@Mamaschool....sink or float experiment.

I told you he was into science experiments!  His other interest this week has been sink/float experimentation.  This probably came about because of a couple new boats he bought with his chore money at the dollar store.  Anyhow, we've done sink/float several times over the past couple years and he remembered it and asked to do it again.  Yesterday I set him up with a nice table of objects and a big glass bowl of water and he had a good time experimenting.  Today he asked to do it again while I was doing some dishes.  I didn't have a good window of time to set up the "big" activity, so I told him to get out a tupperware bowl (no matter what, it's best if the dish is clear so you can observe the object from all sides) and sent him out into the backyard with a small bowl and instructions to bring in 5 objects to see if they'd sink or float.  After sending him BACK out to dump out the bowl of sand he though he'd try (maybe next time, buddy....creative but it wasn't a good time for kitchen floor mud!) he came back with a pecan, a shell, a pine needle, a little teacup from Quinn's fairy garden (DON'T TELL HER--YIKES!) and a rock.  He got straight to work trying them out.  So today's experiment was a float/sink snack, eh?!  Just a little tidbit of time he spent exploring and a smaller set up than we often use, but he was still exploring and doing science!!  Besides just the floating and sinking, he was also exploring the properties of water/a liquid!  Wow, such scientific power in a few minutes of curious play!

@MamaSchool....the daily things.

At MamaSchool we look for the learning in the little things...the daily things that happen over and over again, but leave openings for little hands and hearts and minds to grow.

Lunch is one of these times.  Learning to set the table properly.  Taking time to add beauty through the dishes and linens we use.  Handling breakable dishes carefully and learning what to do when one of them accidentally breaks.  Learning to pour tea independently.  Using a knife to spread peanut butter and jam (fine motor!).  These are all niches for learning to occur.  Sure, it might take a little longer to teach a small person to carry our good pottery plates instead of tossing out some plastic ones.  Of course I could have made that sandwich WAY quicker and FAR less messy.  But these are the moments in our day that MamaSchool is most beautiful....when Mama takes a breath and steps back and lets him do things himself...or takes a breath and steps up to show him one more time how to do it carefully and correctly and with his very best effort.  

And no, lunch doesn't always happen this way.  Sometimes I do make his food and it is on plastic...and that is life and that is okay....But we try hard to slow our days enough that being 4, and all the lovliness that involves, can unfold....as he learns to gracefully and kindly and lovingly navigate this world around him.  And me?  I am still learning those lessons too.  So it's MamaSchool for us both!  

@mamaschool....science with magnets!

During the week my big girl is in first grade all day.  That leaves me and the little man (he's 4) home together.  He always gets asked if he goes to school too, and saying, "No," didn't seem quite right, because we do a whole lot of learning during our days, so we started calling it "MamaSchool."  Typically our mornings are devoted to his "schooling," with lunch and a brief rest (and a bit of work for Mama) afterwards, then we go get Q from school.

My background (and my passion!) is teaching early childhood, so of course I can't NOT school my kiddos. :)  

I strongly believe that young children learn primarily through play and self-initiated exploration and their own curiosity with the world around them.  You won't find us doing letters of the week or math lessons....or really any type of conventional "lesson" at all.  However, we do spend our days learning a whole lot.

We base our days and our studies on my Little Man's interests.  Right now he is ALL ABOUT doing science experiments.  Not sure where he heard about science experiments--probably one of his audiobooks.  Anyhow, that is what he asks to do any chance we can!

He has also been interested in magnets.  I don't remember exactly how that came about, but he was asking questions and expressing interest in magnets, so I followed his lead.  I got out a few magnets I had from my classroom days, and we went to Mardel with some of his birthday money and bought  a little set of various magnets (the strong science type that have the poles marked on them.)  Then we got out a tray of stuff and set to work figuring out what things the magnets would pick up and which things they wouldn't.  As we worked, I began to use the correct vocabulary--repel, poles, attract, etc. as I talked with him about what we were doing/seeing.   I showed him how two magnets with the same poles would push away from each other.  We just played and played with magnets.  Through this, he was absorbing and exploring fundamental principles of physical science and of magnetic force.  We were also having so much fun!  Of course the first day he used the magnets for about 5 minutes.  But we've gotten them out every day since and he's stretching the time he wants to spend exploring.  He'll repeat some of the same activities again that we've done previously (repelling magnets, etc.), but often I will show him (or he will figure out) something new.  Today we put paperclips on a tray and moved them from below with a magnet.  

As I teach my son science simply by DOING SCIENCE with him, I hear the wise voice of one of my wonderful college professors in my head.  He drummed into us the importance of teaching science by just letting kids do science.  Not by vocab sheets or matching terms or definitions....not by writing out a lab report...but early on, just by doing the work of a scientist.  By using the tools scientists use--and learning to use them correctly.  By trying things.  By exploring.  And that makes me smile, because Dr. Vincent is right.  

Tonight the kids decided Matt would read bedtime stories to Quinn and I would read to Beck.  Beck commented that boys go with girls and girls go with boys (Matt/Quinn & Beck/Me) and further observed that it was kind of like magnets, how North goes with South and South goes with North.  AND HE'S FOUR!!! 

