After three miscarriages, I decided that I either needed to be done trying for another child or I had to make some major life changes to prevent miscarriage. I was on progesterone my last two miscarriages, baby aspirin too for my last one. I read It Starts with the Egg (as an Amazon Associate, I…
As I look at the changing aspen leaves around me and breathe in the cold morning air, I am reminded that another year is coming to a close. The time from September to the end of December always seems to go so very fast like a stone gaining speed going down a slope. In another…
The idea of teaching a child to read can be intimidating. What curriculum do you use? When should you start? How can you gauge reading readiness? Then you’re at the park and some mom says their two-year-old knows all their letters and you panic. Your four-year-old only knows the first letter of their name. Are…
Maybe you have heard that we are what we eat. Strangely enough, since our bones, brains and organs are built from what we eat and drink, this is technically true. Health and wellness are also strongly linked to what we eat. Thus, our blood sugar affects miscarriages and pregnancies more than just with gestational diabetes.
I decided to start making some major changes to my diet the month I turned 40. Moving forward, I knew I wanted another child and I wanted to make sure I was alive to watch my children grow. I had some testing done to determine if I had any health issues that could be contributing to my miscarriages, but everything came back clean. The only thing that I did notice was that my blood sugar level was a touch high.
My doctor assured me that it was still within normal range and I was not prediabetic. Basically, that if I had not done my own research, I would have considered it normal, and my doctor would have as well. I knew from my reading that being prediabetic or diabetic can contribute to miscarriages, but I was not those things. I also didn’t want to become those things.
I knew I sometimes had symptoms of hypoglycemia, which meant my body was swinging from blood sugar highs to lows. Having stable blood sugar would be better for my body over time and help possibly with maintaining a pregnancy and living a longer life. Problems with blood sugar affects miscarriages, but it is hard to know how much of a role it plays. But this is where the hard part came in. I had always had a sweet tooth, and I had kept it mostly under control, but in recent years I had allowed myself to eat a bit too much sugar on a regular basis.
To maintain my blood sugars, I needed to increase my protein intake and vegetable intake. I knew that, and had known that, for years. But to truly be effective, I needed to cut sugar from my diet, not just limit it. Trying to limit sugar had only partially worked in the past and made me crave sugar all the time. I already didn’t consume artificial sweeteners or high fructose corn syrup because of all of the negative health consequences, but sugar was harder.
I took the plunge and 5 months before I was to try to conceive again, I cut out sugar and fruit juice from my diet. At first my plan was to have cheat days for holidays and birthdays. Quickly, I learned that sugar was a contributor to my bloat and GI problems. I found that taking Maca Powder and eating protein when I craved sugar helped with the initial change, but two weeks in I started experiencing yeast die-off in my gut. This caused significant bloat and lasted about two weeks.
After the first 4 weeks I found it much easier. I was still allowing myself honey, maple syrup, fruit and black-strap molasses. After that first month, I started paying attention to my intake of these other sweeteners. I started with limiting my fruit intake to 4 servings a day. I wanted to make sure that my focus was on protein and vegetables, not eating lots of fruit.
The other big change I made at this point was I started fermenting all of my grains. This meant sourdough everything with a long (6+ hour) fermentation time. Sourdough breaks down the starches in flour and makes it more digestible but also allows for a slower release of sugars from breaking down the carbohydrates. I also soaked my rice and beans before eating them to break down the starches and make them more digestible. I stopped eating oats all together because they are difficult to digest.
A month later, three months before trying to conceive, I started working on limiting my maple syrup, honey and molasses intake to no more than a tablespoon a day. My goal was not just to stabilize my blood sugar at this point, but also to decrease the yeast in my gut as much as possible to optimize a healthy gut biome and allow my gut to heal. To facilitate this, I also started taking a high-quality probiotic called Terraflora Deep Immune Probiotic and I cut my fruit to 2 servings a day.
Two months later, one month before trying to conceive, I further cut my fruit consumption to one serving a day and my sweetener consumption to 1 teaspoon or none a day. By this point, this did not feel restrictive and was a fairly easy switch to make. I also found my taste buds had changed and lots of fruit by themselves now started tasting too sweet. I really only wanted to pair fruit with unsweetened yogurt, or with cheese, or in sourdough muffins for consumption.
My plan moving forward is to maintain this diet, along with other diet changes that I will discuss in part 3 of my plan, through the first trimester of pregnancy and past the danger of miscarriage. I will then slowly loosen my diet to go back to up to 4 servings of fruit a day and one small “cheat” day a month for holidays and birthdays.
The plan is for these changes to be for life. I ended up losing 10 pounds changing my diet, without increasing exercise, though I would have liked to, and not counting calories. I also overall feel better and have more energy. Even if I don’t conceive, for these reasons, I do plan to continue with no sugar normally and being cognizant of how much fruit and natural sweeteners I am consuming. My research shows that stable blood sugar affects miscarriages, but I don’t know if I have been affected in any way by this. I want to continue to keep all of my teeth, stay a healthy weight and live a nice long life.
Happy Healthy Eating!
After three miscarriages, I decided that I either needed to be done trying for another child or I had to make some major life changes to prevent miscarriage. I was on progesterone my last two miscarriages, baby aspirin too for my last one. I read It Starts with the Egg (as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases), and I followed nearly all of her advice for recurrent miscarriages. But I still lost my baby.
At 40, I was still having regular 28-day cycles, and my LH was peaking every month, so I knew I was still ovulating. It took me 6 cycles of trying to conceive with my last pregnancy that ended in miscarriage and 1 cycle trying the time before that. I didn’t seem to have any trouble conceiving, just with miscarriages. My OB made it sound like it was just my age and there was nothing I could do about it.
I refused to accept this answer, but it did make me ask this question: what about my age was the problem? I had worked on egg quality with It Starts with the Egg, but that had not helped. I looked at signs of perimenopause, and I realized that I did not have most of the signs, but I did have signs of low progesterone. As I discovered, progesterone declines with age.
This was my lightbulb moment because I was supplementing with progesterone, but my progesterone was still on the lower end for my last pregnancy after I begged my OB to test me. I decided I would do everything I could think of to get my progesterone up before trying to get pregnant again. I did my own research and worked with an alternative medicine practitioner to come up with my own specific hormone plan to prevent miscarriage.
It wasn’t just progesterone; I needed to figure out how to balance my hormones and this is where Vitex comes into play. Vitex works at balancing hormones. I took Vitex for 4 months before trying. I would take 2 pills during the first half of my cycle (Follicular phase) and 3 pills the second half (Luteal phase). Once I got a positive pregnancy test, I would go down to taking 1 Vitex a day in the morning until I hit 6 weeks.
I learned that Red Raspberry Leaf Tea can also help with naturally balancing hormones to prevent miscarriage, though that is not why most women drink it. I started drinking Red Raspberry Leaf Tea first thing in the morning and before bed for 5 months before trying to conceive and will continue until I hit 14 weeks pregnant. I’ve done the tea bags and the loose tea.
When I looked at natural forms of progesterone, I found Wild Yam Cream. I started rubbing Wild Yam Cream on my stomach first thing after waking up every morning to increase my progesterone and prevent miscarriage. I used ¼ a teaspoon of Wild Yam Cream for 5 months before trying to conceive and will continue to use it till 8 weeks.
It was recommended for me to use bioidentical progesterone, but this was cost prohibitive with everything else I was doing. Instead, I used the 200mg vaginal progesterone suppositories prescribed from my OB for the luteal phase of my cycle for 4 months before trying to conceive. I would use one before bed starting the day of ovulation and I plan to continue the first 10 weeks of pregnancy before discontinuing.
