Week 16 of Preschool at Home was all about "Navigating Numbers"!
'N' was our letter of the week, and as I'm sure you can guess from the title, our focus was numbers! We counted to 40, and worked on simple addition and subtraction. I also found some great number match worksheets in a kindergarten readiness workbook that Cupcake really enjoyed completing, so I will look to include skill activities like those in the future.
Our craft for the week was a 'N is for Nest' letter activity:
Our learning board:
And I especially loved using this Fisher Price Market toy, to play a checkout game with Cupcake to do some simple addition and subtraction - it worked great!
Week 17 - Happy Home Week!
For Week 17, our theme was "Happy Home" week, Earth Day was on Monday of this week... so we did a few Earth Day activities, talking about recycling and doing a recycling sorting worksheet. The letter of the week was 'H" and since we were a bit under the weather in various ways (colds, allergies, you name it...) we did our basic activities and had a handful of special events that were in our schedule as well, so it was a light week for our preschool activities.
Our craft for the week was a 'H is for Horse' activity:
Next up! Dress-up week... which I'm sure will be a hit with the girls!
For Week 15 we talked about "Growing Grammar" and the letter 'G'!
We had a special play date planned that worked perfectly with our theme, where we painted some garden pots to plant flowers and vegetables in to watch them grow this summer.
Also, we completed some worksheets on the letter 'G', nouns (the part of grammar we were focusing on for the week), and did a 'G is for Giraffe' craft! Since giraffes are a particular weak spot of mine, I had a slight obsession with them while I was pregnant with Cupcake - and decorated the nursery with a jungle animal theme centering around giraffes - we did a "Mommy & baby" giraffe theme craft. I colored the spots on the mommy giraffe and had Cupcake help me glue it together, she colored the spots on the baby giraffe.
Week 14 of Preschool at Home was 'Fantastic Feelings!' week, where we talked about different feelings and emotions, since Cupcake has started to show interest in talking more about feelings. I had recently found a number of books to add to our collection on feelings, so we focused on those over the week and also did some feelings worksheets as well.
The letter of the week was 'F' and we did an 'F is for Fox' craft project!
I also incorporated feelings in an upcoming busy bag exchange that we are taking part in, and I will share that project in a future post - but the exchange happened to be the following week so it didn't line up exactly timing-wise with feelings week. We will continue to talk about feelings off and on in the future though, since Cupcake more interested in understanding what different feelings mean.
I received my first Influenster VoxBox in the mail this month, and I was excited to try it out! I first heard about Influenster while blog surfing one night, and ending up on a blog that I had never read before. After looking around for a bit, I found that the writer was an Influenster member and the concept was intriguing.
After signing up at the website, I shortly received an invite to join and was able to look through the full scope of the website. It is fantastic! A wide range of subject matter to chose from (and focus on the things that are most interesting to you) and within those specific subjects, tons and tons of companies and products - with feedback from other Influenster members and the option to leave your own as well.
I personally signed up to focus on the fashion, beauty, home decor, and mommy areas. These are areas that I find most applicable and most interesting in my life.
After looking around in the fashion section for a bit, I was excited to find a section for Louis Vuitton reviews! (Score!) Of course this was right up my alley, and was able to contribute quite a bit of my material I already had on my Bags4Bubbles YouTube channel, as well as submitting my own written review.
There was a secondary opportunity that was optional if it was something that interested you, called a "VoxBox". This is not paid monthly box service, and instead... if you express your interest that you would be interested in trying out a "VoxBox" Influenster judges whether you would be a good match to receive and review the boxes - and if they do indeed believe that you would be a good match to receive the box you are selected to receive one complimentary.
The only obligation on the Influenster's part is that you agree to fill out an end of program survey on the products in the box, letting Influenster and the companies know what you thought about each of the products that you tried. Talking about the products elsewhere is optional, but of course - trying out new things and talking about them is fun... so where we go!
