Napping House, Owl Babies, A Pocket for Corduroy, Poky Little Puppy, Quick as a Cricket, What a Wonderful Day to be a Cow, A Whistle for Willie,

File Folder Games:
Animal Match, Apple Match, Bird Match, Penguin Match

Lapbooks:
123 To The Zoo, Angus Lost, Are You My Mother?, Ask Mr. Bear, The Big Green Pocketbook, The Carrot Seed, Corduroy, Goodnight Moon, Hello Ocean, Humpty Dumpty, If Jesus Came to my House, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Jenny's Surprise Summer, Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear, Katy No-Pocket Lapbook, Little Boy Blue, The Little Mouse the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear, Little Rabbit, The Mitten, Mrs. Wishy Washy, My Blue Boat, Officer Buckle and Gloria, Over in the Meadow, Pat-a-Cake, Play With Me, A Pocket for Corduroy, Prayer for a Child, Red Carpet, The Runaway Bunny, The Snowy Day, Three Little Kittens, Trains, Transportation, We're Going on a Bear Hunt, Yellow Ball

Here are the topics for 4-6 year olds (Level 2):

Based on Books:
Armadillo Rodeo, The Art Lesson, Belioz the Bear, The Big Snow, Billy's Picture, The Bunny Who Found Easter, Busy Monday Morning, A Chair for My Mother, Charlie Needs a Cloak, Cinderella, Comet's Nine Lives, Corduroy Lost, Curious George, Curious George Takes a Job, Dandelion Unit Study, Fancy Nancy Explorer Extraordinaire, Fortunately, Giant Jam Sandwich, Gingerbread Baby, Give Thanks to the Lord, The Giving Tree, Goody O'Grumpity, The Grouchy Ladybug, Growing Vegetable Soup, Harry the Dirty Dog, Here's a Little Poetry Unit, Honey Cookies, Honeybee and the Robber, A House for Hermit Crab, Houses and Homes, I Am Not Sleepy and I Will Not Go To Bed, I Will Never NOT EVER Eat a Tomato, Kitten's First Full Moon, Little Island, Me...Jane, Meerkat Mail, The Mitten, Olivia, The Parable of the Lily, The Parrot Tico Tango, Pumpkin Jack, Round is a Mooncake, Space Boy, That's What Leprechauns Do, Thunder Cake, Toot and Puddle, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, The Very Lonely Firefly, The Very Quiet Cricket, Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge, Wombat Stew

Kindergarten Kits:
Australian Animals, Bye Bye Birdies, Candy Shop, Fairy Tale, Playful Puppies, Super Heroes, Silly Circus, Set Sail, Frog Frolic, Monster Mash, Pirate Adventure, Reptile Rascals, Deep Blue Sea, Forest Friends, Dino Dig, Owl Prowl, Learning With LEGO, Holiday Games

Lapbooks:
Alphabet Notebook, The Apple Pie Tree, Bears (Karma Wilson), Grocery Store, Hellow Ocean, Human Body, Inch by Inch measuring activity, Knights, Little Toot, Muncha! Muncha! Muncha!, Officer Buckle and Gloria, Phonics - Short and Long Vowels

***

Do you have free units you would like added to the list?  Just send me an email and I would be happy to add to the list!

I hope you've enjoyed this How Do I Teach a Child-led Curriculum series!  I hope you have found something that is inspiring or useful to you, and I wish you the best for this upcoming school year!

Enchanted Homeschooling Mom ~ Homeschool Gameschool ~ Are We There Yet? ~ Life with Moore Babies ~ No Doubt Learning ~ Mrs. Redd’s Classroom Blog ~ Proverbial Homemaker ~ My Joy Filled Life ~ Preschool Powol Packets ~ Adventures in Mommydom ~ Vicki Arnold ~ Only Passionate Curiosity ~ Living Life and Learning ~ Farm Fresh Adventures ~ 3 Dinosaurs


Happy Educating, Carla

I may share at any of these parties!

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How Do I Teach a Child-led Curriculum: How to Plan Lessons & Units

This week I am posting a 5-day series on a subject that is close to my heart: How Do I Teach a Child-led Curriculum?

Today, I am talking about how to plan lessons and units.  Here is the rest of the schedule:

Monday: Why Child-led Education

Tuesday: Attention Spans of Children

Wednesday: How To Use Routine in a Child-led Curriculum

Thursday: How To Plan Lessons & Units in a Child-led Curriculum

Friday: The Ultimate List of Free Unit Plans

Since this is a preschool blog, I will be discussing the entire subject with a focus on young children, but the principles can also be applied to older children (who can often have even more input in planning their schedules).

