Houses & Apartments

We've been behind. We should be in our second week of the Alphabet House unit from Mother Goose Time, but we're just finishing week one. Things came up... so we'll have to double up some of our days with a few topics. Oh well... I love the flexibility of this curriculum in the home. =)

 

The boys looked at the theme poster and found several different animal homes in the picture. Mr Z used the magnifying glass to find some things that he liked.

I received some blueprints from a neighbor that is a construction worker. So we observed them for awhile and looked at all the different details. I have no idea what any of it means, but Mr A found it very interesting. We did talk about how these huge pages are the instructions on building a house. There are several notes or special instructions on each page and a legend to tell what the symbols mean.

After looking at all the different layers of the house, we used a page for coloring and tracing.

Mr A also made his own floor plan of the houses on our cul-de-sac.

The boys painted their house cut out provided my Mother Goose Time. Mr Z has a fun time spreading the paint all over. Mr A did a great job using the paint to make a door first and then a window on his house.

We needed a break from being in the house. Although its getting hot outside, I gathered lots of different materials for the boys to build with. Cardboard block, boxes and wood made for making a great house or apartment building. We even added some figurines of kids to play in the house(s). After a little of playing and rebuilding, we pulled out the blueprints again so Mr A could try to play construction worker and tell us how to build the garage. We didn't get very far.

We talked a little bit about what an apartment building is and are currently waiting for our house paintings to dry. Meanwhile, the boys are playing with a friend and we'll continue our house/apartment day in a little while.

We've also read the books Homes Around the World by Max Moore and How A House Is Built by Gail Gibbons to gain a better understanding of our house and others in the world.
This thematic learning sure makes it easier to teach a subject for one whole month. Before I found Mother Goose Time, I couldn't focus on a subject or theme for longer than a day. I was jumping from Valentine's Day to ocean animals to plants from one day to the next. With MGT, a broad theme is introduced for the month. All of the daily topics build on top of each other, helping the boys appreciate different aspects of the subject and gain a better understanding of the subject as a whole. The boys are exposed to so many more topics with the subject being broken down into a interlocking web of learning. What I also enjoy is that the topics don't have to go in order. I've been letting Mr A choose the topics for the day and no matter what he chooses, its always fun and relatable to what we did the previous day.

UPDATE:
Mr A built a huge apartment building with the blocks and boxes and a few other various items after we brought everything back inside.

Mr Z colored his house and put more glue on the top... So we added tissue squares. We glued our houses to another sheet of paper. I colored mine to have a few more details and added some plants.

When I bought tissue squares, I thought they would be so fun... but no. I think they are a nightmare. 

Just look at the mess they can create.

Animal Homes at the SD Zoo Safari Park

Today, we had be in town while waiting for our dog's surgery to finish. I didn't want to drive back and forth from home all day... so we spent a few hours at the SD Zoo Safari Park (aka the Animal Park). Since we are learning about houses/homes this month with Mother Goose Time, I figured we should look for the homes of a few of the animals at the park.

One of Mr A's favorite animals to watch for 5 seconds, are the Meerkats. I asked Mr A where thought they lived and he answered In the dirt! Yes, in tunnels and dens. The tunnels all usually interlock and lead to a main den and sometimes a few alternate dens. One Meerkat is usually in a high point to watch for danger. We found the look-out on a log and watched a few others sit lazily around the enclosure.

Ducks and geese like to sleep in the bushes, using it as protection when they nap. The boys were intrigued that this goose was sitting on a nest. When the goose moved, we noticed 2 eggs nestled in the down and twigs. The nest is the home for the eggs.

The bat-eared fox sleeps in a den that leads slightly underground. Its dark and cool. The boys didn't want to investigate this fox den. They said it was too stinky.

Weaver bird males make a nest from all sorts of twigs and grasses. Their nest hangs from a branch in hopes of protecting the babies from snakes and other predators.

Mr A says turtles use a shell to take a nap wherever they need to.

This little baby bird and its sibling were nestled among these bushes for camouflage and protection. They would not step more a few inches from the land. The parents were closer to us, guarding the babies or waiting for food to be thrown to them.
Although we weren't at the Animal Park for long, we talked about the different places that some animals might live and why. No classroom stuff today, but still got a mini lesson snuck in.

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People Live on a Boat!?

Today Mr A chose the topic of Houseboats to learn about.

First thing, I got out our shape manipulatives that were included in the daily packet for the topic. Mr A began making different designs of houseboats after he made our house first. I asked what shapes we have on our house and of course Mr A's first answer was I don't know. But then he realized he needed a rectangle for the door and a tiny circle for the knob and knew the house was full of shapes. I asked him if he thought it would be fun to live on a houseboat. His answer, Yeah. You can fish a lot.

We took a few minutes to look at pictures of real houseboats on the computer. Mr A grabbed the daily topic picture and mentioned we needed to try to find the same one. But we didn't have luck. We saw some with slides that dropped into the water, ones that looked like real houses, some made out of odd materials, a few had plants and several stories, a couple had grills on the porch, many were similar to the picture though. Mr Z has had a strange attitude lately and wouldn't settle down to look with us. He was all over the place.





