Our week consisted of making butter, ice cream, field trips, art, bible study, friends, forest school fun, and sensory play!
We continued with our bible memory verse of the month, 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7 and our catechism point of Are there more than one God? No. We are still reading through the book of Acts during our breakfast and bible time.
We did a love note hunt! We had some leftover cutout hearts and I used them to write down individual reasons and things I love about Ellie. While she played with water beads, I stealthily slinked around the house taping the hearts in various locations. Then I went and got her and told her to go at it! She collected them all singing the entire time. Then, I sat with her and read them to her and observed her facial expressions as she heard each thing I love about her. She smiled and smiled and smiled. It was special.
We made marbling art. Using shaving cream, liquid water colors, pipettes, and paper, Ellie did awesome process art and created a beautiful piece of art. We sprayed the cream in her play tray, used pipettes to drip drop liquid watercolors over the cream, then stir them around with a pop-sicle stick. Then, take the watercolor paper and lay it down on top of the painted cream, pressing it all the way down evenly. Pull out the paper gently, lay it aside to dry for a few hours. The foam will dissolve and the paint will remain and it will look so magical!
We have done this in recent previous weeks, but its so easy and fun, we did magic milk science again with milk, food coloring, and dish soap.
Bubble wrap hopscotch was fun! I got a roll of packing bubble wrap from Target, cut it into 10 large squares, labeled them 1-10, then laid them out like a hopscotch board. To set up, I asked Ellie to bring me each number by calling out the number I needed and letting her find it. This is how we playfully work on learning the visual appearance of her numbers. She also loves helping so that was fun for her. Then as she hopped we called them out. Also, the bubbles were awesome sensory play for both touch and hearing.
We made a kidney and pinto beans sensory bin from dry beans purchased at Happy Cow. Ellie loved this WAY more than I anticipated. Like, she loves sensory bins, but this was so simple and easy and neat that I was so thrilled how happy she was to play with it. I gave her a few measuring cups which she read the numbers on telling me, "half a cup, mommy!" She made shapes in the beans like a heart and called me to come see. She made mountains, and fields, and built things with beans!
We began the Before Five in a Row curriculum study of "Ask Mr. Bear." We did a heavy focus on farming, farm life, farm animals, dairy, wool, eggs, animal characteristics and uses, etc. We took field trips to local farms, farm stores, and friend's farms with friends, made our own cheese and ice cream, and had a pic-nic with our local farmer's products. We made our own healthy chocolate cake from scratch (and delicious!!) and threw a party for Ellie's baby doll, Molly where Ellie learned to wrap presents.
We made our own homemade butter and our own homemade ice cream! A lesson in farming and science.
Ellie did a lot of fun art this week.
For Exploring Nature with Children forest school this week, we studied Evergreen trees again, particularly conifers. We went to our nature walk spot with friends and did a study there reading books, walking, observing, playing.
At home, Ellie and I made Juniper play dough:
*Juniper needles
*1 cup flour
*1/4 cup salt
*3/4 cup water
*3 Tbsp lemon juice
*1 Tbsp baby oil
*Green food coloring
*Christmas tree cookie cutters
Then we made Foraged Evergreen Cookies. I found this idea from another homeschool page I follow; but I made this recipe my own to make it healthier and you can find it here: Foraged Evergreen Cookies
For forest school we drew in our nature journals, read many books while cuddling and outside in nature, read poetry, and observed art relevant to the topic.
Now, these next two photos are a fungus Ellie discovered which we identified to be "Black Witch's Butter." So cool!! It is a fungus that has a "fruit body."
Finding various species of evergreens, signs of springs, and climbing rocks.
Smelling my beloved pine resin!
Listening to the friendly forest woodpecker!
Hunting Hemlocks
Juniper
My girl is awesome!
The cutest girls!
Trying to explain a bird's way of sleeping and it just got hilarious 😂
We began the start of making a pine salve. We had to start initially by creating a pine oil. So we collected fresh pine needles and placed them in a jar, then doused them completely with extra virgin olive oil. After 6 weeks of being stored in a dry dark place, we will melt beeswax with the pine oil and add essential oils as well, place in tin containers, and use on cuts and scrapes. Pine is incredibly helpful with wounds.
Ellie makes the best discoveries! She said, what is this mommy? Seeking my app, "Seek" and my sister's knowledge, we identified it as the gall of a gall wasp.
We also observed so many signs of Spring!! It's coming y'all! Less than a month! Budding Daffodils!
We celebrated Ash Wednesday by beginning two Easter focused bible studies to read from now until Easter. We marked our foreheads with ash in the shape of a cross during the bible study time as a family and Ellie made an ash drawing with our ashes within a cross.
One warm sunny day, Ellie got out her sidewalk chalk and took it totally 100% upon herself to write her name with absolutely 0 help whatsoever, the number 3, an A, an M, and she was so proud! This pride in herself lead her to want to do more so then I showed her how to do a W and S, Dd, Ll. She was so happy!! That is what homeschooling is all about! Natural organic excited learning!
We continued our study of Vincent Van Gogh by studying his brush strokes and paintings, discussing France, olive trees, colors that are bright and happy, sunflowers, and The Starry Night. One day shopping in Hobby Lobby for homeschool goods, A girl was wearing a T-shirt with a background of The Starry Night and Vincent's self portrait in the foreground. Ellie got so excited and pointing at the girl yelled out, "That girl is wearing Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh!!" The girl turned and looked at me wide eyed and said, "Wow!! I am impressed! She is so smart!!" I felt such a pride in my girl! In June I am taking her with my sister and her cousins to an interactive luminary multi-sensory exhibit of the works of Van Gogh. So excited! Artist and composer studies have been one of my favorite things to do with Ellie. We continue to also read about and listen to Vivaldi. Particularly "The Four Seasons." She recognizes his compositions when she hears them.
Because we were blessed to see signs of Spring, we saw Dandelions!! So we foraged those and had just enough for a batch of Dandelion Lemon Butter cookies. The recipe for this can be found in older blog posts. We do make a goal to leave 80%for the bees and birds and butterflies who will aid in pollination and keep our Earth healthy and our fruits and vegetables growing! The entire flower from roots to petals is edible and soooooo good for you! Ellie eats the stems raw!
Books read this week:
