Mail from...New Hampshire

New Hampshire is a beautiful state!  Who could argue that when this is their state bird...

Purple Finch

I visited there in a long ago October when the granite mountains were on fire with changing autumn colors.  On that trip, I got to see the Old Man of the Mountain.  I'm so glad I did, because in 2003 the profile collapsed and changed the face of the mountain forever.

Before and After 

Much to my surprise, this pile of crumbled rocks held very little appeal to my boys, so, thinking on my feet, I pulled out the paints to create our own representations of the New Hampshire autumn leaves.  We used Q-tips instead of brushes and I demonstrated how to carefully dot the paint onto the paper.  It did not make any sense to my kids today.  Surprising myself again, I didn't over-react and try to correct them.  I just let them be and worked on my own dotted painting...

So, New Hampshire did not bring about a super-memorable postcard lesson.  I'll have to put "visit New Hampshire" on our to-do list and see if that doesn't turn out to be more inspiring.

Apple Week (and Arkansas)

Last week we pulled out the postcard from Arkansas and discovered that 1) the state bird is the mockingbird, and 2) the state flower is the Apple Blossom.  I could have put it back in the bin until spring when, the apple trees would be blossoming, but decided to link it to the apple harvest of this time of year instead.

This was our week of apple learning...

First, we counted & sorted them by color & size. We also looked for patterns & more than/less than (i.e. stems v. no stems, red v. green, etc)

Then, we made a comparison chart. Beck colored each different apple across the top.  Our categories were: stems, red, not red, & spots/dots.  Does anyone know why apples have those tiny, tiny little dots?

We tried doing a taste test, but my kids didn't seem to think the apples tasted any differently.  After a few probing questions, I decided not to push their apparent lack of taste buds any further.

I found this superhero apple template on Pinterest and KNEW my kids would love it!

After printing, I glued the pieces to a cereal box cardboard, and cut the pieces apart in hopes of avoiding the frustration of tired hands.

Beck had a serious problem that his little brother wasn't putting  his apple together properly...

He forgot soon enough, though, unable to resist the lure of being a superhero!

 Our second craft activity of the week was an attempt at apple printing.  They didn't turn out the way I'd anticipated, but still the boys had a lot of fun.

 And the Apple Week Grand Finale was a field trip with cousin Claire to our local apple orchard!  The kids got to run up and down the planted rows in search of the perfect apple to eat right off the tree.  This picture doesn't show it very well, but these Galas were nearly as sweet as the doughnuts that were waiting at the end of the tour!

Do you have a favorite apple activity you'll be doing this year?

Happy Winter Solstice!

As much I dislike cold weather, I love to celebrate the winter solstice.  Why?  Starting tomorrow the days are getting longer and it's only a short 6 months until my favorite holiday, the summer solstice, is here again.  Today to commemorate the summer solstice, Beck and I did some fun winter activities.

We watched this time-lapse video of the shortest day in Fairbanks, Alaska 

(I wrote more about the solstice on my other blog Wandering Still).

Beck did a fun Snowman color-the-shapes worksheet

and then we cut out this adorable snowman paperdoll.

I didn't think about it before school today, but I'm going to mount these on cardboard (recycled cereal box, probably) and attach small velcro pieces so that they're a little more usable.  Very cute!

And finally we made these cute snowman Christmas tree ornaments out of popsicle sticks and random scraps we had laying around the house.

Beck insisted on keeping one as a puppet and it gave me great ideas to make a whole puppet family.
We'll get to that someday...

In the meantime, how are you spending your shortest day of the year?

A Gift For the Birds

"Spend time feeding and watching the birds"

-Teaching Your Children Joy

We haven't seen a lot of birds around our house lately.   Because of that, we started today's lesson by talking about the reasons why (the trees don't have any leaves or seeds, the worms are too far underground, etc).  We decided to make birdfeeders as a Christmas gift for the birds.  FINALLY, a nature activity that makes sense to be doing in December!

Holiday Bird Feeders

Here's what you'll need:

Christmas (or other) Cookie Cutters

Stale Bread (either let it set out a few days or, if you forget like I did, throw it in the toaster)

Peanut Butter & knife for spreading

Birdseed (That huge bag is only $3.00 at Walmart)

String and a Straw

To make your birdfeeders:

Spread peanut butter on your bread and accept right now that this is going to get messy.

Push your cookie cutter into the bread (It might take mom strength to get all the way through).

Use your knife to push the bread out of the cookie cutter.  Let the kids eat the outsides.

