Week in Review - 2/7-2/11

Sunday was Mercie's 14th birthday! Saturday I took her to buy a new pair of boots, three pair of jeans, and a new cowgirl hat. We also went out to eat at Cracker Barrel. We had a fun day together! Sunday we had cake and ice cream at our house, and then we went to Rod's grandfather's house because he shares a birthday with Mercie. It was his 90th birthday! We had more cake and ice cream with family.

Tuesday was another busy day. Zeke had speech in the morning, Titus had TKD, and Eli had a basketball game. Mercie had tennis Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. We had church Wednesday night, where I teach Bible Drill at 5 and TeamKid at 6. Mercie had Acteens, and she actually taught the lesson! The leader told me she did such a good job and was really prepared. 

With regards to schoolwork, we had a good week! In history the boys and I are reading "Raiders from the Sea" and it's proving to be very interesting so far! We are also reading in "A Child's History of the World" about some of the Roman rulers. They made a juniper leaf crown, and they turned out really nice!

In science, we learned about Earth, Venus, the moon, and Mars. They added to their solar system model by making the planets from modeling clay. I can't wait to get these put together!

We started using Art Achieve to practice drawing. This is available on SchoolhouseTeachers.com. We actually reviewed a membership to this program years ago, so I was excited to see it here! My kids enjoyed it last time, and I can tell they're enjoying it this second go round.

Zeke and I only did a few days of preschool this week, but that's okay! He learned F is for Fish. Here are a few of his activities.

We also have a baby calf that lost its mom, and Mercie and the boys have been bottle feeding it a few times a day. It's a lot of work taking care of a calf! These life skills my kids are learning through experience are so valuable!

How was your week?

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Tot School Tuesday - Sorting

It's Tot School Tuesday, and today I'll be talking about sorting activities. These are some of the first activities I introduced to Zeke when he was around 18 months old, and he still enjoys them at 3 years old!

WHAT IS SORTING? 

Sorting is classifying objects based on their attributes. The most common categories of sorting for toddlers and preschooler are sorting by color, shape, and size. 

WHY IS SORTING IMPORTANT?

When your child sorts they are actually working on beginning math skills. Learning to sort objects is important because your child is comparing similarities and differences in the attributes of objects and grouping like objects together.  

This is also a great visual discrimination exercise! Visual discrimination skills are important skills to have when your child begins learning math and reading. It's important for your child to be able to decide which objects belong in sets. 

WHAT SHOULD MY CHILD SORT?

You can literally sort anything! Household objects are great for sorting activities because it brings real-life into play. Sorting laundry, utensils, or canned goods are all easy ways to work on this skill.

I'm also going to list some ideas for each of the three top sorting categories I mentioned above - color, shape, and size.

SORTING BY COLOR

I provided an empty popsicle mold and craft sticks for Zeke to sort.

This is the first sorting activity Zeke did, and I introduced two colors at a time for him to sort. It did take a few tries before he understood what to do, but it wasn't long before he was sorting the six main colors.

Zeke sorted buttons onto these colored pumpkins available in my Etsy shop.

A few ideas for sorting by color:

• counting bears
• linking cubes
• crayons or markers
• pom-poms
• craft sticks
• toy cars
• buttons

I always provided the same-colored bowls or cups for Zeke to sort items into. You could also use colored paper, felt, or foam for sorting mats. Once they master sorting by color, you can provide a sectioned tray for your child to use.

Zeke sorted bugs into colored paper cups.

SORTING BY SIZE

This is an activity I introduced to Zeke once he was 2 years old. Sorting by size takes a little more critical thinking, but it's a great early math activity! I started out with two sizes - big and small. Now Zeke sorts three or more sizes at a time. This is also a great opportunity to learn some vocabulary - small, medium, large.

Zeke sorted dinosaurs by large and small.

A few ideas for sorting by size:

• plastic animals
• pom-poms
• craft sticks
• rocks
• buttons
• fruit 
• blocks

I usually provide a sectioned tray for Zeke to sort by size. I always put one small object in one section and one large object in another. He could usually figure out what to do without any direction from me.

I used this dividing tray for sorting buttons into three sizes.

SORTING BY SHAPE

We didn't start sorting by shape until Zeke was 2 1/2 years old. I did the same thing that I did with colors - I started with two shapes and gradually added more. This is how Zeke learned all of his shape names.

