When the Teacher is Grouchy...

I was feeling really good about school after Monday's "class". I think the big kids are really getting the hang of what's expected of them, and they seem to be enjoying our school time a lot. It seems like each of the moms has sort of established her own routine when school is at her home. It's not the same from house to house, but the kids know that when they come here, we always start with calendar and Bible time on the blanket. Addison got to put the number in the calendar (sometimes I forget to call on my own child :)

This week we learned all about the story of Daniel in the Lion's Den. Monday we read the story in our Jesus Storybook Bible (this is seriously the BEST kids' Bible ever...)

 

Then we recited our memory verse, Luke 1:37 - "Nothing is impossible for God." And we danced to the song "My God is So Big". The kids LOVED this song! I think doing the hand motions makes it even more fun for them.

 

Then we got busy working on building strong hand muscles by cutting snowflakes! This was definitely challenging for the kids. The regular printer paper was too thick for them to cut through once it was folded, but they did better with coffee filters. They all worked very hard to make those scissors go!

 

 

 

 

All that cutting worked up an appetite! Our snack was lion rice cakes! I mixed peanut butter and honey together and pipped it on to make a mane. Then I stuck on chocolate chip eyes, a craisin nose, and oriental noodles for whiskers! They were a hit!

 

 

 

 

Doc didn't hesitate to get right in there...mmm...

 

Instead of reading the book of the week from the curriculum, I decided to share some of our favorite Christmas books during snack time. Monday's book was Mortimer's Christmas Manger by Karma Wilson. This is one of our favorite stories to read at Christmas!

 

After snack and story time, it was time to get our hands dirty! We made a giant batch of salt dough so we could roll and cut ornaments. We all took turns mixing the dough...

 

 

 

And the kids rolled it out all by themselves! Our arms and hands got quite a workout today!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Salt Dough Recipe

• Mix 1 cup flour, 1 cup salt, and gradually add 1 cup water.
• Mix until it forms a ball. (You may not need the whole cup of flour).
• Roll out on a floured surface and cut shapes with cookie cutters.
• Poke holes in the shapes using a straw (so you can add ribbon later for hanging).
• Bake at 200 degrees until dry.

If they are thick, you may need to flip them halfway. Our thin ones took about 3 hours to dry, but the fat ones took much longer. Then paint, or add glitter, gems or any other decorations you like. I doubled the recipe for our school group...just wanted to make sure everyone had enough dough!

 

Thursday...

 

As great as I felt after school on Monday, it all went out the window today. In reflecting on the morning, I realize that the majority of the problem was MY attitude not the children. I've been strugging with a 17 month-old who is teething and has decided that 5:15 is his new wake up time. By the time school starts, he is exhausted and clingy, and it made the morning very challenging for me. My patience had long vanished by the time our friends even got here today. Shame on me for being so foul...

 

But we pressed on. Huckleberry-dog decided to join in for calendar and Bible time today!

 

 

We retold the story of Daniel in the Lion's Den using our felt board. We sent the babies outside at this point so all was calm :)

 

 

 

Then we practiced making straight lines for writing "L's".

 

And we colored lions to make puppets! They really enjoyed this today. We don't give them enough time to color...

 

Cute!

 

 

Today's snack was "trail mix" with pretzles, wheat chex, yogurt-covered raisins, craisins, and Christmas M&Ms. And I read the story Humprey's First Christmas. Story time was a bit of a disaster. Doc whined the whole time and wanted me to hold him. And he managed to sit on everyone and spill at least 3 cups of trail mix. It was a challenge to even get through the story. I was extremely frustrated with him by the end and decided to just throw in the towel and let the kids play. We were supposed to do a number sorting activity and we were supposed to decorate our ornaments...but the kids were squirly, and I was in a foul mood so we ended school there. The kids played for a bit longer, then we put on Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas while we made lunches.

 

Evelyn led the kids in prayer before they ate...

Seems to me like we should have STARTED the day with prayer. Ah well...live and learn :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 3: "A" is for apple

I feel like we have a ton to get through this week! Two bible stories, plus:

Letter: A
Number: 2
Colors: Orange, Red, Purple

Here's what we tackled on day one:

Circle Time
I think keeping circle time consistent from week-to-week and house-to-house has been important. While I'm not sure I've seen a huge amount of progress in terms of remembering the month or the days of the week, I know the kids enjoy taking turns adding things to the calendar. Here's a picture of the calendar we'll use at my house.

Year, month, date, letter of the week, season and weather.
The seven pockets at the bottom are for each day of the week.
Today we took turns putting the "today," "tomorrow" and
"yesterday" sticks in the appropriate pockets.

I was so tempted to address today's date in more detail with the kids. September 11 was such a tragic but important part of our history. I was living in New York 11 years ago and each year on September 11 I can go right back there in my memory. Ultimately, I decided it was too much to tackle with the kids at this age, but I'd be curious to hear from people who successfully found ways to talk about events like September 11 with their young children.

Moving on.

We did a full review of the creation story with the felt board today. The kids took turns applying all seven days. Here's the end result. Those bears are dangerously close to the children, if you ask me.

We're on to number two this week. After reading My Two Book we sang and acted out "One, two buckle my shoe." The kids LOVE this one so much I'm going to find a few more ways to incorporate it into the lesson this week. We also sang and signed "O Be Careful."

