Number rods and Sandpaper numerals

Another aspect of Montessori education I really like is math.  All lessons are "hands on" versus worksheets and the materials are really beautiful and practically beg to be touched and used.  These are our number rods and sandpaper numerals.  Wyatt is already counting past 10 and recognizes numerals 0-9 easily.  This next exercise was pretty easy for him but he still enjoyed it.  He has had earlier lessons in just the number rods (making the "staircase", counting each one, putting them in order 1-10) but today we added something new. 

First we reviewed the sandpaper numerals and practiced tracing each one.  Then he laid out the number rods on his mats.  Next he had to count each rod and match the corresponding numeral to the correct rod.  When he was finished he had me come over and he counted each one, proudly showing me that he matched them all correctly.

Fire Prevention Week!

In honor of Fire Prevention Week, our local fire department visited the local library to talk to kids about fire safety.  Although this was part of the life skills curriculum I used to teach my special needs students back when I was a teacher I realized I have never directly taught many of these lessons and concepts to Bean.  He has actually been on 3 firehouse tours with our parenting groups but I can't say that fire safety lessons were actually sinking in versus merely enjoying the big trucks at that age.  So off to the library we went to see the big trucks and hopefully learn a few new things.   

 

The program started off with watching a plain-clothed fireman getting suited up from head to toe.  The first time Bean saw a fireman in head to toe gear he was scared to death.  By the third time, he felt comfortable enough to give the fireman a high five.  Today he was shy, but definitely chatty about all the pieces of his uniform.                                              

                                                                    

Then of course the big draw was to go out and see/experience the fire truck and ambulance.  Here is Bean "driving" the fire truck. 

 

The program was short and sweet but I wanted to go in a bit more depth with him at home.  Meet "Fireman Bob" and his safety rules!  "Fireman Bob" was from my teaching days and so we pulled him out and went over each of the safety rules.  We practiced making 911 calls on an old, disconnected cell phone and giving our personal information.  We talked about how fire is useful for certain things but when it gets out of control or burns something it's not supposed to then it's dangerous and so we shouldn't play with matches or lighters.  We practiced Stop, Drop and Roll (mom, too!).  We went over all of the exits in our house and I made sure he could open/work the locks on all of our doors (except our slider which is top bolted as well) including opening the garage door if he needed to escape.  We also chose a family meet-up spot if we had to evacuate the house.  When Daddy came home he tested our smoke detectors for us and Bean got to hear what they sound like in case of an emergency.  While he still needs more practice in giving his whole address in an emergency (namely the house number) I feel a lot more confident that Bean knows a bit more what to do if needed.   

Rosh Hashanah

L'shanah tovah!  This evening is the beginning of Rosh Hashanah.  We're not Jewish.  In fact, there's not one religion/spirituality that could encompass our beliefs and thoughts.  But we do respect and appreciate others' religions and practices and we hope to pass that on to our boys.  So tonight we honored the celebration of Rosh Hashanah with a little learning and celebration of our own.  We read a couple of books (pictured above) that explained briefly what the holiday is about and then enjoyed apples and challah dipped in honey for hopes of a sweet year.  While we ate we each discussed something from the past year that we would like to improve on this coming year.  Bean said he wants to help more animals, like bugs :)

My Body unit

At the start of our homeschooling year we decided to do a unit on "My Body".  Although this had been covered last year during his learning co-op, he was not able to finish the unit as he got sick with the flu and missed a couple of weeks of class time.  I knew that he would enjoy the topic and that there were projects he didn't get to finish that were worth reviewing. 

We started by reading the books "My Hands" and "My Feet" by Aliki.  We made a fingers book (not pictured) where we traced Bean's hand 5 times on different pages and then had him color thumb, pointer, middle, ring and pinky finger, one on each page.  He also got to take his fingerprints and we discussed how everyone's fingerprints are unique.  He made his footprints and then we labeled the parts of his foot.  We discussed how hands are useful for a larger variety of things then feet.  To prove this point I had him try drawing a picture with his toes...not as easy as you think! (he managed a few lines but they are hard to see in the picture)  This was also a great time to review right vs. left, although Daddy taught him that during bath time for the past two years when he would say "Give me your right leg, or your left arm".

