Another country traveled and two more weeks under our belt.  While I had high hopes for our Italy unit, well…I guess it was a good lesson in rolling with the punches.  Nothing seemed to go as planned: I didn’t get a book I wanted to read in time, I discovered that I was out of a critical ingredient for a project, the boys didn’t listen to directions and totally ruined the science experiment…sigh!  But life’s too short to get all bent out of shape about trivial things like those.  So I kept rollin’ and I think the boys still learned a lot.

The books we used were:

• Papa Piccolo
• Pete the Cat: I Love my White Shoes
• The Color Kittens

Our Art Gallery for Papa Piccolo

Not really related to any of our themes, but the boys LOVED this I Spy sheet I found online.

ROY G BIV puppets – M and D totally didn’t get ROY G BIV and insisted they call him “Rainbow Hair Man”.

Learning about mixing colors

Pete the Cat puppets.  I saw this book mentioned on many teacher blogs, so bought it blindly.  But it’s so great!  The message is that no matter what happens, “just keep walking along and singing your song, because it’s all good.”  It’s the perfect book for a kid like M, who tends to freak out unexpectedly.

Making gondolas out of Legos.  What?  You can’t tell that’s a gondola?  haha  Me neither…another one of the “roll with it” episodes.

This was supposed to be a really cool experiment.  You have a pie plate of milk and add a few drops of food coloring.  Then after dipping a Q-Tip in dishsoap, you are supposed to insert into the milk and hold it there.  Key word: hold.  The colors are supposed to swirl away from the soap, making a really cool effect.  Instead, in casa “I don’t listen to Mamma’s directions”, he started in on making his own swirl, making everything brown and just…gross.  Oh well, it’s only PreK right?



A peek into our lapbook…

We are taking a break from Five in a Row for the next two weeks to do a little seasonal unit on Fall!  Pumpkins, leaves, and squirrels are on the list with lots of baking and crafts.  I’m excited for a little change of pace and I think M and D will love it too.  Wish me luck!

Wow, I cannot believe we’ve finished another unit already!  The past two weeks, we have learned all about Chinese culture and ducks.  The Five in a Row book we’ve been reading is The Story about Ping.


Watching “Big Bird in China” on the laptop

These were the books we read:

• The Story About Ping
• Ducks Don’t Get Wet
• One Stuck Duck
• Big Bird in China (a DVD)

I’m really enjoying spreading out each book for two weeks.  My “formal” lesson plans are brief (only lasting us maybe 45 minutes), but we usually always engage in some sort of impromptu art or math lesson afterwards.  I think that is what I love most about homeschooling – we have the freedom to further explore anything we want.  We aren’t bound by standards and lists! 

Acting out the poem, “5 Little Ducks”

Tangrams…this was a big hit!

Inspired by another blog, I made a “Search and Find” using Scrabble letters and beans.  M dug around and found the letters that matched the words on his sheet.

Science experiment to see how ducks use oil to stay waterproof

We learned a little about the Chinese New Year and made dragons

A peek into our lapbook

Our “Art Gallery” all decked out with crafts!

Today marks the end of our first two week unit!  To catch up all of you new readers, we decided to do PreK at home this year using Five in a Row.  I chose it primarily because it felt like a gentle beginning to school.  I can include lots of extras or we can simply snuggle together on the couch and talk.  

I decided to focus this year on an “Around the World” theme since M is such a fan of different countries.  I chose stories from the first two volumes that fit with the theme and just went from there.  I have spread each book/country into two week units, so we can fully enjoy each place.  And How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World seemed like the perfect place to begin!

Here are some of the details about what we did and learned.  I apologize ahead of time for the horrible pictures…the boys wake me up each morning around 6:30 and hurry through breakfast, so we can “do school!”  So I hope that explains the lack of natural lighting and pajamas!  🙂

(Also, if you are a fellow “FIAR”-er, please check my Pinterest for tons of ideas!)

Our “Art Gallery”

A peek into our lapbook…

The books we read:

• How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World
• Ten Apples Up on Top!
• The Apple Pie Tree
• Johnny Appleseed

I was afraid two weeks of apples might be too much, but we actually enjoyed all two weeks’ worth of activities!  We made apple prints, had a taste test with 4 different types of locally grown apples, made homemade applesauce and apple cake, created a lapbook, and even made our own playdough (scented with cinnamon and spices, so it smelled like apple pie!)  

Our field trip for this book will be our annual Grandparent’s Day/Opening NFL Weekend apple picking trip with my parents.  We’ve been going every year since M was a baby.  The boys are so excited and I am too!  We still need to make an apple pie!