With Heart From the Home

 The last 2 weeks we have learned about various occupations. If you're interested in doing a unit about occupations I recommend searching 'Community Helpers Preschool Activities' on Pinterest.  I was able to find a free printable resource of many different hats to color/decorate and then cut and construct. Since there were many, we only crafted a few and I put a few in other unit folders (Such as the chef hat for our baking unit, etc.) We worked on prewriting and printed out this cute matching puzzle thanks to Home Grown Learning Co's freebies. We watched THIS Youtube video about Community Helpers for a visual aid.  Perhaps the most exciting thing about this unit was receiving letters from friends and family telling Leighton about the work they do and what they enjoy most about their jobs.  After we read each letter she was interested in acting out the job they described. If we revisit this unit next year I hope to have more items prepared for better dramatic play. ...

 I'm already craving fall--though I've not yet made anything 'pumpkin'. I did make a very yummy vegetable ground beef soup with corn muffins this past weekend and it is one that I want to remember!  See the recipe below. Ingredients: 1 lb ground beef, browned and drained. Small onion, diced. 2 cloves garlic (or a heavy sprinkle of garlic powder) 1 tsp salt 2 potatoes, peeled and cubed. 2 cans beef broth or 1 large container (approx. 28 ounces) 1 can 10oz condensed tomato soup. 1 can diced tomato 15 oz do not drain. 1 can whole kernel corn. 1 can chopped green beans. 2 carrots chopped small. 1 TBSP Worcestershire. 1/2 tsp dried basil. Recipe: Brown ground beef with onion and garlic in large pot, drain. Add all other ingredients to pot. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer. Simmer for 30 min (lets the flavors come together) Bake corn muffins. We use Jiffy mix from Aldi. Enjoy! You might need to add a bit of salt, but this recipe was a hit. I look forward to making it a...

 If you're interested in what tot school is for us, read HERE for explanation and schedule. This week we finished up week 2 of tot school--Construction Week! Truthfully, Leighton knows a lot about construction vehicles and often points out 'cement mixers' and 'rollers' during our weekly outings.  We also live right next to a construction site which has every construction truck one could possibly need parked throughout the week, which helps with learning the names and parts of them. This week our stand out books included Roadwork by Sally Sutton, Construction Site on Christmas Night by Sherri Duskey Rinker, Construction Countdown by K.C. Olson and Construction Kitties by Judy Sue Goodwin Sturges. We worked on identifying parts of a book such as 'front cover, back cover and spine'. Also that the author writes the words and the illustrator creates the pictures. I search popular preschool books for each theme on Google, screen shot them and then search them at ...

 Last Monday we started tot school in our home. If you're curious what this means please click HERE to see a description. Our first theme was Zoo--I like to plan around outings and trips we have planned and we always do the zoo on my birthday so I made sure to have this theme for our first week. Stand out books for us this week were Zoo Zoom by Candace Ryan and IVAN by Katherine Applegate. We also like to check out many specific animal books from the library for this week.  Our worksheets varied from matching small to big, line (prewriting) practice, glue practice and also some pre-school workbook work. The crafts we chose were a paper roll giraffe and wooden shaped animals I found at Dollar Tree. We also made a zoo themed sensory bin. We follow our church curriculum for bible learning and the verse this month is 'We have the LORD our God to help us." 2 Chronicles 32:8. Memorable moment: Leighton reciting the verse and then saying '2 Chronicles Donald Duck." She ...