Our two child things (5 and 2) are currently in Hawaii, but we are a military family, and we live where the Army tells us. This blog is designed to keep us in touch with our family and the friends we have made along the way, to offer insight into our turbulent military lifestyle, and to share our experiences as we try out "homing school." So glad you stopped by!

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Homing School Arts and Crafts: Abeka


Pre-K is all about the arts and crafts! Kids love doing this sort of thing (and so do moms), so I bought a book of art projects at the beginning of our school year designed specially for 4-year-olds from Abeka Book. It contains 5 projects for every month in the school year, and for the most part, they coordinate with the season.
Overall, I have not been too impressed with this book, but it does have some redeeming qualities, I suppose. Here are the positives:

1. It's affordable. Less than $15

2. It has allowed my daughter to learn to use scissors fairly well.

3. The projects are quick and easy. There's very little prep work for the parent to do, so it's basically a no effort/no planning craft project once a week.


However, these aren't really art projects. It's just cut-and-paste. And though the child thing kinda has fun with the crafts, they certainly do not encourage her to develop any creativity. The crafts don't involve any painting, drawing, designing or creating. Instead, you cut the three pre-printed circles off of the paper and then glue them to the pre-printed scene to make a snowman. Somewhat entertaining for a four-year-old, perhaps, but not nearly as exciting (or as intellectually stimulating) as making your own dough, forming it into beads, painting them and making your very own necklace! We're still do the projects from the Abeka book once a week, but I am sure to encorporate some other, more creative, craft project into the week as well.

3 comments:

Amber said...

Just wanted to let you know that I did get your question in my comments the other day. I've been planning for awhile to do a sort of homeschooling FAQ on my blog, where I answer some of the questions I get asked a lot about how we homeschool. But I don't know when I'll ever get around to it. In a nutshell though, we do MOST of our schoolwork during naptime. The 2 littles still take 2-3 hour afternoon naps and that's when we do the bulk of our schoolwork. I'm about to try re-working our structure (the term I use in place of schedule) and I'll let you know how it goes.

Amanda said...

Thanks, Amber! Yes, let me know how it works.

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