The Rain and Worms

It rained all night last night. It woke me up several times. I was thinking it was the perfect time for rain since it would help out our lesson today. We all got up early, so while we waited a little bit longer to actually go outside in the wet, we played with our Colored Worm cards provided by Mother Goose Time. We sang the song included in the lesson plans, The Worm is Underground to the Farmer in the Dell tune.

The worm is underground,

the worm is underground,

what color have you found?

the (green) worm is underground.

We named the colors for Mr Z for quite some time, then I had Mr A put them in rainbow order.

 After enough time passed, we put on rain-boots and coats and went for a walk. This was the only worm that we found on the sidewalk though. We saw more snails than anything. While walking I asked Mr A why he thought worms come out of the dirt while it rains. His answer because they'll die. Correct little man. I explained that worms breathe through their skin and if they stay in the dirt they'll drown. They need the air in the dirt to breathe and the water clogs it all up. Mr A thought that was interesting. We walked around the neighborhood for a little bit longer. When we got back to the house we added our lonely worm to the planter box to help the radish, lettuce and bean seeds grow better.

Mr Z liked the snail that visited the planter box.

 I've had our grass seed containers on the window sill in the kitchen. At a quick glance, I noticed tiny sprouts popping out of the dirt. Mr A was super excited and so we filled in the next box on the observation chart. Since they are clear containers, I lifted it up to see if the roots were visible. Sure enough, they were. Mr A drew a curled up worm in his picture this time and added lots of dirt, and sprouts a little bit later.

 Memory seems to be an easy and fun game lately. We played Under the Dirt Matching memory with the MGT cards with Daddy. The snail pictures were Mr Z's favorite. We talked a little bit about different things that can be found in the dirt from the pictures: moles, carrots, potatoes, rocks, beetles.

 The art project for the day was Worm Painting. We received rubber worms in the curriculum kit. I gave them to the boys to explore before painting. They had a ball. Mr A tried to see what it would stick to and made it into a helicopter.

The boys really didn't want to paint with their worms. They were having too much fun playing with them instead. Finally, they did a little bit. Mr A liked to swirl it like the helicopter to paint. When he did drag it along the paper though, he said the worm is pooping out the dirt paint.

Of course, he had to pretend to eat it.



Like I learned yesterday, when they are done, I need to let them be done. Otherwise it just gets frustrating for everyone. Even though they didn't paint much, I let them decide when they were finished with the art project. They need creative freedom and I need to step back and let them have it. (They are still having a fantastic time playing with their rubber worms. The boys are making up several different games to use their worms for.)

I've been noticing lately that Mr A is making up songs, in no particular tune, for activities he's doing, games he's playing or stories. He just sings and sings. Right now he was just singing a made up song about worms. Music is great expression. I've heard somewhere that "a child who sings is a happy child." I sure hope that's true. I like to think my kids are happy with life and me... despite the challenges I have as a parent and mistakes I've made as a mother, I love them dearly and admire their sweet spirits. What fun we have together. I love Mr A's happy songs. They make my heart smile.

Get to the Root of it...

Our friend, Miss E came to do activities with us today. It was wild and crazy and we did a few things. But the excitement of not seeing each other for awhile got the better of them. I think the cloudy cool weather makes kids a little more nuts too.

A few days ago I had read the book From Seed to Plant by Gail Gibbons to Mr A. When we started to set up our experiment provided by Mother Goose Time, he quickly remembered about the book and needed to show Miss E. He told her all about how seeds are made from eggs inside the bottom the flower and how they get pollinated and dispersed by wind, animals or people when they are ready to make new plants. They looked through every page of the book before we could start.

 I held up the two twisted paper towels and asked what part of the plant they looked like. After a few seconds of thought, Mr A shouted "Roots!" We talked a little bit about what roots do for plants... from soaking up water to holding them up so they don't fall over. I had some weeds pulled from the yard and we compared and observed the differences of roots. The kids were even surprised when they found out that we actually eat some roots from plants: carrots, potatoes and yams.
Our experiment was set up with the help of the kids. 3 cups, one with yellow water and the other with red. We watched as the colored water soaked its way up the paper towel. Mr A chimed in that the two colors would make a new color in the empty middle cup. It was taking a little bit longer than we thought, so we kept checking back throughout the next hour to see how it was doing. Mr A was right about his prediction... the 2 colors met in the middle cup and made orange. They were all fascinated and we drew a picture of what we had observed. Mr A colored a nice big scribble using red and yellow to make his own orange.

Miss E loves dance. They kids were nuts and so I popped in the Dance N Beats dvd, mostly for her. She loved it, and it quieted them all down for a few minutes. Mr A actually did the routine for the whole warm-up and half of another song too. I was impressed. He still finds the moves to be too girly for him. But he loves when we have a free dance time and he copies my moves.
We love the songs though and sing to them often. I play our music cd everyday while we have free play or while doing a craft. We usually have the songs memorized by the end of week one because we play it so much. They are catchy, educational and fun.

