Seeds

Happiness held is a seed,

Happiness shared is a flower

~author unknown

We did a week on seeds.  This is by far my favorite subject.  

We will for sure visit this again and again in various forms. 

Perfect opportunity for us to go through our seeds and finish planning our garden.

We read many books about seeds.
We took a closer look at the bean seed in particular.

We crafted bean mosaics with all the various bean seeds.




Then, we made bean bags out of our beans.

For our cooking day we took our beans and made 17 bean soup for lunch.

Over the course of the week Matthew got pretty sick.

Flowers, water, and a thermometer!

Tillie got it even worse :(.


This week had to be lite due to the sickness, dentist appointments, hair cuts, and snow days at grandmas :)



We did still manage to fit in what we could.

We started some bean seeds on the sides of glass jars filled with water and wrapped in black construction paper.  We also talked about avocado pits and put one in water to see if it would sprout.

Hopefully we will see something in a few days.



I asked Matthew if there was anything we could do to make him feel better.  He said maybe cookies :)
He picked a snickerdoodle recipie from his cookbook.  I wish we would have had Aunt Burp over!!  Everyone knows burp makes the BEST snickerdoodle cookies.

Then, the kiddos played chef for the rest of the afternoon

We also started more seeds to do mini experiments

We barely touched on some botany with parts of flowers too

We are still sick over here. 
I can't wait until everyone is healthy again!!!!
I hope all your families are well.

Until next week
~blessings

Freedom

This week we were gearing up for presidents day.  I realized how little I have explained of our country to the children.  They hear random rants by my husband or I , but none of the classic preschool stories.  This was a very good lesson for us.

We started out our week on Monday with Valentines day.  The children awoke to find love notes and treats in their baskets they had made last week.

It was also baking day so, we made heart shaped sugar cookies. 

It is so hard for me to be able to take pictures of our baked goods!  They disappear quick around here.

The rest of the week was dedicated to The United States of America.

I told the story of George Washington and the cherry tree.  It was out of a book called Best-Loved Children's Stories.  We talked about some of our founding fathers and how amazing they were.  Smart, honest, and perfect role models.  If there ever was a man I would want my kiddos to emulate it would be Thomas Jefferson!  

We pulled out money and went over each president on our coins.  Then, we did coin rubbings with our crayons.  (it didn't turn out good)  So, we just colored pictures of flags.  We talked about our flag and read stories about how it came to be.  Then, we crafted our own flags out of felt.

"I pledge allegiance to the flag

of the United States of America, and 

to the republic for which it stands.

one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty

and justice for all."

We tried to memorize the pledge.  I feel very strongly that they know this by heart.  If I teach anything this year this would be it.  One of the reasons I initially started home schooling was because our pledge was taken out of our schools.

We talked about the states too and did a puzzle to try and learn where they all are on a map.

We went on a neighborhood flag hunt to try and find as many flags as we could.  We found 10 U.S. flags and one Marine corps flag.  This led us into a discussion on all the other types of flags flown in America.  Matthew's favorite one is the "Don't tread on me" flag (that is my favorite too).  So, we made our own.

We sang classic American songs too. Yankee Doodle Dandy, Grand old flag and Yankee Doodle Went to Town.  The "Macaroni" part was very funny for them!

We read America books too

We have strong conservative, constitutional, libertarian values around here.  I am sure they will pick up on that some day, whether they will agree with us or not.

Have a happy presidents day and God Bless America!


until next week...
~blessings

Love

I spent the whole week talking about love.  

We were preparing our home and ourselves for Valentines day.

I read stories about a mothers endless love.  

We also read stories about Saint Valentine.

On baking/ cooking day we made homemade chicken rivel(kind of like homemade noodles) soup

and heart shaped PB and J sandwiches.

Then we crafted some stained glass hearts.
We took contact paper and pressed bits of tissue paper onto them.
Then I cut them into heart shapes to decorate our windows.

We also made silly puppet hearts.

On painting day we did water color paintings using only red and painted whole sheets of paper.  We used this paper.  When it dried I cut out love birds. These turned into our Valentines we sent to our loved ones and friends. 

We also used this paper and made heart shaped baskets.

We told the kids we would fill them with love notes and treats on Valentines day.



The Romans believed that birds mated in the second week of February.  That is why we see a love bird theme.  We decided to add a little nest and eggs to our nature table to celebrate the mating of the birds.

Tillie was absolutely in love with her little nest.  For an entire day she went around saying "oh no" every time she lost an egg and replaced it.

February nature table

We played a lot of heart themed games and did mazes I printed from here.  I also went to family fun for some ideas on little coloring pages.