Contact paper and magformers made a fun activity!

A few ideas for sorting shapes:

• Magformer Magnetic blocks (triangle, square, hexagon)
• buttons 
• legos (rectangle, square)
• foam stickers
• felt pieces cut into shapes
• pattern blocks
• plastic gems
• pieces from a shape-sorter

I made this sorting box from an old box and buttons.

Remember to start out with just two or three categories so your child doesn't get overwhelmed. You can eventually add in more and it will be a fun challenge. Zeke can now sort things by type, like coins or different types of animals. What's the neatest thing your child has sorted?

Middle School Monday - Hands-On Projects

It's Middle School Monday again, and today I'm going to be sharing about hands-on projects! Sometimes we think once our children reach middle-school age, hands-on learning is no longer relevant. This is not true, though! Middle schoolers, and even high schoolers, still benefit from hands-on projects.

Hands-on learning encourages problem-solving, critical thinking skills, and artistic expression. It gives your child a chance to experience learning. Many children retain so much more information through hands-on projects than they do through traditional methods. Hands-on projects never need to be pushed to the side; they simply transform into more complex learning experiences.

I'm going to show you a few examples of hands-on projects my middle-school age children have done. 

Pocahontas Museum

When my oldest daughter was in 7th grade, she was using America the Beautiful. One of her assignments was to create a Pocahontas Museum, and she had a blast with it! She created several "exhibits" and got very creative with them. You can read more about that here.

Messy Science Experiments

She also loved doing science experiments in 7th grade! Here is a post with a few examples. These were a chance for her to do "fun things" in the name of learning. It was always a positive experience for her to take a break from the books and impress her siblings!

Mercie is in 8th grade now, and she still gets excited when she has a fun experiment! Here she microwaved soap to see what happened.

Math Projects

Hands-on activities always make math more fun, even into middle school. When she was in 7th grade, one of her math activities was to make a simple abacus. She helped with the design and really enjoyed learning how to use it!

Art Projects

I always try to make our art projects things that will be used and treasured, not junk that we will throw away. These stained glass pictures were a lot of fun for my middle-schoolers! A lot of the "harder" art projects would be really beneficial for older kids to try out.

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Cooking 

My kids have always loved to cook. Sometimes cooking and baking are part of their school projects, but most of the time it's just a life skill they practice! My daughters can both easily put together an entire meal. In fact, I bet my boys could do the same with a little direction. They've all seen me cook and bake, been my helpers in the kitchen, and heard me talk about it enough to have a pretty good grasp on the basics.

History and Geography Projects

There is nothing that makes history come to life more than history projects! My middle schoolers have always enjoyed doing crafts, recipes, and games that teach them about history and geography. 

Diorama of the Savanah 

There are so many more types of hands-on projects your middle schoolers can do to enhance their learning. Let me know in the comments which types of hands-on projects your middle schoolers have worked on!

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The Peaceful Preschool - Letter E

 This week was all about eggs! Zeke's books were "An Egg is Quiet" and "Rechenka's Egg." Some of his activities this were:

EGG TRANSFER & 10-FRAME

I had these wooden eggs leftover from a project several years ago. I placed ten of them in a basket with a spoon and his wooden ten-frame. He enjoyed scooping them into the ten-frame! It was a great fine motor activity.

MAKING A NEST AND EGGS FROM CLAY

This was his first time to really use modeling clay, and he did fabulous! He made his own nest and four eggs to go inside. I let him paint them once they were dry.

PAINTING AN EGG

After we read "Rechenka's Egg", I was thinking I should let him paint an egg. My daughter beat me to it, though! She collected an egg from her chicken that had a hole in it, so she cleaned it out and let it dry. She then helped him paint it!

SHADOW MATCHING

I have had these shadow matching wooden puzzles for years. I pulled them out and set a few on a tray for Zeke. He came back to this activity several times this week.

LACING BEADS

He enjoys lacing beads, and these are just beautiful. 

ALPHABET MATCHING CARDS

I set the uppercase and lowercase cards for A-E in a basket. Zeke practiced matching the uppercase and lowercase letters. It's a little easy because the pictures match on the cards, but that does help him and he is still learning!

EGG SHAPE PUZZLES

I ordered this set from Amazon for around $13, and Zeke has played it with almost every day! He loves putting the eggs together according to their shapes.

