The Plan:
Outdoor: Bike to Park (Thoming)
Math: Number Duplos Game
Literacy/Science: RJ Blog about Caterpillars, Letter Duplos with L, Thank you letters
Art: Egg carton caterpillars
Math: Price comparison Spreadsheet
How it went:
Outdoors: We did bike to the park with L in the trailer and RJ on his bike. RJ's stamina is really improving. He goes full steam to the park and back and still has energy to spare now, not like a few weeks ago when he was running out of steam before we got back home!
The rest: We spent more time at the park today, so it was after lunch before we actually got around to starting anything else, and even that was later because RJ and I played chess during/after lunch. I'm not sure what it says about my chess abilities when I actually do have to try hard to play against him! He is thinking at least one step in advance, sometimes two, and from multiple places on the board. I think it's pretty impressive for a 6 year old.
We did spend some time looking at the caterpillars, especially since we have our first chrysalis, but we didn't get around to documenting them on his blog because I was busy cutting out and gluing the chores-for-hire that we came up with yesterday to craft sticks so we could start using them. (I did take pictures though, and we will be doing more documenting tomorrow! Predictably, earning money via chores was a major interest and I managed to get RJ to do a minimal-effort dusting of the living room (he only got 1/2 salary since I could still find dust in a lot of places, but we are going to work on quality of the job each time), feed the cats, and help snap beans for dinner. L chose to wipe down the kitchen baseboards with a damp cloth. So if we keep this up, it would be really nice!
After that, I started work on taping the sight words and letters to the duplos, but I only finished one sheet of words, and it took much longer than I had expected. During that time the boys took it upon themselves to build with the duplos. RJ did read a few of the words though.
Looks like we'll be moving some of these activities to another day!
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Monday, July 29, 2013
Monday, July 29, 2013
The Plan:
Science/Literacy: Documenting Caterpillars, Write about them on blog
Math: Assigning Coins to Chores to make magnets
Literacy: Designing Chore/Goal/To-Do Chart
Errand/Math: School Supply Pricing - Target - have RJ record prices for the items he needs. We will later look at Amazon and Walmart and compare
How it went:
Outdoor Activity: We went to the park with their bikes, but forgot the soccer ball. They still had fun though and we ran into one of L's friends from gymnastics there.
Science/Literacy: We definitely spent a good deal of time throughout the day looking at the caterpillars. All five are alive (we thought at least one, if not more, were dead), moving and growing. RJ even called me over when he saw two of them "fighting". I think they were just bumping into each other, but it was more activity than they've ever shown us. We're hoping to see them molt soon, since they're getting big.
We didn't end up writing about the caterpillars on the blog, but RJ did blog about his crystal growing experience. http://rjsmagic.blogspot.com/2013/07/crystal-growing.html
Math/Literacy: We did end up discussing chores, and RJ and L liked the idea of having some regular chores that they were expected to do as members of the household as well as having extra chores that they could do for money. This wasn't much of a math activity yet though, since it's just a list and I assigned the payments for each chore. I need to make these into magnets still. We didn't get around to doing the chart yet, so we'll add this to tomorrow's tasks.
Errand/Math: We did go to Target and recorded the prices for all of RJ's school supplies and we talked about how we were going to try and save money by shopping around and comparing prices. Our goal is to save enough money for him to buy a small toy with the difference. Tomorrow we will enter our data into a spread sheet and look up everything on Amazon.
Outdoor Activity: We went to the park with their bikes, but forgot the soccer ball. They still had fun though and we ran into one of L's friends from gymnastics there.
Science/Literacy: We definitely spent a good deal of time throughout the day looking at the caterpillars. All five are alive (we thought at least one, if not more, were dead), moving and growing. RJ even called me over when he saw two of them "fighting". I think they were just bumping into each other, but it was more activity than they've ever shown us. We're hoping to see them molt soon, since they're getting big.
We didn't end up writing about the caterpillars on the blog, but RJ did blog about his crystal growing experience. http://rjsmagic.blogspot.com/2013/07/crystal-growing.html
Math/Literacy: We did end up discussing chores, and RJ and L liked the idea of having some regular chores that they were expected to do as members of the household as well as having extra chores that they could do for money. This wasn't much of a math activity yet though, since it's just a list and I assigned the payments for each chore. I need to make these into magnets still. We didn't get around to doing the chart yet, so we'll add this to tomorrow's tasks.
Errand/Math: We did go to Target and recorded the prices for all of RJ's school supplies and we talked about how we were going to try and save money by shopping around and comparing prices. Our goal is to save enough money for him to buy a small toy with the difference. Tomorrow we will enter our data into a spread sheet and look up everything on Amazon.
