What a Wonderful Weekend!

We had a beautiful weekend, weather wise and otherwise.  We spent time with friends, helped out some family, and enjoyed the weather and great food that came with the weekend.  On Saturday CJ and Eliza convinced Daddy and our friend Justin that they needed an obstacle course.  This made me happy since I know I should be doing more physical education activities, and this fit the bill perfectly.  He started with the word start in chalk on the sidewalk, then a math problem they had to solve first.  He drew boxes they needed to jump into, built planks up for them to climb up and walk across, things for them to crawl through and under.  He even used his traffic cones for the kids to run around.  It was great, and they had so much fun, they did it for literally hours!  We decided that once a week (or weekend) we would build one based on whatever gross motor skills appropriate for them. 

 Here CJ was explaining all the rules to Eliza.

 I love this picture of her, it really shows her adorable running and walking style.

 I was amazed at how well they "walked the plank" here.  They climbed right up, walked right across, and in the dozens of times they walked it, they each only fell once.

 Eliza had a little trouble with the squatting under the finish line.  I don't think she will be a master of the limbo.

CJ did a great job jumping right into the squares he wanted to.  By the time they went to bed they were exhausted and fell right to sleep.  Plus we all had so much fun doing this together.  What a great activity for us to do instead of watching television.

Vacation From School, Not From Learning

Generally children and parents have a summer vacation from schooling.  In our house I believe it will be a spring vacation.  I have spent so much time getting the garden prepared, planted, weeded and what not that it has left me little time to devote to true lesson planning.  I have taken the kids to several classes at the library, most of which were incredibly disappointing.  They have learned a lot about seasons, weeds, insects, plant types, etc.  Yesterday CJ was looking at one of my gardening books, pretending it was a scientific field journal.  He noticed that the word flowers was on it.  He asked me what the rest of the words said, and I told him he already knew them all, and he read to me the big book of flowers.  He even opened it and recognized some types of flowers we have in the yard.  We have been doing small learning projects like finishing a book of colors and shapes.  We have been reading, and measuring the water in our rain gauge.  We have been identifying clouds and insects.  We have done some projects involving recycling, and a lot of mini lessons focusing on feelings, and appropriate ways to show feelings.  They are getting to the age where controlling their tempers is becoming extremely difficult, especially since they aren't getting nearly enough sleep.  The more tired they are the less they are able to handle disappointment, frustration and changes in schedule.  Hopefully we will have a relatively quiet and restful holiday weekend.  The garden is officially planted, and all I have to do now is keep up with weeding and watering.  The kids love watching things pop up after planting.  They are helping their Memere with an herb bed at their house.  They helped plant the seeds, and helped fill the bed with soil.  When the seedlings are big enough they are going to help plant them.  I am sure they will also help eat them! 

We have already been harvesting parsley, oregano, chives, onions, leeks, scallions, thyme, cabbage, and greens.  So much of the garden was still strong when we uncovered, and many things reseeded themselves. 

It is wonderful to finally see some green everywhere and know that soon we will have wonderful food to harvest and flowers to make us happy.  Rich even built me an arbor to grow moonflower and morning glories.  We have it on the stone patio he just put in this year, where we go at night to have a fire and relax.  It will have an evening fragrance garden.  The kids helped me pick out some beautiful plants for that area.  

Here is where CJ and Eliza learned all about perennials.  They noticed when they started seeing strawberry flowers that they were the same as last year.  We also harvested some rhubarb and they learned all about how to can strawberry rhubarb jam!  They helped me measure the sugar and the fruit.  They loved tasting the results!

I think we will have some wonderful school time in the coming weeks as the work in the yard slows down.  I am particularly excited to start Eliza reading.  CJ is coming along so quickly that he reads everywhere.  Eliza sees letters and numbers, but really wants to start reading words.  What a joy!

Themes and apologies for my absence!

So again, sorry to be so sparse in my update duties, but the computer has been acting wonky when I try to update anything, and we have been working like mad in the garden.  I will be posting pictures soon of CJ's birthday, and of the new improvements in the garden.

