Elementary Tales

My daughter has been getting her 9s and 6s mixed up.  She gets them right about half the time.  The great thing about the Peaceful Preschool numeral cards is that she can self-correct by counting the dots. For a quick math lesson, I gave her three cards and instructed her to order them a certain way (first three digits of my phone number).  She mixed up the 6 and the 9 but I didn't stop her and most importantly I did NOT tell her she was WRONG!  I let her finish her thought process and then asked her a series of questions that led her to finding and correcting her own mistake. Why is this important?  Because as children grow, they become more afraid of messing up.  They don't want to take chances or even TRY for fear of getting it wrong.  Take every opportunity to build your child's confidence.   Confidence is one of the 6 Cs that help your child become "well-adjusted critical thinkers," ( Becoming Brilliant, What Science Tells Us ...

This week marks our first official week of preschool.  We've been dipping our toes in it for the past month with a lesson here and there, but this week we are full force. Fine motor and sorting practice The Peaceful Preschool from The Peaceful Press is the curriculum that works best for us because we can tailor it to our needs and you can go in any order.  I follow it loosely and add in supplements from various STEAM resources from Left Brain Craft Brain .  It feels like all bases are covered with this combo.  I might mention that another great resource that I use is Teachers Pay Teachers because the content is created by teachers and the activities work in classroom and homeschool settings.  For me, this is my preferred alternative to Pinterest. Once I purchased The Peaceful Preschool, I went through each lesson and mapped out our whole year.  I looked at seasons and major events or trips we have planned and came up with a scope and sequence th...