Sunday, August 9, 2015

The Hare and the Tortoise

The Race is Not Always to the Swift

 
We worked on speeds after reading the Hare and the Tortoise. We talked at different speeds, we moved at different speeds, we colored at different speeds. I have taken this lesson and used it in our daily life. Instead of saying, "walking feet!" I now say, "Walk like the tortoise!" or if I need them to speed up cleaning, I say, "Clean like the hare!" Works every time!
 
 
We worked on our journals today and Sonia wrote her name and drew apples on her cover. Daniella was learning how to hold the crayon and manipulating it however she chose to get the hang of it.
 





 
 
 
The Finish Line game was so much fun! First, we started by building our own finish line with blocks and then began our game. This was the second or third time that Sonia was able to play a board game with me, follow the rules and have fun with it.
 










 
 
Most of the day was spent with practicing different movements and so this why we have a short blog today. Another reason to love MGT! It gives us the opportunity to take one lesson and have fun with it all day.
 
 
** Mother Goose Time allows me to follow two of my biggest passions. Educating my children and writing! I am honored to work with Mother Goose Time. I do receive the curriculum in exchange for my blog posts but every word in here is honest and a true example of this curriculum in a multi age home practice.


The Grasshopper and the Ants

A is For Ant

 
 
Mother Goose Time markets this curriculum as a pre school curriculum and that is why I began my venture with them a few months ago. I had no idea that this curriculum can actually be used for Kindergarten as well and am looking forward to bringing this, along with another curriculum, into Sonia's life in September.
 
With this curriculum, you are given so many opportunities to challenge or simplify for your child. This is absolutely the best match for our family at this time. While Sonia gets challenged and I expand the lessons, Daniella gets introduced to concepts, letters and fun with learning.
 
 
We read the Grasshopper and the Ants and introduced the letter A. Sonia worked on writing her letter A, the sound that letter A makes and thinking of words that start with the letter A. Daniella traced the letter A with her fingers and loved holding the flag card and looking at the letter. She is only going to be 3 in a few weeks, so this is all introduction for her. As she is ready, I will expand more.
 
 
They both had a fun time finger painting little ants on their letter.
 




 
Counting Corn was a big hit for both girls. We set out the grasshopper card and the ant card and got ready to feed them.
 
For Daniella, she picked a card and we worked on number recognition and then she counted her corn.
 
 
 
For Sonia, we worked on addition, subtraction and figuring out which insect had more corn and which had less.
 


 
 
** Mother Goose Time allows me to follow two of my biggest passions. Educating my children and writing! I am honored to work with Mother Goose Time. I do receive the curriculum in exchange for my blog posts but every word in here is honest and a true example of this curriculum in a multi age home practice.


Bundle of Sticks

In Unity Is Strength

As a mother with an almost 3 year old and almost 5 year old, sibling arguments happen more than I'd care to admit. However, after reading this story, I now have another bit of "ammo" to use during the wars. As I hear the girls voices becoming louder and more angrier, I say, "Girls, remember the fable about the boys and the sticks? What did we learn?" Most of the times, not all, Sonia will say, "don't argue and work together." Depending on the situation, I'm usually able to use this moment as a way to redirect, help them come to a resolution or at least just get them to separate areas of the house. Ha!
 
 
Today, MGT focused on reading comprehension in one of the activities and I was shocked that Sonia could answer correctly all of the Level 1 and 2 questions and all but 1 of the Level 3 questions. She had a problem with imagining what the boys could be arguing about because the story never said it. I am going to work on more imaginative play with her leading the dialogues in the future so that she can see how creative she can be and slowly introduce "inspiration" to her. We can hear a story, see a show or an event and become inspired to do something of our own. Let's see! :)
 
 
 
We had made our batch of home made play dough a few days ago so Counting Sticks came at a perfect time. For Sonia, I used this as a time to work on addition and subtraction. She would spin the wheel, add the sticks. Spin the wheel again, figure out if we had to add or subtract from what we had already and repeat. She was engaged in this activity for almost 30 minutes!
 







For Daniella, it was all about number recognition and counting. Spin the wheel, I would tell her the number and she would count the sticks. Simple but on her level and she stayed involved for about 15 minutes!
 





 
 
The next project worked on Sonia's writing and social relationships. We discussed our family and how much we all love her. This was particularly great for us as we are a recent "broken" family and it was nice to drive home that, even though, Mommy and Daddy don't live together, we still love Sonia and Daniella just the same as when he did live here.
 
I dictated the letters, she wrote her all of her family members down, connected the chain and we hung it in the kitchen!
 







 
 
 
** Mother Goose Time allows me to follow two of my biggest passions. Educating my children and writing! I am honored to work with Mother Goose Time. I do receive the curriculum in exchange for my blog posts but every word in here is honest and a true example of this curriculum in a multi age home practice.


The Lion and the Mouse

The Lion and the Mouse


 
 
Synchronicity at its best this month with our new theme for the month. Fables and Folktales! First, I am a writer and have been itching to begin my first novel, so to spend an entire month on stories is inspirational! Second, Sonia has found her love for math but not so much reading. A lot of the activities, so far, have been math based but with reading comprehension and of course the sight words in other lesson plans. This is making her reading more fun and I can see she is beginning to enjoy it more!

Once again, all around amazing curriculum.

Each day, Daniella, my curious almost 3 year old, gets more and more involved. It is going to be so much fun to challenge myself to truly carry out this curriculum in September on two majorly different levels. What I love about MGT, is that most of the activities end up, at some point, becoming independent play and they send manipulatives each month that can be used over and over however the child likes. I imagine that I will set up each child with some individual play items from MGT while I work independently with the other child to make sure that each child's educational needs are being met.

Home schooling is NOT easy but it is, by far, worth every single second!

I am also beginning a Toddler and After School Program in my home so I'm going to enjoy teaching the material to children in my area as well.

I started todays lesson on opening with this question with this question, "What is a Fable? What is a Folktale?" After I gave her my best explanation. The answer that Sonia now tells me is, "a story that has a lesson." I'm very happy with that. I will begin to expand on this as the days go on and introduce the word moral and delve a little deeper into practicing each moral in our day to day lives.
 

A Kindness is Never Wasted

What a great way to open up this month. The Lion and The Mouse taught us that no matter the situation, being kind is always the best option.
 
 
We read our story, which was short and sweet. Both girls paid attention the whole time and listened for the word "lion". Every time they heard the word, I had them jump up and ROAR! We even read it again and they listened for "mouse" and squeaked each time I read it. Impressive!
 
 
 
I asked, "when might an animal need your help?" Sonia said, "When its stuck in a tree. When it's owners left it at a shelter. When it's sick. When it needs love." 
 
 
I had wrapped some of the girls stuffed animals in yarn and gave them scissors to pretend they were mice teeth and save all of the animals! As fellow animal rescuers, they thoroughly enjoyed this!
 



 
 
 
Then it was time for some free art time. I set out all of the supplies and gave minimal directions. I helped when asked. I encouraged the entire time. And the projects came out fantastic!
 










 
 
 
** Mother Goose Time allows me to follow two of my biggest passions. Educating my children and writing! I am honored to work with Mother Goose Time. I do receive the curriculum in exchange for my blog posts but every word in here is honest and a true example of this curriculum in a multi age home practice.