Introducing the fall sensory bin

This morning we were supposed to go to Bible Study at our church.  It's on our calendar and it's what we're supposed to do on Mondays. 

However -

Teaching 9 credits right now, planning a new unit for the girls, loads and loads of laundry waiting for me.....

I needed a morning without leaving the house.  

I played hookie.  

God already knows - you don't have to tell on me!

I didn't really plan to do much at all with the girls today.  I really needed to just do laundry and plan for my Wednesday night class.  However, after doing a devotion (I like this new one above), I decided to squeeze in one activity.  I want to use our 5 senses a lot in this unit, so I decided to introduce a sort about the 5 senses.  It's more like a game, but instead of spinning a spinner, I just turned the cards over and had the girls choose one and figure out where to put it.  This is a free download from lakeshore learning!

We played it a few times and the girls are both really good at it and seem to both really understand their 5 senses.  - Score!

So, anyway, back to laundry.  It's nonstop this morning.  I decide to show the girls their sensory bin because I thought they could play with it as I folded yet ANOTHER load of the endless loads of laundry I still have to do.

Can you see the excitement in her face?

 They were thrilled! 

Adelyn is definitely the one who finds the smells first :)

They literally played for 45 minutes without stop.  I heard something about squirrels and feeding the baby squirrels the acorns.  I heard something about being pirates and finding their treasure :)  Most of the conversation I missed as I was next to the loud washing machine and dryer!

Notice their "treasure" they stored up behind Charlotte :)

Adelyn helps clean up

When I came back upstairs, I told them it was time to clean up.  

They helped sweep the oatmeal back into the bin.

Some people use sheets or plastic.  I found it easiest to start on a clean hardwood floor (Oh yeah, I mopped this morning too - boo) and then have them sweep it after.

Charlotte showed me the smallest baby berry they had found :)

Then, we put the bin above our cabinets for another day.

**Side note - I almost bought a used water table and made a "sensory table" instead of a sensory bin.  My mother-in-law kind of talked me out of it and I think she was totally right on this one.  The girls really like being on the floor and making a mess and being able to pick it right back up.  Also, being able to put the lid on this and put it away will help keep the excitement about it!

(Thanks Vicky :)

These girls were on a roll this morning.   

After we put away the bin, Adelyn told me it was time to do play dough.

Um, okay.  

I pulled out the chocolate playdough and went to fold more laundry!

One of the things I'm going to focus on for Adelyn is learning the other letters in her name other than "A" so I gave her those letters and she punched them out. 

I'd say the free-play today was pretty educational - I'll call it a win.

If only I can finish all that laundry!

DIY Flannel Board

It's been on my to-do list for about a month.  

There are about a million different "how-to" blogs and videos out there on how to make a felt or flannel board.  However, none of them fit exactly my purpose for the flannel board.

I really wanted a board that my girls could take and use in their own rooms during their quiet times.

I know that their free play time is a powerful time where they can really play out and solidify ideas and concepts that we've been talking about.

However, every felt board idea I found on blogs used cardboard or foam board or something similar as a base.  I don't know about your kids, but my kids would bend and break that in about 5 minutes.  I think that would work if I were the one primarily using the board, but that wasn't my plan.  Some people used frames, but again, pointy objects with my children, alone in their rooms....disastrous!

So, after quite a bit of searching and thinking, I settled on this frame-less cork board.  Each one cost me $6 (which was more than my cheap self wanted to pay, but it was perfect).  Why was it perfect for us?

• It had no outside frame, so it wouldn't scratch/hurt the girls
• 14 inches x 14 inches is a GREAT size for a personal flannel board. 
• It is really sturdy and has a wooden frame on the back side.

I bought flannel to cover the board from Joann's (which was on sale for $2.99 per yard).  A half of yard would have been enough to make both boards for my girls, but Adelyn wanted yellow and Charlotte wanted pink. So, at $3 total, I was up to $15 for two flannel boards - not bad!