How to Plan Lessons and Units from Scratch

I had years of experience planning units and lessons before I ever began homeschooling, and I enjoy the process and the results.  The process is very easy to describe, but can take time to become comfortable with.  Here is a straight forward, step by step set of instructions for planning a 1-2 week unit.

1- What are your goals?  Make a list (or mind-map) of what you want to accomplish or work on during the next week or two.  Not sure where to start?  World Book has a list of what is typically covered each year of school HERE.

2- What does your child want to study?  You can ask them what they want to learn about and they are usually happy to tell you!

3- Create 5-10 lessons that teach or give your child the chance to experience the goals you've chosen within the subject your child wants.

Let's look at an example:

My 3-year old needs to practice his counting skills...he frequently skips "six" or "seven" when he counts to ten.  My goal is:  My child can count to ten correctly every time he tries.

My 3-year old is also in love with cars and trucks. He will be happy to practice counting if we're playing with cars and trucks.  This is his subject.

5-10 lessons that integrate the two might include the following:

• An imaginative play game where we use a crane to move ten crates.
• An imaginative play game where we build ten towers out of blocks (each tower has ten blocks) and break them with a "wrecking ball"!  Of course, we would count the remaining towers each time too!
• A board game where we move a car along a road with the numbers 1-10
• A walk down the street where we count all the cars and trucks
• A baking activity where we use car cookie cutters to make crackers and sort them in piles of ten
• A puzzle where they plug the numbers into their cutouts in order.
• A bin with number cut-outs or a counting activity in it.

You can tell I like to play!

If you read yesterday's post about routine, you know that we have several times during the day for these kinds of learning activities.  At the beginning of the week, I can write down all the activities I've thought of, create any printables necessary, and prepare any other materials.  This takes about an hour.  Then, as each day comes I can choose one or two of them as my children's mood dictates during our School Time.  Do they need a walk outside?  Let's count cars.  Do they need a quiet activity?  Let's play the board game.  Is it rainy?  Do they want to build?  Let's build towers!  Whatever their mood needs, I have prepared a set of lessons that covers what I think is important the way they think is important.  The child leads the learning with his or her interests and the adult makes sure a well-balanced education is achieved.

Here are a few more tips for lesson & unit planning:

1- Keep a list of year-long or course-long goals handy so you can choose from them for your unit plans, mark them off as accomplished, and refer to them to review.

2- Use measurable, specific, realistic goals.  My 3-year old can count to ten just fine sometimes, but other times he misses numbers.  I want it to be perfect every time.  He is capable of this.

3- Be flexible.  If you don't have a chance to use all your lesson plans before your child decides his new love is actually bugs, that's okay!  Go with the bugs.  This is child-led.  And if your child had so much fun with the wrecking ball tower building that he wants to do it every day for a month, that's okay too!  It's great for a lot of skills!

A Shortcut for Unit & Lesson Plans

Nobody wants to "reinvent the wheel," right?  Wouldn't it be nice if when your child decided to be interested in ladybugs, you could open a pre-made ladybug unit, grab the activities you want, and start school?  Of course it would!  There are hundreds of free units for young children available online (and hundreds more for sale)!  Tomorrow I will share the Ultimate List of Free Unit Plans to make all your lives easier!

How do you plan lessons and units?  How much say do your children have in the process?

Enchanted Homeschooling Mom ~ Homeschool Gameschool ~ Are We There Yet? ~ Life with Moore Babies ~ No Doubt Learning ~ Mrs. Redd’s Classroom Blog ~ Proverbial Homemaker ~ My Joy Filled Life ~ Preschool Powol Packets ~ Adventures in Mommydom ~ Vicki Arnold ~ Only Passionate Curiosity ~ Living Life and Learning ~ Farm Fresh Adventures ~ 3 Dinosaurs

Disclaimer:  These posts are based on my personal and professional experiences.  What works well for our family may or may not be best for yours!




I may share at any of these parties!

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How Do I Teach a Child-led Curriculum: How to Use Routine

This week I am posting a 5-day series on a subject that is close to my heart: How Do I Teach a Child-led Curriculum?

Today, I am talking about using routine in a child-led curriculum.  Here is the rest of the schedule:

Monday: Why Child-led Education

Tuesday: Attention Spans of Children

Wednesday: How To Use Routine in a Child-led Curriculum

Thursday: How To Plan Lessons & Units in a Child-led Curriculum

Friday: The Ultimate List of Free Unit Plans

Since this is a preschool blog, I will be discussing the entire subject with a focus on young children, but the principles can also be applied to older children (who can often have even more input in planning their schedules).