Then put your bread peanut butter side down in the bird seed.

Spread peanut butter on the other side of your bread. Then flip that side over into the seeds as well.

Use the straw to poke a hole through the top of your feeder and push a length of string through.

Tie a knot, set the feeder aside, and start all over again.

Hang your feeders and watch for the birds to come enjoy their Christmas feast! 

The Seasons (Especially the one I'd like to forget)

Is anyone out there in the same boat as I am...the boat where your children are OBSESSED with toys and presents and can bring any conversation back around to what they want for Christmas?  I'm seriously going to rip my hair out!

For today's Teaching Your Children Joy activity we focused on the seasons by making a collage.  I started by dividing a paper into 4 sections and having Beck practice his letters by writing out the names of the seasons.

Then we looked through our magazines for pictures that would remind of us each season.  Unfortunately our house is fairly barren of magazines.  Our choices were Time and Money Magazine plus one Family Fun.  I noticed Beck wasn't cutting anything and then realized he was only looking for toys "because they make me feel happy." Somehow we finally got enough pictures cut to fill our collage.

After gluing them on I had an idea to add a picture of Beck in each of the seasons as well.  We printed those out and I kind of half-threatened him to glue them on or I'd take away his Smith's MarketPlace Toy ad.  He did it begrudgingly and went straight back to his Santa's delivery dreaming.  I left the whole mess there and just walked away...

SPRING with rainbows, butterflies, budding trees, and Beck playing in the garden

SUMMER with watermelon, fresh tomatoes, leaves on the trees, and Beck at the splash pad

FALL with wind, the orange leaves, and Beck playing in the fallen leaves.
Apparently, he also sneaked a checkerboard on there

WINTER with a snowman, coats, gingerbread houses and Beck on his first day of skiing

Praying for strength to make it through this holiday "season"!

The Joy of the Earth

My initial thought in starting this chapter was this:

"Studying nature in December?  The world looks so boring and blah!"

I've changed my tune.  Of course the earth is beautiful in all it's variations seasons.  And, of course, looking at it through my child's eyes is helping me to see that beauty.

First things first, today we put the final leaf on our Autumn picture.  

We've been collecting one leaf every Monday since September and studying the ways they change as we get closer to winter.  The leaves are gone and there is snow on the mountains.  Winter is pretty close to being here...

Today's Teaching Your Children Joy activity:

Create a telescope and then use it to help your child focus on specific items or sounds in nature.

Beck LOVED this activity, mostly because now he has a telescope, but also for the things he got to see.  He convinced himself the telescope was helping him to see things bigger.  He looked at the dirt on the mountains, the pine needles under the tree, and the cactus in the garden.  

He even let me have a turn...

Studying the earth together is going to be fun!

Veering Away From the Lesson

I never want to be that blogger who portrays life as one peachy world where everything goes as planned and nothing ever goes awry.  And to give you a perfect example of that, I'll tell you that today's Teaching Your Children Joy activity was met with absolutely no enthusiasm by my boys or the friends they had over.  None.  At all.

We were supposed to listen to different styles of music and encourage expressive dancing and movement based on what we were hearing.  I found the CD channels on my tv and gathered them all in to our small living room.  They pretended to care for about the first 15 seconds.  Then they were all bumping into each other and complaining that the song was boring.  Beck insisted he could be a car that was dancing and started running all over "vroom-ing" loudly.  He knocked Peyton over.  Peyton started crying.  The younger of our two friends disappeared into the bedroom to find more toys.  The older friend stood staring at me like I was crazy.

Today nobody in my house wanted to be dancing.  This is what they did want to be doing...

 

And so that is what we did.

School Blah Already?

Beck is still loving school, but I'm already in a rut.  Definitely going to have to get over that...

This week for school we're using this preschool pack from 1+1+1=1.  Today Beck LOVED working on the page of patterns.

Here's an update on our Changing Autumn Leaves poster, five weeks into Fall.

And today we had fun painting Halloween Rocks which Beck calls his "Halloween Cars that only come out at Halloween."  (This was our version of the idea we saw at Craft Gossip)

As for today's Teaching Your Children Joy activity, it took a lot of creativity on Mom's part.  Still working on the physical joys, we tried making letters with our bodies.  With just the two of us it took a lot of bending and turning.  It'd be a lot easier if you were able to gather several kids for this activity.  Regardless of how many you have assembled, it makes it fun for the kids to form their letters in front of a mirror (we were mirror-less, but used our reflections in the tv-that was Beck's idea!).