Homeschooling June 2013 Part 4

Bible: Thank you, God, for Nighttime

We stayed in our pjs and grabbed our pillows for the lesson. 

We sang songs about nighttime, God making nighttime, and how we are thankful for nighttime. It was cute, one of the songs was about lying down to sleep, so we used our pillows to lay our heads on them. It was fun.

For our craft, we had to go outside to look for a stick and this shows how baby girl can go down a step on her own.

Nighttime Mobile

You will need:

- a stick about 2ft long, not too heavy, but sturdy

- 1 sheet of black construction paper, cut in half widthwise

- 1 sheet of white construction paper

- pencil

- kid scissors

- glue stick

- about 2ft of thread or cord

- hole punch (optional)

We had to find the perfect stick for our nighttime mobile, so we went outside our backyard. We found a pretty nice one.

   
He drew two moons with the pencil and cut them out. 

We really tried to punch stars through the white construction paper, but it was too hard to do with little hands.He insisted on doing it himself, so we found an easier way to punch through the paper. It worked!
He used the glue stick to glue the moons. He glued one moon on each half of the black construction paper. I wrote "God made the moon" on one and "God made nighttime" on the other.

On the other side, he glued about 10 stars. I wrote "God made the stars" on one and "God made nighttime" on the other.

Hole punch (or use scissors) at the top.

Use thread or cord (about 8 inches) to attach construction paper to the stick on either end and another piece of cord is attached in the middle.

The mobile looks like this.

We hung it from the fan in our play room.

Field Trip: The Car Wash!

  

The kids were ok, but a bit hesitant about the whole thing. I, on the other hand, appreciated not having to clean my very dirty car by hand! :)

Playtime

    

It was great having baby girl play with the toy cleaning supplies. At least work AND play at the same time, right? haha

Special Day: Happy Father's Day!

   
This is the trophy K made for his dad. He glued rice, pasta, wheat, etc. Then it was spray painted gold. Beads and glitter were glued on as well as a picture of K with Dad.

We also drew a track on the back of a white t-shirt. We used sharpies and fabric paint. The goal is to have the kids play with cars while Dad wears the t-shirt. Free massage! Clever, huh? Dad liked it!
   

Music: Solfege and Signs

Spanish: Greetings

  
Imagine that you are at my door and want to come in. Look down. You will see "HOLA" on my welcome mat.
Now imagine that you are leaving my home after a sweet visit. As you come to the door to leave, look down. You will see "ADIOS" on my mat.

This was a great way to introduce these two words. I put this copy on the floor and went over the coming in and going out a few times. It was fun.

These are a few of the greetings we learned. We also sang a couple of songs with motions (see above and below) to reinforce the greetings.

Art: Marble and Ball Painting

Put construction paper in a cookie sheet.

Put paint on the marble or ball and put it in the cookie sheet. Swish the cookie sheet around so the ball or marble roll around. Voilá! Instant art and good coordination skills.

Practical Life: Peeling an Ear of Corn

   

Playtime with Dad: Blowing Bubbles

Homeschooling June 2013 Part 3

Music: Intro. to Music

Today we practiced a "hello" song.
We learned the words and have to add in their own action item each week. It will be the repetitive feature.
We talked about how animal sounds can be used in music and sang Old MacDonald Had A Zoo.
Then we did a song with birds where we each sang a part. When combined, the sounds make a song with a beautiful melody.
We then played a bird hunt song and walked around following the instructions.
Finally, a slow song where we rested and then danced slowly to the beat. Again, a lot of fun!

Spanish: Review and Zero

We practiced:
-hola (hello)
-buenos días (good morning)
-las vocales (the vowels) with sign language
-los números (the numbers) 1-10 with sign language
-introduced "cero" (zero)
-stamped on paper matching numbers
-and played the kids' all-time fave: The Flyswatter Game" to practice the numbers. I'd say a number in Spanish and the child swats it. It was fun.

Baby Girl's Homeschooling

Sight Words

Shapes: rectangle, star, oval, heart
 

Shapes and matching items with the same shape. 

 

Cards I made with body parts 

Desk Work

 

Today, K chose the Spiderman activity book (what a shocker, right?).
We were supposed to count the shapes in the two boxes and then circle the ones that have fewer shapes. 
   
    
                                                                                    Word Families: -en, -at, -ar, -ip 

     

Montessori Practical Life: Learning to Pour Water Into a Smaller Container

 
It was fun using all kinds of pitchers and cups. Originally, the Montessori uses blue food coloring to color the water. It makes it easier for children to see and notice when they are getting to the top of the cup. I confess, I could've/should've colored the water, but didn't. I will next time, though. 

Montessori Language Arts: Sandpaper Letters (Upper Case)

 
We started out with the vowels (on blue boards). We said their name, their sounds, and we traced them with our fingers. 
 

Then we traced them on the magnetic board. 
 
He did a great job. 
 
We really enjoyed this activity. He wanted to keep going and going.
 
Tracing the letters before writing them. 
 
After the vowels, K wanted to keep going, so we started tracing a few consonant (on pink boards) and then writing them out. 

Montessori Mathematics: Spindle Boxes

 
This activity is pretty simple. You get all the spindles out, go through each number (starting with 0) and put the correct number of spindles in each box in front of the number. 
 
To go a step further, we used pipe cleaners to bundle the spindles together.
Learning to twist the wire (pipe cleaner) was like a whole new world to K.
He kept practicing over and over and it seemed to be his favorite part in the whole activity. 

Art: Father's Day Trophies

For the past two weeks we've been working on Father's Day Trophies for the world's best dads. K decorated his trophy with pasta, rice, wheat, beans, beads, glitter and gems. It was spray painted gold. Very pretty and worthy of a special owner (dad). Happy Father's Day! Keep an eye out for pictures of the trophy and other Father's Day gifts in the next post.


My husband had to travel for work. While he's gone, I kind of have a hard time sleeping at night (you know, holding down the fort alone is hard work, wink), so I left this note on my door to let him know where I was. He found me in the morning, no problems. :) Smart reader!

Music: Solfege

We learned about the "Solfege" Musical Scale. Also known as, Do-Re-Mi.
We learned the song from the movie and talked about how the notes rise and fall.
We used our bodies to indicate if the notes were going up or down.
We also used the Solfege hand signs to show each note.
Next week we are going to talk about actual notes (what they look like, how long each one is, etc).