Learning by Heart – Outer Space

 

“The mother’s heart is the child’s classroom.” – Henry Ward Beecher

{M is 5 years old}

Goodness.  It’s been a while since I wrote up one of these posts!  We’ve been “doing school”, but it’s been sort of a haphazard here and there these past few months, and my motivation for writing about it has been null.  I’ve been lazy on many levels since late November… M had the flu, then I had the flu, then there was the first trimester of my pregnancy in all its miserable glory, not to mention Christmas thrown in somewhere along the way… and well, we got a little off track to say the least.  And the house is messy, maybe even dirty – and while I have no desire to actually clean anything up, still I feel guilty blogging when there are so many other things that need doing. :)

Yet here I am.  So I guess I’ve succeeded in pushing down those guilty feelings. ;)

Anyway.  M is totally into outer space these days, which I think happened about this time last year too.  This time he’s all about the planets and the sun.  He reminds us of the little boy in Jerry McGuire, with all the interesting facts he spouts off at random times… “Did you know that if you could go to Jupiter, you’d get instantly squashed flat because it has so much gravity?”  “Did you know that without the sun we’d all be dead and frozen?”  “Did you know that if you could get close to the sun you would instantly burn up and melt?”  I think it’s safe to say he’s entered that phase where the morbid is  utterly fascinating. :)

 

Books:

We read the books in the carousel below.  His favorites were the Magic School Bus – Lost in the Solar System (audio version), and the Cat in the Hat There’s No Place Like Space.

 

I also picked up the video version of the Magic School Bus: which was a big hit!  This was the first time we’ve checked out Magic School Bus items and I have to say I was very impressed with both the video and the book.  I know I’ve heard nothing but good about them, but I’m happy to say they both exceeded my expectations (and I’m very picky when it comes to what M is allowed to watch!).

Most of our learning came from these books and the video.  The rest of what I’ll share was mostly for fun and to feed M’s interest…

 

Sensory:

We made homemade moon sand.  I did not get a good photo of the items used in the sand because M was always so busy playing with them.  They are all either buried in the sand or awaiting their trip to the moon in these photos:

I used a Space Toob: , which was a big hit (and which you can get for a reasonable price at Michael’s if you use one of their 40% off coupons).  I also added in a couple of scoops just for fun and M used a wooden ball for an asteroid.  He really enjoyed having it land on the sand and make craters (his idea!): You could use large rocks for pretend asteroids too, which would be a bit more realistic. 

 

Tan Grams:

We worked together to figure out how to use our wooden tangrams to make a rocket on the fridge:

Science:

M received a telescope for Christmas and we used it to look at the moon one very beautiful full-moon evening.  We also caught sight of a couple of planets (which just looked like big stars with this low-power telescope).  All very exciting stuff!  It was neat to see the craters on the moon enlarged.Shots of the telescope at night didn’t really turn out very well, but here you can see him spying on the neighbors during the day.  Heh.  He said he was looking at a tree, but I’m pretty sure it was the neighbors. :)

M loves a pack of outer space flash cards I picked up at Target a year or two ago.  I pulled out the ones with pictures of the planets, and he decided to line them up in order on our window sill.  He memorized the order of the planets, and I didn’t even know it until I saw him doing this!

I made up some little planet name cards with pictures, laminated them, and he traced their names with a dry-erase marker, then matched them up to the appropriate flash card.  You could just use these to place in order, if you don’t have pretty flashcards. You can download the cards here.

Next, he decided to copy the planet names down in his handy-dandy, never-far-away notebook. :)  (This little notebook is going to be a treasure when he is older!)

 

Crafts:

M made a rocket from a paper towel tube (similar to the one in this post, but not nearly as pretty):He lobbed it around the living room until Daddy came home and made him stop.  I am sooo much more lenient about this sort of thing because busy boy equals resting mama and there’s quite a bit I’ll allow in order to make this happen these days!

We also made little straw rockets to blow around:Wish I could’ve gotten a shot of this in action – I even enjoyed playing with these!  You fold a 2” length of paper in half lengthwise, tape it shut except for about 2” at the end, cut the open end into strips, fold the tip into a point and tape, then insert a straw and blow the rocket into the air.  Very fun! 

 

Linking this post up to Preschool Corner and Weekly Wrap-Up.  Check them out for some great homeschooling posts!

