Our 9th week of Homeschool Preschool Playschool!

 

This week we rowed another story following along with our Before Five in a Row Curriculum, called Yellow Ball. It was the most simple story but packed a large punch of fun, play, experimenting, science, God's word, and learning. I wrote a blog on it for my community of fellow BFIAR moms and if interested in that fun, you can read about that, Here. Meanwhile, a few photos of what that one curriculum looked like this week:

We also have by totally just enjoying our time together and playing, have gotten into a rock study here lately. Over the past week, Ellie mined for rocks, identified them, counted and observed the rocks, learned their names, and then got to see some cased at a museum. We did an experiment to grow our own crystals, which should have been formed on a strand of yarn - that didn't happen, however, we did get plenty of crystals to form on our glass jar! 

We did another service project to teach Ellie to love and serve and care for others just as God commands us to do and we do this is obedience to Him and to glorify HIM! He Who is our provider allows us to provide for others. So we contributed to a friend's drive for food to prepare a Thanksgiving meal for others in need. 

Then, Ellie decided to make several art class projects for us. She so loves to create. She told me many times this week, "I tell you what. we are gonna make a project!" I'd ask her what project we were going to create and she would grab my hand and cart me to the "Africa Room" for our art and craft supplies. She listed off everything we needed, then she set it up with my help, and then she created her art totally free style and taught me about her process as she created and it was so so so cool to listen to and watch. She is displaying a self confidence that I love, a wonderful imagination, and just so many wonderful things as she does this. Let the kids create, y'all. It is messy, time consuming, and a little stressful to get it all out and clean it all back up but it is way more worth it than you can imagine. The joy, the learning, the fun. It's so great to witness these moments. 

We also made healthy gluten free apple cinnamon muffins which were so wonderfully delicious. Here is the recipe, if interested. 

We took two field trips this week. One was to Lake Wateree State Park for part of our BFIAR lesson. Our second field trip was to Nashville, TN to Cheekwood Manor and Gardens to visit the Dale Chihuly exhibition. It was so wonderful. I have had the pleasure of seeing Chihuly while in Seattle with my husband and Aunt Rhonda. I couldn't get Ellie out to Seattle this time thanks to COVID and my husband, Eric's personal work and school schedule, but one day! We were so happy to see we could get as far as TN to let her really experience the artist we have been studying the past two months. My sister and her children joined us and it was so so so great! Ellie genuinely understood the art she was seeing, knowing who's it was and getting excited about it. She recalled things we learned from her books and just had the best trip!

We also read several books this week: