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? ๐
Family Highlights and Announcements
Guppy

Wombat Delivery

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 ๐
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 ๐ 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 ๐
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!





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 ๐


Timberdoodle

“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.


Poetry Tea Time
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.


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

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

Mama Momments

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 ๐
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
Fabulous Finds Around the Net
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?
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. ๐
I love to hear that! I thought your house looked incredibly fun when I visited your page ๐ Continued smiles is an aspiration of mine!