I learned that high cortisol could impede the body in making progesterone. Cortisol is the primary stress hormone and although decreasing life’s stresses while trying to conceive is great advice, I found that quite difficult to actually do. It turns out that taking Maca Powder daily can help with decreasing cortisol.
My life as a special education teacher, a foster parent and a single mom had been quite stressful. Sometimes I would feel like I couldn’t calm my body down even though nothing stressful was happening. I started with taking 1 tsp of Maca Powder daily in the midmornings in a smoothie, or other drink. This suppressed my appetite because cortisol makes you hungry, so I had to make sure to still consume enough calories. After 6 weeks, I dropped to ½ tsp Maca Powder daily for another 6 weeks, then ¼ tsp for maintenance until I got a positive pregnancy test.
That feeling of not being able to calm down, or of being stressed out for no reason, stopped completely within about 3 weeks. I was still stressed when something stressful was happening, but that rush out the door in the mornings was no longer leaving me feeling like I had run a marathon of stress.
I found out that progesterone production needs magnesium, but so does cortisol production. This means that all of my stress production had depleted my body of magnesium, which is why for every single one of my pregnancies the first symptom I always noticed was trouble sleeping. My body was using up every bit of magnesium to maintain my pregnancies, so I was left with not enough for good sleep. This was true even for my daughter’s pregnancy and it makes me realize even more how much of a miracle she is.
I started taking 2 Magnesium Glycinate pills nightly for 5 months and ate 2 tablespoons of pumpkin seeds daily to increase my magnesium before trying to conceive. I immediately noticed better sleep. On days where I managed to not eat any pumpkin seeds, I would take 4 pills of Magnesium Glycinate, but I noticed my sleep was not as good as when I combined both. I will continue taking both till 14 weeks pregnant.
Now this was everything I did to increase my progesterone and help my hormones before trying to conceive again, but it was not everything I did to prevent miscarriage. In the next part of this series, I will talk about all of the dietary changes that I made to help my body.
Red Raspberry Leaf Tea
Wild Yam Cream
Progesterone
Maca Powder
Pumpkin Seeds
2 Follicular/3 Luteal
2x/day
1/4 tsp mornings
1 Luteal, before bed
1 tsp 6 weeks
1/2 tsp 6 weeks
1/4 tsp 4 weeks
2 before bed
2 tablespoons daily
Pregnant: 1 till 6 weeks
Pregnant: till 14 weeks
Pregnant: till 8 weeks
Pregnant: till 10 weeks
Pregnant: stop for positive
Pregnant: till 14 weeks
Pregnant: till 14 weeks
Happy Conceiving!
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Devastating Emotions Around a Miscarriage – hummingbirdhomelife.com
As I look at the changing aspen leaves around me and breathe in the cold morning air, I am reminded that another year is coming to a close. The time from September to the end of December always seems to go so very fast like a stone gaining speed going down a slope. In another week or two right as October starts, the aspens will be glorious sights of golden wonder. But by Halloween, the trees will be bare like skeletons reaching for the sky with a blanket of brown leaves and snow on the ground. Our October preschool will be a celebration of the change of seasons, but also a reminder of the closing of the year.
As we have been going through my September preschool plan, I am getting a better feel for what works and what doesn’t work. Having a separate game day does not seem to work as well, so I am putting more games into our circle time for October preschool and creating more of an activity day.
For our October preschool, the focus will be on the changing of the seasons, how animals around us are preparing for winter and our own winter preparations. We will be working on making our home cozy and warm for the winter, while welcoming in Halloween.
We focus on the aspects of Halloween that embrace the harvest and change of the seasons, rather than anything spooky. Since we are already no-screen at home, there is very little exposure to the spookier aspects of the holidays and that seems best for such a young age.
We will start our first full week of October preschool with reading the story Striped Chipmunk’s Special Surprise (pg. 51) from our Preschool Play: Seasons of Wonder Coursebook | Oak Meadow. We will follow this with the verse Chipmunk, Chipmunk (pg. 53), which I will provide motions for. I will show my child once, then we will do it together. Then we will act out the verse Chipmunk Play (pg. 53), where we will add some counting while putting small “jewels” into my chipmunk hole before ending by pretending to fall asleep on the floor. I will invite my child to be the chipmunk counting her nuts after me.
Stand up and put your hands up like tiny paws at armpit height
Rush over to stand by the window
Look into one hand pretending to hold an acorn
Put your hands up like tiny paws at armpit height
Dash around the room
Put your hands up in a questioning manner
Put your hands up like tiny paws at armpit height
Rush over to the couchPut your hands up like tiny paws at armpit height
Rush over to your child to tickle them.
We will end our time with playing the Imitation Game (pg. 60) to work out all of our wiggles. We will be adding “jumping like a frog” and “hopping like a bunny.”
The following day, we will have our second circle time. I think it will work better to have our two circle times next to each other to really sink into the stories we read. This time we will be using our felt board (pg. 55 with templates in the back of the book) to act out the story from the day before. I will tell it first, then I will encourage my daughter to tell the story with the felt pieces.
I will encourage my daughter to do both verses from the day before with me. We will most likely do each verse just one time, unless she wants more.
We will end with playing the game Ring Around the Acorn (adapted from Ring Around the Rosie). We will put the felt acorns on the floor and hold hands while going around them and singing.
Ring around the acorns
A pocket full of leaves
Golden, golden
We all fall down!
We will play this game as many times as my daughter wants, well maybe cutting her off after about a dozen times, before allowing her to play with the felt pieces as she chooses.
For our activity day for October preschool, we will be going on a nature walk where there are many aspen trees. In our area, these are really the only deciduous trees. We will collect bright aspen leaves and pinecones to fill a basket for the center of our table. We will add the felt pieces from our story and anything else autumn themed my daughter wants to add to create a centerpiece.
In Preschool Play: Seasons of Wonder Coursebook | Oak Meadow there are suggestions for Jumping in Leaves and Sorting Leaves that would be a great idea for other families, but in our area, neither activity is feasible.
For our art day, we will be Painting Leaves (pg. 61). We will use our finger paints for more vivid colors rather than water colors. We will hang our finished leaves above our doorway on string and tape them to the corners off our front windows for decoration.
We will start circle time for our October preschool by reading We’re Going on a Leaf Hunt (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.). This will be followed with the verse Autumn Winds (pg. 58) and Down, Down, Yellow and Brown (pg. 58) using a yellow scarf. We will end with the song Five Little Leaves So Bright and Gay (pg. 59).
For our second circle time, we will be going to another area up in our Rocky Mountains that has aspen trees. We will sing the song We’re Going on a Leaf Hunt from the book while collecting leaves. Then repeat the verses and song from our first circle time outside. We will use actual leaves for the final song and count them as they fall off the tree.
The following day we will switch up our activity and art day to have our art day first as we will be doing Leaf Prints (pg. 62). We don’t have any ferns for fern prints and we will be using regular crayons on their sides rather than block crayons.
On the last day we will be making Harvest Soup (pg. 67) to celebrate our October preschool. My daughter will practice chopping using her child’s knife. It does not work well on harder vegetables, like carrots, or slippery vegetables, like onions, but it will work great on celery and peppers if I cut them long first. We won’t be using the exact recipe suggested, rather we will be using this recipe:
2 tablespoons butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
6 poblano peppers, chopped
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
4 cups chicken broth or bone broth
1 pound chicken, pre-cooked and chopped
1 cup cream
2 cups mild cheddar cheese, grated
In a large pot, melt the butter and sauté the garlic, onion, celery and poblano peppers for 15 minutes until fragrant and soft.
Add the salt, pepper and broth. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes.
Add the cooked chicken, cream and cheese. Cook for 5 more minutes until melted.
Serve.