Monday, July 22, 2013
Monday July 22, 2013
The Plan:
Outdoor Activity: Rollerblade to the park (bike for L)
Visit Preschool
Literacy: Harry Potter alphabetical order word sorting
Math: Create a graph of all the items on the floor, then pick them up
Science: Test tube crystal ball
Art: Draw Crystal, Document
How it went:
Outdoor Activity: Rollerblading is clearly something we need more practice with. We never made it to the park, and the act of Rollerblading was frustrating for RJ. L also was in a mood, since he didn't want to be outside for some reason (it wasn't hot yet,so it shouldn't have been temperature-related).
Visit Preschool: We are enrolling L in preschool when RJ starts 1st grade, so we wanted to visit RJ's old preschool and get paperwork to fill out and find out what their half-day program looked like now. We visited and RJ got to see his old teachers, which was fun.
Math: I really wanted to clean up the first floor since it's been a while. I've been more focused on doing things with the kids than keeping the house clean, but it was time. I tried to make cleaning up a learning activity and perhaps a motivator. I made a chart with different categories of things that we might find around the house to pick up. I went over the chart with RJ and shared with L that we were going to be recording what we cleaned up. Then as we went around picking things up, we placed a tally mark in the correct category. In doing so, RJ and I discussed how each item is represented by a tally mark, and that every 5th tally mark is drawn across the previous 4, so that we could count by fives in the end when adding up the tallies. At first this concept was difficult for him, as he was initially convinced that the cross line wasn't an actual count like the rest. By the end he seemed to get it, though he was still asking me every time if he was marking his tallies correctly. When we finished picking up everything that was on the floor (the idea was that I could sweep and steam the floors easier without all the toys and random things strewn about), we sat down to count up our tallies. This was good practice counting by fives for him (especially since the numbers got embarrassingly high). He also wrote some of the final numbers down. We made the bar graph of the data after looking at a Harry Potter graphing worksheet. RJ drew the bars for each category.
You might wonder what L was doing during all of this, and I have been struggling with getting him to participate in any of the activities, even those that are at his level (while he is capable of picking things up and was helping out, the tallying and counting by fives was beyond him). Lately he has just wanted to play on his own when we do these, and I've taken advantage of that to do some activities with RJ in preparation for First Grade. When RJ returns to school, there will be a lot more for just L.
Literacy and Science: The cleaning effort took away activity time, so we didn't get to these quite yet.
Art: RJ did document his crystal again today. It's been a while unfortunately, but you can see the differences. We hope to write about the crystals on his blog when the water fully evaporates.
Literacy: Harry Potter alphabetical order word sorting
Math: Create a graph of all the items on the floor, then pick them up
Science: Test tube crystal ball
Art: Draw Crystal, Document
How it went:
Outdoor Activity: Rollerblading is clearly something we need more practice with. We never made it to the park, and the act of Rollerblading was frustrating for RJ. L also was in a mood, since he didn't want to be outside for some reason (it wasn't hot yet,so it shouldn't have been temperature-related).
Visit Preschool: We are enrolling L in preschool when RJ starts 1st grade, so we wanted to visit RJ's old preschool and get paperwork to fill out and find out what their half-day program looked like now. We visited and RJ got to see his old teachers, which was fun.
Math: I really wanted to clean up the first floor since it's been a while. I've been more focused on doing things with the kids than keeping the house clean, but it was time. I tried to make cleaning up a learning activity and perhaps a motivator. I made a chart with different categories of things that we might find around the house to pick up. I went over the chart with RJ and shared with L that we were going to be recording what we cleaned up. Then as we went around picking things up, we placed a tally mark in the correct category. In doing so, RJ and I discussed how each item is represented by a tally mark, and that every 5th tally mark is drawn across the previous 4, so that we could count by fives in the end when adding up the tallies. At first this concept was difficult for him, as he was initially convinced that the cross line wasn't an actual count like the rest. By the end he seemed to get it, though he was still asking me every time if he was marking his tallies correctly. When we finished picking up everything that was on the floor (the idea was that I could sweep and steam the floors easier without all the toys and random things strewn about), we sat down to count up our tallies. This was good practice counting by fives for him (especially since the numbers got embarrassingly high). He also wrote some of the final numbers down. We made the bar graph of the data after looking at a Harry Potter graphing worksheet. RJ drew the bars for each category. 
You might wonder what L was doing during all of this, and I have been struggling with getting him to participate in any of the activities, even those that are at his level (while he is capable of picking things up and was helping out, the tallying and counting by fives was beyond him). Lately he has just wanted to play on his own when we do these, and I've taken advantage of that to do some activities with RJ in preparation for First Grade. When RJ returns to school, there will be a lot more for just L.
Literacy and Science: The cleaning effort took away activity time, so we didn't get to these quite yet.
Art: RJ did document his crystal again today. It's been a while unfortunately, but you can see the differences. We hope to write about the crystals on his blog when the water fully evaporates.