As I gathered the materials for a few of the next activities, I realized they would be better done outside. The boys have been crazy lately. Being outside helps... sometimes. Mr A likes "reading" the science experience instructions that are provided by Mother Goose Time. First Mr A gently folded up the sides on his foil square. I helped Mr Z make his foil boat, but he liked playing with different toys in his bucket of water. Mr A placed coins on his foil and even got his wallet to float on his boat. After his boat finally sank, Mr A counted his coins. He was able to get 44 coins and a wallet to float before it sank. The next time, it was only about 25 coins. I talked a little bit about how boats have weight limits. If they get too heavy, they might sink. So, if we lived on a houseboat, we probably wouldn't need as much stuff as we have now.

The parachute made a fine ocean for a few minutes. We used the ripples as waves. I mentioned that weather over the water can effect the boat; Storms can make the boat capsize. And I demonstrated what it meant. Mr A didn't like that idea. Mr Z was too enticed with the bucket of water.

After playing with boats our boats in the ocean, Mr A had the idea to hang the parachute in the tree to use it as a slide for the boats and see what would happen. So, I found a few places to hook it on and placed the buckets of water below. Mr A experimented with trajectory to figure out where he needed to place the boat to get it into the bucket of water. The wind made it a little difficult, since the parachute was constantly changing.

Mr A had a great time with these activities. Its pretty hard to go wrong with boats and water. He thinks it would be fun to live on a boat, but not fun if there was a storm. I think, having him pick the theme each morning to learn about is helping him enjoy the subject more. He is taking charge of his learning. I am just trying to guide it. I still struggle with the I Can Read books and anything that has to do with language. The More Math and Literacy books are great, but he looses interest in those quickly and won't do much in them. We are working on it. I am working on it. We do what we can without getting frustrated with each other. Some days its hard... others its more fun. Learning to play and learn together is tricky sometimes. I am grateful learning about Houseboats was a better day. Maybe taking it outside helped. That's the great thing about MGT... you can take it anywhere!

Castles! with MGT

A new month equals a new theme with our Mother Goose Time curriculum. This month the theme is Alphabet House. We will be learning about where people live, how to decorate different rooms and what they are used for, how to be a helper around the home and different types of animal homes.
Part of our "circle time" for this unit, is to build a house out of small alphabet cards. I drew a crude outline with pencil of where each piece should go with the corresponding letter. Each day we will review one or two letters and add them to our house to see it develop. Mr A came up with words that started with Aa on his own while emphasizing on the /a/ sound: apple, airplane, asteroid.

This month I am going to try something a little different with the boys. I usually have one out and we go in order according to the lesson plans. Instead, I taped up all of the daily focus pictures for the week onto the wall. I let Mr A look at them all and decide which one he wanted to learn about. So, we started the new unit off with Castles! Giving Mr A the choice of what he wants to learn about for the day gives him authority to take charge of learning. So while, the boys played (or fought), I put together some of the activities.

I grabbed our Knights and Dragons figurines from Safari Ltd and quickly taped a "castle" outline on the rug. They played for a little while. I made our green pet dragon from materials that MGT provided in the daily package. Mr A named him Orion. We tried to go on a dragon hunt, but the boys just fought over the play sword. It is encouraged in the lesson plan to hide the dragon over the next few days and go on a hunt for him. We will try again later to find Orion. I asked who lives in a castle. Mr A knew it was a home for Kings and Queens. I also explained that knights lived there too a long time ago. They were special guards to protect the king and queen. Sometimes they went of missions to fight off evil creatures that they thought lived by castle. Mr A was intrigued, but didn't care at the same time. Sometimes talking to a 4 year old is like talking to ten different people at once and they are all trying to make some kind of comment.

We made a block castle too. They boys added towers and number walls and cement blocks on the floor. I asked the boys while building, "What would be a good thing to make a castle out of?.. wood? rocks?" Mr A's answer was Something strong! Cement for protection. I was impressed. I guess he was paying attention when we were talking about knights protecting the people and castle.



Our craft for today was to make a crown. I grabbed our bag of big jewels and the materials provided by MGT and the boys began gluing. Of course Mr Z had to dump them all out. A king can never have too many jewels I suppose. I liked how Mr Z grabbed only the large circles to glue onto his crown and grouped most of them together. Mr A used quite a variety and covered the length of the paper. His is drying since he gets glue happy, but I don't know how it will fit on his head... maybe a royal sash will be better for the amount of jewels he added.

The boys hide-and-go-seek with the jewels and knights too. Its fun to watch what kids will come up with on their own. Without interference they play quite well with made-up games.

After the boys had a play break outside with a friend, they came back ready to do a few more things. We made name castles. I helped Mr Z with his, but Mr A and his friend found the letters from their name and glued them together.

 Mr A figured out that the jewels stick to skin and experimented with that for awhile. He was making a jewel smiley face.

Mr A also had the idea to make a big castle that we could all fit in. The one that I had taped to floor wasn't good enough I suppose. So, everyone got their own roll of tape and made rooms: dragon rooms, treasure rooms, a dungeon, kitchen, sleeping room, a sleeping bag storage room, a doorbell room, the king & queen's throne room and so many more rooms. They kept taping allover the house making the most humongously big castle ever! (their best friend from next door helped too)

We also watched this castle virtual tour! on airpano.com. It is a fantastic view of the castle that is pictured on our daily focus picture. The Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany.

 

Ok, honestly, I was rather confused by this months theme. I didn't know what to expect. Alphabet House didn't sound like much of an interesting topic. But since digging into the curriculum packet and enjoying our first day, I can tell it will be fun! No matter what Mother Goose Time gives... its always great!

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