Shapes

My hubby and I sat down with Little Mister to play with his Shapes Jigsaw last night, and he surprised us by knowing what most of the shapes were! We certainly haven't sat down to teach him before, so this is a very good example of learning through play :)

We've picked this as the prime opportunity to reinforce shapes and for Little Mister to learn the ones he hasn't learnt already. We plan to do lots with shapes for a fortnight, and have a ball!

 

We intend to use a lot of Montessori style learning, and here's some of what we intend to use!

Ideas from The Activity Mom

• Candle Build-A-Shape Mat
• Bottle Top Shapes and Colours (printable)

I printed the Shapes Colouring Pages from Colouring Castle and the Shape Worksheets from Have Fun Teaching and covered them in smooth clear contact for Little Mister to colour and trace etc with soft crayons (you can use Crayola's Dry Erase Markers, or head to a cheap shop and buy a packet of crayons that are soft to the point where you can draw on your skin).

I sorted through our toy box and found...

• My First 1001 Words - has a couple of pages on shapes
• Fisher Price magnetic drawing board with 4 shape magnets and pen
• Tupperware Shape-O
• A Play-With-Me Book on Shapes with shapes on each page that pop out like a jigsaw piece
• Shape On Shape - A never ending wooden puzzle (I'll post pictures later to show what it looks like!)

Other ideas:

• Look through magazines/old picture books for shapes to cut out and make a collage page.
• Use Pipe Cleaners (I think some call them chenille sticks?!) to make each shape
• Make a 'stained glass window' toddler style (we did one quite some time ago, so time to do it again). Here's how you do it: cut a cardboard frame in each shape. When ready to make each 'window', cover one side with clear contact, leaving it sticky on the back for your child to stick cellophane pieces to. Then when that's done cover the other side in clear contact too. Done! Imagine all the shapes lined up on the window in the sun :)
• Look for the shapes in every day life, for example traffic signs (stop, give way, keep left, pedestrians etc
• Little Mister has plenty of playdough toys and cutters, but only one shape! So to incorporate playdough into this one, I'll help him role lengths of playdough and create the shape that way.
• Make a mobile from cardboard and attach it to an old coat hanger (we have tones!)

Wow! I've even surprised myself and I still have ideas filling my head as I type! Definitely thinking that this might be the main topic for a month rather than 2 weeks.

Check out my Toddler Basics page for even more ideas on teaching colours, shapes, letters, numbers and also Gross and Fine Motor Skills.

Other December Happenings

Another year has come and gone... and the new one is well and truly underway!

Here are a couple of pics from our December 2011...

We did have a holiday planned, but our 4WD's transmission had other ideas... like a complete rebuild! This meant that we had a couple of weeks with Daddy home, and some real old fashioned, at home, quality family time.

Afternoon tea picnic on the back deck...

 

...lots of self-imposed quiet time...

...exploring with his own imagination...

(a climb, a hang and a drop to the ground)

(I took this from my bedroom window, he had no idea anyone was watching)

...finding new things to do, again using his own imagination...

(He's running around the edge of the rug on our bedroom floor)

(In Little Mister's words: "Runnin' round, runnin' round")

...there's a first time for everything, right?!...

(this 'activity' was definitely NOT adult supervised or encouraged!)

The first time Little Mister is close enough to touch a horse, and he gets to ride! He took to it like a fish to water and didn't want to be held on there either! He was so sad when the horses were put "to bed".

...Little Mister and a little friend who is 6 months younger, took turns (without direction) towing each other around and around...

...New Years Eve we brought out sparklers, and, yes, Little Mister is trying to blow it out! ...

(a belated) Happy New Year everyone...

May 2012 bring you many happy times to cherish!

Trains, and Trams, boats, planes, buses, but predominantly TRAINS!

Little Mister is 'obsessed' trains at the moment! Could it have something to do with us living so close to a train line?

So we embarked on a theme 'study' of trains and other vehicles.

We used:

Most of the Transportation Preschool Pack from Homeschool Creations

Things That Go layer book + the ABC Train from Homeschool Share

and parts of the Train Tot Kit from Lawteedah

Here's a selection of photo's to give an idea of what we did over the 3 weeks it took us!

Little Mister's daddy was on leave from work, so the three of us spent the day at the National Railway Museum at Port Adelaide. Here we rode the little Yellow Train called Ken, explored all the restored trains on actual tracks! There were sleeper cars, day travel cars, engines, dining carts, vehicles that looked like motorbikes that ran on the tracks for repairs, carts a miniature railway and lots more.

Little Mister coloured in many pictures of vehicles, and I helped him hold the Texta correctly to write his name on a train carriage. (Fine motor Skills)

Little Mister is very good at matching like pictures, but this was the first time he had tried Shadow Matching, and he was brilliant! Got it first go, without any explanation :) So proud of our Little Mister! We played it on the table, on the floor, shadows on colour, colours on shadow etc. He loved it every time... and still does!
(Montessori style learning)

We also spent a day with Little Mister's Papa & Grandma where we drove into Adelaide city and caught the TRAM down to Glenelg. We paddled in the waves, played in the sand and enjoyed afternoon tea on the shady lawn near this...

