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We added labels to our map of ancient Greece. Then we took turns adding deep blue water and making the Aegean Sea! It was a good lesson on much more than just the geography of ancient Greece. Some of the islands were covered by the water. We talked about the fact that there are mountains under the oceans. We also talked about the fact that when the levels of the...
Last year we did a unit on Ancient Egypt. We really got a lot out of that geography project as well and I thought I’d share it (since we started this blog after that). We shoveled sand into the container, then laid down a aluminium foil river bed (so the water didn’t all wash away). Then we placed fertile soil on the aluminium foil and “flooded it” and watched the...
I love music and it has always been a big part of my life.I play the oboe, guitar and piano and am learning thedulcimer. LD started learning the piano earlier this year and isdoing really well. Still, I wanted the girls to get to sing,dance and enjoy music as well. I set aside two differenttimes to do music activities during the week. One ismore for ED and the other is...
In keeping with our forest theme, we’ve played thisfun game outside the past few days. The object is to grabthe squirrel’s tail while protecting your own. In ourversion we each had a couple of tails to start out with! FOX AND RABBIT GAME: Another good game we played this week was the “Fox andRabbit” Game (from Family Fun website). Two players areblind folded. One is the fox and has to...
Our cakes these days always have decorated cookies onthem instead of fancy icing. For one thing, my cakedecorating skills are lacking, but also the kids lovedecorating the cookies and everyone gets to be involved. We had a lovely birthday, though ED was a bit under the weather.
I wanted to share a couple of things that are workingreally well for us for handwriting. I had heard aboutsandpaper letters. In fact, I’ve heard that a lot of peoplehave made their own. I decided to buy sandpaper letters(ours are from didax.com). I have found them SO helpful.Both LD and DD enjoy doing them and it helps LD withsome of the letters he hasn’t been forming properly. I wish I...
Grandpa also sent us some pattern blocks when he sentthe sandpaper (tactile) letters. ED and DD have reallybeen enjoying them a lot! We found lots of free patternblock printables at http://prekinders.com/pattern-blocks/I printed them in color on one side and black and whiteon the other (to make it more challenging for DD).
The cicadas are out now and I promised LD that wecould go to the park to hunt for cicadas. I packed a picniclunch and we headed there after Kindergym (for ED). At first the only wildlife we saw were the birds (galahs,middle picture and the crested pigeon, bottom).
But then after our picnic lunch we went down closer to the (now mostly dry) river bed and saw lots of little critters– a little frog, a cicada coming out of its shell and a large 6-inch/15 cm praying mantis. By the way, once the cicada has dried, it is orange and black we just happened on it in the ten minutes or so when it’s still drying and the...
LD spotted another cicada just about to emerge from its shell (this time in our backyard). I didn’t get the camera in time for the initial emergence, but I promised LD to put pictures up. To be honest, I find this as fascinating as the kids!! How amazing nature is!!
LD really enjoys this activity. I’ve talked about itbefore, but it’s worth another mention. It’s adaptedfrom Peggy Kaye’s Games for Math. On the back of a rug, I drew a target (it’s hard tosee the target in the picture but the rug works wellbecause it has little rubber nubby things that helpstop the paper clip from sliding). The center circleis worth 1000, the next ring is 100, the next is...
Honey over at Sunflower Schoolhouse made a very cute princess-themed board game that you can download for free. It is a generic game and you can fill in the cards to suit whatever you are studying. Here’s the link to the Princess Quest Game.
