The Farm... Made from Old Boxes

Down on The Farm with Mother Goose Time

We are pitifully behind this month with our MGT unit. Its week 3 in reality but we are still working through weeks 1 and 2. I attribute that to Little Miss still taking up so much time. But, when we do get something done, its been fun.

The other day we talked a little bit about barns. Cows live in barns and one of the items included in the curriculum now is a cardboard puzzle. This time it corresponds with the story book of the month: There's a Cow in My House. We love the silliness of this book and the boys took turns putting the puzzle together.

 

When they were finished with the puzzle, we finally got around to making our own barns. I've been saving several boxes to make cardboard barns.

We cut them to make doors and added construction to cover the words on the boxes.

 

The boys pulled out the animal counters and fruits & veggies to add to the farm we built. 

I attempted to make a silo from a paper towel roll. Mr Z shoved some of the food in it that he picked from the garden.

Mr A built some corrals for the animal counters (and a few food troughs) from the snap sticks we received with the unit. The boys had a fun time building their own farm.

I had debated getting farm toys from Amazon for the boys to play with for this unit. But, making our toy barn from old boxes was a much better idea. We were able to work together to design our barns and then play together with our creations. Quality time creating and playing together is way more beneficial than store bought toys. Extra bonus... the barns can get recycled when we are finished with them and I don't have to store them anywhere.

Struggles of a Mom ...

For some reason, I feel impressed to write about an experience we've encountered this week. I am not proud and it is a time for reflection and learning for all of our family members. Now that this is blatantly at the forefront of my thoughts lately, it is now time for change. Anyway ...
Over the last few weeks when Mr A has come from school, I have noticed a sort of disconnect. He does fabulous at school and loves to be there. He even verbally wishes that it was a school day on his weekends. I thought this was fantastic at first. But, then I noticed that when he came home he was more irritable, not doing what we ask of him and fighting with his brother more. His school is a minimalist school and so I thought the transition of having so much in the house was what was making him extra cranky. The other night when saying good night to him, I began to give Mr A compliments/affirmations and said that he was a good boy. A few seconds later after I had said a few more things Mr A says, "No I'm not."
Pause and rewind with a worried face... "No, you're not what?" I asked him in confusion.
"I don't want to tell you." He replies with a sad face.
"Well, you need to tell me. What do you mean?" I insisted.
"I'm not a good kid." Disappointment filled his face.
As I began to cry, I tried to reassure him that he certainly is a good kid. But he opposed every time.
Mr A started to explain a little bit more, "That's why I have a hard time on my three days off and when I came back from Nana's." When he's at home, he feels like he can't do anything right and is in trouble all of the time.
My heart sank. I made sure he fell asleep as I kept giving him compliments and heard positive things about himself.
I cried myself to sleep after I left his room. How can a family let their kids think poorly of themselves. That was never my intention and I felt like it was all my fault.
We have been a yelling family. Raising your voice to discipline is one thing, but yelling out of anger or impatience is quite another. We have been yelling in these negative ways for far too long. For a 6 year old to have low self-esteem because of the way we have been communicating is heart breaking. It is time for change. We have known for some time that there is too much shouting in our house. You just never think how it will actually effect your kids... until they say something and it is just awful to know that you directly contributed to how your child views himself.
What an eye-opener.
To make a mom feel even worse, a few days later Mr A had come home from school and was getting annoyed with his brother. I could hear them outside. When Mr A came in about something, I tried to give alternative ways to communicate with his brother instead of him just shouting "Stop it" at him. He replies with, "Well, that's all you taught us to do is how to yell and be mean."
Instant dagger through the heart and tears dripping down my face. I apologized for not treating them properly and reacting poorly to situations. We talked about how we all needed to practice being nicer to each other.
What an emotional way to realize a change needs to be made. We have been trying to be more conscious of our tone etc when talking to the kids and more mindful of our own temper.
Being a parent is not easy! Especially when a situation like this arises and it is heart wrenching. Awful attitudes need to be corrected ASAP. We love our kids tremendously and now that our 6 year old has brought this problem to our attention, we have room to be improved upon and be better parents. I mean, we were good parents before, but just yelled a lot... too much. Now we have a reason to be better. To not tear our children down emotionally... to lift them up. Our kids are amazing, I have failed to remind them of that. I will be better. I will not yell.
I guess I have tried to push my kids ahead in the academics and teach them things that aren't as important as I thought. I should have been more focused on character, morals and values. But, coulda woulda shoulda right? From here I have a starting point on where my focus really needs to be... ...
Anyway ... go give your kid a compliment. Praise their goodness... That's what I'm going to go do.

UPDATE 10/22/2016:
We are definitely trying to be more mindful of our tones. I have also been recommended the 5 Love Languages of Children book and have been trying to communicate love in a better way to the boys, a way that will be more beneficial to them. Yelling still occurs, but now that we are so aware of it and its affects, we are coming out of a hole. Climbing out of it is much more difficult than jumping in... but we are happier.

Simple Ways to Add On

Down on the Farm with Mother Goose Time

I can't complain about this curriculum one bit. I tell all sorts of people about it because it works and we've had such great experiences as a family while using it. The thematic studies have all been fantastic and offered my kids something new to learn each time we've opened the box. I love the boys' daily question, "What are we learning about to today, Mom?" There's not a whole lot that needs to be added to the curriculum. I mean, everything is included that you would need to have a happy month of learning: a music cd, crafts, a storybook, rubber stamps, letter cookie cutters, math counters, a shape manipulative, a cardboard puzzle... the list goes on and on at what is included.

