Our Vegetable Garden

I noticed this morning that our radishes looked big enough to pick. Just as the month on Growing Gardens with Mother Goose Time comes to a close, one of vegetables was ready to pick. Mr A and Mr Z picked and we washed them off. Both of the boys didn't care for them after taking a small bite. I enjoyed them though. Radishes are easy to grow and delicious. Good job boys =) We are still waiting on the green beans. I was pretty excited that the radishes were good. I don't think I've successfully grown anything... well, the boys helped and did most of the work, so I'm sure that has something to do with it. Grow on.

The Art of Learning! with Music

There is so much ART in learning. As adults it can be so messy that's its frustrating and stressful. By messy I mean it can just be messy or it can just not be the way the adult intended and it drives him/her crazy not to step in and take over. But it's oh so fun for the kids! No matter what they are doing, its a blast.
Painting inspires creativity and exploration: as well as other mediums like chalk or coloring with crayons. Crafts that involve glue and scissors are great fine motor activities that can leave adults pulling their hair out. Dramatic play is great way for kids to try new roles and experiment with pretend play. Music helps kids express many different feelings through dance or song. Music can also help kids remember information and process it. With Mother Goose Time, all of these types of learning are encouraged and explored through various activities and lessons.
Today, I pulled out our plastic frogs and aquarium plants to go along with our frogs vs toads lesson. The boys immediately started playing with the frogs. Mr Z hopped them around while making the ribbit sound. Mr A began making a home for the frogs and sang while he did it. It was such a cute song, I couldn't pass up videoing him. He made up his own tune and words to go along with it. Singing while playing is sign of happiness... I think!

A Day Out @ the SD Zoo

Today we took a trip to the San Diego Zoo. It wasn't exactly a field trip, but we did make some connections from our Mother Goose Time lessons this month.

I never there was a carnivorous plant garden at the zoo. There was a worker with a booth set up to talk about them a little bit since they were blooming. I also didn't know that the Venus Flytrap is such a small plant. They only sit up to 6 inches off the ground in this photo. It takes about 10 days for one trap to digest its meal too. The Venus Flytrap is also a spring/summer plant and goes dormant in the winter.

This pitcher plant is rather compared to ones that grow in the rainforest; this one was about 5 inches tall (its the pinkish ring in the center of the photo below). These cups/pitchers can grow to about the size of a football in the rainforest and can catch birds.

Off to the side of this little garden was a bunny. He was rather content sitting in there and we talked about how rabbits visit all sorts of gardens, not just vegetable gardens.

We also found lots of bees working among the flowers strewn along pathways. They were transferring pollen from flower to flower.

We didn't specifically have a school day today, but making the connections is valuable too. We had fun playing with each other and observing other life forms on our wondrous planet. Life is amazing.

An InLinkz Link-up

Garden Animal Scavenger Hunt

I asked Mr A what he knew about bees. His answer: Bees move pollind from flowers to help make new ones. Right on, little buddy. Yes, he calls it pollind no matter how many times I try to correct him.

We started our day off with a walk first thing in the morning. It was a garden animal scavenger hunt. Mr A just wanted to go to the spot where we saw a rabbit the other day. Along the way there, we spotted a few bees and tons of snails. The boys lined up the snails to make a snail family. Then the line turned into a pile because they kept finding so many. We observed the different patterns on the snail shells and decided there are no two that are alike. I mentioned that animals that you can find in a garden, also live in other places too. They can be found all over and visit a garden to find food sometimes. (Most of the time, I don't think the boys are paying attention... but I talk anyways. Maybe something will stick.)

We never did find the rabbit from the other day, but we did spot some pretty blackbirds with red on their wings in the reeds. We followed several different walking trails around our dried lake bed to see where they would lead. Mr A loves being the leader and says These trails are wonderful. We passed a large embankment with bees working hard. I talked about how bees are constantly moving from flower to flower and they don't stay in one place too long... pollinating and drinking.

After our walk, we rested while watching the Magic School Episode: Honeybees. We watched how bees drink nectar from the flowers to make honey back in their hive. The honeycomb has hexagon shaped compartments to hold the nectar and honey. The bees have a proboscis to suck the nectar from flowers and also use it to stir the nectar inside the honeycomb. Some bees fan the nectar while its being stirred to thicken it into honey.
Afterwards, we pretended to pollinate the flowers. I made some simple flowers from construction paper and cute toilet paper into small squares. Mr A says Bees spread pollind and hummingbirds and the wind blows it around. So, Mr A pretended to be a hummingbird for a little while and moved the pollen squares from flower to flower a few times. Then, I pulled out the hair dryer and the boys used it to pretend to be the wind. There was pollen everywhere.

 Mr A built his own honeycomb and used it for a flower plate... whatever that is.