Materials:

1. 14x14 cork board 
2. 1/2 yard of your choice of flannel (this is enough to make 2 boards)
3. 1 staple gun with staples
4. a hammer

I cut the fabric to be about 2 extra inches on all sides.  Starting with the corners, I folded them in until they hit the corners of the board.

Then, I folded that into the board until I could go any further.  You could put a staple in at this point.

Holding that corner, I folded in my sides to make a nice tucked edge.

Then, start stapling. Earlier int he board we were stapling in the middle of this frame, but we realized going almost to the edge of the fabric held better without any extra flap.

Keep working your way around the board.

It really helps to have two sets of hands, especially around the corners.  After the first two sides, be sure to keep pulling the fabric snug, but not too tight.

Because these are for my kids, we didn't want any staples sticking up even a little.  

Joe hammered a lot of them an extra couple of hits just to get them so they couldn't be messed with at all.

Ta da!

Sneak peak for Fall - Sensory Bin

Am I the only one?

When a new season is beginning to peak itself around the corner, I get so nostalgic!

You know what I'm talking about, right?

The smells, the colors, the food.

Who else has already gotten a pumpkin spice latte??

Well that's how excited I've been getting about a big Fall Unit I'm planning for my girls.  I'm been researching like a nerd, printing like a crazy woman, and laminating, like only a teacher could :)

Our Fall Sensory Bin

My favorite "ah ha!" for this unit is using more hands-on materials.  We're going to be doing some really big-kid kind of scienc-y stuff!  However, one thing I'm just plain giddy about is my first sensory bin for the girls!  Charlotte is SUCH a kinesthetic learner and I'm hoping they both love this bin as much as I do!

I've been looking at a million sites, reading a million posts, but the one that I loved and stole from just last night was THIS one.  I had planned to use dried beans as a pretty-fallish-looking base to this bin, but the idea of using whole oats with a jar of pumpkin pie spice dumped in...brilliant!  Not only does this sensory bin look inviting....

It smells heavenly :)

I'm loving all of the different textures and found I had to restrain myself from adding leaves, etc.

One of the things I like best about this is how the small apples, berries, and pumpkins can hide in the oatmeal so they have to dig and sift find them!

I used a lot of things that I already had used for fall decorations around the house:

small bale of hay, dried corn, potpourri pumpkins (although they lost their smell years ago), yellow shovels from the sandbox, light-up tweezers, canning jars & rings.  We also picked these little red berries on our walk yesterday and they made a perfect addition :)

I also bought some things from Walmart this morning:

mini-pumpkin, fake apples, silver buckets, glittery acorns, oatmeal (I used 3 containers), pumpkin pie spice.

The lid is on it and it's been tucked away.  I can't wait to surprise the girls with it later this week :)

What else is cooking at the Manke house?  Brownies?  Chocolate covered strawberries?

Nope!

Chocolate playdough :)

How fun is that?

I plan to use playdough a lot during this fall unit, so we started making some fall colors this morning.

So far we made chocolate brown from this recipe and cherry-flavored red 

(I used some red food gel and some of that new liquid kool-aid to add smell to my regular stove-top playdough recipe like this one).

The best thing about both of these ideas?  They work for any home....

Happy almost Autumn :)

Oh, you want to learn something today?

I feel like I'm learning something almost every day about how my kids learn, what motivates them, the best way to approach them in regards to learning, etc.  This is a wild and fun ride, and it's only just barely begun :)

So, last night I was talking to my mom on the phone while I shopped for some materials for our fall unit...Well, I was rambling on and she was polite enough to listen (Thanks Mom).  Anyway, I was babbling on about how Adelyn is starting to know the beginning sounds of words, while blows my mind for my just-turned-3-year-old.  So, last night when I got home I photocopied the first sort from the "Letter Name" category of Words their Way and left it on the counter to (maybe) do with Adelyn if I could coerce her at some point today.  I just wanted to see if she could ace this or needed a little work.

