Nature Crowns

With today's post, my hope is to illustrate just how simple learning from home can be. It doesn't take much preparation or planning in the early years to create meaningful learning opportunities. Not only that, but when a parent follows the child's cues and capitalizes on their interests, the learning becomes that much richer.

Today we made nature crowns. 

Early this morning, my daughter said she wanted to make some nature jewelry. After cleaning her room (a task that needlessly took ALL morning, but perhaps that's a post for another day), we went outside. With us, I brought a sheet to sit on, a single hole punch, a pair of safety scissors, a roll of masking tape, and some yarn. And my coffee, since I drink that stuff all day long.

Since my son was with us and I wanted to get him interested in this game, I suggested making crowns and they were both all for it. 

Task one: collect some leaves. Daniel ended up collecting all the brown ones that had already fallen. At first I discouraged this because I wasn't sure if they would hold up to a hole punch. But we discovered that they worked well and he went for it. Natalie stuck with mostly live, green leaves. 

Task two: punch some holes in those leaves. 

After I took this picture, I suggested punching two holes in each leaf so that they would lay flat on the crown.

They were both able to punch their own holes, which is excellent for developing fine motor skills.

This part also took some time to complete, requiring persistence and patience (several of the leaves tore during the punching process). 

Task three: string the leaves in the same way that you'd string beads. I wrapped one end of the yarn with a short piece of masking tape to prevent it from fraying. Then I tied one leaf onto the other end and gave each child their string.

Along with leaves, they each dug up one of our pesky ferns (those things are crazy hard to get rid of) in order to find the seed and I helped them tie the seed onto their crowns. 

Natalie also collected several small flowers to poke into the punched holes in her leaves. Daniel chose to poke in a little fern. I love how they were presented with the same project and came up with very different results. 

Daniel's kind of reminds me of Lord of the Flies. The fact that he took off his shirt really only adds to the whole image in me head. (On a side note, I cannot believe how warm it's been here lately. Yes, these pictures were actually taken today, December 19.)

Such a cutie!

And Natalie's was just so sweet with her greenery and yellow flowers.

Very fitting for a sweet girl.

After they finished with their crowns, they went off to play "king" and "queen" for a little while. It fills me with happiness to watch this kind of play go down...creating something and then using that creation in their pretend world. So, so good. 


How does this fit with a Charlotte Mason education? Not only was this activity a complete game for my youngsters, but while playing, they were observing and identifying nature. We found several different types of plants and named them, and we discovered which plants were hardier and which were more fragile. 

Not only that, but the kids were working on simple skills (hole punching and stringing leaves) which will lead to the development of more complex skills (and more involved handicrafts) as they grow.  

And they loved it. They had a lot of fun. That's not specifically Charlotte Mason, but I think we can all agree that when kids are having fun learning it's nothing but a good thing. 

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My Florida

My Florida

I've lived here my whole life. Sometimes when you grow up in a place and you still live there...and you see it everyday, you start to miss it. You start to not see it. 

You get so caught up in traffic lights and Target that you miss the beauty all around you.

At least I do. I'm constantly running through my to-do list. I'm constantly feeling just a little (and sometimes a lot) behind.

It can be awfully refreshing to put that all on a shelf for a morning and just take a walk.

To some place new and quiet. Some place peaceful.

To be a child.

It's amazing to see your home through your child's eyes. I remember when everything seemed so big and wild.

I remember believing that it was all just waiting for me. 

It's an exciting feeling.

And now it's all just waiting for my kids.

What an invitation.

I don't want to miss it.

I don't want them to miss it.

Because this is their home.

This is their Florida.

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Creating an Ant Buffet and Homemade Ant Farm

Today's post is twofold, and both of the parts were completely spur of the moment. This, by the way, is one of the things I love about homeschool. As a teacher in a traditional school, there's a lot less room for spur of the moment ideas and activities. You can, of course, do some of that, and some teachers do. But I am really loving the freedom of learning and teaching at home. 

"Ah. You wanna see what ants like to eat? Sure. Let's look in the fridge."

"Oh, you want to make an ant farm like the one in our story? Well...I think I have some vases up here. Let's look." 

Since we're at home, everything we need is already here. It is nice to have a plan, but it's also nice to add things in...because we can. 