Why Routine is Important

Routine provides children with stability and predictability in their day.  When a child knows what is coming up, they will argue and resist it less, if at all.  Children also feel like they have more control over their own lives when they can expect a consistent routine because nobody is telling them to do unexpected activities.  Remember Glasser's ideas from yesterday?  Power is a basic human need that motivates even children!  Consistent routines meet that need: when children know what is coming next, and do not need someone to tell them what to do, they feels powerful.

Routine in a Child-led Day

You may find a different way to make routines work for here.  Here, I will present what works best for me with the hope that it will help you develop an ideal routine.

Our routines are built around meals and snacks.  Here is our day in a simplified outline:

Wake up: Snack

Time 1: Exercise, friends arrive, free play

8:00 am: Breakfast

Time 2

10:00 am: Snack

Time 3

12:00 noon: Lunch

Naps & Quiet Time

3:30-4:00 pm: Snack

Time 4

6:00ish pm: Dinner

Time 5: Calm down, bed time

The meal and snack times may vary, but not by much.  We have five "times" during our day.  Three of those times can be used for "school."  One and half of those three is usually used for outdoor play (I could write another whole series on outdoor play, it's importance, and ways to engage in it!).  This means that at our house, we usually have one and half or two times a day when we engage in more structured activities.

Those structured activities can be structured centers, child-choice centers, small projects, games, imaginative play, building projects, group lessons, science experiments, writing exercises, reading books, crafts, music time, Spanish, parachute play, or just about a million other activities!  I usually have three lessons (usually Spanish, reading/craft, and a themed lesson) ready to pull out at any point needed.  Tomorrow I will talk more about planning lessons!  These structured activities (of my choice) are the only thing that the children would not be able to predict in a day.  The children can, however, tell you when these "school time" activities would take place, and they usually play a very large role in choosing what the activity is.  I love to let my children choose what they spend their time doing.  This is the heart of child-led curriculum.

My children know that we have snacks at 10:00 am, lunch at noon, and naps after lunch.  They know that in the mornings as they arrive, they get to play -- or do whatever else they want -- until we eat breakfast.  They also know that after breakfast we will clean up and do something else.

If we finish breakfast and they want to build a yellow brick road (out of giant foamy letter squares) and act out the Wizard of Oz (yes, we do this about once a month) that's what we will do.  This fun little activity lets them practice language skills, drama skills, counting skills (we count everything, all the time), color skills (wait, what color was that road?), re-telling skills, and much more!  And since they wanted to do it, they will learn those skills much faster and happier than if I sat them down and had them work on worksheets.  Of course, they also know that when it gets close to 10:00, they will need to clean up and move on to snacks.  And that's okay, because we always have snacks at 10:00.

My children often ask to be in charge of School Time.  I usually conference with them briefly to find out what their plans are, and then they usually proceed.  My oldest especially loves teaching everyone else, but even my younger ones have asked to paint for School Time, and that's okay too!  In fact, it is better than okay...it is wonderful that they are excited enough about something to request it and enjoy it!

One of the hard things about a schedule like this is that it is difficult to pull children away from something they are enjoying.  Once they get used to a schedule, though, they expect to keep it!  Their bodies become accustomed to eating every 2-3 hours, and they can get very cranky if their meal or snack is twenty minutes late!  They also look forward to their rest time and really need to lay down.  My 1st grader still lays down for 15-20 minutes every afternoon--it is resting and rejuvenating for all of us!

How do you use routines at your house or school?

How Do I Teach … 5 Day Blog Series is brought to you by the following blogs:

Enchanted Homeschooling Mom ~ Homeschool Gameschool ~ Are We There Yet? ~ Life with Moore Babies ~ No Doubt Learning ~ Mrs. Redd’s Classroom Blog ~ Proverbial Homemaker ~ My Joy Filled Life ~ Preschool Powol Packets ~ Adventures in Mommydom ~ Vicki Arnold ~ Only Passionate Curiosity ~ Living Life and Learning ~ Farm Fresh Adventures ~ 3 Dinosaurs





I may share at any of these parties!

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How Do I Teach a Child-led Curriculum: Attention Spans of Children

This week I am posting a 5-day series on a subject that is close to my heart: How Do I Teach a Child-led Curriculum?

Today, I am talking about attention spans of children.  Here is the rest of the schedule:

Monday: Why Child-led Education

Tuesday: Attention Spans of Children

Wednesday: How To Use Routine in a Child-led Curriculum

Thursday: How To Plan Lessons & Units in a Child-led Curriculum

Friday: The Ultimate List of Free Unit Plans

Since this is a preschool blog, I will be discussing the entire subject with a focus on young children, but the principles can also be applied to older children (who can often have even more input in planning their schedules).