Have a beautiful day!
Nicole :)

 

Learning by Heart – Oct. 28, 2011

“The mother’s heart is the child’s schoolroom”
-Henry Ward Beecher

M – and a hula hoop. :)

Besides trying his best to figure out how to “work” a hula hoop (which was hilarious, by the way), M had a great week…

 

Independent Activities:

I bought a Kumon book of crafts a few months ago to keep M busy on a long car trip (it was perfect for that), and he recently re-discovered it when I was sorting through some craft supplies:

There are 80 pages of crafts in this book.  It has kept him busy and interested all week long.  It’s great for scissor practice and folding practice.  It calls for glue, but M has (thankfully) chosen to use double stick tape instead.  All kinds of neat little things can be made – a dancing dog and a rooster that flaps his wings are two of our favorites so far,  As well as this little fishing game:

Making the fish…

and then catching one.

The only downside, as you can imagine, is having somewhere near 80 little paper crafts lying around the house. :)  Still, I highly recommend it.

 

Pin punching autumn shapes:

M still really enjoys these.  There are two ways to do this – place push pins around the outline of the shapes, like this: Or use one pin to make holes all along the outside of a shape and then punch it out (like a perforated shape).  He loves doing both, and they are both great fine motor skill work.

 

Design and Drill set – well, this was supposed to be a photo of M drilling a design, but then he decided to make hand shadows where the sun was shining on the floor. :)  (I wrote more about this great toy a while back in this post, if you are interested.) 

 

Science:

We have a drawer full of “dead” batteries.  I am not sure why M insists on keeping batteries that are all used up, but we have learned to just not ask questions about these things or we will get an earful on batteries, which may just be his favorite conversation topic ever.  Anyway, they came in handy this week when M decided to build a battery tester with his Snap Circuits set: (the railroad track is just there for decoration, because we LOVE stepping over things like that in this house.  All. the. time.)  Turns out, many of the batteries still had plenty of energy in them to light a 2 watt lightbulb or make a small motor go, so now they’ve been relocated to the “non-dead” drawer and it’s only slightly annoying when we have to go through them again trying to find one that will actually work in something important. ;)

 

Math:

We played a “penny drop” game this week.  This was kind of taken from Peggy Kaye’s book, Games for Math:

I made a quick chart of numbers 1 through 9 and we took turns tossing or dropping a penny on the page.  Whichever number the penny landed on was the number of linking people we would pick and link together.Once they were all gone we looked at our rows and guessed who had more (simple graphing), then counted them to see if we were correct.  This was fun, but not much of a challenge for M.  However, I love these little linking people and just had to use them for something. ;)  

 

Literacy:

M has been practicing his writing.  He seems to have a preference for the letters M T H E and W. ;)   An occasional N and A get in there too.  He has been seeing how tiny he can write, and then of course I have to read it back to him, which really is about as much fun as you’d imagine. ;)

 

We played a little game matching up objects with their beginning sounds for a few random letters (based on whatever small wooden pieces I could find lying around, which were originally from Michael’s).  I had written the word on the back of the objects so we could self-check to see if we had chosen the correct letter.  M matched upper case to lower case also: I was glad to find that he didn’t have any difficulty with this, seeing as how we didn’t do much of this sort of thing over the summer.

We also played a feeling game with the large foam letters.  M would close his eyes (he decided against a blindfold, very emphatically) and picked a letter.  He would feel it for several seconds and make a guess.  I usually gave him a choice between two letters and he did really great!

But I don’t quite understand the bare shoulder thing going on here, or why he insists on wearing snowman pajamas already. :)

 

M also made up a little story this week and had me write it down on his whiteboard so he could copy it: I do not take dictation as quickly as he’d like, so I may have missed a few parts. :)  I think this is a great idea for helping him focus on spelling and phonics.  In the near future I plan to see if he would like to make up a story for me to type out for him,  and then have him try to sound out some of the easier words… we’ll see how it goes.  He is definitely more interested in this kind of thing if it builds on something he’s already created.  

 

Art/ Sensory/ Spelling/ Science:

This was the hit of the week.  You can read about it in this post from earlier in the week.

 

Creative Play:

M was awfully proud of the suspension “bridge”, which was actually more of an entire suspension track, that he made:The photo is not terribly clear, but he had an entire train track built up in the air around our living room, held up here and there by whatever was handy.  His trains actually went around the whole thing a few times, until of course the inevitable and spectacular crash happened. :)

 

M went to a Build and Grow class at Lowe’s (for children 5 and up) and got to build this little wooden monster truck with a real flashing light and glow-in-the-dark stickers. :)  He was very proud of himself and enjoyed hammering real nails into wood! The apron and safety goggles, as well as the supplies for building the truck were all free.  This is a great program, and Home Depot has a similar one.  I highly recommend it for any wood craft lovers out there!!

And we made some delicious pumpkin muffins:I wish I could pass them around to all of you, they were the perfect treat for this time of year!

I am linking this post up to Preschool Corner and Weekly Wrap-Up.  Check them out for some great homeschooling posts!

Have a toasty warm and beautiful day! :)

Learning by Heart – Oct. 21, 2011

“The mother’s heart is the child’s schoolroom.”