The tongue means she's concentrating :)

Low and behold at 7:20 this morning when I stumbled down to get my coffee, Adelyn wanted to know if that paper was for her or Charlotte.  I said it was for her and I started to cut it....no, no, no.  SHE wanted to cut it.  For crying out loud - when will Momma learn anything?

Was I right? YES!  She aced this entire sort (which means, by the way, that she should move on to the next one).  I think I'll take this one to ballet tomorrow and then copy the next one.  Really?  She's 3!  Who is this kid?

Mid-sort, Charlotte came downstairs and wanted to do HER sort.  By the way, Charlotte has NEVER asked to do word study without my prompting.  Goodness, I moved as fast as I could. We decided last week that she needed a new sort, so I copied one quickly and she began to cut!

While I was downstairs copying this sort, she and Adelyn found a capital/lowercase letter sort and began to put it together.

While Charlotte did her sort, Adelyn wanted me to help her finish this one - well, okay!

While Charlotte was still sorting, I mentioned something about taking these particular sorts to ballet tomorrow to work on (they both have their own class so I have time to work with each alone).  Well, up out of her seat Charlotte jumped!

She went quickly to the calendar to see if tomorrow was (indeed) ballet.  She moved us to calendar time without my prompting - hooray!

Today was the 10th.

I hadn't really planned on any "school" stuff today, but I decided to take the opportunity given to me!

We counted by 5's during our creation unit, but haven't really counted by 10s, except when counting dimes.

Out of the blue, while driving down the road this weekend, Charlotte tells Joe that the "steering wheel thing" is counting by 10s.  It took us a minute to catch on, but she persisted and counted it for us - 10, 20, 30, all the way to 100.  Aren't real-world connections that kids discover the best?

We really haven't worked on numbers past 31 (per the calendar) much at all, but Charlotte seems to be ready and willing these days.

So, we counted by 10s, since today is September 10th.

Adelyn, pinning the 10 elephant on

Adelyn went right to the elephants (which has become her thing) and found the 10 elephant and counted 10 links to add to him. 

As Charlotte counted dollars, I asked Adelyn if she wanted to count 10 pennies. - She did!

She didn't want to do much trading, but I was happy to use the word "penny" and count to 10.

This is the most ownership Adelyn has ever taken during calendar and I love that it is becoming more of a thing that they both have a part in :)

Since I've begun putting all of the calendar materials (and other math manipulatives) in one box, the girls sometimes decide to play with other things in the box when they are done.

Adelyn said she wanted Charlotte to measure her for her "check-up" so she did :)

She counted by 1's all the way to 54 (I had to help twice with skipped numbers) so I was pretty impressed.

10 minutes later, when I gave her a story problem:

Kitty was 10 blocks tall.  She grew 4 more blocks.  How many blocks tall is she now?

She just counted one whole color strip as "10" and then counted on 4.  This was an awesome "ah ha" to use a 10-strip without counting it all.  I was impressed and would love to share the video with you.  However, her nightgown was going a little crazy and 4 year olds are rarely paying attention to such :)

There are so many things that I'm taking away from today's randomly organic learning.

1. When I have ANYTHING on the counter to prompt learning before the girls wake up, they start the learning cycle without my prompting and it seems like their idea!
2. Adelyn seems more engaged when there are things we CAN learn about, but not a script of things that I feel like we "must" do.  This is a reflection that I feel like I can put to work right away in my fall unit that I'm planning.  Instead of a prescription like I had for my creation unit (which made sense in that type of unit) I can have a few activities in my head, but letting the learning flow naturally is more important than how many "things" I get through!
3. It re-affirmed that having particular days of the week planned for learning isn't best right now (like Tuesday, Thursday).  Right now, having plans is great, but being flexible is even better.  I want to respond when they are energetic and excited.  When we've had an exhausting week, I need to get over my own expectations. :)
4. I've spent a good chunk of time planning a fall unit in my head and on paper.  Learning keeps happening, whether I have cute die-cuts and connections or not.  They are 3 and 4 1/2.  I have to give myself a break and be flexible in my expectations of myself.  Learning happens every day in our house.  I don't have to create anything daily to make it happen!
5. A little healthy competition isn't a bad thing.  I had been keeping word study separate because the girls have different word sorts, but doing them at the same time seemed to prompt a little more synergy!

