Birds, Caps, Adam and Eve

Time just passes so fast! I never finished posting about our Bird Themed week. Here are a few more projects we did that week.

We made some bird treats. First we took some slices of bread and cut them into star shapes using cookie cutters. I poked a hole into one tip so we could thread the string through to tie it up. We let them sit and dry out over night. The next day we spread peanut butter onto one side and then dipped that side into a plate of bird seed. Once one side was covered we turned them over and covered the other side.

We found that we had to add extra bird seed to the places that didn't cover well and press it into the peanut butter.

We found a place to hang them up outside. We don't really have good places to hang bird treats and so they ended up near the gate. Then we waited for the birds to come and enjoy their treats...and waited and waited. Unfortunately, the birds in our neighborhood didn't appreciate our efforts. One eventually fell off and was then consumed by the birds on the ground. A couple days later I broke the other one off the string and left it on the ground too. Okay, it wasn't the best place to hang the treats.

Our next project was to make treats for ourselves. We decided to make bird nests. These are made with crushed cereal. We used Chex style cereal because that is what we had. Chloe enjoyed doing the crushing with her own rolling pin.

I found the recipe here. We pressed the mixture into muffin tins lined with cupcake papers. You can't really tell by this picture but there are slight depressions in the center to make them look like nests.

We added the "eggs" (m&m candy because that is what we had on hand) and put them in the refrigerator for a few hours.

Our m&m's had a mixture of colors but that gave Chloe a chance to sort.

They were so delicious!

We also made these cute birds inspired by this duck craft.

One other project I worked on that week was to try my hand at homemade water colors.

Don't they look pretty? We were kind of disappointed with these. When we paint with them, they leave deposits of baking soda on the paper that flake off when it dries. The paint itself dries out quite a bit between uses. I find that I have to add a bit of water to each cup to get a bright enough color to paint with. We will probably look for a different recipe to try. I also learned that I need to check my container for holes before adding liquid! Most of the cups in this egg carton had tiny holes poked through them. I checked the other few egg cartons that I have on hand and they all have these holes. I guess they come that way. Now when we use them, I make sure I put paper towel under the carton.

 The next week we used Before Five In A Row by Jane Claire Lambert. The book we read was Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina. I didn't take many pictures of this weeks lessons but I used two resources. The first was here on homeschoolshare.com. The other is from one of my favorite sites for printables, Homeschool Creations and the link to her preschool pack for Caps for Sale is here.

This is a project we did to go along with this lesson.

This week we are doing a lapbook about Adam and Eve which I found here at Lapbook Lessons. Along with the lapbook we are working on basic concepts using worksheets from two books Everything for Early Learning and More of Everything for Early Learning. 

In the coming weeks we will be using an Apple Theme, Farm Theme, Owl Theme using the book Owl Babies by Martin Waddell, and a lapbook about Creation.

Ponds, Birds, What Next?

Chloe is really enjoying playing school. The pond theme was a big hit last week. We made our pond sensory box. At first we left it out on the porch but because the temperatures were reaching 100 degrees and higher, the box didn't get played with for a few days. I decided we needed to bring it inside. Some of the plastic frogs and turtles and the craft foam lily pads were moved to the water tub/table on the first day. We inherited a washtub on legs when we bought this house. It's a great water station for Chloe to play with.

This week we've started our bird theme. We got off to a late start this morning on lessons because the bird sensory box we put together last night was a great distraction. The base filler in the bird box is bird seed which we will be feeding to the birds outside our fence so our dog, Molly, won't chase them away. I had to fashion a stick tree out of several  sticks, three actually, to get a good "tree" with a nice branch layout for the birds nests we made today.

I used two different kinds of yarn and about 2/3 of a small bottle of white glue. The glue is almost dry and next we will pop the balloons. I wanted the nests to be small enough to put in my stick tree so I used water balloons.

I also made a couple little birds out of pom poms, craft feathers, chenille sticks and googly eyes. The bird seed is surprisingly dirty and now our soft little birdies are dirty too. Then I decided we needed a bird house. I emptied the last of the half & half into a small pitcher so I could use the carton for a bird house. I cut it down to a shorter size and taped it back together. Then I cut out a hole and wrapped the carton  in construction paper. The spout on top became the chimney. Chloe was supposed to put the flowers on the paper but at first she didn't want to get glue on her hands. Then once she did, she was distracted by peeling it off again. I ended up finishing the flowers.

 I had an old flower pot base already painted purple so we painted the inside bottom light blue to be the bird bath. The birds legs turned out a little funny looking and when you sit them on the side of the bird bath, it looks more like a wading pool. For awhile, Chloe pretended it was a bird feeder and filled it up with birdseed. I love how these sensory boxes bring out her imagination! She actually sits and plays in them for long stretches of time, freeing me up to plan what to put in the box next.

I'm looking forward to adding the nests tomorrow. I think we will need some eggs too. We have some river rock just sitting out by the garage so I think we will be painting some of those tomorrow.