This week we will also be going to a local pumpkin patch for our October preschool with some friends of ours. We will be getting at least 5 pumpkins for next week. Pumpkin patches are perfect for celebrating the harvest season with petting farms, corn stalk mazes, hay bales, sack slides and all the pumpkins.
For our circle time we will be reading Every Autumn Comes the Bear (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.). As we say goodnight for the winter to our bears in the woods, who also like our trashcans, this is a perfect book. We will follow this with the verse Apples Hanging on the Trees (pg. 53) and go through all the tree fruit of autumn. Then we will sing Oh, How Lovely is the Evening (pg. 59) together and Skidamarink (pg. 53) with these added motions.
Slide to the right
Slide to the left
Hug yourself and point at your child!
Wave your hands above your head
Wave your hands down low
Pretend to sleep
Look up with your hands making a large circle
Slide to the right
Slide to the left
Grab your child and swing them in a circle!
We will read our book Every Autumn Comes the Bear again and use my daughter’s play tent to make a cave for our teddy bears to sleep all winter long. It will be up to her to make them all cozy with blankets and pillows to sleep the whole winter long. We will follow this up with our verse and songs.
Today is pumpkin carving day. I have a pumpkin carving kit from past Halloweens that I will bring out. I’m excited to have my daughter able to participate more than last year. She will work on scooping out the innards and we may bake the pumpkin seeds. I will do the cutting, but she will pick out the design. Then we will see how our pumpkins glow.
For our October preschool art day, we will be using wet chalk on black construction paper. The wet chalk makes such vivid colors and shows up beautifully on the black paper. We will use colored and white chalk with a jar of water to dip them in. These should make some beautiful art for our walls.
For this Halloween preschool week, we will be reading the book Pick a Pumpkin (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases). We will follow this with the verse Golden in the Garden (pg. 59) with added motions.
Look out the window with hand over the eyes looking
Look the other direction with your other hand over your eyes to look
Wave your hands in front of you like leaves fluttering on a branch
Give yourself, or your child, a bug hug
Point and look out the window
Point and look at the sky
Flutter fingers like falling leaves
Point your thumb over your shoulder
Then we will do the fun verse Five Little Pumpkins Sitting on a Gate (pg. 58). This is such a sweet poem and we will use our jack-o-lantern and 4 other pumpkins for the poem. We will do this poem with the hand motions provided and then do it again with the pumpkins. I will light a candle for the jack-o-lantern and we will have the ‘wind’ blow it out.
We will start our circle time by lighting the candle in our jack-o-lantern and reading Pick a Pumpkin (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases) again. Then we will repeat the verses Golden in the Garden (pg. 59) with motions and act out Five Little Pumpkins Sitting on a Gate (pg. 58) with our pumpkins. Just some simple repetition to welcome in Halloween at the end of this week.
We will spend our activity day perfecting my daughter’s Halloween costume. She wants to be a fairy princess this year, so we have a princess dress, wings and a wand. We will make sure they are all clean and ready for Halloween. We will check the weather for Halloween and talk about appropriate clothing. Then pick out the layers for her costume that we will need. Everything will be set aside to stay safe for Halloween.
We will also be making her a crown for her costume. I have shiny gold and silver tissue paper that we are going to cut into stars. I will do the tracing and cutting. My daughter will then glue each shiny star to a cardboard star, and we will glue all of them to a felt headband for a star crown.
For our art day, we will be painting mini pumpkins. We will be using washable paints since this can be a bit messy and I anticipate painted hands. This will be a fun final pumpkin project before Halloween.
All of this will be so fun for us to do together to celebrate October and the changing of the seasons. I can’t wait till we get to do all of these stories and activities, but right now we are still busy enjoying our September preschool plan.
Happy October.
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Preschool Essentials: Stories and Activities Overview – hummingbirdhomelife.com
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The idea of teaching a child to read can be intimidating. What curriculum do you use? When should you start? How can you gauge reading readiness? Then you’re at the park and some mom says their two-year-old knows all their letters and you panic. Your four-year-old only knows the first letter of their name. Are you behind? Is it too late? Most likely what she means is that her child can sing the ABC song, which is great, but not the same as visually identifying a letter and calling it by name.
As a former preschool teacher, special education teacher and intervention teacher, turned homeschool mama, let’s break reading readiness down into two parts. The first is memorizing letters and the second is learning phonics or actually learning to read. Let’s look at the signs that a child is ready for each part and when the ideal age to start is for most children. Special needs children will be on their own timeline, and I will talk about them at a later date.
Let’s talk about memorizing letters first. Many two- and three-year-olds are wonderful at memorization. They will memorize songs and whole books to “read.” If a parent wants to, they can take advantage of this to teach their child what the name of each letter is and maybe some of the sounds or corresponding words. I’ve heard a toddler bopping around the playgroup saying “A! Ah, ah, ah Apple!”
The question is, is this good or useful? Will this child be ahead in learning to read because their parents spent time with flashcards or alphabet books teaching the child to memorize their letters? This child will still learn to read at the same age as other children.
There is nothing harmful or bad about teaching younger children their letters, except in missed opportunities for other development during this age of exploration. Also, a 4- or 5-year-old who is truly ready will learn their letters fairly easily, while a younger child will need significantly more time, repetition and effort to learn their letters. Early letter learning does not mean they will learn to read any earlier than other children, so it really is best to wait.
If you have a 3- to 5-year-old, try this little test. Take the word “bat” and ask your child to listen as you say each sound separately /b/ /æ/ /t/. Then ask them what the first sound was. You can even repeat it three times for them. Most 3-year-olds will not be able to answer and even younger 4-year-olds will not be able to answer. They are not ready for reading instruction. You can try this with multiple three letter words that start with consonants.
If a child is able to do this, then this is a good time to start slowly teaching them to identify letters. Initially start with teaching how to identify the names of uppercase letters. Many will argue that children should learn the sound each letter makes before the name of the letter, but in my experience that can create confusion. I prefer children learn the names of uppercase letters, the names of lowercase letters, then the consonant sounds of letters before starting reading instruction. Vowel sounds should wait till a child is ready for phonics, or actually learning to read.
The second test you can do is to see if your child can hear rhyming. Say three words that rhyme, like “cat, bat, mat” then ask your child which word sounds the same at the end like the other words, “man, rat, or red.” You can even repeat all the words multiple times for your child, but most children will not be able to answer reliably until the age of 5, and for some children not till age 6.
These two tests will give parents a good idea if their child is ready to start learning phonics, or the process of reading. If a child can hear the beginning and ending sounds of words and repeat the sounds, or identify the sounds in another word, this indicates that their brain is developed enough to start formal reading lessons. For the majority of children this will click from age 5 to 6 1/2.
Now there is something called hyperlexia, which is an early desire in children to learn their letters and start reading, often basically on their own. This is highly associated with autism, but it can also be a child who is gifted (has an IQ in the top 5% of the population). This is the rare exception and as it is highly associated with autism, not necessarily a good thing. These children also can struggle with comprehension of what they are reading for many years.
By about the age of 7 gray matter in the brain peaks before it starts pruning unused synapsis. Brain Development Milestones in Children Ages 5-7. This makes learning to read at an older age more challenging for children, so there really is a sweet spot for reading readiness. This doesn’t mean a 7-year-old can’t learn to read, just that it will be more challenging.
I would encourage parents to focus on language, vocabulary, comprehension and encouraging a love of reading through wonderful, engaging picture books at ages 2 through 4, even 5 for many children. Sing songs together, play fingerplays, recite verses or nursery rhymes, all of these things prime the brain for later learning. Art builds fine motor skills and visual spatial skills for reading and writing. Playing outside builds gross motor and fine motor skills.