"O be careful little ears what you hear" 

Apple craft
We didn't get to the story of Adam and Eve and the forbidden fruit today (we'll tackle that Thursday) but we started our apple craft today anyway. This will be a two-day project that will look like this:

Notice how you can't see the worm from one side? Once we cover the story of Adam and Eve we'll discuss how we may only see an apple, but God sometimes sees more than our eyes can (the wormy side) and he knows what is best for us.

Materials:

• foam balls
• green construction paper
• large craft sticks
• red and green tempera paint
• pipe cleaners, cut in half
• google eyes

I cut the pipe cleaners in half and hot glued on the eyes in advance to expedite the process for the kids. Then I stuck the craft sticks through the bottom of the foam ball and stabbed a hole through one side for the worm (I used a kabob stick to create the hole). 

We painted and cut leaves today and we'll finish up on Thursday.

I stuck the sticks into balls of modeling clay to keep them in place while the kids painted.

Letter Stations
We introduced the first letter this week. Most of the kids know the letter "A" by sight, so I brought in some tactile stations to move beyond identification. We had three stations:

Tracing in salt

I attempted to help guide the tracing with the dots and lines (start at the green dot, follow the line and stop at the red dot).

Building the letter "A" 

Foam sticks with self-stick Velco tabs (I use these at home with the shape cards (pictured)).

Tracing

I got the printables online here and put them inside wipeable pouches I found in the Target dollar bins!

The dry erase pouches were by far the most popular and I was impressed by how well the kids did with this one, particularly Annabelle and Eisley.

I was interested in how differently the kids chose to build their letters. Eisley's "A," for example, wasn't how I demonstrated but was an "A" nonetheless. I think with a little more practice this exercise could be great at helping the kids learn letters, shapes and numbers.

The salt tracing went well, but I think if I were to do this again I'd make it in a larger box and include tracing tools. It could also be fun to dye the salt with food coloring.

Snack

I love that "snack" has become a core part of our curriculum. This week we had apple cake. This was the easiest thing I've ever made. Here's the directions:

1. Cut up two apples. Put them in a casserole dish. 
2. Pour some dry yellow cake mix on top.  
3. Slap some butter pads on top. 
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

For real. Here's the link to the source.

Apple cake with ice cream.

Overall, I think today went well. We tested out keeping school and play separate: "big" kids were in the kitchen to do school and the little kids stayed in the playroom. I think it made teaching a little easier, but it was a bit of a struggle keeping the big kids away from the toys. I'm not sure there's a great solution to managing our brood of mixed ages other than to lower expectations and let kids participate when and where they want to. 

We're still missing the Burden's. I'm hoping they're healthy enough on Thursday to join us! 

Lions, Tigers, and Kids Oh My!

Circle Time

The second week of school started off with a lot of animals and fun activities. Unfortunately, our group dwindled because of illness, we are continuing to pray for a quick recovery for the Parker and Burden kids, we miss you guys. The kids met "Billy" today and it was precious to watch their faces. Billy talked about being a good listener and he helped out with the calendar. 

 I think CJ wanted to take Billy home, he really liked him. 

 Billy loved giving all the kids kisses and hugs.

 Using the Flannel graph, the kids told the story of how God created the animals, big and small. This lesson had a ton of animals to place, thanks Lindsay for all the cutting! 

 Siege and CJ really enjoyed creating our Bible Picture today. They thought Adam could walk on water. Adam was pretty cool since he got to name all the animals, but not as cool as our Savior.

Craft Time
Paint by number worked well with this age. We focused on green, yellow and brown. Jack and Noah enjoyed mixing the colors, while Eisley and Addison focused on filling in the entire picture. Good Job!

 

Continuing to focus on animals, the kids made Bird Feeders. With stale bread and cheerios, we found that the rope made things difficult, but they were able to create a sample. Noah enjoyed eating the old bread more, yum!

Eisley and Addison are very proud of their Bird feeders. They can't wait to hang them up.

 The finished product, hung outside for God's creatures.....especially bugs! 

On day 2 of the week, we played a game called "What's in the bag?" The kids got to describe different objects in a bag and talk about their purpose or use. The light bulb really got them thinking!

We had some new friends join us, Tracy and her son Siege, who really loved coloring over the sandpaper. The sandpaper was cut into different animal and plant shapes, and then the kids rubbed crayons over them to decorate their picture. Gus was just hanging around, even our little ones get a piece of the action.

As we read, Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? the kids got to hold stuffed animals and share with the group what kind of sounds each animal made. 

 CJ really enjoyed making dinosaur sounds. While Eisley gave the best frog sound, and Siege realized deers are a quieter animal. 

 Snack Time, Dance Party, and Lunch!

The kids sure enjoyed their Animal Crackers and Peanut Butter. Addison and Eisley did a great job eating the celery too! Yeah for veggies!

 Noah and Jack had to "cheers" with each animal cracker, good buds. 

During the dance party, even little Juliette started rocking out. 

Ahhh, we made it to lunch. Surprisingly the kids did pretty well eating their own food, for a minute. Then the little ones decided they needed to partake in everyone else's. Thank the Lord, we made it through Week 2!