We interrupt animal classification to bring you a song

Wavin' Flag from Andrea Young on Vimeo.

Here are my children, myself, and some homeschooling friends singing at a rest home. I have singing time with my children every morning. We learn new songs, dance a lot, beat Emeline's drum, that sort of thing. Then every few months we sing the songs we've learned at a local rest home and an assisted living center.

They know us there. In fact, after we sang, the activities coordinator gushed about just how much Eli's grown. We've been singing there since I was pregnant with the little man, and this is the first time he hasn't clung to me in the hostile environment of strangers. He was really, really, really shy for a long time. This time he danced around and waved his flag, and even sang some of the words. Sniff, sniff. Yes, I'm having a small heart attack that baby is getting so big.

Whoa, sorry to get distracted. The point is that our family has a nice symbiotic relationship with the care centers and we really like to sing for the residents. We really like to sing.

Waltzing Matilda from Andrea Young on Vimeo.

I think "Waltzing Matilda" is my children's favorite song we've ever learned. I was surprised by just how much my children have loved learning folk songs this year. They resonate--maybe that is why we still sing them after all this time.

Our program:

Shortnin' Bread

Waltzing Matilda

Scarborough Fair

Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree (as a round)

She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain

Vocal solo

Piano solo by Miriam

Another piano solo

Wavin' Flag.

It was a nice length of program for the ages of my children. If you've never taken your children to a care center, I highly recommend it. My children are fairly comfortable with the elderly now and that makes me glad. I think singing at the rest home has had a lot to do with it.

Now that this program is over, we can move full throttle into Christmas music. At Christmas we sing at the rest home with all my family. That means a whole lot of really young children. It is a little crazy and a lot of fun. This year we're learning "Christmas in Killarney," "Silver Bells," "I Want a Hippo for Christmas," and "The Nativity Song" in the primary children's songbook. We're singing more than that, but we know all the other songs. I'm excited about our line up.

Do you carol at Christmas? Have any favorite Christmas songs you think my children would like to learn? I would love to hear what they are. You can never know too many Christmas songs.

Happy holidays!!

PS--And no, Timothy did NOT make all the flags for us. I made the Canada flag and Ireland--thank you very much. Timothy made the rest. Well, the children did what they could and then Timothy did the rest. You aren't supposed to mock me for my glaring inadequacies. You are supposed to praise my good judgement in marrying Timothy.

Animal Classification--Birds, Part Three

This activity could go along with any number of the bird books we read. Anything to do with nests and/or chicks would work well.

We made edible nests.

And we liked it.

I didn't take pics of us actually making the cookies or shaping them into nests because I was too busy monitoring the children, but you can probably figure out the process.

You might, if you do this project, want to wait until your cookies cool off a little before shaping them. They would probably stick together better. However, we don't have that kind of patience at our house, so we munged along. It worked.

This was a good project in that all ages could participate. Eli sometimes gets a little frustrated, or we put him down for a nap before we do things. But even an almost 2 year old can fill a nest with eggs.

Step One: Make cookies. We used this recipe for no-bake cookies (known as chocolate drops around here:

3 cups rolled oats
2 TBLS cocoa
1 cup coconut

Mix first three ingredients very well in a largish mixing bowl.

On top of stove mix the remaining ingredients. Heat, but do not boil.

2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup milk

When very warm but not boiling add to dry ingredients. Combine thoroughly. Spoon on wax paper. Chill.

Step Two: Do not freak out when your children manage to get cocoa from one end of the kitchen to the other.

Step Three: Be grateful that your kitchen is only two inches by two inches and therefore easy to clean.

Step Four: Put wax paper or tinfoil in front of each child. Spoon out a portion of the cookies onto each person's wax paper. Show them how to form a nest. Older kids can figure it out on their own and babies will just eat it. It's all good.

Step Five: Put the nests onto a cookie sheet and chill in the fridge.

Step Six: After supper that night, give everyone a cookie nest and handful of jellybean eggs. Let everyone fill their nests with eggs and then eat the whole thing. Yum.

Science, simplified.

hello, it's becky from here.
we've started a new "science" book
and i thought i'd give it a review for you'all.

here it is:



here is our first experiment:



basically, we watched fruit rot
so as to learn about the role of "skin"
and the effect the air has on the fruit.



1. allow kids to peel and cut banana into pieces
(i cut up the apple)
2. allow kids to pound the vit. C tablet to powder
(and kids love a big metal meat tenderizer)
3. rub one apple piece with vit. C and one with orange juice
4. plate banana and oranges



and remember to observe periodically
throughout the day
excessive enthusiasm isn't necessary.

here is my review:

so, we love this book. in that i struggle to get away from the basics of math/reading/writing/art...this was such a perfect simple way to incoorporate science into our day. every lesson is simple, easy to prepare for and easy to accomplish with the kids. and they liked it.

now, i just have to figure out how to teach geography and history. more on that later.

Animal Classification--Birds, Part Two

Day Two: Read a great book about birds of prey in general or falcons or eagles specifically. We liked Raptors: Falcons by Julie K. Lundgren. While no cover picture was available online, the book is available from the Davis County Library System.

Then watch a few youtube videos about falconry. Fascinating. We watched several and didn't run across anything inappropriate, so it is a pretty safe topic to search. My son is in love with bald eagles, so we watched some videos about those as well as some videos about peregrine falcons--specifically about how fast peregrine falcons fly. They are the fastest animals on earth. I didn't know that before. Watching them dive is . . . breath taking. My children and I were all entranced.