Depending on your child, it is ideal to start teaching them their letters roughly 6 to 12 months before starting to teach them to read. This means from 4 ½ to 5 ½ is a great time to teach children their letters. Then when your child can reliably recognize at least 20 uppercase letters and 15 lowercase letters, and they can identify rhyming sounds, they can start a phonics program to start learning how to take apart and put together the sounds of words. This should be anywhere from age 5 to 6 1/2.
I will talk about the curriculum options for letters and phonics in another post.
Happy Learning!
Preschool Essentials: Stories and Activities Overview – hummingbirdhomelife.com
Our September Preschool Plan – Apples & Fall Delight – hummingbirdhomelife.com
Join Us for a Free Preschool Math Curriculum – hummingbirdhomelife.com
Free September Preschool Math Curriculum – hummingbirdhomelife.com
How do you judge that a child is ready to learn handwriting? It is the first step in learning how to write, but it is also intertwined with learning how to read. Many families buy learning books from a store that have letters and writing in them for young children of all ages, but are these actually good and useful? I would argue that they are not. What is the best way to approach handwriting and what age is the best age?
There are three little “tests” to check for handwriting readiness. The first one is do they have the manual dexterity to hold up 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 fingers for roughly 15 seconds without you having to move their fingers around. You can show them with your fingers, but they should be able to independently move the fingers from one number to the next and take in the visual information to copy with their dominant hand. Most children will be able to do this somewhere between 3 ½ and 4 years of age.
The next test for handwriting readiness is to see if your child can maintain the correct grip on a triangular pencil or crayon for 30 seconds. Place the crayon in front of your child pointing at them. Have them grip it with their thumb and pointer finger, then flip it so it is resting against their hand, and their middle finger is against the back. See if after flipping the crayon they can maintain a three-finger correct grip for about 30 seconds without correction while drawing.
This is something you can practice with your child, but it is important for children to be able to hold crayons and pencils correctly when starting handwriting practice. If you are having to correct their grip every 10 seconds, then they aren’t ready, and if they use an incorrect grip their hand will start to ache over time. Most children will be able to maintain the correct grip starting around 3 years 9 months to 4 years 9 months. There is a wide range of normal for this skill and although practice can speed up this skill, it comes down to fine motor skills and muscle memory. Triangular crayons, pencils or pencil grips are great for beginners.
The final test for handwriting readiness is to test their visual reproduction skills. Try drawing a large smiley face covering an entire page and ask them to copy it onto their page. What you are looking for is similar dimensions, not perfection. Does the large circle take up most of the page like yours? Are there two eyes in similar positions as on your page and a smile? Or are the eyes and mouth all bunched up in the middle of the page?
In this case, we want to see that a child can visually take in information and then reproduce it with similar spacing. If your child draws smiley faces all the time, or you heavily prompt them, then this is not actually showing their skill. Try drawing a square face instead with a frown. See if your child can reproduce the spacing and the direction of the smile. If a child does not have the visual skills for this yet, then an A with the small line at the bottom or with the A open at the top will all sort of look the same to them. This visual reproduction skill usually kicks in from 4 to 5 ½ years of age.
Manual dexterity, correct grip and visual reproduction are the three skills needed before a child is ready to start handwriting. Some children are ready at 4 and others not till 5 ½. Both are normal and can be as much about your child’s personality as how much interest they have in drawing and writing. The average is probably around age 5.
If you practice these tasks multiple times a day then your child may master them sooner, but then they are not very good indicators of true readiness. Once a week to once a month is plenty of practice without skewing the results.
Before handwriting, children can still practice pre-writing skills. Drawing with triangular crayons, especially on blank pieces of paper is great practice. Blank pieces of paper help children develop their visual skills. Triangular crayons help them develop a good grip.
Playing fingerplays or singing songs with hand and finger motions develops manual dexterity and visual reproduction skills. Simple songs like The Itsy-Bitsy Spider and creating a hand spider are wonderful fine motor skills.
Building with wooden blocks or large Legos is a wonderful way for children to build visual-spatial skills and fine motor skills.
There are a number of handwriting curriculums out there. Here are the two that I recommend. These are standalone handwriting programs, but there are many curriculums that incorporate handwriting within the curriculum. I will evaluate all-in-one curriculums at another time. Often, they have strengths and weaknesses in different subjects, so I prefer standalone curriculums.
The first curriculum is my favorite and what I will be using with my daughter. This is The Charlotte Mason Handwriting Series: Capitals (Book 1) with Handwriting Supplies Kit – Simply Charlotte Mason. This is a very affordable handwriting curriculum. The multisensory sand writing and slate writing deepens children’s feel for how to correctly form capital letters. This is the best handwriting curriculum for homeschool families out there. It starts slow and builds up sequentially and not in alphabetical order. Their classic style, rather than slanted style, is best for children. And their whole series, through cursive, is very well done.
The next curriculum to look at is Learning Without Tears for Pre-K and the accompanying Learning Without Tears Hands-On Student Pack. This is also affordable and teaches letters from easiest to most difficult as well. This includes wooden pieces for students to use to form the letters and a chalk board. It does not include a sand tray, and the pace is a bit faster than Charlotte Mason, which would work better for slightly older children learning handwriting for the first time.
If you would like me to look at any other handwriting curriculums to give my opinion, I would be happy to.
To support children in their writing and pre-writing skills, these are some other products that are beneficial for children.
Puzgic Stem Kids Toys for Creative Learning
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Happy Writing!
Preschool Essentials: Stories and Activities Overview – hummingbirdhomelife.com
Join Us for a Free Preschool Math Curriculum – hummingbirdhomelife.com
How I am gently teaching my preschooler German – hummingbirdhomelife.com
In an effort to expand my own baking repertoire and in a desire to include my daughter in expanding her baking skills, I am planning out 34 recipes to bake with my preschooler for the year. This will be one recipe a week from Labor Day to Memorial Day minus 4 vacation weeks. Most will be sourdough, but I will also provide a non-sourdough version for those who would like it.
In our house, we are heavily into sourdough, and, for gut health, I am fermenting all grains before baking or consuming. We are also not consuming sugar, but instead will be using honey, maple syrup, or black-strap molasses for sweeteners. Though most of the time we rely on the fruit in recipes to sweeten them. We also avoid all soy products, as well as canola and vegetable oils.
Many of these recipes have been on notecards in my recipe file for years. I probably did get them online from other people, but unless I wrote where on the card, I have no idea. Most have been adapted and changed over the years, and all instructions are my own. If I do take a recipe from another site, I will link the site rather than copy the recipe.
If you have never made pancakes from scratch, I highly recommend it. It is surprisingly easy and only takes 5 more minutes than using a mix. I love putting jam made with all fruit on my pancakes, but my daughter is a die-hard maple syrup fan. Up until starting sourdough, here was my go-to recipe for pancakes.
1 cup whole milk
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
Or 1 cup buttermilk
1 ¼ cup flour
1 tbsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1 egg
1 tbsp melted butter
Mix the milk and vinegar together and let sit while preparing the other ingredients or use buttermilk. I often don’t have buttermilk on hand, so I usually used sour milk. If you are dairy free, as we were when my daughter was younger, oat milk works great as well with vinegar.
Start melting the butter in your pan first.
In a small bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. My daughter helps dump in each ingredient and stirs for me till she gets tired and I take over.
Add the melted butter and egg to your medium bowl. Then add your buttermilk or soured milk, don’t be surprised if it looks a bit funky.
Mix together well. Remember messes can be cleaned up and this is a very forgiving recipe if some goes flying.
Pour desired size of pancake in your preheated pan on medium-low heat. Flip once you see bubbles in the middle of the pancake. Your pancake should be golden brown. The second side should take about 30 seconds.
Serve with desired toppings. Butter and maple syrup is a classic, but jam, fruit, nut butters and chopped nuts with whipped cream can also be delicious.