Some other projects I have planned for this week is to make a bird treat out of a piece of bread, peanut butter and bird seed. We'll have to look for a good spot for these treats so we can watch birds eat from them. We are also going to make ourselves some edible birds nests filled with candy "eggs".  We are also using the Bird Preschool Pack from Homeschool Creations. There is more to go with this pack  Birds Preschool Pack found at 1+1+1=1.

As I've been researching ideas and projects to do with each theme, I've come across so many good things that don't necessarily go along with any particular theme. I've decided to toss in a few free weeks to pick up on those types of things. Last year I purchased the book Before Five In A Row (BFIAR). I found it was very difficult to get copies of all the books featured. I did find about half of them in two local libraries that are the closest to me. While picking out Preschool Packs from Homeschool Creations, I noticed that Jolanthe is creating packs to go along with some of these books. I will be interspersing some of these as well. I had planned to do an Astronaut/Outer Space theme next week, but I think I will be using the book Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina.  We actually own this book and will be using the Preschool Pack from Homeschool Creations.

I'm learning about blogging as I go along. In this blog, you can see that I learned how to insert photos and link to other websites! We never stop learning.

It's been a long time!

I haven't updated this blog for a really long time. I haven't been "in the mood" to write anything. And it's not that nothing has been happening. We've stayed pretty busy.

This summer we tried to take advantage of activities provided by local businesses and libraries. We use the Pharr library because it is larger than the San Juan library and they have more to offer for kids Chloe's age. We also discovered Quinta Mazatlan which is one of the World Birding Centers here in the RGV. They had a Story & Stroll time on Tuesday morning and Family Night on Thursday evening.

Last week, I officially started teaching Preschool/Kindergarten to Chloe. In her words, "Let's play school." Ha! I hope she keeps that attitude. I've decided to use a different theme each week. There is so much available on the internet. Some amazingly creative people have blogs with which they provide us with free printables. One of my favorites is Homeschool Creations with Jolanthe. I love her Preschool Packs and use those as the foundation lesson and then add other printables, crafts, activities and books. Another favorite blog of this kind is 1+1+1=1 with Carisa. Again, I get a lot of ideas and printables from her blog.

The first official week, our theme was Gardens. I wish we could have planted a garden but we can use this theme again later and do some actual planting. This week the theme is Bugs. One of the preschool packs is called Pretty Bugs. The drawings are cute feminine bugs in pink, purple and green. Chloe has an aversion to real bugs so I'm hoping this exposure to bugs will help her get over that. She was really excited about studying bugs this morning. We went to the dollar stores and got some really cheap plastic bugs, a bug catching kit and butterfly net. I also bought a shallow storage container that we will use as a sensory box. This week we will put some potting soil in the bottom. Add the plastic bugs and some sticks, leaves and rocks. Chloe can play with that sort of activity for long periods of time thanks to her very active imagination.

Next week our theme will be Ponds. Do you see a nature theme happening here? Next week we will transform our sensory box into a "pond". We will use either aquarium rocks or colored rice for the bottom. Then we'll add pond creatures like turtles, frogs, lizards, ducks, dragonflies and such. We'll put in some old plastic aquarium plants we have laying around. We'll add some logs for the turtles to sun themselves on. We also dragged an old washtub on legs out of the garage. It was something that was here when we bought the house. It has a drain on the bottom and we always thought we would fix it up and use it for drinks at BBQ's. Well, it's been stored in the garage since we moved in 8 years ago! So Randy got it out, added a hose valve thing to the drain and filled it up with water. He put a stool in front of it for Chloe and she had fun playing with it for a little while last night. I plan to make some lily pads out of green craft foam and take some of her plastic pond creatures outside to play "pond".

I think the following week might be "Birds" mainly because we have a real birds nest on a branch from a tree we cut down last spring. We attempted to study birds a few months ago but it wasn't really official and I hadn't really prepared. I think we'll use the Preschool Pack again. I'm thinking of making a birds nest with yarn on an inflated balloon with watered down glue. I'll be doing most of that planning next week. For now I'll just plan one week in advance.

Besides all this, we've been using a computer based reading program called Funnix. Chloe is starting to be able to sound out certain words! That is so exciting for me because I love to read and I really want to pass that on to her. We are only doing about 2 reading lessons a week. I don't want to push her too hard. She's not even 4 yet. In September, I plan to begin the Funnix math program as well and take it lesson by lesson to see how she accepts it. She loves counting things, so I really don't anticipate her disliking the math program.

Some other areas I want to focus on this school year are clocks and money. I want to introduce the clock face to her and have her learn where the numbers go and what the hands are called. Maybe begin with the o'clocks. I also want to teach her to identify the coins and begin to understand the values of pennies and nickels. If she catches on to that, we'll move on to more valuable coins.

I'm hoping to update this blog more often. I know that was my intention when I first started so I guess we'll see how things turn out! :-)