Then move to the table to create a paper bag bald eagle. I used the idea posted here.

First you paint the flap of the paper bag. Then you color the other parts.

Then you cut and glue.

Miriam is holding up the one she made and the one I made. Yes, I made one! I'm amazed too. Hers ended up with two wings--I'm not sure where the other one was when I took this pic.

Miriam didn't have a painted flap because she dawdled too long while doing her chore and came to the table late. She was bummed.

Emeline was bummed in this pic because she thought she'd lost her eagle's eye. I found it when she stood up. She'd been sitting on it. We glued it on and Emeline perked right back up.

The children wanted to immediately make paper bag mice to use as "prey" and they played with their puppets constantly for the next three days, until every single body part had fallen off every single puppet and all that remained were the bags. Then I threw them away when no one was looking.

They were well-loved while they lasted.

PS--We didn't make mice that day, so my children compensated by having the "giant man-eating eagles" eat their schleik knights and princesses. Children are ever adaptive.

kinder math skillz...

well, we're a bunch of oral learners.
we can quiz each other all the day long and be happy as clams.
we can count forwards and backwards (getting there)
and sing about counting by tens,
and twos and fives...
but push comes to shove,
we need to really know what our numbers really look like.



so, when i saw this game on the clearance aisle at target, i had to jump on it.
(normaly $5, which seems pricey for a puzzle game)



first, i had the kids count and piece the two halves of each puzzle together.
they chose to attack this part as a team, each taking a job
which is good for the little one, in that she gets left behind a lot in the flow of a lesson.



and when they were done, i had them put them in order.
i was pleasantly surprised that they pretty much knew all their numbers by sight.
which is a shocker, considering how lazy i've been with them lately.
and luke only forgot "15" twice throughout the whole lesson.
this is good, in that luke and "15" seem to have a weird aversion to each other.

okay, all in all, i can see us using this once a week or so for review
and to encourage teamwork.
would i spend $5 on it?
probably not,
considering you can make this with a stack of index cards and stickers.
but if you ever see it on clearance and you have a some littles of your own to teach,
go ahead and scoop them up.
you'll enjoy it.

well, i should run.
my kids have decided to continue our science experiment this morning and are currently pulling all the condiments out of the fridge and mixing them together in massive bowl of water.
i know, dumb mommy.
but they left me alone for five minutes.
so there!

bye, have a good one.
enjoy what you do for your children,
and be blessed doing it.

Animal Classification--Birds, Part One

I know, I know, you are expecting something terribly creative. However, the first day of "birds," I was more interested in laying the foundation than exploring our creativity.

So while it is not the most exciting day of our bird studies, it was most useful and was enjoyed by all of us.

Day One: Read through some great books about birds. We liked Wildlife Watchers: Birds by Terry Jennings.

We also liked: Usborne Discovery: Birds by Gillian Doherty.

Then, fill out the "bird" section on your chart with all the information you learned.

I know, I know. Not that exciting. However, laying the foundation is a good idea because on the other days we could refer back and reinforce our new knowledge as we talked more about birds. Miriam refers regularly to the chart. I love wall charts.

Both books are available from the Davis County Library system. Just go here.

Inspiration

I was on youtube the other day, looking for a particular Uchtdorf message that my sister had my husband put on a dvd for her ward's Young Women in Excellence program.

I didn't find it, but I did find this:

I'm sure some of you remember this talk. It struck me then. And it struck me again when I watched the MormonMessage version.

It caused me to reflect on how much I love to create.

I love to create happiness in my marriage.
I love to create yummy, healthy, homemade food.
I love to create YA fantasy novels and historical nonfiction for children. I love to write.
I love to create beautiful babies.
I love to create music. I love to create memories. I love to create memories through music. (My children and friends performing for my children's great-grandparents.)
I love to create opportunities for my children to explore nature.
I love to create libraries. And readers.
I love to create Christmas stockings.
I love to create colorful spaces.
I love to create cakes.
Especially cakes that involve a shark eating an out-of-place knight.
I love to create curriculum.
I love to create/inspire happiness in my children.
There are so many, many opportunities for me to create and I am grateful for each one.

It is sad that I sometimes forget that my children also love to create.

Notice that I do NOT like creating art. Of any form. I do not like to color. I do not like to cut. I do not like to paste. I do not like to scrapbook. I do not like to draw or paint or anything like unto it. I also do not enjoy cooking with children, as it creates huge messes and I am, in general, opposed to huge messes.

It is not surprising that I sometimes forget how much my children enjoy all those things. And even worse, I forget to incorporate those things into our school curriculum. I'm imposing my limitations on my limitless children. I am curtailing their creative expression.

After pondering this for several days, I decided I needed to reevaluate my upcoming curriculum. My animal classification bird unit was totally revamped, making creating a central feature. I'll be posting about it in the upcoming days. My children have loved ever single creative thing we have done. And so have I. Truly--when I remember President Uchtdorf's message, I can color with a smile. In motherhood, and in homeschooling, we sometimes need to stretch ourselves for the good of our children. I'm trying.

Now, go create something.

(Miriam: the day she came to me and explained that she'd created a "band in a drum." She's a creative soul.)