      - Henry Ward Beecher

 I never see M more joyful than when he is playing in the leaves!  But why does he wear his bike helmet non-stop?  Do your children do this?? :)

Technology really seems to have something against me this year.  I lost my USB cable for my camera, so there are not many photos for this week.  {Sigh.}  We actually had a really great week and I was very excited to write about it.  Ah, the irony. :)

However, for you that means a nice short and sweet post. :)  Here’s a bit of what M’s week was like…

Nature Basket – I recently added a magnifying glass to this to add a new level of interest.  Here are M’s fall treasures thus far:

Pinecones, sticks, interesting weeds and rocks, a cattail, 3 feathers,
and a shell from our river walk. 

 

Remember last week when he learned our phone number and how to properly use a phone?  Well, this week he learned our cell phone number, and took to calling himself and talking to himself on both the cell and the home phone: I am not kidding.  He was actually having a conversation with himself. :)  Looks like a good one too, doesn’t it?

 

FINE MOTOR SKILL WORK:

Scissor Practice – I folded some construction paper in half and drew one half of an image on the front: M had to try to cut right on the lines and then guess what it was before he opened it up.  This tied nicely into our recent discussions about symmetry too.  Interestingly, he didn’t guess any of them right.  He guessed a hill, a blahblahblah (some nonsense word), a Christmas tree (?!), and a robot.  :)  They turned out to be, in order: a pumpkin, an acorn, a leaf, and a scarecrow – he could tell when they were opened up (thankfully!).  I drew the pumpkin, acorn, and scarecrow freehand, and found a maple leaf template on Google Images (I’m not sure of the link, but there are many available).

He did great with these and stayed right on the cutting line, having trouble only with the scarecrow who unfortunately lost part of his hat, and had his head entirely cut off. :)  Thank goodness for tape!  M had a lot of fun putting funny faces on them (the stickers are from Michael’s) and hanging them on the window!  This turned out to be a big hit!

 

Lacing cards – I sometimes forget about these, but we have many of them, and it is easy to make your own.  M still loves to do these, and he comes up with new things to do with them:Like “sew” them together and hang them up as part of the fall decor.  Sometimes I think our home looks like we have a 5 year old decorator, and then I realize we actually do and that I love it. :)

 

Caramel Apples – We had fun making caramel apples this week – just 3 of them because somehow we ended up with a very small amount of caramels. :)  M was in charge of unwrapping all the caramels (great fine motor work that takes a long time, but is highly motivating): 

I think we added a bit too much milk to the mix because even after our caramel had cooled and we had dipped the apples, only a very thin layer covered them.  But they were delicious!  And I think they were beautiful, don’t you?

 

Crocheting!  That’s right – crocheting!  I’ve been crocheting for over 30 years now, and over the summer M took a huge interest in this and we’ve been crocheting up a storm together ever since.  This is how we do it:My hands are on bottom, holding the crocheted fabric.  I love seeing how much alike our hands look. :)

It is too difficult for him to maneuver the crochet hook and yarn while holding onto the fabric, so we snuggle up and I hold the fabric for him.  He does everything else and he has really gotten very good at it.  Of course I guide him and talk him through it as needed.  It’s a good little extra snuggle time for us. :)

Here’s a “shaving washcloth” he made for Daddy’s birthday:

We did manage to squeeze in some math, science, art, and a little phonics work too, but those pictures are still waiting.  Hopefully I’ll be able to share them next week!

 

Linking up to:

 

 

 

Have a beautiful day! :)

Learning by Heart – Oct. 14, 2011

“The mother’s heart is the child’s schoolroom”
- Henry Ward Beecher

  M’s finished “autumn decoration”, caught in early morning October sunlight. 
Beautiful, isn’t it?

We’ve settled into a sort of routine, finally.  Mondays we do math.  Tuesdays we do science.  Fridays are our field trip days.  These days have been going well, for the most part.  Wednesdays I plan literacy activities, and Thursdays are for art.   But M’s enthusiasm and my motivation just seem to dwindle away on those days.  It does not help that I plan too many things on my own to-do list for Thursdays, making it easier to decide to not get out the paints, or whatever, after all.  And  M is not enthusiastic about any of the literacy activities I plan and I am ambivalent about forcing him at this age.  Will it help him prepare for Kindergarten?  Do I really think it’s age appropriate?  (Truthfully, no!)  Isn’t having fun and enjoying himself more important at 5 years old?  If I could be certain of homeschooling him next year, I would not worry about it a bit and would just let him run and play and forget about any sort of formal learning this year (except for what he loves and would beg for on his own, which is science and art, and some days math).  But, if he goes to school the truth is he will need to know quite a bit literacy-wise in order to avoid all those awful labels that schools love so much. {sigh}

Ah well, on to what we did accomplish this week: 

FIELD TRIP:

This week we went on a nature walk in an area near the Mississippi River.  Photos pretty much sum it up, I think.  Next week I’ll try to have a picture of M’s nature basket; he has found some wonderful things this fall!

