This week was super epic!
We started off our Monday with a Gladden Family Fall Field Day with a lot of our friends. I wish we could have had all but some kids are in school and such. But we had 9 of Ellie's Friends join in and it was action and fun packed! I blogged about the details so you can plan your own, Here. The learning takeaways from this big day were social skills, sharing, good attitudes when facing losing, exercise, number recognition, following instructions, sensory and fine/gross motor skill development, strengthening hands, and planning skills. Meanwhile, here are photos of the fun.
On Tuesday we met up with friends at the South Carolina Botanical Garden for a nature walk, play, and nature discovery bingo! We had a lot of fun, learned about a lot of new plant life, trees, and vegetation. The kids splashed in the creek because....fall in the South...haha! They climbed, ran, asked cool questions, and we just got to teach them a lot about God's beautiful creation.
That evening, Ellie and I went to a cake class geared towards kids at our favorite local bakery. Read about that Here so you can get yourself involved in fun events or your children. This night was great for mother daughter bonding, following instructions, learning processes, force differentiation and how to apply light or deep pressure, and sensory play as Ellie just went all in to that icing! Hahaha!
On Wednesday we went hiking at Linville Falls in NC on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We as usual, love hiking. I love the time it gives us to glorify God in His beautiful creation, learn new things about creation, and it is an awesome way that Ellie has learned strength, perseverance, obtaining goals, and a great time to talk, bond, and learn via conversations we have about all areas of life. Getting outdoors with your child will always be one of the best things you can do. Learning is unlimited when outdoors hiking. You can even do all subjects on a hike if you need to carry academics with you. We count things in nature, read books while we pic-nic, and discuss history upon different destinations and things we find in nature. Geography also, is perfect in nature. It was a really perfect no tantrum day. If you want to explore and hike it for yourself, Here is the link to the trail guide blog I posted. Meanwhile, here are a few photos of the day.
Thursday Ellie actually spent with my parents and my mom had the most fun activities for Ellie. She had gone to the dentist that morning and then I had an appointment so Ellie hung with her Mimi and G-Daddy and here is what they got into: painting, pumpkin decorating, apple art with apple cider, Halloween sticker art, playing on the playground, play dough and watercolors.
Friday we did forest school and started a week of Tree study. We had adopted a holly tree previously. We will observe our tree throughout the year. We will make bird seed decorations for the tree at Christmas time. Ellie's tree is non-deciduous, an evergreen, and produces red holly berries which animals eat but humans cannot. Our friends adopted a tulip poplar and a hickory tree. We read some books about trees, looked up our specific tree details, saved leaves from our tree, and studied some poetry and art at home to match our theme. We have been wildly collecting acorns as well as we prepare to make acorn pancakes in the near future. We discussed the difference in a Sycamore tree and the American Sycamore tree. For Ellie I added a bible study into this reading from Luke 19 about Zachaeus and the sycamore tree which is actually a type of fig tree. I also have been singing the children's church song about Zachaeus and the sycamore tree to her and she really likes it! The study continues a week long at home, we start in the forest, take home our new knowledge and expound upon it at home with art, crafts, poems, music, and books.
Books read this week:
A fabulous week indeed!
No comments:
Post a Comment