Homeschool Colours Project

A fellow mama in our housing co-op and I have endeavored to teach simple lessons once a week to our 3 year olds on Tuesday mornings alternating homes and lesson planning.  My first lesson was about colours.  We talked about the primary and secondary colours.  The most popular project of the day was dropping food colouring into clear cups of water to watch how the colours mixed.  So we started with yellow, blue and red and then created purple, orange and green.

This was a great activity that a fellow mama told me about.  And water, cups and food colouring are usually on hand.  Next we filled in colour wheels to give us an idea about what the wheels look like and how the colours connect to each other.

We then read:

Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert

Rainbow Fun! by Beth Harwood

and Van Gogh's World of Colour by Julie Aigner-Clark

These books are very simple but kept the theme accessible.  We see these learning days as fun first and more of an introduction than teaching as you would with older children.

Our final activity was a game that I made up.  I placed coloured fabric in a circle around the room and we laid out the names of the colours in English, French and Spanish around their appropriate fabric.  With the help of this Cd (which I loved by the way) we said the words together.  Then each child took a bag with coloured objects and placed them on the mats as we called out the different names.

This game was easy to do with toys and objects I had on hand.  The Cd I borrowed from the library and the books we had on hand.  Such a fun start to our home pre-school.

On a side note Kyan really picked up more than I thought when he said in the car the other day: "It's Amarillo, right Mama?"  and we then had fun going over all the names together.  Little minds really are like sponges.

Learning about time with collage

Hello all!
I wanted to share a little project that my 3 year old and I did recently.  He has developed an interest in time: "When will I be 4?"
"When will it snow?"
"When does soccer class start?"

So in the interest of helping him understand time passing, seasons, months and weeks we made a simple collage with calendars and activities recorded.  Granted he can't read yet but we can look at it together and learn from the images and words.

This can be as elaborate or simple as you want and we created this from what we had on hand.  I found the calendar template here, we used old magazines for images, coloured paper, a pressed maple leaf and crayons.  You could also incorporate stickers, family photos or other artwork. Bristol board, a long roll of paper (what we used) or even fabric could be used for the background.

Things can be added throughout the season, you can make them reusable for next year or recycle them and start fresh.  I plan to do this project each season this year so I'm keeping a look out for any materials we can use in the future.

This is also a great way for kids to learn to use scissors, glue or other mediums like paint or pastels.  The beauty of this is that we did it in a day sporadically.  If you have more than one child you can make one for each of them so that the dates or holidays that they consider special can be highlighted.  Right now ours is in the family room but I think we'll move it into Kyan's room in a few weeks.

 
What I love about collage is that there is no "right" way to do it.  Any child at any age can participate and make this project their own.  As an added bonus I found this book at the library this week.  It delves into the concept of time from seconds to seasons and has deepened the conversation.  

Spirit of the Forest

Spirit of the Forest: Tree tales from around the world.

This deserves a place on every pagan parents bookshelf for their children. I ordered this book through our library service for a topic on trees with my little guys, and it is so enchanting that I know I will have to purchase a copy for forever.

Inside this collection of folk stories are trees that fall in love and marry human men, old grandmother trees that lift their roots to dance with shepherdesses, and tree spirits that dance on moonlit midsummer nights. The tales are beautiful and vivid, and utterly pagan-hearted. If you can find a copy of this book I urge you to pick it up and fall in love.

"A Book on Every Bed"

I thought this was a great idea. Even better if it lets me sleep in on Christmas morning. :)

Take a book. Wrap it. Place it on your child's bed so it's the first thing s/he sees on Christmas/Solstice/Holiday morning. "A Book on Every Bed" is an attempt to spread the love of reading from parents to children, to raise and foster a generation of readers.

This idea was inspired by one of America's favorite writers, David McCullough, who he woke up every Christmas morning as a child to a wrapped book at the foot of his bed, left by Santa. This tradition carried on with his children and grandchildren.

I found out about this idea through a column in the Denver Post.

UZU--Melia

Stories for Mabon

The autumn equinox is right around the corner.  I love to use books and crafts as a way of getting my children involved in the Sabbat without over doing it.  Here are some books I have found while searching the net. 

Some are children's books and some are resources.  Hope at least one of the books will work for your family.

Smoky and the Feast of Mabon
Mabon: Pagan Thanksgiving
Autumn Secrets of the Equinox: Iggy Colvin Adventure Series BOOK 2
We Gather Together
Autumn Equinox: The Enchantment of Mabon
Autumn Equinox: Celebrating the Harvest