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.

(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...)

Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Tomatoes!

The garden is overrun with Tomatoes much to our delight, so there has been tomato canning, salsa making, tomato sandwich eating, and there is certainly more tomato fun to come.  I do believe Jim and I will be canning salsa after bedtime tonight, six jars are made up ready for the pressure cooker.  And then, if it works well, there will be another couple rounds in the next couple days.   Oh, this salsa is beautiful (the yellow tomatoes make it look so fresh) and it is equally yummy!

We based this salsa on this recipe, but we cut the jalapenos in half.  And, we used red and yellow garden tomatoes (not plum like the recipe lists).

Another First Encounter

I had almost forgotten how wonderful this second year of life is.  Everyday there is something new to do or explore.  Everything is wondrous to a one-year-old.  

And yes, he put the play dough in his mouth, but it was salty and that only lasted a moment.  He explores with all of his senses and it is fascinating to watch all these first encounters.

note: the play dough is this fabulous natural dye play dough - this is a double batch with beat dye.

My Littlest Artist

This is where you will find Rowan for long periods of time, multiple times a day.  He colors, paints, and draws.  He spills water, eats crayons (bees wax) and sucks on paint brushes (he only uses water or vegetable based watercolors until he breaks this habit).  And he is oh, so happy.  He loves exploring raw materials - blocks, yarn, art supplies and anything he can find in the kitchen (flour, beans, dry pasta...)  Had Rowan been my first child I would have thought all children were this into materials and working with their hands (after all, I am), but I know from experience that they are not (Jonah typically spent more time organizing and reorganizing his crayons than coloring when he was one).  I know these things shift and change, but for now, Rowan is my wee artist: loving and exploring his materials, intentionally marking and making, becoming totally absorbed in creating.  And I'm loving it.

note: Rowan is just using water on sugar (construction) paper in these photos and it works really well.  He's happy and it isn't messy... well, at least not very messy.

Nori Letters

Jonah says he wants to learn to read. I'm a proponent of not pushing children to read early, but I figure if he wants to learn we can teach him. He already knows all the letters and sounds, so the last couple weeks he's just been learning to put them together. He is doing really well. I borrowed a book called "Reading Reflex" a week ago and then translated the activities into Nori (sheets of seaweed). He spelled and read quite a few words and ate an entire sheet of seaweed in the process.

One of the joys of city living: sushi supplies

We've been enjoying the availability of food in the city.  We bought five packs of nori when we were in china town and making sushi has been a favorite meal here.  Jonah loves to help make it and loves to eat it.  We mostly make veggie rolls occasionally throwing in some crab to make a california roll.

Jonah first made sushi on a play date and I've since realized the brilliance of it as a toddler activity.  From patting down the rice to piling on the veggies (and Jonah does pile them on!) Jonah can do it himself.

Mommy has to roll it, but Jonah can pat the water on the edge and pour his soy sauce for dipping.  And then he eats it - all of it!  And anytime he is excited about eating a bunch of veggies and avocados I'm excited too!

Everyday creative living in Paris

We've been enjoying seeing the Paris sights, but at 8 1/2 months pregnant I'm having to pace myself, which means while some mornings Jonah and I are out on a big adventure in the morning, we are also at home half the time.  So here is a glimpse into our home mornings.

Jonah woke up a few nights ago crying for his toys.  We brought three small drawstring pouches with us - one with godly play figures, one with a few animals and one with some cars - and his tool set.  Finn and Knuffle Bunny came along as well, but overall the toys are pretty sparse so we've been forced to be creative.  I began a bowl of slips with activities on them (i.e. count to 25, play a montessori ABC game, say "Five little monkeys", look through the Atlas, sing "Head and Shoulders, Knees and toes", play follow the leader, do a work book page, watch a video of Jackson Pollock painting... you get the picture)  This has been hours of fun and a great way to introduce some new concepts to Jonah.  

The best new activity has been treasure hunts.  Jim remembered that we did this with the three year old we babysat in Vancouver.  So, we drew pictures of different things around the house and then hid them and Jonah goes clue to clue by looking at the pictures.  He uses his godly play bag as his treasure - rather appropriate!

And even when we aren't out on an adventure we tend to get to a park nearby for at least part of the morning.  Jonah loves to play in the sand and I love the chance it gives me to knit.  I am missing our yard and the freedom it gives Jonah to be outside as much as he wants.  We've made sure to have some unstructured play in a park most every day.  I've just been reading some Charlott Mason educational theory and it claims that a child under 12 should be outside at least 5 hours a day.  I agree that being outside as much as possible is great, but I'm not sure how five hours are possible for city kids or kids who live in Scotland with only four hours of daylight in the winter (which happen to be the same time most tots nap).  

Jonah's watercolors in Scotland are falling apart, so we went up the street one day and found some new ones and some watercolor paper.  He has spent lots of time painting.  The picture above is 'An Imaginary City' by Jonah and Daddy.

I brought my embroidery, but didn't bring Jonah's.  He was rather distraught when he realized this, but we quickly found that by using the new hole punch we bought daddy to organize his french notes we could sew around Jonah's paintings.  Jonah loves punching the holes and gave a couple of these little masterpieces away as cards.

And that inspired me to help him make some lacing cards.  We used a cereal box, his crayons, some yarn and a bit of tape to make a couple cards and he is very proud of them.

So overall we are living much as we do at home - trying to create something most days and learn something new together.  Jonah is thriving, though he still misses home - as we all do.  We have one more week to go in Paris and while we aren't wishing it away, we will all be glad to be home next weekend to settle in for a Scottish fall and welcome little brother.

Adventure Outing 2 - the Beach

Four two and three year olds, a scavenger hunt card, loads of sand and water

a sand castle in the making,

a view of the north sea, birds to watch, shells and feathers to find,

water coming into sand holes...

It was a good (and very cold) adventure.

Adventure Outing

A few friends, who are also interested in home education have begun an outing a week.  We are hoping this will lead to a couple days come fall (as a public nursery alternative) - one un-schooling (ish) adventure day and one montessori (ish), skill development day.  

Jannah led the first adventure day and the four two and three year olds had a great time finding leaves and identifying them.  

As well as identifying scottish plants and trees the kids found a caterpillar on a leaf and could see where he had eaten.  They also found an inchworm when they were making identification sheets and watching him was loads of entertainment.

Theo found some stairs that led to 'Mr. McGregor's Garden'.  And, of course, all the kids had to go check out the garden and see if they could see Peter or Benjamin Bunny.  Hooray for kids who know, love and live-out great literature!

And since we were on the Lade-braes path - we had to finish at the park.  When we arrived Jonah jetted to the huge 'space shuttle slide' and was up the ladder and down before I could get there.  I had no idea he could make it up that huge ladder! 

A little coloring action x 4

Last night our friends Caleb, Joshua and Abi came over.  I like having four kids at the table.  I especially like them all at the table making art!

every child needs a fort

Jonah's fort is often our clothes hanging to dry.  Electricity is so expensive in the UK that most homes don't have clothes dryers and even if they do they are seen as a sometimes luxury.  Everyone has clothes lines and in the winter (9 months of the year) we have racks on our water radiators and folding deals like the one in the photos.  Overall I love this green practice, it is only on days when I want to have company and I'm trying to stash our drying clothes in out of the way places that I wish we had a dryer.

Jim and Jonah are reading "The Empty Pot" by Demi which is such a lovely book with a beautiful example of telling the truth even when it isn't easy.

Bird Watching

Still loving our birds.  And I'm loving the fact Jonah can name almost every kind of bird we see.  I must admit - I think he is better than I am at naming our feathered friends.