L for Leaf

"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers."

 - L M Montgomery

L for Leaf = we got to spend a lot of glorious time enjoying God's beautiful world!!!!

This is the 3rd unit in My Father's World Kindergarten, and I sorta wish they had made this unit #1.  I am glad that we started "L" for leaf back in the winter, because:

 (1) it made me focus on my sons"L" lisp (which is adorable, but time he outgrows it)

(2) It upped his writing confidence. "L,l" is easy to write, while"S" and "M" (unit #1 and unit #2) ARE NOT.

We hit the pause button on this unit back in early March, and now that the leaves are turning....

it's time to start anew!

Day #2 instructions in our manual was to "go on a leaf hunt." We went on one every day for a week:).

I love that even the dead leaves are worthy of collecting in my 3 year old's mind.

Of course, the yellow ones are his favorites (he is yellow obsessed).

(we did have a time-out from the leaf hunt to release the enormous frog Grandpa brought us)

We pressed the leaves, and then put them in order by size.

Of course, we had to do some leaf rubbings, and use the leaf stickers I had been hiding for this unit.

We actually haven't hit the peak color yet, but you never know around here if and when that will happen. I am hoping that our family photos will occur on the magic tree day.

Oh, back to school - Teacher Mom has her head in the clouds again. I wonder how long it will take for my kids to pick up on the fact that I cannot resist a beautiful day outside and use that info against boring school days?

The words to remember for this unit are "I will live and grow in Jesus." My five year old really held on to the fact that we are the branches and Jesus is the big vine. The boys both loved learning the song "Read your Bible, pray every day, and you'll grow,grow,grow...". I had forgotten  about that gem.

   

 I love My Father's World. Yes, my son is beyond counting to three beans at this point. No biggie. We just count 3+3+3+3. I rather feel like we are ahead of the game then feel pressured to push my child to work too hard. He is just 5! Oh my goodness he is smart, and I want to kindle the flame. This curriculum is perfect for us. I can't wait for "T" for turtle, and learning about our 5 senses with "u" for us, and then "D" for dinosaurs (my three year old keeps asking when we are going to talk about dinosaurs). As we add vowels, we also add actual words and reading, and Tobin is ready!

N is for Nest

N is for Nest - unit 6 in My Father's World Kindergarten Curriculum

All of a sudden, writing is coming easily, or naturally, to Tobin. What he used to complain about, he now does without hesitation. He wrote a dozen "N"s and "n"s without blinking an eye. Instead of complaining when he had to come up with items that started with a letter of the alphabet, he colored the items and he actually wanted to write the whole word! 

I didn't make him write "lobster" as that would just confuse him, but I love that he came up with something so unique. Nike for "N" is my favorite. I asked if he could think of a world that started with both "S" and then "a", and he immediately thought "sad"! I think we had our first big kindergarten "Ah - HAH!" moment!!!! That, my friends, is what makes my job awesome.

Of course we made nests. We shredded the shredded wheat for our grass, and used chow mein noodles for twigs. Melted chocolate and peanut butter was our very yummy mud.  (MFW idea)

 And of course, the jellybeans are the little eggs. My blue obsessed boy was SOOOOO excited when he learned that robins actually lay blue eggs:).

We shared our nests with our neighbor (another "N" word that I did point out for learning purposes:))

I got this idea on pinterest of course. I didn't follow exactly, but we got about the same result.

 http://activity-mom.com/2012/07/19/toilet-paper-roll-alphabet-crafts-n-is/

Yet another pinterest idea. I love this lady's website. She has so many wonderful ideas.

http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2009/12/best-of-2009-6.html

Tobin is wearing his badge that we made with our My Father's World curriculum. We learned "God takes good care of me." I love the character-building focus that goes with each topic. 

 I wrote our memory phrase on the eggs. Hey, I had an original idea! Take that pinterest!!! I have a love/hate relationship with pinterest. 

My yellow obsessed 3 year old stole and lost the yellow egg soon after,  
so I am glad I got this picture in time.

We also read one of our favorites: "Are you My Mother?"

Tobin made his own version of the book that included an octopus, but the book has magically disappeared,so... Sorry, no pictures.

This was a gentle, much needed lesson for my always worrying 5 year old. I am so glad we could talk about how God takes care of us just like a mother bird takes care of her eggs. I think it really got the point across in a way that my animal loving son could understand.

A is for Apple

Finally it's Fall and time to return to our My Father's World curriculum!

We started last January, but we stopped because there were no leaves (L) or apples (A) to enjoy in winter! I am so glad I held off, because we went to an apple farm with our co-op friends!

This was a first for me too, and it was a wonderful experience. 

We then took all those apples home that we picked and used them for school.

 We made our very first chart.

 My five year old organized them by color, counted them, and then placed them on the graph I made

 (this idea comes straight from the My Father's World kindergarten manual).

 The MFW also had the idea of making applesauce and an apple pie. I dutifully bought the apple pie at the apple farm. We made applesauce, but it wasn't very good. Good thing I didn't try making the pie:).

 My three year old had a blast playing with the peelings in the sink. He can always make me smile, even when I am frustrated with clumpy applesauce:).

We painted with apples ....

 and we did a science experiment too. The right plate of apples has lemon juice on them.

 We also painted with tissue paper (leaves) and corks (apples)

We read the book Ten Apples Up On Top

I had the magnets of the boys already, so we made magnet felt boards with 10 apples on top both of their heads. They loved this! It was an easy winner!

I am so glad we are back to our regular curriculum. Making your own unit studies is a lot of work and organization! My Father's World makes it so I can relax and make sure we thoroughly cover every letter, number, and season. 