 

This was the project I knew Bean would love to finish from last year.  He made a body tracing and decorated his face last year, but then got sick with the flu during the time the rest of the kids learned about their organs and put them on their body tracings.  We used the series of books above to teach about what each part of the body does.  Once he had glued the organs/body parts onto his tracing I went back and typed up clues for each of them.  I would read the clue and then he would decide which one I was describing and glue it in the proper place.  Although we are officially moving on from the body unit I think we'll leave "Bean" up and add to him as we continue to learn about different part of our body.

 

I've always loved the Rookie Readers series and was happy to find they had some at our library that discussed how our brain, heart and lungs work.  We also used the "Hear Your Heart" book to discuss our hearts in a bit more depth.  Bean used his stethoscope from his doctor's kit to listen to his own heart and Mommy's.  "The Skeleton Inside You" was a good book about bones and I was able to score a cheap, plastic skeleton at the Dollar Store (Halloween season!) to have him identify different bones named in the book.  After we read these we kept them in our bookshelf for him to read on his own or at bedtime with Daddy. 

We also discussed the outside parts of his body although this concept has been mastered for some time.  To follow up he colored a person and a face and then glued labels on the correct part. 

First Day of Autumn

Nature education was one of the areas I have been most excited about sharing with Bean.  We hope to instill in our children both an appreciation and a respect for the natural world.  Living in a climate where we get to experience four seasons, our boys will have the opportunity to see Mother Nature transform the outdoors four times a year.  I had been trying to think of some way to celebrate all the changes that each season brings.  I decided that seasonal nature journals might be what I was looking for to help me do this.  I even took it one step further and thought that it would be neat to assemble a kit we can take with us on our nature walks that included his nature journal, a twig pencil, magnifying glass and his binoculars.  I'm sure we'll be adding to this kit as we think of more things. 

To assemble the nature journal I took two pieces of brown foam and punched three holes in each of them.  I then cut drawing paper to the same size and hole punched that as well.  I used small rings to finish assembling the journal and then used some old scrapbooking sticker letters to spell out "Autumn" on the front.  Today was the first day of autumn and so I presented Bean with his new nature journal and let him decorate the front cover with an assortment of autumn themed scrapbooking stickers I had in my stash.  I explained that a nature journal will be a great place for us to keep all of our observations about the season.  For autumn, we can do leaf rubbings, glue in interesting leaves or seeds we find, glue in photos we take of trees changing colors, write down (dictate to Mommy) what we think animals, plants and people do during the season and draw pictures of things that we observe during fall.  He was so eager to use it he asked if he could start drawing autumn nature pictures right away.  Below are some of his pictures he drew today.  It's a good thing I have the ability to add more pages to this journal as I think we just may need them!

 

Happy International Peace Day!

In honor of International Peace Day we discussed what peace means to us and what it means to be a peacemaker.  The top photo shows the books we read and talked about today.  Bean loves "The Peace Book" by Todd Parr and I really like the "Can You Say Peace?" book that shows how children around the world say peace in their native language.  He also decorated a peace sign with rainbow foam squares that we can hang in the house.  The bottom picture shows our new mini Zen Garden!  I've had this for years and thought it would be a nice addition to the classroom.  We talked about how people use Zen Gardens to bring peace to their minds and hearts.  As he was having some frustrations this morning, he really took to this work.  He silently and carefully raked the sand until he told me he was "all peaced up, Mom"-which I took to mean he was feeling better :)  The card below is part of a peacemaker set I downloaded from Montessori Print Shop.  One side is the picture of the person and the other side has a quote that we will talk about and discuss it's meaning.  Today's quote was from the Dalai Lama and talked about having peace within yourself before there can be peace in the world.  Again, a great tie-in to how frustrated he was feeling and then how much more peaceful the whole house was after he had regained his balance and peaceful heart.  Since I have 11 more of these peacemaker cards and a bunch more peace-related activities and books to share with Bean I'm sure it will be a regular part of our work this year.

Language-Reviewing letter sounds

During his time at learning co-op Bean learned almost all of his letter sounds.  But since we had a 4 month break from co-op before we started working at home I thought it would be a good idea to do a quick review.  Each week we feature 2-3 letter sounds.  We read the sound box book for the letter, trace the sandpaper letter, identify sound objects starting with that sound (what's on the white dish) and then he may practice drawing the letter on his chalkboard if he wishes.  He's going through these quite quickly so I imagine we'll be pulling out the moveable alphabet soon.