These days we are making overnight sourdough pancakes. I love the fact that I prepare them the night before and cook them up in the morning. They also have a pleasant tang to them that I enjoy, as does my daughter. The milk doesn’t need to be soured because of the sourdough, but it might be interesting to try these with buttermilk rather than milk.
¼ cup sourdough starter (ideally fed 8-12 hours beforehand) or discard
1 cup flour
½ cup milk
½ tsp salt
1 egg
2 tbsps melted butter
The night before mix the sourdough, flour and milk together till it forms a ball. Cover tightly to keep from drying out. My daughter helps with stirring and dumping in the ingredients after I measure them.
The next morning melt the butter in your pan, ideally a cast iron pan. Then it is also precoated for the first pancake.
Add the salt, egg and melted butter to your overnight sourdough. Mix until well combined. My daughter usually stands on a chair and mixes first.
Pour desired size of pancake in your preheated pan on medium-low heat. Flip once you see bubbles in the middle of the pancake. Your pancake should be golden brown. The second side should take about 30 seconds.
Serve with desired toppings. Butter and maple syrup is a classic, but jam, fruit, nut butters and chopped nuts with whipped cream can also be delicious.
Although I associate blueberry muffins with summer, technically this is the last week of summer, and I wanted to celebrate the end of summer before diving into everything autumn. I am making these recipes with no sweetener but the blueberries. They are plenty sweet that way for my daughter and myself, but you can add maple syrup to give it a richer and sweeter flavor. Baking muffins with my preschooler is one of my favorite mother-daughter activities.
2 ¼ cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup whole milk
1 egg
¼ cup melted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsps maple syrup (optional)
1 cup blueberries
Preheat the oven to 350℉.
Melt the butter in a pan or pot over low heat.
Mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl. My daughter enjoys stirring the dry ingredients.
Add in the milk, melted butter and vanilla. Mix well together.
Lastly add the blueberries, fresh or frozen. If frozen, expect the dough to turn blue. Don’t over stir, just fold in. My daughter really likes seeing the muffin dough turn blue even though many recipes try to minimize the blue transfer, we embrace it.
Spoon into a muffin tin. Let your child spoon some of the dough in. It will make a mess, but you can clean it up and even out the muffin dough distribution afterwards.
Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown on top.
My daughter loves muffins, so she will be willing to help with any part of making muffins. With a three-year-old, willingness to participate is an essential first step. I will measure out all of the ingredients and let her dump them in the bowl. She will stir while I measure. When she runs out of steam, I will take over stirring.
½ cup Sourdough Starter
2 cups Flour
1 cup Whole Milk
2 tbsps Butter
2 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
½ tsp salt
1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen
Feed your starter 8-12 hours beforehand. Although you can try this recipe with discard, it will have more flavor if sourdough starter is used.
The morning of, or night before, mix sourdough starter with the flour and the milk until it forms a ball. Cover tightly and let sit in a warm spot for 8 to 12 hours. You can get away with 6 hours or as many as 16 hours. If you hit the 16 hour mark and can’t make the muffins yet, put the bowl in the fridge for up to 3 days. My daughter loves checking on the dough throughout the day to see how much it has grown.
Once ready, turn the oven on to 350℉.
Melt the butter in a pan or pot.
Add the melted butter, eggs, vanilla, and salt to your sourdough mixture. Mix well until fully combined. It might take a bit of time for the dough to come together. My daughter sometimes gets frustrated trying to stir this dough because it is very stringy and tough to mix at first.
Lastly add the blueberries, fresh or frozen. If frozen, expect the dough to turn blue. Don’t over stir, just fold in.
Spoon into a muffin tin. My daughter helps spoon the dough into the muffin tin. There will be some mess, but it can be cleaned up and I can even out the dough in the tins after her.
Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown on top.
To celebrate our first week of autumn, I will be baking biscuits with my preschooler to go with a hearty potato soup for dinner time. This is the soup Healthy Potato Soup Recipe – Farmhouse on Boone we will be making. I also like to top it with avocado or bacon. Biscuits are very versatile and we also like them in the mornings with sausage, or really any time!
2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
8 tbsps cold butter, cut into chunks
1 cup whole milk
¾ tsp salt
2 tsps baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
In a large bowl, measure out the flour, then cut in the butter. I use a pastry cutter to mix in the butter, though your hands will also work. The butter should break down into pea sized balls or smaller covered in flour. My daughter likes to try to help, but she struggles with this part and quickly loses patience.
Once the butter is mixed in, add the milk, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Mix well. This is usually where my daughter can help stir.
Pop in the fridge covered for 30 minutes while making the rest of dinner.
Once chilled, roll the dough out on a cutting board to about ½ an inch thickness. My daughter loves using her own rolling pin, so I give her a small cutting board and portion of dough, while I roll out most of the dough.
Preheat the oven to 350℉.
We then use biscuit cutters to cut out the biscuits. This is my daughter’s favorite part. I let her cut out her own biscuits even if some are thin and others are lopsided. Then she cuts some from my dough as well.
I will collect all the unused dough scraps and roll them into a ball before popping them into the freezer for 5 minutes. Then we roll out the dough again and cut the last of the biscuits. Any unused dough at this point I usually just roll into a ball and flatten to cook with the others.
We put them on a tray to cook for about 15 minutes until golden brown.
I feel like biscuits are one of those recipes that can seem overwhelming at first because we put such high expectations on ourselves, but they really are easy to make. They also don’t have to look perfect to taste perfect, which is why baking them with my preschooler works. If you don’t have time to chill, roll and cut them out, just use a spoon and plop a spoonful on the baking pan and flatten them with a spoon. Then cook them. They won’t be perfectly round or super pretty looking, but they will taste wonderful.
2 cups baking flour
8 tbsps cold butter, cut into chunks
1 cup sourdough starter (fed 8-12 hours earlier)
½ cup whole milk
¾ tsp salt
For these sourdough biscuits, measuring out the flour and cut in the butter.
Then mix in the starter. It is quite difficult if you start with the starter. Form into a ball, cover, and let sit in a warm spot for 8-12 hours.
Add in the milk and salt until fully combined. This may take some extra stirring.
Then pop in the fridge for 30-45 minutes to chill. These take a bit longer to chill than the other sourdough biscuits.
Once chilled, roll the dough out on a cutting board to about ½ an inch thickness. They may be a bit sticky depending on your starter consistency. You could try popping the dough in the freezer for 10 minutes if this is the case.
Preheat the oven to 350℉.
We then use biscuit cutters or cookie cutters to cut out the biscuits. Using cookie cutters can be lots of fun as well if you don’t mind lopsided baking, and it is one of my preschoolers’ favorite parts of baking.
We put them on a tray to cook for about 15 minutes until golden brown.
I was an au pair, think international nanny, in Switzerland for a year when I was young. The family had three boys under the age of 4 when I arrived and spoke Swiss German. They lived on a homestead with large vegetable gardens, fruit trees, horses and meat cows. Their house was originally built in 1689 and had been fully remodeled the year before after standing vacant for many years. I learned quite a bit about caring for children and cooking while I lived here. They baked all of their own bread and made all of their meals from scratch. This is where I first learned to bake bread.
Here is one recipe that I learned there that I’m looking forward to baking with my preschooler. This was from the mother’s Austrian upbringing, but she had adapted it over the years. We used the apples from their orchard, and this was an often-made afternoon snack for the boys. It doesn’t have flour, so no sourdough version. I was taught to use ground hazelnuts for the crust, but almonds work as well. It just gives a slightly different flavor to this apple custard. This custard is meant to be savory, not sweet, but if you desire a bit more sweetness, you can add honey.
1 tsp butter
1 cup ground almonds or hazelnuts
3 apples cored, peeled & grated
2 eggs
1 cup cream
2 tsps cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp cloves
2 tbsps honey (optional)
Preheat the oven to 350℉.