Mexican Fiesta

While Daddy was in Mexico on a business trip, we studied Mexico at home. Thanks to Dora and Diego, my boys understood the concept of speaking Spanish. We learned 1-10 in Spanish, and how to sing "Gloria Dios," "Alleluia," and " Dios es Amor" (with finger puppets).

We looked at pictures I had pinned on pinterest, and we enjoyed our children's atlas book.

http://www.amazon.com/Childrens-Altas-World-Craig-Froman/dp/0890517061/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1381949882&sr=1-1&keywords=children%27s+atlas+of+god%27s+world

We also watched the Kratt Brothers learn about the Monarch butterflies that fly to Mexico every year. My boy LOVES bugs. He retained this information better than anything else we talked about.

Oh, and we talked about shapes. I didn't really find a way to make that about Mexico, but I wanted to review them and add some new ones to his vocab, and I figured now is the best time. We also made symmetrical drawings (butterfly/house/tree), and my little man made a hopscotch game (good way to review his numbers). 

We made a pinata, which was much more time consuming than I had remembered. Tobin was excited about the first layer of slime and newspaper, but after that, I was on my own.

He didn't realize he had cute dots of paper mache glue on his nose:).

We then got ready for the fiesta to welcome Daddy home! Naturally, the boys decided to do something I would never think of: making felt ponchos and pom-pom/foam sombreros for their dinosaurs to decorate the table with. 

The boys and their friends made a "bienvenida a casa" (welcome home) sign, and we finished our Mexican Angry Bird pinata. 

Daddy made it home safely (but sickly-thanks a lot Mexico). Family came over, and the fiesta began. We ate tacos and queso, and we enjoyed listening to some Herb Alpert. The boys loved breaking the pinata, eating candy, and showing off their finger puppet skills.

Out of all my do-it-yourself unit studies, I enjoyed this one the most. I have always loved learning about other cultures, and it was fun to share things I had from my own travels to Mexico.  I can't wait to learn about more cultures and what a big, big world we are a part of with my boys. 

Music and Learning

Life would be better if it was a musical. I grew up on musicals, I grew up playing music, I think in tunes, and guess what... so do my boys:). So many lessons can be taught with music. I have a cd of skip counting songs that we started listening (and learning) this week. Tobin can now play "Mary Had a Little Lamb" on the piano. My boys both love finding the beat and play rhythms on whatever surface they can find. Tobin started his homeschool music class this week too, and he has no problem hitting his little drum to the beat.

           I introduced the idea of what music looks like in written form, and Tobin loved writing the music language of circles and lines with A-G. I love how he just accepts the concept of music theory as another fun thing to learn.

We also incorporated the Bible truth of using music to praise the Lord! We learned Psalm 150:6, and sang lots of praise music together. 

We also enjoyed painting with blue paint while listening to Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin. 

Being a stubborn musician myself, and not very good at technology, this post has taken me about a month to actually post. Why? Because I finally figured out how to post the above videos... I think. Oh, the stubborn part is that I don't want to ask my techie husband who would have figured it out in 3 seconds. So I have lots of posts to work on so that I can catch up! I really want to keep up with this as a journal/diary of sorts so I can feel accomplished in my daily doings:). Hope you enjoy!

and add more music into your lives!

Lessons in Being Kind

   A couple months ago, I had the privilege of attending our local curriculum fair and listen to some wonderful speakers. I had decided to go to a Simply Charlotte Mason meeting because the theme was how to teach preschoolers. I did not expect to come away with so much wisdom on the importance of teaching good character. The simple yet new lesson (for me) was  to teach good character/habits first, and then home-school days will be smooth and enjoyable for all. Considering the behavioral troubles I was dealing with, especially between brothers, I was and will always be striving for good character in my boys (and me) and smooth days. We already have been reading about honesty and believing in yourself.

           This week we began learning what it really means to be kind. My boys memorized the above verse, and we read the story of Catherine Frye and The Value of Kindness. My boys have such beautiful, thoughtful hearts as they led this week in ways I did not expect. My 5 year old decided he wanted to write a letter to his Uncle Tom, who he had so much fun playing with the day before. We also wrote another dear family friend who was grieving over the loss of her husband. The boys also experienced their first funeral this week, and I was impressed by how they understood that it was a serious and important time and behaved very well. That in itself was a kindness and a lesson in respect.

Being the teacher, I of course used the letter writing as a school lesson as well. We learned how to write our address, about getting letters ready to mail, and of course wrote lots of words practicing our "ABC"s. They love to make cards for their Grandma and Aunt. Thank you sis for having a variety of letters in your name so that we had lots of practice:). 

The most important lesson that I wanted to teach was to be kind to your brother. I loved watching Tobin help his little brother write his name on his card. Jonah was so proud and glad to be included.

We ended our week with a science experiment, and a Bible lesson. As we watched the egg in vinegar bubble and change into something like a rubber ball, we talked about how we should be kind to everyone, and we should pick good friends that do not try to change us into bad people (that was the best I could do in trying to put the big idea into little people words). The idea and lesson came from this article:

http://comfyinthekitchen.com/2013/08/egg-experiment-and-a-biblical-lesson/

 24 hours later:

This science experiment was really cool and easy. The boys loved it! 

I just hope I can continue the theme of kindness through the school year by my own example and with Biblical truths at the ready. I find the only way to have this attitude is to begin my day in the Word. "Jesus Calling" by Sarah Young has been a lifesaver and eyeopener for me in my morning devotions. My goal is to be authentic with my children, so I share my thoughts and daily readings with them, even though it can be very hard to explain what is on my heart. I just want them to hear and understand how we can live our lives for Jesus. One day at a time...