First Impressions & Final Verdicts
First Impressions (YouTube video form):
Final Verdicts: Vaseline Spray & Go Moisturizer - $7.99 for 6.5 oz. can
** Well known company with a great new product! I was thinking of trying a spray sunscreen this summer, so this was a great product to test out to see what I thought of the "spray" concept. While you still need to use your hands to rub in the moisturizer, I love that it doesn't leave your hands greasy and still leaves you with nice soft skin! I would purchase this for sure in the future. NECTRESSE - $3.99 for box of 40 packets
** LOVE these! These were great and timely! I had just been in the process of eliminating non-natural artificial sweeteners from my diet and was using the other type of popular natural non-calorie sweetener on the market, so these were great to try! I have to say, they work great and I would definitely repurchase them in the future. They taste very similar to other all natural sweeteners and have just the right effect in my tea. I prefer them in iced tea over hot tea. Dickinson's Original Witch Hazel Oil Controlling Towelettes - $5.99 for 20 ct. box
** While the smell on these isn't necessarily "bad"... these do use the same main ingredient as the products they give you after you have a baby. And while I won't go into the fine detail, apparently my nose has a memory sense. I was unable to continue to use these on my face based on the scent, they were nice and cooling, as witch hazel is known to be very soothing. This is not an item I would purchase for myself, but would recommend to anyone that would like a soothing towelette for their face and doesn't have any particular associations with the potent witch hazel smell.
Colgate Optic White regimen: - Toothpaste, $2.99 for 4oz tube - Mouthwash $2.99 for 8oz bottle - Toothbrush $2.99 per brush
** These products worked just "okay" for me, the toothbrush was probably the best out of the three and something I would consider for traveling. (I normally use an electric toothbrush.) I already use a regular Colgate toothpaste, so trying this product wasn't too far of a stretch for me... however I did feel that the Optic White toothpaste made my teeth too sensitive, so I will be sticking to my "regular" Colgate toothpaste that has whitening effects in it, but isn't a full "whitening" toothpaste.
The mouthwash was a bit too harsh for me as well, the taste was something close to hydrogen peroxide with no additional flavoring and I just couldn't get past that. (Disclaimer: I normally use a mint flavored mouthwash, so I might just need that flavor to it to be able to use it.)
Overall, I would purchase the toothbrush in the future. I will be sticking to my regular Colgate toothpaste and other brand mint flavored mouthwash that I was already using. belVita Breakfast Biscuits - $3.69 for a box of 5 packets of 4 biscuits
** Love these breakfast biscuits! They were delicious and would be great for breakfasts on the go! The taste was very nice with a hint of cinnamon - not too sweet and didn't taste like cardboard either! I will be looking for these the next time I'm at the grocery store and would definitely purchase them in the future! FTC Disclaimer: Items in this blog post were sent complimentary from Influenster for purposes of review. All opinions are my own.
Week 12 of preschool at home was in celebration of Spring - "Beautiful Butterflies"! To talk about all of the wonderful things we could look forward to in the Spring (albeit, no warmer weather where we lived yet) including more animals showing up in our outside environment, warmer weather, and green on the trees!
The letter craft for 'B' was an adorable little bear! Cupcake had a great time putting this one together!
Our Easter parties began this week, so we did have a craft playdate at a friend's house where we did some Easter crafts. The girls also had their pictures taken by our friend and had a great time posing with their stuffed Easter friends!
(Thanks to our favorite crafty mommy for taking these photos for us!)
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Week 11 of preschool at home was all about "Telling Time"! In honor of the "Spring forward" time change that we had this week in the United States, we talked a bit about the clock and what the time change would mean for us.
Our art activity was a "T is for Tree" letter activity:
She was also very into painting this week, so I had her paint the back of a paper plate green... and we made a turtle out of it!
We also had a clock that Cupcake decorated and we practiced moving the hands around. (Since she is still only 2 years old, I focused more on the general concept of telling time... rather than an explicit instruction of it.) We counted up to twelve and talked out our schedule, and how telling time helps us be places... on time!
Here's how our letter wall is shaping up!
Be sure to follow me on at the places below, to follow our Pre-School at Home activities and see what inspires me at Pinterest!