You can use a cast iron pan or a pie dish. Spread with a thin layer of butter. Then press the ground nuts into a crust to cover the baking dish.
Spread the grated apple into the baking dish like a pie. My daughter has been learning how to grate, but apples are slippery and were a bit too much for her. She loved dumping the grated apple into the dish and spreading them out though.
In a small bowl, mix the eggs, cream and spices together. My daughter enjoys using her own miniature whisk for this task.
Pour the mixture evenly over the apples.
Pop this into the oven for 25-30 minutes until it is set and golden brown on top.
Enjoy on its own or drizzle with a bit of honey.
Although my preschooler joins me with baking and cooking as she wishes, it was fun to have a set plan of baking together. Feel free to try these recipes yourself and see how they turn out. I would love any feedback.
Happy Baking!
Our September Preschool Plan – Apples & Fall Delight – hummingbirdhomelife.com
Free September Preschool Math Curriculum – hummingbirdhomelife.com
*Revised 9/16/26 now that I have a better feel for what my daughter enjoys and has the attention span for
Our main preschool block consists of two circle times a week to work on pre-reading skills, gross motor skills, fine motor skills and executive functioning skills. We also will be doing one activity day and one art day each each week, all lasting about 30 minutes.
Preschool Essentials: Stories and Activities Overview – hummingbirdhomelife.com
Our September Preschool Plan – Apples & Fall Delight – hummingbirdhomelife.com
Math takes 15 minutes twice a week with a 30-minute activity every other week.
Join Us for a Free Preschool Math Curriculum – hummingbirdhomelife.com
Free September Preschool Math Curriculum – hummingbirdhomelife.com
German started with 5 minutes once a week and will slowly increase to 10 to 15 minutes four times a week.
How to gently teach German to preschoolers – hummingbirdhomelife.com
Science will be 20 minutes 2 times a week using Bones and Stones Course Set | The Good and The Beautiful – The Good and the Beautiful. We will also be learning about the human body for 15 minutes once a week using these three resources from amazon.
5 Senses Coloring Book for Kids
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For pre-writing skills, we will be using Insect & Spider Mazes – The Good and the Beautiful and coloring using these Triangular Crayons (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.) twice a week for 15 minutes.
For religion, we will be reading The Story of Jesus, The Advent Storybook: 25 Bible Stories, The Story of God with Us (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.), and The Beautiful Story of Mary every Sunday for 10 minutes, as well as attending church.
Every Sunday for character building and independent life skills, we go over chores for the week. My daughter earns stars on her chore chart until she gets enough for a reward, usually a book.
We will also be working on building life skills 15 minutes once a week and these life skills will be added to her chore chart as she gains mastery.
Once a week we will spend 15 minutes using games to build Executive Functioning Skills.
Building Executive Functioning Skills in My Preschooler – hummingbirdhomelife.com
We will also spend 15 minutes every week together baking and learning basic cooking skills.
So, what does this look like for our schedule? Although this might look overwhelming at first glance, it really ends up being 1 hour 15 minutes 5 days a week of homeschool once we work up till full-time. Here is what our weekly schedule will look like:
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | |
| 7:00am | Awake | Awake | Awake | Awake | Awake |
| 7:30am | Breakfast | Breakfast | Breakfast | Breakfast | Breakfast |
| 8:00am | 15m Math | 15m Life Skills | 15m Math | 30m Art | 15m Executive |
| 30m Circle | 30m Circle | 30m Activity | 30m Math Activity | ||
| 2:30pm | Snack | Snack | Snack | Snack | Snack |
| 2:45pm | 20m Science | 15m Writing | 20m Science | 15m Writing | 15m Science |
| 10m German | 15m German | 10m German | 15m German | 15m Baking |
Let me frame this in another way, since my daughter is just about 3 1/2 and just starting her learning journey.
On Mondays we spend 45 minutes in the morning singing, playing games, reading a book, and doing finger plays together. In the afternoon, we will spend 30 minutes reading or listening to audio about dinosaurs and reading a book in German together.
On Tuesdays we spend 45 minutes learning a skill like putting on a jacket, then bringing a story to life, singing songs, playing games and doing finger plays together. In the afternoon, she will spend 30 minutes doing mazes with a dry erase marker or coloring, then listening to German children’s music.
On Wednesdays, we will spend 45 minutes singing and playing math games, then doing a hands-on activity together. In the afternoon, we will spend about 30 minutes learning about dinosaurs using hands-on activities, reading, or audio, then learn a few German words through play.
On Thursdays, our morning will be spent doing art, creating a nature craft project or cooking together. In the afternoon, my daughter will spend 30 minutes doing mazes with a dry erase marker, coloring while practicing using a correct grip, and learning German through coloring.
On Fridays, we will spend 45 minutes first playing games to practice sharing or turn taking, then we will learn math through hands-on activities like painting or building. In the afternoon we will spend about 30 minutes learning about the human body through hands-on learning and then we will bake together.
You can join us for all of our preschool fun, or only parts of it, as I post everything on my website throughout the year.
Happy Planning!
We all want children who will wait patiently, take turns and manage their emotions, or at least I do. Sometimes children learn these skills at school, or with interactions with siblings. Since I don’t plan on sending my daughter to school and she doesn’t currently have any siblings, I want to be intentional about teaching her these executive functioning skills.
Executive functioning skills run the gamut from social-emotional skills to time management skills but are essential for learning how to function as an adult. Every four weeks I plan to focus on a skill appropriate for a preschooler. We will work on the skill through games and play. This should only be for 15 minutes once a week to reinforce these skills with my three-year-old.
For our first block, we will be working on waiting patiently for 3 minutes without complaining or whining. Three minutes is an appropriate length of time for a three-year-old. Four-year-olds should be able to wait for roughly 5 minutes and five-year-olds for 8 minutes. The time increases exponentially with age, but currently I want to work on waiting where my daughter is at. She can wait for three minutes, but there is often complaining, demands and whining, so we will work on it.
Working on this skill for 15 minutes once a week is beneficial, but only if I address the issue outside of these times as well. Mostly I need to completely ignore the complaining and whining. As for the demands for “right now,” I will calmly remind her once that she needs to wait till I finish my task before I can do xyz and that she needs to ask me politely. Further demands will be met with silence as I complete my task, then wait patiently, without reminding her, for her to ask politely.
For this first week I will be using a timer. We will be taking turns building with blocks. I will explain that this is a game where we each take a turn and see how much we can build before the timer goes off. The person not building needs to wait without touching or whining, though they can ask questions. It will be her turn first and each turn will get longer. We will start with 2 minutes, then 2 ½ minutes and finally 3 minutes.
For the second week, we will also be practicing the skill of washing hands. There is a wonderful kit called the GloGerm Mini Kit (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.) that can show a child how difficult it can be to wash hands free of germs. Basically, you rub a gel all over your hands, front and back, that you can see under a small fluorescent light. This replicates the germs all over your hands and it will generally take 3 to 4 minutes to wash all of it off.
We will use this kit again, but for now, we are going to take turns contaminating our hands and have to wait for the other person to fully wash everything off. The person not washing hands will be in charge of the light to check to see if everything is off. I will go first to model. If necessary, I will remind her that there is no whining or complaining, but her turn will be next.
We will also talk about how we can’t see germs which is why it is important to wash our hands all the way after using the bathroom or before eating.
For our third week, we will be running a relay race around the swing set in our backyard. There will be a baton for the runner, and the other person will have to wait on the starting spot for their turn running. We will each run 3 times and have to wait 3 times to finish our race. This not only works on the skill of waiting patiently, but it is also great physical exercise.