Best of all, this type of learning was so easy for me to facilitate.  Magnets and objects....and that's it!  Other than that all I have to put into this is the gift of my time--sitting down and playing and learning and talking with my little scientist.

Make Your Own Library!

This summer my kids had so much fun playing library!

One day I decided to get them interested in some of the books we own in our home library that they haven't read in a while.  I gathered up a handful of different genres and set them up on our stairs.  I put animal non fiction together, biography together, fiction together, etc.

I let them each choose a couple books, and we got out their little toy cash register and they pretended to check out the other one's books!

Not only did they have fun PLAYING library, but they were also motivated to read some books they hadn't touched in a while and revisit some books from our home library!  I got to direct which books they were exposed to (because I chose them and set them out!) and I pretended to be the librarian who asked them about their interests and helped them choose some books.

Over the course of several days we made paper library cards for each of us and also signs for the shelves!  Great literacy skills!

My kids were both really excited about this pretend play and both of them subsequently set up libraries in their own rooms!

I remember playing library as a kid, too!  A great pretend-play activity that can be adapted to any age--from board books to chapter books!  Don't have a cash register to use for checkout?  Make one out of a box!  Get creative!  Remember it's about the process!  

Van Gogh Artist study

Lately we've been doing some artist studies.  We started with O'Keefe (because our poppies were blooming like crazy and she painted poppies) and moved on to Van Gogh....because now our sunflowers were going gangbusters!  Tying the artists into our garden has really worked well for us and has helped direct which artist to study next.
We take it nice and slow....

We listened to Starry, Starry Night by Don McClean. 

 We read some children's nonfiction books about Van Gogh (often I pick through and just read some of the parts and we examine the pictures).  For Van Gogh I didn't go into all the details surrounding his suicide and his depression, etc.  I keep it appropriate for my kiddos' development.

Then we tried his expressionist style of drawing, using the Starry Night for inspiration and pastels.

 Q wrote his name for us each day on the chalkboard.

 We are also enjoying these Crayola Slick Writers--similar to pastels but slightly easier to use and less smudgy, but still a LITTLE smudgy.  Beck, especially, likes them!  And Q went wild and drew every spare second of her day with them for the first two weeks we had them.  :)

 But mostly we just used regular oil pastels.

 Then we tried our hand at drawing sunflowers.

 (random streamers were due to Q's bday festivities....)

 We REALLY loved these two books.  Beautiful pictures, simple story, and very informative.  We probably read each book 5 times.

My kids have just loved learning about Van Gogh and were very captivated by his paintings--especially the sunflowers, Vincent's Chair, Vincent's Room, Cafe at Arles at Night and Starry Night.  We've seen a few random Van Gogh reproductions at various spots over the past weeks and I am so proud when one of them notices and excitedly exclaims, "There's a Van Gogh!!"  I had fun with this, too!  Q has asked to study Paul Gauguin next, as he was a contemporary of Van Gogh and they painted together (and he was likely the reason Van Gogh cut off his ear....)

Handwork.

I've recently begun intentionally including some handwork in our weekly routine.  Sometimes we sit down together to do a planned activity.  Today I got out my big jar of buttons (well, actually last night I got everything set up at the table because life flows better around here if things are prepared....) and some embroidery floss and a dull metal needle for the little guy to string buttons.  Quinn got an embroidery hoop with some vintage pillowcase fabric (thrifted), a sharper needle, thread, and buttons.   

 He was far more interested in playing with the buttons than stringing them, which is fine.  I have to sometimes remind myself this whole thing is about the process and not the product.  They are good at reinforcing that message to me!

I do believe in giving my kids real tools--real knives, real needles, etc.  We spend time teaching them how to use the item correctly and safely and they are always supervised when being used.  For this reason my kids know how to chop food carefully and how to thread a needle without poking themselves, as well as use glass and fragile items carefully.  

 

Quinn did great sewing on a few of her "favorite" buttons with a bit of my help.  After 5 she was done and ready to just play with the buttons.  I always remind myself that often the first encounter with a new activity ends up being a short encounter, but enthusiasm and interest (and focus) will grow with repeated exposure.  So for today, this was fine!  She is excited to put her work up on the wall in her room!

 PS) Those little porcelain trays that the kids put their "selected buttons" into came from Matt's Mee-Maw, who passed away a year or so ago.  I love having sweet reminders of the ones we love as a part of our day.  Made me smile to see little fingers placing buttons in her trays.

 Button scooping, pouring, sorting, and tonging ensued.  Then I dropped the big glass jar the buttons are kept in onto the floor and it busted into a million pieces.  Yep, the jar I told the kids not to touch without my help....I guess my help was in smashing it to pieces!  But another benefit of using glass items with the kiddos is they know how to handle broken glass.  Everyone stayed in their seats and watched the great vacuum escapades....but I still wouldn't walk through my kitchen barefooted, if I were you!  :)

I have more handwork pictures and ideas to share that I've been gathering up lately, so stay tuned.