learning | The Big White Farmhouse

October 31, 2011

{learning} Autumn Leaves and Pumpkins

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Can you believe October is almost over already?
I sure love the Fall.
I love the chilly evenings, the new sweaters and jeans, and warm beverages.
I love the gorgeous trees, all decked out in red, orange and yellow.
I love how on a windy day, it seems as if it is raining leaves all around our home.
I love apple picking and going to the pumpkin patch.

So it probably comes as no surprise that my boys love this season too. I wanted to record a few pictures of our Fall Unit activities before it turns to winter! (This weekend, we had our first taste of frigid temperatures! Brrr!)

These are the books we read:

I look forward to adding to our collection throughout the years. Do you have any favorites?

October 24, 2011

{learning} An Autumn Scavenger Hunt

For the past two weeks, we took a break from Five in a Row and did a Fall Unit. It has been much more open-ended and unstructured, which has been fun. When I was planning the school year this summer, I hoped it would serve as a time where we could enjoy the changing seasons, while giving me a little break in the process. (Hurray for no homeschool burnout!)

One of the activities we did was a scavenger hunt in our back yard. The boys used their gathering bags (also talked about here) and searched the woods for everything on our list. I will be the first to admit that I am not exactly a “woodsy” kinda girl, but I do try to get the kids out there. ‘Cause what boy doesn’t love to explore?

In case you’re interested in having an Autumn Scavenger Hunt with your little ones, here was our list:

One red leaf
The smallest leaf you can find
Rough bark
Smooth bark
Two different grasses
A flower
Something beautiful
An acorn
A rock

P.S. This is my 100th post!

October 7, 2011

{learning} Papa Piccolo (and a little Italy too…)

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:

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!

September 23, 2011

{learning} The Story about Ping…(and a little about China too)

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:

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!

I separated our learning into a little Chinese culture and a little discovery into the world of ducks. For China, we made flags, wrote our names in Chinese characters, learned all about the Great Wall of China, and even tried out a few phrases in Chinese!

We incorporated a lot of science into our mini duck unit and I even learned a thing or two! Did you know that ducks take oil from a gland and spread it all over their feathers, so when they dive in the water, they are waterproof? I must have missed that in elementary school!

Tonight we are headed to a Chinese buffet and if the weather’s nice, we may hit the walking trail to see if we can find any ducks at the pond.

Next up on our trip around the world: Italy!

September 12, 2011

{family} A Field Trip to the Apple Orchard

A perfect day for picking apples and being with family. We’ve gone to this orchard every year on Grandparent’s Day/Opening NFL Weekend since M was a baby. And I must say, it was surreal this time to watch my two oldest. Giggling together with some conversation only brothers can understand. Walking like “big boys”, needing no helping hands. Playing “tag, you’re it” and races across the big, open field.

I love being their mamma.

And baby J’s too of course! He wore the obligatory Cowboys jersey in honor of his Daddy’s favorite team. Our third sweet baby boy to do so! He’s been teething, so he wasn’t very interested in all the apple excitement and preferred to snuggle up to either his Meme or Poppa instead.

We all had so much fun. Now to find a yummy recipe for apple pie….

September 9, 2011

{learning} How to Make an Apple Pie & See the World

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”

Our two big projects were a “life-size” apple tree and re-creating the lion from Ten Apples Up on Top! The boys love to paint so they were super excited about both activities. The lion head was all M’s idea, right down to the pipecleaner curls. He’s so creative – I learn so much from him!

A peek into our lapbook…

The books we read:

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!

August 31, 2011

{kids crafts} A Year of Interviews

Can I just say how much I love the preschool age? My kids are hilarious…their thoughts, the stories they come up with, what jokes they think are funny…the list goes on and on! As a mamma, I want to bottle up this time of unfiltered thoughts and keep them forever. But how?

Inspired by Becky Higgins, I created “A Year of Interviews” scrapbook for the 2011-2012 school year.

I just used a 3 prong folder (is that what they’re called?), a pack of page protectors and some colored cardstock. M designed the cover with a “swirly rainbow” that he drew and cut out himself.

The title page will have a photograph of him once I get my pictures printed.

The plan is that I will interview him every month. The questions will all be different.

This is what I did for September and the start of school:

I asked him to write his name (I want him to write his name at the end of the year too, to see how much he’s improved)
I asked him general favorites: color, food, toy, etc.
We traced his hand and we’ll do that again at the end of the year too, to see how much he’s grown
On the other side of the two-page spread, we’ll include some pictures of activities/projects we did that month and maybe a drawing

At the end of the school year, we’ll have one little book full of memories. Hurray for documentation without lots of clutter!

Now onto his request for learning this year: how Marines do their fighting. Hmm.

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