For our fourth week, we will once again be taking turns with some toys. This time the timer will be set for 3 minutes, and we will each have two turns. We have a set of wooden cars that their pieces come off and are interchangeable. We will each take a turn putting together all the cars, then after they are taken apart again, the other person will have a turn. The goal will be to see if we can put together all the cars in the 3 minutes given. I will purposefully try to take the full 3 minutes to assemble the cars to keep her waiting. I will also model and encourage her to cheer on the person building the cars.
This is my plan for our first 4 weeks of Executive Functioning skill building. Learning through play and focusing on changing my responses to her whining, complaining and demanding. I’m hoping to see a significant reduction in these less than desired behaviors, but I don’t expect them to fully go away in just a month. Our second block will be working on helping each other.
Happy Waiting!
Preschool Essentials: Stories and Activities Overview – hummingbirdhomelife.com
Our September Preschool Plan – Apples & Fall Delight – hummingbirdhomelife.com
Free September Preschool Math Curriculum – hummingbirdhomelife.com
Up here in the Rocky Mountains as August rolls into September the aspen trees are turning colors, the mornings are getting crisp and sweaters are starting to make an appearance. I would not be surprised if we get our first dusting of snow before the end of the month. Labor Day weekend is truly the end of summer up here and the perfect time for us to start school.
Fall 2025
September 8th is our official start to our preschool year. My daughter is turning 3 ½ soon and is eager to start “big kid school.” She likes to pretend some of her picture books are math books and will count random pictures in them. Imaginative play and messy play are her favorites. She also wants all of her siblings, i.e. an ever changing variety of dolls and stuffed animals, to join in for school.
This first week we will start with reading The Turnip (pg. 25) from our Preschool Play: Seasons of Wonder Coursebook | Oak Meadow. Considering this is right after Labor Day, I like the juxtaposition of the difficulty in getting a turnip out of the ground and the celebration of working people.
We will then sing the song The Turnip Man (pg. 27) and read the verse Mr. Finney (pg. 26). Neither have motions, so I am adding in some motions for us. My daughter loves stories, but she also has a strong need to move her body.
Put your hands out like a question
Pretend to pull a turnip x3
Put your hands out like a question
Pretend to pull a turnip
Point both thumbs at yourself
Give yourself a hug
Make a T with hands x3
Give yourself a hug
Make a T with hands
Point both thumbs at yourself
Repeat both verses
Second verse use your child’s first letter
Try to make it with your hands
Or draw it in the air
Pretend to pull a turnip
Show it growing between your hands x2
Point behind you
Hold out questioning hands & shake your head
Use your hands to show something growing x2
Put one hand up flat towards to ceiling for taller
Pretend to pull up a turnip
Put it aside
Gesture to the pretend turnip x2
Hold your nose
Pretend to wash the turnip
Pretend to put it in a pot
Shake the pot x2
Nod your head
Pretend to pick up the pot
Put it on a pretend table
Pretend to sit at a table
Pretend to eat x2
Hands out like a question
To finish up our first circle time we will be taking Oats, Peas, Beans & Barley (pg. 26) and turn it into a simple game. We will hold hands and turn around in a circle, reverse direction for two lines, then back the original way before falling to the floor.
For our first game day, we will be sorting veggies (pg. 31) then playing Animal Sounds (pr. 28). For veggies, I always have carrots, celery & lettuce in the fridge. I think I will see if I can find some purple cauliflower, leeks, turnips, beets & dinosaur kale. We will use all of my daughter’s play animals for the Animal Sounds game and have them make their sounds before putting them into her barn. There is also a Turnip, Turnip, Beet game in Preschool Play: Seasons of Wonder Coursebook | Oak Meadow, but it needs 3 or more people to play it.
For our second circle time, I will spend possibly hours cutting out the felt characters from The Turnip so we can bring the story to life on my daughter’s felt board. I will also ask her if she wants to tell the story after me using the felt pieces. We will repeat the song, verse and game from our first circle time, then I will let her continue to play with the felt pieces. They may or may not survive this play time, but hopefully I manage to wash some dishes while she is occupied.
For art, we will be doing Apple Star Prints (pg. 39) with very washable paint. Paint smocks and an easily cleaned floor are also necessary. We will sacrifice 2 apples with four paint colors. Their instructions make it sound like a very organized paint project with pretty prints of stars from apples. I plan to just let my daughter explore and paint how she wants to with complete abandon and possibly a large mess to clean up. It is much more fun this way. We will be using a large sheet of brown packing material paper to be used once dry in week three to make a kite with.
To supplement our main curriculum, we will be making Turnip Soup with Sourdough Bread one night as well as using all the vegetables in a variety of other recipes.
For our second week, we will be reading the book Apple Farmer Annie (as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases) from our local library. We will follow this up with the song Way Up High in the Apple Tree (pg. 34) and The Farmer Plants the Seeds (pg. 27). Once again, I will be adding motions to engage my energetic three-year-old.
Stand up tall with my arms up high
Put my hands together to make an apple
Pretend to climb a tree
Pretend to listen & motion an apple falling
Put hands together to make an apple
Motion falling to the ground
(Repeat all motions)
Some motions provided
Third line – roll hands around each other & throw them up in the air
Repeat for each versus
For game day, we will play the Apple Game (pg. 38) and dance an apple dance. We will sing All Around the Apple Tree to the tune All Around the Mulberry Bush from the website myprekbox.com. We will be creating our own funny apple dance to sing to this song as we act out the motions.
For our second circle time, we will be reading Apple Farmer Annie (as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases) and sorting all the play food in my daughter’s kitchen just as Farmer Annie sorts her apples. Bonus is that the play kitchen will be getting a clean and reorganization out of this. Then we will finish up with the same songs, possibly while still sorting and cleaning.
Our activity for the week will be backing sourdough apple muffins. Preschool Play: Seasons of Wonder Coursebook | Oak Meadow has a recipe for Applesauce Muffins (pg. 46) and Apple Farmer Annie (as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases) has a recipe for Apple Muffins in the back of the book, but I adapted it for sourdough. Here is the recipe I will use:
½ cup sourdough starter
2 cups flour
1 cup milk
2 eggs
4 tablespoons melted butter
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon allspice
½ teaspoon nutmeg
1 ½ cups peeled, chopped apple
I will feed my starter the evening before.
In the morning, we will mix the starter, flour and milk together until it forms a ball. I will leave it covered with saran wrap secured with a rubber band in a warm spot for at least 8 hours, though 6 hours would work. We live in a dry climate, so securing the bowl is important for it not to dry out.
After preparing our apples, we will add the eggs, butter and spices to the bowl. My daughter will help with stirring and adding ingredients. It might take a while for the original dough ball to relax and be incorporated into the other ingredients. We will add our apple last. I think we will use a sweeter apple for this recipe, like Pink Lady, since there will be no other sweeteners.
Then we will spoon our dough into our muffin tin and bake the muffins at 350℉ for about 25 minutes till the tops are golden brown.
To round out this week, we will take a field trip to the Farmer’s Market just in time before the end of the Farmer’s Market season in our area.
Fall is officially here this week and we will spend time putting out our fall decorations. In our home, we focus on the celebration of harvest rather than anything spooky, so our decorations are primarily pumpkins, scarecrows and apples.
This week we will be reading the book When Fall Comes: Connecting with Nature as the Days Grow Shorter from our local library. We will then do the verse Golden in the Garden (pg. 34) and Like a Leaf or a Feather (pg. 34). We will finish circle time with the verse Climbing Up the Apple Tree from myprekbox.com.
This week we will be doing our activity first because we will be making a kite. I used the book The Kids Nature Book: 365 Indoor/Outdoor Activities & Experiences for inspiration.
