Friday, February 18, 2011

Learning by Heart – week 16

 

“The mother’s heart is the

child’s schoolroom”
Henry Ward Beecher

{M is 4 years old}

We were fighting colds (and losing) this week, so not a lot happened on the preschool front.

Here are a few of the activities I threw together on the spur of the moment for M…

Hammering “nails” (golf tees) into a cardboard box:golf tees and cardboard boxHonestly, I’m not sure what, if any, skill this works on.   Practical life, maybe?  But it sure is fun.  He used to love doing this with styrofoam, but cardboard does not give as easily as you might think and gave him a new challenge.  He decided to add some colored paper to make a design:hammering tees into the boxAnd then he turned the whole thing into a surprise for Daddy.  The “design” on the left is a smiley face, and on the right he used the golf tees to spell his name.  What?  You don’t see it? ;)finished design

More “picture pies”, like those mentioned in last week’s post:"picture pies"

 

About a year ago I found a little wooden puzzle on sale at Michael’s.  They are basically tan gram pieces, except the two large triangles that are normally in tan grams were cut into 4 medium-sized triangles.  I’ve looked all over the internet for printable puzzles to use with these, but haven’t had much luck in finding ones large enough to actually place the pieces on.  I finally picked up a book full of puzzles (I can’t remember the name and I’m too lazy to go look right now).  I’ve copied a few of the puzzles and enlarged them.  I’ve been placing a new puzzle on our fridge every few days and M has really enjoyed doing them.  He does need some help, but I’ve been very impressed at how well he’s done with these:fridge tan grams

completed tan gramI glued magnetic strips to the backs of the pieces, and used wood glue to make the 4 medium triangles into 2 large triangles like a traditional tan gram set would have.

 

We have had some beautiful weather, and M bundled up to go outside and ride his bike on the cleared-off driveway.  Ah, the feeling of freedom that comes from a bike. :)M, riding his bike

 

And, of course, there was some valentine making.  I will not bore you with the hundreds of valentines M made, but I’d like to show you the ones he was most excited about:valentine for Max

valentine for Thor

back of Thor's valentine These are for Max and Thor, two dogs.  Yep – he loves them and a whole lot of love went into making these valentines. :)

 

We also baked up some yummy valentine cookies, which we also painted.  I think I first saw the idea over at The Artful Parent - she used food coloring and water for the paint.  I’ve been reading MaryAnn Kohl’s book, Discovering Great Artists, and in it she mentions egg yolk painting, which sounded awfully interesting to me, so we decided to combine the two ideas.  We whipped together an egg and some food coloring, painted it onto cut out heart cookies, and had a lot of fun!egg yolk "paint"

cutting heart cookies

painting cookies

ready to bake finished cookies - a few of them were close to being burnt! Yum!

I’m linking this post up to Preschool Corner and Weekly Wrap-Up; be sure to check them out!

Have a beautiful day! :)

 

6 comments:

  1. Just read your post from The Homeschool Classroom. Many hs'ing parents walk through the same issues you describe. You are doing great with your son, and as long as you believe (know) this is what God wants you to do, Keep doing it!

    When the hurtful comments come to me, I calmly explain that we feel led by God to home school, and our children are doing great. (I have the kids take a standardized test - Stanford - yearly, so I know they are above grade level.)

    I love your pic of preschool. Brings back good memories. I homeschool 4 high schoolers!

    I'm your newest follower and look forward to reading more of your journey. ~ Elle

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  2. I love those cookies!! I also love the golf tees and the box! Looks like fun :-)

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  3. Painting cookies, how much fun is that!!!

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  4. I've read about cookie painting but didn't think it would work. Yours came out great! We'll have to try it! Glad your weather is nice right now.

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  5. I love the idea of the golf tees! My boys would love that!

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  6. I found the same puzzle at Michaels and it's just been sitting in the back of my closet gathering dust. Time to pull them out!

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