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DD has enjoyed math so far this week. In addition to a bit of work in her math workbook each day — here are some things we did together: Place Value: She is finding the numbers 500 90 and 7 and stacking them on top of each other (bottom left of pic) to make 597. These plastic place value cards are from our Right Start Math curriculum, but can be...
Here are a few things in ED’s workboxes as we get back into the swing of things. Using tweezers to sort colored pom-poms (I have a sticker with the appropriate color for each section.) Placing erasers on the end of a pencil. Since ED is past dropping things through a hole, this is a good skill for her — both lining up the hole in the eraser and having to...
One of our activities before our holiday had us thinking about the ingredients of a hamburger and where each ingredient originated (and how everything, even the hamburger itself, tied back to plants). It was time to use some of our Montessori sorting cards again since they helped the kids contemplate where their food comes from. Where Does Food Come From? From Plant to Food (Montessori for Everyone): This set had...
While on holiday it was time to think through our homeschooling plans for the next 5-7 weeks or so. I always have a running plan in my head, but sometimes it’s useful to put it down on paper, so to speak. As you will see, I am trying to include a lot more Newberry honor and medal winners now that DD is a bit older. I’ll continue to read lots...
Lots and lots and lots of rides… including “It’s a Small World” (left) Checking out the alligators. A bit of mini golf. A wonderful children’s science museum type place called Wonder Works. The kids LOVED the ropes course at Wonder Works. Kennedy Space Center — we were SO sad not to see the launch (which was postponed to four days after our visit instead of while we were in...
DD checks out the gardens… but sadly it’s not ours. Any guesses as to where we are? Here are a couple of other hints. Yes, the past 10 days or so we’ve been down in Florida with Grams and Gramps. (Posts were set to go off automatically during that time.) We had such a wonderful time! We were all healthy and enjoyed getting away. Best of all I feel...
Today LD found a turtle out in the yard. We think it is an Eastern Box Turtle. We learned quite a bit about these critters: *Turtles can live 50-100 years.*Turtles as a species have been around for 250 million years.*Turtles eat insects, earthworms, millipedes, beetles, caterpillars, fruit, mushrooms, berries and vegetables.*The plastron or lower shell of the turtle can help identify its sex. Male turtles’ lower shells are concave (goes...
ED has been doing a new unit on the human body. I’m using Everybody Has a Body: Science from Head to Toe (affiliate link). It has such a wonderful array of hands-on activities for preschoolers. DD has been enjoying them as well. ED has been putting this skeleton puzzle together for several days now. This puzzle was called Look Into Your Body All About You From the Inside Out with Floor Puzzle...
Knowing we’d be doing the hamburger plant activity and to get us into the proper mood, we had hamburgers for dinner the night before! This activity came from the instructor’s manual of the Junior Master Gardener program. The next morning we drew pictures of an imaginary hamburger plant. The purpose of this activity was to discuss the origins of many of the ingredients in a hamburger. When you trace things...
Gardening continues to be a rewarding part of our home life. We all have an incredible enthusiasm for our new gardening adventures! Here’s a glimpse at our veggie garden. I put in planks to keep ED and the others from wandering all over the garden. They enjoy balancing along them and have claimed certain sections for themselves! We already have quite a large number of lettuce plants (since that’s one...
There is so much to consider about buying salmon. I sure didn’t realize any of this so thought I’d share. 1) Salmon are carnivores. In the wild they start eating microscopic plants and animals. As they get bigger they eat tiny crustaceans (krill) which gives them their pink color and then larger fish. 2) Farmed salmon is a nice gray color. Hmmm… but salmon farmers resort to cosmetics to change...
We found another book series that has LD really engaged. The books are called Andrew Lost and they follow the adventures of a young boy who builds a shrinking machine. He, his cousin and their robot get lost on the neighbor’s dog — in the midst of blood-sucking monsters (fleas). They continue on to other adventures 2) in the bathroom 3) in the kitchen 4) in the garden etc. This...
We continued to read The Corn Grows Ripe (about a Mayan boy and his family) this week and talked about life Mexico. We read about these imaginative creatures called Alebrijes at this art lesson plan website. In Mexico these are carved from one piece. Since we had lots of woodscraps (I bought lots of wood craft kits of cars, bird houses etc. for 50cents back in December), this seemed like...
We eat a lot of raisin bread in our household. In the past six months the price of raisin bread has gone up 50 cents. Plus, the ingredients in the loaves at our local grocery store make me shutter a bit. So, the past few months I’ve been baking my own raisin bread. I’ve been experimenting with different recipes. Last night I came across one (here) and modified it just...