Anyway, on to the fun stuff. As we've been talking about ants, one of the questions that came up was, "What do ants like to eat?" Our story basically answered that question already: other insects, sugar, and honey. But I thought it would be so much fun to make an ant buffet to test out a bunch of different foods. So after nap, we did.

I cut out a piece of cardstock to look like an artist's palette (You know...a palette of food instead of colors. Is that cheesy? Maybe that's a little cheesy.). Then I raided our fridge to come up with a bunch of different kinds of foods for the ants to sample. It doesn't take much. Ants don't need a lot.

Here's what we came up with:

That's (from left to right): cheese, ham, sugar, honey, carrots, crackers, raisins.

Before we let the ants have a go at the buffet, I asked each child what they thought the ants would really go for. Natalie hypothesized that the ants would love the sugar and the honey. Daniel thought that they would go for everything. And my personal hypothesis (though I kept this to myself) was that the ants would be all over that pile of sugar. 

We searched for a few minutes for a good, active ant hill, and then set up camp. Within a few minutes, we had some action:

Bam! First surprise. The cheese (with this particular species of ant) was by far the most popular.

But the crackers and the raisins weren't far behind:

Whoa! They were all like, "Oh no. This is coming with us."

And after they'd explored those things, they found the honey:

Aren't they kind of cute? They kept reminding me of horses drinking at a trough.

They didn't touch the pile of sugar. In fact, I set this down at three different colonies, and none of them gave it a second glance. Interesting. 

I gave the kids their hypothesis pages (on which I wrote their hypothesis down for them) and instructed them to each draw what they were observing.

Natalie is drawing her ant here in yellow:

And Daniel chose orange for his ant. He was so cute - he was thinking out loud as he drew, and I could hear him say, "And this is the thooorax."

Okay, it was at this point that I remembered the kids wanted to make an ant farm. And here we had a bunch of worker ants ready to go.

The problem was, though, it wasn't set up yet. So I hurried inside and grabbed a few supplies. 

One large clear glass vase

One smaller vase or bottle. When we fit our bottle inside the larger vase, there was about a quarter inch of space all around.

sieve

spade

cloth

rubber band

Process:

I carefully turned the bottle upside down and placed it inside the larger vase.

Then I gave Daniel the spade and instructed him to dig up some dirt near the ant hill (not on top of the ant hill, though) and put it into the sieve. After that I sifted the dirt into the vase. Most of it landed on top of the bottle and then I brushed it down into the sides. Sifting the dirt first makes it easier for the ants to dig their tunnels.

Not gonna lie. This was a tedious process. In the end though, It only took about 20 minutes to get all the dirt we needed.

Unfortunately, by that time the little black sugar ants had had their fill of our buffet and were all back inside their ant hill.

Er. So we picked up the buffet and went in search of a different colony. We found these little guys:

Who didn't touch the cheese at all. In fact, they were mostly excited about that ham and the honey.

But really, they didn't come out in droves like the ants at the last colony. So we picked up our buffet and went in search of another one. I did end up finding some pretty enthusiastic little ants by the sidewalk in our back yard, and we collected some of them, but they were bright red. Fire ants. 

Oh. You're probably wondering what that cloth was for. It's to keep those little guys inside:

Although I'm not really sure that it worked because when I checked on them this morning, I found a couple very lethargic ants and...nothing else. Where did the rest of them go? Could they have escaped??

Good thing I opted to keep that farm on the porch. The last thing we need is a bunch of angry fire ants running around our house. 

So. Back to the drawing board. 

Maybe it's a good thing that our ant collecting didn't go so well yesterday. Because, without a queen, an ant farm won't last for very long anyway. Not only that, but you won't be able to witness a true colony in action since the workers won't have much to do but dig. This kind of farm is useful and fun for watching the ants dig their underground city, but it isn't nearly as educational. After yesterday's unsuccessful attempt to gather some ants, I think I'll be reworking our technique, and will try to capture a queen. Either that, or we'll just send off for some ants. 

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The Mighty Ant

Ants are strong - really strong. Check this thing out:

That large ant that you see there wasn't actually moving. Well, not by itself, anyway. We saw these two much smaller ants dragging the larger (and quite dead) ant across our driveway. Which was an awesome thing to witness after our short lesson on ants and ant behavior this morning!

Today we started our second week of homeschool. I'm happy to report that last week was a success - not only did we survive, but Daniel finished the week on a high note and was ready to get started with week two today. 

Ants. I wanted us to get up close and personal with ants this week for a few different reasons.

1. Maureen Spell has included nature journal pages for ant study in her amazing ebook, available here. 

2. "Ant" begins with the letter A, which is the second letter of the alphabet that we're studying. I wanted Daniel to learn all the letters in his name first, and then we'll move on with the rest of the alphabet.

3. Ants are everywhere. There are plenty of opportunities in our yard for easy observation, ha ha. 

4. And last, but not least, ants are super hard workers. They are (say it with me, Daniel) diligent. The ant provides the perfect opportunity to help Daniel understand what that word means. 

If you're curious about our plan for the week, you can visit my planning page here.

Today we read Ants are Fun, by Mildred Myrick.

We bought our copy of this book a few weeks ago at a consignment shop and I'm so glad we did. Not only is it an engaging story that held my 3 year old's attention the whole way through, but it's loaded with all kinds of facts. Also, it doesn't hurt that Arnold Lobel drew the pictures. And since we can all agree that he's one the greatest authors/illustrators of all time, we should also agree that this book is worth checking out. 

From this story, Daniel learned that ants start out as eggs, then hatch into larvae, grow into pupae (which he loved saying over and over again...three guesses why), and finally become adults. We also talked about some of the things that ants eat (sugar, honey, and other insects) and that two colonies of ants can end up fighting each other. 

Which is what made those ants on our driveway this morning so exciting! Was there a fight? Did the small ants kill that larger ant somehow, or did they just find him? Were they taking him back to the colony to be eaten? 

I asked Daniel all these questions, but his eyes were glazed over at that point. I'm pretty sure he was in beach mode already. Fair enough. He'd been a good student that morning. Time to play.

The beach! It's always fun to go to the beach, although it felt a little weird to be there without Natalie. 

I let the kids play for a little while. Here's Silas working on his own little nature study.

Look, mom!

After some play time, I gave the boys snacks and sat down with Daniel to do what we came to do (other than play): letter practice. So I grabbed a handful of sand and put it in the lid of a plastic shoe box. At first we reviewed letter D.

Good job! I'm so glad I caught his "Aren't you proud of me?" face.

Then we worked on letter A.

Not bad! I had to help him with this one. I drew the first line, then he finished with the other two. This was definitely a second or third attempt; the first couple tries were a little crazy. 

I love how school for Daniel is turning into a natural part of his day...starting with a very short lesson and story in the morning, then moving on to some sort of activity and snack (outside if possible). And that's it. It's not too much or forced. And he's practicing skills (and lessons are being reinforced) as we go about our day. It just seems like the best - the easiest - way to do things. It's working for us.

We didn't stay too long today since we had to get home, get cleaned up, and get to Natalie's school to pick her up. So after about 45 minutes to an hour, we packed up. Not a bad way to spend the morning!

Have a great Monday and a great start to your week, everyone!

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Our Homeschool Morning: Dinosaurs, Bones, and Cicadas

Well, we've kicked off another homeschool preschool year and so far, it's been a lot of fun. Daniel is super enthusiastic about the Dino Dig (tomorrow) and he's been loving the books we checked out from the library.

As I've mentioned, I've only planned one or two activities a day, leaving most of the morning wide open for free play, indoors and out. I am learning that if we're outside, Daniel needs some guidance so that he doesn't end up wandering around the yard moaning about how bored he is. I'm also learning that a change of scenery works wonders; sometimes we spend the mornings in the backyard and sometimes the front yard. On top of that, it's hot here in Florida. Really hot. So it helps to throw in some water play to cool everyone off. 

In this post, I'm actually going over a few of the activities from the last two mornings.

Books we're reading and loving:

"Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs - Missing Treasure", by Giles Andreae

This is a great storybook. It's definitely fiction, and it's just for fun. Daniel loves dinosaurs and he loves pirates. This book very effectively combines both of his loves. Oh, and the name Gurgleguts may or may not be a part of the story and Daniel may or may not have laughed hysterically when I read it to him. 

"Digging Up Dinosaurs", by Aliki

I loved this book! What a great nonfiction book for young children. It explains how dinosaur fossils get from the ground to the museum in an entertaining and age-appropriate way. I did end up rewording some of the information so that Daniel could understand better, but this book held his attention to the very end. That's saying a lot.  

