Outdoor School

Outdoor Preschool Norway
This feature shares a new but perhaps very old idea of learning.  Nature and experience being the teacher.  My son will start an outdoor pre-school once a week this fall.  I hope he gains all the magic that these Norwegian children are experiencing.

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.  

Waldorf, homeschooling, and painting

I just wanted to pass on this website... it's awesome. There's a lot of great stuff about homeschooling if you browse around.

Anyway, here's the article at Simple Homeschool about wet-on-wet painting... and I just bought my paints at Bella Luna Toys. I can't wait to sit down and paint with the kids. I think it's a great way to use nature as inspiration with color, do something fun with them, and teach them something all at once!

"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

Yule tree anyone?

I was just doing some of my regular blog reading... and found these great ideas over at Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom for adding some Yule to your holiday tree. Great ideas there are making a nature themed tree, kitchen witch theme, handmade theme... she has a whole list of ideas! Also see her post on making an outdoor Yule tree to feed the birds over the winter. I really like that one... and I may do it with the kids... although I may have to plant an evergreen tree in my yard for it! LOL!

Hope you are all having fun in the midst of the usually busy holidays!

Outta The Mouth of Babes

You never really know what will come popping out of the mouth of your kids - nor can you really be sure how much they are absorbing of what you're teaching them...As a part of our homeschooling I'm teaching my 2 boys about my faith. This year I've begun teaching them about many of the other major religions of the world, but for holidays we celebrate my High Holy Days. 
   We went to Thanksgiving at my mother-in-law's today. They are Christian, but not overpowering like my family - but they really don't understand our faith. Well, my mother-in-law sat us all down with dinner and wanted us to go around the table saying what we are thankful for. My oldest (DJ is 9) said he was so thankful for the Gods, that he was thankful they bless our family with health and love, that they provide this meal. Everyone kinda froze and I could see my DH's aunt trying to figure out if DJ had, in fact, used the plural....lol...
   Then, once everyone was served, DJ stood up and announced he'd like to make a toast. (My Irish father-in-law was thrilled) when everyone raised their glasses DJ continued on his blessing, he said, 
"I would like to make a toast in honor of those who are no longer with us (he went on to list those he knows who have passed - including pets)."   

   Everyone was on the brink of tears, it was so beautiful.
   As we began eating, and my MIL stopped being choked up, she turned to me and asked what prompted DJ to make such a toast. I wasn't really sure myself, so I asked him. Here's his reply, 
"Well this week we learned the Colonists celebrated the first Thanksgiving as a Harvest Festival. When we do those at home it's always thanking the Gods for having lots of food, thanking the plants and animals for sacrificing their lives for our food, and taking time to remember those who were no longer there to celebrate with us." 
   It was my turn to be all choked up. As a homeschooler, I am 'teaching' all the time, both religious and secular materials. It was just so beautiful to realize my kids actually think about the lessons I give them - enough to tie in the similarities between a 'harvest festival' and the Harvest we celebrate in Aug, Sept & Oct. This past Samhain I took extra time to really explain to my oldest what the holiday means. We read a poem to the Gods and made a collage of those we love and miss. The next day we also made our own family tree. I'm just so excited that he felt confident enough in his faith to say something, and that he's been learning what I've been teaching!