Rowing "The Tale of Peter Rabbit"

The week of September 3rd marked the start of our school year. I hadn't planned on starting until the following week, but the kids were begging to get going. Who am I to deny them? Since I didn't want to mess my plans up. I decided to do Tuesday and Thursday the first week and Monday, Wednesday, Friday the next week. That way we get our full first week in, and we can ease back into our school schedule.

For the first week, we decided to row "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" by Beatrix Potter. I LOVE this book. There are so many things to learn from it's characters. The kids love it too.

Most of our activities are right out of the Five In A Row Volume 2 manual, so I won't go into those much. The manuals are very much worth every penny spent. (Though, I didn't have to spent anything on mine since I found them at a local FREE store.) I really wanted to share with you the sensory bin I came up with.

What you will need (cost):

Bin large enough to hold everything (free since I had it at home)

Potting soil ($0.97 at Walmart)

Seed packets ($0.10 a piece on clearance)

"Silk" flowers ($0.50 a bunch on clearance, I bought 3)

Shovels and other play things ($1.60 a piece on clearance)

As you can see, I didn't spend much on this bin. You don't need to really. I plan my sensory bins a few weeks out, so I can look through clearance isles and 2nd hand stores. I just make a list of everything I am going to need and keep my eyes open. If something proves to be too hard to find, I can usually find something else to fit in the bin, or just change the bin idea.

My kids LOVED it! Once we finished reading the book and doing our learning activity for the day, I brought this bin out. I put it on the floor with a large vinyl tablecloth underneath. (That made for very easy clean up. I found it at Goodwill for $2) This bin kept the younger two (ages 3 and 5) busy while I continued teaching my older two.

I left it out for maybe 30-45 minutes, then picked it up. I have found, with my kids, that if I leave things out for them too long, it will just become a huge mess. They were usually done playing with it by this time anyway. I wouldn't take it away from them when they were in the middle of playing. That is serious business. I would just pay attention to when they were loosing interest and put it up at that point.

We had lots of fun rowing "The Tale of Peter Rabbit." We hope you do too!

FIAR:More "Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel"

We have finished this book, but I still had some pictures, so I thought I would share what we did.

This day, my older boys wanted to join in with us. They are 6 and 8, so they do fit into the age range this curricula targets, we just have other things we do with them. They were interested in what I was doing with the younger two, so they sat in and participated. I think this curricula could really work well as a spine for multiple ages.

After we read the book again, we made some pinwheels. (This activity is outlined in FIAR Volume 1 ) I wanted to demonstrate to them how steam can move an object. This did not go so well for us. Our pinwheels did not want to move. We still had fun. I improvised and told them to imagine that the air coming out of my mouth was steam and blew on the pinwheel. They got the point.

To add in some Language Arts, I continued with some pages that we were doing while working through Little Hands to Heaven from Heart of Dakota.  It is a great curricula, just too repetitive for us. We need change and different things to do from week to week. This was just too much of the same thing. However, I do still use some of the ideas from this curricula.




Since "steam shovel" starts with an "s", I decided to have my two little ones do the worksheet for the letter "s." My little girl, "Raindrop," just used the marker to circle a whole bunch of letters, but she enjoys being involved. We talked a little bit about what an "s" is shaped like, and I'm sure she will get it in the coming years. ;)

 

My youngest boy, "Hurricane," really took his work seriously with this one. He studied his paper for a long time and then highlighted each "s" very carefully. He has grown so much this past year, it's just amazing!!











After I was done with the younger two, I called in the older boys and we did their Math and Language Arts. All in all, I would say this was a successful day!

FIAR:Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel

This is our third week of "rowing" with Five in a Row. We are absolutely loving it! It is so much fun!

This week, we are "rowing" Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel. Yesterday, we watched a short video on steam shovels, after reading the book. Today, I made the kids each a sensory bin with various dried beans and some construction trucks we had in our car bin.

I had them play with that while I read the book. I find that if I keep their hands busy, they listen a little better to the story.

After we finished the book and played for a bit in the sensory bins, we did an art activity with squares. I had some sticky backed foam that I cut into various sizes of squares (Since Mike Mulligan had to dig a cellar for the Town Hall "nice and square.") They had so much fun doing this. They each made their own version of the "Town Hall."

When they were finished, we read through the book, All Sorts of Shapes. We spent some time talking about all the different shapes and finding them in the room around us.

As I said before, we are really enjoying this curriculum. I encourage you to look into it. I don't get anything from the company for telling you about it. I research things to death before I make a decision, especially when it comes to my children's education, so I like to share my opinion on products for others to read.

That's life & some good news!

I've not been blogging lately because, it seems, life has taken a hold of me and not let go. We started our homeschool year and it went great. Almost as planned up until Christmas. Then we took a break and are now back into the swing of things.

Amidst all of this,I have been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Yes, it's odd for an adult to be diagnosed with type 1, it is usually a childhood thing. I am learning how to navigate life with this diagnosis. It's really hard at times, but I know God is my strength.

Anyway, I also wanted to share some exciting news with all of you. A woman, in my community, recently opened up a "free store" in the walk out basement of her home. Yes, a FREE store. She takes donations of anything you don't want anymore and puts them right back out for others to take. Clothes, books, toys, home decor, etc. It's really a wonderful ministry. I realize I've veered off to the left here. (I do that frequently, walking a straight line is boring. ;) ) Back on track, my first visit out there, I found the first three volumes of Five in a Row, plus the Bible Supplement! All for free! Amazing!

So, I have started "rowing" with my two younger kids. They are 4(almost 5) and 2(almost 3). We have done Night of the Moon jellies and had a blast! At the end of the week, we took a bath with moon jellies. It was so much fun! The moon jellies are made out of clear plastic bags, a glow stick and some water. Tie them shut and you've got a moon jelly.






This week, we are "rowing" Katy and the Big Snow. We have done lots of fun things this week. On Tuesday, we painted with "snow paint," made out of shaving creme and glue.


I am so excited about this curriculum! I look forward to sharing more as we continue "rowing" throughout the year.