Random Homeschool Bits

Wow, how has it been a month since I have blogged?  Oh wait, that's right...I have been babysitting, and homeschooling, and decluttering, and then there was swim lessons and life in general.  There simply isn't enough hours in the day to always write about what we did.  
The numbers above are my take on Rainbow Writing.  O is practicing her handwriting and working on learning site words, and this is yet another way of practicing.  We have also used pattern pieces to practice reading.  After O wrote with several colors of crayons I pulled out the glue and she traced the numbers with glue, and then sprinkled colored rice from our sensory box on top of the letters.   

A math game we have played at least a dozen times in the last week is pictured above.

It is like shut the box, without the box.  

We write out numbers 1-12 for each person playing.

Roll two dice and then the person rolling gets to decide if she wants to use each number individually or add the numbers together (Ex I rolled a 5 and a 1.  I can either cross off 5 and 1 or I can add them together and cross off 6).  The goal is to mark off all the numbers before your opponent.  Easy Peasy.  Teaching addition and strategy.  That number 12 is always difficult.  Sometimes we cheat, and cross it off without rolling 2 6s :)  

We also have been playing with Duplos with the kiddos I have been babysitting.  Last week all four kids worked together to build a tall wall using just about every Duplo we own.  It was so fun watching them all work together and encourage each other to keep building higher.  All the kiddos worked together for a good 10-15 minutes before the 1 year old lost interest.  Then the older girls worked together.  They were probably 3/4 of the way finished when the 1 year old wandered back over and knocked over the wall.  O was devastated.  Without saying a word, she got up and walked to her room and cried.  She said "I know he is just a baby and doesn't understand, but I want the kids to leave now"  Yeah, I felt bad for her.  I helped her rebuild the wall and this time we pushed it up against a wall to make sure it stayed up this time. 

After we rebuilt it we measured how tall and wide it was and tried to estimate how many blocks we used.

And in other homeschool news, I purchased my first curriculum.  I am super excited for it to arrive.  It is for Math.  With all the kiddos at our house so often, I have run out of time to make my own material.  Although I love creating my own curriculum I think this will be a nice change to our homeschool routine.  I went with Right Start Math Level B.  It is based on the Montessori approach that I have been using, so I think we will be able to transition to it easily (I hope!).

Fall Activities

Today, I have two projects to show you.  We love them both so much we tend to do them with each season change (we just switch up some of the materials, and the poem/words).  Both of these activities are pretty versatile for different ages.  I started making some of this material when O was 2 (over zealous, aren't I?) and she is still using the same pictures now, just in different ways.  

I keep all my school items sorted by month, and am always pleased (and a little relieved) to pull out a folder that has fun things from previous years we can adapt to what we are learning this year.

First up:  Poems 

When I first heard about this idea on a blog I follow, I thought, 'that's so not going to work.  My daughter will never be interested in poems.'  Well, I was partially right.  It depends on the poem, Mama's attitude, and if there are fun things to do with the poem.  

I will be the first to admit that my skill level when it comes to drawing/artistic things is about 5th grade.  Yes, you can sort of tell what I make most of the time, but it is not pretty.  Thankfully 5 year olds don't care.  Put it on foam or felt and they will get down right excited about the new material.  Add glitter, or textured puffy paint and they may squeal.

The poem itself doesn't really matter, as long as your child finds in mildly interesting.  This one is talking about seasons changing and includes a hedgehog.  If you are over-zealous you can print it in a fun font, and throw some pictures of key words (like trees) on there.  I try to not print unless absolutely required, because we go through ink like crazy.

  

I usually read the poem through once to O, using our handy dandy pointer.  This inexpensive popsicle stick with googley eyes, and a marker mouth has made reading much more enjoyable.  O loves using the pointer while I read.  She will  point to words she recognizes or the foam pieces.

I may ask her a few questions about the poem when we are finished reading.  If there are words she doesn't know (like palette or migrate) I ask her what she thinks they mean, and I try to let her figure it out on her own (with helpful questions from me).

Next up, time to label.  Last year, we just labeled the beginning letter of most things.  Sometimes we would sort them by letter as well.  This year we are using the whole word (I just jot the word down on an index card I cut in half).  We start with just a few labels (2-3) and add as she learns the words.

Finally, after we have exhausted every idea this Mama has for poem work, we make up our own story using the pieces.  O has quite the imagination and comes up with all sorts of stories using the pieces.  If your child has mastered rhyming (or maybe to practice) you could make up a poem that rhymes using the words.

Next up, Mr. Scarecrow

I don't really have a good name for this, sorry my brain is foggy.

I made 6 parts to a scarecrow (in the Spring I use a rabbit, and in the winter I use a snowman).

Hat

Head

Shirt/torso

Legs

Post

Bird 

If O hasn't watched me pull all the pieces out, I pull out the pieces one by one and ask her to guess what we are making.  Next, we may talk about patterns (ok, I know his shirt isn't really plaid, but let's pretend I wove all those pieces, ok?).  In the past we labeled him by colors, counted how many parts he had, talked about what scarecrows are used for, etc.  

Now we put the scarecrow together.  We mix up the cards, place them face down, and draw one at a time.  We each take turns selecting the parts to correlate with the word.

When O was learning her numbers and not at all interested in letters we played the same game with a dice.  I drew one piece for each number she would roll.  She would have to tell me the number of dots, and then put the pieces out.  When she was this little, I also had a template I traced, to make it easier for her to know where to place the pieces (this was especially helpful with rabbit ears and also the circles for the snowman).

Finally, reuse, reuse, reuse!  If I am going to spend that much time making these little pieces we use them every way we can think of.  Don't be afraid to mix the pieces a little as well.  (Because I am crazy I have a color-coded sticker or label on the back of everything so I know what it goes to just in case it gets misplaced and I have no idea what that blue bird is for).  

This year we put the scarecrow together from this activity and had corn from something else, and the hedgehog came along to much on the corn.  Count the stripes and polka-dots.  Have your child use letters that are placed in their room (like those foam mats with the letter cut-outs) and run back and forth from the living room to bedroom grabbing H for hat, and B for bird.  My daughter laughs hysterically when she plays this game.

If you are really on top of everything, you may laminate all those pieces, but that takes away the fun texture of the shirt and hay.  I used to laminate (or cover with clear contact paper)  everything.  I don't anymore, because I don't have a problem with O destroying the pieces.  

I try to switch things up each month but Mr. Scarecrow might stick around through October if I can think of different ways to use him.  

Do you use themes when teaching?  How do you incorporate fun into learning?

Balloon Painting

This idea came from my college days in preschool classrooms.  

I gave O the choice of painting with balloons or doing some multi-medium artwork with paint and pastels.  She enthusiastically chose the balloons.  

It began well enough.  3 paint colors with coordinating balloons.

She enjoyed painting with balloons for a grand total of 4 minutes.  She smeared the balloons across the page (interestingly, she drags stamps across the page too after just a few minutes of stamping the correct way).  She mixed a few colors, then asked if she could paint with her fingers.

Maybe she will like activity in a few months.  We will have to try it again later.