It was a much better week at our preschool homeschool! Kooks has recovered from malaria and is a much happier child which means I am a much more relaxed Mama!
Literacy and Language Arts:
Boo is still enjoying Progressive Phonics and I love seeing how excited she gets when she puts a word together. We are all having fun with Webbing Into Literacy. This week’s rhyme was “Hiccup, Hiccup” and the girls have been chanting it so much that I can’t get it out of my head!
Cognitive Skills and Math:
We started gearing up for Valentine’s Day with an activity from Teach Preschool that includes estimating and graphing hearts on a felt board. Instead of felt we used paper hearts and a chalk graph drawn on our floor (one of the benefits to having cement floors). It was something new for us and the girls got really into it. One added benefit to this activity is all the paper hearts we have to make Valentines out of!
Science and Nature Studies:
We made rock candy following the directions at About.com. Ours didn’t turn out quite as pretty as the one pictured there (maybe because we used brown sugar), but Boo and Kooks thought they tasted delicious and it was fun to watch them grow.
Play:
We had to air out the mattress this week and of course that can’t happen without it becoming a bouncy castle, a slide, a gymnastics mat or the roof to a playhouse. The girls disappeared into this wicker chair and mattress house with their tea set and entertained themselves for the better part of a morning.
Thoughts:
I am thoroughly enjoying watching the girls’ imaginations grow. They are always quick with a story – lately it has been about the imaginary brothers that they had when they were babies. I don’t know where Boo came up with this but each day she tells us a new story of what she and her brothers got up to way back then and, not to be outdone, Kooks then has another story to tell about her brothers. It’s been going on for some time now and it is such a pleasure to see the girls flesh out these brothers and add new layers to their stories. The brothers have started creeping into real time and they are always up to some sort of mischief so I’m going to have to get creative about how to discipline them. There have been a number of occasions where it’s the brothers who have made a mess or stolen something from one of the girls. How do you correct bad behavior in an imaginary child?
What imaginary play have your children been up to recently?
I absolutely love your girls imagination! Wow, disciplining an imaginary child? LOL I’m going to have to think about this one,and get back to you! I am totally clueless!
They sure do keep me laughing and they always seem to be a step or two ahead of me.
You have smart girls! I think it’s wonderful that they created a scapegoat because they are at an age where they are learning about boundaries and societal expectations. For little ones, it’s such a relief for the discipline to be handed to their imagined friend, but, trust me, they absorb the lesson! (“I can’t believe *imaginary brother* left his toys here for people to step on. He probably didn’t know we could get hurt if we step on them. I hope he cleans them up for us.” ::walk away as their gears start turning::)
How fun for you all!
Great idea Paula – I will definitely give it a try.
Looks like a fun week…especially with the mattress
Yesterday, my boys brought out their toy doggies and pretended they were hunting dogs. I have no idea where they got this from since we are NOT a hunting family, but it was funny hearing them play together.
I love listening in on the stories. It always amazes me what kids come up with – especially when it seems so different to what they have been exposed to.
Johnny and Lily SHARE an imaginary friend named Kiezz (pronounced Connie, and a boy) who gets into all sorts of mischief. Since Kiezz is a friend, I just say he can’t come play if he does that – it’s a little tougher with imaginary siblings!
I think your rock candy looks pretty cool!
It is so sweet that Lily and Johnny share their imaginary friend. I have almost said that the brothers can’t come visit if they are not going to behave but then I remember that they are family.
Thanks for sharing your lesson plans. You are always up to something fun! I agree, your girls have great imaginations! This is a fun age, watching them develop this way. My son’s imaginary play mostly involves the stories he makes up as he plays with his trucks, though he started to get into creative explanations of why he was doing something he knows he shouldn’t .:) Btw glad to hear she’s over malaria (!)
Thanks Leanna – it’s so nice to have a healthy Kooks again. I know what you mean by “creative explanations” – I’ll bet it is sometimes difficult to keep a straight face!
So true! And he’s totally on to me now. When he was younger he didn’t pick upon it as much, but now he can tell when I think something is funny, even if I try my best to hide it,
I love the brown sugar rock candy
How do you blame imaginary brothers for bad behavior… that is a great question, My sister and I never thought up imaginary siblings… we just used the pets…
“Sister, who stole my quarter?” – Not me… “But who?” The fish did it….
Ha ha – I guess since we don’t have pets they had to make up siblings – the baboons do occasionally get blamed for missing toys though.
Lol, I like that! Those silly baboons, always taking toys
One of my friends lived in Indonesia for a while. He visited a place where monkeys and humans could interact freely. A monkey stole his water bottle, took a sip, and dumped the rest. His analysis: “Monkeys are like the worst humans you know.”
Ha ha – I can relate to that analysis. I often refer to the baboons as the thugs.
I love imaginary brothers…too bad they have poor manners…
At our house, trains occasionally have to be “talked to” for transgressions. As in, “Thomas (the train), you may have to leave the table if you’re distracting us from eating.” fortunately Thomas listens better than the humans around here!
And I love the rock candy–we may have to try that. How much “science talk” do you do with your girls?
I hope the brothers start listening as well as Thomas! We actually do very little science talk. I’m just trying to plant the seed of cause and effect. We do a lot of guessing what will happen if we do this and then seeing if our guess was correct. When they get older we’ll delve more into the why. For now I’m just trying to focus on the fun and awe that science can inspire.
We will have to try that rock candy! These are some wonderful ideas. I would like to invite you to link up at our Share It Saturday linky party. http://www.sugaraunts.com/2013/02/share-it-saturday-8-and-our-week-in.html we have lots of creative bloggers linking up each week and your ideas would fit right in!
We also have a Share It Saturday Pinterest board and we are inviting everyone who links up to the party, to join us as collaborators on the group Pinterest board. It is a wonderful way to allow your posts to be seen by new readers. I hope to see you at Share It Saturday!
Colleen at Sugar Aunts
Ohhh, how I love the look on her face in that first picture!