We decided we needed to get out of the house and take a break from all this lovely post-holiday PJs all day, vegging time. A trip to the Kid’s Museum was a fun diversion, although overly crowded with other cooped up youngsters.
Bug bike riding with a skeleton.
Fairy whispering into the sound travel tubes.
Pixie checking out some native fish.
Bug observing the twister machine.
The highlight of the day… the music video room!
Ahh, Bug and I just cleared the driveway of 7 inches of snow and it is still falling fast. At least now my dear hubby will be able to pull into the driveway after work… but the rest is up to him 😉 .
Family is starting to gather tomorrow (weather permitting) so I am signing off for the holidays. I wish everyone a safe and happy Christmas. I may pop in with some photos but if not I will be back with the New Year.
I know it is a bit early for me to be posting my Unplugged Challenge for the week since I normally wait until Monday morning but I am planning to take the next week or two off from blogging. Anyway, just thought I would share before I signed off for the holidays.
For the Unplugged Challenge theme Light/Dark we spent some time making stars on the ceiling. Bug got this fun constellation guide (Seeing Stars: Shining Star Light) for Christmas that came with a light and constellation cards. You can hold the light under the cards to display the stars on the ceiling. After bath one evening, we all curled up on the floor of the kids’ room to watch the stars by the light of their little Christmas tree.
Bug loves the movie Clash of the Titans so he really enjoyed using the cards of the characters he knew (Perseus, Andromeda, Pegasus, etc).
Bug got an awesome Star Wars Lego set from his grandparents for Christmas. We spent the afternoon putting it together and for about a week spent lots of time maintaining it in its predefined form. Then Bug was ready to re-purpose the Lego set. There are now a handful of little spaceships all over the house. He said it was much easier to play with and fix the little ships. He asked me to take a photo of the one below.
I just love Legos. What’s not to love? They have such amazing designs which makes me think sometimes that there are adults who get paid to play Legos all day long… this is work that the Bug is doing 😉 . The nature of following those 2D drawing and coming up with an elaborate 3D design is a true exercise in visual perception. And then of course… there is a completely limitless amount of room for creative design on your own.
The last few days were a bit warmer and the rain we had last night melted all our snow. So today we were able to get out and look for some flowerless plants for this week’s Nature Study, BUT the temp dropped considerably today and the wind chill was pretty painful. We only lasted about 10 minutes. Fortunately we were able to find several examples to observe right in our yard. What was really amazing is the bright green moss we found on one rock… hard to believe that yesterday it was buried in snow.
Join in the Outdoor Hour Challenge #42.
Even though it has been on the back burner in my mind, Bug has not lost any interest in his Inside the Body project. I thought I would share some recent images on the topic.
We went to a Kid’s Hands On Science Museum with some homeschooling friends right before Thanksgiving. My kids were thrilled with the human anatomy exhibits. They really liked the floor model heart where you could walk through the valves.
Bug is frequently found curled up with his favorite anatomy book. Hmm… is there something funny about him being curled up in his Blankie and asking about DNA?
After spending quite a bit of time looking at skeletons Bug wanted to make his own with play dough. I made him up a batch of white salt dough and he ended up focusing just on the skull.
We will be starting up our next term after the holidays… Jan 5. In Term Two we will be focusing on the animals in the winter, their survival skills (migration, adaptation, hibernation), plus reading about some of the winter holidays. Nature study will continue to be a big part of what we do… although it may be a bit more at the kitchen table watching birds at the feeder. I also want to spend some time introducing poetry… beyond the nursery rhymes.
We will be loosely following a Weekly Schedule (Preschool and Kindergarten)… with my general outline being:
Every Day: Pledge, Calendar, Days of the Week, Weather, Poem of the Month, Circle Time (songs & finger plays), Bible Story, Free Art Time (play dough, water colors or colored pencils – their choice).
M: Read Story of the Week, Introduce an Art History Image, Introduce the Letter of the Week
Tu: Read Story of the Week, Handwriting, Craft/Directed Art
W: Read Expansion Book, Read Flower Fairy Alphabet Story and color Alphabet Book Page
Th: Read Story of the Week, Handwriting, Do an Illustration and a Narration in Our Story Journal about the Story of the Week
F: Baking Time, Nature Study/Science Theme/Field Trip, Finish Craft if Needed
Daily (Kindergarten only)
Phonics & Math (We are using Spell to Write and Read and Right Start Math)
Art History: You can choose an individual artist to study for a term (like recommended by Charlotte Mason) or use the Come Look With Me series of books to focus on a theme instead. We will be using Come Look With Me for now starting with World of Play.
Bedtime Reading: We are going to tryMy Side of the Mountain. I think my adventurous little guy will enjoy it. Farmer Boy was a big hit. We tend to mix up a couple chapters in a ‘big’ book one night with the kids’ pick of picture books the next.
Term Two Book List
Baking Activity: Russian Tea Cakes (Snowballs)
Baking Activity: Babies in a Blanket
Baking Activity: Bear Claw Cookies
Baking Activity: Sunflower Carrot Muffins
Craft Activity: Clay Birds
Baking Activity: Bread
Baking Activity: Sugar Cookie Hearts
Week Seven:
Baking Activity: Hot Chocolate
Week Eight:
Baking Activity: ?
Week Nine:
Baking Activity: ?
Week Ten:
Baking Activity: Maple Candy
Week Eleven:
Baking Activity: ?
Week Twelve:
Baking Activity: Pancakes and Maple Syrup
Well our backyard is buried in snow atm, but the kids were fascinated with all the mushrooms popping up this past fall so we got lots of pictures and observations in then. Today we watched the video Barb posted, looked at all our photos from the fall and then the kids colored a mushroom page. Here are some mushrooms from our area. I found that mushrooms are hard to ID especially since I won’t let the kids touch them.
Some sort of Puffball Mushroom.
Another form of Puffball Mushroom.
I believe a Shaggy Mane Mushroom.
No idea on these little guys.
Join in the Outdoor Hour Challenge #41.
Ok, this probably seems like a really weird time of year to be investing in and thinking about curriculum stuff but here I am with stacks of new materials around me. I am enjoying being able to read and sort through all the new stuff without feeling hurried to get going with it (well, we have started the Cursive First already). What do I have you ask? Right Start Math Level B (Bug finished A about a month ago), Spell to Write and Read, along with Cursive First (Bug recently finished all the phonics lessons on ReadingA-Z.com), History Odyssey Ancients and Middle Ages and Catholic Mosaic.
So far I am really pleased with all of our new investments. Everything is very hands on. Both the History Odyssey and Catholic Mosaic are based around Living Books with corresponding activity ideas. Spell to Write and Read seems so sound that I am hoping that my own abysmal spelling skills will improve with the program. And of course, I absolutely love Right Start Math! I can’t say enough good thing about that program. I can’t imagine us looking elsewhere for Math until we complete the series. To begin with, we briefly tried Singapore math and hands down prefer RSM. As for science… I am planning to use the Young Scientist Club lab kits as our base, adding in Living Books and continuing our Nature Studies. I also want the kids to have some time to pursue their own projects.
I will give more thorough reviews after I’ve had a bit more time with the products but if anyone has any questions about them please feel free to leave a comment. I would be happy to chat curriculum.
Here is our second project inspired by the Unplugged Challenge theme Fluffy… Waldorf Inspired Baby Dolls. We used super snuggly, fluffy fleece and the kids were in charge of the FLUFF. They completely stuffed their own dolls… even the Pixie girl. I posted more about them, my pattern and step by step instructions over on my other blog Wee Folk Art. Stop on by if you would like to make your own!
