Our first assignment after the holidays was to write a paragraph about their favorite parts of Christmas break and to illustrate what they wrote. They are becoming better and better writers. Nolan's detail is outstanding and Olivia's printing has improved so drastically since last year. It is fun to see these skills develop!
We revisited our Waffles and Mochi badges again. This time we worked on the herbs and spices badge. We found many different spices in our cabinet that we smelled and looked up their country of origin. Then we found that country on the world map and labeled it.
One of my favorite parts of homeschooling is when they design learning activities themselves, with no prompting from me. Here Simon found his word book, opened it to the animal page, and played a matching game with his plastic animals.
This Ernie and Burt puzzle belonged to my Grandma Edie and I purchased it from her estate sale in December. I never imagined Simon would enjoy it as much as he does. He puts it together multiple times every day. It was one I used to play with at her house when I was a kid.
One of my favorite projects this month was the Ugly Duckling puppet play with put on with the Vadis girls. They made puppets out of felt, paper, and wooden spoons. My Mom made them a puppet theater earlier this winter and they used it to put on an ADORABLE play of the Ugly Duckling story. They had so much fun and wanted to do it again and again.
We read a book about Jack Frost and did tape resist artwork to mimic the illustrations in the book. They turned out so cool!
Simon is enamored with watching The Secrets of the Whales on Disney Plus. He likes to take out his sea animals and act it out. He knows that orcas eat sting rays and seals and acts that out in his play.
We began a unit on the book, Pippi Longstocking, a book I loved when I was a little girl. They immediately bonded with Pippi and her hilarious antics and we have had fun doing some enrichment activities along with it. We made pancakes like she did in Chapter 1, but Olivia made sure we did not mix the pancake batter on the floor. We were Thingfinders - looking around the house for ordinary/extraordinary things. We also made heart shaped gingerbread cookies in honor of Pippi's heart shaped pepperkakor cookies she made in the book.
We did a roll a story activity which was really fun. They rolled a dice to determine their main character, the setting, and the problem, and they filled in the gaps to make the story complete. It was fun to see their imaginations at work.
Nolan and I spent some time reading through a really cool US history book. It talked about the origin of the National Anthem, which Nolan was not very familiar with. We decided to look at it more in depth. We listened to different recordings and spent time reflecting on the lyrics, after which Nolan illustrated them.
Livi and I have been reading through an awesome animal fact book. We have learned about vertebrates and invertebrates, carnivores and herbivores, and the food chain. It has been fun to learn with her.
On Martin Luther King Jr Day, we talked about different ways we could make a difference in our community. They wrote their ideas onto their handprints and made it into a beautiful poster. We also read a book on Martin Luther King, as well as Change Sings by Amanda Gorman.
Playing outside with friends is so fun. They like to build forts and dig tunnels in the snow.
Simon loves books and being close to Mommy. Here he is reading books at my feet while I'm making dinner.
We love Jan Brett books and our most recent one was "Cozy," a story about a musk ox with many friends who took shelter in his coat. We spent a few days doing cozy activities to deep dive in this book. We wore pajamas and robes, drank hot chocolate, and built a blanket fort. We learned about musk oxen, made graphic organizers about the information we learned, and wrote a report about them. We looked up new vocabulary words and wrote about the characters, setting, and other elements of the story. We practiced retelling the story in our own words. We practiced sequencing and wrote about ways we stay warm and cozy. It was a fun little unit and all of us enjoyed it and learned a lot!
One of their favorite activities EVER was the frozen animal rescue. Overnight I froze some of their ocean animals in different containers. Their job was to thaw the giant ice blocks and free the animals. They used eye droppers, pipettes, squeeze bottles, and table salt. This kept them interested and engaged for well over an hour, taught them about why we use salt to melt ice on our roads and sidewalks and they practiced their fine motor skills. We'll definitely have to do this again!
Animal parade was another hit activity for Simon. I simply put painters tape in a line on the floor and spent close to an hour lining up all of his animals, dinosaurs, and characters. He absolutely loved it!
The kids have really enjoyed helping me make smoothies lately. Olivia especially likes them with whipped cream and a cherry on top!
Weekly library visits are still important. We love to get new books and say hi to Franklin the turtle and the other animals friends. (And the librarians too, of course.)
We read the book, "Dumpling Day" and we helped Daddy make a delicious feast of homemade dumplings and General Tso's Chicken for Lunar New Year. Nolan was especially good at filling the dumplings. He learned how to seal and fold the wrappers and really helped us get the job done. I love opportunities where we get to learn about other cultures and spent time in the kitchen together!
