Round & Round

September is when school “traditionally” begins and when my brain still thinks it should.  Autumn is in the air and thoughts turn to structure once again.  The “theme” for the month with my pre-school-ers had to do with “the wheels on the bus” and my activities for them centered around this idea.

I love to watch their imaginations blossom as they play with the “little people”.  Of course we had to sing “The Wheels On the Bus” again and again and again.

 

More wheels on another bus.  When pulled, all of the people and animals spin around and around.

We read lots of our favorite books about going to school and more books about making friends and being a good friend.

Kaitlyn loves to “read” and look at all the fun pictures in the book If You Take a Mouse to School.  She is inspired by the block scene and begins making letters and spelling words with her own wooden blocks.  She is spelling the word “it” above and is pleased with herself.

Nathan still likes to walk around with blocks in his mouth if he’s not knocking over your castle but he is beginning to stack the blocks as well.

We read stories that help with self esteem issues as well.

Kaitlyn matches the split pages in this Eric Carle book; color word to color object and then spells the color as she reads the letters.  She is getting really good with her beginning sounds now.

Gears spin round and round and it is fun to configurate them and watch them spin.

Even my kids spin round and round themselves!  This great sit and spin is even better with music.

 

Even our kitten figured out how to push the button on this activity cube to make the top light up and spin!  So silly.  She thinks she’s one of the kids.

So…

Why???  Why do I have a theme each month?  Well, first and foremost, I have a very small home for our family being the size that it is.  I find that there really is no place for ALL the toys that five children collect over the years.  The kids all use them and they all pass the toys on to the next one.  So most of our toys are actually put away in labeled (by month and theme) bins put in storage downstairs.  A perk to this plan is that every month my toys and bins not only get cleaned but NEW toys come out.  They can be toys that have been in the house over a decade but all of the sudden they are NEW and my kids couldn’t be more thrilled if I had just spent a small fortune at Toys R Us.  Remember, a few months is a long time to a child in their little lives.  And finally, there isn’t as much to mess up, pick up, and keep track of all at one time.  The down side is that this takes time… but it’s worth it.  And having been a teacher, it helps me to focus on various things that my children need to learn.  It’s just kind of how I think now.  Living in small quarters, this really works for us.