Play-doh seemed like a good option, since it was hard to settle them down. Mr A was off being a cranky 4 yr old, but Miss E and Mr Z had fun making different things. I made a flower, complete with roots under the dirt and Mr Z quickly smashed it up. Our play-doh grinder made great seeds and water droplets. Miss E used the different colored play-doh bits to water and fertilize the flower garden she had made with her mom.

 Before bed, we finished some activities. Mr A noticed the diamond shape paper cutout looked a lot like a yam. Although, it needed a few adjustments. He cut off one tip and the sides so that it matched our Letter set photograph a little better.

 The boys worked on their letter Y page in their monthly journal. I helped Mr Z a little bit, then he doodled around the page. Mr A used a scrap piece of paper to make a Yam-Y-Boat. He glued the paper on his page then wrote a few Y's on it... and it was then a Y-boat.

 Mr Z had fun with the camera and got a few cute snapshots =)

 It was neat to assist Mr A with his More Math & Literacy books tonight. He was sounding out the names of the pictures, trying to recognize the same beginning sound of the word. I didn't have to do much helping. He answered most of his own questions. I just had to keep him on track. So easily distracted.

What I've learned today from the craziness of my kids and having a friend over is: Don't force an activity. If they aren't into it, wait until later... or accommodate what your have to their moods. So, even though not every activity was completed in our lesson plans, we had a good time and discussed the main points of today's topic: Roots. Sometimes a little bit goes a long way. Kids remember and soak in so much information, even when we, as adults don't think they are paying attention.

A Little Dirt Don't Hurt!

Warning: Lots of Pictures today =)
Yesterday, Uncle C helped Mr A make a planter box. He was kind enough to provide materials. Mr A learned how to use an air compressed staple gun and a drill. Mr A helped staple the sides together and drill drainage holes in the bottom. It was exciting for him. He was beaming with excitement.

Mr Z was awake first and helped put the days on the new themed calendar for the Growing Gardens unit. He found the magnifying glasses and matched up the pictures on them with that on the calendar and themed poster. Then he used one to highlight the shapes we've been learning this year. He went back and forth on the shapes several times as I named the ones he was on.

Mr Z poked around and investigated the other things I had taped to the wall and the books to correlate with the new unit.

After Mr A was up, we filled our new garden box with soil and played around in it for a little while. They dug with their hands & shovels, sprayed it with water and then planted some seeds: radishes, lettuce and beans. (I forgot to have the boys paint the outside some fun colors before we added dirt and seeds. Oh well.)

After planting, we went to the back yard and pulled out some weeds. Our yard is completely dirt and grows weeds rather quickly. Mr A had fun comparing the different sizes of the roots and their shapes. Mr Z like throwing them in the green waste garbage can.

After we had some breakfast and snacks, we did our Watch It Grow activity provided by Mother Goose Time. The soil, grass seeds and small plastic containers were included in the curriculum kit for the day. The boys felt the soil for a while and searched for what they could find. Mr A found some small pebbles and bark pieces. Then they scooped dirt into their container, piled grass seeds on and covered them with more dirt. They added a bit of water. We placed them on the kitchen window sill so we can watch them grow.

Mr A tried to trace his container of seeds on his observation sheet. Then colored it black.

Mr Z colored all over his sheet. =)

Mr A also added some brown seeds to his picture. In a few days when something sprouts, we'll draw another picture of what we see.

Mr Z trying to draw a happy face on his nametag. =)

Day One is Always Tons of Fun!

An InLinkz Link-up

Open Wide Your Heart w/ MGT

This morning, Mr A found the ping pong balls I had purchased from the Dollar Tree and wondered what they were for. I told him they're for an activity and immediately he wanted to know what it was. Since it was for our Experience God add-on unit for Mother Goose Time, I told him it would be okay to do the activity. (It wasn't supposed to be until tomorrow)

First, we read the story of the Sower on the back of each of these poster cards. There are motions to do along with the story and the boys thought it was fun. The farmer plants tosses seed in several places; the road, rocks, thorns and good dirt. Then is rewarded for his determination and faith. For each lesson/activity, there is a simple concept in one or two sentences to explain in the teacher guide. I typed them out to hang as we talk about them so that we can refer back to the concepts a little easier.

Then, we got to playing. I set up some small trash cans. Then added a basket. After a few minutes of tossing and retrieving, I added more bins of different sizes.

Mr A quickly realized it was easier to get the balls in a container when there were more and bigger ones.

The boys had a great time tossing ping pong balls around.

Mr A counting how many balls made it into the bins and how many were outside of them.

In this simple activity we learned that if your heart and mind are open wide, its easier to listen to what Heavenly Father and Jesus have to teach us... just like it's easier to get the balls into a larger container.