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 :)

 

3-d nature art – hot glue style

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I haven’t mentioned much here about M’s enthusiasm for the glue gun.  He loves it.  He uses it only with supervision, is extremely careful, and is responsible enough that I trust him with it.  I would not advise a glue gun for every 5 year old’s art supply set though.  Ours is a low temp gun; I can not use a high temp gun without getting blisters – I would never allow M to use one.

The wonderful thing about hot glue is the freedom it gives you to build upwards when creating art.  Regular white glue would not hold as well, nor would it dry as quickly.  Quick-drying glue is important when you are 5 years old and building something as fast as your imagination can go. :)

I started with setting out a few supplies: Glue gun, glue sticks, sea shells, glass stones (florist style, flat marble), wooden beads, craft sticks, pine cones, and a sturdy surface to place everything on.  A thick piece of cardboard would work… we ended up using tagboard from the back of a certificate frame.  A piece of wood would be lovely as a base as well!

Then I sent M out to scavenge in the yard.  Since we’ve had a mostly brown winter it was easy for him to find several interesting things:

Then the fun began.  M was very particular about deciding just where everything should go.  He absolutely loved this.  He finished two masterpieces and begged to do more.  If I’d had enough material for bases, I think he would have done this all afternoon!

  

The finished artwork… Can you tell what they are supposed to be?

Playgrounds!  We added some peg people the next day:
I love that he built miniature play areas… it reminds me of a fairy land sort of thing – something I’m not sure he’s ever heard of (poor child) – beautifully made with bits of nature and, of course, the amazing hot glue gun! :)

Have a beautiful day! :)
Nicole

Magic Bubble ARt – review

 

Growing Tree Toys recently sent us this fun little kit to use and review. 

We’ve done bubble art before – with dishsoap, water, and food coloring – and truly the fun part of this is the bubble blowing.  So, yes, that’s simple to do at home without a kit; but I noticed that the colors this time, with the kit, turned out to be much more vibrant, and the included crafts were a bonus.

Here’s everything the kit includes:The picture is so very bright it isn’t showing the tons of punch out pieces that came with this.  There are 90 shapes and stickers included, and a little booklet that gives ideas of things to make.

Also included: pipe cleaners, dye, a stir stick, straws, green embroidery thread, paper cups, and a large bottle (much more than we needed) of soap with gold glitter in it. 

I was not sure about the glitter soap, but it did sparkle up the bubbles (as long as we occasionally stirred it), and looked so pretty on the paper after it had dried!  I’m afraid my photos aren’t good enough to show this, but take my word for it – very pretty!

The basic concept is to fill the cups about 1/3 full with water, soap, and dye; then stick in a straw and start blowing bubbles onto the papers and shapes.  This MUST be done over some sort of covering – we used an old towel – because the dye will stain.

M really had so much fun doing this.  I wish the kit had more disposable cups because they got very soggy very quickly, what with the bubbles spilling over the sides, but obviously regular cups could be used also.

Blowing 4 colors of bubbles all at the same time proved to be a lot of fun too: Take a look at that towel – definitely a good thing we used it!  Fingers were stained too, but all in the name of fun, and no worse than when dying Easter eggs.

Now, M would have been content to blow bubbles all day long, but he knew this was a review and very seriously did every single craft included.  In one sitting.  He is a sucker for punching perforated shapes out of cardstock, so I think that had something to do with it. ;)

Here is a look at about half of the bubble prints he made:

 

A few things he crafted from all this colorful goodness…

A crown:

A hot air balloon:

Flowers: 

Stick puppets, a fish, a door hanger, and some pretty patterned paper to use in the future:

As we were doing this (yes, I did get in on a little of the fun too!), I kept thinking about how perfect this would be for a birthday part, or any group of children.  More cups and straws would have to be used, but there is definitely enough soap and dye mixture and paper crafts to make this fun and engaging for a group of 4 to 5 children.

M ended up loving this much more than I anticipated!

Have a beautiful day! :)

*I was provided a free Kid Concoctions’ Magic Bubble Art kit in exchange for writing a review.  This review is entirely my own, honest opinion of the product.

Art Time and a little spelling Practice

Deborah over at Teach Preschool has a wonderful Facebook page, where she shares great ideas that she runs across when she is online.  It is truly fabulous.  And that is where I found this little idea about puffy paint (and I’m kicking myself for not noting the blog where she saw it).

This project was definitely a hit!

We’ve done something similar to this, here, and that was also a hit with M, but today’s version gets microwaved and turns all soft and puffy (or hard if you put it in for too long – oops!)

Recipe: 1 Cup of flour, 3 tsp of baking powder, and 1 tsp of salt.  Mix these together, then add enough water to make it pourable, but not runny.  It’s a bit like pancake batter, so go for that consistency, although I think ours would have been better just a tiny bit thicker than we had it.

 

I used a funnel to pour it into 3 squeeze bottles, filling them up about 2/3 or 3/4 of the way; then added food coloring and shook them up until it was mixed in.  The shaking part may not have been the smartest decision since it made the baking powder want to explode out of the bottles, but oh well.  You might want to mix your colors in bowls, and then transfer them to the bottles. ;)

 

I had written our last name on some cardboard, in “bubble” letters and M filled them in with the paint.  He loved this.  I’ve been trying to get him interested in learning how to spell our last name, and was so happy that this worked!

This is how the paint looked wet, as M filled in the letters:

He loved doing our last name so much, he asked me to write his first and middle names out for him too, so I did and he painted his entire name. :)

We put the painted cardboard in the microwave for about 20 seconds at a time, testing it each time to see if it was done.  It puffs up and feels a bit like play dough, except firmer and not mold-able of course. 

Very cool results:

 

I was thinking of this as art, but M kept referring to it as our “science experiment”, and I guess he was right too!  So, we had art, spelling, and science – and fun – all in one.  It doesn’t get better than that! :)

Have a 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! :)