As We Go- Bug House

This week is supposed to be about farm animals, but how can I resist an opportunity to explore something unrelated as it presents itself?  Isn't that one of the greatest reasons to homeschool... to let learning happen naturally?  

I think what I will do is supplement my beginning and end of week lesson plan posts with these unrelated activities.  I think it's a great way to prove what a gift homeschooling can be- an opportunity to learn as we go...

Bug House

Our experience really begins the night before... I found a grasshopper in the yard and caught it in a baby food jar to show Big Boy (who was busy NOT using the potty).  I set him free after bedtime.

In the morning I wondered briefly what the odds were of coming across him again... I should know by now that toddlers and babies are amazing at finding very small things.  "Green Bug" was enjoying the ride on the Cozy Coupe when he was spotted.

This time we went all out - not just a baby food jar anymore.  Oh, no.  Today we made a bug house.  

Big Boy helped make holes in the lid to let air in.  He filled his bug house with dirt and grass and a very little twig.

There was a worm in the dirt.  Why? Because worms eat dirt. What size is this worm? Small.

This reminded him of the time we found worms behind the swing.  A "biiig" worm behind the swing.  I'm pretty impressed with this display of memory... it was quite a while ago.  

Then we added "green bug."  

Last night's discovery of the green bug lead to Daddy and Big Boy's discussion of the bug's anatomy and probable diet.  I had been planning on doing a bug week... so I will have to nail down some more specifics in that regard.  We will definitely do more bug hunting in the future.  Such fun to make a "bug house" and get an up close look!

Week 1 - Farm Animals

Here we go....Week 1 of my homemade lesson plans.  I may be over ambitious, but that's what the purpose of starting now is- so I can figure out what works and what doesn't work for us.

I set up my sensory bins in preparation for tomorrow and I can't wait for the kids to play with them!  So glad I came across this blog post about sensory bins for babies.  Now little man can join in our fun!

The baby bin is filled with large pastas (rigatoni and rotini), linking letters, plush rattle teething toys, small (but not too small!) rubber toys, a feather, and some noise boxes (they open up and there's an animal inside you push or twist and it makes a squeak or clicky noise...they were in big brother's first Easter basket from his Nana and his love for them surprised everyone).

Big Boy's bin is filled with popcorn,  cups for scooping and pouring, small toys, a tractor that makes lights and sounds, feathers, and another one of those animal noise box things.

My favorite part is that I had both of these bins already!  One was empty and the other still had junk thrown in it from last year's move.  I love that they have lids and can get closed up when the boys are done exploring.  I plan on decorating this corner for Big Boy to play in.  Little Man will be on the other side of the baby gate with his bin... I don't want him getting too near anything too small, AND I hope to avoid any fighting!

I put the worksheets I made on 4shared.com so they can be accessed by anyone who happens across this.  Feel free to print and use in your own home for some farm animal fun!

week 1 - farm animals.docx

Jumping in...

Even though I considered this week the first official week of our homeschool journey, next week will be the start of my "lesson plan" play.

This week I did my best to focus on taking advantage of opportunities for learning as they naturally presented themselves.  Having this goal really helped me stay present and active in playtime instead of encouraging my little learner to play on his own, (of course I still encourage independence, but I noticed I spent markedly less time shooing him away to go play with his trains).

Monday- I started my home learning journal.  I took the kids to the library where I checked out several books with a farm animal theme in mind.  I wrote out a plan of activities for the week and created worksheets (glorified coloring pages).   I also established some goals for our "school year."

Tuesday- We played with Mega Bloks, what started as truck building turned into dinosaur building.

We played with a wood puzzle which he has mastered long ago, but I attempted to add to the experience by adding color identification and counting to it.

We read a ton of books.

We made a collage titled, "Nik's guitar," for his Music Together teacher.

Potty training clicked (for #1 anyway).

Wednesday- We socialized at gymboree, which is just as important for me as it is for him!

We read and played with instruments in the yard.  I gave the dog a bath while we were out there so, naturally, we had to read Harry the Dirty Dog.

We played with wood lacing shapes.  At first he started out by sorting colors and lacing like ones all on his own.

Then he built these little towers and sang "moon moon moon."  I'm not entirely sure why, probably the star shapes, but I just loved the way his little brain worked that out.

We played with his Fischer Price Little People Zoo, did animal impressions, and read a book about Curious George at the zoo.  Then we read three books about dinosaurs and I realized my little boy has developed a new interest in things prehistoric.  

We played a game from Discovery Toys, very creatively named "Roll and Play."  He did well considering it was our first time with it.

Still obsessing over his music teacher... we made a guitar from his foot print and labeled it using a diagram I found on google.

Thursday- My little man got dropped off at gymboree for the School Skills program.  I think I handled that pretty well.  They made a dinosaur craft in class.  His diaper stayed dry!

We baked banana bread.

We played Elefun.  His favorite part is putting the butterflies back in the elephant for whatever reason, so I had him feed the elephant "1 yellow," "2 red," etc. etc.

We made our own lightning with a flashlight and followed it with thunder on a drum to mimic a passing storm.  This led to a Choo Choo Soul dance party before bed.

Friday-  I was pretty much a wicked stepmother.  The terrible two's were in full swing, the dog seemed extra attached to my heels, and the baby was reaching for and spilling just about everything.  It was a rough day.  It was a day of Monsters Inc, games on the iPad (educational of course), and free play.  You just can't force things.  We did however have make a major stride with potty training.  I am pretty impressed with him there.

We counted EVERYTHING and did lots of singing and dancing and playing instruments throughout the week also.  Saturday is his music class and afterwards we promised him an outing to feed ducks and watch trains.  I'll have to bring along some related reading.

Getting Started

I am about to start something that can change my life and my children's lives.  I am about to make a decision that will shape their futures.  I have been on the fence about this, and I am now forcing myself to make the commitment.  I am going to home school my kids.

It is still very early to make this decision.  My oldest is just shy of 2 1/2 and the baby is almost 10 months.  They don't have to be enrolled in school for quite a few years yet... but it is important for me to start now so that I can prove to myself and others that this is a viable option.

So much of our everyday interactions revolve around learning new things that it just seems like the perfect opportunity to experiment with more structured play.

With the kids being so young I have the advantage that just about everything we do can count as a lesson.  Simple coloring, making a collage, playing with mega bloks, going to Gymboree, reading together, playing with instruments... things we have always done.  When I decided to start this home learning I realized how easily these things all qualify into learning subjects, and how easily I can create a "lesson plan" to reinforce the learning that happens so naturally.

I have already started journaling our daily activities.  Sitting down to write every evening has really been wonderful.  Since graduating college I haven't needed to write anything and my brain is thankful for the exercise it is now getting.  I want to start this blog to be a sort of photo journal I can click through to monitor our progress, and to share our learning activities with friends and family.  My goal is to blog at least once or twice a week.  I'm thinking the beginning and the end of each week so I can keep track of what my expectations for the week were and what the reality was.

By starting now I am doing my best to make sure that myself and the kids will develop the proper tools and means to be able to learn at home in the future.

Wish me luck!