Friday, July 19, 2013
Friday, July 19, 2013
The Plan: We didn't have one! After spending Thursday out at an amusement park and having a late dinner out with friends, we counted on a lazy day at home.
How it went: It was mostly a lazy day, but the kids asked me to read this book, so I did. It's a pretty cute book too!
Crinkleroot's Guide to Knowing Butterflies and Moths by Jim Arnosky
Concepts Covered:
How it went: It was mostly a lazy day, but the kids asked me to read this book, so I did. It's a pretty cute book too!
Crinkleroot's Guide to Knowing Butterflies and Moths by Jim Arnosky
Concepts Covered:
- Butterflies and moths are among the most numerous of insects
- In the Order of insects called lepidoptera
- Lepidoptera means scaled wings
- Scales rub off like powder
- Microscopic scales give wings color
- Anatomy
- Antennae
- Moths have feathery antennae
- Forewing
- Hindwing
- Head
- Thorax
- Abdomen
- Butterflies rest with wings upright
- Moths rest with wings folded down
- Monarchs are most recognized with orange and black pattern
- Viceroy butterfly resembles monarch (it's a bit smaller)
- Other butterflies
- White Admiral
- Red Admiral
- Zebra Longwing
- Diana
- Mourning Cloak
- California Sister
- Have to approach butterflies slowly to get close
- Swallowtails have little tails on their wings
- Zebra Swallowtail
- Tiger Swallowtail
- Black Swallowtail
- If you wait until a butterfly lands and starts to feed, you can get close
- When sipping nectar, butterflies don't pay attention to much else
- Sip nectar through proboscis, long hollow tube
- Proboscis can be unfurled to reach deep in a flower
- Common wildflowers that butterflies like
- Queen Anne's Lace
- Clover
- Milkweed
- Thistle
- Caterpillars like plant leaves
- Butterfly begins life as a caterpillar
- Change from a caterpillar to butterfly is called metamorphosis
- Life Cycle of Butterfly
- Egg
- Hatches into a caterpillar (larva)
- Caterpillar eats green leaves
- Grows fast
- When grown it curls up and forms a hard shelled case around it - chrysalis
- Inside Chrysalis the caterpillar changes into a butterfly
- When the time is right the butterfly breaks out, unfurls wings and flies away
- Caterpillar types shown
- Monarch
- California Sister
- Black Swallowtail
- Zebra Longwing
- Not all Butterflies are big and boldly patterned, but rather small and soft, pastel shades
- Yellow, Blue, Copper, White
- Orange Bordered Blue
- Cloudless Sulphur
- Purplish Copper
- Cabbage White
- Alfalfa Butterfly
- Dogface Butterfly
- Acadian Hairstreak
- Common Blue
- Butterflies with Mottled or Checkered Patterns
- Checkerspot
- Painted Lady
- Checkered Skipper
- Crescentspot
- Most butterflies like sunny open places
- Some butterflies like the woods
- Brown Elfins
- Wood Satyrs
- Woodland butterflies are mostly brown and gray
- Have to look harder for them
- Butterflies are day fliers
- Moths fly at night
- Moths are attracted to light (we don't know why)
- Types
- Cutworm Moth
- Dried Leaf Moth
- Maple Spanworm Moth
- Gypsy Moth
- During the day, Moths sleep on trees or brush camoflaged against bark
- Moths have the same life cycle as butterflies, starting as eggs and hatching as caterpillars
- Isabella Moths are better known as Woolly Bear Caterpillars
- Geometer Moths are better known as Inchworm Caterpillars
- Moth Caterpillars (depending on species) eat plant leaves, stems, fruit, grain, flour, and clothes
- Moths feed on nectar as adults
- Some moths are known for their size
- Big Poplar Sphinx Moth
- Polyphemus Moth
- Luna Moth
- Regal Moth
- Cecropia Moth
- Underwing Moths are hard to find when at rest because their closed forewings are completely camoflaged
- But when they spread their wings, you see a colorful underwing
- Sweatheart underwing
- Some moths aren't night fliers
- Forester Moth
- Ctenucha Moth
- Hummingbird Moth
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
The Plan:
Outdoor Activity: Ride to another Park
Literacy/Science: Read "Can You Tell a Butterfly From a Moth?" by Buffy Silverman
Outdoor Activity: Ride to another Park
Literacy/Science: Read "Can You Tell a Butterfly From a Moth?" by Buffy Silverman
Art: Butterfly and Moth Handprint Painting
Clean up Art Area, Steam Floor
Science/Art: Document Crystal Growth
Swim Lessons
Math (L): Counting Dots (while I'm cutting out the numbers to put on duplos for another activity)
How it went:
Outdoor Activity: Another successful outing to the park, this time to meet friends and play.