 I love how the trees form a canopy over the path to the river!

 M in front of a giant cottonwood tree.

A peaceful part of the river.

 

Daddy came too!

There was this very cool partial rock wall not far from the water’s edge. 
Not sure what it is for, but M loved it!

 

MATH:

M’s favorite dot-to-dots are from a book I found on Amazon:

I may have mentioned this late last spring, but it’s worth mentioning again.  The dot-to-dots in this book all go from 1 to 100 and they are not too difficult, not too easy – just the right amount of challenge and success.  M loves them!  And for the most part, the pictures aren’t easy to guess at, so working a puzzle is worthwhile in order to see what the picture turns out to be.

Check out that tripod grasp! {Love the tattoos too. :)}

 

More patterns and pattern blocks this week:

 

The Hit of the Week was learning our phone number. :)  M had so much fun with this!  First I wrote our number out on his whiteboard, and he used 3 colors of dry-erase markers to trace over the numbers (rainbow numbers, we call them):

Obviously not our real phone number. :)

Then I showed him how to use our cell phone to press the numbers and push the “talk” button.  He absolutely LOVED this and called me about 20 times that day, then called Daddy when he came home from work. :)

Love that little pointer finger all set to push buttons! :)

We started by sitting next to each other so I could help him with the numbers.  Then we progressed on to calling from separate rooms, then on to calling without looking at the whiteboard at all.He did great. :)  By the end of the day he knew our number by heart.  We also practiced answering the phone properly (I called him and he answered). 

 

SCIENCE:

M worked with his Snap Circuits set again, and we used a small cup of water to connect the circuit, making a light turn on (this activity was in the book that came along with his set; I was a little hesitant about it at first, but it seemed perfectly safe).  Interestingly, the circuit wasn’t strong enough to make a small motor go.  We guessed that too much of the energy from the batteries (2 AAs) went out into the water, and not enough made it’s way into the rest of the circuit.  The water “watered down” the electricity.  Clever little pun, no? :)

 

We also baked brownies in M’s Easy Bake Oven (found at a garage sale).  We made two pans – one with a pinch of baking soda, and one with 2 pinches of baking soda (the brownies are tiny; you could do this in the regular oven, but of course you’d need to use the right amount of baking soda for one batch and about half that amount for the other batch.) 

The brownies tasted the same, but the second batch rose about twice as high as the first batch (why didn’t I take photos of the final product??!).  This was a great hands-on way to find out exactly what baking soda does.

 

We also did a couple of heat-related experiments, which I will post about on Sunday, so check back!

 

INDEPENDENT ACTIVITIES:

This year nearby friends may come over at anytime to play (as opposed to actual “play dates” last year) and because of this I’m no longer placing little activities on M’s shelves like I used to.  His shelves also hold his toys, and I do not want to be taking school activities on and off the shelves all day long.  So I’m now setting one or two things out for him on our art/kitchen table each morning.  Usually these are activities he can do on his own after a little instruction from me, and normally they focus on fine motor skills, often combined with a math or literacy type of work.  He does not do everything I plan for him, and I am really trying to be ok with that and working to find more activities that appeal to him.  This is so much more difficult than it used to be! 

This week he enjoyed…

Making robots, from this kit: :

 

Sticking a variety of autumn decor into florist’s foam:He used velcro dots to attach the mini gourds and pumpkins around the outside of the basket.  You can see his final masterpiece in the photo at the top of this post.  It really turned out nice, and this is always a favorite with him.

 

While I had the velcro out, I gave him a little bucket of craft sticks, old ribbon spools, and plastic lids.  He placed pieces of velcro on each of them (see the original idea here), then enjoyed sticking the pieces together to create little sculptures:

One of his creations:

 

  And a new puzzle from the dollar store, which we did together:       

 

I found these little linking people at Target’s dollar spot a while back.  I’m sure they are for children younger than M, but I just couldn’t resist getting them.  I set them out for him to just play with.  He enjoyed linking them together, and placed little groups of “happy little people” all around our house (I bought 3 sets, so we have 36 total). :)     We’ll use these for patterning and math activities too.

 

That was it for this week!  I’m gathering ideas on helping M learn how to spell our last name, which is quite long, and we’ll be working on this for the next couple of weeks.  Any ideas or tips for this?  I’d love to hear some!

I am linking this post up to Preschool Corner and Weekly Wrap-Up.  Check them out for some great homeschooling posts!

Have a beautiful day! :)