Mail from...Oklahoma

I've talked a lot about creating lessons from the random things my kids sometimes happen to be interested in.  (see motorcycle sidecar racing and underwater worlds for examples).  This week we put a little twist on that theme-this time it was something random that I happened to be interested in.

It started while I was reading  Into the West: The Story of It's People.  The book's not that great, but it did talk a little bit about the Oklahoma Land Grab and that piqued my interest.

I found some great information on the Oklahoma Historical Society website and this clip from the movie "Far and Away."  (I ended up checking this movie out at our library-not for the kids, of course-and really enjoyed watching it.)

Source: youtube.com via Michelle on Pinterest

After talking about the Native Americans in Oklahoma, and a little bit about homesteading, I helped my boys participate in their own land grab.  They had to decide what to take with them...

Clothes, toys, books, and snacks.

I wanted them to think carefully about what they'd need in the wilderness, but when I turned around they'd emptied their entire dressers into their sleds and filled their shoes with nuts.  It was a good time to just smile and let them be.

Next they had to think about their mode of transportation...one sled has a string on it, so that worked perfectly.  We had to transfer supplies from the second sled into something a little more manageable...

I put 6 land "markers" in the yard...

...and then it was a race to see who could collect the most "land"...

My teenage neighbor came out at about the time as this video and looked at us very strangely.  It's like he's never seen kids running around with sleds and coolers full of clothes and snacks before...

My kids loved the running around part of this lesson, 

and it was so rewarding to share with them something that was intriguing to me.  

What was the last spontaneous lesson

 you and your kids shared?

You thought I forgot, didn't you?

The Oklahoma state bird is the Scissor-tailed Fly Catcher.

I'll bet you've never seen one of those!

1st of the Mental Joys: Interest & Curiosity

I'm here!  

Wow, what a struggle it has been to get re-motivated after the holidays!

Over Christmas break, Beck and I finished up the Earth chapter of Teaching Your Children Joy.  That also finished up the focus on Physical Joys.  We're moving now into the Mental Joys, beginning with Interest and Curiosity.

Kids are, of course, incredibly curious about the world around them.  The activities in this chapter help us to continue encouraging that in them, but also to teach them that they have the ability to magnify their interest and curiosity into creative and intelligent activities and accomplishments.

It has me reflecting back to the first focus my kids and I worked on with this blog: Spontaneity.    Today's activity helped me do that as well.  Here is the activity, and then how it's worked for me...

Watch your kids from afar.  What are they watching?  Watch that.  

Resist the urge to pull them out of their world.

First off, I'm 100% guilty of the latter part.  Over and over I will be aware that Beck is creating some imaginary story with the toys he is playing with, but I see a dirty sock on the floor beside him and insist that he pick it up.  Or he and Peyton will finally be playing together nicely, but I'm getting antsy and decide to load them in the car for a pointless day of errands or shopping to satisfy my own need for mind-numbing.  I interrupt their world of fun and creativity with my impatience and boredom.  

Sitting back and watching was a hard hard thing but absolutely worth it!  At McDonald's I let Peyton take FOREVER eating because in between bites and chewing he was watching every single person that walked by.  He saw the lights and the paintings on the wall.  He saw what was happening outside.

I finally figured out why my bathroom is always soaking wet, too!  Beck and Peyton have discovered the sink drain also fits onto the faucet.  It cracks them up to see it spraying.

After a day of watching and observing, the activity wore off on me.  In the morning Beck and Peyton were pretending a blanket was a boat on the open sea.  I remembered we had some sea-theme stickers and so for school I pulled them out for Beck to make a picture.  While I was still watching instead of interjecting, my son became a poet...

and then an author/illustrator...

Try it and find out what you've been missing!

The Week Before Christmas

I love all the pre-k packs available online and this week we're taking a break from regular workbooks to do the Christmas pack from Living Life Intentionally.   Go check it out!

I have a Teaching Your Children Joy activity lined up, but right now I'm watching Beck pretend he's a doctor and his stuffed lizards are in the hospital with broken tails and are being brave to get their "pokes."  I think I'll just leave him be...

The machine that puts a cast on Baby Iguana's broken neck

Fixing Lizard's broken tail

A tough recovery for Turtle

More Bugs

Today's Teaching Your Children Joy activity is to spend time with your kids being still and watching bugs.  Last time I checked, the temperature outside was 25 degrees.  Instead of freezing off our digits, we decided to take another look at last summer's praying mantis adventure.  (Didn't see it the first time? Watch the video)

Beck also played with his felt cut-out bugs and pretended they were eating each other.  He was being very specific that they only ate what the real-life bugs would eat.

For our craft today we painted Christmas ornaments.  I love that Peyton wants to do EVERYTHING that Beck is doing...