Week 33 - Homeschool Preschool

This week we did a lot of learning and playing and even a field trip! 

We have been raising tadpoles we caught in our backyard from the pond and they are really changing and growing. We also had ordered some caterpillars which we watched form a cocoon and then saw all 5 hatch and become beautiful Painted Lady Butterflies! So we studied the lifecycles of frogs and butterflies this week. The caterpillars to butterflies has been an incredible experience to share together! Ellie continued documenting and counting out her observations in her journal. More on this in the next blog post so stay tuned!

We found a bumble bee on the porch and paused to observe our pollinator friend's fuzzy body and we even observed speckles of pollen on its body! Yay!!

On a morning walk, we saw that one of our mama ducks was out for a swim with her ducklings.

We saw and observed a spider egg sack. 

Baby oak leaves.

Tulip poplar flower + ants.

In our neighborhood while out for a walk, Ellie observed on a maple leaf some strange spots. She asked me what this was all over this tree's leaves? We did some research and both learned something new together. I love our "Seek" app!

We continued discovering wildflowers and identifying them.

Again, on a walk, we were able to get close to the new male foal and mother in the pasture that backs up to our road. It is so magical to watch these beauties together.

We found a lot of nests of lady bug eggs all over our apple trees! Woop woop!! We even saved one to observe them and saw them hatch; then we returned them to the garden.

Ok, so, every day for the whole week, this Titmouse has been teasing me! I always try to get a photo but he is so quick, or he shows me his tail...literally, or hides his head! Sneaky little thing! I'll keep trying for a good photo. 

Ellie used her blocks and imagination and BY HERSELF decided to construct a church with pews and it was awesome! So proud of her. So creative and innovative.

We took a field trip to Stewart Farms to pick some tasty strawberries. We brought them home and made a healthy jam! We also shopped their market where Ellie found some flowers she wanted to plant in her playhouse garden. So cute. Teaching her care and responsibility for delicate things.

Music and movement class at Kindermusik: Ellie got to create on a wall mural with friends working on ideas, sharing paint sticks, and creativity. She also got to do an AWESOME learning game that is just honestly the best. It involved numbers, counting, number visual recognition, rhythm, song, analyzing, processing, planning, problem solving, listening, and critical thinking, AND being on the spot as the solo singer and performer. I just so love ALL the ways Kindermusik with Rosalind Cross teaches my child. I can't put a value on the good we reap from this class. It's so much more than you can imagine.

Ellie and I were given the privilege of "duck duty" for our neighbors pet ducks! Ellie got to come over to their house and learn about how to care for them. She paid attention and took the job seriously. I was so proud of the dedication, responsibility, and the ability to recall the instructions. As a reward, our precious neighbors gifted Ellie with 3 relative storybooks to the task she was given! Oh this was awesome!! 

One morning after breakfast, Ellie played dress up in my old formal dresses from weddings, proms, and other events. She even got to put on some of my mom's old dresses from back in the day. She also dressed Blondie up. Ha!

Books read this week:

Ellie lead us in a special craft/project/exploration time. She planned it all out, set it all up, and lead us with clear instructions. She played teacher and had us use our garden ground wrap cover to make Christmas trees, gifts, stars, and ornaments. She gave us each scissors and guided us as we went along. She also encouraged us to borrow her binoculars to examine the different threads and the way they are weaved to make the sheet. 

We read a book called, "The Red Carpet" this week for our Before Five in a Row curriculum and conducted many activities in various subjects and play to learn from what we read all week. You can read about that specifically, here.

I have this super cool antique learning game that I was able to introduce Ellie to this week. I can't do much with it yet because it's a step above foundational learning but it does have a rhyming card set. The machine holds a card. The cards feature different subjects with questions or statements. The answers are multiple choice and have holes punched out beside them. When choosing an answer you stick a pen through the hole and it lights up a light on the top! So again, we practiced rhyming. Ellie doesn't read by herself yet, but using my finger to point, we read the sentence and completed it with the appropriate rhyming word. I let her tell me what rhymed and she made her choice then lit the light with her pen. She LOVED it! So simple and so fun. She really got into rhymes after this and grasped the concept. So for the rest of the week she would go around taking a word and rhyming it with all that she could. So we made a family game of it, picking words and rhyming and thinking together. We do this unloading groceries, sitting at meals, playing with toys, and even while cooking. What a fun way to learn and it is SO good for language development!

Ellie also practiced her handwriting by writing her numbers using her math curriculum dry erase book. 

This was our week!