This week we had a fish stuffed with newspaper hanging from a chandelier, a collection of colored shaving cream on the side of the house, and celebrated the arrival of a stuffed wombat as if Christmas came early.

How was your week? 🙂

Family Highlights and Announcements

Guppy

Bear Picture: Guppy is 9 months old!

This sweet boy is standing already.

Don’t blink, it goes by so fast my friends!

Wombat Delivery

Those of you who have followed our Give Your Child the World Reading Book Club know that Ladybug fell in love with a book called Wombat Divine. She has been reenacting the book, but using a stuffed rabbit instead of a wombat, since our house is sadly lacking in stuffed animals from Australia. Uncle Mat came to the rescue and found Ladybug, “her very own, personal wombat.” Yes, she actually said those words. She immediately identified it as a wombat upon opening the package.

We give her an “A” in random stuffed animal identification 🙂

Postcards

Grandma has been traveling this week and sent postcards from Kentucky! The kids love getting postcards almost as much as they love having her come back home 🙂

Feather Boa

The feathers go everywhere and with a baby in the house, the boa has to stay outside, but she LOVES this thing.

Thanks Sherry!

“R” Fledgling Home School

Curriculum, Book Club, and Program Highlights

Mother Goose Time

We started a brand new year with Mother Goose Time. This month is the “Me and My Family” theme.

We made paper plate crowns. The Make and Play prompt encouraged the kids to pretend they were Kings of Kindness and asked them to draw what they could share or give to be kind to others in their kingdom.

We made some playdoh monsters and played with the letter “M.”

We did an Invitation to Create that let us associate different colors with our moods.

We made a dog “shaker.”

We read an alternative version of Little Red Riding Hood that has accompanying story pieces. We also reenacted parts of the story. Ladybug found her very own Red Riding Outfit 🙂 Minus the hood.

Ladybug really liked this Invitation to Create focused on cats because she got to use twist ties and grass in her collage.

Read Around the World Summer Book Club

We finished our tour of the world with the Give Your Child the World Reading Book Club. We had so much fun with this adventure. The kids are already asking to do it again!

I found a Kindergarten level Around the World Curriculum from Build Your Library. I think we are going to complete this program and add books we love from Give Your Child the World.

I had a ton of fun looking up recipes, crafts, and activities to go with the books, but it was pretty time consuming. I’m happy to let this curriculum do it for us for a while and then maybe I’ll do it again 🙂

The pictures below are some of the highlights from the crafts, activities, and recipes we tried on our book tour of Australia, Oceania, and the Polar regions.

Yes, I have a giant, stuffed newspaper fish hanging from our chandelier. It’s been quit the conversation starter for questions. The mailman didn’t even raise an eyebrow when he saw it. Guess he’s used to the craziness that is homeschool preschool at our house!

Papaya!

Pineapple Papaya Coco Sipper from Micronesia

Bounce Eye, a marble game from Australia

Cooking With Kids

A is for applesauce! The creator of What’s Cooking With Kids has an entire A-Z curriculum designed to get kids into the kitchen while learning more about the ABCs. It’s one of Ladybug’s favorite parts of the week. Owl mostly likes to eat the ingredients 🙂

Check it! I totally took this picture to get a shot of Ladybug tasting the applesauce. I totally missed that she had “baby wombat” suited up in a baby bib ready to try it too! LOL

Timberdoodle

We were gifted a Timberdoodle Preschool Curriculum Kit when we first made the decision to home school preschool. The one we received had some Kumon Mazes, which Owl loves. Owl is working on My Book of Easy Mazes, the first in the series.

He likes to complete them and then erase all his marks and do them again. He also likes to act out the mazes. “Oh, no, I drew over the line,” which he often does intentionally. “Don’t worry, pencil, Mr. Eraser will save you.” It’s hilarious!

“R” Weekly Rhythm

Morning Basket

Our music selection for the morning basket this week has been Vivaldi, “Spring” from “The Four Seasons.”

The kids are fans of this one!

Messy Monday Morning

Shaving cream paint! The kids had a wonderful time painting on the concrete, the play gym, and each other.

I need to put making a plexi-glass easel and buying some washable watercolors on my list!

We used sticks to stir in the different colors, so they didn’t mix until Ladybug wanted them to do so.

Owl is obsessed with cars and last time we had the shaving cream out we used it as a car wash, so he was all over trying to make prints and tracks with his cars. We use the Little People Cars. They are nigh indestructible. I use them for all kinds of crafts and they are big enough to not have to worry about them with the baby. Love them! Want more of them!

Poetry Tea Time

We are really enjoying selections from “A Child’s Anthology of Poetry.” (No, I don’t have any idea why the cover of the book on Amazon looks so different from this one.)

Their favorite poem this week was “Hiding,” by Dorothy Aldis. Owl thinks this is the best poem ever!

We also continue to read our soliloquy from Midsummer Night’s Dream and some Mother Goose 🙂

Science Wednesdays

Some of our favorite science is done in the kitchen. This week, we made apple sauce in the crock pot with a kid friendly recipe from What’s Cooking With Kids.

Ladybug pouring in the apples cooking with kids

Ladybug was able to do almost all of it all by herself. She needed help peeling the apples, cutting them safely, and carrying the crock pot. Otherwise, it was all her with a little taste testing from her brother. Even the presentation with the cinnamon stick was her idea and she’s never even seen Master Chef.

Campfire Thursdays

The kids decided that they wanted to do some art after our campfire songs. We used Usborne’s I Can Draw Animals and created a turtle. I love how well Ladybug is doing with her drawing. Once she gets a little bit better control over her fine motor movements she’s going to be a better artist than me!!!

Nature Study

We are so into our big backyard this time of year. We have mini-beats and seeds and all kinds of glorious things galore!

Mama Corner

Mama Homework

Why does it get colder the higher up you go into the mountains of the Swiss Alps?
- I.E. a preschool/kindergarten level explanation of altitude.
What is eglantine?
What is a roundhouse and is it used for trains?
Ladybug has also requested that we learn more about wombats and sew a pillow.

Mama Gratitude

I am so very grateful that fall showed us it’s on its way this week with a morning cool enough Ladybug actually pulled on pants for her morning securing the perimeter………. Every morning she runs out before breakfast to see what if any changes have happened in our backyard. She is our official nature lover!

Mama Momments

1. While making applesauce with What’s Cooking With Kids, Ladybug had to taste all the ingredients.

She described the cinnamon stick as smelling just like cinnamon, but tasting like bark. She wasn’t convinced it should go into the mixture! LOL

2. Mommy, “I feel little star tinkling fires on my foot.” Her foot had fallen asleep and she wanted me to touch it to see if I could feel it too. I loved her description.

3. We started using “The Boxcar Children” as a read a loud at night. It’s the first time our nighttime reading has been a chapter book. So excited!

4. Ladybug has started to show an interest in writing her letter correctly and forming words. I think her “A”s look pretty good 🙂

5. Guppy took off the safety latch. Just reached up and removed it! Good thing we are a child proofed home – sigh…LOL

6. We spent most of the day in the pool on Tuesday. Owl set the slide into the kiddie pool and used that for almost an hour. He kept sliding down his toys, saying “down goes the car, down goes the horse, and down goes me.” He’s so precious!

Mama Projects

1. I’m gathering the last of the materials I need to start A Year of Playing Skillfully and Around the World Curricula we will be using this year.

2. I’m working on creating a Bullet Journal/Common Place Note booking system to replace my planner. It’s terrifying, but hopefully worth it!

3. I’m researching Charlotte Mason, Classical Education, and Waldorf teaching philosophies in an effort to find the right fit for my family.

Fabulous Finds Around the Net

What Makes Night? A Simple Pre-K Science Activity ~ Playground Parkbench

Process Art for Kids Using Colored Salt ~ Buggy and Buddy

What if Michael Phelps Trained in a Kiddie Pool? ~ Planet Smarty

5+ Nature Games For Your Home School ~ My Little Poppies

Our Family’s Week In Books

Our Current Family Read-aloud is

Dad is reading

Grandma is reading

Mom is reading

Ladybug (4 years old) is reading

Owl (2.5 years old) is reading

Guppy (9 months old) is reading

What has your family been doing and reading this week?

Comments

Lucinda says

08/30/2016 at 2:07 pm

Life in your house looks so much fun! I smiled just looking at all the smiles. My youngest is 11 now but we still keep cans of cheap shaving foam in the cupboard. You’re never too old for shaving foam play. 🙂
- Erika says
  
  08/31/2016 at 2:04 pm
  
  I love to hear that! I thought your house looked incredibly fun when I visited your page 🙂 Continued smiles is an aspiration of mine!