Discovering Rainbows

We took MGT outside to learn about the folktale of how rainbows came to be. I read the story of How the Rainbow Was Made and then we played a game that was included in our daily package.

We all took turns tossing the color cube and added the pompoms as necessary. Mr A was sure hoping that blue would win. Ma Z was good at matching the color from the cube to pompom to the rainbow board. Mr A did like this game, however he did have one complaint: There is no violet and orange. This isn't a real rainbow. There's just blue, no violet.

I told him it was just a small rainbow and he was ok with that and kept playing.

I got out our color spinner and the colored sticks that we received from MGT. The boys took turns spinning the wheel and made a repeating pattern with the first three spins.

You can't learn about rainbows without a prism. The boys experimented with the prisms in the sunlight. It is pretty tricky to get it at just the right angle to find the rainbow. Mr A found one way to make a rainbow with the prism.

Mr A noticed that the rainbow showed up better if it was aimed towards a shadow.

We also played with our scopes, testing what everything looks like with different colored lenses.

RED

GREEN

BLUE

KALEIDOSCOPE (Mr A's eye)

I was going to have the boys paint white silk flowers like the man in the story was doing before the birds got it stuck in their feathers, but I realized that I didn't get any from the store. That would have been a fun activity to connect the story.

I love that MGT can be taken anywhere or done under a tree. My boys love being outside, so why not take the learning to where they like to be. Sometimes learning takes the place the best when it isn't forced or given in a formal setting. Nature and fresh air helps the boys focus a little bit better. I like the change of pace too. When we've been stuck inside for too long, everyone gets impatient and antsy. Having a curriculum that you can take anywhere is amazing.

Yes, we take MGT outside to do the activities in the front yard... but we also extend our learning when we go out to do errands or just take a nature walk. Most of the comments made by Mr A refer back to things he remembers from months ago. His favorite is still to mention "it looks like a Grand Canyon" when we come across a rain ditch that has washed away the dirt. He loved learning about landmarks and mentions them often when we are out and about. He's making connections when we are not even in actively doing a lesson. He remembers something and makes the connection. Mr A gets very excited about little things and it is so neat to see him using his brain to connect the lessons we've been doing over the past year to daily life.

Learning is everywhere. I'm so glad to be a part of the process for these two curious, inquisitive boys. It is overwhelmingly fun to watch them grow in different areas and see what they prefer and pick up on. Love the learning that happens when we use MGT.

An InLinkz Link-up

Eating Flapjacks like Paul

Mr A has been loving learning about Paul Bunyan this week with Mother Goose Time and the Fables and Folktales unit.

The story for the day was Paul Bunyan and the Flapjacks. Paul's lumberjacks grease a huge griddle by tying bacon to their feet and skating around. The table is so big where they eat, that they have to drive trucks to pass the syrup from one side to the other. 

Mr A thought it was so silly for something to be that huge.

One of the activities was to make pancakes. A recipe card for Paul Bunyan's Flapjacks was included in the daily packet. So, we made them first thing for breakfast. The boys helped stir the ingredients together. 

At first we made a regular size pancake. Then a tiny one, but Mr A said we needed a huge one. Without making too hard to flip, I poured just enough. The boys carefully flipped it.

Mr A enjoyed his Paul Bunyan sized pancake. The boys sure do have a good time helping in the kitchen... when my tolerance and patience allows for it =)

I must say, I've been very impressed with Mr A lately. He's been looking forward to activities and doing Mother Goose Time lately. He's always questioning and wanting to know more.

Several days ago, we were at my parents house in their backyard. Next to a bush was a disgusting skeleton of a rat in full, with hair and the tail. Immediately Mr A was excited about it. We observed it while my mom got a bag to get it out of the way. But, Mr A wanted to take it home. He wanted to do activities and learn about rats. (we have yet to do something about rats and bones) But, he is always asking to do activities to learn more about something. =) It makes me happy and I thank MGT for inspiring the will to learn in a fun way. =)

An InLinkz Link-up

Paul Bunyan and Babe!

The past few weeks we have been learning about fables in a book given to us in the curriculum. This week our stories are pre-printed on a sheet of paper. I laminated them and hope to make a storybook out of them later. So far we have learned about the birth of Paul Bunyan and his pet, Babe the blue ox.