But, there are simple ways to enhance the curriculum just a little bit further. The ways that I add-on to MGT are usually just thought of on the spot. I have to run and grab things quickly while my boys are probably thinking, 'what the heck is that crazy mom doing now?' But, sometimes those small things that I'm grabbing make the biggest impact or connection with my kids.

Follow your instincts. If you have an idea, go with it. (I normally don't plan in advance. I just grab the Daily Discovery bag and go, so on-the-go ideas work for us... well, me.)

So, anyway... I got these mini rubber stamps from Amazon and the boys went to town making farm pictures with the baby farm animals. Mr Z stamped all over the page, but then he also drew circles of various sizes around them all. He was making all of his farm animals homes. (We are a bit behind in our lessons and still working on Week 1: Animals on a Farm.)

Since Mr A has actually been going to school, we've been doing a few in the afternoon when he gets home or on the weekends so he can participate too. He used the people stamps from last month's unit: Me and My Family, to have farmers on his picture. Mr A also included 12 chicks around a pond because 12 is one of the focus numbers for this month. I liked that he drew a fence with a pig stamp inside and made the farmer next to the pen all muddy too. Mr A said that the pig jumped into the mud puddle and got the farmer all dirty.
So, spending a few dollars on something simple like rubber stamps was a great way to add-on to the curriculum myself. The boys love stamping and were able to create their own picture by using their imaginations while practicing shapes and counting.

One of my other "on-the-fly" thoughts was inspiration of when we were talking about sheep. As I was pulling out materials for a craft, I talked to the boys about why farmers might have sheep around. We mentioned that they were lawn mowers and kept the grass in the fields under control. Also, that the wool, after it is sheared can be made into other things to help people... like sweaters, blankets, hats, or socks. Wool is very useful for clothing, especially to people that live where it is cold. While discussing these things with the boys, I suddenly remembered that I had an ugly sweater in my closet that was my dad's. I ran to grab it and we observed the wool, touched it and smelled it. Mr A mentioned that the wool can be dyed to be different colors than the sheep. They tried on the sweater and decided that they hated wool clothes because this  sweater was far too itchy. They only had it on for a few seconds... long enough to get a picture. So, a quick thought turned into being able to make a connection of what 'itchy' wool really felt like. All you need is a quick thought sometimes to make a lesson more relate-able.

I haven't really mentioned much about the circle time materials before, but this year the display is a pond theme. We like this little corner that I set up. The pond is made of flannel and the number fish have velcro on the back. Mr Z likes to sit and rearrange the numbers while we talk about the number he is holding. (And we do have a section for the Experience Baby curriculum, but our baby is too small to do many of the activities yet, so that section isn't utilized much yet.)

During the Make & Play craft, Mr Z pulled out the letter cookie cutters provided by MGT. He dipped them in his paint and made some letters on his sheep headband. I'm not sure what inspires them to do certain things, but for whatever reason, he did it. We were then able to talk about what letters he used and the sound they made. Because MGT includes these small, letter shapes we are able to talk about letters more frequently and almost without thought.

Now, I only have 2 examples of how I quickly add-on to our units, but... the quick, simple, on-the-fly ideas that you are inspired by usually help in tremendous ways. If I hadn't remembered about the wool sweater, my boys would just know that wool can be made into things. But, because I had something to spontaneously show them, they could feel it and know that this particular wool is itchy and they don't like it.

Simple ways to connect and relate.

Farm Animals

Down on The Farm with Mother Goose Time

The manipulatives for October's farm unit is plastic cow counters and sticks of different sizes that click together. The boys had a great time playing with these when we first opened the box. They made corrals of all siz for the cows right away.

Today though we used the foam cube with shape cards to make different shaped corrals and pens. The boys took turns rolling the cube and then figuring out how to make that shape. For Mr Z we practiced identifying the shape and counting the sides after a shape was rolled. Mr A just copied shapes with the sticks. Then of course the cows needed to added to the corral shapes so they didn't run away from the farm.

 Invitation to Create: Muddy Pigs

This year these "Invitations to Create" have been fun. A focus more on the child's process while doing art instead of the end product. The boys have liked them and right now with a newborn baby, its one of the things that we can actually get done at some point during the day because I don't have to be too involved.

This I2C was to make a muddy pig. The photo of the pig was already printed on cardstock from MGT as well as the foam brush. I put out some paint, dirt and grass and they both went to town covering their pig in brown paint. They added tons of dirt on top and were happy with muddy pigs.

 The theme poster from the curriculum is always fun to look at for awhile. We like to count the objects, people or animals and play I-Spy.

 Mr Z decided to make a chicken nest like his brother. However, he wanted to paint his plate first. Then he added some white feathers for softness and then found some cotton balls to use for eggs in the nest. The cotton balls were used because the eggs needed to camouflage with the white feathers. They could not be glued on though, because he had to be able to take them out of the nest.

 Mr A's chicken nest. From the materials that were provided by MGT, he only wanted to use the small paper plate as a base for his nest. Its funny how he comes up with what he wants to make with the inspirational photo and materials. I always like his ideas.

Mother Goose Time... we love you... even if we can only get one thing per day, it keeps us productive and having fun together.