Learning by Heart – Spring Fever

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

 

~M is 4.5 years old~

LITERACY

We continue to play our little word sound games, as detailed in this post, and M is progressing well through the first set of Bob Books.  He is not crazy about the story line in these, heh.  But really, any first reader is going to have plots like Mat had a cat.  The cat sat on the mat.  The End.  :)  I am happy that his desire to read stems from the joy of a story, and his comprehension of a complex plot continually amazes me.  Yet, we have to start somewhere – he can’t begin with Mark Twain or Charles Dickens, haha.  I am slightly concerned that his interest in reading on his own is waning as we go through such simple stories… any ideas?

MATH

Math got a post of its own this week. :) You can read the review of what we’ve been doing (mostly) in math, here.

SCIENCE

We’ve been enjoying the outdoors and learning about plants, flowers, trees, and birds over the past few weeks.  We’ve used a lot of our 3-part cards (click on the images if you are interested in downloading any of these sets)…

Bird identification:We have new little bird friends in our backyard this year – a sweet bluebird family in one of our birdhouses, and some yellow-rumped warblers.  We normally only see the warblers for about a week as they migrate through, but this spring at least one has stuck around, and is welcome to stay as long as he wants. :)  Most of our bird-learning has been done spur-of-the-moment style, and we race to our favorite bird identification book a lot:

We are also reading The Bird Book for Children, by Thornton Burgess.If you can get your hands on this book, it’s well worth reading.  There’s a lot of information packed into this little book about birds: what they look like (beautiful illustrations), what they eat, where they nest, how many eggs, etc.  And it’s all written in story form to appeal to the young child.  M loves all of Thornton Burgess’ books; each one really is exceptional. (A side note – Burgess was a naturalist as well as a great story teller.  Each of his books is packed with information about animals and nature, and M doesn’t even know he’s learning because the story is just so good.  I am tempted to make lap books to go with each story for next year, since M is already talking about reading all of these again.  We’ll see…)

Flower identification:

Parts of a flower:

Parts of a tree:

Parts of a leaf:

And M has been tending little pots of marigolds and forget-me-nots (kits found in the Target dollar spot):

 forget-me-nots, just beginning to sprout

forget-me-nots, beginning to grow!

 marigolds, just beginning to sprout

 marigolds, beginning to grow!

He will have his own little garden outside this year, and already has big plans (bigger than the plot will be, to be honest) for vegetables and flowers.

Two books about plants that we’ve enjoyed reading are:

PRACTICAL LIFE

Making seasonal arrangements is one of M’s very favorite activities.  I set out a dish, some florist’s foam, and a few seasonal items on picks or wires, and he is happy for a good 30 minutes.  Here is his spring arrangement – flowers, foam, and bowl were all from Dollar Tree; the birds were from some Christmas decorations:   

And M has been mowing the lawn:Hahaha – just kidding. ;)  He is steering the lawn mower in the above picture, but the blade is up for safety, and no actual mowing is going on.   And Daddy is keeping him very safe (note the ear muffs to protect his hearing; I think they are so cute!).

ART AND MUSIC

Painting outside is always fun.  M and I had a blast painting on an old roller shade out in the grass:

trying out some splatter painting

And painting a new birdhouse:

All finished:

 

M made this bright and cheerful flower garden in an egg carton:

And we’ve been enjoying some new spring-themed songs.  Our favorites are Robin in the Rain, and this one:

The Rain

With a drip, drip, drip,
and a drop, drop, drop,
See the rain on the pane,
Will it stop, stop, stop?

With a wink, wink, wink,
And a blink, blink, blink,
Will we ever see the rain,
Do you think, think, think?

And M has been watching, and loving, this:

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

Have a beautiful day! :)

 

Flower Nomenclature Cards (free printable)

I recently made some 3-part flower nomenclature cards for M.  These are very simple, and label only the stem, petals and parts on the inside of a bloom.  I’ve made two cards with the petals highlighted; one is labeled “petals”, and the other is labeled “corolla”, in case you want to be scientific. :)  Personally, we use “petals”.  You can find other sets online that label the leaves and sepals (the little green cup that encases the petals, then cups the bloom”), and other parts too.

But these are free.  Heh. ;)

M just loves 3-part cards – what is it about them?  I really don’t know, but they definitely appeal to him, and he enjoys working with a new set as soon as I have them done.

You can download this set by clicking on the image below: 

Please remember these are for your personal use (classroom or homeschool) only.  You are welcome to link to this post, but please do not offer this printable on your website.

Enjoy!! :)

Have a beautiful day! :)