I really want to talk a little bit about how important using themes to teach the kids has been to me.  Today we listened to the song Scarborough Faire on my ipod.  I love the song, and I am sure you all know it.  Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme?  Well I taught them a bit about what the song means, and we went into the garden to look at all the herbs, discussing that these herbs have been used by cooks and medical practitioners for centuries.  We looked up the herbs in a book and found out what people used to think they did, and what the herb names mean and stand for.  Rosemary for example was often given as a gift and means remembrance.  We are having Scarborough Faire chicken for dinner, using all these herbs from the garden.  We talked about how they grow, and how the plants are different and the same.  We tasted them all.  We learned the words to the song.  We even read a children's book that took place in medieval times to talk about how people lived differently. 

Recently I have also done themes for Earth day and recycling.  There was a recycling program at the library for the kids, which actually wasn't very good, but helped me form a theme for the kids.  We recycled newspaper and some seeds into plantable seed pods.  We recycled dryer lint by putting it out for the birds.  We found ways to recycle many items in the house to help us with the garden and other projects.  The kids understand what recycling is, and why it is important for the earth.  We read Earth day books, and watched Sesame Street Earth day movies.  We spent a few days talking about the Earth and how to take care of it. 

Teaching in themes makes it so much easier for me to plan lessons, and I find it makes the lessons stick with the kids much more.  This is mostly because we spend so much time with one topic and we learn about it in so many ways.  We integrate all subject areas into the one topic making it a part of our entire day and week.  This makes it seem important.  I even try to integrate topics into our games and play.  For recycling we made toys to play with using old discarded items.  For today we are playing ring around the rosie, a game that originated in medieval times.  There are so many ways to integrate and use themes in everything we do.  I also love the consistency it brings to our learning. 

That is all for today, and I will be posting pictures soon, as long as my computer allows it.  Off to plant some more seeds in the garden!

Babies are Growing Up

So CJ is officially 4.  These few years have gone so quickly.  I am sorry I have been so incommunicado, but things have been absolutely crazy busy around here.  Between Eliza's birthday, the birthday party for both kids, CJ's birthday, all of us being sick, AGAIN, and prep for Easter, blogging just hasn't happened in a long time.  This summer I will be much more on top of things.  Today I will be posting some pictures of the kids and their party, as well as of CJ's birthday.  One of CJ's birthday gifts was Go Dog Go by P.D. Eastman, and he has already read most of it to me.  He is seeing words he knows everywhere he goes.  He even noticed a mistake I made on one of our posters in our school room.  I wrote nightime, and he pointed out that it should be nighttime.  A t for night and one for time.  While we haven't been doing formal lessons between spring cleaning and party prep and all the other stuff going on, we read together every day, and every day we learn something new.  We built a rain gauge that has been getting some use in the garden.  We have been studying the seedlings we have planted, and talking about why some do well and some don't.  We have been noticing the difference between different types of plants.  We have been learning about clocks and time.  CJ and Eliza can both read a digital clock, and have them in their rooms.  We are working on reading analog clocks, and they can identify hours, just not minutes.  We have been studying basic cloud types, since CJ was incredibly interested in them.

CJ is so far ahead of where Eliza is, and Eliza knows all her letter sounds.  Mason know all his letters and we are still working on the sounds.  Eliza and Mason have amazing fine motor skills, and can hold a pencil, crayon, fork or anything else perfectly with no help.  CJ still does not, but is improving.  CJ keeps changing between his right and left hand.  Mason is decidedly right handed, and Eliza seems to be ambidextrous, as she does equally well with both hands for most things. 



I am having some technical issues as of right now, so the pictures and remainder of this post will be postponed until tomorrow.  Sorry!

Happy Birthday Eliza!

So my baby has now turned three, as of 7:42 this morning.  So much has happened in the past year.  She is no longer wearing diapers except at night, she is feeding herself every day, she knows so much, and she converses like a child twice her age.  She is becoming a kind and empathetic little lady.  I am so proud.  Yesterday we went to a birthday party for Max, the son of some friends of ours in Easthampton Massachusetts.  Max turned two yesterday.  CJ and Eliza were so well behaved that I was astounded.  Even when we had to leave they handled it pretty well.  We had to explain that Max needed a nap, but what three and four year old wants to leave a place with a bouncy house and cotton candy machine?

