Glad To Be a Gladden: Week 31 - Homeschool Preschool

We began the week with a new game the Easter bunny brought Ellie, "Bug Bingo." This game and all the games by this company are exquisite and the learning that comes along in so many ways is just incredible!

Our bible verse we are working on this month:

With Spring in full bloom, Ellie and I took a field trip to a new to us garden named, "Hatcher Gardens and Woodland Preserve" in Spartanburg. So beautiful! It is free to visit though donations are appreciated. There, we identified plant life, saw a water snake and a large slider turtle, had a pic-nic by the little waterfall, and read books from the Free Library on site. The garden also had posts with different letters on them which Ellie would name for me phonetically and it became a sort of scavenger hunt for her.

We studied the 5 senses with a heavy focus on the hearing sense of our ears, the anatomy of the ear, and the functions of the ear. We read books, played games with mystery sounds, tone, volume, pitch, and made an instrument too from straws. Ellie used my husband's Bose sound canceling headphones to hear the difference of hearing an instrument played with and without them, as well as cupping the ear to hear the volume increase.

This week, Ellie got into imagination play by pretending to be my teacher in the school room. She taught me and her baby doll, Molly. Our lessons were how to draw a triangle, write number 1, and about plants. She is a cute and sweet little teacher!

Ellie also played pretend by pretending to be a Veterinarian. In her playhouse, she had a few of her stuffed animals as her patients. She gave them all a bowl of water; then checked them in one by one and we discussed what brought them in today and how do we make them better. She just giggled so much playing this. Her giraffe, Penelope, broke her leg so we used a piece of mulch to be her cast. We counted our patients and counted how many bowls of water were needed.

Being such awesome weather this week we took another outing with friends to hike at Yellow Branch Falls where we had so much fun in the sun! Afterwards, on the way home, we stopped in Clemson for some errands and to get Ellie a special ice cream treat from the '55 Exchange. this is Clemson's on campus creamery. I've been enjoying their products fresh since I was Ellie's age and so I wanted to share my traditions with her. We walked the campus, taking my special paths from my "Hey day" of climbing trees, swing dancing, frisbee on Bowman, football games, and walks through the Carillion Garden. Along the garden path, Ellie and I ran and played, discussed the President of Clemson University's house, identified plant life, and listened to her echo in the rotunda. Call it her first proper college tour! Ha!

Here is the hiking fun at Yellow Branch Falls:

For some art, Ellie painted with random fruits and vegetables and even a bagel. She made three beautiful and fun paintings!

For some sensory play, Ellie made cloud dough cupcakes....(not edible). These were made with simply flour and baby oil scented with eucalyptus. Ellie added sprinkles and prepared her cupcakes in the cupcake wrappers.

We went nature walking where we took our time to stop and listen to birds, ID the birds by their song, and ID some wildflowers.

For some math play learning, Ellie played with her new balancing scale and teddy bear math manipulatives. I let her explore with it first and make her discoveries and observations. Then she counted out the bears as she put them all into one bin. She stopped at 18. I encouraged her to see what would happen if she added 17 to the other side, then 18, then 19. She noted the changes or lack of a change. She saw they became equally balanced. We did some other similar math experiments with the manipulatives.

Here are more photos from the music and audiology lesson aforementioned:

Super excited about this - Ellie got caterpillars! We ordered them and a kit to observe and document her observations as they prepare for metamorphosis.

Ellie did more math by working in her McGruffy Preschool Math book. There were a lot of matching puzzles and following my instructions type puzzles she ASKED to do this week! I love that she asked and desired and wanted to do her math!! That's the dream - that school would be interesting to her. It won't always be and not every subject is she going to love, but we want to start with a strong desiring foundation and love of learning and exploring. It made me so happy when she brought me her math book off her shelf!

Books read this week:

This week Ellie also really wanted to discuss seed and plant life. We read in an excellent Christ focused Science curriculum book our friend, neighbor, and fellow homeschoolers lent us. Then, Ellie fetched some sunflower seeds which we dissected, then she observed with her magnifying glass, and we learned the shell of the seed is called a Testa. I had no idea! I love learning alongside her as I teach her. Then, we planted some sunflower seeds!