After we made all our Valentines we went to the post office to mail them.  I had the kids do everything so, they can learn how to mail a letter (sort of a rare occurrence these days).

This week we also went to an amazing hot air balloon event.  It was at night and they lit up the dark with a sea of enormous balloons.  We told the kids it was a giants birthday party:)  It was really beautiful.
We had our third annual lighting of our Christmas tree this week as well.  A spectacular blaze.  Both, of these are in the photostream. 



Next week is about our presidents and our freedom


Until then,
~blessings

Candlemas/Shadows

This week we took time to study Candlemas and shadows. 

Candlemas is a day("mas") for candles.  It became a special day to the Roman Catholics to bless the candles of the year.  If you want to learn a lot more about celebrating February 2 you can check out this link.  In America it turned into Groundhogs day, thus we also discussed our shadows.  Even more remarkable...in our family Feb. 2 is uncle Matt's birthday.  So, we talked about him too :)

On baking day we made cinnamon rolls,

because they are delicious.

Tillie making rolls

Wesley made an eagles nest

Then, we made cookies to mail to uncle Matt.  

He only got a few and I didn't even get to take a picture! (DAD!)

Our field trip this week was on Tuesday and we went to see the snow sculptures at the winter carnival.

Milking cow

Monster under bed

They were really neat and there was a snow castle maze too.  

Frigid, frigid cold though so, we did not stay long and we took the kids to see dinosaurs at the science museum.

We decorated candles...

and we mailed them to uncle Matt as birthday candles.

We kept this one for our table.

We also made candle holders out of air-dry clay

Wesley's

Tillie's

Matthew's

With all those jewels who could resist making crowns?

Then, we talked about shadows.  

We read lots of groundhog day stories.

from the library I got a shadow puppet book and tried our hand at shadow puppets.

So it is...Six MORE weeks of winter.  

I couldn't help but recite this nice verse of how spring may be around the corner.

THE COMING OF SPRING

The birds are coming home soon;

I look for them every day;

I listen to catch the first wild strain,

For they must be singing by May.

The bluebird, he'll come first, you know,

Like a violet that has taken wings;

And the red-breast trills while his nest he builds;

I can hum the song that he sings.

And the crocus and wind flower are coming, too;

They're already upon the way;

When the sun warms the brown earth through and through,

I shall look for them any  day.

Then be patient, and wait a little, my dear;

"They're coming," the winds repeat;

"We're coming! we're coming!" I 'm sure I hear,

From the grass blades that grow at my feet.

By: Ada M. Skinner and Frances Gillespy Wickes

Anticipating spring,

I started to work on our nature table.  

We do not see any flowers around here yet, apparently in the UK they are starting to have glimpses of a flower called a snow drop.  Cute little white flower.  I decided to make a snow drop fairy from a pattern in All Year Round.  

Snow drop flower fairy.

Wesley crafted a little snow pillow for her to rest on.  

All and all very good Candlemas week.

Next week it is about LOVE.

Until then...

~Blessings

Ice

This week has been all about ice.  We read stories of Jack Frost.  

There is a great resource for stories here.  We read Jack frost's tale.  I really am in love with all tiptoes lightly stories.  They are so sweet.

On baking day we made frozen banana treats.

Boys melting chocolate for our bananas.

On painting day we painted pictures with a lot of water color (real wet)  then we let them dry outside to see if Jack Frost could finish our paintings for us. :)

We read another sweet story this week.  This is by Suzanne Down.  She is a talented woman who runs Juniper tree school of story and puppetry arts.  I get her newsletter regularly and they contain the sweetest stories.  I beeswax modeled a little fox to help with the story.

Little Lost Fox



One  winter, deep in the snowy forest, lived a
Mama fox and her little fox.  They lived deep under the roots
of an old oak tree where it was very cozy indeed.  One very cold
and snowy blowy kind of day, Mama fox needed to go out to find food.
She said to little fox, 'don't go out in the snowstorm little fox, I will be
back soon.'  And then off Mama fox went.

Little fox waited and waited, but it was such a long wait.  Little fox
climbed to the top of the den and peeked out.  Everything was white
and beautiful.  "I will play in the snow for just a minute, then come
right back inside', he said to himself.  And he jumped out of the den and
leaped and ran and played in the soft fluffy snow.

The snowflakes were falling, falling, and the wind was blowing, blowing.
The snowflake children called to little fox, ' Catch us if you can little fox'!!
And little fox ran after them, but wind would blow them here, then there.
They were hard to catch!  Little fox ran farther and farther away from his
cozy den.

Suddenly he stopped running and looked around.  Where was he?  He
looked for his den, but could not find it anywhere.  He was in a part
of the forest where he had never ever been before, and it was already
getting dark.  Little fox was lost.

