Although we haven't officially started "homeschooling" our days are always filled with learning naturally.
Here is how our day went today:
Wake up and while having breakfast talk about telling time and after breakfast pull out some telling time cards we have to review. L wears her watch and I ask her what time it is many times throughout the day.
Get dressed and go for a walk around our neighbourhood and along the creek. Talk about how it is a salmon habitat and about how they go there to spawn and wonder if there are any there right now.
Come home and play in the back yard on the play structure and trampoline. LJ goes down for a nap and L plays outside by herself for a while.
After she comes in for lunch we get out some envelopes and the stickers that we are going to send to friends as part of a sticker club. L addresses the envelopes and seals them.
Quiet time on the couch silent reading. L reads Paddington Bear.
After LJ wakes up we go out on the deck and have some snacks. We play Simon Says body parts as L is learning the names of the bones of the body as part of another project we are doing.
Come in and while sitting on the couch L first asks if dolphins migrate. I Google it. No not really. So she asks if we can find out more about the migration habits of humpback whales. I find an online board game that tracks humpback whales on their migration from Alaska to Hawaii and back. We play the board game together and then watch a couple short videos on whale migration. Lastly we find some diagrams of the globe which show the migration routes. This satisfies her curiosity for the time being.
Yep and that is why this blog is called You want to learn about WHAT?? It never ceases to amaze me what she comes up with.
L and I go to the post office and she mails her letters, we pick up some books from the library and go to her swimming lesson.
After dinner we look through a book on the human body that I got from the library and do a personality quiz that is in it.
Bedtime. Phew. A typical day full of nature, fun, learning and loving!
Saturday, 28 June 2014
Monday, 23 June 2014
Helen Keller and the senses
Pintrest is a magical, wonderful place where you can find absolutely anything you can imagine! When it comes to learning there is no need to try and re-invent the wheel. Just a quick search and you have projects, worksheets and references galore on any subject.
Once day as I was wondering around the Pintrest world I discovered this cool printout on braille. This spurred me on to order some books from the library about Helen Keller. I also printed out an American Sign Language alphabet which L was already familiar with.
Today the books arrived. The first book Helen Keller the world in her heart by Lesa Cline-Ransome is a beautiful book that while relaying the story also shows the amazing beauty in our world. L read this by herself as soon as we got home from the library. I hadn't told her anything about this project before hand so she was full of questions.
The second book Helen Keller A Determined Life by Elizabeth MacLeod has real photographs and quotes from Helen and Annie Sullivan and goes into much more detail about her life as an adult. We read this book together and talked about what it would be like to not be able to hear, see or communicate and how frustrating it would be.
I spelled out "W-A-T-E-R" in L's hand using the hand signs that Annie Sullivan used and we both couldn't even imagine how many times she would have had to do that to Helen before it started to make sense.
I tied a scarf around L's head and let her explore the house that way. She found it scary and tricky and didn't keep the blindfold on for long but did try to identify all the objects she was touching.
Last night I prepared some cards to go along with the braille alphabet. I just pin punched some simple words onto some card stock for L to try to figure out. She LOVED it and was completely absorbed in trying to figure them out. At the end I wrote a full sentence "I love you". It took her a while to get this one as we realized that some of the letters are very similar, the dots are just closer together.
After she'd figured out all of the words she tried her hand at making up some for me. This was a super fun activity. It really helped us to realize how tricky it would be to do it all blind as we were looking at the alphabet the whole time we tried to figure it out.
Once day as I was wondering around the Pintrest world I discovered this cool printout on braille. This spurred me on to order some books from the library about Helen Keller. I also printed out an American Sign Language alphabet which L was already familiar with.
Today the books arrived. The first book Helen Keller the world in her heart by Lesa Cline-Ransome is a beautiful book that while relaying the story also shows the amazing beauty in our world. L read this by herself as soon as we got home from the library. I hadn't told her anything about this project before hand so she was full of questions.
The second book Helen Keller A Determined Life by Elizabeth MacLeod has real photographs and quotes from Helen and Annie Sullivan and goes into much more detail about her life as an adult. We read this book together and talked about what it would be like to not be able to hear, see or communicate and how frustrating it would be.
I spelled out "W-A-T-E-R" in L's hand using the hand signs that Annie Sullivan used and we both couldn't even imagine how many times she would have had to do that to Helen before it started to make sense.
I tied a scarf around L's head and let her explore the house that way. She found it scary and tricky and didn't keep the blindfold on for long but did try to identify all the objects she was touching.
Last night I prepared some cards to go along with the braille alphabet. I just pin punched some simple words onto some card stock for L to try to figure out. She LOVED it and was completely absorbed in trying to figure them out. At the end I wrote a full sentence "I love you". It took her a while to get this one as we realized that some of the letters are very similar, the dots are just closer together.
After she'd figured out all of the words she tried her hand at making up some for me. This was a super fun activity. It really helped us to realize how tricky it would be to do it all blind as we were looking at the alphabet the whole time we tried to figure it out.
Thursday, 19 June 2014
Well here we are....
Hello and welcome to our new blog. A bit about us. I am a mother of two. An incorrigible, fiercely independent two year old boy and an amazing, joyful 6 1/2 year old girl. We live together with my husband in the paradise of Vancouver Island British Columbia.
My daughter L has always been "different". She picks things up very quickly, has an excellent memory and recall and an insatiable thirst for knowledge and learning. You can read all about our preschool adventures on my other blog Montessori Beginnings.
L attended a Montessori preschool and just completed her first year of Montessori elementary. Although L enjoyed it and was happy there, we made the decision as a family to take her out of her formal school and continue on with learning at home, the park, the beach and anywhere else that life takes us!
We are all very excited about this next part of our lifelong journey of learning and hope to share our experiences on this blog.
My daughter L has always been "different". She picks things up very quickly, has an excellent memory and recall and an insatiable thirst for knowledge and learning. You can read all about our preschool adventures on my other blog Montessori Beginnings.
L attended a Montessori preschool and just completed her first year of Montessori elementary. Although L enjoyed it and was happy there, we made the decision as a family to take her out of her formal school and continue on with learning at home, the park, the beach and anywhere else that life takes us!
We are all very excited about this next part of our lifelong journey of learning and hope to share our experiences on this blog.
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