Mother Goose Time provided us with these photos of poppy fields and cornmeal. The boys pretended to be bees and pollinate the flowers. I clipped their cotton ball to a clothespin so they could get a better grip. They swirled it around in the cornmeal for quite some time. When Mr A picked his up, he was disappointed that there was such a small amount on the cotton ball. I tried to explain that a bee can't carry much pollen on his feet or belly either. That's why its such hard work. It takes a long time.

 

Little Passports: Art

We received our Little Passports package in the mail a few days ago. Mr A always gets so excited when they get mail. This particular package is from their Early Explorers themed subscription. This months theme is Art Around the World.

He loves seeing what surprises he'll find inside.

He adds the monthly passport sticker to the wall. Mr A find the perfect spot for each one near his Little Passports map in his room.

Mr A and Mr Z had a great time painting the little canvas that came in the package. They mixed colors and scribbled allover the place. I love how staying inside the lines is not important to them. My dad always told me as a kid that if you can still see the lines, you're not doing it right. I take that as... Do as you will and be proud of it. Creativity has no lines.

Sunny Scarecrow Adventure

A few days ago we learned about crows and scarecrows as part of our Mother Goose Time unit Growing Gardens. I pulled out our fall decorations and found some small scarecrows and we headed outside for an adventure. Everyone was crabby and we needed to be out of the house after Mr A packed some snacks. I gathered the dogs and we headed to our dried up lake bed to see if we could find some real crows. The boys wanted to scare them with their actual scarecrows.

 Mr A found some blackbirds and was trying to scare them off. We talked a little bit about how farmers use things like scarecrows in their gardens to keep animals from eating all of their crop.

 Of course the water was too enticing, so they had to throw some logs and sticks in there for awhile.

On our hike back home, Mr A noticed the water runoff trails and burst out with excitement Look Mom! It looks like the Grand Canyon! We learned all about  the wonders of the world in our unit Its a Small World with MGT a few months back. I think it was one of the units that he enjoyed the most because he is always mentioning things like this.

When we got home and had rested for awhile by watching the Magic School Bus, I pulled out some of the activities that were provided in our curriculum kit for the month.

This fun little game is called Feed the Crow. It always helps that each kid gets their own. There isn't as much fighting. The boys picked a card from their pile. There are several different types of food that they fed to their crow (we actually fed the crow by sliding the food underneath the crow card). You kept feeding your crow until you picked up the scarecrow card. Then your game is over. The boys would grab their crow card and fly it around screaming like they were scared. Then Mr A would count the number of food cards that were in the crows belly. Mr Z played a little bit, but his favorite was to fly the crow around with one hand while chasing the crow with the small scarecrow card in the other hand.

Mr A made scarecrows with these little body pieces. He made sure he utilized all the different combinations.

We read this book too, The Little Scarecrow Boy by Margaret Wise Brown while playing this little matching game.

 Mr A's favorite scarecrow he made with the body pieces was this one with the crow for the head. He thought it was funny that the crow was wearing the hat.

A Mole: An Animal in the Garden

Dig, dig, dig little mole. Dig, dig, dig little mole. Dig, dig, dig little mole. Jump around the (circle) hole.... square, diamond, rectangle.
I sang this little tune while pretending to be a little mole. The boys laughed at me and watched with delight. Mr Z joined in the most and Mr A did it once. We talked about moles today with our Mother Goose Time curriculum. We learned that they have terrible eyesight, eat roots from gardens, and live entirely by eating/sleeping/taking care of babies/playing. I told Mr A about the sunlight being too bright for them and so their noses had to work extra hard. We used our Mole Nose to conduct an experiment. I had 3 sets of different scents: vanilla, nutmeg and garlic powder in a small container. He closed his eyes and told me whether he liked the smell or not. definitely not the garlic. His favorite was the vanilla. We even played a matching game and he had to mtach the same scents.

Mr Z was off being a crank pants for a few minutes and Mr A says "I'm going to bring my favorite smell to cheer him up." Then he grabs the containers of vanilla and finds him. He even took the containers to Nana's house this afternoon.

Mr A always loves the games included in the curriculum. However, I can never get him to play it more than once. I don't know how that makes sense, but oh well. You roll the cube and move your piece to corresponding vegetable. The game is called Animals in the Garden. I have a few animals myself here. =)

Oh, we stopped for a few minutes to take a family selfie too =)

Since, moles dig and dig and live underground in their tunnels... we made marble mazes! This is always a hit when I get it out of the closet. The boys played with it off and on all day. Watching marbles hurry down the tubes and experiment with buiilding their own. Pretending to watch moles using marbles sure was fun.