Attention Spans of Children

Your children's attention span is one of the most important things to be aware of and monitoring as you teach!  Whether you use child-led techniques, or not, children will misbehave if you expect them to focus longer than they are able.

How long should a child be able to focus?  Different experts have different opinions about what you can expect:  some think children should be able to focus on a task for up to five minutes for every year old that they are (so that would be 25 minutes for a five-year old) while others say to expect one minute plus an additional minute for each year (giving the five-year old a six-minute attention span).  I have found this rule most helpful in planning: expect a need for change after a child focuses on a task for one minute for each year of their age.  This does not mean that your five-year old can only do math for five minutes, but it does mean that you should not expect a five-year old to do a math worksheet or the same type of manipulative for more than five minutes straight.

The beautiful thing about child-led learning is that most children can focus much longer when they are doing something they are interested in.  They get excited about what they are learning and want more!

Choice Theory, Attention Spans, & Behavior

I love the Choice Theory concept by William Glasser (a psychiatrist)  because I think it explains why you can "do" more school (and your children can learn more) when they choose the subjects.

According to choice theory, humans have five basic needs: survival, love & belonging, power, freedom, and fun.  Our behavior is driven be the desire to meet those needs.

How does this apply to school?  When having fun becomes a higher priority than a school lesson, the school lesson can can no longer hold the child's attention, and the child will behave in such a way that will meet the need for fun.  When the child chooses the lesson, though, the subject is more fun, the child has exercised power and freedom, and the child experiences love & belonging from the teacher or parent.  Simply by using child-led teaching, school meets more of the child's needs, and the child is able to focus longer and enjoy school more!

Take Home Message

Does your child misbehave during school time?  If not, wonderful!!  If so, why?  Are there any of Glasser's basic needs that are not being met?  If so, would using a child-led curriculum help?  If so, give it a try!

How do you feel about Glasser's ideas?  Could they improve your child's attention span?

How Do I Teach … 5 Day Blog Series is brought to you by the following blogs:

Enchanted Homeschooling Mom ~ Homeschool Gameschool ~ Are We There Yet? ~ Life with Moore Babies ~ No Doubt Learning ~ Mrs. Redd’s Classroom Blog ~ Proverbial Homemaker ~ My Joy Filled Life ~ Preschool Powol Packets ~ Adventures in Mommydom ~ Vicki Arnold ~ Only Passionate Curiosity ~ Living Life and Learning ~ Farm Fresh Adventures ~ 3 Dinosaurs

Disclaimer: These posts are based on my personal and professional experiences.  What works well for our family may or may not work best for yours!



I may share at any of these parties!

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Letter-Learning Activities from Teach Me Tuesday

Welcome to Teach Me Tuesday!! I'm so excited to see what everyone's doing this week!

First we're starting out with four letter-learning activities that you can use to help develop early reading skills:

#1:  Water Balloons Letter & Shape Play from Little Bins for Little Hands
#2:  Raising Readers Without Breaking the Bank: 0-2 from Lessons in Homeschooling
#3:  Letter P Sensory Bin from Life With Moore Babies
#4:  Help the Babies to Find Their Mamas from Growing Merrily

The Most Clicked on Link:

Free Summer Emergent Reader Pack
from The Measured Mom

Last week we also had eight amazing {FREE} printables shared:

FREE PRINTABLES FEATURES:
Free Poetry Memorization Cards for Kids from Teach Beside Me
Free Apples Activity Pack from 3 Dinosaurs
Free Apple Calendar Cards from 3 Dinosaurs
Free Early Reading Printables: BOB Book Set 3 from 3 Dinosaurs
Free Not Back-to-School Homeschool Pack from Enchanted Homeschooling Mom
Free Summer Emergent Reader Pack from The Measured Mom
Free Make Spelling Fun Activities from The Measured Mom
Free 5 Basic Baby Signs from B-Inspired Mama

You can see more free printables on my FREE PRINTABLES Pinterest board here!  It's brand new, but growing quickly, so be sure to check it frequently!


If you missed any of these posts, be sure to check them out!  And if you were featured, feel free to grab a button from the right side bar!

Now, on to this week's linky party!!

The party will be live from 8pm tonight until Thursday night!

<div align="center"><a href="http://PreschoolPowolPackets.blogspot.com" title="Preschool Powol Packets" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/j368/cmg38/TeachMeTuesdayButton.jpg" alt="Preschool Powol Packets" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

I may share at any of these parties!

