In Ordinary Time

An ordinary and extraordinary moment...


Notes: Lord of The Rings Risk, a wedding gift, came out of our storage pod and it has been out most days since.  Jonah is loving the Lord of the Rings books and often has the gameboard (which is a map) out and moves the figures as he reads.  Such wonderful play!  And, days like today, I find myself playing the evil forces in an all-day-long game of Risk (with many, many interruptions)... and its not over yet.

And cuisenaire rods are also a hot item these days.  The boys spend lots of time patterning, building forts for risk figures and using them with some great rod math books we were given.
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Late Lenten Trays

I'm going with "better late than never" on this one.  I took these photos in lent, but they never made it to this space.  I had so many plans for our lent together this year, but they met with resistance, so it was a fine, though unremarkable lent.  The one project that was finished (though not used as much as I thought it would be) was to make some seasonal trays for Rowan to use while Jonah did his skill work during lent.  I found these little trays at hobby lobby and am thinking some chalk paint will make them something special one of these days, but for now, they are unfinished wood trays lined with seasonal scrapbook paper.  If you changed the colors, these trays could work for the season of Easter too.   

Word Building: I made this set last year and we used it in our godly play room at church for a work option.  Laminated watercolor paper with purple-painted wooden letters, they are simple and perfect for mister three, who is lately showing interest in letters and sounds.  I bought unpainted wooden letters for a couple dollars at a craft store in St. Andrews and traced them on the paper before drawing and water coloring the objects.

 Beading: Beads on pipe cleaners is a real favorite around here right now.  They are fun to string and then connect into long, long necklaces.

A Sensory Bag: I made the sack from the same fabric as our palm sunday underlay.  It is basically a drawstring bag, but instead of a string I used elastic at the top so an arm can slip in, but you can't see what is inside.  The idea is to don a blindfold mask and then reach in the bag and find an object.  I filled it with a lego, an egg, wooden bunny, small cross, piece of train track, and a wooden peg doll.  I would love to make a card with pictures of the different objects (maybe next year), but it works to have Mum say an object too.

I made these little blindfold masks a couple months ago and have been doing a few different sensory exercises with the boys.  They are fun exercises and are stemming from some research in helping the early cognitive child.  They help with motor and sensory skills that sometime are skipped when a child focuses on reading and other cognitive development earlier than most.  And mostly, I love that sensory games are always eagerly met because they are fun and different.

And, now I'm off to pack these little trays  before I go to bed; slow and steady we prepare for the move!

Paint Your Blessings

Last week we read the lesson about Jesus blessing the children in our Bible curriculum.  I like that the lesson focused on what a blessing is and what it means to open oneself to receive a blessing.

It seemed appropriate to bless the boys after the lesson and I decided to do a secret message blessing (a big hit with mystery loving boys.)  I wrote a blessing in white crayon ("May Christ's light Shine in You, Jonah!" and "May you, Rowan, know God's love for you!") on white paper and then let them watercolor over it and discover the message.  When they were finished I blessed each boy with the words they found.

We also enjoy singing Let the Little Children Come by Steve Green when working with this story. 

 Isaac was just given a paintbrush and water with construction paper.  It was his first encounter with painting, so that was fun to watch!  He loves, loves, loves drawing with crayons (and markers if he can find them... and somehow he does manage to find one most days!)

Church Year Play

This little montessori inspired church year activity surfaced from our boxes.  It is simple to make and Rowan has been having a lot of fun clipping the right colored clips on the pie slices.  I saw something like this on Thoughts from the Sheep Fold last springand made two - one for church and one for us.  I used watercolors on watercolor paper and then laminated it so it would withstand all the clipping.

A Little Texas Fun

We've been enjoying Texas sunshine the past couple weeks and last weekend Jim's parents took us on a fun Texan adventure to San Antonio.  There were the classic sites (the Riverwalk and the Alamo), caves, a wildlife park (thus the african animal photos below), yummy food (oh, fish tacos!) and some quality time in the pool.  

Giotto made Egg Tempera Paint.

So did we.

I purchased the book Discovering Great Artists: Hands-On Art for Children in the Styles of the Great Masters this year for school and love the idea.  In the book each artist is introduced along with an art project for the child in the style of the master.  I had grand plans of looking at one great artist a week and making a scrapbook with the kids art on one side and small reproductions of the artist's work on the other side.  But, homeschooling is really hard when you lack a home and your own rhythm, so some of these extras have fallen by the wayside.  But, we did do the Giotto activity to make your own paints by smashing chalk pastels and mixing them with egg.  The boys loved the crushing and mixing; they made more colors than they used in their quick paintings.  I'm hopeful we'll discover more great artists soon...

Insects!

We loved our entomology unit this fall.  It was meant to take a month, but it stretched out a bit and I'm just now getting photos from the last couple months organized.  There was an ant farm, an ant picnic experiment, a cricket home, a butterfly garden, and lots of insect observation for nature study (we are enjoying this book).  Watching caterpillars become beautiful butterflies, seeing the efficiency of ants, and attempting to catch dragonflies over the pond were my favorite moments.  I also based Rowan's options around the theme (see previous post here.)

We read A Cricket in Times Square together, it is such a fun book!  Other favorites were Two Bad Ants, One Hundred Hungry Ants, and The Life and Times of the Ant.

(un)Preschool

  I love to plan and teach.  In some ways, it is like I plan school for two kids, but it is really quite different too.  While Jonah has 'required skills', Rowan is rarely (if ever) directed.  But, because the space we are working in is small it means that what I provide for him to work and play with is, of course, directive in another sense.  

I dug the wooden train set out of our boxes from Scotland (which are currently living in my parents garage) and Rowan has played with them for hours in the school room this week.  He also has My First School Book from Handwriting without Tears, a slate, and a Stamp and See Screen.  So far he chooses to use one of these to draw and color most days.  He likes sitting on his stool and 'doing school with Jonah'.  He also has a nature journal to draw in and some curriculums like History, Science and Bible have fun activities that he eagerly joins.  He also hears the music, literature, and French.  I've been surprised when he pops in with a french answer while playing with trains - oh, little brains are amazing sponges!

Here is some of the other work that Rowan can chose while in the school room.

A sensory tray.  I always love the sensory trays on montessori blogs, but so often they are full of plastic trinkets and beads, which aren't really my thing.  I looked for some wooden cut outs of bugs, but was unsuccessful.  My mom bought these bugs in a tube.  Everything else on the tray was collected within ten feet of our school room - sticks, moss, bark, grain, leaves, grass, ivy, and wildflowers.  Surprisingly it is still playable after a week, though it is all a little dry.

Libraries are awesome!  Our library downtown has themed backpacks you can check out for preschoolers.  Each one has several books, a couple puzzles, and song/game sheets.  I can't tell you how excited I was when I found the them.  The boys have both enjoyed the puzzles and books.  I hope to try out some songs tomorrow.

Counting cards.  Mom had these insect counters downstairs and I made simple counting cards.  Note: I showed Rowan how to do these when he asked, but he hasn't used them since. 

I had a photo of this movable alphabet in our first school post of the year.  This was our big expense for Rowan this year.  While in Switzerland he was given Curious George Learns the Alphabet and he has fallen in love with letters.  So, when I went to plan school for the year I decided that these would be a great investment.  I'm sure that I'll have Jonah using them for spelling too.

I made the cards by simply tracing the letters in the word I wanted and drawing the bugs (please don't notice the eight legs on the ladybug - I made these very late one night :o)  I love that this is a way he can chose to play with letters if he wants too, but it is independent work and he can chose to play with them in many ways (stacking, sorting, making designs...)