On the long car ride yesterday Eliza got to plan the menu for her birthday.  She wanted toast and milk for breakfast.  I kept asking her, "Toast?  Are you sure you want toast?  I can make you something special."  "Toast IS special Mommy, and I like it.  You can put special birthday peanut butter on it."  Okay.  On to lunch.  "Macaroni and cheese with vegetables.  Because we are having mashed potatoes for dinner so we can't have them for lunch too."  Alrighty then.  What does she want for dinner you ask?  "Mommy I want mashed potatoes with butter in them."  (Picture her mashing potatoes in the air and cutting butter.)  "Yes I know how you like mashed potatoes.  What else do you want?"  "I told you, butter."  "No I mean with the potatoes and butter."  "OOOOHHHH.  I want chicken, and baby carrots, and a big salad with lots of teeny tiny sprouts.  And chocolate cake.  No ice cream, and no frosting."  "Really?  No ice cream or frosting?"  "No just chocolate cake.  I LOVE chocolate cake, Mommy!"  You got it baby girl!  I had to add a little bit of not exactly frosting, so I could turn her chocolate cake pink though.  More about that later.  While reading this encounter I want you to remember that Eliza speaks with her hands, A LOT!  Here she is with cake.

And a picture of her chosen dinner.

She even chose to add broccoli to the baby carrots, because she likes having two vegetables.  I asked isn't salad a vegetable, and she told me of course it is made from vegetables, but it is salad, and it doesn't count as a vegetable.

For her birthday she got two books, one she immediately identified as an Eric Carle book, a skirt and shirt, dry erase crayons for her alphabet whiteboard, a bouncy playground type ball with Abby Cadabby on it (she is from Sesame Street if you are unfamiliar with her), a new plate with butterflies, and a coloring book we made her.  We had to read the books before bed tonight.  And tomorrow she wants to use her new crayons.  I think she had a very happy birthday, even if it wasn't very eventful.  We are all sick, and my parents were too sick to come over.  We couldn't visit my grandparents, as we didn't want to share the germs.  Rich did stay home though, and that was nice.  We had a good day together, and look forward to many more happy birthdays.  CJ celebrates turning four in just three weeks!  Tomorrow we celebrate the letter M with M foods and M activities, and our weekly library class.

I have to tell you about the cake.  I made a bundt cake using the friendship starter and a recipe from a King Arthur Flour cookbook I have.  It makes a chocolate friendship cake.  I took that, adding a little espresso powder.  After it cooled I wanted to add a little something, so I found, again from King Arthur flour, a recipe for poured fondant.  I melted pink chocolate wafers, used to make candy, and mixed it with powdered sugar, corn syrup and hot water.  It makes this gorgeous pourable smooth thick icing that I then topped with colored candy coated mini chocolate chips.  As seen here:

Yummy!  Will be my go to cake recipe from now on!  Enjoy everyone!

Plans and Centers

The kids have been a little off lately.  Not themselves at all.  CJ threw a temper tantrum at playgroup last week.  Today was better.  Of course now everyone is getting sick and rundown again.  I made awesome lesson plans this week, and got some great books at the library to go with them.  What happened?  Life.  Kids were sick Monday.  We went to the library Tuesday.  Mason is spending a lot of time using the potty each day.  So all the lesson plans are not being finished.  We finally finished Tuesday's plans yesterday.  We are doing the letter L, number 12, leopard, llama, ladybug, shape is heart, gardens and weather.  Gardens and weather will continue next week, along with clouds, related to weather of course.  We will start a new letter number and shape though.  I also might start with telling time, as I found some great preschool age books devoted to that at the library.  It occurs to me that I have never shared my lesson plan format here, so here it is. 

