"Elaborate special systems of education … seem to me to be built upon the supposition that every child is a kind of idiot who must be taught to think" Anne Sullivan
I am consolidating everything to one website, so this blog is moving to: www.321learn.net/blog
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Filed under: Uncategorized
Got this idea off of pinterest yesterday and thought it was a great idea to occupy the girls while I fixed dinner. And it would give Eliana a chance to play with paint without me having to worry about cleaning up a mess afterwards!
How to do it:
Squirted 3 colors of paint into a ziplock bag. (I would have used all primary colors but you gotta use what you have on hand for some things)
Put a piece of white paper under the bag on the table and tape the bag down on all sides. I used packing tape, but that seemed to bother Becca some, I may use masking tape next time because it will give her a more visual border to her bag.
Then allow the painting fun to begin!
After only one tiny mishap with a fingernail on Eliana’s bag, it kept them both happy and occupied until I put dinner on the table! Yay for easy crafts with no clean up!
Never underestimate the power of a piece of paper…
Becca did the final review today on all the letters in Alphabet Island (which means she finished the first section of the curriculum and now can state the name, sound and write the lower case form of every letter in the alphabet). After the review, which she did very well on, she earned her certificate.
I love the fact that this curriculum has certificates! She acted like I had given her a million dollars and refuses to put it in her school binder because she wants to “show everybody!”
Tags: Letter of the week
Filed under: Letter of the Week
In our book Lentil 
She was able to correctly identify sweet or sour/spicy, and had a blast doing it!
Here’s her lemon face:
She was a bit hesitant to take the next taste after I gave the lemon so I had to promise it was something sweet!
Monday we had a field trip to go Apple Picking! It was a blast and now I have TONS of apples (well, a whole bushel) to deal with!
Picture by Nana
Picture by Nana
Picture by Nana
All the apples you could eat – I don’t think Eliana did much picking, or at least her apples didn’t end up in the basket to go home!
Tags: Apples, Fall Activities, sisters
Filed under: Outside Activities, Science, Sisters
So in math yesterday we started a basic introduction into geometric shapes. I love the way Shiller Math introduces new concepts – it’s basically play with no purposeful learning, but allows for a gentle introduction of the topic. Here’s Becca playing with her shapes, building whatever she wanted to with them:
I have been cleaning out toys and books and various items, getting rid of a ton of stuff, essentially making room in the toy box for the toys that the girls actually play with! (I am always amazed when I do this at how much junk needs to just be thrown away!)
In doing so, I found this set of frogs and logs. They had come with a book, too, but I pitched the book because I’ll never use it. But then I let Becca loose on the frogs – I think we’re still practicing our shapes!
Lastly, I found this book: Fold and Cut Stories
As a side note, to any other parents who feel a bit overrun with toys and children who are not playing contentedly with the masses of toys they have, try tossing half of them! Ok, maybe not half, I got rid of probably 1/3 of what they had available to them. Once I got started, I was impressed at the number of toys that were broken, pieces missing, not age appropriate, or otherwise unwanted. Even Becca was able to get involved this time, choosing toys she doesn’t like/want anymore to let other kids have to play with. And now? I get to enjoy hours of contented play! (and the toys all fit comfortably in the toy box now too! Yay for a clean room at bedtime!)
Tags: Crafts, Math, organization, play
Filed under: Math, Organization
Our last day of Ping ended with a Me in the World activity, to help Becca understand where she lives in relation to China – she kept saying things like “let’s just hop over there, it’s right next to us on the map!” Um, yeah, China is right next to us…
So here’s our Me in the World Activity:
Our Home
Our Neighborhood
Our City
Our State
Our Country
Our Continent
Our Planet
In other news, Alphabet Island is frequently proclaimed as her favorite thing to do, and we are over half-way through the alphabet, learning the names, sounds and a bit about the “character” on Alphabet Island. She can alphabetize each letter and write each lower case letter beautifully (when she has a model to follow).
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Tags: Alphabet Island, early literacy, history, Ping
Filed under: FIAR, Language Arts
Ping is set in China, so we are talking about some of the similarities and differences between China and America and for dinner last night we had a great lesson on the differences between how we eat! Thanks to Nana, we had awesome chopsticks to eat our homemade Orange Chicken and Rice with!
Turns out I am the only one who was able to actually eat with them, even Daddy had trouble! Eliana on the other hand, thought they worked as great drumsticks!
The look says it all!
I give up!
oh, right, I guess a fork would be easier...
Mmm! Yummy!
In our book about Ping, we meet a young boy who swims behind his boat with a barrel tied to his back. At Nana’s today we gathered several toys to see what else can float!
First, we learned the definition of the word “hypothesis” and before each item was placed in the water, we guessed whether it would sink or float. I have to say even I was surprised at a couple of the items! Noah was very excited and kept saying “float! float!” and I think Eliana was more thrilled about being allowed to put toys into water, and she kept throwing everything back into the pot! Thanks to Nana for the pictures!
The book we are working through in our Five in a Row curriculum is The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack and Kurt Wiese. Yesterday we spent time building our own Yangtze river with Ping and his entire family: his mom, dad, 2 sisters, 3 brothers, 11 aunts, 7 uncles and 42 cousins! What a great way to visualize how “many” that is!
We had to leave room, by the way, for the “wise eyed boat” that was their home, and she also wanted the “home boat” with the little boy (he’s swimming behind the boat). I don’t know if you can see in this picture or not, but we also learned about how to draw ripples and splashes in the water, so some of the ducks and one of the boats has water ripples around them.
In case you are wondering, yes – our water is yellow – the book refers to the “yellow waters of the Yangtze river” so we had to make yellow water!
Looking ahead at next week’s lessons about Ping (we are spending 2 weeks on each book), we will be learning more about Chinese culture, buoyancy and reflection!