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How Do I Teach a Child-led Curriculum: Why Child-led?

This week I am posting a 5-day series on a subject that is close to my heart: How Do I Teach a Child-led Curriculum?

Today, I am talking about why child-led education is important.  Here is the rest of the schedule:

Monday: Why Child-led Education

Tuesday: Attention Spans of Children

Wednesday: How To Use Routine in a Child-led Curriculum

Thursday: How To Plan Lessons & Units in a Child-led Curriculum

Friday: The Ultimate List of Free Unit Plans

Since this is a preschool blog, I will be discussing the entire subject with a focus on young children, but the principles can also be applied to older children (who can often have even more input in planning their schedules).

What is Child-led Education?

There is actually a range of parents and teachers who consider their educational style child-led: they vary from families and schools where the parents/teachers let children direct all aspects of their education to parents/teachers who teach material chosen on the basis of their children's interests.  As you can tell from this week's schedule, I advocate for a child-led system where the children choose what to study and contribute to the planning as much as possible while the parents (or teachers) use these interests to create a balanced curriculum.  This sounds very work-intensive for parents, but on Thursday I will show you how this can be done in under three hours a week (most weeks, I can actually plan my lessons in about an hour).

Why is Child-led Education Important?

Children learn best when they are interested and invested in the subject at hand.  When my children became real-life-animal-rescuers by saving the life of a frog, they wanted to learn everything about frogs!  It was the perfect opportunity to spend a couple weeks learning about frogs, ponds, and amphibians.

This was extremely obvious to me as a public school teacher.  When we covered topics the kids were interested in or had first hand experience with, they learned new material better and faster.  This is true of adults too--when was the last time you sat down to learn something you weren't interested in?

Children come innately wanting to know things.  They take in experiences like little scientists, recording data, analyzing it, and acting on their new world view.  Studies show that even very young children act on predictions they make with alarming speed and statistical reliability!  Take advantage of their eager minds and teach them what they want to know!

What if my child just wants to play all day?

In many cases, that is just fine!  Studies actually show that playing builds neural connections inside your child's brain that will also be used for other activities, when the time comes.  And, of course, play has loads of other social, emotional, and physical benefits too!

My experience has been that around three or four years old, most children cannot actually just play happily all day.  They get stressed out, annoyed, upset, or start to argue with other children.  Scheduling some slightly more structured time or time when you personally play with them prevents this misbehavior and gives your child a sense of control of the day.  I will discuss this more on Wednesday.

This will be an exciting week and I really hope you will join with me to discuss child-led education, as well as any other teaching styles you want to talk about!  I will, of course, still be hosting Teach Me Tuesday so be sure to stop by and check out the wonderful educational posts linked up then! 

How do you feel about child-led education?  Did you know that there are child-led private schools where the students actually choose everything they do (and don't!) do?

How Do I Teach … 5 Day Blog Series is brought to you by the following blogs:

Enchanted Homeschooling Mom ~ Homeschool Gameschool ~ Are We There Yet? ~ Life with Moore Babies ~ No Doubt Learning ~ Mrs. Redd’s Classroom Blog ~ Proverbial Homemaker ~ My Joy Filled Life ~ Preschool Powol Packets ~ Adventures in Mommydom ~ Vicki Arnold ~ Only Passionate Curiosity ~ Living Life and Learning ~ Farm Fresh Adventures ~ 3 Dinosaurs

Disclaimer:  These posts are based on my personal and professional experiences.  What works well for our family may or may not be best for yours!




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Hop Back to School Packet! {1 Week FREEBIE!!}

We're starting out our school year with frogs!

I'm sharing our Back to School Packet {FREE} just this week, so you can join us too!

The packet has a Back to School banner, frog pond activity placemats, a back to school book, and a lesson/experiment about flying frogs!  There are also frog headbands, frog labels, a frog game, and an "F is for Frog" page!  Here are pictures:

Our first day of school was this week.  The kids discovered a note from a "sneaky frog" who wanted to steal their school supplies!  They happily read and followed the clues to where he had hidden them...my 3-year old has mentioned that sneaky frog each day since then!  After the "treasure hunt" we made frog headbands and Hop Back to School books.  Here's a peak inside:

Click here to get your own Back to School Froggy Packet!  Remember it is only FREE for a week!

If you use it, I would love to hear from you or see pictures!!

Do you still need school supplies?  Here are some Amazon affiliate links for you!  You never pay more when you click through my affiliate links, but my family does receive a small commission for referring you.






I may share at any of these parties!

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