Literacy/Science: We read the book (concepts covered will be below), the kids liked it. RJ paid more attention than L.
Art: Both kiddos enjoyed making their butterflies and moths. I painted their hands following their directions and then they used their hands to form the wings of the butterflies and moths. Not unexpectedly, L quit after printing his butterflies, when RJ went on to make moths too. We also discovered that apparently fairly new black tempera paint can explode and smell like sour milk. I shook the (less than a year old) bottle and when I opened it, it basically shot out and sprayed my neck (thankfully missing my face) and continued to bubble out when I ran to get a rag to clean it up. I've never had that happen before!
Crystal Growth: Unfortunately we did not get around to this today. RJ looked at it, but didn't document.
Swim lessons/Math: The boys have back to back lessons (unfortunately they couldn't fit them into classes at the same time), which gives me a little time with each of them when the other is in class. When RJ was in his class, L matched capital and lowercase letters. I had planned on him drawing and counting dots, but he was more interested in the letters and I was able to keep cutting out the words and numbers while working with him that way. When L was in class, RJ worked on the Harry Potter Math Sheet. I was hoping he would finish it, but he stopped after 4+4, so we will have to continue with that later. He ended up drawing a little and playing with other kids waiting.
Butterfly Concepts Covered:
Outdoor Activity: Another successful outing to the park, this time to meet friends and play.
Literacy/Science: We read the book (concepts covered will be below), the kids liked it. RJ paid more attention than L.
Art: Both kiddos enjoyed making their butterflies and moths. I painted their hands following their directions and then they used their hands to form the wings of the butterflies and moths. Not unexpectedly, L quit after printing his butterflies, when RJ went on to make moths too. We also discovered that apparently fairly new black tempera paint can explode and smell like sour milk. I shook the (less than a year old) bottle and when I opened it, it basically shot out and sprayed my neck (thankfully missing my face) and continued to bubble out when I ran to get a rag to clean it up. I've never had that happen before!
Crystal Growth: Unfortunately we did not get around to this today. RJ looked at it, but didn't document.
Swim lessons/Math: The boys have back to back lessons (unfortunately they couldn't fit them into classes at the same time), which gives me a little time with each of them when the other is in class. When RJ was in his class, L matched capital and lowercase letters. I had planned on him drawing and counting dots, but he was more interested in the letters and I was able to keep cutting out the words and numbers while working with him that way. When L was in class, RJ worked on the Harry Potter Math Sheet. I was hoping he would finish it, but he stopped after 4+4, so we will have to continue with that later. He ended up drawing a little and playing with other kids waiting.
Butterfly Concepts Covered:
- Butterflies and moths look alike
- Adults have 4 wings
- Wings are covered in tiny scales
- Scales give wings their colors
- Butterflies and Moths are insects
- Adult insects have six legs
- Tell butterflies and moths apart by their colors
- Butterfly wings are bright
- Moth wings are dull
- Usually gray or brown
- More kinds of moths than butterflies
- Butterflies fly during the day
- Moths fly at night (usually)
- Most are noctural (active at night)
- They tend to fly near porch lights
- Butterfly folds wings up at rest
- Moths spread wings at rest
- Butterfly body is skinny
- Moth body is fat and fuzzy
- Insects have antennae
- Use them to feel, taste, and smell
- Butterfly antennae have knobs on the ends
- Moth antennae do not have knobs and can be feathery
- Wave their antennae to smell flowers
- Moths and butterflies use antennae to smell for a mate
- Butterfly unrolls a long tube and pushes it into a flower to eat
- Tube is the butterfly's mouth
- Sips nectar (a sweet liquid) from the flower
- [I asked RJ what the tube was called and he recalled "proboscis"]
- Moths eat the same way
- All insects start life as eggs
- Caterpillars hatch from butterfly and moth eggs
- Caterpillars eat leaves and grow
- Caterpillars molt (shed old skin and have new skin underneath)
- Molt many times as they grow
- [Asked RJ how many times. He recalled 4 from the other books]
- [Based on pictures we noted that moth caterpillars were fuzzier than butterfly caterpillars]
- Moth caterpillars hide under leaves or soil when done growing
- There, they spin a cocoon
- Cocoon is made of silk
- Covers the caterpillar tightly
- Inside the cocoon the caterpillar sheds its skin again
- Grows 4 wings and six long legs
- Changes into a moth
- Butterfly caterpillars attach themselves to a leaf or branch with a strong silk button
- Hangs upside down from the leaf
- Molts one more time
- Hard shell called a chrysalis forms around it
- Inside it changes into a butterfly
- Butterflies and moths fly in gardens, meadows, and woods
- Some spots on butterfly or moth wings fool creatures that eat them (like the pictured moth whose spots look like owl eyes
- Caterpillars also rick some hunting birds and insects
- Tiger swallowtail caterpillar looks like bird poop, so other animals leave it alone
- Older tiger swallowtail caterpillar has spots on its back looking like eyes, making it look like a snake
- Monarchs taste bad, so they are avoided
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
The Plan:
Outdoor Activity: Bike Ride to Park
Literacy: Write First Blog Entry, Document yesterday's crystal experiment
Logan's Gymnastics Class: RJ write a thank you note
Science: Crystal Ball
Art: Draw Crystal, Easel Painting
Swimming
How it went:
Bike Ride: We got a later start than I had hoped, but we eventually got the bike trailer hooked up for L and rode over to the park, which is about a mile away. We played for a while and headed back. I was pleasantly surprised with RJ's endurance and we even managed to stop at a yard sale we passed on the way home.
Literacy: RJ wrote his welcome message for his first blog post. However, his blog posts are likely to be short because he is only content to be writing and spelling for so long. We did not work on the Crystal post.
Thank you note: I was able to convince RJ to write one of his Thank You notes while L was in his gymnastics class, which means that in a few weeks, maybe he will have finally finished them all.
Science: We didn't get around to the crystal ball experiment. I was trying to get some of the house clean, and they were engaged with playing other things on their own.
Art: RJ did draw his growing crystal for day 2. Logan was completely uninterested in drawing or painting and insisted on doing his own thing.
Swimming: We didn't get in the pool as we just ran out of time until it was time to make dinner.
Bike Ride: We got a later start than I had hoped, but we eventually got the bike trailer hooked up for L and rode over to the park, which is about a mile away. We played for a while and headed back. I was pleasantly surprised with RJ's endurance and we even managed to stop at a yard sale we passed on the way home.
Literacy: RJ wrote his welcome message for his first blog post. However, his blog posts are likely to be short because he is only content to be writing and spelling for so long. We did not work on the Crystal post.
Thank you note: I was able to convince RJ to write one of his Thank You notes while L was in his gymnastics class, which means that in a few weeks, maybe he will have finally finished them all.
Science: We didn't get around to the crystal ball experiment. I was trying to get some of the house clean, and they were engaged with playing other things on their own.
Art: RJ did draw his growing crystal for day 2. Logan was completely uninterested in drawing or painting and insisted on doing his own thing.
Swimming: We didn't get in the pool as we just ran out of time until it was time to make dinner.
Monday, July 15, 2013
Monday, July 15, 2013
The Plan:
Outdoor Activity: Ride bikes to our local playground
Math Activity: Harry Potter Color by Math Problem
Literacy (and Science): Read "The Butterfly" by Sabrina Crewe, Start RJ's Blog, Write one birthday thank you note and take pictures.
Science Activity: Crystal Growing (Start, Document on RJ's Blog)
Science Activity: Crystal Growing (Start, Document on RJ's Blog)
Art Activity: Draw Crystal as it is now
Swimming in the Pool
How it Went:
Playground: This was supposed to be a standard ride around the block to the playground, play, and come back before it got too hot. First, L wanted the balance bike instead of the pedal bike (which has the push bar). I really want him to work on his pedaling, but as long as he was doing something other than walking there, I let him choose. It was just a lot slower, since I couldn't speed him up with the push bar. Then RJ found the inches deep puddle from the sprinklers and spent the rest of the time riding back and forth through it on his bike. L insisted on following him, but unlike RJ, was wearing his sneakers rather than crocs or sandals (which I purposely put on him because he hates getting bark in his sandals!), and immediately got angry that they got wet, even though I did warn him that they would and that I didn't have his sandals with me. So he got mad, took them off and just ran through the puddle. I try to pick my battles wisely, and running through the large puddle was fine by me as long as he knew that I didn't have dry clothes immediately available and that he did, in fact, need to wear clothing on the way home (for sun protection mostly, I could care less about public 3 year old nudity). He did need some convincing to let me get his shoes back on to head home though. Anyway, this playground trip and the short trip to and from it took a lot longer than usual!
Harry Potter Color-by-Number: I'm officially in love with the person who created all these Harry Potter worksheets. I am normally anti-worksheet, but these seemed fun and related to what RJ & L are most into these days, so I decided to try them. I figured that coloring by number was too simple for RJ, so I blacked out the numbers in the key and put in 7 easy addition problems where the sum matched the number paired with the color. I gave L one, in its original configuration, since he does know his numbers and I colored the words, so he didn't have to read to know which color he should use. He was happy to do the first color, but then quit and refused to do any more coloring, even when I told him that he could color it however he wanted. He really doesn't like drawing/coloring for more than 5 seconds, which I'm trying to work on, looking for things that will interest him. At 3.5, I'm not super concerned though, and we just find other ways to work on fine motor control. Given that he LOVES destroying and creativity reassembling all of RJ's lego minifigures on a regular basis, I'm confident that he has pretty good dexterity. RJ loved this though and stayed engaged the whole time, taking his time and coloring neatly, even!
The Butterfly - The book mostly reinforced what we've already learned about the butterfly life cycle, but there are a few new concepts too. I'll list the theme concepts covered below.
RJ's Blog - RJ and I talked over the weekend about him having his own blog to document science projects and write stories to share. So today, we actually set one up on his google account (which I created a LONG time ago when I needed more space on Picasa for our family photos), picked the name, and selected the background, template, and layout. Now we just have to add entries.
Birthday Note: We didn't get to this. We really have to - it's been a few weeks since his birthday party!
Crystal Growing: This was part of a science kit, so it was basically reading a blurb about crystals provided by them (of course RJ just focused on the fact that they mentioned that some people believe that crystals have magical or medicinal properties), boiling some water, mixing the crystal growing powder in and pouring it over a rock. He seemed to like the process, but I was a bit disappointed because the powder didn't dissolve in the boiling water fully as it was supposed to. I'm hoping the crystal will still grow, but we'll have to wait and see.
Once we finished preparing our rock for growing a crystal, RJ drew a picture of it as is, and labeled it "Crystal Day 1"
Swimming: The boys mostly played Quidditch in our small pool, using noodles as brooms and a shovel as the "snitch". Harry Potter has even taken the swimming pool by storm.
Butterfly Theme Concepts Covered:
Playground: This was supposed to be a standard ride around the block to the playground, play, and come back before it got too hot. First, L wanted the balance bike instead of the pedal bike (which has the push bar). I really want him to work on his pedaling, but as long as he was doing something other than walking there, I let him choose. It was just a lot slower, since I couldn't speed him up with the push bar. Then RJ found the inches deep puddle from the sprinklers and spent the rest of the time riding back and forth through it on his bike. L insisted on following him, but unlike RJ, was wearing his sneakers rather than crocs or sandals (which I purposely put on him because he hates getting bark in his sandals!), and immediately got angry that they got wet, even though I did warn him that they would and that I didn't have his sandals with me. So he got mad, took them off and just ran through the puddle. I try to pick my battles wisely, and running through the large puddle was fine by me as long as he knew that I didn't have dry clothes immediately available and that he did, in fact, need to wear clothing on the way home (for sun protection mostly, I could care less about public 3 year old nudity). He did need some convincing to let me get his shoes back on to head home though. Anyway, this playground trip and the short trip to and from it took a lot longer than usual!
Harry Potter Color-by-Number: I'm officially in love with the person who created all these Harry Potter worksheets. I am normally anti-worksheet, but these seemed fun and related to what RJ & L are most into these days, so I decided to try them. I figured that coloring by number was too simple for RJ, so I blacked out the numbers in the key and put in 7 easy addition problems where the sum matched the number paired with the color. I gave L one, in its original configuration, since he does know his numbers and I colored the words, so he didn't have to read to know which color he should use. He was happy to do the first color, but then quit and refused to do any more coloring, even when I told him that he could color it however he wanted. He really doesn't like drawing/coloring for more than 5 seconds, which I'm trying to work on, looking for things that will interest him. At 3.5, I'm not super concerned though, and we just find other ways to work on fine motor control. Given that he LOVES destroying and creativity reassembling all of RJ's lego minifigures on a regular basis, I'm confident that he has pretty good dexterity. RJ loved this though and stayed engaged the whole time, taking his time and coloring neatly, even!
The Butterfly - The book mostly reinforced what we've already learned about the butterfly life cycle, but there are a few new concepts too. I'll list the theme concepts covered below.
RJ's Blog - RJ and I talked over the weekend about him having his own blog to document science projects and write stories to share. So today, we actually set one up on his google account (which I created a LONG time ago when I needed more space on Picasa for our family photos), picked the name, and selected the background, template, and layout. Now we just have to add entries.
Birthday Note: We didn't get to this. We really have to - it's been a few weeks since his birthday party!
Crystal Growing: This was part of a science kit, so it was basically reading a blurb about crystals provided by them (of course RJ just focused on the fact that they mentioned that some people believe that crystals have magical or medicinal properties), boiling some water, mixing the crystal growing powder in and pouring it over a rock. He seemed to like the process, but I was a bit disappointed because the powder didn't dissolve in the boiling water fully as it was supposed to. I'm hoping the crystal will still grow, but we'll have to wait and see.
Once we finished preparing our rock for growing a crystal, RJ drew a picture of it as is, and labeled it "Crystal Day 1"
Swimming: The boys mostly played Quidditch in our small pool, using noodles as brooms and a shovel as the "snitch". Harry Potter has even taken the swimming pool by storm.