Creation - Day 7

Today, we conclude our unit about Creation.

We've had a ton of fun and Charlotte has gotten really invested in "doing school".

I've found already that repetition of procedures is something Charlotte really hooks onto and takes off independently.  That is exactly what I think I want for her as a homeschooled girl.

This morning, she came downstairs and began coloring her 7 before we had eaten breakfast or even gotten her juice.  I wasn't even in the room when she began.  Gotta love that motivation :)

After reading some Charlotte Mason, I've been working on having Charlotte "Narrate" or re-tell stories to me in her own words.  This is sort of a mix between narrating and just reading her finished Creation Book.

Video Here

One thing that I've found (and also from listening from other moms) is that sometimes a 3 year old isn't going to want to be invested in the "lesson" the whole time.  No big deal, but I have to have some things for her (some go-to activities) that are completely age-appropriate.

This (Sort & Snap) is something I bought Adelyn about a year ago and Charlotte has been holding hostage in her room :)  I pulled it out and she was engaged!  I've found that Adelyn doesn't have as much perseverance as her sister. So, to keep her rolling: she would do 2 snaps, and then I would do one.  This kept her happy!

Meanwhile, Charlotte worked on some sequencing.  First, I had her put the cards with the events of creation in order from first to last.  Sequencing is a big early-childhood skill that is worked on in a ton of different areas.  It seemed to be the perfect place in the unit!

This video is for Grandma Manke :)  Adelyn was having a moment to herself during this video, but as you can hear later in the video, she was singing from her room :)

Here is the entire song from Day 1 to Day 7

Then, I had Charlotte match the day #s to the pictures.  Both of those can be found here.  

Later, we'll be using it like a memory game, as they describe on the website.

We talked about how God created the world in 7 "days" and how our calendar is based on God's creation.  Each week is made of 7 days, the first being the Sabbath.

We sang our "days of the week" song a few times.

Here's the video if you've never heard it!

Then, Charlotte used the cards from our calendar to try to sequence the days of the week correctly!

I used a slightly easier set of sequencing cards (click here) for Adelyn so that she was still doing the same activity, but with focusing on putting the numbers in order (because the numbers and pictures were connected).

We did some ten-frame fun ("Can I eat them now?")

Some Rainbowing!

As I mentioned, Adelyn doesn't always finish what she starts, so we're going to work on that.  Before she could start the fun craft, she had to finish her picture.  We worked together (all 3 of us) taking turns putting a snap in until it was full.

The BIGGEST hit of the day was our craft!

Because God rested on Day 7, I found a cute idea online to make pillows.  

Of course, I found this idea last night when I was alone in the house with my sleeping children, so I couldn't run out to get cuter fleece or poly-fill so as usual, I improvised :)

Instead of making pillows for themselves, I thought it would be fun to make little pillows (and blankets) for their dollies (Plus, I didn't have big enough pieces of fleece for them!).

I found some leftover fleece from last year's Halloween costumes and cut each of them a blanket for their dolls (see them resting beside them?)

Then, I sent my kids to town creating their own filling for their pillows.  They took a bunch of scrap fleece and started cutting it into strips and little pieces

Then, I cut two small rectangles to make them each a pillow.

I cut strips on the sides (and holes) like described at this website.

I was troubled at how small the strips and holes were and worried that the girls wouldn't be able to push the strips through, so I pulled some paint brushes out of a paint box and let them use the back to push the strips through each hole.  It worked perfectly.  

Charlotte LOVED this!

She is a Grandma Manke kind of girl - crafty, crafty!

Adelyn lasted about 3 strips.  I can't say I blame her ;)

After 3 sides were finished, we stuffed the pillows with our filling!

They both enjoyed and were able to do this part.

Ta da!  All finished!

They played with these for quite awhile!

Mommy loves the cute, cheesy grins :)