"Ten Terrible Dinosaurs", by Paul Strickland

Another fiction story, with a focus on counting (backwards). Over the years, I've had and/or read books with this plot line to preschoolers and it's always a hit. With simple rhymes and large, bold print numbers, this book is great for practicing number recognition and counting. 

Plaster Casts of our Footprints:

After reading one of our nonfiction books about dinosaur fossils, we noted that sometimes paleontologists don't find the bones at all - sometimes all they find is a footprint. I decided that it would be fun to help the kids make a "fossil" of their own footprints using Plaster of Paris. We bought a box of Plaster of Paris at Michaels Craft Store for $4.50 (we had a 50% off coupon). 

Step one: fill a box with dirt from your yard. Alternatively, (and this would probably work better) you could use sand.

Water it down a little. You want the dirt to be hard enough to hold a foot print.

Have your child step into the box to make a footprint. You might have to help push down their toes to get a good print, and after they took their foot out I dug down around the print a little to make it deeper.

Mix up your Plaster of Paris. Basically, it's equal parts powder and water. We used a plastic cup and spoon and the kids helped with stirring. Then carefully pour a little plaster into the prints. Our directions told us to pour halfway and then tap the box to release air bubbles. We dd that, but it didn't seem to work...so I just poked my finger in there to get the air bubbles out. Then we filled each print the rest of the way. 

Wait half an hour or so and then carefully flip the footprint casts out of the box. We set ours on a piece of parchment paper.

I gave each of the kids an old toothbrush and instructed them to brush the dirt away, just like a paleontologist would brush the dirt off of a fossil. They got right to work.

It was very difficult to get all the dirt off, so the next day I took them out to the water hose and sprayed them with water. This is how they look now:

Pretty cool, huh? Not sure what we'll do with them, yet. Maybe stick them in the school room and admire them for a bit. Oh, and you'll notice that Natalie's footprint cast is broken in half. She did that yesterday by setting it down on the porch a little too hard. Lesson learned: these are fragile, especially before they've cured all the way. I'll glue this one up so that it's in one piece again, but we were a little sad that it broke. 

Examining a Wildebeest Bone:

Several years ago, my husband did some mission work in Africa, and on one of his trips he and his team went on a safari. He came across this bone on the ground and the tour guide believed it to have come from a wildebeest.

It's been living in a bowl on his dresser ever since. And since we're talking about fossils this week, I thought it would be the perfect thing for Daniel to examine. 

I brought it out and he was immediately captivated. I let him look at it for a couple minutes, and then I asked him to describe it. Turns out 3 year olds need very clear direction. Asking open ended questions like, "What do you notice about this bone?" gives you answers like, "I think it came from a dinosaur." So, I quickly switched to questions like, "What color is it?" "Is it heavy or light?" "Is it smooth or rough?" and, "Do you notice that hole on the end?" With more direct questions, Daniel was able to focus his observations to things he could see, rather than jumping to conclusions. 

I made a little book with two pieces of computer paper folded in half:

Inside were pages where Daniel could write down his observations (he dictated them to me and I wrote them down):

And draw pictures of the bone:

Incidentally, he did end up coming to the conclusion that this was, in fact, a dinosaur bone, and nothing would convince him otherwise. I also learned this morning that Daniel actually believes that the animatronic dinosaurs we saw at this zoo this year are real. As in really alive. That kind of blew me away. I had not thought to make it clear to the kids that they were pretend. I just assumed that they knew that. Whoops.

Outside Play:

Finding a Cicada Skin:

Daniel found this little beauty this morning on the playset. I've been seeing cicadas around here a lot lately and today we were lucky enough to find the skin from one who had just molted. 

He practiced his balancing act:

And dissected one of the dead flowers from our elephant ears:

This was a lot of fun for him, but it's important to note that...

When you're dealing with nature sometimes things go a little south.

Daniel got into the slimy stuff inside the flower bud and then rubbed his eyes. Not good. We immediately cleaned his eyes and washed his hands. After he calmed down we talked about how it's important to keep his hands away from his face if there's anything on them. And I also thought to myself it might be wise to invest in some safety gear. Gloves, for example.

All in all, a lot of fun! I can't wait to take Daniel and Silas to the playground tomorrow for our Dino Dig. He's been asking about it for two weeks, so I'm excited to actually set it up for him :)

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