MATCHING

We also used our tactile letters and moveable alphabet to match the upper and lower case letters. We do this each week and he loves it.

WORKSHEETS

You know me - I had to add plenty of fun egg-themed worksheets. All of these are created by me. 

Next week is letter F!

Week in Review: 1/31/22-2/4/22

This week was a little bit quieter than last week for a couple of reasons. First of all, Zeke's speech appointment was canceled since his therapist was sick. Second, Eli only had one basketball game because his Tuesday game was canceled due to other team being in quarantine. And lastly, Mercie only had one tennis practice this week and Titus only had one TKD session. We still had a nice, full week, including Wednesday night church. Eli also got a much-needed haircut!

We started our Space unit from Gather 'Round Homeschool this week, and we just loved it. The boys really like the student workbooks, where they have five pages a day to complete. The diversity of the pages is nice!

We began a project this week - making a solar system model. We made the Sun and Mercury this week, and we will add planets as we learn about them. We painted a styrofoam ball for the Sun and made Mercury from modeling clay.

They also made paper plate sundials, but we haven't had a sunny enough day to test them out yet!

In history we learned about Paul, Peter, and the persecution of the early church. The boys made cross mosaics from construction paper. They also added to their timelines, defined vocabulary words, and did written narrations. We finished reading "Grandpa's Box", and the boys were a little sad. They've really loved reading this book! We also have one more chapter in "Fountain of Life."

Silas is doing really great with decimals! He hasn't needed much help at all this week in math or grammar. He is reviewing comma rules in grammar. Titus had a review week of multiplication, division, fractions, and word problems. He is learning all of the punctuation rules, especially quotation marks, in grammar.

Mercie learned how to work complicated word problems like time and distance. The books she is currently reading are: "Candy Bomber: The Story of Berlin Airlift's 'Chocolate Pilot,'" and "Atoms in the Family." She also read from Story of the World Volume 4. She compared different religions on a chart: Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism. 

Zeke learned about the letter E in The Peaceful Preschool this week. I'll have a more detailed post on that later.

How was your week? 

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Tot School Tuesdays - Transferring Objects

Tot School Tuesday is when I share tips and ideas for tot school. Zeke is 3 years old so technically he is still considered a toddler. We do some preschool work as well. Today I'm going to talk about transferring and why it's an important skill.

Transferring is exactly what it sounds like - it's transferring objects from one container to another. We have done this is many different ways. There is no right or wrong way to practice this skill!

Transferring is important because it helps build the fine motor muscles in your child's hand needed to do harder tasks later on - cutting with scissors, writing with a pencil, and buttoning their own clothes. It's also an easy way to practice crossing the midline (which is also exactly what it sounds like - crossing from one side of the body to the other).

An invitation for Zeke to transfer plastic bugs with tongs onto bottle caps

You can introduce transferring activities to your child as young as a year old. Zeke began transferring objects with his hands at about that age. The older they get, the bigger variety of transferring tools you can offer. Transferring tools can be as simple as a spoon or as complex as a pair of tweezers. You can find many great tools at your dollar store - mini tongs, large plastic serving spoons, kid's plastic tweezers, magnetic wands, and even salad servers. In fact you may have many of these at home!

Zeke (3) transferring cotton balls with tongs

Zeke (18 months) transferring cotton balls with a spoon

There are so many options for what your child can transfer, too! A few of the things we have transferred are:

• dried beans
• cotton balls
• pom poms
• water
• plastic animals
• glass beads
• wooden eggs
• rice
• rocks and pebbles
• beads
• buttons
• jingle bells
• plastic gems
• small pinecones

To introduce transferring to your toddler, simply gather two small containers, a transferring tool, and objects to transfer! If your child is new to this activity, be sure to begin with something easy. Cotton balls and a spoon work well for the first time. If they resort to using their hands, let them! You want your child to be comfortable with this activity before making it a bit challenging.

Zeke (2.5) transferring colored water with syringes

Even though Zeke has been transferring objects for about two years now, he still enjoys the activity and reaps benefits each time. I've watched him go from using his hands to learning how to manipulate a pair of tongs and move objects! We continue to transfer objects because it's continually building those fine motor muscles! 

Zeke (2) transferring rocks with a spoon

What objects has your toddler transferred?