Butterfly Theme Concepts Covered:
- Butterflies lay their eggs on leaves
- Eggs are tiny
- After 4 days caterpillars emerge
- Caterpillars are very small
- First food is their eggshell
- Caterpillars eat leaves
- Caterpillars grow fast
- Caterpillars' skin spilts when it gets too tight
- a new looser skin is underneath
- New skin is colorful with stripes
- Caterpillar has many legs
- 6 front legs
- Help caterpillar feed
- 10 back legs
- Legs have hooks to help caterpillar hold onto plants
- Caterpillars have predators
- Colors tell predators that it tastes bad
- Fully grown at 18 days
- Caterpillar sheds skin 4 times
- When it's full grown, it attaches its tail end to a plant
- Pupa stage is when the caterpillar forms the chrysalis
- Caterpillar's skin splits again as it's forming a chrysalis
- Skin of chrysalis is soft, but hardens soon
- Chrysalis has tiny holes to let air in and out
- Inside the creature is completely changing shape
- [I added what we read from another book: Remember that the caterpillar actually turns to liquid and the cells reorganize to form a butterfly.]
- At two weeks the chrysalis has turned more transparent and you can see the butterfly inside
- Chrysalis splits and the butterfly crawls out
- Butterfly has wings and antennae
- Butterfly has only 3 pairs of legs
- Butterfly's wings are initially crumpled and wet
- Blood pumps into their veins, the wings stretch
- Dries the wings in the sun
- Wings are covered in scales
- Two wings on each side of body
- Scales give butterfly its colors
- Colors warn predators that the butterfly tastes bad
- Butterfly eats nectar from flowers through a proboscis
- [I added that the proboscis is a tubelike tongue that they drink through]
- Butterflies like warmth
- In the fall, they migrate to warmer places
- They spend winter asleep on leaves and branches of trees
- Migrate back in the spring
- Butterflies have mating smells in their wings
- Males and females find each other by the smell
- [I added that mating is what they do to make a baby, in this case eggs with caterpillars in them]
- Female butterfly lays eggs on a leave
- She leaves the eggs to hatch on their own
- Butterflies need wild places with wildflowers containing nectar and the right plants to lay their eggs on
- Parts of a Butterfly:
- Wings
- Covered in tiny hairy scales
- Thorax
- Middle part of the body [I added that it had the legs]
- Abdomen
- Rear part of the body
- Antennae
- Used to smell and sense things around them
- Head
- Front part of the body
- Proboscis
- Used for sucking nectar
- Rolled up when not feeding
- Compound eyes
- Made of hundreds of tiny eyes that each see part of the whole picture
- Feet
- Used to walk
- Used to taste plants before eating or laying eggs on them
- Butterflies are insects
- All insects have three parts to their body
- Head
- Thorax
- Abdomen
- 6 legs
- Wings
- Butterflies in this book were monarchs
- Other butterflies
- Adonis Blue (Europe)
- Apollo (Europe)
- Marbled White (Europe)
- Queen Alexandra's Birdwing (Southeast Asia)
- World's largest
- Long Tailed Skipper (North America) [Where we live]
- Red Admiral (Northern Hemisphere) [Whole top of the globe]
- Australian Beak (Australia)
- Easter Tiger Swallowtail (North America)
- Monarch Butterflies live in North America and migrate North and South across America in certain routes (pictured)
Saturday, July 13, 2013
Summer Vacation 2013 and the Invasion of Harry Potter
I have long abandoned the idea that this blog would be the perfect, continually updated source for parents who want to use thematic curriculum at home. In some ways, it's a failed experiment that I just refuse to drop completely, because I haven't been really doing the research I set out to in the beginning, or at least I haven't analyzed my data from the first couple of themes. In other ways, it's a realistic picture of what a parent can do when they are a stay at home parent of two children with a spouse who, due to a long commute, is gone for long hours every day. The reality is that I don't get very much planning time (none if we are busy on the weekends) and our focus shifts depending on what's going on. With my oldest in Kindergarten, and my little one spending some time in his co-op and in his 2 hours, twice a week preschool gymnastics class, I was able to find some time this spring to implement a theme here and there around our other activities (swim lessons, gymnastics, playdates, planning for our ridiculously over-done thematic birthday parties, school work, making dinner, making lunch, cleaning the house, taking care of the cats, etc.).
