The Itsy Bitsy Spider

Last week, I briefly mentioned that this year I am using the curriculum Growing Up Wild as my guide and inspiration. Click here to check out the website Growing Up Wild. We are three weeks in and I am loving it. It is simple and packed full of ideas that are right up my kids' alley! I love that even though we live in the city, I can still make this nature based program work for us. It is also very easy to stretch it across the curriculum. I am able to make one lesson last for 3 days. There are 27 lessons.. so there is our year! In addition to this resource, we are using the reading program Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and Spectrum Math for Kindergarten for Ava. We work on reading about 20 minutes a day and cover one math concept from Spectrum a day. We will start the letter of the week with Dominic in the spring. I want to wait until he turns three. For now he is participating as his interest and attention allows.

This week we dove into the world of spiders. Take a look at what was on the agenda for this week! 

We brought our science journals outside and went for a spider web hunt. Ava and Dominic had to draw pictures of all the places they found spider webs. We also searched the basement. Sorry Auntie  Carrie, we found a few, but we hope that doesn't scare you from visiting us again soon! We will make sure to clean the ceiling before you come! 

Here they are observing a spider that was in the web on their play structure.

We have music time each day. The curriculum provides great theme related songs to tunes we know! These instruments only come out during school time. This way they are not sick of the instruments before we use them! 

Here Dominic is practicing his sewing skills and making a spider  web.

We made sure to attach spiders to their completed webs! 

In the sensory table this week, there is rice along with spiders and other creepy crawlies of course! 

One of Ava's sight word work this week was to build the sight word "the" with play dough.  

We made marble painting spider webs. Even Lilly is participating in some of the activities this year! Last year she was just learning to walk!   

Here is Ava's finished marble painting spider web. 

We reviewed the sight words I, see, and the by creating an I See book. Ava dictated what she saw and illustrated it. She was so excited to be able to read it to Daddy all by herself! 

Dominic really wanted to help decorate for Halloween. And he wanted to to be scary! So, we made large spiders. While making the spiders we were able to discuss how many body parts a spider has, what the body parts are called, and how many legs spiders have. The three big kids enjoyed this project! 

This year Ava is so much more independent. She can do her own cutting and even help get materials ready! 

The internet offered us some great resources! We watched close up videos of a spider spinning a web, a spider catching a bee in the web, and a jumping spider (who does not spin a web) catching its prey. 

Ava and I created a web to hang her spider from. On the web, we recorded all the information from the "what we learned" portion of our spider KWL chart. 

Dominic's spider

Lilly's spider

Back to School!

It has been forever, but I am back to blogging! There have been many changes and lots of transitions in our family. First, we found out that we are expecting a new little one at the end of January! Not long after we found out that our youngest daughter's 6 month old brother was also entering the foster care system. Though our lives are already busy with little ones and there is one on the way, we felt that opening our home to this little guy was what we needed to do. It has been challenging and we have busier than I feel we have ever been. However, I strongly feel that the right choice is not always the easy one.  He is a beautiful boy with a contagious smile! Now we are a family of six with 4 little ones ages four and under. People often ask us how we do it. Well, we don't do it alone! Kyle and I work as a team, we are strict about schedules, have awesome family and neighbor support. And, as I write, there is a wonderful couple from church who come every Tuesday for three hours to play with the kids so I can catch up on house work and breath!

We have started back to home schooling! This year Ava is in her second year of preschool. I cherish our home school days. It is time I feel I can leave behind the stress of the dozens of medical appointments we are constantly going to for our new baby boy, forget about the dishes piling up, or the loads of laundry that need to be done. Home school time is our time to be together!

This year, with the recommendation from a friend, I bought the Growing Up Wild curriculum. It guides our week and is much less stressful than creating all the ideas from scratch or having to scour the web for ideas. It is nature based and so far a hit! We are having school three days a week. Dominic and Lilly participate as their attention span allows. I'll start more of a formal school time with Dominic after he turns 3 in December. I will go more into detail about the different resources we are using this year next time. For now, here are a few pictures from the start of our school year!

I am trying to sit with Dominic for one one-on-one activity a day during our school time. Here he is sorting colored fruit. 

Each day, Ava has about 20 minutes she must chose an independent center choices. I select a few choices ahead of tine and she is able to pick from there. This is the time I am able to sit with Dominic. Here she is putting the correct number of bugs into the right bug jar. 