Paul Bunyan was a giant. Mr A liked that. He always talks about being a giant when he grows up. While I read the story of his birth and how he grew quickly, Mr A used the printed story pieces to act out the story. Mr Z liked playing with the boat the best.

Because Paul grew so fast, the craft provided by Mother Goose Time was to make your own grow chart. Mr A helped set out all the materials on the coffee table. The boys started without me, which I totally loved. When I came in, they were both cutting out the tree trunks for the chart.

Mr Z only got one trunk piece cut and one leaf.

Mr A cut out all of his leaves and laid all his pieces out.

I helped tape the pieces together where he wanted them. Mr A found a spot to hang his growth tree and I measured both boys and marked their heights. (This morning they needed to be measured again to see if they had grown at all.)

Sometimes there are extra craft materials left over from previous months. This morning, the boys found toothpicks and foam pellets. They immediately started making different things. Mr A decided to make marshmallows on a stick and a campfire. Mr Z worked on a crazy sculpture which obviously had to be a gun and he shot it all over the place.

Babe the blue ox was fun to learn about today. There were more story pieces and so again, Mr A acted out the story as I read. Later we talked about if an ox would be a good pet, why he was help to Paul, what other animals are helpful to people and what it would be like to be a large pet.

Paul got measured on the growth tree too. And we also played a hide and seek game with Paul, Babe and Bessie. We took turns hiding in a few rooms of the house then the others had to find them. The boys liked this game.

We had to get out of the house and took the dogs to the park. Mr A conveniently forgot his shoes since he was against going in the first place. (He actually really wanted to stay home to do more Mother Goose Time activities. =) As much as I loved hearing him say that, we went anyway. Sometimes you just have to get out of the house.) So, while Daddy and Mr Z took the dogs to play, I sat with Mr A in the car. He did several pages in his More Math workbook to catch up. These books are so great to take with you on-the-go. Mr A still only prefers to do the math book. 

Evolution of Play

The fable of The Boys and the Frogs from Mother Goose Time.

Five green and speckled frogs, sat on a speckled log, eating the most delicious bugs, yum yum. One jumped into the pool, where it was nice and cool. Then there were four green and speckled frogs.

Mr Z helped me sing this little song while they acted it out with the figurines. Mr Z just made them all jump into the water and Mr A lined up the bugs on the log instead.

Then, they needed more frogs and more bugs.

We added some boys and rocks to act out the fable as I read it. Mr Z and Mr A tossed the plastic rocks at the frogs for a few minutes.

Mr A decided they needed to make a cardboard bridge over the water for their cars to drive on. The frogs were not allowed to leave the water.

I find it rather interesting how one activity can start the way it was intended and then end up something completely different. The boys make up all sorts of additions for activities. Games, toys and activities morph into lessons that sometimes I am not ready to give, yet are so important.

For instance, while the boys were playing with all of these figurines, I asked Mr A how he knew that his friends or someone in general may be scared or sad. He answered with something about bad guys coming and scaring the other people in their house. That turned into me asking something like, What would you do if a bad guy came into our house? Mr A said he would hide. The conversation kept going and we decided to go find a safe place that he knows to run to with his brother, stay quiet and hide when I tell him to go there. Then, he wanted to practice and play Bad Guy. So, we attempted to practice our plan if a bad guy should get in the house. Daddy played the bad guy. Mr A knew exactly what to do when I gave him the signal to go to his special spot. Mr Z just played around and tried to shoot Daddy with the Nerf gun.

So, from reading the fable of The Boys and the Frogs, playing with figurines and discussing being scared... we had a drill and lesson about staying safe at home and listening to exactly what the parents say so nobody gets hurt. What a day!

MGT had included these punch out numbers for an activity. I decided to add some eye stickers and laminate them before we did anything so that the stickers wouldn't be pulled off. I also laminated the punch out. In the instructions for the actual activity, it said to add jewel stickers on each 'number frog'. Mr Z used the number line to match the number frogs. He placed them where they needed to go while I said and pointed to the number. He'd pull them off and put them back on in a different order while saying his own set of numbers: 1, 2, 3, 8!