To make the kite, we will use an 18” square sheet of paper from some packing material that was decorated with apples the first week of circle, a 14” by 1½” strip of thin cardboard from our recycling and we will find a stick of roughly ⅛” diameter and cut it to be 18” long. We will also need scissors, tape, glue a strip of fabric, string and a second smaller stick to wrap the string around.
Fold the paper in half and measure the kite to be 18” long and 7” wide (14” with both halves) with the center being about a third of the way down between the two halves. Cut away the extra paper. Place the cardboard across the shorter side length, glue down and cut the edges to match the paper. Cut two 1” long holes on either side of the cardboard right in the middle.
Place the stick (or dowel) down the center of the cut and pass it through the two holes so the paper is under the stick and the cardboard passes over it. Glue and tape the stick down. Place tape along the edges of the kite to reinforce the paper. Cut the fabric into 3 to 5 small pieces to make bows for the tail.
Place a small hole at the end of the kite. Reinforce around it with tape. Tie an 8” piece of string to the end of the kite and knot each fabric piece along the length securely so they look like bows down the back. Tie a string to the piece of stick visible on the underside of the paper. Allow a decent amount of string for a kite and tie the end of the string to a smaller, and preferably thicker, stick. Wind the string around the stick and allow everything to dry.
For our second circle time, we will read our book again and say our verses. Then we too will get ready for winter. We will pack up my daughter’s summer shorts, shirts & dresses, then bring out the tub of 4T winter clothes I have saved up for her. Although she is three years old, she is on the tall side and already moving into 4T. She will help me change over her wardrobe just as the animals change their fur and get ready for winter.
For game day, we will play Find the Nut (pg. 37) in our backyard and then take our kite flying. Where we live we get lots of wind, so here is hoping this will be a windy day for our kite. For the game with nuts, I bought Diamond of California Mixed Nuts in the Shell 16oz . We also had a fun time looking at what each of the nuts looked like in their shell and we will use these for decorations.
Now that fall is here, all the animals are very busy getting ready for a long winter ahead. Here in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado at nearly 9,000 feet elevation we often get our first dusting of snow in September and our last in May, possibly even June, but I refuse to acknowledge this as a possibility. Last winter we barely got any snow, but I’m predicting a very snowy winter this year with feet and feet of snow. Or at least I’m hoping for such.
First Snow Last Year October 13th
Circle time will start with reading the book Pumpkin Circle from our local library. Then we will act out the verse Two Little Hands (pg. 34) and sing Five Little Ducks (pg. 36). Sometimes our circle time will have counting songs out of order from our math curriculum and these songs will be approached in a playful manner rather than expecting my daughter to count backwards along with the song. We will finish up with Falling Apples to the tune of London Bridges from myprekbox.com.
For our game day, we will be doing a Discovery Scavenger Hunt (pg. 39) at our local park. Our park has a lovely hill next to it with pine trees and a small gazebo at the top, as well as an open field that is supposed to be a baseball field, but I’ve never seen it used as such. I will make a scavenger hunt for my three-year-old to find 10 nature items using a sheet with drawings on it. I will share it once it is created. We will also be collecting large flat rocks to bring home. They don’t particularly want rocks on the baseball field anyway.
Our second circle time we will reread our book and sing our songs. Then we will be planting daffodil bulbs in front of our house and talking about the cycle with bulbs growing. We will have to wait patiently to see if any of the daffodils grow and bloom in the spring.
For our activity, we will be painting rocks to go around our patch of daffodil bulbs. Preschool Art explains how to do rock painting on page 39. We don’t have tempera paints, much less clear acrylic craft paint, so we will just use our washable fingerpaints and our rocks will wash clean over time around our daffodils. This just means we will be able to paint them again next year, maybe this time using the correct paint.
This is everything I have planned for our main block of preschool for the month of September. I will update this as we go through everything and see if everything turns out. I will also show on instagram our many projects and their outcomes.
Happy planning!
Preschool is a magical time before children need to be reading or worrying about tests and I can’t wait to share this time with my daughter. I can simultaneously focus on teaching her early academic skills and we can have fun exploring and being creative. She still has a strong need for movement and that will be incorporated into our preschool.
Seasonal Preschool Plan
Unlike my math curriculum, I am not creating a curriculum from scratch for our main preschool curriculum. I am using Preschool Play: Seasons of Wonder Coursebook | Oak Meadow as the backbone for our preschool. This curriculum is packed with stories, verses, songs, games, activities, baking, and art. It is organized monthly, but it is left up to parents how to use the material within any given month. I will share how we are using this curriculum monthly. The stories provided each month are engaging for children and wonderful for inquisitive little minds. The songs and verses are well thought out, and motions are provided with many of them.
Join Us for a Free Preschool Math Curriculum – hummingbirdhomelife.com
Free September Preschool Math Curriculum – hummingbirdhomelife.com
Along with this main curriculum, I am supplementing our experience with 7 other preschool resources, as well as a number of picture books. Most of these I am borrowing from our local library. The exception is the three nature craft books I will be using. All three books are out of print and since I am using them sparingly, I will provide the full details of what we are doing from those books as part of the curriculum. That leaves 4 other preschool resources.
The first preschool resource we will be using is Preschool Art: It’s the Process, Not the Product! (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.). If you really enjoy art projects with your child, I highly recommend buying this book. It breaks down all the projects within it in a simple chart that tells you how complicated the project is and what ages it is best for. The instructions are well written and easy to follow with clear pictures. It also focuses on the process of creating art, rather than the outcomes. There are no cutesy handprint turkeys in this book made more by the parent than the child. Those might be fun for parents to look at, but they don’t engage preschoolers in learning.
The second preschool resource we will be using is 101 Movement Games for Children: Fun and Learning with Playful Moving (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases). If you have a child that loves to move, climb and has way too much energy like I do, I highly suggest this book, especially for the winter months. I will be pulling games from this book monthly for our game days to keep my own child moving.
The third resource we will be using is A Day Full of Song: Companion CD (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases). If you are interested in Waldorf teaching, or plan to follow the Waldorf teaching philosophy, this would be a great CD to buy. I will be using about 6 songs from this CD as part of our preschool curriculum starting in October. My daughter also loves listening to music and picking out which CD or tape (yes tape!) to listen to.
The fourth preschool resource we are using is Nursery Rhymes with CD (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases). This is a textured book with a CD included. This is a wonderful book for children with sensory needs, but all children will benefit from the 22 nursery rhymes. We will be using about 12 of the nursery rhymes in our preschool curriculum starting in December. We will be reading the nursery rhymes, listening to them and learning them together. Nursery rhymes are invaluable for developing pre-reading awareness through developing phonological patterns.
With these preschool resources, a full 36-week preschool curriculum is created. Every week there will be a core story to read and bring to life through our twice weekly circle times. Circle times will also have songs, verses, and finger plays. Some of these will be done sitting, while others will involve moving our whole bodies. Circle time will focus on seasonal changes for nature science, story comprehension and rhyming for pre-reading skills, motions and finger plays for fine motor development and dancing for gross motor development.
Once a week there will be a game day to inspire my preschooler to move her body. These games will focus on executive functioning skills, like learning how to follow instructions, as well as fine and gross motor skills. Most of the games will be simple games with plenty of repetition her little brain and body.
Once a week we will have fun with an art project, nature craft, or baking activity. These will focus on seasonal changes and spending intentional time with my child. The development of the creative side of my child is just as important as academics.
Each of these four days will take up about 30 minutes depending on how often my child wants to repeat the songs and games. We may also find ourselves reading the picture books multiple times over the course of a week, or playing some of the games my child loves outside of game day. Activity days will need some preparation and clean up, as will occasionally a circle time, especially if we will be using a felt board. The supplies will be kept as simple as possible and most of them I probably already have. I will share what we are doing each month.
Happy singing!