Weekly Wrap-Up (Homeschooling the Infant Bibliophile), with Free Printables

Here is what we've been up to this week (by the category labels on our "learning boxes").

1. Fun with Numbers

Our numbers work this week has consisted mostly of a math workbook from the dollar store, and some Mathstart books.  I'll post more about them on Monday when we link up with Math Monday.

2. Animals and Nature (and Science)

We chose a focus animal for the week (giraffe), and posted about all of our giraffe crafts and books here.  We'll probably do another post on Sunday about any other science activities we squeeze in.

3. Arts and Crafts

Our arts and crafts for the week consisted mostly of the giraffe stuff in Wednesday’s post.  He wasn’t super keen on doing those (he kept saying, “no, I want to do something very very very fun” when I asked him), so although he enjoys them once we start, I’ll probably scale back on the organized arts and crafts next week (although I'm excited about one planned project!).  We also hosted a Very Hungry Caterpillar craft playgroup this week that was easy and a lot of fun.  I'll be posting about it soon!

Human bowling

4. Let's Get Moving

We played on our blue exercise ball this week (we posted about it here).  We kept his Toddler Yoga book, because he said he wasn't ready to return it to the library yet, but we didn't end up doing much with it.  He also spent time at the playground and hiking, so I think this category will be more important when we are cooped up in the house all winter.

5. Word Games

I created an alphabet scavenger hunt for him, and he really enjoyed it.  I divided the alphabet over a few days, asking him to find items throughout the house that began with those letters.  Here's a link to the printable alphabet scavenger hunt.

We also had fun writing little stories (while he ate his lunch), based on the soundbox idea I mentioned in this post.  Basically, he picks a focus letter and then we write a story trying to focus on words that begin with that letter.   Here are two that we wrote (I prompt him and he thinks up the next sentence).

D: A dog went to see a dinosaur named delivery dinosaur.  They ate dog food.  Delicious!  All done.

T: A toucan took a toothbrush to brush his teeth.  Tomorrow is Tuesday.  He tickled somebody's toes.  Mr. Chatterbox's toes.

6. Game Box

I put a Disney Cars tic tac toe game from the dollar store in his game box this week, and he has been playing it quite a bit, but also still insists on Rush Hour multiple times a day.

7. Reading and Storytelling

Uncle Sam hat optional

More dollar store here too!  They had a lot of Disney cars themed workbooks there this week, but they were all too advanced for him.  I debated in the aisle and finally bought one on Reading Comprehension, figuring he'll grow into it.  I'm so glad I did, because he loves to do it together, and I've been trying to ask him more questions about the things we read together to see how much of it he's understanding. 

We also have been to the library often this week.  I'll post reviews of some of the books we've read on Saturday.  In the meantime, you can see the books we read in connection with our studies of Iceland here and giraffes here.

8.  Play Fun

I made some very simple sudokus for his "play fun" box this week, and he LOVED them.  He has done them before (I can't remember where - some activity book or online).  I couldn't find any easy enough printables online, so I just made simple 3x3 grids.  I made one with colors, that he completed with his Do-A-Dot Rainbow Markers, one with letters, and one with numbers.  I intended to give him one a day, but he ended up doing them all in one sitting.  I’ll have to make more of them.  I usually guide him by saying, “now what does this row need?” but I think he is to the point where he can do them without that help now that he’s done a few.

I put the sudoku printables on Scribd here, in case anyone else wants to print and try them out.  Unfortunately the grids seem to get messed up when I upload the pdf; has anyone else had this problem with Scribd?  

9. Spanish

I created some question and answer flashcards based partly on a conversations page from homeeducationresources.com.  We only played with them once, though.

Thanks to the suggestion of Maryann at Mama Smiles, we also read a few new Spanish fiction books:



He enjoyed them, and often asked me what the Spanish words meant as they appeared.  In fact, I think he often asked me the same words from one book to the next, so I'm not sure he was really learning them (still, the exposure is good -- I don't need him to memorize a vocab list at this point).

I should probably break down and buy a Spanish video series for him, because he really enjoys the few short videos we have.  I hate to resort to videos for teaching anything, but I can see where it works well for a foreign language.

10. Countries / Places

We focused our geography studies on Iceland this week, and posted about our Icelandic activities here.

I am linking this post to Weekly Wrap-Up, Preschool Corner, ABC and 123, and Tot School.

Comment: What have you been up to with your kiddos this week?  What are your favorite dollar store finds lately?  (We also finally hit the dollar section of Target this week, so some of those items will probably appear here next week!).

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