May was the last month of school and I think both RJ and I were burnt out from it. I was burnt out from the constant drain of finding new ways to get him to do his (boring) homework and I think he was just done with the whole thing. We were also spending inordinate amounts of time focusing on preparing for RJ's birthday party, which transformed our home into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Yes, my now 6 year old has been obsessed with Harry Potter for a good year since we picked up the first book to read to him. Some of the themes, especially in the later books (we're two chapters from the end of Half Blood Prince) that we're getting to now, are quite advanced for a young elementary school kid, but he was so interested in the books when my husband and I were reading them last year, that we decided to try it anyway. I don't think that either of us expected him to be the Potterhead that he has become; rather expecting that he would be bored by listening to the stories without any pictures and quit the series before finishing the first book, thus avoiding having to discuss the more difficult story lines concerning death and being a double agent. But that was not the case. Instead he looked forward to us reading more and more, and seemingly absorbed every last deal, thus making it so that we have had to deal with all those difficult themes, and he's just kept on going. Even around his Kindergarten work and my themes, Harry Potter was always present in his pretend play. It wasn't until we were planning his birthday that I temporarily dropped the music theme and let him just focus on Harry Potter, of course bringing L along with him (he might only be 3.5, and has never had the books read to him, but he still knows and loves all the characters and the basic story just from playing with RJ and watching RJ play the Lego Harry Potter game on our Wii).
So for the month of May and much of June, we handcrafted wands, I sewed Harry Potter wizard robes, we cut fabric scraps to make owls out of toilet paper roles, we research "spells" for pretend play usage, we even put together a few potions at his birthday party (which of course required planning), we cooked food and treats that were depicted by J.K. Rowling, the boys played with the Harry Potter legos, and RJ had limited time to master his problem solving and hand-eye coordination by playing the Lego Harry Potter game on the Wii. His birthday party came and went, and now, a couple of weeks after, we are midway through Summer Vacation and finally ready for a refocus of our activities. The last couple of weeks have been fairly unplanned and random (around our regular activities of course), which is nice to do from time to time, but with vacation time withering away, we want to make sure that we cover all the things that we want to, before the grind of the school year starts up again!
Our activities are going to include a mix of themes for a little while. We are going to be getting some caterpillars in the mail in a couple of weeks, courtesy of a birthday gift, and so we will be spending a good deal of energy on taking care of the caterpillars/butterflies, and documenting their development and learning about them. I also have some random activities that don't fit themes that I've wanted to fit in for a while, and we have a lot of summer fun to engage in, like swimming and play dates, and field trips to various places that we're doing before school takes over our lives again.
So, stay tuned...I generally don't go MIA from this blog for TOO long before coming back.
May was the last month of school and I think both RJ and I were burnt out from it. I was burnt out from the constant drain of finding new ways to get him to do his (boring) homework and I think he was just done with the whole thing. We were also spending inordinate amounts of time focusing on preparing for RJ's birthday party, which transformed our home into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Yes, my now 6 year old has been obsessed with Harry Potter for a good year since we picked up the first book to read to him. Some of the themes, especially in the later books (we're two chapters from the end of Half Blood Prince) that we're getting to now, are quite advanced for a young elementary school kid, but he was so interested in the books when my husband and I were reading them last year, that we decided to try it anyway. I don't think that either of us expected him to be the Potterhead that he has become; rather expecting that he would be bored by listening to the stories without any pictures and quit the series before finishing the first book, thus avoiding having to discuss the more difficult story lines concerning death and being a double agent. But that was not the case. Instead he looked forward to us reading more and more, and seemingly absorbed every last deal, thus making it so that we have had to deal with all those difficult themes, and he's just kept on going. Even around his Kindergarten work and my themes, Harry Potter was always present in his pretend play. It wasn't until we were planning his birthday that I temporarily dropped the music theme and let him just focus on Harry Potter, of course bringing L along with him (he might only be 3.5, and has never had the books read to him, but he still knows and loves all the characters and the basic story just from playing with RJ and watching RJ play the Lego Harry Potter game on our Wii).
So for the month of May and much of June, we handcrafted wands, I sewed Harry Potter wizard robes, we cut fabric scraps to make owls out of toilet paper roles, we research "spells" for pretend play usage, we even put together a few potions at his birthday party (which of course required planning), we cooked food and treats that were depicted by J.K. Rowling, the boys played with the Harry Potter legos, and RJ had limited time to master his problem solving and hand-eye coordination by playing the Lego Harry Potter game on the Wii. His birthday party came and went, and now, a couple of weeks after, we are midway through Summer Vacation and finally ready for a refocus of our activities. The last couple of weeks have been fairly unplanned and random (around our regular activities of course), which is nice to do from time to time, but with vacation time withering away, we want to make sure that we cover all the things that we want to, before the grind of the school year starts up again!
Our activities are going to include a mix of themes for a little while. We are going to be getting some caterpillars in the mail in a couple of weeks, courtesy of a birthday gift, and so we will be spending a good deal of energy on taking care of the caterpillars/butterflies, and documenting their development and learning about them. I also have some random activities that don't fit themes that I've wanted to fit in for a while, and we have a lot of summer fun to engage in, like swimming and play dates, and field trips to various places that we're doing before school takes over our lives again.
So, stay tuned...I generally don't go MIA from this blog for TOO long before coming back.
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