Fun with Math and Wiki Stix

I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned our Wiki Stix before.  We’ve had them for ages, and I bring them out once in a while just for “something to do” – M loves them.  He kind of forgets about them, but when he sees them, he loves them.  They keep him busy for a loooong time, if that helps sway your decision to go buy some. ;) 

 

I put out simple activities for M most mornings.  Occasionally I am stumped for something new to do and go through my craft and school supplies for inspiration.  So one morning last week I gathered up our autumn-themed play dough mats (placed in plastic page protectors), and our Wiki Stix and set them out for him:

 

He really enjoyed this!  This would be wonderful counting practice for younger children.  I can’t say M really counted as he did this, because that is no longer a challenge for him, but he enjoyed making little spirals out of the Wiki Stix and sticking them to the pages.  This is good fine motor skill practice!  The best part about this, and what I intended it for, was that it helped him work on forming the numerals, an area in which he needs practice.

 Honestly, I can not look at those little hands without
wanting to kiss them or have a little nibble on them!

I love when something comes together that is so much fun for him he doesn’t realize he is working on anything. :)

Have a beautiful day! :)

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. 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! :)

learning by heart – sept. 30, 2011

 

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

- Henry Ward Beecher

I am still struggling to find a way to fit our lessons into our busy weeks.  I am so thankful for these posts, where I’m able to focus on what we actually did, and see that it was enough, instead of only remembering what we did not get to.  I have heard that homeschooling pre-K and Kindergarten (I feel we have a foot in both of these places) can be done in just one hour per day.  And so 5 hours a week is my goal – you would think it wouldn’t be so hard to manage 5 hours, wouldn’t you?  You homeschooling mothers that do 5 hours every day… you are amazing!!

Here’s a bit of what we’ve been up to…

 

LITERACY SKILLS:

M has been writing up a storm.  We were recently given an old school desk that my husband had as a child, and we placed it in our breezeway for M:The top opens and there is storage space inside the desk.  I filled it up with lots of goodies: notebook, dry erase board, markers, pencils, his ABC collage and trace book, game book, etc. 

The first thing he did was grab a pen and his little notebook and set to work writing.  Here is his very first all-on-his-own journal entry:Need a translation?  :)  It says, “Matthew loves Mommy and Daddy  I’m 5 years old!”  Not bad, huh?  Some letters are missing and some things are written right to left instead of the other way around, but it is an awfully sweet first sentence if you ask the Mommy or the Daddy. :)  M did this mostly on his own, only asking me how to spell “years” and “old”.

We do a bit of copy work each week too (or more often, if he asks).  I let him decide what he would like to write, and he dictates it to me while I write it out on his whiteboard.  He then copies it into his little notebook.  Interestingly, this gives me a bit of insight into what 5 year old boys think about:“Car!  Go car!  Go scooter!”  Hee hee. :)   This is similar to what you would find in an early reader, isn’t it?  I find it interesting that he despises early readers and does not want anything to do with them because there is often no “real” story involved.  Yet, he LOVES writing similar things and is so proud of himself when he does. 

And, do you think the love of exclamation points is possibly genetic? (!!!)  I like to think we are just very enthusiastic about life around here. ;)  Actually M found out about exclamation points from a bottle of OFF! bug spray.  He recognized the word “off”, and was very excited to learn that an exclamation point gives emphasis to what you are saying, almost like shouting.  Let’s just say he likes to emphasize everything he says. It makes things much more exciting, you know.  :)

 

SCIENCE:

We did some fun science activities and experiments related to light and colors this week.  I’ll be writing about them on Sunday, and linking it up to Ticia’s Science Sunday post, so be sure to check back!

For now, I want to tell you about a great gift M received for his birthday in late August.  Have you heard of Snap Circuits? 

The set consists of metal connectors that snap together (so you don’t have to worry about your child playing with actual wires, although two “jumper cables” are included also), and you can build electrical circuits, using two AA batteries.  You can make the circuits do a variety of things.  There is a motor that makes a plastic fan spin, a music box, other sound boxes, lights, etc.  M has the junior set which came with a book of over 100 electricity-themed projects to do.  There are add-on sets too, which I’m sure he’ll be getting in the future.  He is really into batteries and figuring out how electricity works, so this is perfect for him!  You can learn more at the website I’ve linked to above. Sets of Snap Circuits have won a number of awards, and it is such a great tool for learning.  I’m not receiving anything for writing about this (although I think I may sound like a commercial), I just think it’s an outstanding product and I’m so happy we heard about it.  M works with his set every day, and it’s such a fun and easy way to fit a bit of science and engineering into our days.

 

MATH:

I am finding math work to be the easiest to prepare and actually do these days, but that means some worksheets, and well, you probably know how I feel about worksheets. I am planning on using a lot of the great games found in Peggy Kaye’s book, in future weeks, to supplement: (Thanks for the recommendation, Kim!)

This week however, we did a 1-100 dot-to-dot page, for numeral recognition and practice counting.  M loves dot-to-dots, and he’s working very hard to get to the point where he can work one of these all the way to 100 on his own:

I’ve started posting some blank pattern block puzzles on our fridge for M to work on throughout the week, whenever he wants.  I also place the blocks he’ll need next to it (which means I have to solve the puzzle beforehand, not always an easy thing to do!).  He has done great so far and really enjoys this:

  

We also played “store”, which is great for learning about money and making change, as well as grouping items into categories! Where are my sofa cushions, you ask?  You’ll find out below. ;)

 

CREATIVE PLAY:

M and Daddy had fun this week working on more engineering skills.  They built a huge (HUGE!) airplane out of Tinker Toys:

 

And M spent a little time aboard a ship he made in the living room:   Ah, that’s where those sofa cushions went!  We are currently reading The Voyages of Dr. Dolittle, by Hugh Lofting.  There is plenty of ship adventure involved.  Very exciting stuff. :)  I so enjoy seeing him act out books he loves.

 

FIELD TRIP:

We went on a little field trip to a local art center which has gardens and trails on its property.  We’d never been here before and it was a wonderful experience.  We had perfect weather and were surrounded by beauty.  There were trails splitting off in every direction and we wanted to stay and explore them all.  We’ll definitely be going back!

There was a pretty little creek with lots of bridges:

We walked along the creek, through a little tunnel, which was very cool:

And found ourselves here: 

Beautiful.  Perfect for sitting and reflecting:

We talked a bit about how lakes and ponds, and creeks, rivers, and streams are different… water that is always going somewhere vs. water that stays in its home. :)  I wonder which is happier? 

The art center was next, but we were not overly impressed with what it had to offer.  We liked these two pieces best:

A hanging sphere made up of fabric pieces cut to look like clothing…

and this pony, encrusted with beads, buttons, and all kinds of things.

I hope you all had an interesting and sparkly week as well. ;)

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

Have a beautiful day! :)