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Showing posts from September, 2014

s is for seeds

Another strange week because the kids were sick.  We did a bit of schooling but not nearly enough.  I had a friend point out to me that we're doing a lot of school just having the kids home with me and including them in the life of the house. Theme: seeds Practical: extracting seeds from a sunflower (planned but never happened)                   pouring and scooping seeds                   planting a seed (never happened) Sensory: seed sensory bin Educational: Youtube video of a seed sprouting                        talked about the "seeds we eat" every meal                     Work Boxes: identifying and sorting seeds                        coloring (never happened) Books: "The Tiny Seed"              "Seed in Need"              "How Does a Seed Grow" Song: "The Johnny Appleseed Song" Outing:   This week was our once-a-month excursion to the big city.  This month, that trip also included a visit to the

t is for trees

This week, Mommy got sick.  I'm an asthmatic, so I get really knocked down by a head cold.  We really didn't do much for school. Theme: trees Practical: Sensory:   nature walk in the yard to feel the parts/types of tress Educational:                       Work Boxes: maple tree life cycle                        pine tree life cycle cards Books: "Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf"              "The Maple Tree"              "Count Down to Fall" Song: Outing:   We had the developmental specialist in our home on Monday.  That was the only "outing" since I was so sick (I got sick on Tues). Follow In Our Pond's board "t is for trees" on Pinterest.

m is for milk (week 2)

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This was a really strange homeschooling week.  I think we've had too many extraordinary, crazy weekends in a row so everyone's sleep schedule has been off.  I only like to do "activities" if the kids are rested, but that didn't happen very often this week.  Here's what we did do. Theme: milk (cows/farm) Practical: practiced pouring and serving "milk" Sensory: smelling and petting cows at the fair               chocolate "mud" goop*               played with knit farm mat Educational: picture cards about milk                      Youtube movie about how milk                         get from the cow to our house                     Work Boxes: sorted barns by size ( here )                      matching animal families ( here ) Books: "Milk Machines"              "Life on a Dairy Farm"              "Click Clack Moo"              "Big Red Barn"              "Little B

Super Simple Apple Sensory Bin

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For our "apple" week, I made Skimmer a super simple bin to play in while Dragonfly did her "school work."  This bin is about 1/4 cup oatmeal, a tbs of cinnamon, a few fake apples, and a truck (cause we always need a truck).  Skimmer enjoyed pushing the apples around with the truck and making tracks in the oatmeal.  I'm sure that he would have had a bit more fun if I had given him more oatmeal.  But, when Skimmer decided he was "all done" and dumped the whole thing on the floor, then I was glad I'd only gave him a bit.

a is for apple (week 1)

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For week 1 of preschool, I decided to go classic.  And, to me, nothing says "back to school" like apples.  I'm very "Montessori" influenced right now, so our activities for the week were mostly practical and hands-on.  The big way that I'm not Montessori is that I don't allow my kids access to the tot trays and activities whenever chose.  Instead, I chose the times when I think they might be ready to do something at the table and allow them to chose from a few options.  I've been calling them "work boxes" since they're contained in a 3-drawer plastic unit.  However, they're not technically work boxes either since I let the kids pick what they wanted to and didn't force them to complete any of the tasks. So, here's what we did this week- Theme: apples Practical: chopped apples for apple pie and applesauce                   planted an apple seed in a bag (to watch the "tiny tree" be "born") Senso

Super Simple Ocean Sensory Bin for Young Toddlers

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I've found that my kids are just as contented with a simple small world set up as they are with complicated ones.  This ocean set up is about as easy as you could make it.  A half inch of warm blue water with a toob of Safari Reef animals.  Skimmer has so much fun moving the fish though the water and exploring the different pieces.  The thing that I love most about the super simple bins is that they're very easy to clean up when the young toddler decides to dump the bin on the floor.  The Toob pieces are stored in a Crystal Lite container with the name of the toob and the number of pieces written on it instead of in the original toob.  The CL container makes it easy for the toddlers to put away the animals themselves since the fit isn't as tight.  All of our CL containers are stored together in our "invitation to play" box.  I've seen some really elaborate sensory bins and small world set ups, but I'm blogging to advocate that simpler is better.  Try i

Our 2014-2015 Homeschool Year

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This was my first year of homeschooling and my first year of blogging.  The kids were 3, 2, and 1.  Click on the pictures to go to the posts. An InLinkz Link-up form

Interview With Dragonfly

This is Dragonfly's first year of homeschooling and, boy, is she excited.  She's been asking me every day for weeks if she can start "today."  So fun.  I'm excited to start it too.  But, first, here's an interview from Dragonfly about her life and hopes for the future. Name: Dragonfly (not her real name) Age: 3 Height: 34" Friends: (Auntie) Katie and (Auntie) Emi (and she plays with her brothers a lot) Favorite Thing Play: ocean animals in the bathtub Favorite Color:   purple stuff Favorite Book: I don't know, Mommy Favorite Movie:   Elmo (anything Sesame Street) Favorite Food:   mac and cheese When I Grow Up:   I want to have babies and feed them Mommy Milk (sometimes she says that she wants to be a "tummy mommy") Quotes: "dino-foam" (styrofoam)               "No, brother!" (to either of them)               "I can't like that."               "I'm just a little girl.&