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March 21

Do daily calendar, weather, letter sound song, review posters

Letter L

Write letter on whiteboard

Review and add to letter poster

Color letter paper

            Talk about words that begin with letter

            Do page in letter book

Number 12 dozen

            Write number on whiteboard

            Make number page for number book

            Count out number

            Color the number paper

Animals Llama/Leopard/Ladybug

            Activate prior knowledge of animals

            Read about animals

            Identify animal type, discuss features and habitats

            Compare/contrast to each other and other animals we know

            Make a Venn Diagram of the two mammals

Shape Heart

            Draw shape for them on whiteboard

            Find something that is the shape

            Color shape paper

Theme Gardens

            Discuss what a garden is

            List things that can be in a garden

            Read books The Gardener

                        This is Your Garden

                        My Garden

            Sing Garden Songs

            Observe our own garden and what goes in it, and what we do to it

Theme Weather

            Activate prior knowledge

            List types of weather and define

            Define the word weather

            Read weather book from Enchanted Learning

Read the Lorax and Helping Out Day

Play Chutes and Ladders

Introduce Lacing Center

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This is a typical Monday lesson plan.  On Mondays we always play a game.  On Tuesdays we always do a story on storyline online.  Tuesdays are light days since we go to the library now.  Wednesdays we do craft.  Thursdays are focused on tracing, and writing together.  Fridays we cook a recipe.  Fridays are also assessment day normally.  While these are not traditional lesson plans, it is enough for me to remember what I items I need to complete the days work, and to make sure I don't forget what I wanted them to learn.  I try and get everything out and ready the night before.  On weekends I put all my materials that are ready into folders labeled with each day of the week.  I also don't do everything all at once during the day.  We fit parts of the lessons in to different parts of the day. 

When planning I think about what I want them to learn from the activity, the purpose.  Then I figure out how to accomplish it, and find or create materials for it.  I have found some great resources in the past few weeks, which I will be posting soon.  Every couple of weeks I try to create and introduce a new center based on the types of activities that are age appropriate and would be introduced in preschool or kindergarten.  We have a matching center with several activities in it.  We have a color matching activity, a shape matching activity, a number matching activity, and a sorting activity that uses size, color and shape together.  I have a habitat matching activity and a food group one from the times we did those themes.  I always introduce the activity in a lesson and do it with them a few times before letting them do them alone.  I also don't let them play with them.  They can't take them whenever they want to.

I use some cheap plastic shoe boxes Rich found for a dollar at Home Depot, zippered bags, and items from around the house to create the centers.  I use Rich's label maker to label EVERYTHING!!!

This is their favorite at the moment.  I grabbed all types of things from the house in all different colors.  I wrote the color names on index cards in colored sharpie.  I added to it as we did colors during our lessons, and now that we are done with colors they like to use this all the time.

I like to add sorting activities that are part of what we are learning.  The habitat matching center has pictures of animals and different habitats that I printed from various websites and clipart.  The kids love placing the animals in their correct homes.  The food group matching center has the food pyramid, each group labeled on their own card, and pictures of all types of food.

I have a math center, science center, art and craft centers, shape center, and a lacing center that we started using this week.  It has some old shoe laces, plastic craft lacing in differing lengths with knots already tied, large pony beads, and some Dr. Seuss cardboard cutouts specifically for lacing that I found for a dollar at the craft store.  They love this center, and I love that it helps with their fine motor skills.  I also love that everything has its home, and the kids already understand how to clean the centers up and put it all back in its place.  I find that to be an important lesson in and of itself.  I will post some of my lesson plan templates within the next couple of weeks, and take some more pictures of how I have set things up to help stay organized and on track.  Thanks for reading, and I really hope you comment or send suggestions my way!  Happy Spring!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

So it has been a crazy, but good week.  The kids started a class at the library on Tuesday.  It is 45 minutes every Tuesday for 6 weeks.  All three kids go, and so does my cousin's daughter, so we were all able to go together.  Yesterday I took CJ, Eliza and Mason to the movie theater for their first ever cinematic experience.  They loved it!  We saw the Little Engine that Could.  Today we spent a lot of time outside, we watched a kids movie about Ireland, read books about St. Patrick and St. Patrick's Day, colored some pictures of leprechauns and shamrocks, my grandmother brought lunch over for everyone, and we listened to Irish music all day while we made Irish soda bread, Irish Tea Brack (a fruit bread) and corned beef and cabbage.  It was a busy and wonderful day.  I got to work in the garden a little and we all wore green.  I finally have been able to get lessons planned and printed so next week we get back into a normal school lesson schedule.  I have so much that I need to get done in other parts of my life that lessons have taken too much of a backseat these past few weeks.  I have done lots of teaching, using centers, books and other things, but not in the same format we had been doing.  Tomorrow we go to playgroup and play outside since it will be beautiful.  We will be planting some seeds in the garden, as there are a few things that can be planted now.  It is very exciting for all of us in the Hansen household.  More to come next week, including pictures!  Thanks for reading.