Family Trees

I'm excited to have the opportunity to use Mother Goose Time's preschool curriculum at home with our newly adopted son from China.  I'm hoping that this will help him learn more English and also increase his motor skills.  He has cerebral palsy so is a bit delayed in gross and fine motor skills, plus having been in a orphanage he just hasn't had a lot of exposure to things like crayons, blocks, etc.  Both his older sisters loved Mother Goose Time when they were younger.  Each monthly box comes with 20 daily topics centered around one monthly theme.  We are starting off by learning about our families and day one was family trees.  

Normally we would start with the calendar and weather, but I'm holding off on that part for a little bit until Ronan understands a bit more.  

We started off by reciting who shook the apple tree and worked on counting 5 red felt apples.  

I wrote Ronan's name in yellow highlighter for him to trace with a pencil.  He scribbled on the card, but I know in time he will eventually learn how to trace and then graduate to writing his name independently.  

I showed Ronan a photo of an apple tree, and gave him paper, markers, glue, scissors and stickers to design his own apple tree.  He really enjoyed doing this and worked on his tree for a very long time.  

Elli decided she also wanted to make a family tree.  She designed her own apple tree and wrote the names of our family members on the apple stickers.  

Ronan loves play dough so he really enjoyed counting people and putting them in play dough.  We listened to the monthly themed CD while working.  Tomorrow we're going to learn about siblings.