An InLinkz Link-up

Sharp Thorns

So, these pictures uploaded in backwards order, and I can't fix it properly on the device that I have to use. Sorry, I'm still having major technical difficulties.
Anyway, one of the add-ons we received this month with Mother Goose Time, is the Experience God curriculum. This month its focusing on the story of a farmer sowing seeds. Week 3 is about thorns and weeds specifically.
We talked about how thorns feels for a few minutes  and where they can be found. The gist of the mini lesson is Thorns are painful. Life without God is painful too. 
I set out the foam blocks from the Dollar Tree and some toothpicks and popsicles sticks. The boys immediately started to jam them together. The small toothpicks got dangerous quickly. WWe were trying to make a "pretty sculpture" at first. Mr A jammed a popsicle stick in his foam block and realized his hand hurt. He had gotten a splinter in one of his fingers. Our conversation goes as follows:

Mom- thats painful isnt it?
Mr A- yeah. its like a thorn. and i can't get it out.
Mom- (after quickly pulling it out) So, because you couldn't get the splinter out, you asked me help. Sometimes you have to ask Heavenly Father and Jesus for help too, to help us be happy, good or when we need special help.
Mr A- yeah. Can we ask Jesus right now to help us find my CTR ring?

So, even though I don't want my kids to get hurt purpose, this little incident did help prove a point about the lesson. An accidental analogy that worked perfectly. (Mr A's finger is splinter free)

Growing Gardens: Week 2

So, I have extremely limited access to the internet and a camera. Everything has broken at the exact same time and we have been fighting the internet provider for months as they cant get our bill correct. My sweet husband has found a way for me to quickly blog though. This week of lessons has been all condensed into today. For pictures for today, I borrowed a camera. Its amazing how much we use and rely on the internet and we don't realize it until its not available. Anyway...

Week 2 of Growing Gardens with Mother Goose Time is about How a Garden Grows with topics like Produce, Flowers, Leaves, Sprout & Stem and Weeds.

This morning I had our shape design mats and shape manipulatives out for when the boys woke up. Mr Z was up first and had a head start. He is getting better at matching colors and shapes. Mr A chose a picture and counted out how many pieces he needed to complete his flower.

 The boys got into the dress-up box after a little while of free play. Fortunately, they found items related to what we learning about. Mr Z was a butterfly and Mr A a ladybug. They flapped around the house. I suggested that they pollinate some flowers. Mr A squats in place and shakes his hands for a second, then moves on to different spot in the room and "pollinates another flower". I thought it was creative to see how he interpreted pollination. Then, I told him to drink some nectar from the flowers and he stops at the table and shoves his face in the plate of crackers to eat one. I was dying. It was so funny. I love the way kids are so quick to think and interpret simple direection in ways that adults don't anymore.

 We played with our Produce Photo cards and the rabbit counters provided by Mother Goose Time. I set out the cards around the room with a few rabbits per card. I shouted out a name of produce and Mr A ran to collect a bunny. He had to save the garden from getting eaten. Many animals visit a garden to eat the produce just like us. I condensed the game to the coffee table for some free play. They gathered all the bunnies around one card for some reason that I can't remember.

 I have a Garden Memory game that the rabbit counters visited as well. The produce needed to be saved from them too.

 Since the weather was still nice, Mr A wanted to check his planter box. Mr Gnome is keeping it safe and watered. We have bean sprouts and radishes popping up. Mr A loves showing off his food plants to anyone that comes to the house.

 The boys learned the parts of a plant while doing a craft. Mr A was a little difficult to keep on track to complete his picture, but he got it done. He is even trying to find the correct label by attempting to sound out the beginning sound of the word. Mr Z just had a great time cutting the straws into tiny bits and watching the pieces fly all over the room. He also insisted that I take a picture of the scissors. With the extra materials that I had today, I made a picture too. I tried to do the craft as well to get the kids more interested in doing it. The productiveness was about the same.

 Another craft we did today was making a flower headband. Mr Z colored his flower for a second, then I traced it in his journal. I was surprised when he decided to glue the sunflower seeds next to each number. We talked about how flowers are important to plants because they produce the seeds and feed insects. After they were done gluing, we taste tested the sunflower seeds. I showed Mr A how to crack them open with your teeth to get the seed out. They thought that was interesting to find an edible seed inside the seed's shell.

 After the boys finished their headbands, Mr A acted out the lifecycle of a plant. He started out as seed by curling up on the ground. Slowly Mr A stood up as a stem, stretching out his arms to extend his leaves and finally lifted his head tall to show his flower.

Mr A says his favorite thing to do today was play with the little bunnies. He says they hunt for carrots. The manipulatives provided by MGT are always so fun. He also like eating the seeds.
The boys are tired and I am tired. We crammed a lot into today, since I was able to take photos for a day. Also, when Daddy is home, we are all too distracted to get much done. Today was catch up day... again. I seem to always be trying to catch up on something.