...shark head (man-built) which is out the front of Seawall Apartments on the Glenelg foreshore. It says if you take a photo in the shark head and email it in, that we could win a nights accommodation! Of course we'll give it a go :)

This boat was behind the shark head, and Little Mister had fun exploring.

It's set up with a picnic style table in the middle as seating for the casual dining restaurant.

Then it was back on the Tram again and heading back into the city. Little Mister fell asleep on Papa on the way back...

...and continued to sleep while we started the "Market crawl dinner" (as we call it). This involves walking the entire Central Market, taste testing and buying little pieces to eat from any stall that takes your fancy. This time we enjoyed, cheeses, yoghurt, Chinese sweet breads with a custard filling, salami (of some kind!) nuts, dried fruit.. and of course a real iced coffee!

 Little Mister thoroughly enjoyed reading many many many books on vehicles... and is now in love with Thomas the Tank Engine!!

We're Going on a Bear Hunt

Our first formal book "Row"...

We had sooo much fun :)

The first of the three weeks (yes 3!!) we read and read and read and read this delightful book.

Little Mister memorised his favourite parts with no prompting:

     "Oozy MUD!!"

     "Tiptoe Tiptoe... What's that!?"

     "Oh, no!"
     "Polar" (that's the bear?!)

I found some great printables at Homeschool Creations which we painted, then added extra bling to re-create the story...

We used green paint then grass from the back lawn on the "long wavy grass" - Blue paint then blue glitter on the "deep cold river" - yellow paint the mud (yes mud!) on the "thick oozy mud" - green paint then leaves from the back garden on the "big dark forest" - yellow paint then cotton wool and white rice on the "swirling whirling snowstorm" - and Black paint on the "narrow gloomy cave" and a glow in the dark bear which we stuck in the cave, and added goggley eyes to.

We did this over 2 days, and had lots of fun :)

Little Mister painting the "thick oozy mud"...

The (almost) finished products...

 

The blank space above each picture is for our "real-life" bear hunt! We've taken the photo's just haven't printed them to stick on yet!They're posted below :)

"Long Wavy Grass"

"A Deep Cold River"

"Thick Oozy Mud"
(a brilliant Sensory Education moment!)

"A Big Dark Forest"

"A Swirling Whirling Snowstorm"

"A Narrow Gloomy Cave" & "It's a Bear!"
(Or as Little Mister says, a Polar! He has one, and to him they are all the same at the moment :))

...and so ended the bear hunt!

Everyday Experiences and Education

Here are a few photos of Little Mister learning through recent every-day happenings.

We have had some wonderful and memorable experiences...

Sailing with Grandma and Grandpa out on the ocean... swish swish go the waves, swim swim go the fish. We saw great big tankers, other sailing boats, fishing boats, a dolphin or two, all sorts of birds and even had to rescue Little Mister's hat when it went overboard!

Little Mister loved to sit on Captain Grandpa's lap and help him steer.

He also loved to stand at the hatch in the bow of the boat, with just his head poking out, and watch the sails and feel the wind in his face.

The following is an unauthorised sensory education experience!!

All was quiet out the back, so I thought a little investigation was necessary... and this is what I found!  ...and then I joined in and made the most of "wasted" eggs :)

We have four Isa Brown Hens, all of which are very regular layers. We get 4 eggs most days!

Here Little Mister is helping daddy weigh and date the eggs.

Reading stories is a favourite for all of us.

Just had to share this precious photo of Little Mister and his daddy.

Starting Out

I'm a full-time mother, homemaker and wife... and I love it. Neither my hubby nor I would have it any other way. We believe in the God assigned tasks for each of us, and want to do our very best in "training up our child in the way he should go". We believe that this includes every part of every day, and for us, this naturally includes schooling.

At this stage in life we have been blessed with one beautiful lively son and the opportunity to own a couple of acres and live surrounded by God's wonderful creation every day.

I was home-schooled myself for years 7-8 and loved every minute of it! So even though Little Mister is still just 2 years old, I am ever so keen to get started with a 'routine' of home education!!

I've done heaps of research into methods of home education and looked at many curriculum's. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that there are curriculum's for children almost from birth!

I've come to the conclusion that our education method will be rather eclectic! I always had an idea of how I wanted to do it... until I had a child! Now I see things differently :) We particularly love the idea of unit studies, or book studies. Similar to the ideas used by Five in a Row and The Little Big Book Club. We'll use any book or topic that takes our fancy and will include Bible stories too.

I've also recently looked in more depth at Montessori, and am really loving what I see!
So unit/book studies with lots of Montessori style learning is probably what will happen.

Having researched things early in the picture, I feel we are blessed that by the time our eldest child (and only at the moment!)  reaches formal schooling age, we will have a good idea of his learning style and interests. We'll also have a good idea of how on-track mum can stay :)

Would love to read your comments, tips, ideas etc.
We're new at this and anything will be food for thought :)