The curriculum we are using has some great science experiments. This week we are focusing on ants. Here Ava is observing which food the ants are most interested in. I predicted they would be all over the jelly. Ava thought the bread. The bread was with winner! Ava needed to record her findings in her science journal. 

Prior to starting new topics we will do KWL charts and revisit them throughout the week. Here is the start of our ant chart! 

Ava took a survey that asked people if they preferred either a fish, ladybug, or a cat. She had to call family members and even ask some neighbors. We graphed the results.  

The activity bags that a friend and I created last year are perfect for independent work for Dominic this year! 

This week in the sensory table is home made moon sand. I included toys for digging and scooping along with plastic animals and bugs. 

Ava and Dominic working on some seat work. 

A Little of This and a Little of That

Summer has kicked off around here and we are enjoying a variety of activities. Though we don't have our regular school time routine going on right now, Ava has been working on learning to read, Dominic has really taken an interest in coloring and using pencil and paper. He loves to write and erase.  Lily wants so badly to keep of with her big brother and sister and hates when they are doing things she just can't do yet. But, she has taken on more of an interest in being read to and can often be found sitting by herself with a book. We have been doing a little of this and a little of that over the last month and look forward to a couple more months of just that! I probably won't blog very consistently until next school year hits, but just thought I would post a few pictures of some of our latest activities.  

We have been enjoying discovering what our city has to offer us. Downtown fountains are a hit.  

Papa and Mimi came to visit and Papa helped Ava and Dominic harvest the worm castings from the worm composting bin for the first time since our little worm pets arrived! Ava worked so hard to create her own little labels that say, "Ava's Black Gold" (a term used to describe worm castings). She is excited to give it to family for their flowers. 

Despite our poor luck with gardening we are giving it another go this summer. We have three raised beds, one will be a butterfly garden, one is for pumpkins, and one is for squash. If you see pictures of it again, you know it was a success! If you don't well......planting the seeds with the kids was fun! 

Can't beat enjoying the backyard with a good ole sprinkler on a summer day.

...and then came X, Y, and Z

We have officially made it through the alphabet! It's been a year of lots of pinterest searching, trial and error, late nights of planning and prepping, and a lot of fun learning time with my kiddos. I won't lie not everyday was a smooth home school preschool day.  My kids are 3, 2, and 1. And, they all have their 3, 2, and 1 year old moments. Oh and I have my mommy moments too! But, I would do it all over again and will next year! It has been rewarding to have the opportunity to experience all those "ah ha" moments and to be able to learn right along with my kids. 

 We are looking forward to a more laid back summer! 

Our letter X activities were deleted from the camera because I thought I had put them on the computer...I guess I didn't..oops! 

Here is Y and Z!

Y day was yellow day! After finding all our yellow clothes, the kids went on a yellow hunt. Here they are laying out all the yellow things they found. 

We made yarn bowls. This activity idea came from the blog   Find Joy in the Journey. This activity was easy and only requires a bowl, plastic wrap, yarn, glue, and your willingness to get sticky!

Once the bowl was dry, Ava was excited to fill it. She has since gifted it to Daddy  for his paperclips at school!  Dominic wasn't willing to send his off so we have a paperclip bowl for home too!

While Ava and I worked on a number puzzle, Dominic practiced cutting yellow paper. 

Look Mommy I did it!  Our long puzzle goes up to 25!

Since the weather has been so nice, we did handwriting practice in the driveway! 

We finished our Y theme with a Y mini book.

Z

Practicing writing the letter Z

Ava and Dominic made a zebra craft. The template came from  DLKs Craft for Kids . We talked about the patterns that can be found on a zebras skin. 

And, of course we needed to take a trip to the zoo! Here Ava and her friend are enjoying the Manatees. 

The kids were excited to touch real furs.

While at the zoo, we of course needed to seek out the real zebras! 

Thanks to all those who have followed our journey of home school this year! 

If you are a follower and haven't joined the site please do! And if you are a blogger too, let me know! I am always looking for activities and inspiration! So much of our preschool curriculum has been inspired by the wonderful blogs I have found!

W is for Worms!

We took a couple weeks off of our official school time. I guess you could call it our spring break! The break was much needed, but I was excited to get back to our more structured learning time. W is the letter we have been waiting to get to! Worms are a big deal at this house. Ava literally has spent hours looking for bugs and worms in the backyard. Dominic is often right beside her. We are excited the weather is warming up and soon backyard bug and worm hunting will resume! Except this year, Ava and Dominic will know a little extra about the worms they find. 

In addition to lots of fun books and practicing writing the letter W, take a look at what we did during worm week. 

Books we read: 

Diary of a Worm By: Doreen Cronin 

Marty McGuire Digs Worms By: Kate Messner and Brian Floca (This is a chapter book and such a great read-aloud if you are doing worm composting with kids.)

The Worm Family By: Tony Johnston 

Worm By: Jill Bailey

Wiggling Worms at Work By: Wendy Pfeffer

y

The sensory activity for the week was "dirt playdough". I used the regular cooked homemade play dough recipe, but I used brown tempera paint to color it and added coffee to give it more of a dirt look. The idea came from a blog, but I can't find exactly which one I found it on! I will come back and add it if I can locate it! I picked up artificial flowers and plastic pots at the Dollar Store. I cut up brown pipe cleaners to act as worms. The kids really got into planting and making homes for their worms.  

Our worm composting bin has been a lot of fun. I won't lie, the first night some tried to escape.  Worms don't bother me, but worms on my basement floor kind of grossed me out! We got in under control now. The worms are all settled in their new environment. Ava is good at reminding me we have to check on them, feed them, and make sure to give them water. We are already starting to see worm castings (just a fancy word for poop). In the gardening world, worm castings are known as black gold because it is so good for the soil. We are excited for the day we can add some to our garden! It will take a few months to reach that point. 

Ava was excited to pull out some of the worms to observe. We talked about how they move, what they feel like, and located different parts of their body. When I was taking this picture, Ava told me she was observing the worm and looking for its bristles. It is always fun to hear her use the vocabulary we read about and talk about! 

Along with observing the worms, Ava had to draw a picture of what she saw. She dictated her observations to me and I  recorded her thoughts under her picture. She said, " I saw the rings. I observed the worms squirming really fast. They were really lively. They are really cute." 

I love when the Dollar Store pulls through with materials that make planning easy! This week, I  found apple and worm cutouts. Since we have been talking about worms and composting, this was perfect for a math activity I had in mind! I numbered each worm 10-20. On each apple I put dots representing the numbers 10-20. Ava had to count the dots on each apple and find the matching worm. 

Here is a simple art activity that we did. Ava had to cut and assemble the apple. We put a worm going through the apple. 

This week I was able to get some great use out of activity bags my friend and I made last year. This activity was a measuring activity. Ava was given pictures of various lengths. She was also given different materials to measure with (pipe cleaners, string of beads, ribbon, etc...) We pretended that the materials were worms and she had to match the worms up to a picture that had the same length.

It is difficult to study worms and not read one of my favorite books, Diary of a Worm . In the story the worm makes a macaroni necklace in art class. Dominic used colored pasta to create a macaroni necklace of his own.  Ava did the same activity, except she was given different patterns that she needed to recreate using the pasta. She worked on AB, ABC, and AAB patterns. 

We read the book Diary of a Worm two times. The first time we read it for fun. The second time we stopped after each page looking for things in the story that were fact and things in the story that were fiction. We wrote down our findings on fact and fiction posters. Here they are....currently the posters make up part of our living room decor. All part of home schooling I guess! 

Of course we needed to make some dirt pudding! Since we have a dairy allergy in the family we had to make pudding from scratch. I was excited to find out that it really isn't any harder than the boxed mix and its healthier too! 

I even found the all natural version of  oreos! Dominic loved crushing the cookies. 

The end result was yummy! We added some gummy worms on top for fun! 

This writing activity was super easy to create and Ava really enjoyed it.  All you need for this activity are card stock sentence strips and Bend a Roos! (Or Wiki Sticks) I made cards with every letter in the alphabet, numbers 0-9, and created some word cards too. I of course made a card that said worm, but I also made cards for all the people in our family. I cut the Bend a Roos at different lengths. Ava had to trace the words using the Bend a Roos. I let her pick the words and letters she wanted to work on. This activity is great for seeing how letters form words, practicing to write letters, and letter recognition. 

She was really proud every time she finished a word.