He curled up under a big tree, and the wind blew, the snow was falling faster
and thicker.  Brrrrrr....little fox was very cold .  He decided to trudge onward
through the snow which was almost over his head now.  Through the trees
he saw some dim lights.  It was a village where humans lived.
'Maybe the people would help me', wished little fox.

He walked slow and steady through the deep snow until he came to
a house.  He went to the door and with his paw  went

scratch, scratch scratch,
scratching on your door,
please oh please oh,
may I rest warm on your floor.

The door opened, but when they saw a fox, they shrieked,
'A fox, a fox', and shut the door tight!

All through the village the little fox went,  going from house
to house and with his paw upon each door he went,

scratch, scratch scratch,
scratching on your door,
please oh please oh,
may I rest warm on your floor.

But no one would let him inside.

Only one last house remained in the village, but by now
little fox was so tired, and so cold he could not go any further.
He dug a small hollow in the snow and called out, Yip, Yip, Yip!
Yip, Yip Yip!  then he curled up and tried to get warm.

Inside the last house lived an old grandmother who was
cooking a pot of soup.  She heard a strange faraway sound and opened
the  door to listen.  In the distance  she could hear a sound.  It was
hard to hear, so she listened again.

Yip, Yip Yip!

The old grandmother put on her coat and hat and followed
the sound, carrying her lantern.  She walked until she saw a dark red furry
ball in the deep snow.

'Why it is a little fox, so cold, so cold,' she said, as she picked
him up in her arms and carried him home.  She put an old blanket
down near the fire, and put little fox there to warm up.  She put a bowl of warm
soup broth nearby for him to drink.

Little fox began to warm up and felt so tired.  He lapped up the soup, and
then fell fast asleep, and slept for a long, long time.  When he woke up it
was morning.  He looked around the room and saw the good woman asleep
in her bed.  He went to the door and tried to get out, but the door was shut
tight. He took his paw and began to scratch on the door.

Scratch, scratch, scratch,
Scratching on your door
Thank you for your warm, warm floor,
Now I must go and run by day
To find my home so far away.

Little fox's paw gently pushed at the door.

The old woman woke up, smiled, and got out of bed.
She opened the door and said 'goodbye little fox, you can find
your way home now, it is a sunny day!'

Little fox bolted out the door and ran leaping through the snow.

Yip Yip......Yip!   Mama fox was looking for him!

Little fox ran as fast as he could all the way to his Mama, and his
cozy den, just in time for breakfast.

Little fox never went off playing in a snowstorm again!
Well, not until he was a Big fox!

The End.











I wanted to show the kids what a waterfall looks like in the winter.
We decided to go to Minnehaha falls.  It was beautiful!  perfect day and the falls were amazing.  The kids really got to see huge sheets of ice cascading over the rocks.  When I went to take a perfect picture I had no battery! 


So, you will have to go there yourself and check it out.

Highly recommended!








To continue on with our ice week we made ice sun catchers.


first they put pretty things into a shallow dish... pine sprigs, berries and colorful tissue paper.

We poured water on and froze them outside. 
Then popped them out of the dish.

Finally, we hung them in the sun.


I thought they looked very pretty and easy.






This week too, I read a tale from the best resource of all.  www.mainlesson.com
It is a free source for all different kinds of stories.  Truly amazing! If your kids are as enthralled by stories as mine are then check it out. 

I read a story about the months called The Twelve Months.  It is appropriate more for older kids like 6 and up.  It was good and my little ones enjoyed it very much.


I have included all my go to places when I don't quite make it to the library for the week. 
I hope you like all my story hot spots:)








Next week it is
Candlemas




Until then...
~Blessings

Snowflakes

This week was all about snowflakes.  We had fun investigating them.  We learned a lot mostly from a book called Snowflake Bentley.  Willie Bentley was a man who really knew his snowflakes!


On baking/cooking day we made snow ice cream.

Yes, we used real snow.

I didn't want them to eat too much... so we also made
snowflake cookies.

Painting day was devoted to snow pictures.

We used white paint, glitter and chalk to make the wintry scenes.



For snack, snowflake soft pretzles.

We spent our days looking for snowflakes, but we only found...


mountains to sled down

and snow caves to hide in.

Here are some of our favorite snow stories.  Snowmen at night is very sweet with hidden pictures.  We've been searching it all week.




  We spent a  big day skating with our Uncle this week too.  It has been a fun week, though short.  I am going on a vacation weekend!  I have not left my kiddos for 5 years!  Very exciting.

Have a good week everyone!

Next week it is about
Ice.
Until then...
~Blessings.