Our First Couple Weeks

We are in week 2 of Homeschooling.

Since I am the worlds biggest procrastinator, this post is going to be full of our activities over the last couple weeks. 

In week 1 we read The Three Billy Goats Gruff. 

One of the activities we had to go along with it was a puppet show. We have never done anything like this with G before so it was great to see how well he retained the story and was able to re-tell it using the puppets.

He made us do the puppet show multiple times. Sometimes he was the goats and I was the troll, other times I was the goats and he was the troll. His retention of the story honestly impressed me!

One of our science activities for week 1 was discussing what scientists do. We talked about the scientific method and then to better understand observation, we went outside and "observed". 

He took his magnifying glass as well as a back pack to store things we found in. First we listened to the noises around us. Being in a small town and farther out of town means nothing but nature sounds with the occasional car. Nothing we could have experienced at our old house in the middle of a city. 

We heard chickens, horses, birds, cicadas, and the wind through the trees. Using his magnifying glass he hunted down quite a few really neat rocks. He also collected 6 pine cones. Once we got back in the house we talked about what we had observed. He loved it!

He loved what came next even more though. Using the pine cones we'd collected, we made a bird feeder. 

Once it was complete he used the magnifying glass, which is slowly becoming his favorite tool, to see even closer into all the things we put on the feeder. 

 Then we put it in the front yard.

This week we talked about community. 

As our art project we made a helping hands wreath. We even got Baby K in on the fun and let me tell you tracing his hand was not the easiest task to achieve! He was happy to participate none the less though. 

Before gluing the hands to the base we discussed how we could lend a helping hand. We discussed what chores he does around the house to help us out and we discussed what he can do for his community to be a good helper. We talked about how he could keep the neighborhood and parks clean by picking up trash he sees as well as donating toys and clothes he no longer uses to those who are less fortunate than him. 

Then he set to gluing.

 He was so proud to have it hanging in the dining room and he had enjoyed doing it so much he asked to make another one! We will leave that for another day though.

To better explain measuring to G we had him help Momma make cookies. He was so excited to help. He got to help add the ingredients.

He then got to help mix the dough.

 Baby K wanted to help as well so we set him up with his own bowl (of water) and spoon. 

Since we had time while the cookies were baking, we introduced Baby K to his first sensory material. 

INSTA-SNOW!

This has long been a favorite of G's but we weren't sure how Baby K would handle it. I was almost certain it would go straight in his mouth, but don't worry it's non-toxic!

Surprisingly enough he didn't once try and put it in his mouth until Momma mentioned eating in regards to the cookies!

 Baby K enjoyed every second of snow play. 

While G built a snow covered farm and discussed how many farm animals he wants us to have soon, Baby K just wanted to continuously drizzle the snow on his legs. 

He was even more excited when Momma started making it snow on his head!

Which of course meant G needed in on it as well!

 Then G made it snow for himself. 

 Look at that face! I think Baby K's first sensory experience was a success! He loved it. 

Do you use sensory materials in your homeschool? What are some of your favorite materials?

Scatterbrained!

I have to admit, trying to run a business, watching Littles, wedding planning, blogging, it is a whole lot to handle!

 

Despite everything else going on in our lives though, I do not intend to put this blog (or my others) on the back burner. At least not yet. As it stands right now I have Littles from almost sun up to past sun down. My body tends to become exhausted from this.

 

 

We have had quite a few new things go on around here since my last post. We had roommates prior to two weeks ago so our house was rather crowded. Once they moved out though, I had my spare room back. This means that we now have a playroom. A playroom that ISN'T my front room.

 

Up until now we had toy shelves along our hallway and SO many toys in the front room. There was A LOT of clutter! I am so happy to have one room (aside from Gage's room of course) Dedicated to the mess and clutter now. A place where I can just shut the door on the mess when I don't want to look at it.

 

I've also set up our homeschooling station in this room. Gage's desk as well as all of our resources are in here.

 

This last weekend after having finished up our playroom we went to some yard sales in search of wedding decorations. I hit the jackpot though when I came across a sale by a woman who had just closed down her preschool. I paid $18 and scored some great new additions to our room. The three colored chairs in the picture below cost me $2 each. The table in the middle was actually a water wheel attachment for a water structure as you can see though, I turned it into a little reading station. It cost me $5. I am quite proud of that to be honest! I also got a bunch of bucket/tubs for storing toys in at a quarter a piece.

 



 

Now onto the reason people really read this blog!

 

Last week was quite a long week it seemed. One night I set up our bowling pins in the front room, made a 'foul line' from a strip of duct tape and let the boys go to it. I kept score using our overhead projector. The boys each got two rolls and once they were done they had to go over and count how many pins they had knocked down. Fun + learning!

 

Another really great part about the roommates having moved out is that I have the garage back. This means that we can use our light box again! This time I used the light box with the boys to talk about how things feel. At their ages we are past the sensory stage but I don't think it hurts to do activities in which they have to describe what they feel, see, smell etc. right?

 We used glass beads in one bin. The boys described these as hard and cold.

 In another bin I put different colored water beads. The boys described these as wet, cold and squishy!

 In this bin I put some of those reusable ice cubes. They were warm and kind of hard.

 Marbles, round and hard.

 After they had tired of playing with the bins we pulled out the shapes and they let their imaginations go to work.

 Science. Salt, ice, and a metal coffee can.

 Condensation. Describing how the can felt after 10, 20, and 30 minutes. The boys were fascinated by the 'ice' on the bottom of the can and how cold it got!.

 We also played around with coffee filters. First the boys used water colors to paint the coffee filters and then we made them into butterflies using pipe cleaners.

 After that we took markers and colored on them and I let the boys use a spray bottle to see what would happen to the colors when sprayed with water.

 The colors would run and mix together.

 One day last week was REALLY windy which made me wish we had a stash of kites laying around. We don't. So instead I pulled out some paper lunch sacks and the boys set to decorating them using markers, chalk, crayons, and stickers. After they finished coloring them I attached streamers and a piece of string.

 Wouldn't you know it, once we had finished up the kites and got outside, the wind had died down. The boys weren't deterred though, they ran up and down the sidewalk with their "kites" trailing behind them to get them to fly.

On occasion a nice big gust would come up and the boys would giggle so delighted to watch their bags dance around in it!

 

We did so many activities last week. I didn't even list all of them!

Which one is your favorite?